Come to my panels at PAX East!
PAX East is next week. I’ll be flying back to Boston to see some old friends, meet some new ones, and have a great time. If you plan on being at PAX East you should check out the panels I am on. I had such a great time being on panels at PAX Prime last year, I decided to do it again!
How Your Favorite Game Companies Use Facebook
Like this. Like that. Facebook has taken the world by storm and has become a crucial platform for community managers and companies to help keep in touch with and grow their online communities. With the constant evolution of social media and Facebook in particular, you may not know some of the cool things happening on your favorite game studio’s Facebook page. Join Collin Moore (Community Management Vet) as he moderates a discussion with community managers from across the game industry (Insomniac Games, Playfish/EA, Harmonix, and Robot Entertainment), about the importance of Facebook to game companies, and how pressing the “LIKE” button is just the beginning.
Where: Manticore Theatre
When: Friday, 8:00pm – 9:00pm
The Roads to Becoming a Community Manager (East Coast Version!)
Based on the great feedback we received after this panel at PAX Prime, we’ve decided to do it again! East-Coast Style. You hear us on podcasts, see us in videos, read our blogs on websites, retweet us, argue with us on forums, and give us high fives at PAX. But have you ever wondered how we became community managers? From games journalism to forum moderation to public policy and QA, every road is different. Find out the random history of some of your favorite game studio community managers, and hear their advice on what skills and knowledge you’ll need to become one of gaming’s next-generation of community managers.
Panelists include: Alli Thresher [Community Moderator, Harmonix Music Systems, Inc], James Stevenson [Community Manager, Insomniac Games], Arne Meyer [Manager, Community, Naughty Dog], Sam Houston [Online Content Manager, Playfish, EA], Jennifer Kye [Company Blogger, Social Media Editor, Gameloft]
Where: Wyvern Theatre
When: Saturday, 4:30pm – 5:30pm
I’ll be on Twitter the entire show, so look for some live updates, some fun photos, and perhaps a video here and there. See you at the show!
Super Bowl Ads With Web Addresses
The Super Bowl is over and the this year had some great ads, but one thing I noticed is the stronger emphasis on directing viewers to additional content via the web. Majority of the ads close with web address, Facebook pages, Twitter hashtags, or more. While watching I decided to track what ads had what, and here is how it breaks down.
- 71% of the ads included a URL to the product or company, including every movie trailer.
- 14% of the ads included a Facebook Page to the product or company.
Even with the 110 million viewers for the Super Bowl many companies provided the ability post the ads to your Facebook Wall or your Twitter account, which just increases the amount of impressions.
With Facebook and Twitter becoming one of the most powerful tools allowing companies to get instant feedback on their products, adding a simple web address to either a product page or a Facebook page seems like a simple and cost effective addition to any ad in my opinion.
Ben Kweller Live back in 2002/2003
I can’t remember if this was in 2002 or 2003, but here is some old footage I filmed of Ben Kweller rocking it at Graceland (now El Corazon) almost a decade ago. I think I still have the tape of the entire show someplace. Time files!!
Looking Forward to 2011: Video Games
2010 is behind us and 2011 is here with a whole year of new games to look forward too. 2010 had some great games, but 2011 appears to have some amazing games being released over the next 12 months. Here are some of the games I am looking forward too.
Dead Space 2 is going to be awesome, wait, it IS awesome! I thought Dead Space was one of the best games of this generation, and Dead Space 2 looks to be great.
Screw all the haters out there, I love Killzone and Killzone 2, and Killzone 3 looks incredible! This is one of those games that makes me fire up the Playstation 3, and not put the controller down until I am done.
I am so excited about L.A. Noire! I am a huge fan of the time period of the L.A. Quartet, and L.A. Noire appears to let you play some lost James Ellroy novel. After years in development will it deliver? I sure hope so!
Brink has impressed me since the first time I saw it at PAX Prime back in 2009. Conceptually the online mechanic appears to be something that will change things moving forward. I’m excited to see how it turns out.
What more can you say about Uncharted? It will be awesome. Nuff said.
XCOM is back, but it isn’t your father’s X-COM. With a great 50′s style and mechanics that appear to be more then just shooting stuff, I’m excited how this will turn out.
I have no idea what you do in Journey, but I am hypnotized by it. Visually simple yet beautiful, I am curious what exactly you do.
Day the world ends? Perhaps. Diablo 3 is coming and life might end as we know it. Well at least the social life of millions of gamers.
WOOHOO! One of the best games of last generation is back with a nice new coat of paint. Beyond Good & Evil HD will give many gamers a chance to check out this amazing game.
I am really excited about Spec Ops: The Line for a couple reasons. With a good number of friends working on the title, I am excited to see what they have built and the other the curiosity of how the game I could have worked on turned out.
