Round Up: Goldberg/BioWare, Reiss/Prairie Games, R.A. Salvatore

Today's Gamasutra round-up includes news on Jillian Goldberg joining BioWare/Pandemic, Randel Reiss acquiring a major stake in Prairie Games, and author R.A. Salvatore to deliver the keynote at EA's upcoming Dark Age of Camelot Roundtable Fan Gathering event, as well as the latest GameSetWatch posts, Serious Games Source news, product news, and Gamasutra job postings. - BioWare/Pandemic Studios announced that it has hired Jillian Goldberg as vice president of marketing. Goldberg joins the BioWare/Pandemic executive team from Electronic Arts, where she was responsible for EA’s global marketing strategy, licensor relationships and studio partnerships for franchises including The Godfather, The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter series, as well as Tiger Woods PGA Tour. In her new position, Goldberg will oversee marketing for franchises from both Bioware and Pandemic. - Former Technopop president and founder Randel B. Reiss has announced today that he has acquired a major stake in Wishek, North Dakota-based Prairie Games. Reiss' first act as the company's new chairman was to announce that the 'one-time fee' offering on Prairie's flagship Minion's of Mirth massively multiplayer role playing game (MMORPG) will now be a permanent fixture of the game. The feature was originally conceived as a promotional device to help Minions of Mirth attract customers and gain market share, but was noted by the company has having been “very effective”, and has helped the game nearly quadruple its numbers from 4,000 subscribers to 15,000 subscribers in a matter of weeks. As far as upsetting other game companies that may see one-pay as cutting into their profit margins, Reiss is not concerned, noting that he sees the evolution of the MMORPG model as inevitable. - Electronic Arts today announced that fantasy author R.A. Salvatore will keynote the upcoming Dark Age of Camelot Roundtable Fan Gathering this September. Salvatore's books include The Hunter's Blades Trilogy, Icewind Dale Trilogy, and The Dark Elf Trilogy. The Roundtable Fan Gathering will take place at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, on September 29 and 30. Salvatore has attracted a loyal following of readers through iconic characters such as the dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden. At the Roundtable, Salvatore will speak about how he got started writing, his experiences with computer gaming and projects he is currently working on. In addition, event organizers noted that attendees who register on the official website before August 25, 2006 will receive a beta account for the recently announced The Dark Age of Camelot expansion, Labyrinth of the Minotaur, as well as a free copy of the expansion and an exclusive in-game item. - The latest updates on Gamasutra sister weblog GameSetWatch include the latest 'Our Blazing Destiny' webcomic (this week featuring Animal Crossing), a look back at classic exploration PC game Elite, and an unearthed feature on infamous System Shock villainess Shodan. - Also updated today: Serious Games Source news, including a new game aimed at protecting children from online predators, product news concerning an update to the Filter Forge Beta and Autodesk's new Area community portal, plus the latest Gamasutra job postings, featuring openings from Concrete Games, LucasArts, Nival Interactive, Petroglyph, and XDG Group.