Year: 2008

  • Marketing in games vs web

    Hours Categories Game talk
    Comments 29 Comments

    One of the more interesting communication gaps that I’ve had while working on Metaplace was over the word “marketing.”

    In much of the game industry, marketing is a dirty word. In fact, for a while I made it part of my personal crusade to smooth over the relationship between development and marketing both at SOE and at Origin, because there’s a historical sense of enmity there, where development feels that clueless marketers are trying to design the game, and marketers feel that clueless developers don’t care what the public actually wants.

    Over in the web world, it’s different. In fact, if I had to pick the closest analogue to “marketing guy” it would be “designer.”

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  • UGC and IP in a cloning world

    Hours Categories Game talk
    Comments 15 Comments

    Slashdot is discussing an article at Joystiq about UGC and IP rights which comes from a GamePolitics news item of a few days ago about the update to the PSN TOU around UGC — specifically because of LittleBigPlanet.

    The bottom line, amidst all that linkage? Sony is taking a fairly traditional approach to IP rights, from a networked game sense:

    Sony can use user content without restriction to advertise. They can also ‘commercially exploit’ your creations without permission, and if they do benefit ‘commercially’ (read: monetarily) from your creations, they owe you nothing. You’re also agreeing to abandon your moral rights to the work. Most importantly, you’re not allowed to commercially benefit from your creation without their permission.

    — Mark Methentis, Joystiq

    Now, LittleBigPlanet feels more like a toy in a lot of ways — you work with the pieces they give you. Then again, it took mere moments in UO for someone to grab a bunch of fish and spell out a dirty word on the bridge in the middle of Britain. (What’s more, seeing that occasioned a moment of glee from the team, though perhaps not from management).

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  • Keynoting at Living Game Worlds IV

    Hours Categories Game talk
    Comments 1 Comment

    For those who do not recall, I had a great time at Living Game Worlds a few years ago, including quite enjoying Will Wright’s keynote. Well, this year it’s my turn… and of course, I completely spaced telling everyone in time for you to get the early reg discount. 😛

    Registration is now open for
    Living Game Worlds IV – Interplay: Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds
    December 1-2, 2008
    Georgia Tech
    Technology Square Research Building
    85 5th Street, Atlanta, GA

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  • China’s taxman came

    Hours Categories Game talk
    Comments 3 Comments

    Virtual Worlds News: China Levies 20% Tax on Virtual Currencies.

    This is completely unsurprising — after all, levying tax on earnings made via selling virtual goods is something that the US does already (if you make money, they expect a cut, no matter where how how you made it) and it’s a lot more common in China than here. But there’s a wrinkle:

    The ruling applies to QQ coins and the like as well as gameworld currencies, and based on the WSJ report, seems to apply whether or not the value is cashed out.

    The announcement, which was distributed to local tax bureaus, specifically takes aim at those who buy virtual currency from gamers and surfers and sell it to others at a mark-up. Taxation officials are granted the right to determine the original price of online virtual currency if the individual fails to provide proof of an original price, it says.

    Interestingly, companies seem to be exempt from taxes like these right now, presumably because the government there did so in order to incentivize economic growth in the sector.

    However, if the value is not cashed out and taxes are still paid, that could mean (maybe should mean) that the companies are liable if they manage to accidentally delete some of it. In other words, they’re banks.