Business & Games: The Blog

Continue reading "Behavioral Targeting in Second Life" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

"AMPP [Media] completed a deal with Second Life publisher Linden Labs and is ironing out the logistics to sell ads in Second Life, where digital ads will appear as outdoor placements in the virtual world."
-- ClickZ via Metaversed 

Continue reading " Ad Network to Place Billboards in Second Life" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Continue reading " Business Week: The Future is 3D" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Continue reading " Study: Low Awareness of Brands in Second Life" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Continue reading " Gartner: 80% of Internet Users in Virtual Worlds by 2011" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

An interactive bus shelter touch-screen installation for Nokia's phone lets people play the tile matching game. More details and a video on Wired.

Original post: http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2007/04/interactive-outdoor-ad-plays-games.html

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Game Production Services' (GPS) main client is the U.S. Army.

Continue reading "Serious Games: Not A Hit-Driven Business ????" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Some MMO-related articles caught my eye because they stray out of the old, beaten path (Where is <game> headed? or What is the next WoW killer? or A new era dawns as patch 5.43.21b is announced).

First off, a Clickable Culture article reinforcing the point that, no matter what you design your game for, there'll be people who'll find new, weird and sometimes interesting uses for it. 

Staying in Azeroth, a piece about 'coming of age'. And as horrible as that may sound, the author makes a pretty good point. Yes, it's a game but it's still played by real people, even if they're behind really cartoonish characters.

Finally, a very detailed article by Nick Yee on MMO superstitions. I found it to be a delicious read, although, if you never played a MMO in your life, the post might read more like a psychiatry ward visit.

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Continue reading " Mining Gamers' Behavior" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Continue reading " Contextual Advertising in Second Life" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

WHAT IS THE TRUST PROJECT

The Trust project is an immersive, storytelling game and healing environment for young people, with human movement interaction triggered by a haptic chair.

Continue reading "TRUST:Serious Games Creating A Healing Environment" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

A little while ago Ilya mentioned a new book about in-game advertising that has hit the market, 'Advergaming and In-Game Advertising" by Gerald Marolf. In the meantime I have received it, and want to give you a little review.

Let me say upfront, that I appreciate this is in actual fact a master-thesis that has been repackaged as a book - in other words, some academic rules have to be followed, which do not always co-incide with readability. 

Continue reading "Book review: Advergaming and In-Game Advertising" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Serious games use entertainment principles, creativity, and technology to meet government or corporate training objectives, but these principles alone will not guarantee that the intended learning will occur.

Continue reading "Serious Games For Human Error Reduction" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Coca-Cola has launched a contest to design a virtual experience vending machine. Also see the press release here. My co-contributor Karl Long already wrote a fairly positive review, but I'm afraid I have to add some negative points of view here.

I have very mixed feelings about this one. One the one hand, this contest has a lot of the 'right' elements - community involvement, ask people to create something in an environment where they are already used to self-creation, let the final results be used by everyone for free inside SL. The concept of a virtual experience vending machine is nicely creative. Also they opened it up beyond SL residents, by simply asking for designs, not acutally fully built machines. 

Continue reading "Coke Virtual Thirst: A for effort, C- for execution" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Continue reading " Sim Game Teaches TV Ad Planning" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Continue reading " Endemol Takes Its Shows To 3D" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

More datapoints from the eMarketer study: "eMarketer projects that $295 million of the 2007 total will be spent on in-game advertising and that spending on advergaming (the creation of games for the purpose of promoting a brand) will reach $207 million. By 2011, the balance between the two will have shifted significantly. US spending on advergaming will climb to $344 million in 2011, but US spending on in-game advertising will climb faster, reaching a total of $625 million that year."
-- press release

Original post: http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2007/04/study-in-game-ad-spend-295m-this-year.html 

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

CNET News.com -- Meet the metaverse, your new digital home by Daniel Terdiman, April 13, 2007

What happens when video games meet Web 2.0? When virtual worlds meet geospatial maps of the planet? When simulations get real and life and business go virtual? When you use a virtual Earth to navigate the physical Earth, and your avatar becomes your online agent? What happens is the metaverse.

Continue reading "Serious Games As Pathways To 3D Web" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

That was the general picture painted in the draft report that summarizes the conclusions of several dozen pundits who met at the first Metaverse Roadmap Summit last May to prognosticate the "pathway to the 3D Web."

