Category: TriplePoint News

THE BATTLE FOR THE MARKETING CLOUD–SEE THE HOTTEST MARKETING TECH START-UPS IN SILICON VALLEY TONIGHT

 

This evening, the TriplePoint team will be hanging out at The Battle for the Marketing Cloud, a panel on marketing technology hosted by Mike Maples Jr. (managing partner at FLOODGATE, early investor in Lyft and Twitter, and all around good guy) and featuring our friends at DoubleDutch. The panel will run from 6:00 to 9:30 with plenty of time for networking (and an open bar, to boot), and we invite you to tag along! Continue reading THE BATTLE FOR THE MARKETING CLOUD–SEE THE HOTTEST MARKETING TECH START-UPS IN SILICON VALLEY TONIGHT

The e-Sports e-Splosion: Why Now?

eSports – a term for organized video game competitions around the world – have been gaining popularity since their humble beginnings around the turn of the century. For years, there have been dozens of articles in the most respected of mainstream and enthusiast publications suggesting that eSports are on the verge of exploding into mainstream culture, sharing the type of notoriety and fame typically reserved for pro sports and Hollywood movies. However, that’s yet to truly happen – eSports and their most popular game genre, the MOBA, both remain a relative niche even within the gaming industry, let alone the world at large. But just like the cunning strategies used to succeed in the games themselves, the eSports industry has the potential to execute a come-from-behind win of epic proportions.

The 2013 League of Legends World Championship Finals Trophy
The 2013 League of Legends World Championship Finals Trophy

So here’s the question at hand: eSports… why now? Continue reading The e-Sports e-Splosion: Why Now?

Checkmate, Journalism?

Today, you’re much less likely to read an article about the final season of Breaking Bad and its impact onto television writing than you are to know that Twitter is blowing up about it and therefore it must be worth your time. You’re more likely to know something bad happened in Syria because it trended on Twitter for a few days. Frustratingly, you’ll most surely know the score of the game you’re DVRing before you get home. News still breaks, but we’re not reliant on traditional news sources to get it anymore. Is the traditional model of journalism now officially dead?

Recently, TriplePoint’s Richard Kain led a led a review of, “Did Twitter Kill the Boys on the Bus?,” a paper written by CNN Political Analyst Peter Hamby. Among the paper’s many twists and turns, much attention is paid to illuminating opinions about the effect of social media had on the last presidential election. #Spoiler, when Twitter was for a candidate it was viewed by the campaign as a mostly positive thing. When it was against a candidate it was deemed annoying and immature. Old journalists felt threatened by social media, whereas the young guns embraced it.

Despite my ability to recall life before the Internet, new technology excites me, particularly when it affects journalism. I’ve always been fascinated about how the tools of the trade have evolved and how often technological advancements have forced journalism to react and reevaluate itself in an effort to remain valuable and profitable.

When I studied journalism, social media didn’t exist and websites were just taking root. (Insert get off my lawn statement here.) Working for the daily student newspaper, our professors and editors taught us how to file stories over the phone and how to use light tables to prepare news for print. The mini cassette recorders we carried were the most expensive piece of equipment we had at our disposal, save the the photo teams and their fancy SLR cameras. The pica wheel still terrifies me.

But as the tech has evolved, so has journalism’s boundaries. Journalism used to be a term reserved for professional news organizations that sought out and reported the daily news or covered the developments of a particular industry. It was a field dominated by men who wore hats and were fixated on scoops. Those who practiced journalism came from diverse backgrounds and had equally diverse interests and biases, but shared a common set of standards. These standards governed how news was cultivated, analyzed, and reported.

While most stem from actual news accounts by actual journalists (e.g. Christiane Amanpour), much of what is ‘reported’ through social media channels also comes to us via citizen journalists (e.g. CNN iReport) and (unorganized) regular people who capture life’s moments through the eyes of their smartphones.

The fact that Twitter, which requires users to make their points in less than 140 characters, has altered the way in which we consume information is not a new idea. The Internet, after all, has had a profound effect on the communication of information ever since the first tubes were installed.

After e-mail, bulletin boards, blogs, and social networking, Twitter has emerged and taken control of community-driven communications. After its announcement to IPO last week, which they tweeted of course, the media’s current darling will be subjected to near-constant dissection of its importance, usefulness, and value. Unlike many of its walled-garden predecessors, Twitter’s openness and simplicity appears to have more fully ingrained itself in the mainstream public’s conscious. (The full history of social media is articulated here.)

Sure, Facebook had a nice ride, but its numbers are declining, particularly its younger demographic who no longer think it’s cool. Friendster, MySpace, and Second Life had profound effects on social media and community, but are all but forgotten. Scoff as you might, but leading news agency Reuters opened a bureau office in SL back in 2006. Adam Pasick was the embed – today you can find him on Twitter.  Per Dunbar’s number, many people are actively unfriending people on Facebook. When a social network like Facebook falls victim to grossly overblown communities of ‘friends,’ can it succeed in the long run as a viable information platform? Twitter seems immune from this issue.

