Abstract: At the start of yet another generation of videogame consoles and other interactive media, everyone wants to know where it's all going. Making predictions that will be remembered if wrong and forgotten if correct, Juan Benito will take the risk of sharing his obscure ideas on the future, including introducing a silly word that has profound implications for the future of gaming, online societies, and perhaps society as a whole. Expect an impassioned and informed seminar that focuses more on ideas than information, and encourages us to focus on the human experience as we get caught up in a world of multi-core processors, blazing GPUs, and ubiquitous online entertainment.

This talk is part of the Future of Games Speaker Series sponsored by the NCSU Center for Digital Entertainment. For more information on the FoG series, visit http://cde.ncsu.edu/fog/speakers/index.html

Short Bio: Juan Benito began his career in the computer software industry in 1994 at Virtus Corporation, where he designed /Tom Clancy's SSN/, the first fully 3D military submarine simulation and the precursor to the Tom Clancy series of games. He went on to co-found Red Storm Entertainment in 1996, where he held the positions of Game Designer, Producer, and Executive Producer during the development of the first wave of original titles that included /Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six./ Following the sale of Red Storm to Ubisoft in 2000, Mr. Benito worked on humanitarian training simulations for the Center for Digital Teaching and Learning at Columbia University, where he also received his undergraduate degree. Juan is currently Creative Director of Destineer, a commercial videogame and training system company with studios in Minneapolis, Austin, and Raleigh.