There are so many conferences, summits and gatherings about games these days that it often becomes hard to decide which ones are actually important and which are crap. I’ll tell you a good sign that a gaming conference is going to be good is when their keynote speaker is Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. If you don’t remember, Valve is pretty much the greatest game developer ever and anything Newell says should be treated as gospel. Thus attending this year’s D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit, where Newell will be keynoting, is something that will be pretty damn awesome.

The Summit, which takes place Feb. 17-20 in Las Vegas, will cover all sorts of gaming and the list of speakers at it reads like a run down of the most creative people in gaming. Newell will be offering his insights on the future of gaming and where it can go from here. Hopefully he’ll get a little drunk beforehand and then let something slip about Half-Life 2: Episode 3.