With Twitter, consumers are exposed to fragments of new information very quickly. But in much the same way that skimming headlines doesn’t provide any tangible information, Twitter’s brevity means that erroneous information can propagate quickly.

Twitter has thrown jet fuel on the fire of the 24-hour news cycle. By today’s standards, being a leader doesn’t necessarily mean providing the deepest, most unbiased content. It means being first. In a race to keep pace with social media, traditional news outlets have made errors, as David Carr’s piece on the TV new business illustrates. While there are many examples of Twitter getting it wrong, there are also instances where Twitter got it right, including the Boston bombing tragedy where Twitter was the first tool media, first responders, and citizens grabbed hold of to make sense of a horrible situation.

As an aggregator of information, Twitter is awesome. Though a topic of debate, nobody actually reads Twitter. Instead, they skim personal curations for information that interests them and (hopefully) with a simple click are transported to the full context. In this scenario, the second step is critical but highly underused. With so much competition for information consumption, Twitter’s elegant 140-character flag has proven to be a good way to capture attention and fuel the desire to learn more.

Just as person-to-person communications evolved from telegraph to mobile device, so too will social media. The future of journalism will continue to be shaped by advances in new technology. Much buzz is being created by Google Glass, big data analytics, sensors, global Internet use, and the continuing evolution of social networking technology.

All of these developments will have profound effects on the way in which we humans capture information about the world around us and share said information with the world. In the end, however, the craft of journalism may become faster and more personal. It will still have failures and success. It will try new things to make money. But ultimately, the core of what made reporting good — quality analysis and writing — will remain of paramount importance to the craft.

Extra, extra, #readallaboutit

Finally Independent’s Day

Trite but true: video gaming has come a long way since the days of Donkey Kong. No other form of entertainment or industry has ever grown so quickly and in so many iterations. I could continue with another banality about how this is “a particularly interesting time for gaming” – but hasn’t it always been? That there seems to be another innovation just around the corner all the time is one of the most exciting things about working in this industry.

Will indies take over the world?

That said, the landscape for independent developers is changing in this next-gen cycle (or perhaps, the upcoming cycle is illustrating a change that already happened). Indies have been in the spotlight since Sony’s initial PS4 unveil, and it’s clear that “winning self-publishing” is a major goal for both Sony and Microsoft. While Sony has led the race (E3 was an incredible win on almost every front), Microsoft isn’t slouching. Its decision, revealed at Gamescom, to set pricing for self-published games seems a brilliant move to help indies have a real shot at success on Xbox One. Because, after all, who has all the pretty monetization charts we’d all love to get our hands on?

While the support the next generation will offer indies is more robust, and high-profile, than many people expected, it’s not surprising when you examine the market over the past few years. Apple changed the game for us all with the App Store, attracting a huge community of both users and developers – and making tons of money in the process. From constantly tweaking discoverability to providing developers with the tools and resources they need to build products as efficiently as possible, the App Store has made an extraordinarily strong argument for independent self-publishing. That’s not, of course, to discount Steam. Valve’s platform has also been ahead of the curve, with recent updates like Greenlight and the Early Access program providing even more ways to help great developers meet interested gamers.

Of course, Apple, Valve and the others’ efforts towards indies aren’t just proof of the power of a self-published, digitally distributed model. It’s a natural evolution, sure, but the – oh fine let’s just call it this – the “indie revolution” isn’t solely based on increased support from platforms. We have to consider the changing attitudes of both game developers and players. Many genres and franchises have been done to death. If you’ve been a gamer as long as I have (call it 18 years), you’ve killed millions of aliens, terrorists and zombies over and over and over again. At a certain point, a longtime gamer craves a new, more mature experience. At the same time, many developers at AAA studios feel a similar lassitude about creating yet another shooter. Indie games fill a void on both sides – creator and consumer.

Indies come in all shapes and sizes now. Outlast (by Red Barrels) looks like a AAA game…

I’ve been lucky enough to work with a number of indies founded by developers who quit big studios to create the games they’ve always wanted to make. This is one area where the interests of gamers and creators align perfectly, and it’s been amazing to see such substantial interest for Papo & Yo’s unique, personal storytelling, Tiny Brains’s truly social co-op mechanics and Outlast’s full-throttled commitment to scaring the crap out of everyone.

There are fantastic opportunities for indies on the horizon, which is good news for everyone. Developers will find it cheaper to bring games to market, with a better chance at success through built-in promotion and distribution. Gamers can expect veteran AAA devs to leave their jobs to make the projects they’ve dreamed of for years. Alongside the efforts the platforms are making, this means more unique, meaningful games that are easier to find. Platform holders will develop, iterate and improve the digital model through which all content will be ultimately distributed. Microsoft may have put the cart in front of the horse, but it’s clear that the endgame for all entertainment is the consolidation to one, integrated entertainment unit.

