Gamasutra published a little news bite that created a minor outcry. It seems older gamers were being told they would no longer be interested in fantasy and using their imagination.
I responded with what I’d like to think was common sense but I’m sure it won’t be taken that way…this is the Internet after all. Everyone’s got an opinion and even the underrepresented get represented.
Even so, the article points out a coming truth: the games market will start seeing openings that are blue ocean opportunities for game developers. We’ve already seen Nintendo get some play with BrainAge. But, I think it’s less about catering to the “geriatric” mentality and more about offering more compelling content for a maturing demographic that has seen it all. Does it mean we want to see more “economic or political simulations”? Well, you might not but someone else might. I love economic sims but the Tycoon submarket got trashed by a bunch of dime-store devs that tried to milk it dry. Don’t give me an accurate depiction of the US economic model for the 1980′s or something stupid like that. Give me escapism with a touch of realism so that selling widgets for $2 million a piece doesn’t show up in a game I’m playing. It’s a commodity dammit.
Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how the industry adjusts. Gamers in my age group are at the point where they’ve got kids who are getting old enough to want to play consoles and platformer type games (LEGO’s got a big chunk of this). Sure that’ll skew things. Though, I don’t know about you but after a while, playing LEGO Star Wars on my own gets pretty damned boring. I’d rather save the world (Fallout 3), trash it (GTA IV) or buy it (Capitalism 2, The Guild 2, etc.). In other words…
Have fun,
kn
My love/hate relationship with Whale Wars and the Sea Shepherds organization it documents continues. The latest episode had the crew of the Steve Irwin confronting the Nishin Maru, the main supply ship of the Japanese fleet.
So, there’s all this drama as they run a few drive-bys on the ship tossing stink bombs and some sort of flour while the Japanese toss flashbangs (nice exchange rate).
Towards the end of the exchange, the captain, Paul Watson, complains of a stinging sensation on his chest and reveals a bullet proof vest with a hole in it. They knife out what looked like half a ball that they claimed was a bullet. Cut to dramatic cuts as everyone’s saying “the captain’s been shot”…then later interviews as crew and his main henchmen talk about how much losing him would rock their world.
I don’t claim to be a ballistics expert but I’ve paid enough attention, watched enough documentaries, and been too much of a military buff to know that he did not get shot. If he did, it was with a BB gun at long range. If the bullet had gone THROUGH him, I’d understand why he didn’t get thrown back or knocked over. You see plenty of people hit with bullets at the ranges they were at (looked like a few hundred feet). They have nice big bruises and broken ribs.
What did the captain have? A pin prick from a pin he had on the shirt underneath the vest. Good God! Medic!
Now, I don’t doubt the Japanese would love to see Paul Watson dead but with all the video cameras on deck on both sides there is no way anyone is stupid enough to pull out a gun on the Japanese side and shoot him. The Japanese have taken GREAT measures to ensure their PR looks legal and positive (no flowers and rainbows but still), even if their main PR site for Whaling, The Institute for Cetacean Research, has the rotten stink of old-school Nazi or Communist propaganda.
And, besides, despite the comments of the Sea Shepherd crew about how bad the Japanese aim (I’d like to see them hit someone in the chest from several hundred feet away compensating for the pitch of two decks), the resulting PR campaign (“Oh my God, the Japanese are shooting at us!”) only helps the Sea Shepherds as far as the ignorant public is concerned (who’s going to doubt the white Captain versus the Japanese every knows hunts whales?).
In the end, though, those who are saavy and those who bother to pay attention will, like me, see some tarnish on the Sea Shepherds and their cause. If there’s anything I hate, it’s self-righteous melodrama designed to pep the organization’s limelight.
I’ll wager that vest was shot at on dry land and was something the captain kept as an Ace in the hole when he needed it. The other possibility is the curved piece of metal they pulled out was a fragment of a flashbang.
I’m more inclined to believe the latter only because I don’t want to believe the former. If I had to, then I’d have to come to the realization that die-hard fanatics can never be just due to their blind faith in their cause. And that would mean the meek really will inherit the Earth…what’s left of it anyway.
EA and other publishers (but mostly EA) have been under fire lately due to more and more incorporation of DRM software with their game titles. Spore was the latest and most public of the game titles with DRM (in this case the SecureROM DRM).
EA’s response has been, of course, indifferent. Outside of adjusting the limits for installation, they’ve been pretty confident that they made the right choice.
Now, Spore broke a new record. Not a sales record but a pirate record. It’s the most pirated game of 2008! Awesome! So, all that trouble that they went through, all the bad PR, all the bugs, and all the customers they lost was worth it! I can’t wait to see the Game of the Year edition come out with “Most Pirated Game of 2008″ on the cover!
SecureROM…you’re our hero. If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t have made so much money off pirated games…oh…wait…we don’t make anything off those. Damn.
Even though I don’t always agree with their tactics and approach, Paul Hudson and the Sea Shepherds are better than nothing.
Watching the Whale Wars show on Animal Planet, you get to see how they do what they do…and you get to see how poorly they manage their crew.
