An idea that struck me during Katie’s presentation was how much kids use games as a social activity. A “mash-up” type product like www.epsilen.comwhich already has points would do well to include games, like Facebook games, that could use those points. This would also help bond the social network and build time in world. I’ll have to tell Felice about that.
I met with the co-founder of Zynga http://www.zynga.com/, which makes Facebook Games. I don’t have the stats, but based on their huge party in Jillians last night, it looks like they are selling lots of Facebook Games! The founder told me that he needs to hire programmers with ActionScript 3.0 skills immediately. I’ve heard that a lot lately. How does a school keep pace with the latest tools? We all agree the programming concepts are the same. What kind of market would there be for training on the latest tools supported by employers who need programmers with those skill sets?
Patrick Wiley of Big Fish Games http://www.bigfishgames.com talked about their try and buy program and affiliate programs. He said that currently they have 35 million games downloaded per month, which represents a 1300% growth rate over the last few years. Amazing. He believes that ads in games will be a more risky model in this economy than try and buy because ads are discretionary spending. I did not get the chance to talk to him after his session. My daughter wanted me to tell him to make more Mac games.
I attended the Games and Media panel which included Randy Brown from Virtual Heroes http://www.virtualheroes.com/ They worked on a game last year for Discovery Channel Canada that would be a compliment to the “Race to Mars” http://www.racetomars.ca/mars/ miniseries. I’ll have to play this when I get time. The trailer looks awesome!
Later, I attended the Multiverse http://www.multiverse.net/ session with Cory Bridges and Rafhael Cedeno. They showed a clip from the Times Square World and it was so cool! They are unique because of their world browser that allows a user to go from one virtual world to another. They also can support up to 2000 users per sim rather than the 40-50 users supported by Second Life. They demo’ed a world created for a company called “Accelerate” that modeled the real world office and used the MMOG for new employee training. So, by the time the employee shows up for Day One on the job, they already have their ID badge waiting for them, they know where everyone sits, and where the coffee is… It sounds like a great application of MMOG to me! Assets for Multiverse can be created an any of the common tools: Maya, 3DS Max, SketchUp http://www.sketchup.com/ That’s not the first time I heard SketchUp today.
That’s all for now. Time to get rolling on today. I hope to meet with some DEM folks, I have a meeting with the AK Peters folks, and, naturally, there are multiple concurrent sessions I want to attend. I wonder if I can get a seat in the session with Lane Merrifield, co-founder of Club Penguin?
