When it comes to turnover, game companies tend to look extremely good or extremely bad — there’s not much middle ground. This speaks to both the passionate nature of game developers, and the merciless development schedules (and/or questionable employment practices) of some companies. So, for those struggling with high turnover, I thought I’d write a little story. What’s it cost you when an unhappy employee (who could have been happy with better compensation, hours, and/or working environment) leaves your company?

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Henry Jenkins, co-director and founder of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program (which I work for), has begun writing a blog. If you haven’t already visited, you should. Henry’s an amazing thinker and writer, and I’ve learned a lot from him.

PS. Henry writes about everything: games, movies, TV, comics, social media… the works.

PPS. His blog was launched in anticipation of his new book, Convergence Culture, which you should also check out.

Bing Gordon is the Chief Creative Officer of Electronic Arts, as well as a member of the faculty for USC’s Interactive Media Division. He’s also one of the smartest guys around (not to mention famously outspoken), which is why I wanted to email-interview him for my blog. Here’s what came of it:

Controversy over the rising number of game design programs in the US has heated up. Some people claim that academics can’t (or won’t) teach useful skills to aspiring designers. Some claim that, beyond technical training, only commercial project experience is truly useful. How do you feel about this, and what do you think academic institutions should be focusing on?

From first-hand experience, I can say that the best university programs are graduating the best entry-level game-makers. Period. The advantage students have is that they can work on many smaller projects, with teachers as advisers, and they can polish their team and cross-functional skills.

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…or more specifically, London and Greece. Either way, it’s vacation time.  :)

Itinerary: just a few days in London to see friends and dash madly from POI to POI. Then, a flight to Athens, followed by immediate escape to the islands, where we (Eve and I) intend to do a lot of walking, biking, swimming, eating, drinking, etc. Then, back to Athens to attend the wedding of our good friends Kimon and Milena. Then, two more days of aimless wandering in Athens before we return home. Two weeks in all, more or less.

Needless to say, blog activity will decrease while I’m away. However, since I’m a complete addict, it won’t cease entirely. I’ve future-dated some posts to keep things lively.  :)  If I get around to it, I’ll check in with a photo or two.

PS. Due to technical issues, my blog’s mailer will not send out future-dated posts. Apologies to all email subscribers.

• EA is acquiring Mythic Entertainment, a game company dedicated to MMOs and known for Dark Age of Camelot and the upcoming Warhammer Online.
• The 2006 MI6 Consumer Study reveals that only 2% of buyers cared about the developer or publisher when researching whether to purchase a game.
• Comic interlude: Politics, Will Wright, and potty humor… a winning combination.  ;)

This article was originally published by Next Generation.

One of the things we’ve been thinking about (as part of C3 at MIT) is how to turn media properties into lifestyle brands. This is a particularly hot topic in the realm of magazines and television. What I want to know is: what does it take for a game developer or publisher to create a lifestyle brand? And should they even try?

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• USC has developed a tool that they claim can effectively, automatically identify flaws in game design by analyzing player experiences.
• Microsoft’s Peter Moore hints at a simplified controller or control scheme for the Xbox (someday, somehow… we don’t know.) So much for teasing Sony about its “me too” motion-sensitive controller.  ;)
• The 2006 MI6 Consumer Study reveals that 26% of game buyers didn’t notice marketing for their most recently bought game. Unfortunately, we don’t know what portion of that 26% was subliminally affected by marketing (even if they lacked conscious recall), which makes it hard to use this information.
• THQ CEO Brian Farrell revealed his thinking on the current potential of the MMOG market by saying that World of Warcraft cannot be competed with as of now. That’s effectively the same thing as saying “most people who might play MMOGs are playing MMOGs — specifically WoW.”
• Meanwhile, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick says “The idea of full downloadable games is so far in the future that it’s almost incomprehensible as an opportunity.” I disagree. (Though, to be fair, we’re probably defining “opportunity” rather differently.)

I love the fact that thanks to organizations like Valve, Maxis, and Bioware, user-generated content is attracting tremendous attention from industry and media alike. Still, coverage typically revolves around a single point of interest, i.e. “UGC makes games more interesting” or “UGC can help drive sales.” So I thought I’d compile a (by no means exhaustive) list of the good business-y things about UGC in the context of games:

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OK, apparently the spam shield that I installed was having some issues. It has been updated. If you’ve tried to leave a comment in the past and quit in frustration, please try again. And don’t hesitate to email me if it still doesn’t work (I’ve tested it, but then, I tested the older version too.) That’s: david. at. edery. dot. org.

If it keeps causing trouble, I’ll simply waive the white flag and suffer the spam. Until I find another solution (curse of being a geek… I simply cannot resist new WordPress plugins!)

PS. On a barely-related note: I’ve been told that good things might happen if people add this blog as a “favorite” in Technorati. OK, I’ll bite. If you’re a regular reader of my blog, as well as user of technorati, please consider adding me. If you’re registered it takes seconds. If you’re not registered, it takes a few more seconds.  ;)

• Educational games at the forefront this week:
• Whyville (dubbed a “MUVE”, or “multiplayer virtual environment“) has 1.6M members and offers instruction in multiple subjects, including pathology (i.e. players can catch a virus from other players, which they then must learn to cure.) Unclear how many members are actually active users.
• Sonica Spanish is being used in the UK to teach Spanish to primary school kids; it includes 240 activities, such as dance and karaoke games, matching games, memory games, and target shooting.
• Google Earth is being enhanced with higher res graphics, which has more people than ever buzzing about its video game-related potential.
• The DS Lite is expected to sell 500K units in its first ten days on the market.
• Another excellent Lost Garden article; this time on the subject of reducing development costs and avoiding the uncanny valley by focusing on evocative images, rather than across-the-board realism. Just one of many good quotes: What is more erotic? The half glimpsed form in the flickering firelight or the full on frontal nudity of a Playboy / Playgirl photo shoot? …for most casual situations, the former is quite effective.