Virtually Infamous Network

The (Real) Truth on Advertising

2009-08-14T15:36:00.003-04:00

Coming from RightMedia, and then working at Yahoo and now the video game industry, I am still consistently amazed as to how much effort people take in order to avoid advertising or vocally complain about advertising in-general.

Let me clear it up.

Advertising gives you stuff for free

TV does this. The internet does this. Without advertising, you would have to subscribe to every service to enjoy it.

And if you really enjoy a site or service that is providing you something for free, then help them out. Leave your cookies alone. Seriously. Nobody can identify you from a cookie and honestly, you think too highly of yourself if you think that's true. All it does is allow ads to be served to be more expensive, and that means more money for the people who are giving you stuff.

On the flip side, keep the pop-up blockers and stuff. Sending a clear message to site owners and advertisers that this is not effective will just mean you'll get the advertisements on your own terms, not theirs.

Advertising subsidizes things that would be more expensive.

This is the murky grey area that seems to set people off. The mentality is "hey, I paid for this, why am I getting advertising?".

This short sighted statement is the result of users who have accepted that advertising is for free products, but the second is products that allow you to pay to remove advertising.

The reality is, advertising isn't always used in this way. This is how magazines and newspaper work. This is why you'll see dynamic ads on Burnout Paradise and UFC 2009 Undisputed.

In the case of newspapers and magazines, this allows them to provide you the product as a highly reduced rate, or else you'd be paying a ton more than 50 cents for the daily or 4.99 for a magazine. In the case of video games, the cost of running servers for you, even though you paid for the game is expensive. They are just trying to reduce some of the costs. And if they make money off of it, you should be happy, because once an idea becomes profitable, it just means more goods and services of that quality level will be provided.

Blizzard delivers killing blow in new Battle.net

2009-03-20T05:51:00.002-04:00

I've always had a ton of respect for Blizzard. They are one of the few companies that really care about their gamers. They took it up a notch today when they unveiled a new Battle.net.

What's new? Single account login for all of your Blizzard games. Just register your World of Warcraft accounts, dig out those old StarCraft and Diablo 2 cd keys, and when you finish, toss all those crummy old world compact disks away.

After registering, you will be able to download the clients for BOTH PC and MAC operating systems whenever you please. This news is particular exciting for recent Macbook converts like me. It allows me to play my favorite Blizzard games without having to purchase the Mac versions again.

This framework raises some interesting questions about the future. Now that Blizzard is merged with Activision, will we be seeing Activiation PC games pop into battle.net?

The Kotaku article posted above has comments saying that achievements will be available in games, so the single login makes sense there (like Xbox Live).

Curious as to what this means in terms of DLC and microtransactions. There has already been talks that StarCraft 2 is going to be a trilogy of games. Does this now mean that SC2 will be one boxed game with multiple DLC packs for the different races single player campaigns?

Does this mean Diablo 3 will have DLC for new acts or even customized skins?

I'm not going to speculate any more than this. I'm very comfortable in just sitting back and being surprised by Blizzard's next move.

We're in good hands.

Have a good game? Release a demo.

2009-01-16T01:35:00.003-05:00

A couple lessons for anyone interested in becoming an indy developer or going to work for a small shop. If you create a game that you believe in, let other people get a taste of it. Demos are a recipe for success if your game is inherently good.

I am an avid fan of Steam, as many of you already know. Grid Defense: The Awakening was released on December 8 in Valve's store and was dismissed as a tower defense game with pretty graphics. On January 13, they released a demo. Gamerbytes picked it up, since Grid Defense is making it's way to XBLA. I decided to give it a try as well.

My verdict is that the game is going to be a great success for developer Hidden Path Entertainment. It's well polished and the gameplay is excellent. If you are a tower defense fan, you can't go wrong. My favorite feature? A fast forward button for the boring bits of downtime between waves or when finishing off stragglers.

My second example involves an iPhone app called iShoot. Besides having a terrible name, the Scorched Earth/Worms style game debut last October at $4.99 and had no traction in the app store. As described in TouchArcade, the developer, instead of giving up, released a demo version of the game and dropped the game to a more reasonable $2.99. The game has skyrocketed to the #1 chart position in both free and paid applications.

