I was in the midst of semi-live blogging about today's State of Play VI conference, when I noticed that Greg Lastowka is already doing a darn thorough job of it over at Terra Nova. Since there's no need to reproduce his notes, I'll just provide you with some highlights and some of my thoughts on what's gone on so far today...see comments section (below) for (possibly) more updates later on.
Biggest highlight so far has been the fact that nearly every speaker so far has mentioned kids' rights and legal/content trickiness in their talks to some degree. Raph Koster's keynote (which largely centered around his current project, Metaplace, a ugc virtual worlds building platform/community, which seems pretty neat) had a bit about kids, the problems (logistical and ethical) of restricting minors, or trying to. He also raised a pretty provocative question re: how "big" does a virtual space need to be to qualify as a world...he gave the example of The Little Prince, whose planet is tiny, but a world nonetheless...which I really liked since I've often struggled with defining (or defending) some of the kids' vw's I look at as truly qualifying as "VWs"
This morning, I also attended the session on virtual worlds law, "Current Legal Issues for Virtual Worlds". Here, Roxanne E. Christ presented a historical typology of UGC, which was a little sketchy, but I liked her categories (if not the categorizations of sites/activities that went with them) - "user-moved content" (space shifting, content shifting, customization), "user-shared content" a.k.a. peer to peer (e.g. napster, grokster, etc.), "user-mashed content" a.k.a. bricollage (YouTube, Jaydiohead, but in here she also talks about sites like Veoh, which stream and allow individuals to post and stream content, but don't actually store files or allow for download...are they protected under Safe Harbour clause of the DMCA?, etc.); and "user-created content". Included in this last category are virtual rooms (like Metaplace), machinima, "mini-me's". She says that the UGC revolution is coming - virtual goods as property, user rights in ugc, the eula as the law, and the ownership and use of player data are all current and ongoing issues of relevance here. In terms of the idea of the EULA as law, Christ says (wow...that is so strange to write in a blog post) that this is probably not realistic - there are already cracks in this system, and it raises the issue of minors contracts. (e.g. she mentions that in California, which has the "Jackie Cooley Law" passed in response to the abuse of child actors in the 1940s, minors contracts are voidable, etc. and so in the case of kids' the EULA can't be the law). She suggests that resolution to this issue might be piggybacked onto privacy laws/policies (which already delineate special rights for kids under 13 years, as well as a special set of responsibilities for sites and data brokers dealing with child users). She even listed the issue of the "capacity of minors to contract" as #1 on her list of top 5 issues that need to be resolved now in relation to UGC. Agreed!
On the same panel, Sean F. Kane (who spoke about drafting better, more comprehensible EULAs) - also addresses minors and the issue of "who is accepting it" as a huge question when dealing with minors, complications between parents and kids, age and consent. He and his panel mate should discuss the ethical and legal problems with suggesting that parents can sign for their kids and provide verifiable adult consent through, say, credit card verification. This might cover some bases, but really doesn't deal with the extra challenges presented by children's own rights of ownership and consent (or at the very least to be protected from exploitation and from adults mismanaging their rights and making decisions that may not be in their interest). Examples such as the "Jackie Cooley Law" [**need to find a link to verify spelling, etc.**) raise the huge importance of approaching children's rights and parents' rights as intertwined but also separate.
Speaking of UGC, mash-ups, etc., I finally had the opportunity to see Brett Gaylor's brilliant, fun, awesomely soundtracked, RIP: A Remix Manifesto...on the planeride here, of all places. Shout to to Air Canada (for the first time ever) for including such innovative selections in its Canadian film section. You can watch it for free online. And show it to your students. Or remix it yourself and add more/new content. very cool.
But anyway, I should get back to conferencing like a good delegate. In the meantime, check for updates on Terra Nova, as well as the NYLS State of Play website (currently down, but should be back up and running soon) for video of the keynotes and at least some of the panels.
Update: Afternoon
The afternoon panels have had quite a different tone from the morning sessions...I've attended the industry panel ("Beyond the Magic Circle", which focused on how intangible and affective digital-game based reward systems can be used as motivators for participation in various communities and/or activities...many of them corporate, it seems), and am now in the midst of the "Economies and Economics" session featuring heavy hitters Julian Dibbell (!) and Edward Castronova (!). An an entire panel on virtual economies and economics might sound dry, but what it really comes down to is property, user struggles, democratic rationalization (in some cases), in others, commercialization of play, and some higher level discussion of the blurring of play and trade. In a sense a great follow up to the discussion on Huizinga's magic circle, in particular the one that took place on the backchannels during the panel and Q&A (in fact, Dibbell states as much himself near the end of his panel intro).
First up, Stephanie Rothenberg, a mixed media artist whose work explores user experience, labour and labour issues, and most recently the academic research of Castronova and Dibbell - how cool is that! Rothenberg presented a piece she created with Jeffrey Krausse, which exhibited at last year's Sundance Film Festival, called Invisible Threads, which uses a virtual sweatshop based in Second Life within an installation piece that people could then interact with "irl". The exhibit aims to explore and represent invisible labour flows, making conceptual and tangible connections between goldfarming (which produce immaterial goods out of real labour) and material sweatshops (which produce material goods out of "hidden" or suppressed labour), as well as "playing" at being a labourer (which seems to be the experience of many of the participants who became labourers in the installation piece virtual sweatshop. (She also recommends checking out this film http://www.sleepdealer.com)
Next up, Margaret Wallace from Rebel Monkey, the game design company behind a new virtual world for tweens CampFu. Wallace's talk provided a rare inside look at the discourse, rationale and strategies behind micro-transaction model vw's aimed at kids. She talked about "monetizing engagement", and all the different ways that their company sees user engagement translating into RMT transactions (e.g. Users play together, which makes them want to buy virtual items to show off/communicate to each other; players form teams and make friends, which might make them want to buy gifts for other players, etc.). Like SO many (too many) kids' vw's these days, the game basically offers players the option of playing games or shopping, or else chatting and interacting with other players (community building, social networking, chatting, some collaborative play).
With a look and feel similar to Nicktropolis or BarbieGirls (though with more sophisticated graphics). Wallace describes the game as currently limited to a "sharded experience" environment (i.e. a series of "rooms"...cool term!), but the company plans to switch to a "scrollable world" design in a few months. Wallace reports that even among the players, much of the chat is focused on the goods themselves - avatar customization as fashion statement. Again, like most kids' games, CampFu self-describes as "free-to-play", but really what we're looking at here is a micro-transaction model, in conjunction with a velvet-rope marketing strategy (i.e. we'll let you "in" for free, but you can only access the good stuff if you pay for it). They even have a segregated "two currencies" system, which Wallace claims was designed to "offer opportunities to everyone to participate" - both those who pay and those who don't or can't. There's a currency that you pay for with real-world or "hard" money, and then there's a "tickets" system. Tickets are the rewards won by playing the mini-games, and can only be used to purchase consumable items (items that expire after a certain number of uses). Th currencies - that you pay for. The tickets are described to be aimed at increasing engagement (and time spent in the site), to "engage players whether they buy or not", as well as "introduce players to virtual currencies" and currency systems, idea of virtual items collection and shopping, in the hopes of fostering future behaviours. Velvet rope + pedagogy of consumption...yikes.
But CampFu doesn't want to miss out on other, more subtle ways of extracting exchange value out of their players. Players can also earn the "FuCash", the game's virtual currency by filling out surveys and "special offers" (not sure what those are)...so it looks like becoming uninformed participants in market research is the only way to get the FuCash required to buy avatar clothes and other coveted items, other than to buy it with real world money. Wallace showed some graphs demonstrating player participation (although not overall numbers), showing that since the site launched in Feb.09, the average session duration rose from an average of 21 minutes to over an hour (as of May 09). I wonder how their business model is working out, where kids are getting their FuCash (if any) or if they're just using the free components for a novel place to socialize...we'll see.
Andrew Schneider of RMT (Real Money Trading) says that today's black market for virtual items (for real money) has surpassed $2 billion in gross transactions worldwide.
