Joe Ludwig is a ten year veteran of the game industry. Before joining Divide by Zero in summer of 2008, Joe worked on the PC MMO Pirates of the Burning Sea at Flying Lab Software from the project's inception past its launch. He served as Lead Programmer, then Director of Development, and finally as Producer on Pirates. Prior to Flying Lab, Joe spent a year working on the ill-fated Middle-Earth Online project at Sierra. Joe is a frequent speaker and occasional writer on MMOs and their challenges. He has spoken at the Online Game Development Conference, the Austin Game Development Conference, and the LOGIN Game Conference. Joe also serves on the board of advisory to the ION game conference. You can find his writing on MMOs and technology in general at http://programmerjoe.com.