Let's face it, the developer is rich averaging over 10,000 sales a day at 3 dollars a pop. All he did was give people a reason to try out his game.

To summarize, a great game idea with a demo will drive sales. In the case of iShoot, it's a proven success. For Grid Defense, it remains to be seen, though I believe that people are at least talking about it.

I must stress though, the demo itself must be a true representation of the game. Gamers are not stupid, they aren't going to bite on any game where the demo seems set up.

Key Learnings for Video Gamer Makers in 2008

2008-12-31T04:56:00.007-05:00

This year was a great year for video games. Lots of big titles came out, Apple's iTunes appstore has been established and is pretty successful, and the mobile/handheld game industry continues to thrive.

Here are the things I learned this year and anyone who is in the industry or wishes to be in the industry should keep these items in mind.

Having overly strict DRM will increase piracy rates: Call it an overhyped title that didn't live up to it's expectations or just call it purely the worst PR move ever, but EA's Spore topped the piracy list this year. The lesson learned here is that DRM needs to be very elegant. EA did not help matters by putting such limitations like a three install limit on Spore.

Having no DRM will increase piracy rates: On the other hand, 2dBoy's World of Goo had a 90% piracy rate. It is completely DRM free. This is absolutely heart breaking as it is an excellent unique title that is very well done. If I could just step on my soapbox a moment: Please consider purchasing this game if you pirated it. If you appreciate games like this and would like to see more, it does nothing but help encourage the developer and other potential developers to continue to create new and innovative games if you do your part.

Sequels > New IP: Gamespy's Top 10 overall list for 2008 had four original IP games compared to six sequals/expansions. In terms of sales (and review scores), games like Mirror's Edge, Tom Clancy's EndWar, Spore, No More Heroes, and Braid--though extremely innovative and introduces new game mechanics and concepts to us gamers--still lost out to games like Fable 2, FarCry 2, Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto 4, and Call of Duty: World at War. I don't see 2009 looking any different with games like Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, and Halo 3: ODST, Resident Evil 5, Street Fight 4 competing against Halo Wars, Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., and Velvet Assassin. Can pretty much declare 2009 a year for sequels as well.

Big Publishers still rule: There were some pretty significant independent titles that came out this year that were critically acclaimed, but from the numbers, it seems like games from big publishers still overthrew them. Going back to Gamespy's top ten list, nine of the ten overall games were made by big named publishers. Also, here are two categories for you to think about. In the XBLA world, Braid and Castle Crashers lost out to Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix and Mega Man 9 by Capcom. In the iPhone World, Fieldrunners was unseated by Sim City (EA Mobile) and Aurora Feint 2: The Arena has not gained any traction with a ton of Gameloft (A Ubisoft mobile division) titles packing the charts.

Keeping it simple wins: The Nintendo Wii still continues to dominate console sales and for the most part houses fairly simple games for consumption. On the PS3 front, LittleBigPlanet cleaned up house with it's attractive create-your-own-levels concept, wrapped in what can be summarized as a semi-2d jumping puzzle platformer game in its simplest form. Also, 2008 saw XBLA/PSN (and iTunes) really showing the world that gamers don't mind buying games that aren't AAA titles. All of these markets have cheap, simple games that draw a significant amount of sales while having short development cycles and cheaper development costs.

Digital Distribution is here to stay: iTunes, XBLA, PSN, and Steam all gained significant momentum this year. I won't mention all the titles since I have already in the bullets above, but the most encouraging point to note is that EA finally joined Steam. Even though EA was already doing digital distribution and other companies are also selling full game downloads, this move just shows an acknowledgment that gamers are willing to go digital if it's all centralized in one place. Now if only Stardock would give up on Impulse and join Steam as well, PC gaming would seriously have a chance against the consoles.

iTunes apps going to zero? Not likely.

2008-12-16T09:56:00.003-05:00

In terms of free market, there are arguments that pricing will eventually go to zero. As more competitors enter the market, each can only charge so much for the same commodity. This was said of the iTunes app store.

I don't hold this to be true, and the app store is definitely not trending in that direction, especially not for games.

