PAX Prime 2013 Panel Veterans in Gaming: Embracing Common Ground

1. PAX Prime 2013 Panel Veterans in Gaming: Embracing Common Ground Panelist Information Package for Monday, 02SEP13

2. Basic Panelist Information from PAX:

3. Specific Panel Information: Arrival and Game Plan BWC Panel and Film Crew Arriving Thursday, 29AUG Black Widow Company Contacts: Miki 301.442.0502 Kim 202.302.1149 Charles 813.545.2932 BWC will be filming other facets of PAX Prime during our time in Seattle. We’re in Seattle with a self-contained filming/editing /upload capability. If any Panelist cares to do a 1 on 1 or disseminate any fun information from the Expo, we’ll be more than happy to set that up and get your message out. We’ll be media-blasting throughout the Expo to our comm vehicles: www.the-bwc.com @bwc_gaming https://www.facebook.com/theblackwidowcompany http://blackwidowcompany.tumblr.com/ http://www.twitch.tv/blackwidowcompany https://www.youtube.com/user/BravoWhiskyCharlie Our Panelists are invited to come hang out with us and have some fun before we’re on stage Monday! On Friday evening,BWC will be hosting a “Holy Crap, We’re In Seattle” meet and greet dinner at Fadó Irish Pub & Restaurant. Chow is from 1900 to 2100. (7pm to 9pm) with drinks in the Pub afterwards. Fadó is located at: 801 1st Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104. [206-264-2700] We’re reserving a large room, but if you think you might want to join us, please let Charles, number above, know and we’ll expand our reservation. Also, Sunday evening from 2000 to 0100 (8pm to 1am), BWC will be hosting a “Big Stompy Robot Social” at The Airlock, home to eight Tesla II BattleTech Cockpit Simulator pods running BattleTech Firestorm and Red Planet. The Airlock is located at: 11001 118th Place NE, Kirkland, WA 98033. For the Monday afternoon Panel itself, the Program lists us going live at 1530 (3:30pm) in the Unicorn Theatre, which is located on the first floor of the Grand Hyatt. We’re assured that signage is prevalent and it is easy to find. We’ll be there at 1430 (2:30pm) for set-up and equipment checks. Plan A is to live-stream this panel in itsentirety. That go, no-go call will be made once site bandwidth and connectivity are determined and tested. Plan B is to record the entire hour, then edit and upload within an hour of the panel wrapping. We’ll be hanging out afterwards with our gear if any Panelists want to send out any “parting shots from PAX.”

4. Veterans in Gaming Panelists: “The Gaming Industry Guys” Chris Roberts is one of the most recognized, well-respected, and successful game developers in the interactive entertainment industry. As a storyteller, game designer, game producer, and live-action director, Roberts skillfully combines vision with technical expertise to consistently create cutting edge and often revolutionary interactive entertainment products. His Wing Commander series of games in the 1990s became one of the top grossing and most successful space sim games in the industry. The series was developed while Roberts was at Origin Systems in Austin where he served as VP of new technology and executive producer. Roberts later started his own company, Austin-based Digital Anvil, where he developed other award winning space sims, Freelancer and Starlancer. After spending 10 years in the Hollywood film industry, today, Roberts is chief creative officer at Cloud Imperium Games which he co-founded. The company’s first title, Star Citizen, is currently under development. Tramell Ray Isaac serves as the Senior Art Director for Sony Online Entertainment’s PlanetSide® 2. PlanetSide®2 was voted the third greatest FPS game of all time by PC Gamer. In his 19th year as a video game artist, Isaac has tackled every facet of game development, from his first job as an animator to his current role as a director. Prior to his work with SOE, Isaac served as Art Director for 3D Realms’ Duke Nukem Forever and as an artist / animator for Interplay’s Fallout and Fallout 2, the second of which placed #13 on PC Gamer’s “Greatest PC Games of all time” list. While at Interplay, Isaac was able to create one of his most memorable works, the “Vault-Boy.” For SOE, Isaac has worked as the Art Director on the original PlanetSide®and The Agency™. When he’s not working on PlanetSide®2, Isaac enjoys riding his motorcycle, playing basketball, spending time with his family, working out and of course, playing video games. Russ Bullock is the president of Piranha Games, overseeing all departments and providing strategic leadership and direction for Piranha. As Creative Director, Bryan provides the design and artistic vision for all of Piranha’s productions. His passion for game design and development is reflected in Piranha’s hit product, MechWarrior Online. Throughout his career spanning 15 years, Bryan has always strived to be a leader, challenging industry standards and breaking away from traditional mind sets.

