Business & Games: The Blog

This is cool. World of Warcraft, which otherwise is a rather large download (about 10 GB installed, from what I remember), can now be streamed so that you can check the game out almost immediately. minutes.

The TryWOW streaming trial client is a new offering that allows for a short up-front download of the game. While playing, the remaining game data streams in the background. This allows those with a fast enough internet connection to jump into the free trial more quickly.

Great way to sample something quickly, isn't it?

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by: Gary Hayes

OK I had better blog this ‘press release‘ copied below which quotes me, but also as I am heavily involved in the creation of these courses and still running LAMP (the innovation unit at AFTRS). Frankly it is one of the best things to happen in Australian industry education for the last three years that I have been based in Sydney. AFTRS is renowned for its high production value filmmaking primarily with many students being nominated and going on to win Academy Awards, Oscars etc.

Continue reading " Games and Virtual Worlds: A New Frontier of Experience" »

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by: Rick van der Wal

In a recent interview with ZDnet, Linden Lab’s VP, platforms & technology Joe Miller get to show the corporate face of Second Life. A platform for collaboration for companies such as IBM and… well… IBM. Though the interview itself is not all that remarkable, I did get excited when Dan Farber asked the tough question:

Continue reading "Dan Farber Asks the Tough Questions" »

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Check out Nintendo's youtube page for Wario Land: Shake it! (link). THAT's what I'm talking about. Sorta puts the old 'make trailer, upload trailer' routine to shame, doesn't it?

Good fun.

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Video game advertising in the United States will reach an annual $1.4 billion by 2013.

Warhammer Online shipped 1.5 million copies.

Five million people playing Runescape on a free acount.

10% of American Teens use virtual worlds.

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Profit Seed is an exploration of the issues surrounding genetically modified organisms (GMO) and the patenting of agricultural seeds.

Continue reading "Profit Seed: Serious Games Explore Issues Surrounding GMOs" »

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by: Reinout te Brake

Big Fish Games, an online portal for both online and downloadable computer games, has closed an $83.3 million funding round led by Balderton Capital, General Catalyst Partners, and Salmon River Capital.

Continue reading "Big Fish Games Raises $83.3 Million for Casual Game Distribution" »

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So it turns out that Will Wright's Spore, one of the most enthusiastically expected games of the last few years, is a pretty big success among torrent fans as well. This shouldn't come as a surprise, it's actually a good measure of a digital product's success. Is your game cool? Expect tons of people to share it with each other. Or otherwise put, if your game is bad, why are you worrying about piracy anyway? No one will want it for free either.

Anyhow, there's more to this. Back when Penny Arcade Adventures (Episode I) launched, people complained about how the game requires online activation and the key you get is only good for 3 installs. Now EA did the same thing and, considering Spore's bigger popularity, a significantly larger number of people raised their voices in concern.

Continue reading "On EA's DRM system and how it reflects on Spore" »

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From back in 2000...

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SGI introNetworks: Serious Gaming with SMART Social Networks

Continue reading "Visualize with Whom You Share Serious Games Interests" »

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by: Reinout te Brake

MTV is launching a new play-while-you watch game that allows viewers of The Hills to accumulate points by tagging comments on the reality TV show, reports CNET.

Entitled Backchannel, the game provides viewers with numerous one-liners or comments from other players. Users then tag on the ones they like to accumulate points, receiving credit for voting on their own comments as and those that become especially popular.

Continue reading "MTV Launches Interactive TV Game" »

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Hello everyone. It's been a busy week, hasn't it?

Business gets done in virtual worlds - interview with Michael Cai from the Parks Associates research firm. If you've been following this blog, the interview won't really read as a surprise :)

Continue reading "Quick Links" »

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by: Reinout te Brake

There have been some really good advergames on the web lately, so I thought it would be a good idea to compile a list of those that in my opinion were the most impressive ones.

Continue reading "Advergames, Advergames, Advergames" »

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Now this is more like it. For the past two years, Dmitri Williams, Nick Yee and a whole lot of other dedicated people mined Everquest II for all the data it could give, with Sony Online Entertainment's complicity. The results are here and they'll tell you who plays (age, gender, race, income, education, religion, media use, health), how much they play and why. It could've become a sterile academic exercise but instead, it turns out to be a very useful resource.

You'll have to go through the whole study when you have the time, but let me just list a couple of findings here, to give you a taste:

Continue reading "New Survey on MMO Players" »

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...because I was such a sweetheart in the last post,  have a look at this interview with LOTRO's executive producer.

Talking about WoW and the top position it currently holds in its category, Jeffrey Steefel says:

"We think that we are the game that has the most likelihood of being the second to do that, but we're not there yet."

The man talks good sense throughout the interview, from mentioning the need for a new business model to talking about consoles and new markets. On the subject of LOTRO becoming the next WoW though, I'm going to say - no. Not going to happen.

Continue reading "And just to be ornery..." »

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In other news, Sir Alexander Fleming recently discovered penicilin, in what is considered by the scientifical world to be a major breakthrough for medicine.

Just ran into this article which describes a new NPD report in which the research group proves that they have a firm grasp on the obvious.

The report found the video gaming market has changed significantly over the past few years, with specific kinds of gamers boosting sales in the areas of portable, PC and console gaming.

Shocking news. Who would've thought?

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by: Reinout te Brake

Question; Is social gaming really the most powerful gaming revolution since the release of Pong?

Continue reading "CASUAL GAMES ARE GOING SOCIAL!" »

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by: Rick van der Wal

In August Linden Lab announced their intentions to build SLim. Though specifics are still unclear, it is likely to be a ‘light client’ - filtering the social functions such as instant messaging from the full experience of Linden Labs main virtual world Second Life. This to create a more smooth, more accessible social platform, and allow people to keep in touch with their friends regardless of their presence within Second Life.

Continue reading "There.com Beats Sluggish Linden Lab" »

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So, last week, some people sat down and put together a list, that they call the Gamer's Bill of Rights. Which addresses a few of the concerns that the gaming community has been voicing out for the past 10-15 years. The 'bill' won't tell you anything new. It's simply another exercise at saying 'stop messing around' and hoping someone, somewhere will listen.

Continue reading "Customer Service and the Gamer's Bill of Rights" »

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by: Gary Hayes via Marketing Innovation Blog

Social Media and Web 2.0 is a lot about providing the tools and therefore the means for everyone to create content, that they believe others may want to see. I have personally created a lot of corporate, professional entertainment and music films over the years using high end equipment but now, like many millions around the world, find it a fun and satisfying process to be able to create films and stories in virtual worlds, aka machinima. (Quite a few are over on my personal virtual blog justvirtual)

Continue reading "The Power of 'Our' Machinima" »

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