We're pleased to announce an expansion of the February 2008 pre-GDC summit to two days, and reveal initial speakers including Areae's Raph Koster, Nicktropolis co-creator Chris Romero, Conduit Labs' Nabeel Hyatt and Relic Labs studio head Adrian Crook.

The Summit, to be held Monday and Tuesday, February 18-19th 2008, as part of the 2008 Game Developers Conference, will focus on the intersection of online worlds and games, and the official description of the event is as follows:

"The Worlds in Motion Summit is a definitive event tailored for the growing number of industry professionals and Fortune 500 companies developing interactive online spaces for both entertainment and commercial purposes. Discussion forums will delve into online worlds, social gaming and media and player created activity.

These will provide insight for developers of all backgrounds into how the game industry is collectively building socialization into games and integrating personalization and player-generated content into gameplay — while widely accessible Web and networking tools are looking to the game industry for their way forward."

In addition, the inaugural Worlds In Motion Summit has announced its first four speakers, and is expected to debut many more over the next few weeks. The initially revealed speakers are as follows:

- Areae's Raph Koster
(SOE veteran, Areae co-founder and noted industry figure Koster will discuss the ways virtual worlds are increasingly relevant to the ways we play and the evolution of the medium, as the worlds of online spaces, social networking and gaming converge.)

- Worldwide Biggies' Chris Romero
(Interactive entertainment development veteran Romero, CTO of Worldwide Biggies, who did the original prototyping and led the full team for the design and development of Nickelodeon's Nicktropolis, discusses the building of a successful online play space that has garnered users by the millions.)

- Conduit Labs' Nabeel Hyatt
(Web entrepeneur Hyatt, whose new online world firm has recently been VC funded, will present a lecture on social gaming with a discussion of games for Facebook.)

-Relic Labs' Adrian Crook
(Senior producer and head of Relic Labs, an internal group at THQ developer Relic Entertainment, will present a discussion of the free-to-play business model and how it's helped evolve the face of online play.)

The Summit is available to attend via several different Game Developers Conference 2008 passes, and more information is available on the Worlds In Motion Summit webpage.