I’m psyched for this session ’cause Ian Bogost, the curator of Water Cooler Games, is here. He’s also into “persuasive games” — that is, games that do more than just entertain. Also here: the CEO of Sennari, a company that creates mobile economies (!), and a guy from Linden Labs.
Running notes:
Whoah dude, I didn’t know this: In the Linden Labs game Second Life, players retain full IP rights to the stuff they create in-game. That is great!
ALERT: The phrase “value chain” just appeared. What is this, a presentation at a business school or something??
ALERT: Uh-oh, “extract value” has joined it. Save us, Ian Bogost!
Bogost is up. Talking about advertising in games. Noted: Disney’s Virtual Magic Kingdom, a simulation of… a simulation.
In the world of advertising, Bogost says, the primary medium, TV, is being degraded. What ad guys know about is buying media space. So it’s like: Hey, find me a new medium! Video games, YES! This company Massive is selling videogame ad-space in a very traditional way. So maybe you’d be playing Snarkmarket Adventures 3 and see a Volkswagon billboard. Done.
Bogost asks: Is that the best we can do?
He enumerates some qualities of online media: It’s spatial, encyclopedia, participatory, and procedural.
The one that’s particularly missing from videogame advertising is procedural, he says. (By “procedural” he means “rule-based” or “cause-and-effect.”) Advertising that shows how products work — not just how they look or feel.
More TK.
One comment
So any news on the party tonight? (the guy with no hair four rows back on the left)
The snarkmatrix awaits you