Author: by Staff

GDC Europe organizers have announced that Ultima creator, space explorer, and social game developer Richard Garriott will give a keynote at the conference examining the future of social games and their impact on the industry. Garriott will join Wooga founder Jens Begemann as the second keynote speaker to be announced for the 2011 Game Developers Conference Europe, which will take place August 15-17, and is located in Cologne, Germany alongside Gamescom, the leading European trade and consumer show. Garriott's talk, dubbed, "The Three Eras of Gaming and Why This One is a Game Changer," will provide "special insight into the current era of social and casual games, and will discuss whether or not traditional development can and should make that transition to this new mode of interactive entertainment." While perhaps best known for his legacy as the creator of the Ultima series and as one of the pioneers for the MMO genre with Ultima Online, Garriott recently delved into the realm of social and casual games and founded Portalarium, a social game company that this month secured $3.6 million in funding for its forthcoming projects. Over the course of his career, Garriott has won numerous awards for his contributions to the game development community, including a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards in 2006. He also made national headlines in 2008 and realized his lifelong dream of space travel, when he launched aboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft to the International Space Station. "There are few developers with Richard Garriott’s history, pedigree and vantage point, having been a defining force in the realm of traditional hardcore games, birthing the RPG and MMORPG genres, to now helping lead the way within the world of social games," said Frank Sliwka, vice president of European business development and event director of GDC Europe. The conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 15-17, 2011 in Cologne, Germany, aims to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals. GDC Europe is part of the UBM TechWeb Game Network, as is this website. For more information on GDC Europe as the event takes shape, please visit the official GDC Europe website, or subscribe to updates from the new GDC Europe-specific news page in RSS form, official Twitter page, or official Facebook page.