EiG 2008 is over and done and the Clarion Gaming publishing department is en route to St. Charles. From way up high in the sky, here are some thoughts on the event as a whole as well as a few observations from Day 3. . .
Lots of appointments on Thursday, so I missed most of the conference sessions. I wanted to be sure though to catch some of David Kushner's talk on Web 2.0, the convergence of gaming and gambling and the massive population of gamers ready to be "entertained" by gambling providers. Kushner an author as well as a contributing editor for Wired, Rolling Stone, and IEEE Spectrum. He has also written for The New York Times. (Hear the IGN interview with David Kushner.)
I've been watching professionals in the I-gaming industry present at events for years, so it's always nice to hear what someone from outside the business has to say. His message was that online entertainment providers need to embrace the user-driven nature of the new Internet, so his talk and Bruno Guissani's opening keynote speech on Tuesday fit nicely as bookends around two-plus days of meaty I-gaming content.
"It's not enough to just play a game anymore," Kushner told his audience "There has to be sharing." The blue print for supplying only content that can be manipulated by users, he said, was established when the makers of role-playing games like Doom took a giant leap of faith by providing games that can be altered and re-skinned.
He's absolutely right, but aside from re-skinning, I see great limitations on the extent to which online gambling products can be manipulated. It just seems like a regulatory nightmare to me.
The other session I attended (and participated in) was the closing roundtable, the point of which was to reflect on what we learned at EiG 2008 and ponder what the future holds. It's not a new concept, but it's a nice way to wrap up an event.
The panel was as follows:
Tony Coles,
Leigh Nissim,
Sue Schneider, Instigator, Clarion Gaming
Moderator: Me
It was a room full of 100 or so exhausted people (panelists included) hanging on for a final 30 minutes, waiting for the final bell to ring so they can rush outside, board the bus and ride home. A decent converstation. A less-than-enthusiastic audience.
The industry "vibe" is pretty good right now, especially considering the global gambling is entering a rough stretch financially. The panelists agreed that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in I-gaming. The industry is a few years into the consolidation process, yet start-ups are still in abundance. Energy, and enthusiasm and optimism abound.
We're on the cusp of what could be the second economic crunch for the I-gaming industry. The first came with the bursting of the Internet bubble five or six years ago, and I-gaming took quite a blow then because the same uniformed investors who created the bubble by throwing money at everything ending in ".com" collectively bailed out on everything technology-related. I-gaming will feel the hurt this time, but at least it won't again become a casualty of knee-jerk dot-com abandonment.
I spent the remainder of the afternoon wandering about the exhibit hall, which was surprisingly active for the closing hours of a three-day conference. Exhibitors saw that I was wearing a Clarion badge and did not look like they wanted to strangle me, which I took as a good sign. Also, my efforts to interview exhibitors for IGN were rather dry because everyone was too busy to talk, which is also a good sign.
It was a good day to walk the floor, unlike yesterday, which consisted of many conversations that went like this:
Delegate: You're with IGamingNews, yes?
Mark: Why, yes.
Delegate: You're magazine is the best publication on Earth and you are one of the most important people ever.
Mark: Thank you.
Delegate: Also, do you have any extra wristbands so I can take seven or eight important clients?
Etc.
EiG Keepsakes? Top: My favorite find during expo trick-or-treat time was the WagerWorks Elvis mints (although they really would have nailed it if they filled the tins with sleeping pills rather than mints); Bottom: I-gaming's most valuable commodity this week: The illusive EiG bracelet, which I contemplated selling to the highest bidder prior to the Opium Bar party.
The second recurring encounter was with individuals carrying duffel bags stuffed with flyers plugging this-and-that affiliate network. They were either dumping them on every open table in sight or standing at the entrance of the expo hall dishing them to all passers by, not unlike the smut pushers on the Vegas strip. So much of Tuesday was spent ridding tables of affiliate contraband and shooing roving flyer flickers.
In closing, EiG 2008 was an overall positive experience. The ever-expanding I-gaming industry is driven right now by European businesses, so this is by far the year's most important event. This probably won't change in the near future.
Look for loads of EiG coverage in IGN, as well as free audio and video content from the event on the blog page in coming weeks.