You may have heard people in the gaming world mentioning the DICE Summit, and you may have asked yourself, "What, exactly, is DICE and why should I care?" Below, my friend, are the answers you seek.

What DICE is:  DICE is a once yearly conference where the brightest minds in video gaming and digital entertainment gather to explore the creative process and artistic expression as they apply to the development of interactive entertainment. The letters stand for "Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain," and the event is sponsored by the Academy for Interactive Arts and Sciences. To sum up: It is a gathering of smart, gaming professionals thinking and talking about games.

Why you should care: When the gaming elite meet to speak, it's sure to be interesting. DICE 2010's summits include a keynote delivered by Activision head Bobby Kotick, and that is worth the price of admission by itself, but there's more: John Schappert, chief operating officer Electronic Arts, Joe Madureira & David Adams, co-founders of Vigil Games, and many other luminaries are scheduled to speak.

X-Play's own Adam Sessler will be hosting a series of Pre-DICE discussions called "Hot Topics" in which David Jaffe will discuss casual games, Dan Connors will discuss Action Vs. Story and Greg Short & Geoffrey Zatkin will preside over a talk entitled: “Forces at Play: Examining What Has Really Been Impacting the Videogame Industry, and What It Means Going Forward."

Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony will be there, as will reps of many major publishing and development companies. The AIAS also gives out its annual awards during D.I.C.E., where the best video games are judged by gaming's elite.

When and where is DICE: This year, the event is being held at the Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa in Las Vegas, Nevada between February 17th and 19th.

What will G4 be doing for DICE?: We'll have our crack team of gaming journalists on the floor, bringing you up-to-the minute coverage of panels, exclusive interviews, news and more. Our cameras will capture the major DICE summits, and we'll present them to you -- that's right: exclusive video of developer panels right here on G4tv.com. Just keep your browser tuned to our DICE page.

Is there an official website? Of course.