So why, exactly, did Tom and Mark take a 10-day, 12,000-mile round trip to the Mecca of Computer Gaming, the Game Developers Conference 07 (GDC for short), in San Francisco?
Well, you might say they sought ‘the truth’ from the online games gurus ... from big names at the highest levels of the games industry. Many of whom were speaking at formal tutorials on specialist topics, and with whom there was ample opportunity to network informally. (The guys had deep, meaningful discussions with people from Sony Online and Microsoft, for example.)
But overall, Tom and Mark went to the GDC to get a true perspective on how well VWD is doing with project e-play compared to other big players in the market. Most crucially, to find out what, if anything, was wrong with project e-play.
There was so much riding on the answer. Two years of heavy-duty research and design had gone into project e-play, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of pounds spent in developing it as the ideal online entertainment business model.
Then, at the GDC, Mark and Tom found themselves talking to owners of some of the very companies they had investigated during the evolution of project e-play. They were humbled at the prospect that they might be about to find out that all of their efforts had been for nothing.
For two days, the guys attended seminars at the ‘Casual Games Summit’ branch of the GDC, and after hearing 49 of the top experts in this area speak, they emerged, enlightened. As Mark described in his Weblog:
‘It was hard to wipe the smile off my face; not out of disrespect, because these guys have achieved great things, but from the sheer excitement, relief and pure outright pride ...’
... because now we know for sure that not only is there nothing wrong with project e-play ...
‘... WE HAVE GOT IT BANG ON!’
For a fuller account of Tom and Mark’s San Francisco sojourn, including photos, why not log in to Mark’s blog? This is the link you want:
But Mark and Tom weren’t the only ones on an overseas mission recently. Network Development and Support Manager Eric Avery, accompanied by Lotteries Council official Peter Jones, was at this year’s PCIG. That’s the Pacific Congress on Interactive Gaming 2007, held on 26th and 27th February in Macau, China. Macau, by the way, in gaming terms, is the East’s equivalent of Las Vegas.
A smaller affair than the GDC, the PCIG had around 200 delegates, speakers and exhibitors, all there with the purpose of addressing the strategic and operational issues particular to online gaming in Asia – where there is a monumental market, hungry for opportunities to gamble.
Eric reported on the conference when speaking on one of Malcolm Horsey’s weekly telephone conference calls. Most significantly, Eric spoke of how astounded he was at the attention he received from some network marketing leaders over there; they’d heard VWD was in town.
One networker he talked to had a group of 70,000. And another, a professor no less, had a network of – get this – 200,000! The Asian market for e-lottery and project e-play, Eric impressed upon us, is going to be absolutely massive. To hear a 12-minute recording of Eric’s conference call report, this is the link you want:
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