Sid Meier

Sid Meier began his legendary career in game development in the early 1980s, and is recognized around the world as the "Father of Computer Gaming." Sid and his games have been honored with virtually every major award in gaming landing him in the 2008 Guinness World Records for the most videogame awards received in the history of the industry. Sid put computer gaming on the map with such hallmark games as Civilization®, Railroad Tycoon® and Pirates®, all of which are still revered as some of the greatest games ever made.

In 1996, Sid launched Firaxis Games and as Director of Creative Development is still delivering the most award-winning gameplay on the planet and is recognized by industry experts as one of the industry's "Game Gods", taking gaming to new heights. With Sid's leadership, Firaxis has created fun, compelling hits such as Gettysburg!, Alpha Centauri, the Civilization III and IV series, SimGolf, Pirates! (PC, Xbox and PSP), and the 2008 blockbuster hit, Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution for the Xbox 360, PS3 and DS. He’s currently developing Civilization Network, a social networking game for Facebook.

Jon St. John

Hail to one of the chiefs of voice acting, baby. Jon St. John has voice acted several roles in games including Drill Instructor Dwight T. Barnes from Half Life, Big the Cat from the Sonic series, and most notably, the famed Duke Nukem starting with Duke Nukem 3D. He and his balls of steel will be making a debut appearance at MAGFest to tell us about his experiences and add some vocal flair to the events.

Dan Rosenthal

Dan Rosenthal is a leading games industry legal analyst and journalist, and is Executive Director of GamesLaw, and a member of the IGDA IP Rights Steering Committee. He has hosted numerous lectures and panels on IP and legal issues in the gaming industry at events like Penny Arcade Expo.

In addition to game law, Rosenthal is a game designer for a long-running MMORPG, focusing primarily on narrative design. Prior to that, he worked on the commercially available Half-Life mod Firearms, and its sequel World at War. As a journalist, Rosenthal is currently the Content Editor at Stratics Media, which runs http://www.stratics.com, the internet's oldest MMO news site. Previously, he has written for Strategy Player Magazine, Gamespy, and Telefragged.

Outside of gaming, Rosenthal serves as the U.S. press contact, and former legal intern for the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that runs Wikipedia. Prior to law school, he served for 5 years as a reconnaissance infantryman in the U.S. Army, and earned a Bachelors of Science in Political Science from Florida State University.

Robert V. Aldrich

Robert V Aldrich is the thinking man’s geek. Raised on video games, anime, and comic books, RVA has spent his career pursuing a deeper understanding of these art forms once considered too nerdy to take seriously. A published author and recognized speaker on a variety of Geek Chic topics, RVA travels the country talking about everything from video game storytelling to gothic fashion and everything in between. To date, RVA has published five books with several more currently in the works, as well as a wide array of articles, essays, short stories, and serials. He’s given talks on topics such as The Rise and Fall of the Dreamcast, Martial Arts in 2D and 3D Fighters, Exploring the Interactivity in Video Games, the History of Anime, Hentai vs. Porn, New Wave Publishing, and the History of Web Comics, not to mention presentations discussing specific fandoms such as Stargate and Transformers. Part stand-up comic, part motivational speaker, and part educational lecturer (as well as a whole lot of nerd), RVA has returned to MAGfest to talk about video games and their effect larger on the larger world. Check the schedule to see when his presentations will be, or swing by his table and ask.

Eric Ruth

Eric Ruth returns to MAGfest once again with an assortment of new independent video game projects. This year promises to be his biggest yet with a panel on indie game education and Game Maker essentials alongside his usual escapades near the game room with his original video games. Don't miss "Mega Man Rocks!", "Drop'N'Music" and his 2009 IGF entry: "Mean Kathleen & The Great Quack Machine." Be sure to play the games, learn the software and welcome back Mr. Eric Ruth for his 7th year at MAGfest.

Virtual Fools

Bobby and Kevin (virtualfools.com) return for a 7th year of their special blend of intellectual discussion and entertaining romp. They're each working on their Ph.D.s, so they'll be turnin' all that learnin' into a presentation on Videogame Studies 101, in which they will explain how games can be studied in school/academic contexts. And, with the success of last year's Match Game gameshow, they'll be and hosting Password: Game Edition. To top it all off, the Low Score podcast (lowscorepodcast.blogspot.com) will be recording at MAGFest as well!

Dave Lister/Paradox Lost

Some say that Dave Lister is made of Legos. This is false. Composed mostly of coffee, Dave has learned to work without unnecessary things like sleep. This made him a perfect fit for the world of freelance illustration and manga. Striving to create a traditional, yet unique style of manga, Dave has contributed to books, magazines, businesses, and even radio stations. A veteran of webcomics, Dave is currently producing Paradox Lost, an online manga filled with space pirates, ninja hordes, crazy alien girls, and more caffeine than the FDA recommends in a lifetime. You can find Dave’s comics and art at www.paradox-lost.com. Dave likes rice.

Shaun Cashman

Shaun Cashman is a media communication scholar at N.C. State University and is about to wrap up his doctorate. He has coauthored several RPG books through "Fantasy Flight Games" and has spent the last several years studying popular media, audience culture, Japanese animation, and video games. He has been an avid gamer for years and has somehow managed to turn that interest into an intellectual career. He teaches classes on game studies, film production, and new media theory.

Shawn Handyside

Graphic designer by day and comic strip artist by night, Shawn Handyside is the creator of the completely illogical comic strip "Staccato," the extremely random webcomic "Fork You," and the enitrely silly video game humor/caption site "Halolz." He started his artistic career in fifth grade drawing crude looking comics that made no sense, and continues to do so to this day. He also loves designing humorous t-shirts and writing about himself in the third person. He may be 30, but you can tell he's still cool because ninety percent of his iPod is video game remixes and MST3K episodes. Also it's a well known fact that he's way better at Smash Bros. than you! [citation needed].

Dave Stanworth

One day while doing so, Dave came up with a grand idea. He would build a webcomic empire with his own ingenious webcomic idea named "Snafu Comics". He would bring other people in on the idea along with him to make comics like the little slave monkeys they were in comparison to his greatness to help his new overnight nation grow. There would be daily comic updates for all to see and view across the land and Dave would be able to fufill his lifelong dream of pulling a Scrooge McDuck and being able to swim around in gold coins...