Tag Archives: #marketing

…and BW on Pro Gaming

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Let the (video)game sponsorship frenzy begin! From BW’s article “Pro Gaming Attracting Big Corporate Sponsors“:

PC hardware companies have been sponsoring Counter-Strike teams and individual pro gamers for over seven years, but more general youth-oriented brands and corporations have been slow to catch on to the phenomenon. In fact, last week’s announcement that Johnson & Johnson subsidiary McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharmaceuticals (makers of Tylenol) was sponsoring pro CS team Ouch is believed to be the first of its kind.

I can’t help but think someone inside Johnson & Johnson has been working feverishly for years trying to convince a bunch of out-of-touch upper management types to do this. This news kinda makes my earlier post on CPL a little more interesting. Wonder if I can create something branded with a fake pain-reliever and let it go head-to-head with Tylenol. Or should that be headache-to-headache? It’s about time corporate America realized the importance of videogames in reaching a portion of their market, I just wonder if they also realize they’re now on a different playing field. Literally and figuratively. This could get interesting.

Rubik’s Cube of Content

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My “Long Tail” toroid gets a booster shot with some very interesting news over on BusinessWeek. I had no clue who Tony Li was until I read this article (link), but it’s obvious that what he and his partners intend to do is partially what I envisioned when I began looking at Chris Anderson‘s curves and concluded they looked a bit too static for me. Li and company are looking like catalysts for some important changes. Even if they don’t succeed at unifying distribution as they intend, the very fact they intend to try is probably going to get some people to sit upright and take notice. That idea isn’t going away now.

To get caught up on how Mr. Li fits into the toroid concept, you can read my initial “Long Tail” post here. Then read about (and see) some things in an interview with Second Life’s embedded reporter, Hamlet Linden, over on his blog. And maybe take a peek at a quick follow-up I wrote on the SL Future Salon blog (which has a nicer image I posted showing ancient to early 20th century variations of the Toroid).

The only thing missing is how real products fit into this. That’s coming.

Planar Reporting In A 3D World

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Cyspace isometric view

BusinessWeek has a largish section devoted to the “New Web” – the one controlled by users and not media gatekeepers. Sounds interesting, but a quick read of the articles is disappointing. Many of us already know what’s happening (I even discussed the whole social influencing thang back in March, and I was way late). If I didn’t realize that BusinessWeek is targetted to a specific kind of reader, I’d really take them to the mat for not banging this drum more loudly months ago. Then again, maybe there are additional reasons for the somewhat late reporting: notice under “Graphic: Play” BW lists Cyworld along with games “World of Warcraft” and “Everquest“. Huh? How is Cyworld a game? I’m not sure they get it even though they’re reporting on this stuff.

Btw, you can read more about Cyworld in this article over on Wired. In the meantime, what I’m really wondering is how long will it be before BW reports on truly 3D spaces instead of isometric views pretending to be 3D. Now that Wells Fargo has poked it’s gold toe into the virtual waters, I give them six months. I’m also going to guess the next comparison will have Second Life listed along with “Halo 3” and “Grand Theft Auto“. Right.

{Image Copyright © Emil Goh}

CPL Chooses Quake IV

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For most people this announcement by the Cyberathlete Professional League (via Blue’s News) probably doesn’t mean much; however it’s caught my interest for personal reasons. One of those reasons is that I’m watching for opportunities to enter Microsoft’s XBox360 virtual market. Yesterday I watched some online game videos, one of which was a collection of game footage from the titles that would be available for the new console; Quake IV was included. The second reason is that I have experience with the Quake games and feel comfortable working on content for them, so it’s a little less daunting. And the third reason is that I already have an item I’d like to upgrade (it was originally designed for Quake 3) and test the waters with.

Consequently, this news means that there’s a good chance whatever content I develop for Quake IV will get some attention… even if only minimal. And what better way to have content shown than in the hands of a professional “cyberathlete”. Now that I think about it, maybe if Mark Cuban carries a tournament in one of his digital theaters, I’ll get to see something I’ve done on the big screen. Interesting thought. Almost as cool as having a real object made from the CAD model I’ll use for the normalmap.

Second Life + Wells Fargo

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Wells Fargo Island

I’d read about this previously on the Second Life forums – Wells Fargo has set up a virtual training ground to teach young adults about money and finance and such. From an announcement made by Second Life CEO/Founder Philip Rosedale (aka Philip Linden):

Today (Wednesday, September 14), Wells Fargo is announcing the launch of Stagecoach Island – an immersive experience set in Second Life that teaches young adults how to handle their finances in an entertaining way.
…
The islands are private islands and new users log directly into those islands – a feature that other island owners in SL have been using as well.

Through the grapevine I’ve also heard of some companies looking to make the move onto the “main grid”. I’ll admit I was hoping to give some smallish manufacturer a chance to get some invaluable PR, but I’m guessing some big player is going to now take the spotlight. A shame.

{Image source: Eggy Lippmann}