Category: Gaming

Casual Hamburger

Last month I visited the 2009 edition of Casual Connect in Hamburg, Germany. With our casual games report almost finished, I flew to Hamburg to meet the movers and shakers in Europe. The industry’s state of affairs amidst an economic downturn persuaded a wide selection of companies to make an act-de-presence and network with existing and new clients. So here's what's up.

  — read on

Maximum Hulkness

Screenshot of "Maximum Hulkness"

The cure for the common GTA clone. Heck, the Hulk puts GTA to shame.  One enjoys roaming one's habitat and stir some excitement. But it's difficult to outrun those pesky Liberty City law enforcers. And in all the Spiderman games, the city is really boring. But not no more. — read on

Digital Distribution & GameStop [updated 12/19/08]

After iTunes killed Tower Records, I'm wondering what the effect of digital distribution for games will be on brick & mortar game retailers. In particular, I'm curious to see whether GameStop will end up with a fat lip, because I'm skeptical as to what extent the games industry is impervious to the current economic downturn. A few weeks ago a few telecom giants worried that given these circumstances, people are likely to cancel their landlines, for example. In other words, people will be looking to get rid off those expenses that are, well, unnecessary. And so in deciding between a landline and cell phone, the latter likely wins. Similarly, I expect people to stop buying those $50 games.  This does not mean, of course, that people will stop playing games. That's nonsense. What I think it means is that people will first and foremost look for ways to spend less on video games. And I see two ways to do this. — read on

New York Game Companies (list of)

A few months ago, the Center for an Urban Future published a report on the challenges and opportunities of the NYC game industry. As the first of its kind, it takes a long hard look at NYC game scene. According to them, there are fifty-five companies in total, employing approximately 1,200 people. (To compare, Boston houses 75 and Maryland 60.) Anyway, as my graduation nears, I'm reviewing employment options. One of which is a job in the game industry. After the jump, there'll be a happy list of ninety-three game and game-related (i.e. music) companies in NY. For your convenience. — read on

Female Advergaming gets Funded. Blows.

It is an obvious proposition: women like casual games, and advertisers like women. Therefore, advertisers like casual games. And so, unsurprisingly, a host of female-targeting games are sprouting all over the Interwebs. Thanks to the technical convenience of flash-based games, every site, blog and forum now features some idiotic clickable nonsense. But, unlike some of the people who are investing money in this, I'm skeptical that some of these new 'portals' will successfully persuade any women. Example. — read on

Wordle Helping Out

Having reached the threshold of 1,250 coded .txt files, I'm getting excited about the imminent analysis. Particularly the host of wow-inducing applets strewn around teh Interwebs look promising.  — read on

DiGRA NY approved

It's done. Today I received the e-mail from Tanya Krzywink saying it's a go. I'm looking fwd to the first panel this fall. Official press release after the jump. — read on

Social Gaming Gets Funded [updated 10.28.08]

After virtual worlds and casual gaming, now emerges social gaming. Over the past couple of weeks a bunch of startups have come into some money by way of venture capital. So, what is this social gaming, who's building it, and who's funding it? The term 'social gaming' seems somewhat superfluous: a game is inherently social because it either involves more than one person to play, or a larger socio-cultural context informs its game mechanics. But, whatever. This is not a philosophical explication of a definition: social gaming refers to games played on social networking platforms, like Facebook. — read on


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