…while FTL: Faster Than Light has been very successful with basic graphics

Ok, I’m going to go back on my word and proclaim this “a particularly interesting time” for indies. With all the efforts from the platforms, increasing consumer preference for digital distribution and big, AAA-style independent titles like The Witness and whatever thatgamecompany is working on, the next year may set a new standard for how games are brought to market.

I’ll be sharing more thoughts on the market for indie games, as well as some best PR practices for mobile, PC and console games, at the Boston Festival of Indie Games (BostonFIG) this Saturday.

John O’Leary

@JohnOLeary4

 

The Six Principles of Influence, and How to Use Them: Part 2

Two weeks ago we debuted part one of our Six Principles of Influence, and How to Use Them, and today’s post will focus on the remaining three principles: Reciprocity, Commitment/Consistency, and Liking/Rapport.

4. Reciprocity

Reciprocity, or the Law of Reciprocity as it is known, states that people want to give back to others who have given to them. Like consensus, this dates back to hunter-gatherer times, where the hunters would go out to get food while the other tribe members stayed and watched over the village and tended to other needs. Reciprocity developed here because the village knew that they would be getting meat and food when the hunters returned, which they needed to survive. On the flip side, the hunter who brought the food needed to know that if they returned frail or hurt there would someone in the village to take care of them and nurse them back to health.

Reciprocity started out mainly as a symbiotic relationship and has stayed ingrained in our consciousness and subconsciousness ever since. Reciprocity can be seen at play with holiday cards, a tradition that many people take part in each year. If the Smith family sends you a card, you will feel indebted to them and want to send them a card back, even if you don’t like the Smith Family! With the law of reciprocity in play, we often find ourselves in situations like this with gifts, favors, and help, because people want to give back to those who have given to them. They are compelled to give back in order to remove the feeling of indebtedness they have from the original action or deed. Continue reading The Six Principles of Influence, and How to Use Them: Part 2

Plenty of Fish in the Sea: Gaming, Ego, and Missed Opportunities

For those of you loyal readers who are less games-industry inclined, things got preeeetty exciting at the end of last week. Notable industry sour-puss Phil Fish, the creator of puzzle/platform game Fez, took a special kind of offense to some strong words from Marcus Beer, a journalist and commentator most known for his Annoyed Gamer segment on GameTrailers. Beer was upset that Fish and fellow indie designer Jonathan Blow had refused to comment when approached about Xbox One’s decision to allow for Indie publishing. Mean things were said, a Twitter war started, and at the end of the day Mr. Fish announced his retirement from game development, and the subsequent cancellation of his much anticipated game Fez 2.

It was a strange turn of events. Fish has long been an outspoken member of the gaming community, and has not been afraid of stepping on toes—he once declared that Japanese games, on the whole, “suck.” But despite his polarized opinions and regular flack he received for them, never before had he given an indication that he would quit the industry entirely. Journalists, commentators, and gamers are in a kind of stunned state, some siding with Fish against the very personal attacks leveled against him, others basically telling him to toughen up.

Fez 2 will not remain cancelled. Fish will return to the industry. Many commentators with more experience and understanding than I have already broken down the arguments for and against what happened. My interest in the story is not about the dramatic exit of a recognized industry figure: rather, it’s frustrating and completely predictable that attention would be given to the childish behavior of Beer and Fish, and not the actual topic that started it all.

Beer’s complaint with Fish and Blow was that they did not appreciate the two-way street of journalist-developer relations. Many journalists had worked closely with the two of them to promote their games, but when asked to give a thoughtful comment on this pressing industry issue, both had laughed in journalists’ faces—they very publically (e.g. on Twitter) stated their disdain at games journalists who dared to approach them for their thoughts and belittled the journalist trade on the whole. In short, Beer’s argument was simple: if developers don’t help journalists with commentary on industry issues, journalists should stop helping developers with reviews and coverage of their games.

The relationship between journalists and the people they write about is an interesting conversation topic that extends far beyond the realms of the games industry. The profession of PR is a testament to the complicated nature of journalist and subject, particularly in an industry defined by creativity and personal expression, such as gaming. Positive reviews make or break games: do developers “owe” journalists for positive coverage? If that’s the case, are they entitled to recompense from negative coverage? Is there a responsibility for successful people, people who define industries, to be available to discuss major movements?

Now, we’ll never know. A shining opportunity for a mature, adult discussion about the nature of gaming media and responsibilities of developers has been almost completely destroyed by the fact that some people are far too childish for the real world.  Marcus had a valid point about reciprocity in the gaming industry, but he wrapped it up in name calling and cussing that completely obscured the kernel of rationality. Phil Fish and Jonathan Blow (probably) had a rational reason for refusing the opportunities—specifically, they were being asked to comment on rumors and speculation before the news actually broke—but instead of being rational adults, they tried to turn it all into a rage against the media. Names were called, and one of the industry’s most talented creators has walked away.