Current there are six games in the top 10 paid apps. The lowest price game is $1.99 and the highest priced game is $5.99. The median price between the six apps is $3.99.

In December, there has been a heavy influx of higher priced apps with market players like Gameloft and EA releasing numerous $9.99 applications. These apps have climbed the charts and held their ground against competitors that have price cut their applications as much as 80% in order to maintain chart position.

The most relevant data, and most telling is the information that is not available yet. Since these chart positions are before the holidays, there is a high chance of influx of new customers and spending money as iPhones, iTouches and iTunes gift cards are given as gifts.

All in all, in just five months since the app store officially launched, the marketplace is settling. In terms of games, I'm excited to see that $0.99 applications are not defining the market. The next step is to see if game companies are willing to break the $9.99 ceiling with applications that have potential to rival those on the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP.

Pennsylavania makes some sense

2008-12-14T05:52:00.003-05:00

A task force in Penn. just concluded that the state should not create legislation against video games, but rather, it should fund programs that educate consumers about video game issues.

This task force was formed in November 2007. I extremely pleased at the conclusion that was reached. I am however, deeply disturbed that it took them more than a year to reach this "common sense" conclusion.

Of course, it took a Doctor from Villanova to state that it was common sense before people would believe it.

Colorful commentary from Kotaku also available here.

Paradise: The Beginning out on iTunes

2008-12-09T20:41:00.005-05:00

Just want to call out a pretty interesting iPhone game that was just released. It's called Paradise: The Beginning (Not sure if they're intentionally poking fun at Aurora Feint or not). (Paradise: The Beginning phobos link to iTunes)

Paradise is a shooter that uses dual analog controls. The controls in this game are GOOD. The visuals match well and give good feedback on what's happening, especially since the iPhone has no tactile feedback from the touch screen. The left corner moves and the right corner shoots. Your avatar moves very fluidly. It's a joy to roam around.

The controls are very similar to SmashTV/Geometry Wars/any game that uses a left stick to move and a right stick to shoot.

Increasingly difficult waves of enemies spawn and attack, and you must evade and kill them. Power ups, shields and health spawn intermittently to keep the game interesting.

The game cost 99 cents. That's the price of a bottle of water or a hot dog. Hell, I don't even know if you can get a hot dog for 99 cents anymore. I do know that supporting developers like this only makes it more encouraging for them and others to continuing developing unique games.

Go get it. (Link again).

Blizzard logo t-shirt

2008-10-12T10:57:00.004-04:00

Any fan of the Diablo series should want this shirt. The fanboys especially should pick it up as a reminder to them how their stupidity created something so great.

Generate some hype in the kotaku thread for the shirt. I'd like to see this printed.

Thunder Force VI coming to PS2

2008-10-09T08:58:00.004-04:00

Dust off your PS2, Thunder Force VI is coming to the system in Japan on October 31, 2008. Will we be seeing a US version?

I surely hope so.

Back from AFK

2008-10-04T18:52:00.005-04:00

I haven't posted in about a month now and I'm happy to say it's because I've been very busy with transitioning from the east coast to the west coast in my new job. I'm working for ngmoco:) now and I'm excited to be in the iPhone gaming space. Those of you who read my blog know that I've been keeping track of it for a while now.

I'd like to say that Neil Young hired me because he was impress at my blog about ngmoco:), but more than likely, this blog was under his radar before I introduced myself.

Interestingly enough, this blog and ngmoco are lining up well with Apple positive stance on gaming, who recently declared that the iPhone and iPod Touch are "the best portable device for playing games on".

Lastly, check out ngmoco's blog for the latest updates on games. And I will continue to post here on interesting tidbits in tech and gaming in my usual sort of way.

Shred Nebula Design Documents

2008-09-06T03:42:00.003-04:00

CrunchTime Games has released the design documents for Shred Nebula. For anyone interested in creating games for XBLA, PSN or WiiWare, this is a pretty good look at what a game maker has to do.

Anyone not in the industry but interested in the business aspects should check it out.

