Author Archive
Latest post on ISG: Social Optimism
I’m still writing pieces for Inside Social Games, although you might not know it from reading this site… My latest piece is on the bright future for Social Games. I’m currently working on something a little less optimistic. Here’s the excerpt to whet your appetite: I’m actually beginning to wonder if the future for social [...]
What the Newspapers gave away (and what they have left)
Scoble posts a nice rundown on why he thinks print news missed the boat (again) by letting Twitter own crowd-sourced news. I’ve been pretending in my head that I’m a newspaper exec. When I do that I keep beating myself around the face. Why? Because the newspaper industry keeps giving the geeks free meals. Let’s [...]
Speaking tonight at The Facebook Developers Garage
I’ll be giving a talk in San Francisco tonight on casual gaming metrics applied to social gaming. If you’re in town for GDC and looking for something to do tonight, this may be the meetup for you! Wednesday, March 25, 2009 6:30pm – 9:30pm Hyatt Regency San Francisco 5 Embarcadero Center San Francisco, CA There’s [...]
Your Game is a Service Business
My latest opinion piece is up over at Inside Social Games. Here’s a taste: But whether it’s what we play, or how we play it, some companies are beginning to figure out that even though they are now directly responsible for dealing with their irate customers, that relationship is becoming as important as the product [...]
Are used games a missed opportunity for Publishers?
There aren’t many companies that sell games that aren’t in the used game business these days. Gamefly jumped in last year, and now Amazon is getting on-board. That’s clearly an issue for publishers and developers since games aren’t a tiered business like movies, so there is no point in the business that they can be [...]
Microsoft Office to go Ad Supported?
I’m always interested in how products transition from old to new models (hence the name of this site), but I have to say that I’m surprised by this quote from an MS executive that Office 14 will have an ad-supported component. There will be ad-based revenue streams. There’s an opportunity to draw those pirate customers [...]
DRM hurts publishers as well as users.
Having won a minor battle with the Kindle, publishers are now free to request that digital reading can be disabled on any individual book that is downloaded. That may be bad news fhe book industry. So far the transition to digital media has been filled with different industries practicing radical nose removal, absolutely convinced [...]
Moral Panic hits Social Gaming
Seems that the inevitable moral panic that comes with every new media is turning it’s ugly gaze at Social Gaming. Here’s some newly minted "experts" explaining why our children are, once again, doomed. You’d think they’d know better than to suggest unverifiable causality, but: ‘It is hard to see how living this way on a [...]
Dollhouse: A TV show that’s made for the Internet
Dollhouse, the new show from Joss Whedon, debuted to less than stellar number on traditional TV on Friday. But it also turns out it’s a huge hit on iTunes and Hulu. And Joss is thinking that he’ll just quit television entirely. Looking at his fan base and the kind of work he does it makes [...]
Why MicroPayments Won’t Save the Newspapers
Clay Shirky gives a short lesson in the dos and don’ts of MicroPayments: Such systems solve no problem the user has, and offer no service we want. As a result, conversations about small payments take place entirely among content providers, never involving us, the people who will ostensibly be funding these transactions. The conversation about [...]