On the surface, this is a sad story about a fight that got out of control, and how damaging trolls are in the gaming industry. But on a deeper level, this inability to engage in conversations stops the gaming industry from growing up. It’s remarkable that this conflict occurred, but it’s not surprising. Name calling and yelling louder than the next guy have become an accepted part of gaming culture, even at the highest levels of professionalism, just like rampant sexism and racism are the norm in online gaming communities. This is not the first time a journalist and developer will fight like children in the public eye, and it will not be the last, but this is the first time that the damage these childish spats cause is clear.

Two gaming experts had the chance to have a real conversation to improve the gaming industry, but they were too busy calling each other “tosspots” and f***faces to realize it.

Keeping Promises: How to Have a Successful E3

E3 2013 was arguably the biggest gaming event in the last five years. The dawn of a new generation of consoles brought with it a bevy of games to every publisher’s booth. With big competition for media attention, you need to be seizing every opportunity you can to stand out and get your game the attention it deserves. Here are a few tips I’ve found useful to help make every moment your finest at E3, based on working at the show the last few years and on the successes of working with the indie horror game Outlast this year.

Have faith. Make promises. When you truly believe in the game you’re representing, you exude confidence. When you’re confident, you start making promises — promises you can keep — such as, “Outlast will scare the s*** out of you.” A lofty statement like that will almost always lead to skepticism, and the natural reaction will be for a journalist to find out for themselves if you’re spewing PR rainbows or the de facto truth. Promises, when kept, have a domino effect. After someone has a positive experience with your demo, your claim can be amplified as they discuss their experience with friends and coworkers, driving more traffic and attention to your booth. By the end of the week, some publications had sent their entire staff to experience the Outlast demo!

Come armed with different stories. A good game will shine on its own – but that doesn’t matter unless the right people see it. Help this happen by painting a bigger picture around the game. Come prepared to suggest and discuss larger stories that will amplify the experience. Consider having discussions about the background of the development team, media or pop culture that influenced the developers, interesting research conducted by the team to offer a realistic or factually accurate experience, etc — many attendees have very little insight into the research that goes into creating a game. Sharing these stories offers an interesting perspective about the developer’s creative process. Some examples of stories we helped to tell this year include:

**The fainting actually happened! An attendee fainted while playing Outlast, and after making sure they were okay, we told one person who told another, who told another, until the story began to spread all throughout the show.

Be aware. Capture reactions as they happen… And share them! If you’re not speaking with someone in any given second, there’s probably someone you should be speaking to. During half-seconds, your eyes and ears should be peeled to what’s happening inside and outside of your booth. New opportunities may present themselves that you want your game to be a part of. For example, one of the bigger stories at this year’s E3 was the concentration of high-quality indie games appearing on next-gen consoles. Email editors you see talking about this or use Twitter to make sure your game is a part of the conversation!

What are people saying about your game after they play? How are people reacting? Capture these using tools like Vine for reactions or Tweet out quotes, tagging the appropriate person. Keeping promises is easy when you’re creating content to prove it.


Timely reminders and follow-ups. Did you speak to a journalist about a story idea that piqued their interest while at the show? No matter how interesting it is, words are easily lost in the hustle and bustle of this hectic show every year. Send a follow-up thanking people for coming by and playing if you haven’t already and rekindle the discussion of any story ideas shared during your E3 meeting the week following E3, or sooner, depending on deadlines.

Seven Rules for Fearless Women

By: Bethany Hill and Samantha Qualls

Last week, TriplePoint attended “Find Your Fearless: Women, Ambition & Leadership,” a discussion hosted by PRWeek and communications firm Zeno Group. The event was in response to a recent study commissioned by Zeno Group, which found that only fifteen percent of millennial women would want to be the number one leader of a large or prominent organization. Former Cosmopolitan editor Kate White offered a keynote, and panelists – ranging from the associate editor of Entrepreneur.com to the co-founder of Rent the Runway – shared their thoughts on how women can be fearless in the workplace. Below, we’ve compiled our key takeaways:

Continue reading Seven Rules for Fearless Women

Mobile Gaming USA Panel Recap: Fishing in a Small Pond – Opportunities Abound!

I had the privilege of moderating a panel at this year’s Mobile Gaming USA West, held in San Francisco on May 14-15. The event drew some of the top minds in mobile game development, publishing and services, all sharing their thoughts on the current state of the industry, and offering advice on the immediate challenges we all face.

I usually hone in on topics of marketing and public relations, but this panel was different, titled “Fishing in a Smaller Pond: Evaluating the mobile gaming market outside iOS and Android devices”.

While every discussion and panel preceding mine focused on iOS and Android (obviously, given its majority rule over the other mobile operating systems), my panel consisted of experts finding success on other mobile platforms.

