I’ve been working on superfluid full time for the past year (we just had an anniversary); conceiving with Brana the concepts behind the Quids virtual currency, developing the model and audience of superfluid.biz, and recently completing construction of quids.org. Periodically, I’ve continued posting here, on both games and superfluid, but now that we’ve begun to collaboratively blog at http://blog.superfluid.biz I’ll no longer be putting anything new up here. I believe that superfluid, and its blog should be of direct interest to anyone working in games, both as it’s used to facilitate the development of games, and because it’s an interesting bridge between game activity/thinking and concrete activities in the physical world. -You can also follow what we’re doing on twitter, at @superfluidquids
We’ve been busy lately at superfluid, so I thought I’d post to update folks on the state of things at our b2b site, superfluid.biz, and encourage those who haven’t yet posted offerings to get something started. We’ve been steadily adding users, so you’re likely to find some new offerings of interest to you, and as a registered user, you can borrow a few Quids to purchase products or services before your own time gets used in the system.
In addition, we’ve just completed construction of quids.org, a non-commercial implementation of the superfluid technology. With a focus on volunteer projects, it has a simpler process, and a cost-free model that requires only a $1 donation to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. -superfluid.biz is also free for the time being (at least a year for beta users), but will eventually have an annual subscription fee. As quids.org is all about collaborating on services, it doesn’t allow commercial transactions, or those involving physical goods, so we don’t collect W9 information and membership is available to international participants. We envision it being used for social good/software/games/art and any number of other areas we haven’t yet conceived.
Upcoming for quids.org is a facebook application, allowing you to pull together your volunteer projects from that site as well, and a mess of other stuff that we won’t spoil by mentioning now.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please do let me know. We continue to develop superfluid.biz and quids.org with a lot of feedback from the community, and are pretty responsive to needs, whether that’s in the form of functionality or rounding up offerings of specific interest to current members.
Jeremy Wagstaff recently posted a very positive analysis regarding Skype, with which, as a heavy user of Skype for IM, I quite empathize. However, his take on voice functionality is a tad euro-centric; not to say that he’s wrong, but I think that Skype’s journey back from years of neglect is a harder trek than he posits. The audience isn’t quite aligned as he suggests, and the typical usage isn’t quite right for a widespread integration with social nets. Read More »
Next week, we’ll be launching a new version of superfluid for non-professional use. This is just as exciting to us as our initial launch, and it’ll free up a lot of flexibility in model and external integration that a site for commercial offerings cannot allow. -But these benefits are really just the gravy for us, on a product for which we’ve quickly come to see the need. We’re rolling this out because we’ve seen that a number of the entities most interested in using superfluid are wanting to use it for collaborative, non-commercial, purposes (games, open source development, etc.), but core to our original b2b concept (and structure) is the idea that we could provide most benefit to businesses looking to optimize unused time or unsold product. Read More »
In something of a fluke, I’ve had a few conversations with different sorts of people over the past couple of weeks about the best ways to see a vision for a game or software project through to completion. It may be self serving, but I think that superfluid could be the best option for many of these. A superfluid-based execution will allow almost anyone with their own marketable skill (whatever that skill is) to put together a team and execute from development through marketing and distribution, and to maintain full ownership of their baby. Read More »
…in fully functional (google-style) beta at www.superfluid.biz; when we have the chance to breathe, I’ll post further. For now, suffice it to say that we’re launched, and developing several specific community focii, including game development and marketing that may useful to readers here.
btw: If you’re a business (game developer, designer, marketing folks, etc.) that’d like to participate in superfluid, for a limited time you can submit for the beta here.
-Nathan
Superfluid has been my obsession for the past year, as we’ve been working on creating a system that can enable an elegant liquidity for business and creative initiatives. To this, my partner Branimir who was previously a physicist and remains a master of the 8-bit, brings a cold assessment of how an economy can work most legitimately and honestly. I bring a knowledge of what people find compelling in games, and how business, large and small, works.
