Episodic online games with movie tie could snag casual gamers

The movie industry may be on to something with their efforts to tie the theater experience with online episodic mobile gaming.  This article describes a new game being prepared to tie in to the new Angelina Jolie spy thriller "Salt" and it intrigued me when "Day X Exists" is explained as a "a genre that blends online and offline clues and relies on players collaborating to solve puzzles."

[Promotional Image courtesy of Sony Pictures]

It mentions that a similar game was released for "District 9".  Although I really liked that film I somehow missed any reference to an online game.  I wonder what venue the movie studios are using to announce such product tie-ins?

Since the article mentions social networking too, I guess the collaboration part of the game is expected to take place between Facebook friends or something.  I guess I should pay more attention to Facebook but I really don't have time between my writing, photography, book reviews and household adventures.  At least I have my Flickr account and blogs connected to Facebook so links to my writing and photography make it there without me having to double or triple post.

I think the movie studios are on the right track although I was a bit offended by the following paragraph:

"On the way now, as evidenced by Day X Exists, are games that feature complex narratives and depth, but do not require a master’s degree to figure out. Women in particular are a focus. " - Using Online Games to Get Movie Audiences Involved by Brooks Barnes, New York Times.

It's as if the NYT writer is inferring that women are not as intelligent as the average male gamer.  They are correct about developing games as entertainment, though, rather than something expected to take hours before any psychological reward is offered. I think introducing the social aspect to gaming will be interesting to observe as well since females have been conditioned to be more socially aware in our society.

 I also think their efforts to utilize mobile GPS for location-specific gaming strategies is commendable as well.  I guess I'm going to have to explore this Day X Exists a little further although to be honest, I would have been more interested in the game for "District 9" or maybe "Robin Hood"!  I have to confess that I fell asleep trying to watch "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" and was equally bored with "Mr. and Mrs. Smith".  So I haven't yet been won over to the camp that view Jolie as an action hero.  It's not that she isn't a talented actress, as I found her performance in "The Changeling" quite riveting.  It's just that so many of these so-called spy thrillers have such a thin or overly cliched plot.

I wonder if they'll create a game for "Prince of Persia"?  Can you imagine that?  A game developed for a movie based on a game.  It sounds like one of those dreaded infinite loops!

"Add This" makes sharing content on social networks a snap

I found this article in the New York Times particularly interesting. I noticed that after connecting my Flickr account to Twitter and Facebook, that each time I posted an image to Flickr tagged with my special "snaptweet" tag to flag it for Twitter and Facebook, I was getting a lot more views within just a couple of days than I would normally get if I relied strictly on Flickr users' sporadic browsing. I found the same to be true for blog posts that were trumpeted over Twitter and Facebook. I have used other websites "share" options like YouTube and NY Times but assumed adding that functionality to my own blog posts (so posts found on a Google or Yahoo search could be shared with the researchers friends and colleagues) would be more complicated than I wanted to tackle.

But the NYT article mentioned a service called "Add This" so I checked it out and it made the whole process pretty painless! They provide the code to add a share widget to either a website or a host of other content management environments including Blogger. I use Blogger so I copied the Blogger template code and opened my Blogger template and pasted it in right where it said to do so. At first I couldn't find the right line of code but the key is to be sure to click on the "Expand Widget Templates" checkbox just above the window displaying the HTML code, then you see all of the code not just abbreviated sections.

In the last century, traditional media organizations hustled to get their product in front of the chatty elites; news magazines, for example, hand-delivered copies over the weekend to politicians and to other media. In the age of Twitter and Facebook, anyone can become a chatty elite, the social director of his or her own private admiration society. The hand-delivered copy has morphed into a Web article’s “share to Facebook” button.