The goal was to plant seeds of interest in an audience with little knowledge of and motivation for serving these alternate audiences, discussing the immediate opportunities, monetization, challenges and best practices.

The panel consisted of:

  • Abhinav Gupta, CEO, Game Scorpion
  • Charles Huang, CEO, Green Throttle Games
  • Chris Mahoney, Director of Emerging Platforms, PlayStation
  • Kenny Rosenblatt, CEO, Arkadium

Kicking off, we took a quick audience poll. Of the approximately 100 people in the room:

  • 90% working on iOS
  • 80% working on Android
  • 5% working on Windows Mobile*
  • 5% working on BlackBerry*

*It’s worth noting a clear overlap of those working on Windows Mobile and BlackBerry.

Next up was an opportunity to frame the discussion with a few interesting data points, food for thought as we discussed the various platforms:

  • There are 6B active cellphones worldwide.
  • Smartphones recently overtook feature phone shipments for the first time ever this year. That’s 418M units shipped in Q1 2013, 216M of which are smartphones, and that shift is accelerating.
  • Of smartphones, iOS and Android combined make up 91% (4Q 2012) of total market share worldwide.
  • Windows rose to 2.6%, BlackBerry fell to 3.2%.
  • What’s interesting is that the BlackBerry Q10 was the fastest-selling consumer electronics product ever in the UK (source: Guardian); is this a sign that hard keyboards will live on, and a potential niche for BlackBerry to successfully service?

Digging into the discussion, there were a few key takeaways:

Don’t take anything outside of iOS or Android for granted – money talks

While we’re all focused on chasing the popular thing that’s getting all the press/peer attention, we should take a step back and look to where opportunities might be ripest. Microsoft and RIM are spending millions to attract great content to a marketplace with a healthy install base and lacking attention from massive content players with big marketing budgets (your competitors). Additionally, console manufacturers such as Sony have shifted with the market to reduce barriers to entry, allowing mobile game developers to easily expand to audiences that are already conditioned to liberally spend dollars on a good game. And those of us living in a tech bubble with our shiny new gadgets, constantly looking 10 years into the future, could perhaps look around the world and see that a billion new feature phones will ship this year, generating millions for companies who are actively participating (e.g. Gameloft, vserv.mobi, etc.).

Windows: the agnostic OS

Rosenblatt’s emphasized the emerging importance of Windows, one that will rise to significance over the next several years. Central to this is Microsoft’s efforts for a harmonious OS centralized with Windows 8, not only providing consumers with a familiar experience across all devices, but a platform that developers can easily harness and through which their software/apps can deployed. It’s the only OS on the market with such capabilities and, thus, shouldn’t be ignored, particularly at a time when Microsoft’s deep pockets and massive audience size can provide significant support for great content.

These channels offer prime shelf space

Granted, you’ll need to start with a good game, but the relatively little activity on these alternative platforms means more opportunities for developing a relationship with the channel owners and receiving positive treatment in the form of feature placements. While every developer in the world is knocking on Apple and Google’s door for a feature spot on their respective marketplaces, bringing your great game to these other channels may resonate for preferential treatment.

Develop your content for the audience specific to the platform and/or channel

Sounds obvious, but when was the last time you considered developing for the Nook, or enhancing engagement by allowing mobile games to be played both on the road and on the big-screen TV? When you’re in the early stages of developing a game concept, you should be thinking about the audience it serves and where those audiences consume.

Gupta’s company has seen great success for children’s apps on the Nook and Kindle Fire, which both have audiences mostly comprised of 24+ professionals with children, who are also privy to spending money on an app that might serve an educational purpose for their kids (and of course, keep the kids busy in times of need).

Huang’s company is focusing on the convergence of mobile and TV, following the mantra of harnessing the console that you already own – an Android device in your pocket. Developers can increase engagement and monetization for an existing game by allowing playability in a social environment on the big screen in the living room.

Both Huang and Gupta agree that niche audiences are emerging within the Android ecosystem, which may be viewed simply as the continued fragmentation of the OS, but can be leveraged in a smart way to channel specific efforts into highly targeted audiences.

Also, clearly, Mahoney’s company harnesses the power of the PlayStation brand, creating an entire ecosystem of gaming products that will not only serve core gamers with deep, high-quality game experiences, but also accommodate the great content that the indies and mobile studios are generating in reaching the expanded mainstream audience.

In closing, we all agreed that there are big opportunities out there beyond just iOS and Android, most notably on PlayStation’s expanding line of hardware and distribution, Windows 8’s agnostic platform, BlackBerry’s fight to attract content to its existing base of core customers, and niche channels emerging within Android. I would’ve loved to look at the feature phone business, which globally ships 1m devices annually and has come a long way in terms of device capabilities for games (even with its own app stores!), but we’ll save that for another time. For now, focusing on starting/growing a sustainable business that can continue to feed the development of great games should be everyone’s priority, and these alternative options to iOS and Android just might be the perfect launchpad to future success.