From the first time I saw Deus Ex: Human Revolution at GDC in 2010, I knew it was going to be awesome. The graphics are amazing, the art direction is spot on, the mechanics that meld classic Deus Ex with todays action first person shooters.
2010 in Review: Video Games
Even though I work in the game industry I don’t get to play as many games as I would like. Sometimes a game will just grab my attention and won’t let me put it down until I beat it. There is a common theme in the games I enjoyed in 2010, lots of retro flavor. Here are some of my favorite games of 2010.
Darksiders was released in January and I jumped on this late in the year after hearing a number of great responses from friends. Being called a mixture of Zelda and God of War, Darksiders was a pleasant reminder that games don’t need to reinvent the wheel to be great. I’m happy that JoeMad finally has a game out as well!
While I think this technically came out in 2009, it became one of my favorite games in 2010. 1 vs 100 was just fun, no pressure, easy way to spend an evening. It is sad that Microsoft pulled the plug on it, and I’m curious why they did, but I’m guessing Chris Cashman wanted too much money!
There is a growing theme in my favorite games of 2010, simple and fun, and Joe Danger falls right into that category. Excitebike with some platforming in a wonderful light hearted 3D environment, Joe Danger was a blast to play. Amazing that the game was created by four people.
A new Pac-Man? Really? Pac-Man DX takes the classic mechanics and turns them to 100. Faster, crazy psychedelic graphics, various modes, and crazy tense soundtrack. Pac-Man DX is a must buy!
LIMBO falls into that amazing mixture of classic mechanics and brilliant art direction. A game that no publisher would ever greenlight, it shows what an amazing concept with brilliant people can produce.
Super Meat Boy reminds me when I was younger playing on my NES wanting to swear and break my controller. An absolutely brutal game, yet when you complete something you feel like you have accomplished something. A great feeling in todays market where you have a checkpoint ever five seconds.
2010 in Review: Albums
As many of you know, I listen to a lot of music, so I though I’d share my favorite albums of 2010.
The Arcade Fire return with their 3rd studio album, The Suburbs. I wasn’t a huge fan of Neon Bible, but this album caught me by surprise. If you haven’t you should really check out the long form video for the title song, The Suburbs directed by Spike Jones.
I love Dr. Dog and their latest album Shame, Shame didn’t disappoint. This album felt a little more loose then previous albums, perhaps they were happy drunk when making.
Stranger Live on KEXP
I like all types of music, sometimes bands will catch me off guard with their sound, and Fitz and the Tantrums fall into that category. I heard clips of their sound, but only after seeing their amazing live show was I sold on their hip soul sound. Be sure to check them out at Daryl’s House!
I’ve been listening to Pete Yorn for years and his self titled album is a strong fun album to listen too. With anthem songs like Precious Stone and my favorite Rock Crowd.
Sleigh Bells was easily one of my most played albums of 2010, I even picked it for my favorite album while working at Irrational Games. Just something about the raw beats, thrashing guitar, with female vocals during the summer months created a perfect mix.
I love The Black Keys and their latest Brothers didn’t disappoint. Bring Danger Mouse on board to produce brought a fuller sound bringing in keyboards and bass. Love the sense of humor in the video for Tighten Up.
Fooling around with themes
I have started to fool around with themes again. Not sure how I would like to style the site. Simple and easy to read. You might see more changes.
Gaming Backlog 2010
I recently moved back to Seattle and have been looking for a job, which leads to a lot of downtime, which has allowed me to catchup on my gaming backlog. To make matters worse Toys ‘R Us recently did their yearly “Buy 2 Get 1 Free” deal, which only added to my gaming backlog. So lets begin on what I have been playing.
Madden 2011
I admit it, I love Madden and sports games. I buy them each year. I find them relaxing compared to some other games out there. But this years Madden was a little different with the simplified play selection interface which leads to a much quicker game. The game plays like your typical Madden game, which an improved running game, but passing can be a pain at the higher difficulties.
Halo: Reach
I was able to pick Halo: Reach up a couple weeks after it came out, but I wasn’t able to play it due to moving and not having access to my Xbox 360. But now that I am all settled I decided to fire it up. Having a number of friends working at Bungie, I feel I need to play their games to support them, but they also make great games. Halo: Reach is nothing but polish. From the menus to the flow, the art, the music, the multiplayer. Everything just has the signs of a very well thought out game in every aspect. I am currently a couple missions into the game, and been very impressed. The only problem I have ran into is some silly partner AI and sometimes I get lost and don’t know where to go next, but find my way by just exploring for a couple minutes.
