Author Archive
Video Games as Astroturfing
Rachel Maddow covers the controversy over using virtual offers as a political tactic:
She does an excellent job of breaking down the economics.
An Eightfold Path for Social Game Development
Someone asked about what it takes to create a social game. This is incredibly stripped down, but here is my basic formula I use with my clients:
1) Figure out what your fundamental gameplay dynamic is going to be as early as possible. IE, what is it the fundamental unit of play that the user is [...]
Zynga gets shut down- Updated
After writing a few days ago that I felt that Michael Arrington had unfairly targeted developers as being culpable for scam advertising offers, Zynga goes ahead and proves me wrong by allegedly blocking the IP addresses of Facebook employees from seeing certain ads, and getting Fishville banned in the process.
That’s led to Facebook taking action– [...]
Bioware tries a new tactic with Dragon Age DLC. Penny Arcade Notices.
So, it seems that Dragon Age has integrated virtual DLC directly into the game, allowing players to purchase extra quest lines as an integrated part of their adventure.
It’s an interesting tactic, and one that Penny Arcade has seen fit to comment on in the form of a comic:
There’s an interesting point being made in the [...]
Kit Kat makes a real Virtual Goods
If you want to understand the fundamentals of how a functions gift-giving economy works, taking a closer look at this article on the Japanese candy market may give you some insight into how people relate to objects differently when they’re given a different context.
Fiorella says companies want to keep spending habits up by introducing unusual [...]
Social Games are dangerous!
And so, once again, a few bad apples are used to blame an entire industry for being too addictive and too dangerous.
This time the man trotting out the moral panic is Michael Arrington, in this post condemning the offers system that games are using for monetization.
Any system with that many users is going to [...]
“The Future of Games” is featured on SlideShare
The slides from my presentation at PAX are being featured on the front page of Slideshare today.
If you haven’t checked them out, go take a look.
The Future of Games
Below you’ll find the the slides from the talk I gave at the Penny Arcade Expo last week.
I really enjoyed being at the show and giving the talk. Thanks again to everyone who came out.
If you do have any thoughts or questions feel free to post them in the comments. I’m happy to discuss them.
PAX [...]
Are VideoGames Dead?
Interesting series on whether videogames are “dying”.
What’s interesting is that I think there’s lots of interesting information here about what’s going on in the core business, and I think there’s a major shift coming in the business models as we head to the next generation.
I’m also wondering if the term “budget title” is being used [...]
Are Social Games like newspapers?
As I’ve been reading more and more about the collapse of print newspapers, and what the real business of print news was behind the articles, the parallels to Social Gaming are becoming more and more obvious.
One thing that’s important to remember as the industry pushes forward is that while the actual game is the most [...]