Darth Hater

Stephen Reid

Hello from Boston!

With PAX East 2011 just a day away - well, give or take about eight hours, given my late post - I'm very pleased to tell you about a few guest appearances BioWare staff members will be making on various panels over the weekend.

Please note, these are not official panels for Star Wars: The Old Republic. They are panels on various subjects that we were asked to provide speakers for. If you attend any of these panels, there is no guarantee that The Old Republic will even be spoken of... well alright, it's pretty likely.

However, like I said, they're not official panels for TOR and we're not aiming to make huge announcements at any of them! In that vein, we will also not be providing 'official' coverage of them. However, I expect a few fansites might pop along. (And to them, I apologize for the late notification!)

They'll all be very interesting panels to attend, and now we have all the details confirmed we wanted to give PAX attendees a chance to organize their schedules around them. So, without further ado, here are the details, in chronological order, as lifted from the official PAX East schedule:

• PANEL: Video Game Comics: Lifting the Curse
  
  LOCATION: Wyvern Theatre
  TIME: Friday, 10:30am - 11:30am
  
  DESCRIPTION: Comic books based on video games have not traditionally been very well received. While some have sold well, most are at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to critics and direct market sales. How can the tide turn? What needs to be in a video game comic to make it worth reading? And could Video Game comics wind up being the savior of the comic book industry? Join representatives from across the comic book industry and moderator Lucas Siegel, Site Editor of Newsarama.com as they figure out how to remove the curse of the terrible video game comic.
  
  Panelists include: Lucas Siegel [Site Editor, Newsarama] and Rob Chestney, [Creative Services Manager, BioWare Austin, and author of Star Wars: The Old Republic - Threat of Peace (Dark Horse Comics)]



• PANEL: Interactive Drama: Dialogue as Gameplay
  
  LOCATION: Cat Theatre
  TIME: Friday, 2:00pm - 3:00pm
  
  DESCRIPTION: Do narrative games provide dialogue choices that enhance gameplay? Is it important to develop relationships through interactive choices between player and non-player characters? How are interactive conversation choices designed and how important is the user interface? What does it mean to experience Interactive Drama in a gameplay mechanic of dialogue choices?
  
  Panelists include: Jonathon Myers [Co-Founder, Writer, Reactive Games], Stephen Dinehart [Chief Wizard, NarrWare], Dan Tanguay [Design Specialist, Vicarious Visions], Emily Short [Interactive Fiction Author, Independent], Jeff Orkin [PhD Candidate, AI Researcher, MIT Media Lab], Martin VanVelsen [Senior Research Engineer, Carnegie Mellon University], Daniel Erickson [Writing Director, BioWare Austin]



• PANEL: MMORPG.com: The Future of Online Gaming
  
  LOCATION: Naga Theatre
  TIME: Saturday, 5:00pm - 6:00pm
  
  A panel of MMORPG experts gather to chat with fans on where the online game market is going. With games moving into the mobile space, free to play pricing models and five major launches in 2011 the online market is in for a major year. The panel will have speakers from some of the top upcoming games in the online space plus legends in the industry. Fan will be able to ask questions and get answers from top development studios about upcoming games as we hope to explore where online games will be going for the next decade.
  
  Panelists include: Curt Schilling [38 Studios], Scott Hartsman [Trion], Colin Johanson [ArenaNet], Craig Alexander [Turbine], Garret Fuller [MMORPG.com] and James Ohlen [BioWare Austin]

If you make it to PAX, check out these panels, folks!