Dead Rising 2
Loading. I loved the original Dead Rising. It was fun just to wander around the mall and pick up hockey sticks and other random weapons, but sadly the sequel has some major problems. First you don’t play the game for what seems like the first 30 minutes. Just cinematic and press button, loading, cinematic and press button, loading, drive motorbike for three minutes, loading, cinematic… you get the idea. I can understand their desire to provide a more impactful story, but let me go kill some zombies! FAST!! The loading is just a flaw. With games like Red Dead Redemption allowing such open worlds with little to no loading, it is disappointing that Dead Rising 2 needs to load all the freaking time.
Super Meat Boy
I love it that the game that has been taking up most of my time is a simple jumping puzzle game. I can’t help myself how fun this game is. The campiness, the graphics, the simplicity, just makes me want to play it more. With all the huge budget games coming out, it is a simple game made by two people that has my attention. I might be in a minority, but I think that minority is growing, rapidly.
Wiki This! Tips On Deploying a Successful Wiki
Wikis have been around for a number of years, but it is becoming more important for business to provide a simple yet powerful web solution to share information between departments and teams within a company. None of this is new, but many have tried to deploy a wiki within an office with little success for a number of reason. Perhaps the team doesn’t want change? Rollout timing is never good? Feature set doesn’t fit needs? Fear of ramp up? Well there isn’t a perfect wiki or a perfect answer to many of the concerns above, but the best thing you can do is to deploy a solution and grow it with your team with some specific caveats.
1. User Experience is #1
There are tons and tons of Wikis out there, all of them do something great, but every single one has faults. Deciding on which wiki to use can be difficult, but the first thing you need to look at is the user experience and the ease of use. How difficult will it be for a user to enter information in and how difficult is it for a user to find and use that information? The answer to these should be as easy as humanly possible.
I tend to get a lot of people overwhelmed by showing them a wiki with a good WYSIWYG editor. So many buttons, but really all you need to start is bold, italics, numbers/bullets, alignment, linking, and image embed. These are the basic that 99% of most documents would use. Using these should be SUPER EASY! Easy as if they were writing the document in Word.
Also all WYSIWYG editors aren’t the same. Some are unduly complicated and still force the user to perform some tasks as HTML, which is unacceptable.
2. Search is King
So you have all this amazing information in your wiki, but it doesn’t mean a thing unless you have a robust search. While getting information into the wiki is important, robust and easy search is the feature that will allow it to gain traction within your company. Your search should allow the user to sort and filter in various ways, and it should be simple. Find all documents by Collin posted in the last seven days. This should be an easy task to perform, and if your wiki doesn’t allow you to do this, then it fails.
3. Easy to Link to Internal & External Documents
This goes along with the WYSIWYG editor being powerful yet easy. One place where wikis breakdown is a poor search which leads to duplicate pages. One way to reduce this is to make linking to other pages within the wiki extremely simple. In the ideal world you can just highlight the text you want to link, click a button which leads to search, and then you can just select a page. Making it easy for someone to find and link to a relevant document makes your documentation more robust as well as cuts down on redundant information.
4. Allow Easy Exporting
As your wiki grows and documents change or updated, you sometimes will need to review them out of the office. Having ways to easily generate a Word Document or Adobe PDF come in very handy for reviews. This feature should be built into the wiki and should be performed by a single click (or two). Using Print to PDF is not a great option as formatting may change.
5. Define a Template for Certain Documents
If you have documents that will be written up a number of times, then it would be a good idea to define a template that anyone can use. Having a base format has a number of benefits including, easier to read, consistency in where specific information location, and naming conventions. This can sometimes be a sticky subject as everyone writes in their own fashion, but once you setup some documents as the key or have the ability to create new documents based on a template allowing users to just enter information, it will catch on.
6. Task someone to be the Librarian
As awesome as some of the better wikis on the market these days you still have pages being placed in the wrong places, incorrect links, or duplicate document. You will need someone to manage not necessarily adding the content, but watching it mature over time. Someone that can be an expert on the software used as well as maintain a clean information system, such as naming conventions and labels.
These are just five simple rules that can help your wiki gain popularity within your office. If you have some comments on what has worked for you I’d love to hear it. Please post in the comments with your suggestions and feedback.
Canon 60D Arrived!
I bite the bullet and ordered the Canon 60D yesterday from the nice people at Adorama. One of the nice things about living in Boston was it arrived this morning from New Jersey. Score!
I took a couple shots with it around the house getting used to the controls as well as testing my timer I bought on Ebay for $20. Everything works great. I’ll post some more photos tonight. From just the couple hours messing with the camera today it appears to be well worth the $300 difference from the Canon T2i with the same lens. The 18-135 lens is a huge upgrade over the 18-55 kit lens included with the T2i. The 18-135 is smoother then the kit lens, but does make a little noise when zooming and soft focus when recording video. I can’t complain though. The new audio controls are a nice upgrade as well over the T2i. You can set the gain.
Well off to take some photos. I’ll post some more tonight.