social media dimensions of gaming
TRANSCRIPT
Games People PlaySocial Media Dimensions of Online Gaming
The intersection
Gaming is at a crossroadsSocial media and gaming are
intersectingWhere social media and gaming meet,
or collide:–What are the challenges?–What are the opportunities?
Social media is game changing
Social media will change the evolutionary process for game marketing and development
Social media will create new business models
social media/gaming equationNew audiences x (collaboration + participation) =
synergy
Changing the game plan
Social media are changing every aspect of business
So social media is going to change the gaming industry
It’s going to change – What games we play– Who plays games– What a game is
Social media will change how games evolve
Social media is going to change the playing field
Social media will impact all aspects of gaming:–That’s players, designers, vendors
Social media isn’t just moving the goal posts, it is changing the playing field
Social media will change how games are developed, reach the market place and become successful, or not
Adapt or die
Have you heard of the dodo?Evolution dictates that weakness and
inefficiency do not persist in complex environments, such as the Internet
When environments change too fast, animals go extinct
To survive, animals must adapt
Survival of the fittest
The fittest games will surviveEasiest to playEasiest to shareBest meet our basic needs such as human
interaction
Crap games do not last long in the market place.
The best games persistThe best features are copied and passed on
to other games
Selection Extinction
• Customers are selecting, like natural selection.
• Due to natural selection, all the dinosaurs went extinct.
• The birds are the only relatives of the dinosaurs to survive.
• With social media selection in the gaming industry is going to be ever more ruthless and faster.
Extinction Consolidation
• Selective processes will move away from top down conception, design and execution.
• Selection will occur at the earliest stages.
• Control of game conception development and marketing will be bottom up
• This pressure will lead to consolidation.
Extinction Consolidation
Birds
Adapting to change
The gaming industry must adapt to changeAnother lesson from evolution is that
complex environments provide many niches
The gaming industry will exploit niches and thereby diversify
There are niches within the industry that don’t exist today, and that we can’t even imagine
We’ll see later what some of these might be
Diversification
Biological niches
Social media meets gaming
Around 2006 games met social computing
Ppopular sites such as MySpace and Wikipedia had reached popular audience
The world was introduced to Facebook
Interest in online games
Searches for online games steadily increased over the past several years.
Searches for games on Facebook has grown with the explosive growth of the social network.
“online games”
“facebook games”
There are a multitude of games on Facebook.
Mafioso on Facebook
Click of a mouse: invite friends Bigger mob = more properties, weapons, money
Profile status updates Recreates the villageHow you match up against
others, not a machineSocial element takes games to
new audiences
New audiences
Howard Dean used web-games to teach democracy and increase interest in campaigns
New audiences
US Army’s arcade-style games help with recruitment
New audiences
Dept. of Treasury and Ad Council created a game to teach about importance of good credit.
New audiences
Kids use Sim City to design their ideal city for the Future City contest.
New audiences
Elf Island, with Second Life-like functionality, empowers kids to benefit environmental causes
New applications = new audiences
• These games are being used in new ways• They break out of the mold of game as
entertainment• They introduce new audiences to games• These games lack a strong social
component• Bringing a social element will allow gaming
to break out of bottlenecks to growth
Bottlenecks to growth
Limited business models–Pay to play–Hardware and software sales
Gaming as entertainmentGamers as nerds or dropoutsImplementing social media models
– Institutional inertia– Low value or misleading content (spam)
Game changers
User-created games– Kongregate, Facebook
User-created content– Spore
Bottom-up controlPortable profilesHardware obsolescenceDistributed computingMashups
Distributed computing
Onlive is gaming on demandHigh-end equipment not needed for
optimal gaming experienceMulti-user platform with social gamingPromises “massive spectating” with “instant community on an epic scale”
What’s coming?
Augmented reality games will emerge into the real world through geocaching, such as Gowalla.
Ubiquitous computing = everything is a gaming platform
Mashups– Second Life + Google Maps + GPS– Walk or drive, find and identify friends via
augmented reality systems– Look inside the shop before deciding to go in.– Far-fetched? – They’re already doing this in Japan.
Chipuya Town
• Chipuya Town is a virtual world accessible on a cell phone.
• Users create custom avatar, for a version of Tokyo's Shibuya shopping district.
• Companies pay $4,000 a month for ads on in-world billboards.
• Players socialize with other avatars and earn “Grooves”
• They recruit friends, go on treasure hunts, and attend sponsored events.
New business models (gaming niches)
Create microgamesCrowdsourcing development and marketingGames for everyday life
– Work (e.g., employment screening)– Play (improve your game)– Shop (optimal instore experiences)– Drive (safer and faster)– Dine (finding a restaurant)– Health (learn healthful lifestyles)– Think (mind-mapping)
Welcome to…
The Gaming EconomyGaming is the new communication.
Gaming as communication
• Tough challenges create exciting opportunities
• Where gaming and social media intersect, a gaming economy is emerging
• Gaming can be the currency of this economy
• Combined with social media gaming will be the new paradigm for communication
