A trio of awesome.

Tuesday, October 9th, marks the beginning of GDC Online, a special variant of the popular Games Developers Conference for those specializing in online, cloud, and social gaming. Hosted in Austin, Texas, the event promises to provide a rare behind the scenes peek at how some of the top MMOs are developed. To whet your appetite, three new speakers have just been thrown into the fray.

John Smedley, the president of Sony Online Entertainment, will discuss his company's transformation to free to play in a Business and Marketing lecture dubbed, "Free-to-Play: Driving the Future of MMOs."

Dave Moore, Bioware senior director of platform services for SWTOR, will lead "Building the Scalable Platform for SWTOR," where he talks about how he prepped for the game's launch, details both technical and overall, to ensure a smooth launch.

Lastly, CCP (creators of EVE Online) has a senior researcher making a Customer Experience conferenced dubbed "Ear to the Ground - MMO Community Feedback & Metrics for Decision Making." The talk will detail EVE Online's metrics-driven community management, identifying common pitfalls and the best ways to nurture online game communities.