5. Veteran’s in Gaming Panelists: “The Veteran Community Guys” Captain Stephen Machuga spent eight years active duty Army. Hewent in through ROTC from Purdue University wanting to use hisRussian language skills as an intel officer, so the Army of COURSE put him in as an infantry officer. He had planned on getting out of the military early in 2002, but then 9/11 happened and he got "shanghai-ed" back in for another four years and a trip downrange to Iraq for 13 months (hence the fake handle he goes by now, Shanghai Six). Stephennow works in DC as a government contractor, but continues to support the fight with his charity, Operation Supply Drop, a 501c3 designed around sending video game care packages to soldiers deployed to combat zones and recovering in military hospitals. November will mark three years for the charity and it has raised almost $350,000 in games and gear since its start! Warrant Officer Charles Kibert is a 9 year Veteran of the United States Army. Served as a Military Police Officer, both active and reserve duty, with various duties including combat support, investigations, and, most importantly to the Army, Master of Paperwork. He left the Army in 2000 and has since worked in an IT related career focused on network engineering, management, security, ITIL best practice methodology and Unified Communications. He is currently working as a Senior Director responsible for business and product development at a large Managed Services company based in Florida. An active participant and organizer of action shooting events such as USPSA and IDPA, he sits on the board as a Director of the largest non-profit education focused shooting facility in the South East. As a life long gamer who started with Castle Wolfenstein on the Apple II in 1982, Kibert has been playing computer and console games of all types for over 31 years. He is a Legionnaire of the Black Widow Company and is directly responsible for organizing our 400+ Mechwarrior Online players to be a powerhouse within the MWO community. He is also working diligently to spin up BWC's Star Citizen Fleet. Major Brent Russell served for almost 22 years active duty, split almost evenly between being enlisted and as an officer in the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) Career Field. Brent has completed combat tours in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait. as well as being stationed in Germany for 3 years. Now working for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, he’s serving as the Black Widow Company Executive Officer for the Star Citizen Gaming Regiment. CWO3 Miki Rei Bell left the US Navy after enlisting at 17 and spending 18 years on active and reserve duty. After re-joining the world, Miki worked as a SPAWAR C4I SME for Booze Allen & Hamilton until beginning his own consulting business and career. Miki recently received his PhD in Interactive Design Theory and continues to work with clients such as the NFL, AARP, NRA, BoA, Dell, NASA, and various Congressional and Senatorial campaigns and initiatives from both sides of the aisle as an Executive Communications Consultant in the Greater Washington Metropolitan Area. He is the Public Affairs Officer for the Black Widow Company and directly manages BWC’s Play To Give Back™ gaming philanthropy along with all BWC brand, outreach and communications initiatives.

6. Panel Topics and Game/Community Specific Points: • Welcome and introductions. • Topic 1: What impact do military-themed games have on an increasing population of active duty and veteran gamers? • Supporting statement: There are more veteran gamers now than at any time in the history of the industry. • General questions: • Why are military games popular with non-veterans? • Are they the same kind of escape they are traditionally thought to be? • Is there benefit to veterans who game in continuity of structure? • Does a shared context help to avoid or reduce “I don’t fit in anymore?” feelings? • (add CIG) • (add SOE) • (add PGI)

7. Panel Topics and Game/Community Specific Points: • Topic 2: How are large gaming communities leveraging the experience and common frames of reference military veterans provide? • Supporting statement : A significant portion of “super guilds” embrace or echo military structure and • processes. • General questions: • What is the difference, past semantics, between a guild, clan or an outfit? • How do casual gamers fare in hard-core structured environments? • How do guild/clan/outfit game mechanics make it easy to sustain structure out of game? • Is community management harder or easier with themed or structured outfits? • (add CIG) • (add SOE) • (add PGI)

8. Panel Topics and Game/Community Specific Points: • Topic 3: How is this growing segment of dedicated players impacting both game and community development? This topic is slated for the most bandwidth. • Supporting statement: A significant portion of triple A titles are military themed or have some military component. • General questions: • What drives the choice to develop a game with military overtones? • What references serve as the foundation for game design in the genre? Ranks & Awards? • What differentiates your games with respect to the implied and realized military facets they offer? • What value do you place on veteran perspective? The delta between “Not real, Too real and What were you thinking?” • Are gaming communities changing how they interact with developers based on any of this? • How are veteran-based outfits offering military SME viewed by developers? • (add CIG) • (add SOE) • (add PGI)

9. Panel Topics and Game/Community Specific Points: • Topic 4: How are veteran-run charities and fundraising events changing the landscape of gaming philanthropy? • Supporting statement: Not counting Child’s Play, millions of dollars are raised every year by gamers for an amazing array of causes, charities and issues that matter. • General questions: • What drives the call to engage in charitable service as veterans? • What do we ask of our industry when it comes to help? How? • At what level do we engage our industry for gaming philanthropy? Devs? Publishers? Peripheral Makers? • What is Operation Supply Drop? • How did Sarah’s Mech come about for PGI? • What is Play To Give Back? • How did SOE and Wounded Warrior connect? • Why is CIG doing a Veteran’s Day Auction Broadcast? • Floor/Web Q&A if time allows. • Summary and thanks.

10. Things we’re bringing for everyone: Thank you. We’re bringing a few fun tokens of our appreciation with us! On a serious note, we cannot begin to thank you enough for participating on this panel. Not only is it our very first submitted to a major game expo, the topics hit on facets of our ourselves and our gaming community writ-large that resonate and matter on a daily basis. Shirts and bracelets are fun, but past that know that BWC engages with your three properties for a wide variety of solid reasons. Your products are fun, they lend themselves to the structures we embrace and they provide us with both an outlet for massive social entertainment and a meaningful mechanism to continue our traditions of service and extending help to those in need. One Team, One Fight. Thank you for being a part of our team. With respect, Miki Rei Public Affairs Officer Black Widow Company