Whyos

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 »

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

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 »

…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 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:

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I remember in the early ’90s relying on dedicated and proprietary “black box” digital technology hardware, like the Synclavier, for post-production. That was also the beginning of the transition to desktop solutions, so it was a pretty exciting time for technology, but still not so far advanced that we couldn’t justify shooting film and mutilating it with alternative processing. -The first Avid setups we used were so low-res that we had to refer back to tape to check eyeline. Coincidentally, it also was about that time that I heard Strauss Zelnick give a speech about how interactive entertainment would change the world that convinced me that it wasn’t worthwhile to use this great non-linear tech in service of linear end-product. Read More »

I have been pondering today the question of why it so bothers me that Gabo!, by Yoot Saito (of Seaman fame), was rejected by Apple for iPhone.  The obvious issue is that it’s a curious and problematic situation when corporate entities own the tools of creative expression, and can stop distribution of an individual’s work. And this case is pivotal, as I don’t believe you can argue that his work isn’t art on some level, which could make it the Lady Chatterly’s Lover of the digital/hardware-approved content era. But, for me, it’s also more subtle, as I have long argued with more indie friends that the game console model of content control is fair because a) the hardware is subsidized, and hence the manufacturer is giving you better hardware than you’d buy for yourself for this use, in support of software sales and b) it’s focused primarily on commercial games, and not really a common carrier, as the PC serves as such an appropriate and parallel vehicle for content transmission. From a functional perspective, it never seemed to me that a non-commercial developer would bother putting in the time to learn the tools to put out a product onto a platform so customized to expensive development, and having an installed base so focused on gamers. This situation has changed slightly with xna and digital distribution, but still, developing for the console remains something that is logically targeted at gamers, under firm existing expectations on the part of creator and end-user. Read More »