Underscoring the trend, social networks are now an important source of traffic to many sites, in some cases challenging search engines as the top source of new visitors. For example, the leading referrer to PerezHilton.com, a popular gossip site, is Facebook. Nearly 15 percent of the gossip site’s visitors come from the social network, according to Compete.com, a tracking firm. Google ranks second, driving about 9 percent of visitors. - Share the Moment and Spread The Wealth by Brad Stone, NY Times

Keen off base with declaration Web 2.0 is dead

I read an excerpt from a presentation delivered by so-called tech guru Andrew Keen who declared, "Web 2.0 is dead". - More: Nextweb.com

Sensational statements like Web 2.0 is dead are just Tweet fodder in my opinion. Keen makes some good points about needing to introduce intimacy into web social environments but Keen would have you believe that we need to go (back) to platforms that moderate content for "professional" levels of contribution for money. Although this may play into the viewpoint of some institutions that disdain the quality of user-generated content, it fails to recognize the true value of unmoderated contributions. What makes Web 2.0 apps so liberating is that they remove the gatekeepers and let everyone have their say and share their experiences. Each individual is unique and brings a unique perspective to every discussion and brain storming session. If only self-styled "experts" are allowed to contribute, innovation and discovery will ultimately be stifled.

Just in my own relatively short life span (50+ years) I can point to revelations in cultural and scientific knowledge that were brought forward by contributors who were disdained by "experts" in the field.

Ray Kurzweil keeps prophesying that human and machine will eventually merge in the not too distant future. If we cannot retain our individuality we will become simply a subscript in a program written by somebody else.

Project-based learning not particularly new

The snail's pace that education uses to transform the learning process with technology never ceases to amaze me. This week an article in the New York Times touts technology-supported "project-based learning" as the new "silver bullet" that will finally revolutionize education. "Project-based learning has been around for decades. The only thing technology really adds to the process is collaborative support through a social networking portal. Once again, the computer's true strength, simulation, is left out of the equation.

The project example given is designed around a letter from the White House bemoaning high oil prices, a faltering economy, and falling popularity polls:

"The new Web education networks can open the door to broader changes. Parents become more engaged because they can monitor their children’s attendance, punctuality, homework and performance, and can get tips for helping them at home. Teachers can share methods, lesson plans and online curriculum materials.

In the classroom, the emphasis can shift to project-based learning, a real break with the textbook-and-lecture model of education. In a high school class, a project might begin with a hypothetical letter from the White House that says oil prices are spiking, the economy is faltering and the president’s poll numbers are falling. The assignment would be to devise a new energy policy in two weeks. The shared Web space for the project, for example, would include the White House letter, the sources the students must consult, their work plan and timetable, assignments for each student, the assessment criteria for their grades and, eventually, the paper the team delivers. Oral presentations would be required."

But where is the program that can take solutions offered by the students and project the historical outcomes - the fertile soil in which many fruitful discussions can take root?

Why Twitter?

A couple of times this week I have encountered references to a new "social community" called Twitter. I see it is even on the board for discussion at the Educause ELI conference in San Antonio in January. So I decided I better go up and see what all the fuss is about.

Perhaps I'm not seeing the big picture here, but it looks like Twitter is designed for those people who must give everyone around them a blow by blow account of their life whether we're interested or not. It reminds me of people with cell phones stuck to their ears in restaurants and grocery stores describing the latest produce to anyone in their calling circle that will listen.

Twitter says its like a mini-blog (posts are limited to 140 characters) but looking at the statements being shared by users of Twitter, I'd have to say I've got better things to do with my time than try to plow through all that drivel looking for something that I may find interesting or useful. Maybe people who have scanners to monitor police and emergency services communications would love it. I see the LA Fire Department posts their response calls to a Twitter account.

I went up and read the official Twitter blog to try to identify the element that would make their service useful or compelling and I'm still at a loss for grasping the potential of their idea. Furthermore, I notice that they attracted venture capital but for the life of me I don't know how they could make a "venture capital level" of ROI with no discernible business model.

I must not be alone in my assessment of Twitter's potential. The Wall Street Journal wrote, "These social-networking services elicit mixed feelings in the technology-savvy people who have been their early adopters. Fans say they are a good way to keep in touch with busy friends. But some users are starting to feel 'too' connected, as they grapple with check-in messages at odd hours, higher cellphone bills and the need to tell acquaintances to stop announcing what they're having for dinner."^[3]