I’m 33. But in smart money years, I’m like maybe nine months old.
I spent A LOT of time blowing money, getting in debt and pretty much screwing the pooch when it came to saving/investing. Hindsight is 20/20, but I really wish I’d been smarter during my 20s. I’d probably at least have a house. At least, I’m now out of debt and on the path to savings.
One thing I’ve learned very quickly is that in money, like most other things, it helps to follow the advice of people who know what they’re talking about. And, thankfully, with money matters there are a lot of people out there who know what they’re talking about.
I’m in the middle of web design/development on a new app that borrows a few things from game design. I’ve been thinking a lot about what tools are worth borrowing and what I can borrow (in other words what makes sense to borrow).
This article does a nice job of laying out what elements from games are already present in a number of web 2.0 elements some of which I’m including in my new app, some of which I’m deliberately keeping out. Either way, it’s a really fascinating read
Jessie Scanlon of Businessweek has a nice round-up of some of the interesting things happening on the fringes of the traditional gaming market which, strangely enough, might end up meaning that there’s more of a “mainstream” market there than in the Xboxes & PlayStations of the world.
Ultimately, I think it all depends on your definition of traditional gaming. If gaming is shooting aliens, big breasted heroines or even following down a near-linear path towards a larger goal, then you’re probably looking at a semi-limited market which will grow with those that grew up with gaming.
So yes, you’ll ultimately get the game that makes you cry and things like Halo will continue to mint millions as have traditional entertainments for thousands of years. This is just the natural evolution of our new entertainment tools.
However, if you broaden that definition of gaming to include the idea of “virtual play” or even further to the idea of “virtual life”, both of which are deeply rooted in the fundamentals of games, then the market for gaming is virtually limitless.
Potentially every social exchange we’ll have in the future will be influenced by the rules of games.
Also worth noting in this article: Raph Koster has a new company called Areae that I hadn’t heard about. And it sounds awesome.
I have to believe that there is some sort of a huge disconnect between what R. Kelly believes IFC is interested in here and what IFC is really interested in here. Either way, thank god someone is allowing this man to produce more of these.
On a related note, a question: if someone creates a work that another person perceives to be a masterpiece and yet the intentions of the original creator were entirely different than how the observer perceives it, is it still a masterpiece?
For those interested, here’s Chapter 12.5 which not only sums up what we’ve seen unto now, but gives us a nice chorus of Oh Shits! for fun.
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