Edward Castronova, in addition to telling us that no one has to use his term "synthetic worlds" when speaking to him about vw's, reasserted the need for some form of official, formal, hopefully democratic delineation of economic relationships within virtual worlds, one that defends user rights as well as those of corporations. It's an old argument, esp. coming from him, but one that certainly needs continued reiteration, particularly now that vw's have become so pervasive...while still using basically the same corporately-biased EULAs and IP (and governance) claims that have dominated the market since he first wrote about all this in 2002. I really liked his tempered delivery, acknowledging the importance of economic recuperation, but also reminding us that market downturn isn't justification for ignoring player rights...hinting that it's in fact further indication that EULA reform (although he doubts that EULAs can provide what they need to, he also thinks its more likely that this type of thing would happen in the market than initiated by governments) and an alternative (player-driven?) discourse for establishing/regulating vw laws and social (incl. economic) relationships is exactly what's called for given the exploitative relationships that so often emerge when corporations are left to regulate themselves. Or at least, that's what I got from it.
And then, in Q&A, Jim Bower, the founder of Whyville zinged the entire panel by championing "kids as the future" of responsible governance and democratically-articulated covenants, pointing to the large Kafai-led project on Whyville players (including this article on cheating in Whyville and "Stealing from Grandma", written by Deborah Fields and Yasmin Kafai, which is fantastic). He also admitted that Whyville is actively and purposefully "training" its players in civic responsibility, which Castronova had a really hilarious and zinging response to, though props to Bower for admitting that his vw is not some neutral, innocuous or so-called "safe" haven, but rather a very ideological and discursive system (social and technological) where players are indeed learning all kinds of rules and norms, not just from the explicitly pedagogical tools, but everything else as well (each other!). Also, funny that no one pointed out that CampFu is putting just as much effort into training its players, in how to want and believe in virtual currency systems and subjectivites of consumption.
Anyway...Awesome!
Friday, June 19, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
What New in the Kids' Games Market
There have been so many great games and exciting announcements pertaining to kids' gaming culture (and the kids market) lately, especially now that this year's E3 has come and gone, that the thought of trying to digest (let alone dissect) it all can be more than a little overwhelming. That's why I've put together this thematic Guide to What's New... in various segments of games culture, focusing on those projects and announcements I find most relevant to kids or that have particularly caught my eye these past few weeks. The list is by no means exhaustive, and it's likely already out of date it's taken me so long to put it together, but my hope is that it will still be useful to some of you, for catching up on new developments and flagging things for follow-up.
What's New in...Console Games
So much of the biggest big news from this year's E3 involved console games (see Buzzstudy's analysis of the Top E3 Announcements according to online buzz, and the updated version they sent to Kotaku), including a number of interesting, exciting or otherwise noteworthy announcements and developments that relate directly to kids' games/gaming cultures. Here's a quick run-down:
A new (collaborative!) 1-4 player Super Mario Brothers
A more expansive and expansion-friendly Wii Sports Resort
Super Mario Glaxy 2
Beatles Rock Band (it's rated "T" but who are we kidding...that hasn't stopped the previous Rock Band titles from spreading like wildfire among the under 13 set. It seems parents don't object as much to "mild language" in lyrics as they do to hyper violence...go figure)
But just in case they do...they're launching a new LEGO Rock Band as well...bizarre!
From Media Molecule, more news about their sequels to the award-winning LittleBigPlanet, with LittleBigPlanet 2 and (which was first way back in October) and LittleBigPlanet PSP. More on that property below.
Not ready to put the property to bed quite yet, Ubisoft will be releasing TMNT: Smash Up, based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
In addition, earlier this month Warner Brothers finally confirmed the widely-accepted-as-true rumor that it is teaming up with LEGO (once again) to collaborate on a Harry Potter tie-in (once again), this time in game form. The much anticipated LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 is expected to be released sometime in 2010.
You might also want to check out this "Top Ten Kids Games Announced at E3" List published in The Industry Standard.
What's New in...MMOGs
There's been a ton of online buzz about SOE's kid-oriented MMOG Free Realms, which launched in late April (2009). In addition to a recent article in Wired magazine, you should check out this article in the New York Times, this blog post by Izzy Neis (whose move to Twitter has left me with an empty hole in my daily blog roll that no one else could ever hope to fill), and this ongoing (?) thread started by Greg Lastowka on Terra Nova. And, you know, try it out for yourself - it's free and even has a "Quick Play" feature...possibly designed for critics and academics ;)
In other news, FusionFall just keeps on trucking. You can now follow their progress through an online Developer Diary, which is pretty useful for tracking changes and industry discourses about the evolution of the game, community, technology, etc.
And over at Disney, Pixie Hollow is continuing to impress, in no small part by generating actual profits and driving a wildly popular new Disney property. According to Virtual Worlds News, the player population has now reached the million member mark, and is the flagship of the Disney Fairies brand, which is currently worth about $2 billion (in global annual retail sales of ancillary products and media).
What's New in...Girlie Games
Same old, same old, as EA Announces the Girls Charm Club (as described in this Business Wire article), and the casual gaming market gears up for a "pink games" re-revolution (via YPulse). Always ready to throw her stylish hat in the mix, Barbie/Mattel also announced some sort of Digital Doll House project awhile back that would seem to fit well with these trends.
What's New in...Indie Games
Too much! But of particular noteworthiness is Nathan Jurevicius and TouchMyPixel's beautiful, slightly creepy, funny, kid-friendly (and free!) online game, Scarygirl. It's been attracting a lot of buzz too, as seen in this "Best of Indie Games" shout out courtesy of Tim W., and subsequent interview with Jurevicius conducted by Phill Cameron, over at Gamasutra. As Tim W. writes:
Indeed!
What's New in...UGC Games
More Spore for Kids! Read news of upcoming, kid-targeted, Spore spin-off projects (for Nintendo Wii, plus a My Pokemon Ranch-style virtual pet-type game, Creature Keeper) over at Wired blog.
News from Kidscreen magazine that Media Molecule is looking for kids' merchandising opportunities and partnerships for its LittleBigPlanet property (centered around uber-cute Sackboy and friends).
Also, some very interesting news from Microsoft about a kid-friendly (and, one would hope, accessible) version of XNA called Kodu, which you can read about over at USA Today
What's New in...Gaming Technologies
Too much to list here, I'm afraid, what with Microsoft's Project Natal, the PS3 motion controller, and all the (seemingly) smaller Wii motion sensor upgrades. I recommend reading some of the many industry lists/summaries, etc., or to breeze through this compilation of E3 coverage and interviews, posted over at AdAge.
And as for What's New...With Me!
I'm off to NYC tomorrow to participate in the Grad Student Symposium at the State of Play Conference, hosted by New York Law School (in conjunction with the University of Southern California Network Culture Project at the Annenberg School for Communication, and with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation), and featuring multiple games scholars and designers that I'm simply dying to meet (and/or meet again). Should be an amazing and thought provoking few days, in one of my favourite big huge cities. Enormous thanks to Dan Hunter and Naomi Allen (and anyone else involved in the conference organizing team) for letting me tag along.
What's New in...Console Games
So much of the biggest big news from this year's E3 involved console games (see Buzzstudy's analysis of the Top E3 Announcements according to online buzz, and the updated version they sent to Kotaku), including a number of interesting, exciting or otherwise noteworthy announcements and developments that relate directly to kids' games/gaming cultures. Here's a quick run-down:
A new (collaborative!) 1-4 player Super Mario Brothers
A more expansive and expansion-friendly Wii Sports Resort
Super Mario Glaxy 2
Beatles Rock Band (it's rated "T" but who are we kidding...that hasn't stopped the previous Rock Band titles from spreading like wildfire among the under 13 set. It seems parents don't object as much to "mild language" in lyrics as they do to hyper violence...go figure)
But just in case they do...they're launching a new LEGO Rock Band as well...bizarre!
From Media Molecule, more news about their sequels to the award-winning LittleBigPlanet, with LittleBigPlanet 2 and (which was first way back in October) and LittleBigPlanet PSP. More on that property below.
Not ready to put the property to bed quite yet, Ubisoft will be releasing TMNT: Smash Up, based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
In addition, earlier this month Warner Brothers finally confirmed the widely-accepted-as-true rumor that it is teaming up with LEGO (once again) to collaborate on a Harry Potter tie-in (once again), this time in game form. The much anticipated LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 is expected to be released sometime in 2010.
You might also want to check out this "Top Ten Kids Games Announced at E3" List published in The Industry Standard.