New Marketing for the Socially Digital Age – TiE CON East 2013

Can a room full of experienced VC’s learn some new tricks about digital marketing, from the perspective of video game PR? That was my hope today as I represented TriplePoint during the 7th annual TiE CON in Boston.

It’s a conference that brings together both established and startup entrepreneurs in Technology, Life Sciences, Education, and Cleantech. I lead a boot camp with help from two other marketers, on the topic of New Marketing for the Socially Digital Age. The panel touched upon everything from Facebook and YouTube to email blasts, lead-generation, and timing for advertising campaigns.

Continue reading New Marketing for the Socially Digital Age – TiE CON East 2013

Who is Your Email Wearing? A Guide to Fashionable Pitching.

If there is one thing I’ve learned from a former convicted felon, Neal Caffrey (on White Collar), it’s that you need to dress the part.

Neal is such a charming guy not just because of his smooth moves or his way with words – it’s the way he presents himself. I’m like Neal. I walk into the office almost every day with a tie and blazer. I consider myself a professional, and to play that role I want to look the part. The beauty of working in a metropolitan office (and not remotely in my PJ’s) is getting facetime with my colleagues, clients and journalists. Impromptu meetings and post-work meetups are pretty common, and with the right duds, can be a welcome surprise.

For me, presentation is key to a proper first impression, and in this day and age of PR, the right outfit is just as crucial as a solid email pitch.

The Subject Line: Stylish Outerwear Makes a Good First Impression

For starters, the subject line of your email matters just as much as the right outerwear. It’s the first thing a person notices, and you can’t really avoid someone making a snap judgment. Like a good subject, a well-fitted jacket or blazer will intrigue people. Of course, don’t over-do it; lead with something attractive, without screaming for attention, to pique their curiosity.

The Body: Everyone Appreciates a Hot “Bod”

It’s time to show off the main portion of your outfit, or in the case of an email, the content of your pitch. Similar to a purple striped shirt and dark jeans, or a maroon v-neck with checkered grey slacks, the core of your outfit should show you put in the effort, an indication you “took the time to care.” The right combination can do wonders, just like the newsy hook that will have a reporter curious to learn more.

The Details: Accessories Add Personality

Go further by accessorizing and personalizing your main attire. A perfectly knotted tie can bring your shirt to a whole new level; a pocket square for your blazer can make you feel classy. Accessories compliment an outfit and add a splash of detail (and confidence). In a pitch, that detail could be some facts to support your claim. However, don’t go on mixing and matching with just any accessory; too much fluff will make your outfit or pitch feel unnatural and forced.

The Call to Action: Wrap It Up With A Nice Pair Of Shoes

Last but not least, shoes. A good pair of shoes can bring your look to another level. If you haven’t acquired a nice pair of monk straps, wingtips, or leather boots, there’s no time like the present! In the wardrobe of your email, shoes are a call to action that gives a reporter a reason to take interest in your story. Find the right pair, and you might just strike gold.

Getting the right pieces can be tough, and assembling them properly is an even bigger challenge. Remember, it’s all about experimentation. I didn’t become a head-turning fashion guru overnight! (Kidding, kidding) But honestly, the same goes for assembling a persuasive email. As you come to understand each element of writing a pitch, you’ll see better results. Keep practicing – eventually you’ll find a sweet spot and build up your own personal style, a voice that’s uniquely “you.”

Photos from SuitSupply and VINSPI 

Goodbye, LucasArts, and Thank You

This is my Corley Motors keychain. Corley Motors is a fictional motorcycle manufacturer that the player, as gang leader Ben, must save from a hostile takeover in the classic LucasArts adventure Full Throttle. 

Together with Grim Fandango and his work on the Monkey Island series and Day of the Tentacle (all also LucasArts games), Full Throttle is one of the original games that established Tim Schafer as the luminary designer he is today. It was a game with a mature story, where “mature” didn’t simply mean “guns and nudity.” It was a game whose cutting-edge CD-ROM media allowed it to have a fantastic soundtrack and amazing voice acting, including an unforgettable performance by Mark Hamill as villain Adrian Ripburger. It had clever puzzles, fantastic writing and dialogue, and an ending that dared to be bittersweet instead of gushingly triumphant. I must have played through it half a dozen times.

The cord on this keychain is frayed, held together by just a few remaining stubborn strands, ravaged by time and constant use. I have had this keychain with me for 18 years.

In 1995, thanks to good fortune and geographical convenience, I got to take a field trip with 12 of my high school friends to LucasArts, then located north of San Rafael across the bay from its current San Francisco offices. I still remember walking in and seeing the massive picture of Full Throttle’s Ben behind the front desk (Full Throttle having been the company’s most recent major release), and gaping in wonder at the broad array of Lucas paraphernalia and gear on display around every corner. On one wall, backdrops and concept art from Sam & Max cartoonist Steve Purcell. In the corner, a full-sized X-wing cockpit set in front of a green-screen, used to film the cutscenes for Rebel Assault II.

