Interesting post over on Clickable Culture concerning the move of videogame EVE Online to offer ad space in it’s official magazine in exchange for virtual currency. As mentioned in the post, this isn’t entirely new. Second Life’s developer has been offering virtual currency for a number of resident services (or service attempts); Linden Lab typically states how much they’re willing to pay and then takes proposals/submissions. There’s been a fair amount of discussion on this kind of “work”, for obvious reasons. What’s most interesting to me however is this bit from the post:

A CCP employee noted on the EVE blog that “E-ON is the first magazine I’ve heard people raving about the adverts.”

Kind of goes with my earlier post on Massive’s possible inclusion of player-created ads within “The Matrix Online“. I’ve been involved in a good conversation over on the SL forums about in-world (virtual) advertising so this all dovetails nicely. Now I’m curious to see if virtual ad agencies come into their own.

Curious article over on AdAge (registration req’d) about some striptease video for the iPod which makes use of the Burger King icon (that’d be “The King”). Now while the video may be officially “unauthorized”, it sure sounds like the people at BK got just what they wanted. From the article:

Burger King’s iPod sponsorship on Heavy.com has spawned a wildly popular online parody of Miramax’s once infamous “The Crying Game.� A viral video of a striptease ends in a twist that leaves viewers staring in disbelief at Burger King’s The King mask.

The video was submitted by a Heavy.com user after the site handed out King masks to a handful of its fans. WPP Group interactive agency VML, which is the interactive agency of record for Burger King, had bought media for the video iPod campaign. It gave Heavy.com the masks because “they are our media partner,� said Nick Centofante, VML media director. A Burger King spokeswoman said its brand is part of the popular culture, and that the chain had no control over the video’s content.

More interesting still is this from Heavy’s co-CEO, Simon Assaad:

When users create content with their cultural icons, it’s not always in line with the strategy of the advertiser, but it’s really important because sometimes the consumers are more in touch with how to propagate a brand than the marketer is.

Now the real reason I’m posting this is because of my earlier post on Massive considering player-generated ads inside “The Matrix Online” videogame in which I said, “I wonder if Massive and their clients are thinking they might learn a thing or two from the players themselves.” Given this pathetic effort, maybe I’m expecting too much. I guess this is what happens to companies when desperation sets in; something we may see more frequently as the mediascape continues to evolve. Oh joy.

The other night I caught an episode of “60 Minutes” that had a segment on internet gambling (net version here). Well, having seen my share of gambling blogspam, I have no doubts that the numbers used are legit; it’s a huge… HUGE… business. Well, via a Wonderland post comes word of a mod for Quake 3 called Quake4Cash. From the homepage:

Welcome to Quake 4 Cashâ„¢ where you can prove your skills and earn some money. We’ve designed a mod for id Software’s venerable and recently GPL’d Quake III Arena to bring you the ultimate competitve environment.

Are you good with the railgun? 70%+ headshot ratio? You’ve come to the right place then!

Register, download the mod, login to our servers and put your money where your BFG is.

Although I’m unaware of any other games that do this, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that there are many already out there; though probably most are still 2D. In contrast, Quake 3 is both a 3D game and a wildly popular one at that. It’s tailor-made for this kind of immersive, competitive gaming… and the betting it could spawn.

Something like this reminds me of boxing. I could see Spectator micro-betting (everything nowadays is “micro”) becoming really popular. Don’t just bet and stay in the bleachers… get into the game. Follow your horse up close. Watch as your pick vanquishes the opposition (or turns into a pile of gibs). All up close and personal in a way you don’t even get with real world betting; watching a two-dimension television screen isn’t as immersive as being on a simulated 3D racetrack or in a virtual ring if the resolution is decent.

Assuming they can keep the cheats out and this does take off, I’ll venture we also see some content creators getting into the game doing custom skins and weapons; perhaps spawning a niche industry in the process. It’ll be a whole new kind of circuit.

Going to have to keep an eye on this. Always fun to see how money flows through the system.

Well this is interesting. Via a Wonderland post I’ve come across a piece over on TechRepublic that includes this bit:

What noted science-fiction novel did Xbox development chief J Allard use as his inspiration for the Xbox 360, a book he listed as required reading for his entire project team?

The tome in question is none other than Neal Stephenson’s 1992 cyberpunk epic Snow Crash. (Check out the Trivia Geek’s blog review of the book.)

While the Xbox 360 won’t necessarily usher in a dystopian future of franchised suburban nation-states, post-religious spoken-word mind control, and mafia-owned military-grade pizza delivery vehicles (all major fixtures in the book), Allard hopes that at least one plot device from Snow Crash—the persistent virtual world known as the Metaverse—will take one step closer to reality by way of Microsoft’s new game console.

I’ve not given too much thought lately to how Google’s entry affects my earlier prediction:

Prediction: Microsoft is building a virtual 3D world.

And I’m talking virtual world as in Snow Crash’s “Metaverse�. I’m making this prediction based on not just recent news, but on some very old things.

Certainly, Google’s entrance has affected how things will play out (and I read a very good piece on Google yesterday relating to some of this, but I need to digest it all). Then again my prediction is about what Microsoft is attempting to do and not whether they’ll be successful. Right now, it looks as if my thoughts were on the right track.

By now those of you who regularly read this blog and who are industrial designers are probably aware I don’t have much patience for some of the stuff that masquerades as evidence Industrial Design is being taken seriously by the business community as a whole. So needless to say, all this talk about “Innovation” (capital “I”) wears thin with me; especially when it’s wrapped up in overblown headlines like “Boeing is back! Innovation lives in aerospace.” Right. Grafting 787 design solutions onto 747 aircraft (design circa 1966) tells us something about Boeing’s State of Innovation (you can read my comments over there).

Well, there’s more discussion about Innovation (again note the capital “I”) over on Design Observer and this time it’s pretty good. I think Michael Bierut’s “Innovation is the New Black” piece hits the nail on the head. In the meantime, just like in the early 90’s, I’m waiting for the design community to get another black eye. And I have a sense of from where this haymaker might be coming. Stay tuned.