What's New in...MMOGs
There's been a ton of online buzz about SOE's kid-oriented MMOG Free Realms, which launched in late April (2009). In addition to a recent article in Wired magazine, you should check out this article in the New York Times, this blog post by Izzy Neis (whose move to Twitter has left me with an empty hole in my daily blog roll that no one else could ever hope to fill), and this ongoing (?) thread started by Greg Lastowka on Terra Nova. And, you know, try it out for yourself - it's free and even has a "Quick Play" feature...possibly designed for critics and academics ;)
In other news, FusionFall just keeps on trucking. You can now follow their progress through an online Developer Diary, which is pretty useful for tracking changes and industry discourses about the evolution of the game, community, technology, etc.
And over at Disney, Pixie Hollow is continuing to impress, in no small part by generating actual profits and driving a wildly popular new Disney property. According to Virtual Worlds News, the player population has now reached the million member mark, and is the flagship of the Disney Fairies brand, which is currently worth about $2 billion (in global annual retail sales of ancillary products and media).
What's New in...Girlie Games
Same old, same old, as EA Announces the Girls Charm Club (as described in this Business Wire article), and the casual gaming market gears up for a "pink games" re-revolution (via YPulse). Always ready to throw her stylish hat in the mix, Barbie/Mattel also announced some sort of Digital Doll House project awhile back that would seem to fit well with these trends.
What's New in...Indie Games
Too much! But of particular noteworthiness is Nathan Jurevicius and TouchMyPixel's beautiful, slightly creepy, funny, kid-friendly (and free!) online game, Scarygirl. It's been attracting a lot of buzz too, as seen in this "Best of Indie Games" shout out courtesy of Tim W., and subsequent interview with Jurevicius conducted by Phill Cameron, over at Gamasutra. As Tim W. writes:
"Scarygirl is a completely free to play flash game which involves platforming, adventure, puzzle and even fighting-game style elements. The visuals are incredible and the content is absolutely expansive with over fourteen levels of gameplay to plow through."
Indeed!
What's New in...UGC Games
More Spore for Kids! Read news of upcoming, kid-targeted, Spore spin-off projects (for Nintendo Wii, plus a My Pokemon Ranch-style virtual pet-type game, Creature Keeper) over at Wired blog.
News from Kidscreen magazine that Media Molecule is looking for kids' merchandising opportunities and partnerships for its LittleBigPlanet property (centered around uber-cute Sackboy and friends).
Also, some very interesting news from Microsoft about a kid-friendly (and, one would hope, accessible) version of XNA called Kodu, which you can read about over at USA Today
What's New in...Gaming Technologies
Too much to list here, I'm afraid, what with Microsoft's Project Natal, the PS3 motion controller, and all the (seemingly) smaller Wii motion sensor upgrades. I recommend reading some of the many industry lists/summaries, etc., or to breeze through this compilation of E3 coverage and interviews, posted over at AdAge.
And as for What's New...With Me!
I'm off to NYC tomorrow to participate in the Grad Student Symposium at the State of Play Conference, hosted by New York Law School (in conjunction with the University of Southern California Network Culture Project at the Annenberg School for Communication, and with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation), and featuring multiple games scholars and designers that I'm simply dying to meet (and/or meet again). Should be an amazing and thought provoking few days, in one of my favourite big huge cities. Enormous thanks to Dan Hunter and Naomi Allen (and anyone else involved in the conference organizing team) for letting me tag along.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
CFP Alert: Science Fiction in Children's Film and Television
Found this on the UPenn English CFP list, and thought it might be of interest to some - a CFP (deadline recently extended to July 15th) on scifi in kids' television and film. Very interesting idea, and it's true...there is a definite gap in the literature that this book could potentially fill quite nicely. Here are the details, reprinted from the UPenn site:
So many cool opportunities, so little time. Immediate ideas include Muppets from Space, Atomic Betty, Astro Boy, Futurama (which just got "renewed"!), Zixx Level Three and some sort of reworking of my co-authored paper with Neil Narine analyzing films depicting child gamers (which included quite a few sci-fi pics, The Last Starfighter, Flight of the Navigator, etc.). I'm not sure I'll have a chance to submit something, but it is nonetheless a very compelling idea for an edited collection.
Science Fiction in Children's Film and Television (Deadline Extended to 7/15/09)
R.C. Neighbors and Sandy Rankin/University of Arkansas
contact email: childrens-scifi@hotmail.com
It has often been said that science fiction is a literature of ideas. Through the use of familiar tropes, such as spaceships, aliens, and ray guns, the genre uses the future (and sometimes the past) to comment on the present--on current social, cultural, and political ideologies. Likewise, media directed at children often focus on advocating or criticizing similar ideologies, sometimes for a didactic purpose. It is interesting, then, that so little has been said about the joining of these two genres--children's science fiction--particularly when dealing with the visual media of film and television.
Toward this end, the proposed essay anthology To Infinity and Beyond: Science Fiction in Children's Film and Television will attempt to fill this gap in scholarship. It will primarily deal with how children's visual media use science fiction to promote or discourage certain ideologies. However, essays on other issues dealing with science fiction in children's programming--such as the encoding of science fiction tropes in children's media, conversations between children's film/TV and adult science fiction, science fictional elements in other genres, and the growing popularity of science fiction in children's visual media, etc--will be considered. A publisher has already shown interest in the collection.
Topics of Particular Interest
Lilo and Stitch
Flubber
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
Dexter's Laboratory
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Transformers
Land of the Lost
Lost in Space
Brain (from Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain)
We have already received many excellent proposals (including several over Doctor Who and the film Wall-E) and are looking for a few more to round out the collection. If interested in contributing to the collection, please send your CV and a 300-500 word abstract to R.C. Neighbors and Sandy Rankin (childrens-scifi@hotmail.com) by July 15th. (If a draft of the essay is already completed, please send it along with the other materials.) Graduate student submissions are welcome.
So many cool opportunities, so little time. Immediate ideas include Muppets from Space, Atomic Betty, Astro Boy, Futurama (which just got "renewed"!), Zixx Level Three and some sort of reworking of my co-authored paper with Neil Narine analyzing films depicting child gamers (which included quite a few sci-fi pics, The Last Starfighter, Flight of the Navigator, etc.). I'm not sure I'll have a chance to submit something, but it is nonetheless a very compelling idea for an edited collection.
Monday, June 08, 2009
Awesome Resource Alert: Open Thinking's massive list of online media/tech literacy vids
Wowza - talk about a treasure trove of valuable resources. Open Thinking is the personal and professional blog of Canadian academic Dr. Alec Couros, who is a professor of educational technology and media with the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina. The site is a self-described "growing collection of personal reflections and resources" touching upon various issues relating to media and tech literacy, from democratic media to pedagogical tools, to critical media literacy and questions of citizenship and social justice. In addition to many incredibly useful posts and discussions of these (and other) topics, Couros has now posted an extensive listing of 80+ online videos relevant to teaching, researching and presenting on media and tech literacy....thematically organized, with summaries (!!!), and as far as I can see all up-to-date and active. Some of these have made the rounds, some are taken from traditional media channels, some are user-generated, all are worth a gander.
Here's the link - enjoy!
Here's the link - enjoy!
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Opportunity for BC Academics (grad students and faculty)
In my search for funding and something to do now that the end of my thesis writing is finally in sight (well, in "end of summer" sight, but still!), I'm starting to think about new and different ways I might be able to apply my research and expertise. Our new grad chair recently mentioned the following, very interesting opportunity for collaboration with local companies called the MITACS ACCELERATE BC program, which brings together BC companies and academics on research projects of mutual interest. Here are the details:
For more information about the program (including past examples of funded internships) visit the MITACS ACCELERATE website.
The MITACS ACCELERATE BC program is currently accepting proposals from professors and graduate students/postdocs in any faculty or department for research projects conducted in collaboration with BC companies. This innovative internship program funds 4-, 8-, or 12-month research projects.
MITACS ACCELERATE is open to all university faculties and departments that train graduate students including Arts, Engineering, Humanities, Physical Sciences, Applied Sciences, Social Sciences and many more.
The MITACS ACCELERATE benefits for professors and grad students/postdocs:
* Provides an opportunity to apply expertise to challenging industrial issues
* Leverages your existing funding from industry
* Provides funding of a grad student/post-doc
* Provides a valuable career opportunity for grad students and postdocs
* Application process has limited paperwork; quick turnaround. Proposals are accepted at any time
* Foreign grad students and postdocs can participate
* Can help you to attract grad students and postdocs
Details:
The intern, under the supervision of a faculty member, spends approximately half of his/her time over a minimum four-month period onsite with an eligible BC partner (a company, industry association, not-for-profit or crown corporation) or in the field, developing a better understanding of a jointly-identified research problem of importance to the company. The balance of the intern’s time is spent at the university with a professor, developing a solution to the organization’s s challenge.