I’d been a gamer all my life, but this was my first visit to the inside of a game studio, and I was awestruck. I was too young and unfamiliar with the industry to appreciate who I was meeting and what I was seeing, but I knew the culture there was something I wanted to be a part of. On the way out, each member of the tour was given a Corley Motors keychain as a souvenir. In hindsight, I think I can pinpoint that tour as the day I started giving serious, non-daydreaming thought to working with games, one way or another.

Four months ago, Tim Schafer was the host of Ümloud in San Francisco, where I joined a group on stage to play Rock Band for charity. As the party was winding down, several fans had the chance to share a brief chat with Schafer and have their picture taken with the now-legendary game creator. When my turn came, I produced my tattered keychain, at my side where it’s always been, and briefly thanked him for being an inspiration so long ago. Tim’s eyes lit up in surprise when he saw the trinket. “Where did you get this? They only ever made a handful — even I only got a couple of them.” I explained its origin, and its significance to me — and Tim took my picture with it.

Today, Disney — the new owners of LucasArts after Lucas’ own sale of his properties — announced they were shutting down LucasArts completely. The licenses will still be out there, and there may be new games under the Lucas label, but the studio is gone for good. There will no longer be a place where people come and work on creative new ideas, in a sea of Star Wars art and classic gaming souvenirs and call themselves LucasArts.

I am sure, as is true of the studio’s original stars like Schafer, Gilbert, Grossman, and others, that all of the people losing their jobs today will find new chances to create, and go on to build magnificent things that will stand the test of time. To all of them, though, to anyone who ever worked for LucasArts — thank you, from all of us who ever wished we could do the same. I’ll carry this piece of your legacy in my pocket and in my memory.

Cross-posted to Frisky Mongoose, TriplePoint’s blog on social, local, mobile, and gaming news.

TPNY: Staying Connected Through Hurricane Sandy

In the tech and digital entertainment industries, late October and early November traditionally mark a particularly busy time, with product launches left and right, and a major scramble to finalize plans and promotions in advance of the looming holiday season. This year, busy East Coasters were slammed with an additional challenge – Hurricane Sandy, dubbed “Frankenstorm” for its agglomeration of several storms and pre-Halloween timing.

With major media coverage of the hurricane’s effects across the country, and especially New York City, it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that TriplePoint NYC, with our Silicon Alley-located office (27 West 24th St) struggled to stay connected through the blackouts and other travails caused by the unexpectedly severe storm.

But the city that never sleeps earned that moniker through the dedication of its workers, and the thousands of downtown New Yorkers affected generally found ways to stay connected. Today, with fingers crossed that we won’t have to go through this again, we’d like to share a few of our own stories on Sandy and the blackout week after the storm.

Joe Ziemer, Account Director

“Surviving in Style”

Like my other colleagues living beneath 34th St., I was without power, Internet and cell service throughout Sandy and the week after. However, I wasn’t about to let that stop me from enjoying warm showers and warm meals. That meant long, but worthwhile, morning walks up to midtown to reach powered branches of the Health & Racquet Club and Smith & Wollensky, both of which featured Wi-Fi connections. Figuring that if I could only have one hot meal a day it better be a good one, I’d eat a steak and take a few conference calls before heading over to the gym’s locker room to grab a shower. I wasn’t the only New Yorker “working from bathrobe” that week, and met a number of other execs who were staying connected at the gym – it made for some interesting conversations, and great opportunities to blow off some steam with industry folks on the basketball court.

Samantha Qualls, Account Executive

“Panera Hopping”

I live on the fourth floor of an East Village walkup, avenues away from any water. While my building wasn’t damaged at all, like the rest of Downtown, we lost power Monday evening. With no timeframe for when the lights (and heat AND INTERNET) would be back, a close friend offered me her couch for as long as I needed – so I made my way up to Queens (getting there is a story in itself!). In comparison to Manhattan, Queens was warm, dry and bright. The restaurants were open and grocery stores stocked. The only problem was that my friend’s cable and Internet had been knocked out in the storm.

With client work on deadline and some essential international calls that needed to happen, I had to stay connected. So every morning in Queens I sought Wi-Fi (and LOTS of coffee) at a local Panera. Panera unfortunately limits Internet time (unlimited before 11, only half an hour between 11am 2pm, and unlimited again till 5pm), but, with many displaced workers all stuffed into the same shop, it wasn’t too hard to talk my way into sharing a rare hotspot.

It was amazing to see everyone band together – I will never understand the stereotype of the angry New Yorker because I only saw helping hands deliver warm food, volunteer groups cleaning up destruction and patrons flocking downtown to help bring needed money to business that were forced to close for days.

