- Gaming For The Greater Good
- Whether from aliens, traitors, mutants or disease, it can be argued the classic video game narrative requires its player to do one thing above all else: Save the world. Today's developers are evolving that classic narrative with renewed purpose, building games that no longer simply pretend to save the world, but actually go about doing it.» 0 Comments
- Feeling Special
Every day, social games are enabling players to express themselves in subtle but powerful ways. By sharing the achievements we earn and challenging our friends to beat our scores, we are broadcasting elements of our personalities and hoping our friends take notice. Brands are taking notice, too, and are starting to deliver the types of experiences in social games that players will relate to and want to share.
We all love to feel special -- and we love when others feel we’re special. Being smart, funny, and attractive isn’t much fun when nobody notices, but society frowns upon brazen status ...» 0 Comments
- Bored With Board Games, Toymakers Go Digital
- Timeless as they may be, classic toys aren't immune to today's digital trends. A new age of "Toymaking 2.0" ensures the concept of "play" will never be the same.» 0 Comments
- Improving Business, One Game At A Time
- Today's business leaders grew up with games in their living rooms. As teens, they enjoyed the first portable gaming devices, playing anywhere and everywhere. As adults, however, these Generation Xers have taken things a step further, importing their gaming affections from free time to work time by using games as a tool to improve business operations. In short: Work is now accepted as play, and vice versa.» 0 Comments
- Mobile Marketing Evolves Beyond Banners -- To Games
- What will exceed $1 billion in 2015? If you said mobile advertising revenue, you would be right. And of this cool $1 billion earned, mobile games will account for 17.4%, or $269 million. To put the number into perspective, that's about how much the 2011 award-winning "Batman: Arkham Asylum" earned at launch -- at $60 a pop. But unlike traditional video games, mobile games appeal to both men and women, young and old. Therefore, they pique interest from brands that normally wouldn't advertise in-game, let alone near them.» 0 Comments
- Game Over -- Or Level Up
- The gaming industry has changed quite a bit compared to say, five years ago, and our next half-decade looks to bring many additional changes. Let's take a look at a few.» 2 Comments
- Activision Endangers Profits For Ad Campaign
- Interesting news this week. Mountain Dew and Doritos have partnered with Activision on a new promotion for "Modern Warfare 3" called "RankUpXP." This promotion will allow gamers who redeem codes from Mountain Dew and Doritos products up to 24 hours of "double XP" gametime (time during which actions in the game result in double the rewards other players get ).
This is a brilliant move for both brands. That said, what is Activision thinking?? They've broken one of the most sacrosanct rules for publishers in game advertising: "Don't let an advertiser endanger your bottom line."» 0 Comments
- Little Games, Big Engagement
- One of the challenges brands often face when they look at getting into gaming is cost and time. Concepting a game people will actually play takes a great deal of time and specialized skills. But sometimes, the simplest games can engage thousands of people if the right circumstances come together.» 0 Comments
- 'Free' And 'Ads' Get A Divorce
- The F2P model relies on providing a large introductory portion of a game to users for free, and assumes that if the game is fun/addicting enough, players will be willing to pay after an initial investment of time. This works on a number of psychological principles related to loss aversion and cognitive dissonance. In short, it's extremely potent and effective.» 0 Comments
- Let's All Go F2P
- Free to Play, F2P, Freemium - however you describe it, the business model where consumers get the cow for free, but they need to pay for the milk, the bucket, the stool and the barn, is taking over the Games category of the iTunes app store, as well as the world of online PC gaming.» 0 Comments
