I’ve been writing this blog for about three years now. It has been an immensely rewarding experience that has forced me to carefully think through — and rethink — a variety of my assumptions. When I’ve been too hasty or too lazy to have an informed opinion, but have nevertheless opened my big mouth, you’ve been sure to call me out. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me, and thank you for keeping me humble. :-)

Still, I have one complaint. There appear to be about a thousand people (if my traffic reports are to be believed) who read this blog regularly but who never post comments. And that’s totally fine, of course — I’m gratified that you even think this blog is worth reading! But still, I’m curious. Who are you, oh mystery reader? What do you do for a living? What makes you stick around here?

If you don’t want to post a comment publicly, just drop me a note via my contact form. I’d love to hear from you. :-)

Of course, it isn’t fair to ask these questions and not volunteer a bit of personal information about myself. I’ve generally refrained from doing personal posts, mainly because I’ve always assumed that nobody would be interested in that stuff. But, as I’ve become a more avid reader of other blogs, I’ve realized that I really appreciate knowing something about the person whose blog I’m reading. It gives me useful perspective on what they post and why. And if I appreciate it, maybe you will too?

So here’s some random stuff about me. In the future, it will be less random.

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While at the GameOn Finance event in Toronto, I found myself in an interesting conversation about ways to maximize the revenue generated by MMOGs. I found it difficult to fully express my thinking on the matter at the time, so during my flight home I wrote this post. Consider it a sneak previous into my upcoming IGDA Leadership Forum lecture on MBA Lessons applied to the game industry. :-)

One of the concepts I learned in business school was the “two-part tariff,” which is best explained through a simple example that we’re all familiar with: a nightclub. Most nightclubs generate the majority of their revenue from the sale of liquor. Why then do some of them also choose to charge a cover fee? Doesn’t that turn away potential customers? Well, part of the reason is simply to “keep out the riffraff,” but bouncers at the door can (and generally do) already reject anyone who looks like they won’t be a valued customer. Part of the reason is to project an aura of quality and/or exclusivity, but again, a velvet rope and an obstinate bouncer can already accomplish that as well.

Two kinds of customers

The third major reason for a cover charge at a nightclub is revenue maximization, pure and simple. Here’s the underlying rationale: nightclubs basically have two kinds of customers. One kind buys a lot of drinks (the especially valued customer buy a lot of the most expensive drinks.) The other kind buys one drink and nurses it all night, or even — heaven forbid — just a glass of water. Both kinds of customers are attracted to the nightclub because it offers music, attractive people to dance with, etc. Both kinds of customers clearly value the experience. But only one kind of customer will be profitable for the nightclub. Sound familiar?

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If you’ve ever been curious about the Xbox and G4W certification process (what it entails and why it matters), the XNA team has published a detailed article on the subject via Gamasutra.

Interesting article that explores the flaws inherent to annual performance reviews, and proposes an alternative way of giving feedback to employees.

Sandy Pentland, one of the MIT Media Lab’s most well-known professors, was recently interviewed on the subject of nonverbal communication (and what it means for businesses.) Fascinating stuff.

In the “didn’t see that one coming” category, PC game distributor and developer Reflexive Entertainment was recently acquired by Amazon.com. Reflexive is the developer of the XBLA game Wik & The Fable Of Souls, among others. It’s unclear to me how, of all the online game distributors, Reflexive managed to woo Amazon, but my very serious props to them!

Wagner brings our attention to a notable debate: people who make a living selling virtual goods within Second Life are complaining about the great many freebie items that are depressing all item values and hurting their profitability. But really, this shouldn’t be surprising. In a free-for-all market with no barriers to entry, the price of most goods will quickly be competed down to their variable cost of production… and the variable cost of a virtual item is zero. Inevitably, only those goods associated with strong IP (and/or having extremely high development budgets, which set them apart from other goods) prove saleable. Sound familiar? It should, because it applies to many video game ecosystems.

Gamasutra has posted an article about missing gamers, aka those 25 to 35 year olds who used to play video games but no longer do. Most of the article won’t surprise you, but I appreciated this one bit: When we introduced one group to Xbox Live and its community features (with something of a twinkle in our eye) we were surprised at the lack of enthusiasm. “How do I update my status, though? And how about adding pictures and links?” The bottom line here seems to be that most games platforms have a “come join our community” ethic, but members of this group of would-be gamers already have well-established, functioning networks of their own. They respond much better to services that enhance and amend these existing groups, both online and in real life. When they discover that games can “come to their community” they are much more willing to invest some time and money.