Continue reading "More on Serious Games As Pathways To 3D Web" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

When I read about passively multiplayer online games, I immediatly thought about Progress Quest, basically a mock RPG where character creation is pretty much the last interactive part. After that, the game sits quietly in the background and plays itself, basically grinding up a character while you go about your business.

PMOG however is a concept crafted to define the next level. It's a "game" where what you browse defines your character. Quite amusing, really.

Continue reading "Of Browsing and Passive MMOs" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Over at GamePolitics the writers compiled a list of the reactions to the FTC report that came out earlier this week on retail and marketing practices to children. Obviously the gaming industry was holding it's breath, and was relieved when the report was generally positive about the self-regulation efforts shown, while pointing out some areas for improvement. In other words, a varied and balanced result.

Now read what various media outlets headlined - and tell us if they read the same report...: 

Continue reading "Violent disagreement about report - or...?" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Continue reading "Putting the Fun In Functional - Game Mechanics and Social Media" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

It's one of those campaigns I wish I'd thought of first: a promo for a PlayStation 2 game "Forbidden Siren 2" last year in Germany during a game con. They have created branded snapshot cameras loaded with ghosts on a pre-exposed film that appeared on the printed pictures given away to visitors. More pictures at I Believe in Advertising (and so do I).

Original post: http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2007/04/psp-promo-uses-camera-ghosted-film.html 

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

As of today we have launched a Wiki specifically targeted at Business and Games.

Our aim here at Futurelab is to become the one source for those interested in everything business and gaming related, who may not have the time (or inclination) to read the many other excellent blogs out there that cover parts of this subject. We also do not assume that everyone is familiar with every abbreviation and technical term used. The Wiki will serve as the dictionary, but also the resource base to quickly find everything you need.

As creating a truely useful wiki will take a lot of time and effort, and we hope to invite you to participate, and share your knowledge and insights with us and the other readers. 

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Continue reading "Interactivity in Movie Theaters" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Continue reading " In-Game Advertising Update" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

April 10, 2007 - by Ian Bogost

Starbucks Coffee and Global Green USA have created Planet Green Game, a game about energy conservation and consumption.

Continue reading "Serious Games Review: Planet Green" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

We reported earlier on the Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG  the band Nine Inch Nails (NIN) is using to promote it's latest album. For a full overview of all the (brilliantly conceived) activities that have taken place, a Wiki has been set up. I suggest to take a look.

Irony has it, that in the same week that Apple and EMI take the first long overdue step towards a removal of Digital Rights Management from digitally sold music, the record industry as a whole once again completely misses the point, and tries to undermine this marketing campaign.

Continue reading "Silly retreating battles - how the music industry once again misses the point" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

NetQos has released a video showcasing their research on visualisation techniques in network management, Netcosm. Using graphics reminiscent of space invaders and other ancient console games it provides real time insight into datatraffic, attacks on the network, and whatever else is going on. It's a great example on how visuals and concepts from the gaming world can be used for 'real' world benefits.

Continue to see the cool video...

Continue reading "Space invaders! Oh - no, it's a DoS attack..." »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

The practice of using video games as an advertising vehicle is as old as the games industry itself. Early Sega racing games for the Atari 2600 console featured Marlboro display ads on the raceway, and high-profile early-'90s titles such as Zool and the FIFA International series contained ads for Chupa Chups and Adidas, respectively.

Continue reading "Serious Games Are Getting Down To Business" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Via: The Birmingham Post

As the Serious Games Institute is officially launched at Coventry University, business reporter Joanna Geary examines the growth of the computer games market, one of the region's fastest-growing industries.

It is not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game. By tapping into how we might play the computer games of the future is exactly what will ensure the continued success of one of the region’s fastest-growing industries.

Continue reading "Serious Games Booming In West Midlands" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) • Email this article to a friend

Via: Lumos Labs - A new company in the "brain fitness" business

Lumosity Brain Fitness: Brain Games and Memory Improvement

Lumosity is an engaging online course consisting of games and exercises scientifically proven to improve your attention, memory and processing speed.

Continue reading "Serious Games For Mental Workout" »

digg this| del.icio.us| Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) •