The company’s contribution of $7.5K per four-month internship unit is matched by MITACS, with funding support from the Government of BC and the Government of Canada. The intern receives a minimum of $10K of the $15K in funding, with the remaining $5K supporting other costs associated with the project.
Although internship proposals are accepted at any time, it is strongly recommended that for internships intended to commence Sep 1, 2009, proposals be received by MITACS by July 15, 2009. This will allow adequate time for peer-review and transfer of funds to the university. The MITACS business development team will assist you with the application process.
For more information, email internships@mitacs.ca...
There are a limited number of internships available with non-company organizations (including hospitals, government labs and agencies and not-for-profit societies), and with partners in other provinces. Please speak to a BC business development representative for more information before submitting a proposal.
For more information about the program (including past examples of funded internships) visit the MITACS ACCELERATE website.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Do Pink Ouija Boards Only Contact Girlie Spirits?
Via Celeste at Bust Blog (the magazine's online component), news that Parker Brothers (i.e. Hasbro) has recently launched a pink, sparkly Ouija Board game. This is in addition to their recent glitz-covered, bubble-gum pink edition of Scrabble. [Have girls ever felt excluded from Scrabble or its target audience?] Anyway...here's the description posted by Celeste:
Terrible! As IF Hasbro/Parker Bros feels the need to include extremely stereotypical pre-scripted questions...and as though girls couldn't come up with their own much more relevant and interesting questions. *sigh* Not to mention, of course, that girls HAVE been using Ouija boards just fine on their own for much longer than these branded versions have been around (and probably more so than guys, though I'd be interested in getting a hold of some stats on that. See Sadie's post at Jezebel making a similar point).
I'm actually more disturbed by the implications of the "Who will text me next?" cue cards than I am by the sparkly pink repackaging, which is likely designed more to attract much younger players than to appeal to older girls and teens. (btw: Have previous editions ever included question cards? We only ever played with an extremely old version (no cards, but the box was also ripped), and a quick search online didn't produce any evidence of cards in past editions, so I'm thinking no, which makes these cards and their contents all the MORE troubling).
In terms of the pink, though, while I obviously have pretty positive feelings about pink (as you can probably tell from this site), I'm also critical of the gender coding going on here and of how hugely problematic "pinkification" is generally as a marketing and design "solution"...problematic for everyone involved (promoting hyper-feminine stereotypes, excluding boys, subtly implying that non-prink things are therefore NOT for girls, etc., etc.). There are definitely some complex underlying issues here, and you can see some of the paradoxes play out in the post's "Comments" section. I've really appreciated the different perspectives Bust readers have expressed so far (isn't it supposed to be scary and doesn't pink sort of detract from the dark mystery of it all, why champion pink in some cases but not in others, etc.) and I also really like the author's (Celeste) assessment of the move:
Be sure to check out Amelie Gillette's article about the game over at AV Club as well. Funny (as always) and critical, her coverage incorporates some great satirical analysis of the game and it ridiculous cue cards, such as:
The official product description is also worth checking out for how the game is being positioned by its own marketing discourse (both hilarious and disturbing). It might also be worthwhile to think about how this all ties in (if at all) to the mounting buzz that Hasbro is planning to produce a Ouija movie (directed by Michael Bay no less). I think maybe the execs at Hasbro should do a little Ouija session of their own on that one...I predict it would that little plastic pink "planchette" about 0.1 seconds to position itself at "NO".
Even more absurd is the pinkification of the Ouija board. All of those girls playing Wiccan didn’t know what they were doing when they were trying to contact the dead and scare themselves silly. The twenty-first century (pink) edition knows what us girls really want to know with the question cards that come with the set. Don’t worry, they have the really important questions included like "who will text me next?" "Will I be a famous actress oneday?" "Who wishes they could trade places with me?" Now our beloved Ouija board is nothing more than a glorified fortune teller.
Terrible! As IF Hasbro/Parker Bros feels the need to include extremely stereotypical pre-scripted questions...and as though girls couldn't come up with their own much more relevant and interesting questions. *sigh* Not to mention, of course, that girls HAVE been using Ouija boards just fine on their own for much longer than these branded versions have been around (and probably more so than guys, though I'd be interested in getting a hold of some stats on that. See Sadie's post at Jezebel making a similar point).
I'm actually more disturbed by the implications of the "Who will text me next?" cue cards than I am by the sparkly pink repackaging, which is likely designed more to attract much younger players than to appeal to older girls and teens. (btw: Have previous editions ever included question cards? We only ever played with an extremely old version (no cards, but the box was also ripped), and a quick search online didn't produce any evidence of cards in past editions, so I'm thinking no, which makes these cards and their contents all the MORE troubling).
In terms of the pink, though, while I obviously have pretty positive feelings about pink (as you can probably tell from this site), I'm also critical of the gender coding going on here and of how hugely problematic "pinkification" is generally as a marketing and design "solution"...problematic for everyone involved (promoting hyper-feminine stereotypes, excluding boys, subtly implying that non-prink things are therefore NOT for girls, etc., etc.). There are definitely some complex underlying issues here, and you can see some of the paradoxes play out in the post's "Comments" section. I've really appreciated the different perspectives Bust readers have expressed so far (isn't it supposed to be scary and doesn't pink sort of detract from the dark mystery of it all, why champion pink in some cases but not in others, etc.) and I also really like the author's (Celeste) assessment of the move:
Apparently the people over at Parker Brothers think they’re the hot jock in a nineties movie taking on the task of making over that nerdy, artsy girl into a hot chick. [...] We get it already. Girls like pink. It doesn’t mean that every product targeted at them has to resemble bubblegum.
Be sure to check out Amelie Gillette's article about the game over at AV Club as well. Funny (as always) and critical, her coverage incorporates some great satirical analysis of the game and it ridiculous cue cards, such as:
OMG. It's true. Thinking up questions about your own life to ask the dead is hard! Sometimes you're at a slumber party, and someone brings out a Ouija board, and the only question you can think of is "Slom?" which isn't even a word or anything, and would probably just make the princess ghosts who float around waiting for someone to use a pink Ouija very, very angry if you asked it. And you don't want to get those princess ghosts angry, because when they're angry they just go around and punch sleeping girls right in the fallopian tubes, which, everybody knows, is how you get your first period. Yuck.
Obviously, it's much easier to use the question cards."Who will text me next?" "Who wishes they could trade places with me?" "How many calories am I burning off right now?" "How condescending is this Ouija For Girls game?" These are the questions that you want answered, girl!
The official product description is also worth checking out for how the game is being positioned by its own marketing discourse (both hilarious and disturbing). It might also be worthwhile to think about how this all ties in (if at all) to the mounting buzz that Hasbro is planning to produce a Ouija movie (directed by Michael Bay no less). I think maybe the execs at Hasbro should do a little Ouija session of their own on that one...I predict it would that little plastic pink "planchette" about 0.1 seconds to position itself at "NO".
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Kids in Virtual Worlds: Run Down of What's New (So Far) in 2009
I've been pretty immersed in the thesis lately and haven't had much time to post. However, as I have a number of items pertaining to kids' virtual worlds that I've been meaning to blog about just collecting dust and of no use to anyone 'till they go live, I figured I should just compile them together in a quick, informal list of "potential resources" or "stories of interest". I'll get back to full dedicated posts (and analysis) asap, but in the meantime...here's what's caught my eye of late:
Real Kids in Virtual Worlds
Via eMarketer, some great new figures and stats about kids' use of virtual worlds in the US. According to their data, 8 million US children and teens visited virtual worlds on a "regular basis" in 2008. They estimate that 37% of online children aged 3 to 11 years use virtual worlds "at least once a month" (a number they have also projected will grow, to 54% by 2013). The article comes with a handy-dandy table, reproduced below:
Interestingly, despite the highly commercial nature of so many of the virtual worlds designed and marketed to children, eMarketer seems to think the market is somehow lagging when it comes to advertising. As Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst and author of the new report Kids and Teens: Growing Up Virtual, states:
She should take a look at Nicktropolis if she thinks that's the case. Although I'm sure that what she "means" is third-party advertising, not branded vw's advertising their own properties...how that doesn't qualify as advertising, however, I'll never figure out.