I don't know much about the game, but the documentation is definitely good. I can honestly say that the docs give me a good idea of the game play (from a development/pitch standpoint). It was good enough to get me to try the game, which was released this past Wednesday.

Initial impressions are pretty good. The design docs say this game was influenced by Asteroids, but I was a little disappointed that they didn't fashion the basic controls more like Asteroids (rotate left/right, accelerate based on where you are pointed).

Overall though, it's definitely worth checking it out on XBLA and I have gained tremendous respect for any company who is willing to share documentation info like this. Thanks!

Funny you should mention X-COM

2008-09-05T03:35:00.003-04:00

Not really super exciting news, but amusing to me. My friend and I were talking about X-COM today and I come home to find that the X-COM series is now available on Steam.

I've also realized that games made in 1993 just aren't as fun anymore, mostly because the DPI's on my laser mouse prevent me from being able to accurately click on any of those cruddy pixelated buttons and units.

XBLA goodness

2008-09-01T22:21:00.003-04:00

Remember all those great four player arcade smashers? If you ever wondered where they went, look no further. Castle Crashers brings back old fashion fun and it's fantastic. I'm a particular fan of the music, it really builds the mood. Besides a somewhat marred first couple of days, it's being patched and really, it wasn't that big of an issue.

One of my favorite genres seems to be making a come-back as well. That would be the manic shooter. Galaga Legions is incredibly insane in that regard, and I still haven't been able to beat the third act. I'm losing my reaction time in my old age.

Lastly, is 1942: Joint Strike. This classing scrolling shooter is back with updated graphics and a new twist. In co-op mode, you have the ability to, well, joint strike with your partner. It's basically a fancy word for being able to link attack with a partner. The game itself is very enjoyable, especially if you're a fan of the original.

Honorable mentions to Braid and Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, but the above games on XBLA made me happy to own an Xbox 360.

Dungeons & Dragons: Tiny Adventures Initial Impressions

2008-08-24T01:55:00.004-04:00

Are you a Dungeons & Dragons fan? Are you on FaceBook? You should probably check out D&D: Tiny Adventures on FaceBook if you said yes to both.

I think the concept is great. Create a character, pick an adventure. Adventures update in intervals and you can check on the status. You can use potions to get the results you want during encounters. Invite friends and you can boost their stats while they are on an adventure, or heal them when they are complete. Other than that, you really just get into encounters, get experience, get loot, get rested and go out again.

Hardcore players be warned: it's not a very deep or accurate portrayal of the game. The classes don't mean much except for initial stats. They really only dictate what kind of environments your class will be good at.

There is potential here, it's rather addicting to check up on how your character is doing, but otherwise, it's just checking up to see how you're doing. The looting and leveling aspect is as addicting as any other RPG, except you really don't have much choice.

I'd like to see the next iteration of this game add a choose-your-own-adventure kind of control. Instead of just randomly picking events and telling you the outcome, Tiny Adventures could let you sort of maximize your class abilities. Rescuing a wounded soldier? Maybe a Cleric would choose to heal the soldier and then have help instead of rushing straight in and defeating the attackers.

The class distinction should also dictate what kind of support you give your friends. Perhaps a Cleric could heal a friend once per adventure, or a rogue could sense a trap for you. These distinctions would allow a group of friends to pick different classes and pretend to adventure together.

Lastly, in a social network environment, I'm surprised that I can't gift items I find and can't use. I find it kind of strange that the class choices don't give you any benefits, yet I have the restrictions of that class when it comes to items. The simplest solution is to allow trading and gifting of items. It would also make the game more social.

Anyway, so far so good. Wizard's of the Coast at least put out a great little app that draws interest for D&D. It also seems to use a bit of 4th edition rules, so it's interesting to see it play out on such a Tiny scale.

Next Generation Mobile Company :)

2008-08-13T01:17:00.003-04:00

Neil Young, CEO of ng:moco:) and 11-year EA vet, had a keynote speech at iphonedevcamp2. He talks about the iPhone as a gaming platform.

Neil Young > iPhone is greater than... from Dom Sagolla on Vimeo.