It wasn’t supposed to happen for another couple weeks, but somehow my book appeared “in stock” on Amazon.com today! That means that by the end of October, it should begin appearing on store shelves.  :-)

It’s been about a year and a half since I first started working on Changing the Game with Ethan, and about two years since I first started discussing the project with Pearson, my publisher. At first, like most writers, I procrastinated and only put in a few hours per week, at best. But for a window of about six months, from December 2007 until May 2008, I spent nearly every single night and every single weekend researching, writing, and editing non-stop. It’s fair to say that Ethan and I were completely sick of working on the book by May. Whereas in the past, we might have spent an entire afternoon arguing about a paragraph or idea, by the last month one or both of us would capitulate in about three seconds.  :-)  Thinking back on those days brings to mind some advice I’d like to share with new non-fiction authors. In particular:

• Don’t wait long to engage your editor and your trusted friends. Ethan and I wrote about half the book before we started soliciting meaningful feedback from a wide audience. Some of the feedback we received caused us to substantially revise what we had already written, but because we had written so much, we were more resistant than we should have been to the advice.
• Don’t stress too much about the first chapter in the beginning. You’re probably going to end up re-writing most of it later on.
• Don’t let yourself get sucked into a research black hole; it can happen so easily. My research into the world of advertising kept turning up interesting new ideas and contradictions. I ended up getting a little obsessed and probably wasted a few weeks reading obscure research papers that would never find their way into the book. The same thing happened when I was researching the concept of flow.

Anyway, I also want to take this opportunity to thank those of you who pre-ordered copies of the book. I’d imagine that you’ll be receiving them very soon. When you do, I’d really love to hear what you think! Just because the book is finished doesn’t mean that I can’t benefit from and respond to constructive criticism… that’s partially what the book’s blog is for!

PS. The thumbnail on the right leads to a larger version of the cover image (not the Amazon.com book page), in case you’re curious to see it.

Seth Godin posts his Nine steps to Powerpoint magic. A worthwhile read if you’re like me and can’t help but pack tons of text into your presentations…

Changing the Game appeared in the Financial Times (print and online). And speaking of the book, Ethan and I finally got around to creating a website for it: ChangingTheGameBook.com. It still needs work, but I’d be curious to hear what you all think of the current incarnation. We’re trying to make it more useful than the typical book brochureware, so we’ve added a bunch of reference material and, of course, a blog.

Nintendo is finally, FINALLY making another Punch-Out. I’ve been saying for ages what an absolute no-brainer another Punch-Out would be, sales-wise! Unfortunately, from the sound of things, Nintendo’s new game may be a remake with little (if any) original content; I’ve been really hoping for a true sequel. But that’s OK — a remake still jumps to the top of my Wii wish list. :-)

Interesting article in the New York Times on how the F.A.A uses video games to not only train air traffic controllers (no surprise), but also to screen candidates. Most notably, the games used for screening are not the training games — they are “game-like tests, designed by psychologists. In one, a bit like Tetris or Frogger, three parallel belts, running at different speeds, drop colored letters toward the bottom of the screen. The test-taker must try to grab each letter before it drops, and put it in a bin of the appropriate color… The hard part comes when the screen disappears and the computer asks questions like: How many bins were in use? How full were they? What letters were still on the belts? Scoring well on the test is supposed to reveal the qualities that make a good air traffic controller, including the ability to work under pressure and maintain situational awareness.”

Several experts, most notably Ian Bogost (see Persuasive Games), have argued that advergames are most effective when thematically related to the brand that they are trying to promote. Here’s a recent research study backing up that assertion.

Back in August 2007, I wrote the following about the XBLA 1st party (aka MS-published) title review process:

I’ve put systems in place to hopefully help reduce the risk of my own tastes (or lack of vision) from polluting the portfolio. I can’t really discuss the details, but they include a sort of “wisdom of crowds” feedback loop, in which indie submissions are screened and rated by a group of my colleagues within Microsoft (who are asked NOT to discuss the submissions with each other before rating them — mainly to avoid group-think.) The wisdom of crowds can make my forecasts more accurate, and it can help compensate for any subconscious biases I have. Unfortunately, what I don’t believe it can do is help me identify future mega-hits (i.e. “the next Geo Wars“.)

The process I referred to in that post actually kick-started in March of 2007, so it’s been about 18 months since I started changing the way that the XBLA team reviews incoming submissions from independent developers. If you had asked me way back then when I expected to be able to judge the results of the process change, I would have said “a year from now, at the latest.” Turns out, I would have been way off. A year and a half later, only six games that we have reviewed under the new process have launched on Marketplace. Many of the games greenlit in the few months following March ‘07 are still in development and/or finally nearing release.

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Every online consumer forum should implement something like this!

Danc attacks the topic of workplace productivity. My favorite quote: We simply have a culture that tends to look inward (or at the movie industry) for solutions. A broader education on management and work practices, despite its ability to dramatically improve our games, typically takes a back seat to meeting the latest arbitrary, urgent deadline.

Want to participate in an ARG that will try to forecast events in 2019? Try Superstruct, which starts in five days and runs for six weeks.

A simple, but remarkable tale of customer service. Note the amount of traffic this post has attracted — quite a winning event for the company. And speaking of, MSMR just published a long article on how to respond effectively to customer complaints.

I can’t help but be fascinated by the stories that occasionally pop up about the US and Russia very nearly annihilating one another. Maybe because I still want to believe in a God of some kind, and these stories help me to believe. Or maybe I’m just a sucker for a thrill.

A nice interview in which Dan Ariely shares some great examples of price anchoring.

Great article on how to make reward programs more effective; very useful to any game company that has (or is building out) a consumer platform. Which, nowadays, seems like almost every game company!

My book, Changing the Game, was reviewed in the October print issue of Inc. Magazine. An online version of the article is available here.  :-)