Are Media Companies Missing The Virtual World Mark?
Michael Pole wrote this article for MediaPost describing all the ways he thinks media companies are "missing the virtual world mark" by failing to take advantage of "huge opportunities to market and monetize their content libraries in Casual Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) worlds." This includes failing to appreciate the power of "casual MMOs" to rally consumer communities around their favourite brands and products. As a counter example, i.e. "success stories" that have effectively applied this approach, he lists a number of kids' MMOs including Disney's Toontown, Pirates of the Caribbean and Club Penguin, Nickelodeon's Nicktropolis, and the Cartoon Network's Fusion Fall. Pole says: "This is just the beginning of a new trend in consumer entertainment, signaling an even greater opportunity for media companies to explore this burgeoning space."
He could have used the same or similar examples for his second point, that media companies are missing out on the new opportunities available within MMOs to "promote and monetize...content libraries and new franchises through micro-transactions, premium subscriptions, e-commerce, sponsorship and advertising." Webkinz and Club Penguin anyone??? The rest of the article goes over some of the economics of Casual MMOs (which can cost less than $3 million to develop...in contrast with "high-quality console-based videogames, which Pole says take between $10 and $50 million to develop), development schedules, and IP considerations. Overall, very informative article.
New Resource Alert: 360Kid Blog
Maintained by Scott Traylor, 360Kid Blog contains news and original research relating to kids and technology...esp. digital technologies, toys and games. So far, Traylor has posted this excellent analysis of Webkinz house designs, and an awesome article about virtual worlds play and web-enabled toys (reprinted from an article Traylor wrote for the May issue of Playthings Magazine). The site is a treasure trove for industry-pov analysis and discussion about many of the same issues and phenomena I discuss here at Gamine Expedition. A must see for anyone interested in kids and digital play. The blog is attached to a larger initiative, a company called 360KID, described on the blog "About Us" pages as:
Bookmark it!
Changes in Store for Kids' Virtual Worlds
Posted on AdWeek back in March (I told you I was behind!), this article by Mediaweek's Mike Shields describes how the kids' virtual worlds market should expect a "shake down" this year as advertisers pull back (or pull out) on their online advertising spending, as the current ad recession will likely dissuade advertisers from investing what little money is available in experimental forums (such as MMOs and other VWs). Shields overviews a presentation given by Strategy Analytics's Barry Gilbert at the Engage Expo! conference in New York, describing that while 2008 saw “an explosion of kids worlds...this year he predicts contraction and consolidation in the market as many of the dozens of kids/young-adult virtual worlds that launched in the past year may either merge or fold. “We don’t see it as a sustainable market,” he said. This appears to be particularly the case with "social worlds" - social networking based virtual worlds, as opposed to MMOGs, which were for the most part excluded from the figures and analysis given out during Gilbert's speech. Gilbert describes that although in 2008 "social" virtual worlds (not counting MMOGs) collectively pulled in $1.2 billion in revenue globally, only around 10 percent of that (approx. $125 million) came from advertising. As Sheilds writes, "He predicts that in '09 ad spending will decline to around $100 million and won’t bounce back until 2011."
So...does this mean that (casual) MMOGs for kids are all good, whereas social worlds are in trouble?
How Do MMOs Make Money?
Via MMOSite.com, coverage of a recent report released by market analyst DFC Intelligence examining how commercially successful MMOs make their money. The article points to World Of Warcraft as the "most successful MMO" with an estimated annual revenue of USD 500m, and to the estimated combined revenues of USD 1,875 million currently generated by the top ten MMOs in the world. The article then goes on to provide an overview of very interesting patterns among the "top ten MMOs", including:
The MMOSite.com article then switches gears a bit to examine just how these MMOs generate revenue for their operators and investors, looking at retail, subscriptions, virtual good sales and hybrid models. But what is perhaps of most interest/use is the 5 pages dedicated to listing and describing the top ten most profitable MMOs, complete with launch date, genre/platform, revenue sources, and (DFC Intelligence estimated) revenue generated in 2008 (well, the range anyway...they sure don't give out specifics too freely when it comes to revenue). Awesome! Here's a very quick reproduction of the list, sans graphics...be sure to check out the MMOSite original for the full effect:
Be sure to contrast these figures with the ones released by Screen Digest, which I posted about in March, dealing specifically with the North American + European markets. Some similarities, some differences...in doing so a more complete picture of the global MMOG market starts to come into focus. Also, be sure to check out this commentary by YPulse anastasia, which provides some analysis of the MMOSite article and its relevance to kids' marketers.
NPD - Six Million New Gamers In Last Year
Via Brandon Sheffield for Gamasutra, coverage of the 2009 DICE Summit talk by NPD Group senior analyst Anita Frazier, covering a bunch of trends analysis and projections relating to the digital games industry. Among her key findings, a number of interesting tidbits of info about gamer population sizes and demographics, including:
Love how all these stats just never add up, e.g. ESA's "Industry Facts", versus everyone else's.
Emerging Issues in In-Game Advertising
Another article from Gamasutra, this one written by Greg Boyd and Vejay Lalla, and providing a detailed overview of current issues, trends and challenges for in-game advertising. They provide some great stats, including confirmation that the global digital games industry generated approx. $40 billion in 2007, and that research firm Parks Associates estimated advertising in the game industry to be $370 million in 2006, growing to $2 billion by 2012. They review a number of issues to consider when thinking about integrating in-game advertising, from placement to measurement, to audience backlash. Compelling industry-pov read.
$594 Million Invested in Virtual Worlds in 2008
As reported in GameSpy, coverage of a report released earlier this year by Virtual Worlds Management that estimates roughly $594 Million was invested in virtual world companies in 2008. Impressive, given the state of the economy in 2008, but these numbers are still down from 2007's "spending binge" (as GameSpy calls it) of $1.4 billion. The article describes how only a fraction of the nearly $600 million went to funding large worlds aimed at "mature gamers"...instead, the bulk went into smaller, web-based games aimed at children and teens, as investors likely hope to reproduce the enduring success of Club Penguin andWebkinz.
The story was also covered by GigaOm's Wagner James Au, who writes:
In a related article, Au also talks about some of the VW revenue models that are attracting the most attention:
NPD: Kids choose digital content over physical format
Seeing as kids are exhibiting increasing comfort with and even preference for "digital only content", as described in this recent KidScreen article by Emily Claire Afan, the interest in monetizing kids' virtual worlds described in the previous article isn't all that surprising. Afan's article includes a bunch of useful info drawn from a the NPD Group's Kids and Digital Content III study report, which examined children's (aged 2 to 14 years) engagement with four different digital devices: computers, portable digital music/video players (PDMP), cell phones and video game systems. Items of note include:
- Convergence is on the rise: Although kids have traditionally used different devices (cell phone, laptop, handheld gaming console, etc.) for different types of content (e.g. ringtones on cell phones), NPD more cell phone users aged 2 to 14 years listened to music and sent/received images on their handsets than in previous years. Portable digital music/video player users also watched music videos on their portable players, and kids spent 12% of the time spent using video game systems watching movies.
- Overall usage for game consoles, PDMPs and computers has risen since 2007, mainly as a result of increased usage from kids between 9 and 14 years. However, use of these devices (including cell phones) among younger kids (under 9 years) was largely unchanged from previous years.
- Gaming is the most popular activity among child users: 85% of the child users play games, followed by music (60%). Roughly a third of kids surveyed watch videos and 22% download ringtones/tunes.
- Girls are using digital content more and more, and are "driving the increased growth in video game systems usage" from 50% usage in 2006 to 57% in 2008. Boys, on the other hand, are now watching more TV shows on digital devices than before.
- The largest increase in usage of digital devices occurs among 9-year-olds.
- Game-playing appears to be the first digital activity that younger children engage in: 82% of kids between 2 and 5 years play games on one or more of the devices surveyed.
And last but certainly not least:
5 Things You Should Know About Kids And Video Gaming
Written by MediaPost's Anne Marie Kelly, this article provides a wonderful amalgamation and analysis of some recent stats on kids and gaming drawn from the "2008 American Kids Study" conducted by Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI). According to MRI's study, 86.8% of kids aged 6 to 11 years played a video game in the last 30 days via one of four platforms (computer-based, hand-held, online, cell phone...29.1% played a video game on a cell phone!). Check out the original article for the full details...in the meantime, here's brief overview of the points she covers:
"1. Frequency of Play Increases With Age":
- Of the kids who played a digital game in the previous month: 27.1% played every single day. 35.1% of boys play every single day, while only 18.0% of girls play every single day.
