links for 2010-07-29
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links for 2010-07-22
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These look cool (like bow ties! Bow ties are cool.)
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links for 2010-07-16
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The only WoW Killer is RealID
Yes, the headline is overdramatic (what WoW-related post couldn’t be), but it’s also the biggest thing to hit gaming in a many a year.
For those not following gaming news or who doesn’t play World of Warcraft, Activision Blizzard announced over the weekend that they would not only expand RealID to their forums for Starcraft and World of Warcraft, but that it would be mandatory that posters to the forums to use their real-life first and last name. Old posts would not be retcon’d, but any new reply or new post would have the person’s real name attached to it.
This move is, rightly so, garnering some attention. A laundry list of reasons to oppose this have crept up, from examples of real-life stalking from game activity, to the potential to out closeted gay gamers, to identity theft, to potential employers searching on your name and finding your forum posts.
Posting on the forums is, as Blizzard points out, completely optional. Your real name doesn’t show up in-game unless you opt in and allow someone to see your name. But, as a commenter on Reddit points out, this is a step in a new direction. Games like WoW are inherently social; you have to group for quests sometimes, you are in a guild to raid, you talk with people to trade goods. With RealID, you have a real-life social network tied to a virtual one. The possibilities for adverstising dollars and monetizing a userbase of millions is probably still making some executive horny.
Make no mistake; this is an experiment. One they’re committed to, but an experiment nonetheless. I play, but I don’t use post on the forums (cesspool that they are). I think this will diminish the quality and quantity of posts, but it doesn’t affect me. Not yet, anyway.
What I do see this as is a step towards mandatory RealID in-game as well. Experimenting with the forums is a litmus test for the reaction versus the effectiveness. It’s the allergy test before you actually consume a suspect food. People will quit the forums, people will quit the game, bad things will happen. These are known consequences that factored into the decision.
The question isn’t will they, the question is whether they can tolerate the consequences. If they extrapolate the numbers to the main subscription base, will a move like implementing RealID in-game allow them to continue making millions of dollars every month?
If they can, Blizzard will be the leader in a brand new field of social marketing. If not, they may have set their own house on fire.
It’s an interesting risk; we’re watching Blizzard, but you’re walking a very, very thin line with many people.
Hulu Plus; more of the same
Is it any wonder broadcasters are afraid of the Internet? They don’t even understand it. Exhibit most recent: Hulu Plus, a $10 per month service which allows you to watch current and back-catalogs of television shows like X-Files, Modern Family, and others. Oh, wait, a $10 per month “ad-supported” service, something Hulu considers “revolutionary” and a price-point about which they’re “thrilled”.
Which would be great if they only had to eat their own dog food. But here in the real world, with services like Netflix already providing ad-free streaming (to more devices), the value proposition for Hulu Plus seems smaller. Add to this the ability to already see the same shows available on Hulu Plus through regular Hulu (with the same ads), things are looking oddly… off.
The big sell here is that you can watch all currently available episodes of a show, not just the three or five trailing episodes many shows currently allow. But, with movie studios clinging to old markets and training consumers that they’re going to have to wait for releases, people using the convenience of the Internet to view media are more and more willing to wait.
Essentially, Hulu Plus is almost 3 years too late with this idea. The market has better offerings with more value. Unfortunately, if Hulu Plus fails, look for calls of piracy and consumer readiness as reasons. Never mind the complete lack of any value presented and the complete ignorance of what consumers actually want.
The iPad
Yes, I caved (or, was tipped slightly further, causing me to plummet into the cavern into which I was desperately staring) and bought an iPad. Wifi-only, because I’m cheap, but bought one nonetheless. And here’s why.
Douglas Adams.
No, I’m serious. It’s slowly becoming a cliche, but the iPad is the first step in realizing the vision of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; the nerd’s fantasy of an always connected, always updated book that tells you just what you need to know, now. It is a device that offers entertainment, wisdom, and places to get wasted. It is the Guide.
Any self-respecting (or moderately self-aware) nerd, geek, dweeb, A/V manager, or sys admin worth their salt has read the Sacred Tomes more than thrice. Annually if you want a really well-punched card. And the vision of that universe is a system of knowledge that crosses galaxies, instantaneously, if not accurately, to deliver the wisdom of people more worldly-wise-than-you to a device you can reasonably purchase. Adams himself saw the Internet to have the potential for this vision.
I did not, however, buy an iPad because I am some visionary sage of future tech. If that was my nature, I would be investing in toe nail collections (they have gold, you know). No, I bought it simply out of gadget lust. Nothing more, nothing less.
But then I saw what it did to people.
(Disclaimer, I’m well aware of the post-facto justification this post will sound like. Work with me through the rest; I’m writing with my biases prominently on display.)
I knew something was different on a Sunday a few weeks ago. My “in-laws” (not married) were over, with a visit from J–’s sister. I’d laid out the iPad casually, because I’m an attention whore like that. Everyone but J–’s mother was eager to try it; poked around the apps on it, flipped into the App Store to search for their favorite topic, things I’d seen a dozen people prior to them do at work.
J–’s mother, however, wanted nothing to with it. It didn’t interest her, it was odd and different. She didn’t need it. It got tossed back onto the coffee table. Then J–’s mother and I started talking about recipes for smoking meats while sitting on the couch (sidenote: I’d inherited a smoker from them and I LOVE it). I wanted to look up a recipe I’d seen, so I reached for the iPad. I didn’t do it to use the device, I reached for it because I didn’t want to leave the room and break up the conversation.
I fired up Safari and started searching, finding the first candidate. J–’s mum perked up, but that wasn’t the one. I search again. Closer, but she was sure she’d seen it somewhere else. I searched again but got further away.
J–’s mom got frustrated. She knew was it was, but couldn’t articulate it. So I handed her the iPad. I pointed out the search bar in Safari, made her tap to open the keyboard, and watched as she searched up the recipe. She emailed it to me, then proceeded to spend 20 minutes surfing various sites, zooming, opening multiple windows. She was a power user in less than half an hour. Her husband had to ask if they were leaving anytime soon to get her to stop.
And I knew. This was something different. I’d bought it out of lust, but fallen into the trap laid two decades ago by Douglas Adams. My Nerdself craved the interactive, ubiquitous ability to conjure up knowledge with my own fingers. Apple’s device isn’t magic, as so many marketing videos claim. But it is a visceral fulfillment of so many subconscious wishes. It can’t fail because we want it to succeed so much.
It is also the harbinger of how things will be. As with other things, it’s the first of many similar things. It may not be the most featured, but it is the more polished. There will certainly be Android touch tablets to follow, maybe even a Palm OS or Windows version. But Apple is defining the experience right now.
In 10 years, we’ll all have devices like this and wonder how we put up with things like mice, possibly even wondering what kind of idiot would have a 40-pound box stashed underneath their desk. Apple may not win the battle for market ($DEITY knows they’ve blown it many times before). But the model for how to interact is being changed and the future is being redefined. It’s an exciting time.