I've posted about this before and totally agree. Neil Young brought up some interesting points. The iPhone is a multimedia device that could potentially allow games to tap into all sorts of functionality that no one has considered before. What if the game changes based on GPS? What if an SMS text was a medium for action? What if games spanned multiple days to play (one doesn't turn off an iPhone)?

These are very interesting things to think about and I am excited that a company like ng:moco exists to foster a new generation of game developers.

Running the Labyrinth

2008-08-07T03:37:00.003-04:00

Every once in a while I check out Jane McGonical's blog. I saw her keynote speech at E-tech in 2007 and have been enamored by what she stands for and works toward. Her most recent blog entry talks about The Lost Ring, and like most alternate reality games, it is a site that is slowly revealing rules on how to play an interesting game.

The rules are being collected here, but basically it looks like one runner is blindfolded and must navigate a maze with nothing but a team that will build the walls and hum so that the blindfolded runner will not run into them. You can read the rules here.

By the way, Jane is all about these social game experiments that foster teamwork and build relationships. Her games usually involve interacting with complete strangers in order to accomplish a goal. Thumbs up, Miss McGonigal!

Social network games

2008-07-30T00:07:00.002-04:00

So you probably read by now that Hasbro has officially shut down Scrabulous on FaceBook. While I don't have an official opinion between Scrabulous and the Official Hasbro-EA Scrabble, I do think that social network gaming is an interesting game medium that can only get better.

Facebook's goal obviously is to get you to log on as often as possible and games like Scrabulous keep players logging in. Now that Scrabulous is gone what do you do? Even Hasbro admits that Scrabble is still in a testing phase. How about going classic and playing some FaceBook Chess? Or maybe oldschool is the way to go and compete for top score on Tetris Friends? You could always just play Hold 'Em.

There are some other games that I think would be interesting. Hangman? Monopoly? There are a ton of turn based games that would work.

Interesting though is how to get your piece of the pie as the game developer. Helping FaceBook become more dominant with an addicting app that keeps users logging back in is great, but what do you do with all those users?

When fun steps aside

2008-07-28T01:23:00.002-04:00

My one pet peeve against game reviewers is the fact that they will review a game taking every aspect into consideration except for the aspect that matters most: fun. I don't understand reviews that focus on games that are visually stunning or really took a chance on creating a different kind of world. Those things are all great and I respect developers that are willing to evolve the video game genre, but sometimes I feel that they sacrifice fun to do it. When did that not become the the one reason most people play games?

I'd hate to bash on BioShock, because it is an extremely stunning game. The first time I crawled onto land and looked up at a golden statue, I had chills. The opening sequence was immersive, I wanted to find out what happens next. Then I realized the game was exactly like System Shock 2. The looting system took me out of the flow of things, the enemies are surprisingly dull after a few Big Daddies, and I just wasn't having a pleasurable time while fighting my way to the next chunk of story.

Then there are games like Rez, which nobody cared to play when it came out in in 2002, but it gets released on Xbox Live Arcade in HD and suddenly it is a cult classic that everyone who knows games should have played six years ago and must pick up again now. For anyone who doesn't know what the game is, it's basically Panzer Dragoon with techno/dance music. You add to the soundtrack when you kill enemies, but the sound effects don't seem to make any sense. It's not particularly rewarding to go into a rhythm. It's not to say i'm not a fan of music games, I think Lumines (by the same creator, but 5 years later) is a great example of a game that rewards you for playing well both in terms of the music and also in your score/advancement.

So what makes a game fun? Well, I'm sure there will be plenty of opinions, but here are some things I look for:

Intuitive, easy to learn, but rewarding for being good (The whole Othello mentality)
The pacing of the game is steady and can be hastened or slowed by the player's skill, not force by the gameplay or environment
Responsive controls that let a player do what he is thinking (this is a combination of intuitive gameplay and pacing)
Short levels/checkpoints/missions/travel so that a player can feel rewarded for his efforts at regular intervals.

Think back to the truly classic games like pacman, donkey kong, or tetris. They all had these elements.

Virtually Sniping

2008-07-25T21:11:00.007-04:00

Sniping in multiplayer shooters has gotten a pretty bad rap in gaming culture. Some of the comments I read: If you like pointing and clicking so much, play your windows desktop. Every sniper in the game just cares about their kill-to-death ratio. Snipers have no skill.

