FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 20, 2004
Contact: Indiespace

Special Event: Sunday, March 28th; 10:45-11:30am

"MMOGs as Online Distance Learning Applications"
Jeannie Novak
 

MUD DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE (MDC)
Hyatt Sainte Claire
San Jose, CA
Conference admission: $70 (students with ID $35)

Jeannie Novak will be presenting a paper at MDC which focuses on how
massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) can be developed for online
distance learning (ODL) environments.

Topics include:

• components and organization of the ODL industry
• elements of online classroom structure and content
• expanding game content to effectively incorporate educational features
  based on social constructivism
• features of the Internet and game design that are unique to learning
• applying learning to game content without sacrificing important elements
  of gameplay

MDC is modeled after Chris Crawford's original Game Developer's Conference
(which later became GDC). It takes place during the weekend immediately
following GDC (March 22-26 at the San Jose Convention Center; see
http://gdconf.com for more details).

Other speakers at MDC include:

• Alistair Riddoch (Designs for Continent Scale Persistent Online Worlds)
• John Arras (Hierarchical World Generation)
• Brian Green, Andrew Tepper, Daniel James & Larry Dunlap (Developing
  Independent Games)
• Constance Steinkuehler (Providing Resources for MMOG Guild Leaders)
• Edward Castronova (The Future of Cyberspace Economies)
• Randy Farmer & Chip Morningstar (New Lessons from Virtual Outback)
• James Turner (Designing a Persistent-World Server for Flexible Rule
  Development)
• David Rickey (Planning and Managing MMOG Betas)

events@indiespace.com