It seems to us that in the current economy, most entities and individuals are straightjacketed by either a lack of clients, a lack of available investment dollars, or a lack of credit. And while all of these are real issues, they’re a bit pathetic in hobbling worthwhile efforts. So, we came together with an idea for a project that could bypass these problems, and help businesses to thrive and better enjoy what they do have. Read More »
Since Gamestop is having a few issues with sales at this point, it seems like perhaps an appropriate time to look at issues in the game retailing business and the timeline for some upcoming changes. For a number of years, folks have predicted the death of games on physical media, and certainly it does make sense that a button click to purchase is a better distribution model than sending folks to a store to pick up something that could simply be downloaded. There have been a few barriers to the transition: Read More »
There seems to be quite a bit of interest in the game developers cooperative, and I’ve been having a number of conversations about building such a thing. This being the case, it’s likely worthwhile to get into an overview both of what a cooperative is, and why it’s such a good solution for developer needs at this time. Read More »
I was asked the other day by an interviewer about the past and future of manifesto games, with which I have been glad to have been involved. As I was telling him, though, that a portal dedicated to indie games is redundant by definition in the current environment, where a thousand flowers are definitely blooming, it occurred to me that what is needed now isn’t a distribution channel, but cooperative representation for marketing and business development. Read More »
Bijan Sabet followed up a tweet pondering the future of libraries with a post including the feedback he had received. Some of the responses were interesting visions, while some simply crowed the death of the printed word as the end of libraries. A fair amount of what I’ve been called upon to do since 2001 is evaluation of how physical retail can continue to have value in a world of digital distribution. -I dealt with this specifically as VP of Business at Electronics Boutique, and since then in a consulting role for various initiatives. Amusingly, the redundancy of libraries and of video game retail stores ends up being sort of the same issue at this point in history: Read More »
It’s been interesting to watch as Microsoft and Sony simply decided to copy Nintendo’s philosophy and execution of a ten-year console cycle, rather than come up with an entirely new strategy. Nintendo was slightly more sophisticated in execution, as they gave their technology an initial release as “GameCube,” then a secondary release of basically the same hardware with the addition of of a groundbreaking controller interface, as Wii, giving an effective 10-year life to the technology. In the current economic environment, it is probably best not to try to push another round of console hardware down user’s throats (especially at the price points they want to remain at), so, in this way MS and Sony are adapting the model, but it’s no great stretch. Microsoft’s Natal or Sony’s unnamed PS3 technology will probably form the Wii part of their respective cycles. Back in 2006, Sony was saying that PS3 would have a 10-year lifecycle, and at E3 this year Microsoft was saying the same thing of 360. Read More »
I’ve seen this coming for a bit; game trade-in machines in Walmart. I think this could be more significant than plays like Amazon and TRU getting into used titles, and even than Best Buy (as they’re unlikely to be too wholehearted in such initiatives); because what this does is potentially provide visibility into pricing, and availability in a high traffic location that will be competitive with GameStop’s broad footprint. Neither the NCR machines nor the e-play technology that runs on them seem to work all that well, but perhaps NCR, which owns a big chunk of e-play may put some money into getting it all together. I think that the broader concept of trade-ins at Walmart is more interesting and important than the kiosk bit, but the kiosk probably makes it worthwhile for them to indulge in an activity outside of their core interest.
The shortcoming of not being integrated into the Walmart system for credits is likely a short term concession to publisher sensitivities, until Walmart can see if the project is worth the bother; they’re likely also looking at whether they want to get involved in this and/or other sorts of pawn-broker-y activities. The name frustratingly eludes me, but I know there’s a small chain of big boxes down south that focuses on re-selling small consumer electronics and media (games and music, I believe); they also have a cafe involved in the model. I really like that sort of combination, and it seems well suited to these times.
I like the idea of Apple acquiring EA, and contrary to what 1Up says, EA has suffered enough lately to make that a bit more viable. Apple could really use some high quality content for the iPhone/touch line of devices (which is now effectively competitive with game platforms like the DS), and perhaps upcoming tablets. -I’m sure Apple think it wonderful to be so successful with the App store, but knowing how Apple values user experience, you’ve got to think that they’d be happier setting some content quality benchmarks on their platforms, as that business grows. And EA nurtures their brand in much the same way that Apple does; so bringing that marque in, and living with it would likely be a happy marriage.
EA is actually in a rough position; unlike Activision/Blizzard and others that have been successful in creating/acquiring succesful alternate distribution and models, they are sort of in the process of another re-start of such efforts. Apple would largely get them out of this bind, as they could grow and learn on Apple’s digital distribution platform from a privileged position, while also growing their IP base and sales generally.