Sniping in a shooter can be rewarding though. My favorite thing to do is what I call "offensive" sniping. Basically, following the assault troops in and picking off dangerous targets as they are identified, leaving the easier and more accessible targets to the run-and-gunners.

So the good and the bad stated above have an underlying commonality though. Real-world sniping is not easy. One should not be able to run with a sniper rifle and take a fully accurate shot on the fly. One also should not be able to spot a target and execute a flawless shot with a flick of the wrist.

There are some attempts to simulate realism (or at least simulate difficulty). The Call of Duty series uses holding your breath, which is a realistic tactic for sniping. Games like Team Fortress 2 have a power meter build in to simulate how snipers have to wait for a shot. The execution is still flawed though, since a headshot is an instant kill. It sort of encourages twitch gaming.

Why aren' t games like real-world sniping? I'm not asking for snipers to be prone the whole time and wait for someone to walk past the reticle. How about zeroing the scope? It would be interesting if snipers had to calibrate the reticle and distance actually matters. This would force a sniper to pick a zero point and allow them to choose to fire at a target further away by aiming slightly below the crosshairs. This forces snipers to think about their shot and puts some guesswork (or experience) into sniping.

How about gradually building accuracy for remaining still? Sniping should reward calm, collected and carefully chosen shots rather than firing re-actively to the first target that comes into view. Sniping should also be dangerous where one should have to decide between remaining in a known position to take a shot or moving to a better/safer location and having to set up again.

Well, before this post becomes a wall of text, I'm just going to end here. I'm sure there are plenty of other reasonable ideas, but as it stands, sniping is an experience that can be even more challenging and rewarding for those who enjoy it. It can also be a role that commands respect.

It's almost like a movie

2008-07-22T23:55:00.003-04:00

Just some food for thought. Grand Theft Auto 4 had a budget of around $100 million. It sold 3.6 million copies on its first day and sold around 9 million in a one month period. The numbers add up to about $500 million on GTA4's first week.

In comparison, The Dark Knight grossed $155 million on opening weekend with a budget of around $180 million.

I understand that a movie's revenue stream doesn't just end at the box office, there's DVD sales and digital rentals to consider but that can be countered with downloadable content and expansion packs on the video game side. Anyway, I just wanted to lay this info out for consideration.

With game studios getting bigger budgets every year backed up with staggering numbers like this coupled with more sophisticated online capabilities, who knows what the game industry will be like in ten years.

Real-time Strategy games to look forward to

2008-07-22T00:56:00.002-04:00

Many of you have probably kept track of StarCraft2, which will undoubtedly be a game that will sell millions of copies globally. But any RTS fan should really remember Red Alert. This fall, EA will be countering with Red Alert 3.

Why Red Alert 3? How about base building on water, a heavy focus on naval combat (dare I say complete maps that are water only?) and a troop carrier that has an aptly named weapon: The Man Cannon.

Not to be outdone, developer Relic and publisher THQ will also be shipping Dawn of War 2 this year. There is still relatively little information available, but this is the latest released gameplay trailer and cinematic trailer.

Any fans of the Warhammer 40k world can speculate whether the Orks, Space Marines and Eldar will be joined by Chaos or Tyranids. If Relic does choose to include Tyranids, it will be an interesting choice, as they will be egging on Blizzard's Zerg counterpart.

Don't worry though, there need not be any mudslinging on which game is ripping off the other's alien hive. They both are ripping off the original Starship Troopers.

The games are also completely different styles of gamplay. While SC2 will focus on the classic RTS gameplay of base building and micromanaging resources with single units, DoW2's focus will be on small tactical armies with very little base building or resource management.

All three games will be very interesting and worth playing for any fan of RTS. I think the three games have very distinct qualities that will appeal to different audiences or those who appreciate just having three separate games to play.

Will gaming on the iPhone be successful?

2008-07-21T01:49:00.004-04:00

It's a good sign when Apple stores are on record as not having 3g iPhones in stocked. Well, ok, that has very little indication as to how gaming will be like on the iPhone. It does, though, show that there is a high demand, and high demand means lots of users. A developer really wants to target as many users as possible and it should be no different that game developers will only invest in developing software for a product that has the most number of users.