- Propensity for daily play is highest among 10-11 year-olds. "children in this age group are 16% more likely to be daily players than gaming children as a whole."
- "Only 15.0% of kids 6-11 played less than once a week."
"2. The Need for Speed Trumps Board Games"
- 61.4% of child gamers listed action/adventure genre as their top picks, followed by racing at 46.0%, sports (34.0%), fighting (31.0%), puzzle/strategy (29.5%), educational (28.8%), and card/board games (24.9%).
"3. Deciding What to Play Involves Collaboration"
- Nearly half (44.4%) of the respondents said that decided what to play was a "collaborative effort between themselves and their parents." This was true of both boys and girls, and stayed about the same across the age range examined.
- Only 21.1% of kids said they got to choose on their own, while 23.0% said their parents made the decision alone.
"4. Collaboration Helps Dictate Game Ratings"
- Only 9.5% of kids 6-11 reported playing games rated Mature 17+. Among the 10-11 age group, this stat increased to 16.7%....14.3% boys and 3.9% girls.
"5. Word-of-Mouth Referrals Are Key"
- 63.5% of respondents said they learn about new games through recommendations from friends,
- 45.8% learn about new games from family members.
- 18.0% discover new games via Internet sites.
- 73.1% say they in turn recommend games to friends, and 56.8% recommend games to family members.
Phew! That's a lot of info to digest! Happy Reading and Happy Weekend!
Real Kids in Virtual Worlds
Via eMarketer, some great new figures and stats about kids' use of virtual worlds in the US. According to their data, 8 million US children and teens visited virtual worlds on a "regular basis" in 2008. They estimate that 37% of online children aged 3 to 11 years use virtual worlds "at least once a month" (a number they have also projected will grow, to 54% by 2013). The article comes with a handy-dandy table, reproduced below:
Interestingly, despite the highly commercial nature of so many of the virtual worlds designed and marketed to children, eMarketer seems to think the market is somehow lagging when it comes to advertising. As Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst and author of the new report Kids and Teens: Growing Up Virtual, states:
“Unfortunately, as with social networks, advertising has not kept pace with usage. Not surprisingly, the hype and fizzling out of Second Life, combined with the tough economy, have made some marketers skittish for virtual worlds in general.”
She should take a look at Nicktropolis if she thinks that's the case. Although I'm sure that what she "means" is third-party advertising, not branded vw's advertising their own properties...how that doesn't qualify as advertising, however, I'll never figure out.
Are Media Companies Missing The Virtual World Mark?
Michael Pole wrote this article for MediaPost describing all the ways he thinks media companies are "missing the virtual world mark" by failing to take advantage of "huge opportunities to market and monetize their content libraries in Casual Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) worlds." This includes failing to appreciate the power of "casual MMOs" to rally consumer communities around their favourite brands and products. As a counter example, i.e. "success stories" that have effectively applied this approach, he lists a number of kids' MMOs including Disney's Toontown, Pirates of the Caribbean and Club Penguin, Nickelodeon's Nicktropolis, and the Cartoon Network's Fusion Fall. Pole says: "This is just the beginning of a new trend in consumer entertainment, signaling an even greater opportunity for media companies to explore this burgeoning space."
He could have used the same or similar examples for his second point, that media companies are missing out on the new opportunities available within MMOs to "promote and monetize...content libraries and new franchises through micro-transactions, premium subscriptions, e-commerce, sponsorship and advertising." Webkinz and Club Penguin anyone??? The rest of the article goes over some of the economics of Casual MMOs (which can cost less than $3 million to develop...in contrast with "high-quality console-based videogames, which Pole says take between $10 and $50 million to develop), development schedules, and IP considerations. Overall, very informative article.
New Resource Alert: 360Kid Blog
Maintained by Scott Traylor, 360Kid Blog contains news and original research relating to kids and technology...esp. digital technologies, toys and games. So far, Traylor has posted this excellent analysis of Webkinz house designs, and an awesome article about virtual worlds play and web-enabled toys (reprinted from an article Traylor wrote for the May issue of Playthings Magazine). The site is a treasure trove for industry-pov analysis and discussion about many of the same issues and phenomena I discuss here at Gamine Expedition. A must see for anyone interested in kids and digital play. The blog is attached to a larger initiative, a company called 360KID, described on the blog "About Us" pages as:
"[A] kid-focused content and technology company dedicated to creating a love for learning by making quality products that educate as well as entertain. 360KID provides turnkey development services to the education, broadcasting, and toy industries. We are a multi-award winning and three time Emmy nominated company, creating educational products kids and teachers love."
Bookmark it!
Changes in Store for Kids' Virtual Worlds
Posted on AdWeek back in March (I told you I was behind!), this article by Mediaweek's Mike Shields describes how the kids' virtual worlds market should expect a "shake down" this year as advertisers pull back (or pull out) on their online advertising spending, as the current ad recession will likely dissuade advertisers from investing what little money is available in experimental forums (such as MMOs and other VWs). Shields overviews a presentation given by Strategy Analytics's Barry Gilbert at the Engage Expo! conference in New York, describing that while 2008 saw “an explosion of kids worlds...this year he predicts contraction and consolidation in the market as many of the dozens of kids/young-adult virtual worlds that launched in the past year may either merge or fold. “We don’t see it as a sustainable market,” he said. This appears to be particularly the case with "social worlds" - social networking based virtual worlds, as opposed to MMOGs, which were for the most part excluded from the figures and analysis given out during Gilbert's speech. Gilbert describes that although in 2008 "social" virtual worlds (not counting MMOGs) collectively pulled in $1.2 billion in revenue globally, only around 10 percent of that (approx. $125 million) came from advertising. As Sheilds writes, "He predicts that in '09 ad spending will decline to around $100 million and won’t bounce back until 2011."
So...does this mean that (casual) MMOGs for kids are all good, whereas social worlds are in trouble?
How Do MMOs Make Money?
Via MMOSite.com, coverage of a recent report released by market analyst DFC Intelligence examining how commercially successful MMOs make their money. The article points to World Of Warcraft as the "most successful MMO" with an estimated annual revenue of USD 500m, and to the estimated combined revenues of USD 1,875 million currently generated by the top ten MMOs in the world. The article then goes on to provide an overview of very interesting patterns among the "top ten MMOs", including:
Only one of the top-ten MMOs (Lineage) was launched in the 1990's whereas all others have been launched in this decade.
MMOs are distributed fairly equitably around the most significant global market territories i.e. North America, Europe, Asia (Korea, Japan and China). Many of these games target global markets and are active in various territories.
MMOs have a wide diversity of styles and demographically targeted groups with children, teenage and young adult markets all well-represented.
The majority of the top-ten MMOS are in the fantasy genre. This is typical of emerging game markets. Fantasy is typically the first successful genre to be commercialised because it tends to attract early-adopter gamers first.
The MMOSite.com article then switches gears a bit to examine just how these MMOs generate revenue for their operators and investors, looking at retail, subscriptions, virtual good sales and hybrid models. But what is perhaps of most interest/use is the 5 pages dedicated to listing and describing the top ten most profitable MMOs, complete with launch date, genre/platform, revenue sources, and (DFC Intelligence estimated) revenue generated in 2008 (well, the range anyway...they sure don't give out specifics too freely when it comes to revenue). Awesome! Here's a very quick reproduction of the list, sans graphics...be sure to check out the MMOSite original for the full effect:
1. World of Warcraft (2004-present) "Western MMORPG", client-install software. Revenue sources: Monthly subscription, retails sales, prepaid cards; DFC estimated 2008 revenue: USD $500 million+
2. Fantasy Westward Journey (2004-present), "Asian MMORPG", client-install software. Revenue sources: Prepaid cards; USD $150-$500 million
3. Maple Story (2003-present), MMORPG "for kids" (hmmm...but they say 13+, don't they?), client-install software. Revenue sources: Microtransactions, prepaid cards, international licensing; USD $150-$500 million
4. Legend of Mir and World of Legend series (by Shanda) (2003-present), "Asian MMORPG", client-install software. Revenue sources: Prepaid cards, virtual item sales, Freemium (??), subscriptions, USD $150-$500 million
5. Lineage I (1998-present) and Lineage II (2003-present), "Asian MMORPG", client-install software. Revenue sources: Subscription, prepaid cards; USD $150-$500 million
6. Runescape (2001-present), "Western MMORPG", web-based. Revenue sources: Premium subscription, prepaid cards, real-world advertising; USD $50-$150 million
7. Club Penguin (2006-present), "Virtual world for kids", web-based. Revenue sources: Premium subscriptions, prepaid game cards, [ADD: micro-transactions through trading cards, toys]; USD $50-$150 million
8. Lord of the Rings Online (2007-present), "Western MMORPG", client-install software. Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales; USD $50-$150 million
9. Warhammer Online (launch?-present), "Western MMORPG", client-install software. Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales; USD $50-$150 million
10. Age of Conan (2008-present) "Western MMORPG", client-install software. Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales; USD $50-$150 million
Be sure to contrast these figures with the ones released by Screen Digest, which I posted about in March, dealing specifically with the North American + European markets. Some similarities, some differences...in doing so a more complete picture of the global MMOG market starts to come into focus. Also, be sure to check out this commentary by YPulse anastasia, which provides some analysis of the MMOSite article and its relevance to kids' marketers.