Zach Fuller, Account Executive

“Crammed Co-working”

Living in midtown there was no real sense of crisis prior to the storm – for example, even at the peak of the bad weather, my roommates and I made an ill-advised trip outside to watch the floodwaters rise over the East Side Highway, hanging on to the fence at the top of a retaining wall while 80 mph gusts threatened to send us tumbling backwards. We sat around with pizza, beer and power, watching football like it was any other Sunday night. It was only the next day that Sandy’s toll came into better focus.

My friends that live downtown frequently chide me for living in a place as “un-hip” as midtown, but such banter was unsurprisingly absent as Monday morning dawned and the first of them came knocking at the door looking for a warm shower and the exceedingly rare powered outlet. As the week progressed and power below midtown remained an exotic commodity, the population of our little apartment swelled from its usual three to six at night, and even more throughout the day.

Each morning the sleeping bags and air mattresses were put away for the day, replaced by a tangled web of power strips stretched in every direction as our living room transformed into an impromptu little co-working space. It was crowded and not terribly comfortable, but in between bemoaning the lack of dual monitor productivity, terse calls with IT as VPN servers crashed and chuckling as Chris Christie rescheduled Halloween, we all grew a little closer. While it’s a bit sad that it takes a disaster to remind us to slow down and appreciate the incredible people in our lives, I think we made the best of it.

Stephanie Palermo, Account Executive

“Library Living”

The Eye of the Beast had its sights set on every single part of New York – and living in a coastal town in Long Island, we were hit hard.  I had to be resourceful to keep up with the rest of my team and clients. With no power, I set out each day traveling a several-mile radius hunting for any open business, questing for the coveted Holy WiFi. Store entrances were sandbagged and some still have not reopened as I write this.

Spotty, intermittent cell phone service allowed me to send several updates and information about my projects to a teammate who had power and was covering my responsibilities until I could get settled. But to do even that I needed a powered cell phone and that meant charging at any outlet I could get to – at the police station and even my local favorite fried chicken joint.

Finally a week later, the cup runneth over with WiFi when the library was up and running and offering residents to charge all electronics and use their WiFi. I didn’t have access to my desktop computer, so I purchased a new, emergency laptop, headed to the library, and was back in business.  Commiserating with fellow neighbors at the library was certainly a highlight, as people also working hard there to catch up with work gathered ’round, chatted and were all more than willing to offer a helping hand (after business hours, of course!) by providing things for each other such as food, clothes or clean-up help to those that needed it.

TriplePoint Long Island stands strong!

Sam Dalsimer, Account Director

“Over-prepared”

While many of us lost power or more in the storm, a few of us remained largely unaffected aside from the need to work from home while the office’s power was down. My neighborhood (East Harlem) sustained little damage, although the gas station near me continues to have long lines and a constant police presence sitting outside as gas rationing continues. I stocked up on canned goods, bought new flashlights, filled every pot in the house with fresh water just in case, but never needed any of it.

Those of us whose power and internet remained online hosted friends who were evacuated and helped ensure that other colleagues were able to get updates out to press and clients alike.

At the end of the storm we were left feeling somewhat guilty to be so fortunate while so many others in our city were in the dark or worse. It was a huge help to have a few of us operating from powered home bases to keep connected with our NY coworkers, West coast office, and clients around the world.

 

Imitation, Hoaxes, and Halo

It’s said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. We don’t feel especially flattered, in this instance, though – you may have seen a hoax circulating recently, suggesting TriplePoint is a part of the Halo 4 review campaign, and making unprofessional demands of journalists.

We don’t represent Halo, nor do we represent Microsoft, and nobody named “Terry Graves” has ever worked at TriplePoint, either now or at any time in the past. The image of the letter, allegedly sent from our offices, demanding that reporters award Halo 4 a certain score, is a fabrication. It’s not even a very good one – reporters can only reach us between 9-5? C’mon.

Kudos and thanks to all of our friends in the industry who immediately spotted this hoax for what it was, and for having our backs. We’re looking forward to playing Halo 4 along with everyone else.

Surviving E3 2012

Whether or not E3 is still the games industry’s foremost gathering, or whether that honor has been usurped by shows like GDC or PAX, one thing about E3 remains true every year: It’s nuts. Whether you’re an exhibitor or a reporter, you can expect to run yourself ragged, staying on your feet for hours on end, scrambling to meet your various appointments while trying to wedge in just one more meeting in between the big presentations. Then, you’ll try to see just how much socializing you can do while trying to finish the rest of your workload that evening — assuming the Wi-Fi works in your hotel room — and convince yourself that 4 hours of sleep will be enough to let you get up and do it all again the next day.

This pattern of self-inflicted abuse is true for most conventions and expos, of course, but the brutal traffic of Los Angeles and the mainstream appeal of the biggest names in gaming makes E3 especially trying for even the most seasoned attendee. Thankfully, your friends at TriplePoint are here with another helpful set of tips and reminders to help ease the pain of next week’s quagmire. Continue reading Surviving E3 2012