CES 2008: discussion panel on virtual worlds and the "MMO explosion"
Gamasutra has posted a panel discussion covering many different facets of virtual worlds and MMOs in general. The panel consists of several panelists coming from all sorts of companies from AMD to Turbine. Overall the panel discusses many of the issues you always hear about when virtual worlds/MMOs come up. You've got talk of evolution within the industry, in-game advertising, global relevance (aka "how can we conquer the world?"), virtual goods/secondary markets (RMT/item selling) and of course cannibalizing older markets.
The discussion on each piece is mostly similar to what has been said already. There are a few intriuging quotes from some of the panelists throughout. Their conclusion to the discussion happens to be focused on a few aspects, but we found one was more interesting than the rest.
Steve Goldstein from Flagship Studios had this to say, "As we spend the next three or four days talking about margins and monetizing, we shouldn't lose sight of the miraculous industry we're in, where people are selling imaginary gold and building real relationships across the world."
Probably the most prolific statement of the entire discussion, Goldstein manages to bullseye the nail on the head.