NPD - Six Million New Gamers In Last Year
Via Brandon Sheffield for Gamasutra, coverage of the 2009 DICE Summit talk by NPD Group senior analyst Anita Frazier, covering a bunch of trends analysis and projections relating to the digital games industry. Among her key findings, a number of interesting tidbits of info about gamer population sizes and demographics, including:
In total, 61% of the US population now games...an increase of 6 million gamers from the previous year.
"About half of unit sales are for kids 17 and under. The retail market is very dominated by young people." The audience is 72 percent male, but women control "about half the spending in video games," says Frazier, reminding us that casual and more family-oriented games are spurring industry growth.
Love how all these stats just never add up, e.g. ESA's "Industry Facts", versus everyone else's.
Emerging Issues in In-Game Advertising
Another article from Gamasutra, this one written by Greg Boyd and Vejay Lalla, and providing a detailed overview of current issues, trends and challenges for in-game advertising. They provide some great stats, including confirmation that the global digital games industry generated approx. $40 billion in 2007, and that research firm Parks Associates estimated advertising in the game industry to be $370 million in 2006, growing to $2 billion by 2012. They review a number of issues to consider when thinking about integrating in-game advertising, from placement to measurement, to audience backlash. Compelling industry-pov read.
$594 Million Invested in Virtual Worlds in 2008
As reported in GameSpy, coverage of a report released earlier this year by Virtual Worlds Management that estimates roughly $594 Million was invested in virtual world companies in 2008. Impressive, given the state of the economy in 2008, but these numbers are still down from 2007's "spending binge" (as GameSpy calls it) of $1.4 billion. The article describes how only a fraction of the nearly $600 million went to funding large worlds aimed at "mature gamers"...instead, the bulk went into smaller, web-based games aimed at children and teens, as investors likely hope to reproduce the enduring success of Club Penguin andWebkinz.
The story was also covered by GigaOm's Wagner James Au, who writes:
[M]uch of last year’s investment also went into worlds aimed at kids and teens, which continue to enjoy enormous audience growth. (The largest, Habbo, is almost as popular as World of Warcraft, and profitable with far less development costs.) By VWM's tabulations, 19 kid-oriented companies saw '08 investment, compared with 11 virtual worlds for adults — though in my observation, the latter category actually includes several worlds such as YoVille and Metaplace that also strive for teen appeal.
In a related article, Au also talks about some of the VW revenue models that are attracting the most attention:
Most youth-oriented virtual worlds are free to play, depending on such methods as "freemium" upgrade subscription, microtransactions, and gift card purchases for revenue. Which explains why so much 2008 money went into companies that monetize virtual worlds in these ways and others — $64.7 million for five companies, according to VWM.
NPD: Kids choose digital content over physical format
Seeing as kids are exhibiting increasing comfort with and even preference for "digital only content", as described in this recent KidScreen article by Emily Claire Afan, the interest in monetizing kids' virtual worlds described in the previous article isn't all that surprising. Afan's article includes a bunch of useful info drawn from a the NPD Group's Kids and Digital Content III study report, which examined children's (aged 2 to 14 years) engagement with four different digital devices: computers, portable digital music/video players (PDMP), cell phones and video game systems. Items of note include:
- Convergence is on the rise: Although kids have traditionally used different devices (cell phone, laptop, handheld gaming console, etc.) for different types of content (e.g. ringtones on cell phones), NPD more cell phone users aged 2 to 14 years listened to music and sent/received images on their handsets than in previous years. Portable digital music/video player users also watched music videos on their portable players, and kids spent 12% of the time spent using video game systems watching movies.
- Overall usage for game consoles, PDMPs and computers has risen since 2007, mainly as a result of increased usage from kids between 9 and 14 years. However, use of these devices (including cell phones) among younger kids (under 9 years) was largely unchanged from previous years.
- Gaming is the most popular activity among child users: 85% of the child users play games, followed by music (60%). Roughly a third of kids surveyed watch videos and 22% download ringtones/tunes.
- Girls are using digital content more and more, and are "driving the increased growth in video game systems usage" from 50% usage in 2006 to 57% in 2008. Boys, on the other hand, are now watching more TV shows on digital devices than before.
- The largest increase in usage of digital devices occurs among 9-year-olds.
- Game-playing appears to be the first digital activity that younger children engage in: 82% of kids between 2 and 5 years play games on one or more of the devices surveyed.
And last but certainly not least:
5 Things You Should Know About Kids And Video Gaming
Written by MediaPost's Anne Marie Kelly, this article provides a wonderful amalgamation and analysis of some recent stats on kids and gaming drawn from the "2008 American Kids Study" conducted by Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI). According to MRI's study, 86.8% of kids aged 6 to 11 years played a video game in the last 30 days via one of four platforms (computer-based, hand-held, online, cell phone...29.1% played a video game on a cell phone!). Check out the original article for the full details...in the meantime, here's brief overview of the points she covers:
"1. Frequency of Play Increases With Age":
- Of the kids who played a digital game in the previous month: 27.1% played every single day. 35.1% of boys play every single day, while only 18.0% of girls play every single day.
- Propensity for daily play is highest among 10-11 year-olds. "children in this age group are 16% more likely to be daily players than gaming children as a whole."
- "Only 15.0% of kids 6-11 played less than once a week."
"2. The Need for Speed Trumps Board Games"
- 61.4% of child gamers listed action/adventure genre as their top picks, followed by racing at 46.0%, sports (34.0%), fighting (31.0%), puzzle/strategy (29.5%), educational (28.8%), and card/board games (24.9%).
"3. Deciding What to Play Involves Collaboration"
- Nearly half (44.4%) of the respondents said that decided what to play was a "collaborative effort between themselves and their parents." This was true of both boys and girls, and stayed about the same across the age range examined.
- Only 21.1% of kids said they got to choose on their own, while 23.0% said their parents made the decision alone.
"4. Collaboration Helps Dictate Game Ratings"
- Only 9.5% of kids 6-11 reported playing games rated Mature 17+. Among the 10-11 age group, this stat increased to 16.7%....14.3% boys and 3.9% girls.
"5. Word-of-Mouth Referrals Are Key"
- 63.5% of respondents said they learn about new games through recommendations from friends,
- 45.8% learn about new games from family members.
- 18.0% discover new games via Internet sites.
- 73.1% say they in turn recommend games to friends, and 56.8% recommend games to family members.
Phew! That's a lot of info to digest! Happy Reading and Happy Weekend!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Awesome Resource Alert: Journal Issue on Kids and Technological Environments
I've been perusing the recent issue (vol. 19, no.1) of Children, Youth and Environments (after receiving an alert in my inbox), and thought it might be of interest to many of you. The issue theme is "Children and Technological Environments" and includes a number of excellent articles by academics I'd never come across before, but who are doing very interesting and innovative research on kids and technology in a variety of contexts. Here's the issue description:
It's so great to find a new resource, and a new body of work that shares so many parallels to my own. You can access the journal here for free (with registration). I particularly recommend Gregory T. Donovan and Cindi Katz's article entitled "Cookie Monsters: Seeing Young People's Hacking as Creative Practice", as well as Nicholas A. Holt and Douglas A. Kleiber's article "The Sirens' Song of Multiplayer Online Games".
Enjoy!
