Author Archive
Meet the “Book”
It’s an interesting idea, but it seems heavy, and from what I understand you can only write once to each device. Also, I’m not sure about that name.
Gamification: Overcoming the fear of fun
As started to dive into the product gamification poll it’s been odd to discover that so many people entering the water are starting out by telling people how terrified they should be. The message seems to be that the addition of game dynamics to existing products is not only scary, but that there are intrinsically [...]
A Good View of Gamification
Lots of interesting stuff in this presentation on gamification, although It is a bit odd to see how much backlash is hitting this space before we’ve even seen the implementation. Pawned. Gamification and Its Discontents I’d point out that a lot of what of what he’s defining as “play” here deals with consequences. Fewer consequences, [...]
The Collapse of Complexity and the rise of Social
Because games are built out of much of the same conceptual materials as the web itself (code and art), they’ve resisted a lot of the economic shockwaves that have created such a disturbance in traditional media. But they’re not immune to it. We’ve had ample proof over the last year that any genuine growth is [...]
Why Game Narrative is an Oxymoron
If you haven’t been watching Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe you’re missing out on some great meta-media commentary on the pitiful state of television “news”. Last year he created a special focused on Video Games called “GamesWipe”. It has the same snarky attitude as his regular show, and featured this bit of commentary on game content by [...]
Why the iPad Isn’t Insanely Great
Apple has, in the past, always built their consumer products around a need that has either been unaddressed, or closes an obvious “hole” in the marketplace, even if most people didn’t realize how obvious it was until someone built a shiny-white plastic a bridge across it.
Core gaming data is irrelevant to Social Games, unless it isn’t.
I mostly ignore the data on core gaming when it comes to reading tea leaves for social, but the Nintendo Wii has really shaken things up on the console side in a way that I think has relevance for the Social Space. They’re making a truly mainstream play… Over on the Wired Gaming Blog, Chris [...]
Women and Core Gaming
Here’s an interesting, and fairly succinct overview of women in gaming culture. I don’t necessarily agree with his conclusions. I think he’s overly concerned with sexism while glossing over the fact that women (and mainstream gamers in general) may not be interested in the same play patterns, but it’s definitely worth a look. via Lou [...]
The Ten Most Significant Social Games of 2009
My article on the subject has gone up on Inside Social Games. While it’s easy enough to figure out what the most popular games are simply by going over to AppData and looking at the numbers, I thought the end of the year might be a chance to reflect on what were some of the [...]
Love and Hate Are Always Better Than Like.
Set Godin pulls apart a New York Times article on user feedback for the Kindle, and mentions something that everyone interacting with user metrics should be keenly aware of: Amazon reviews never reflect the product, they reflect the passion people have for the product. As Jeff Bezos has pointed out again and again, most great [...]