On the Scene at GDC Online!

The Games.com crew has headed down to the Lone Star State this week -- Austin to be exact -- to attend the Game Developers Conference Online, where the who's who of the online gaming world will be talking about how they make things work behind the scenes. We're here to not only learn how the sausage is made, but also to get a sneak peek at what's going to be the next big thing in online games, particularly in social games.

This year's show is wholly focused on online gaming -- which includes more traditional MMOs (like World of Warcraft) and the red-hot social gaming space. One event we're particularly looking forward to is the Game Developers Choice Awards, as it shows online games are finally getting some much-needed recognition. The awards will honor the Best Online Game, Best Social Network game (among others) and induct Ultima Online -- one of the longest running MMOs -- into the GDC Online Hall of Fame.

Stay tuned to Games.com all week for news and photos from the show -- highlights we expect to see include a debate about the future of 3D gaming and Zynga's Brian Reynolds talk about how he applied his years of video game experience to develop the popular (and my favorite) Facebook game, FrontierVille.