musings of a social architect

Silly Sites to Make You Smile

Oh lordy... after just a few minutes of looking through Stuff On My Cat and Cute Overload, I'm all smiles tonight. Check 'em out if you're in need of some seasonal cheer.

Who are the "Mobile Mavens?"

MobHappy reports on two new studies on mobile usage  show that Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to use advanced  features like data services.   

37% had downloaded a ringtone in the last month (26% average), 48% had send an sms (29% average).

...in youth culture, what starts in the black community, crosses over at some point to their less stylish white bretheren. Many music trends start Black - rap, hiphop, Jazz, even rock and roll. Fashion too - where do you think having your arse hanging out of your trousers started? Ditto sports.

Smart marketers focus their attention on mavens - people who will spread the word about their products. Getting one maven on board and on message is worth 100,000 lesser folk. So if you've got limited resources and budgets for your mobile content, handset or app, go find some black kids who like it. They'll do all the marketing you're ever going to need.

NCsoft, Marvel Settle City of Heroes Suit

It's good to see that the lawsuit Marvel filed against NCsoft's City of Heroes has finally been settled.

The lawsuit, first filed over a year ago, originated over Marvel's complaints that the game's robust character creation toolkit allowed users to violate Marvel superhero copyrights with lookalike characters and powers... the result appears to allow NCsoft's games -- both City of Heroes and City of Villains, the expansion released in the interim -- to proceed unhindered, allowing players to create characters as they wish, without physical restrictions on what characters look like.

Interview with PopCap

Gamasutra just published an interview with PopCap, one of my favorite game developers. Judging by their track record, those guys know how to create top-quality casual games. Interestingly, their development process is VERY bottom-up and iterative.

"Our path of development is extremely prototype-heavy," said Gwertzman. "We'll make half a dozen prototypes, and pick just one of those to be a hit casual game. And once we develop that one, it's a very iterative process. It's a sandbox model. We try different things out, and find out what's fun. Only when we find out that the core mechanic is fun do we worry about the art, content, and all the other little details."

"We really obsess over the core game mechanics. In a game like Bejeweled, hardcore developers look at that and might think it's kind of...it's very easy to kind of dismiss it, but we literally spent weeks on just the right way for the gems to fall when you make a match. In a game like that, it's little details like that. How does it feel? Getting those little details right is what we prioritize. So when we're designing a new game, we'll spend months and months prototyping core mechanics."

Another Wonderful Shabbat Dinner

Tonight, the weather was unexpectedly warm and lovely -- as was the company. We had Shabbat dinner with some our friends Wendy and John, who've recently moved to the Coast. Their son, Reed, is getting to be good friends with our boy Gabe. We shared a delicious dinner, and then the kids played happily while we finished a bottle of wine, nibbled on homemade cookies, and had a free-ranging, stimulating discussion about video games, holiday charity, yoga classes, math education, and healthy cooking.

  I grew up with Shabbat dinners - and I love the ritual of baking challah, cooking a warm meal, and having friends over for dinner on Friday night, It's great fun to share these old traditions with new friends.

SSX On Tour: Crack Cocaine to my 6-year-old

I work in the gaming industry - and I'm a big fan of non-violent videogames, especially those involving music and rhythm. Until recently, I allowed my 6-year-old son to use his daily "screentime" (i.e. watching TV or playing games) at his discretion. This worked great for awhile - he often chose to play Donkey Konga, Karaoke Revolution, or I SPY Fantasy over watching TV shows, and on many days he didn't use any screentime at all.

Then Uncle Leo (who works for Electronic Arts) brought Gabe a present: SSX On Tour. After playing for 15 minutes, my sweet young son was hooked - big time. He wanted to play ALL THE TIME. All other games were boring in comparison. For a few days, I let him play after school -- after all, we're teaching him to manage his OWN screentime -- but I noticed that he seemed aggressive and twitchy after playing. So I set limits -- he could only play for 15 minutes, and he had to go outside and run off his energy afterwards.

Then he started having dreams about the game, and wanted to play first thing in the morning, before school. I know the signs of addiction when I see 'em. So I cut him off, cold turkey.  SSX On Tour is now on a high shelf in our kitchen, and we're taking a break from videogames for awhile. Gabe protested for a few days, but now he's  back to his sweet self -- and he's no longer asking me for SSX when he wakes up in the morning.

This episode was a wake-up call for me. SSX is a great game - it's got exciting action, sensitive controls, raucous music,  gorgeous graphics, and powerful advancement incentives for your character.  But the experience of playing is actually TOO compelling and adrenaline-producing for my young son to handle. Even though it's not a shooter (a genre that we don't induge in, around our house) it's not really appropriate for Gabe.  He's  a highly imaginative and impressionable kid - so we  don't take Gabe to see movies like Harry Potter or Star Wars, which many of his classmates have seen.

Every parent needs to decide for themselves what's appropriate for their kids, at what age. I know that some parents think we're the devil incarnate for allowing videogames into our home. Personally, I think that SOME games are absolutely wonderful for our kid - and as Gabe grows and changes, I'm continuing to learn what works and what doesn't. That's life in the gaming biz :-)