This weekend over at Frisky Mongoose, I rambled off a lengthy list of reasons why people play social games, and I think its fair to say that Facebook game developers are doing a lot of things right. Now can they change their click-only interfaces to feed players who are hungry for more? People will click …
I think it’s a bit harsh to say that social gamers are “weird”, as Newsweek recently put it… But you have to dig a little deeper than face(book) value to understand the attraction of playing casual games with actual friends on the (social) web. In the end, it all boils down to the fact that …
Now that Facebook apps can no longer send notifications to users, social game developers are implementing new methods of keeping in touch with their players. Here’s an overview of recent game updates from a few top social titles, as reported on FriskyMongoose.com. First, in case you’ve been under a rock, the background: Facebook notifications will …
Got a small business, blog, group, class or cause? Appanda has an app for that… I recently had a chance to sit down with Chris Przybyszewski, CEO of RESOLUTE, the Memphis-based iPhone developers behind a variety of original and for-hire games and apps. RESOLUTE’s latest release, Appanda is making it easier than ever for small …
LEGO Universe made its public debut at CES – the Consumer Electronics Show – earlier this month (January 7-10, 2010). Attendees, including press of course, were able to get their hands on the game for the very first time, and the first game trailer was released in conjunction with the show. Attendees were also the …
Zynga announced today they are launching another Sweet Seeds for Haiti campaign in FarmVille, the enormously popular Facebook farming game, and some other Zynga favorites like Mafia Wars and Zynga Poker.
Last month I wrote about an impending Facebook “revolution” – ranting about the proliferation of social game notifications and requests. I talked about the need for change within Facebook’s growing games arena. I gave my recommendations. And… All the while, Facebook was busy readying a solution of its own – ironically similar to the plan …
“This is a disruptive, challenging time in our industry, but there are opportunities for better collaborative innovation if we challenge the status quo…” – Malcom Gladwell The web is changing. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter have become our new information and communication hubs. In the beginning , one of the biggest appeals of social …
It’s official. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 have now both received the biggest friend request in social gaming history – from THE friend of friends, Facebook. The Facebook Blog shares a wealth of details it’s new 360 availability, and in a PS3 firmware v3.10 preview post on Tuesday, the PlayStation Blog officially stated …
Behind-the-scenes look and early press reactions to the first preview press demos for LEGO Universe at the TriplePoint offices in San Francisco. Journalists were invited to check out the game, snag some new screenshots, talk with the development team, and get answers to all their LEGO MMO questions.
Resident PC gaming guru at Examiner.com, Bryan Edge-Salois took a pair of Gunnar’s digital performance eyewear for a month-long test drive. The gaming glasses marathon began just after Bryan discovered Gunnar Optiks at PAX, and concluded this weekend with a full product review. The self-proclaimed “glasses snob” was impressed on all accounts – the Gunnars …
The iTunes App Store is a booming marketplace, full of opportunity for independent developers. At an Apple press conference earlier this month, Steve Jobs said that over 30 million iPhones and 20 million iPod Touch devices have been sold to date. There are over 100 million customers on iTunes, and they’ve been busy – downloading …
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of presenting at the monthly Social Media Expedition Memphis breakfast meetup. It was a great chance to take a look at “social gaming” from a different perspective, as many attendees knew little about the video games industry, but they were all social media enthusiasts. The result? An exploration of the …
Some of digital media’s brightest and most passionate branding minds were at Emerge Memphis yesterday for an event from LaunchMemphis and Southern Growth Studios, “Masters of the New Modes: Insights and Innovations from the Blending Worlds of Tech, Marketing and Culture.” Adrian Ho and C.C. Chapman, two leaders in innovation, interactive marketing and user experience …
More and more parts of our lives are becoming tangled in the Social Web – Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Digg are buzzwords everywhere you turn, and everyone *could be* paying attention to your social doings these days… But are they? In any case the fact is, social media is creating a new organizational framework …