And Apple is setting up the proper environment. Since you can download apps directly from itunes, it makes things really easy. To go along with this, Pinch Media's been aggregating data on both top 100 paid and free applications. Not surprising to me, as of this post, the top five iphone paid applications are all games. If we expand out a bit, seven of the top ten paid applications are games.

But it's not just small publishers that are trying to make a quick buck. Big publishers like EA are releasing versions of AAA titled games on the iphone. Like Spore:

And LucasArts with Star Wars: Force Unleashed

Anti-iPhoners and those who don't see a reason to combine their lame Nintendo DS with a mobile device have been voicing their opinions on how gaming would not work very well since their are no buttons for input feedback. I think the videos above show the pioneering effort in not trying to make the old classic game interfaces work, but really trying to do something different. Games for the iPhone are still in its infant stages. There is potential here.

And if you're not a gamer, you could always just turn it into a light saber.

Oh how horrible!

2008-07-18T01:44:00.004-04:00

The title probably doesn't work as well as I want but I am horribly addicted to Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. This wonderful epic web series featuring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day is truly going to change the way web shows are looked at. The webisodes are being premiered for free until July 20th and afterward will be available to download for a few bucks each.

As Joss Whedon says in his open letter on the Dr. Horrible site, it's not about making money, but more about paying the crew that invested lots of time and effort into bringing something fresh to the internet.

I'm hoping that it will spark something new. Professional high quality shows made directly for the internet and digitally sold and distributed? Uh oh! What will all those television and movie studios do?

Define game?

2008-07-12T12:07:00.003-04:00

I came across this gameproducers.net article challenging readers to define 'game'. Since I'm not registered, I couldn't reply, and thought it would be better to define it on my own blog. What how would one define a game?

The gameproducers is about video games, my definition is simple and applies to almost everything on the internet: Any activity where one can define a goal, achieve it and redefine the goal with higher requirements.

Life is a game, and as one commenter on gameproducers noted, it just "doesn't have a reset button". Everyone has goals that they set themselves and challenges that they put forth. Some would say games have rules and the rules for life are those defined by the laws of physics and the laws of the government.

The internet is equally a game and this is not a new concept. It was in fact, a big theme at E-Tech in 2007. Jane Mcgonical had a keynote about game design in technology, so did Raph Koster, and Amy Jo Kim on making apps more fun. The idea is that every website is really a game. Forums have post counts and users try to increase their post counts. Maybe they get feedback for the quality of their posts, so they spend time being as relevant as possible. Social networks are huge sites for games -- Number of friends, number of replies, number of tagged pictures, best looking layout, best choice of music.

The rate of return users and frequency of use is a result of the site itself being a game. Users would never stay at a site that wasn't fun or entertaining. The goals are simple in this case: "Can I increase my forum post number by X today?", "What do I have to do to gain X friends in a week?", "Can I beat user Y who has a very similar layout to mine in feedback?". Achieving these goals are satisfying and fun. Being able to redefine the goal is up to the user, they system itself doesn't have to provide goals.

Not have defined goals laid out for you is already prevalent in video games. Grand Theft Auto 4 (and 3) is an open sandbox world, as are numerous others. MMO's have the same thing. Though there are missions, for the most part, once those are done, it's up to the user to create their own challenge.

Anyway, I think this simple definition is something that if tucked in every developer's head, will create some very interesting games, websites and applications. Can you create something that will cultivate users to define their own goals and keep them coming back?

Firefox 3 is out of beta

2008-06-17T22:29:00.002-04:00

I'm sure a lot of other tech blogs out there will give you the full scoop of how Firefox 3 is better than Firefox 2 and the latest iteration of Internet Explorer. But I think you should just download Firefox 3 and see for yourself.

I played with the Beta of Firefox 3 for a long time now and I've been very excited about the full release. It definitely looks better and is faster. It's also a great deal more stable on a Mac than the old Firefox used to be.

And web developers can be content knowing the Firebug and Web Developer both work in FF 3.