Kotaku, which is usually a sensible and practical bunch of folks, has fallen into a germaphobe mindset in which they proclaim it a scandal that GameStop allows employees to take new games home and return them as new. InsideTech weighs in with the concern that employees may steal single-use activation codes that will hobble the customer’s enjoyment of gameplay. -Well, since many games are already cracked open in order to place cases on the floor, I hardly think the latter matters. Read More »
…Well, actually, it’s a bit difficult to discern cause from effect here, but either way, not a bad thing, in the long term. Just as the old media bulwarks of the game industry didn’t prosper with the growth of the business they nurtured (with the notable exception of Game Informer), neither are the game publishers. And I think that it was to some extent a symbiotic death spiral. The whole model of $60 games is daft, but the print magazines, and, to almost the same extent, online sites (IGN and Gamespot) always pushed publishers in that direction, as they rated games based upon core-gamer expectations of game depth and play duration that aren’t actually sustainable. -Despite all of the complaining that developers and publishers have done about GameStop’s used game model, and I can see the valid reasons for that, GameStop has done a bit to ameliorate the lameness of the frontline game pricing model on the console side, as digital distribution is doing on the PC side. Read More »
It was nice to get out to SF and meet with friends at the Game Developers Conference, but there were no really compelling tech stories, in terms of either vision or product, and that’s what I show up for. This may well come largely from the state of the economy and its near term effect on innovation. It seems to me that GDC now serves two primary purposes; training for big conventional PC and console games (for which it really does make sense to have a centralized function like this), and a massive game industry career-fest. Read More »
Since folks continue to ask questions about OnLive, I thought I’d follow up a bit on my earlier post, and include the information I gathered from discussions with OnLive at their GDC booth.
I liked the guys I spoke with, and they seemed open and forthright about the product, giving me the feeling that OpenLive isn’t bunk so much as the product of good technical people creating something moderately useful. But that product has, for strategic purposes, been positioned by their marketing and biz dev folks as something it truly is not; competitive with existing products or in any significant way market changing. Read More »
Today, Dean Takahashi wrote up a new game distribution technology, called OnLive, that’s announcing at the Game Developers Conference this evening. He feels that it has the potential to destroy retail, with a new technical model of games executed on the server side, enabling gameplay (video) instantly streamed back to the player. This may be a valid threat to retailers, and it’s a danger I’ve warned retailers about for years. Specifically, I first warned of it because PS3’s cell technology seemed focused on the fast video decompression necessary to this sort of system. But, despite the breathless adoration of Venturebeat, I would point out three things: Read More »
I’m a bit too harried to post as I prepare to depart for GDC, but will no doubt be prolific next week. -I still have a couple of meeting slots open for later this week, if anyone wants to chat.
-Nathan
I posted last week about the apparent entry of several retailers into the business of buying-in and selling used videogames, and someone very insightful in this area mentioned that it would be interesting to see whether someone trading in games at Amazon would put their credit back into new game purchases. He’s right, because this could be pivotal to next steps, if these retailers are successful. -GameStop’s argument is that buying-in pre-owned product is part of a healthy cycle driving new games sales, and generalist retailers getting involved in the model does sort of dilute that benefit.
Read More »
It seems to be getting an awful lot of press today that Toys R Us, Best Buy and Amazon are all buying-in used games for re-sale, and hence endangering GameStop’s revenue from this element, but:
We all know that games sold quite well over the holidays and continue to do so. In addition to the conventional product (weighted toward console titles), we’re seeing good volume for casual and online titles. So everything should be great for developers and publishers…but somehow it’s not.
GigaOM has a piece up today positing the impossibility of a massively-multiplayer game that can “kill” World of Warcraft. Instead, it suggests that smaller MMO titles, with other revenue models, will nibble away at WoW’s market share. It’s certainly true, and has been for some time, that niche competitors have been the primary ongoing competitors to the big guys, first to Everquest, then WoW. And, it’s more true now than ever that alternate payment models, like that of MapleStory, are attractive and drive a significant audience.
I remain a big fan of EA. They have a lot of smart and forward-looking people, but it’s hard to stay as flexible as this industry demands with that large a company, and that has been an ongoing challenge for them. They recently announced Q3 results showing unfortunate results, apparently as a result of three elements: Read More »