I guess when all you know is militant behavior to get what you need done, you forget that you need people to work for you. There’s no doubt that there are a lot of people willing to help or donate but just like the fitness industry, there’s a point where you’re spending more time dealing with churn than dealing with your mission.
A while back, I was working on a product that was going to help out the fitness industry (read: gyms). One thing that killed me was the fact that there was a known statistic (and this was for 2002 or something so you can extrapolate a bit here) wherein the fitness industry brought in $1.7 million new members in the US…and lost $1.4 million. And, the primary focus of gyms then tended to be membership, namely getting new members to replace the lost ones.
The problem? The average person would join (New Year’s resolution, coming event, summer, whatever the reason), work out for a little while before giving up, let their credit card get charged a bit longer before they realize they were wasting money and canceled their membership. So, instead of spending time keeping members motivated and keeping that revenue flowing, they were turning tail and trying to get the next sucker in.
So, instead of spending less money just retaining people (usually retention is cheaper), the gyms would waste it with some new plan to get members in (I’m sure a lot of you have encountered some promotion to get you in the door).
Back to Whale Wars. I just wanted the episode where they docked and lost a number of people, including some key crew members. The captain and his 1st and 2nd mates are all confident about their ability to get new crew members so they didn’t care about the problem at hand (their poor management skills). They’re reassuring themselves that it’s all about body count. But, they are already talking about the new “green” recruits.
What they’re missing is all that experience that left with those crew members that aren’t returning. They’ve got to train a lot of people again and have increased risk as those new “green” recruits are going to make mistakes that could cost time or worse…lives. It’s funny how arrogant self-righteous people tend to get.
All it would have taken is a little more attention to detail and a realization that the captain needs to take care of his crew, not kill them all trying to win the battle. There were these various cases like when the 1st mate left a line slack (he said it wasn’t but thankfully video doesn’t lie) and almost killed four crew members or when the two crew members came back from risking their lives hopping onto a Japanese whaling ship (we’re talking about international waters where the captain could decide to defend his ship by shooting them) and the captain decided to stay on the bridge rather than walk up to the two men and shaking their hands.
A good leader gives his crew some love even if it’s tough or at least minimal. Said leader also recognizes faults or problems and doesn’t let personal issues risk lives. Just because his friend is the 1st mate doesn’t mean the 1st mate can’t do wrong. Sure he needs to support his officers but not if they’re fucking up.
The show goes on…the Sea Shepherds are fighting the good fight, even if it means beating the crew up with each trip out to sea. Maybe they’ll accomplish their goals but you’d think that instead of spraying water at the flames, they’d figure out that it’d be more effective to put out the source. I know their charter is all about “law enforcement” but it’s sort of pointless if the criminals keep coming.
kn
I read an article in Inc about YouNoodle.com and their Startup Predictor app. It’s an app that basically Match.com’s you and your startup to spit out a value for your startup in three years and a FICO-like score ranging from 1 to 1000.
The Inc. magazine article had an example of a company that was pulling in around $75k in revenue that was valued at $11 million (remember, this is in 3 years, not today). Some VC’s chimed in with some paper napkin valuations in the $1-5 million range. Someone commented that it’s a publicity stunt.
Honestly, though, can a survey tell you the value of your company in three years? Sure it’s hard to value a company at times but then again, if you’ve done some research, can it be that hard? And why would you want to stick to a “standard” valuation. You think Google, Facebook, and even Twitter used some sliding scale to determine their valuations before they went public or were otherwise valued?
Supply and demand…as often as it’s quoted, it’s still very true in a general way. Twitter got $15 million earlier this year (nowhere near profitability) valuing it at $95 million. Sure it’s got a lot of people using it and it’s a part of the culture now but no one still knows how to make money off of it (except the shareholders).
Plus, there’s always the negotiation factor. The number you come up with is always going to be higher than what the investor’s going to want to pay (in terms of equity). But, you also don’t want to value it unrealistically and stick to that number.
So, what is the problem with the Startup Predictor? There are actually two: first, it doesn’t account for that random factor (9/11, the housing bubble, your main competition going out of business, whatever) and second, assuming the valuation is unrealistic it sets an unrealistic expectation.
The above example gives the startup’s founder an $11 million dollar figure that will affect him when he talks to a number of VCs who feel he’s work $1-3 million. How’s he going to feel? Could the numbers blind him to other factors that might improve the value of his company in the long run (like the resources the VCs might be able to bring, the advisors that might be more likely to join knowing that some well-known/respected VC funded them, etc.)? It’s like the problem of “beta” companies that toss out their product for free to get people hooked then discover the need for cash flow and slap a monthly/yearly fee onto those people and watch half of them leave.
If the valuations get fine tuned, it might be a good tool to help startups going into VC negotiations. At this point, I worry that some overeager–and less experienced–founders might let the valuation go to their heads and burn a few bridges before they learn how to get funding. I guess eventually evolution will kick in at some point but a solid valuation tool could go a long way in the end.
…but you’ve got to wonder…how many people accidentally walk into deep water? 
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/venice_under_water.html
kn