Children, Youth and Environments has just published a special issue on "Children and Technological Environments." It features a substantive introduction by the guest editors, Nathan G. Freier and Peter H. Kahn, Jr., and 14 high-quality, peer-reviewed articles on such topics as interactive humanoid robots, digital libraries, virtual natural environments, video and online games, hacking, assistive technologies for children with learning disabilities, and learning by doing with shareable interfaces. The authors include leading researchers from the U.S., Britain and Japan.
It's so great to find a new resource, and a new body of work that shares so many parallels to my own. You can access the journal here for free (with registration). I particularly recommend Gregory T. Donovan and Cindi Katz's article entitled "Cookie Monsters: Seeing Young People's Hacking as Creative Practice", as well as Nicholas A. Holt and Douglas A. Kleiber's article "The Sirens' Song of Multiplayer Online Games".
Enjoy!
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Hasbro TV
I've been a bit slow to the punch with this one, but since it's become a mini-hotbed of controversy, I figured I should go ahead and add my two cents. Last week toy giant Hasbro, the makers of Transformers and My Little Pony (among many, many others), announced it was teaming up with Discovery to launch a new television network featuring, you guessed it, "content built around the toymaker’s brands". Here's an excerpt of Plaything coverage of the announcement details:
The partnership will also mean an early retirement for the Discovery Kids Network, although apparently the "Discovery Kids" brand will continue on as a merchandising brand and on international networks. It's especially sad that a full-blown product-centric network will be replacing one originally conceived as an educational network...even if Discovery Kids was already pretty heavily commercialized. The message this announcement sends is loud and clear...the children's industries are ready to take on the last weary sentinel of children's media regulation, the separation (no matter how minute) of ads and content. Although governmental regulation of advertising to children has waned significantly, old policies restricting certain types of cross-promotional activities within television programs or time blocks directed specifically at children have somehow survived. And although its become increasingly difficult to have programs labelled as "program-length commercials" anymore, it's hard to imagine that the FCC (or CARU at the very least) won't be forced to investigate the ethics and legality of an whole children's network built entirely around product placement.
Children's advocacy groups are already calling foul. As Ira Teinowitz writes on The Wrap, the Hasbro/Discovery deal "may wave a red flag in front of regulators already worried about TV product placement and embedded advertising," and groups such as the Center for Digital Democracy, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) and Commercial Alert are making sure that red flag isn't ignored. For example, as Jeff Chester, exec director of the Center for Digital Democracy, describes (in Teinowitz's article):
and from Susan Linn, director of the CCFC:
and from Robert Weissman, managing director of Commercial Alert:
Of course, there are also various statements and articles that take a more pessimistic approach, claiming that with all the licensing, cross-media partnerships, product placement, branding and merchandising already prevalent within children's television and other media, a toy-based network wouldn't make much of a difference. But although it might seem that way (especially with examples like the Disney channel floating around), it's not necessarily the same. Starting with a clearly defined product-centric strategy does impact on the contents of the resulting media texts...product cycles can put serious strains on creativity and enforce rigid (economic-driven) structural demands on character development, narrative, etc. Think of the formulaic plotlines found in every episode of Pokemon you've ever seen and you'll see what I'm getting at. And it certainly does impact upon the relationships kids are able to build with their toys AND their media (not to mention play, and all the other realms of activity at the centre of the commercialization debates) when every point of contact is telling them that the only (or at least most important) way to engage is to buy/collect/consume. For more on this, I refer you once again to Buckingham and Sefton-Green's article explaining why collectible toy-centric media (a category in which Transformers, Tonka and My Little Pony certainly belong) are so uniquely effective and devious, entitled Gotta Catch 'em All: Structure, Agency and Pedagogy in Children's Media Culture - it does a great job of balancing out the different p.o.v.'s, while still coming to some pretty clear and useful conclusions about the role of toy-based media brands in contemporary childhood.
Besides which, I just have to say that just because product-placement is prevalent within children's media culture (oftentimes in bold defiance of the regulations against it) doesn't mean that newer, more audacious developments don't warrant public scrutiny and resistance. What this partnership communicates is that left unchecked the children's industries will just continue to push at the limits of what society deems to be an acceptable level of commercialization (and commercial exploitation) in children's culture until they're reigned in or passed the point of no return (which is usually bad news for everyone involved). Or they fail miserably (on that note, I can't wait to see what the Mommy Blogs have to say about this). Either way, this Hasbro deal could present a good locus for increased public (including kids!) engagement on these issues.
For more on the Hasbro deal, check out this recent article by Claude Brodesser-Akner for Advertising Age on Habro's Transformer-ation from toy maker to entertainment powerhouse, courtesy of the CCFC, or this article in the Wall Street Journal.
And be sure to read the full statements released by the CCFC and Commercial Alert.
Both the network and the venture’s online component will feature content from Hasbro’s portfolio of entertainment and educational properties, including original programming for animation, game shows and live-action series and specials. New children’s and family entertainment and educational programming will be based on brands such as Romper Room, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, Cranium, My Little Pony, G.I. Joe, Game of Life, Tonka and Transformers, among others. The TV network and online presence also will include content from Discovery’s library of children’s educational programming, such as Bindi The Jungle Girl, Endurance, Tutenstein, Hi-5, Flight 29 Down and Peep and the Big Wide World, as well as programming from third-party producers. Creative work will start in the next few months, the company says, beginning with early stage development for properties including Romper Room, Tonka, G.I. Joe, Transformers and My Little Pony.
The partnership will also mean an early retirement for the Discovery Kids Network, although apparently the "Discovery Kids" brand will continue on as a merchandising brand and on international networks. It's especially sad that a full-blown product-centric network will be replacing one originally conceived as an educational network...even if Discovery Kids was already pretty heavily commercialized. The message this announcement sends is loud and clear...the children's industries are ready to take on the last weary sentinel of children's media regulation, the separation (no matter how minute) of ads and content. Although governmental regulation of advertising to children has waned significantly, old policies restricting certain types of cross-promotional activities within television programs or time blocks directed specifically at children have somehow survived. And although its become increasingly difficult to have programs labelled as "program-length commercials" anymore, it's hard to imagine that the FCC (or CARU at the very least) won't be forced to investigate the ethics and legality of an whole children's network built entirely around product placement.
Children's advocacy groups are already calling foul. As Ira Teinowitz writes on The Wrap, the Hasbro/Discovery deal "may wave a red flag in front of regulators already worried about TV product placement and embedded advertising," and groups such as the Center for Digital Democracy, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) and Commercial Alert are making sure that red flag isn't ignored. For example, as Jeff Chester, exec director of the Center for Digital Democracy, describes (in Teinowitz's article):
“The [Federal Communications Communications] already has an open proceeding on embedded advertising. This proposed network raises issues for the children’s market that policy makers are going to have to deal with.”
and from Susan Linn, director of the CCFC:
“Hasbro's deal means that the new network will be one long infomercial aimed at children...As evident from TV programs like the Bratz and others, the FCC doesn't seem to equate program-length commercials with product placement--but they should.
and from Robert Weissman, managing director of Commercial Alert:
“It’s very hard, to see this as anything but a scheme to deliver program length advertisements to children and a massive loophole in the current rules."
Of course, there are also various statements and articles that take a more pessimistic approach, claiming that with all the licensing, cross-media partnerships, product placement, branding and merchandising already prevalent within children's television and other media, a toy-based network wouldn't make much of a difference. But although it might seem that way (especially with examples like the Disney channel floating around), it's not necessarily the same. Starting with a clearly defined product-centric strategy does impact on the contents of the resulting media texts...product cycles can put serious strains on creativity and enforce rigid (economic-driven) structural demands on character development, narrative, etc. Think of the formulaic plotlines found in every episode of Pokemon you've ever seen and you'll see what I'm getting at. And it certainly does impact upon the relationships kids are able to build with their toys AND their media (not to mention play, and all the other realms of activity at the centre of the commercialization debates) when every point of contact is telling them that the only (or at least most important) way to engage is to buy/collect/consume. For more on this, I refer you once again to Buckingham and Sefton-Green's article explaining why collectible toy-centric media (a category in which Transformers, Tonka and My Little Pony certainly belong) are so uniquely effective and devious, entitled Gotta Catch 'em All: Structure, Agency and Pedagogy in Children's Media Culture - it does a great job of balancing out the different p.o.v.'s, while still coming to some pretty clear and useful conclusions about the role of toy-based media brands in contemporary childhood.
Besides which, I just have to say that just because product-placement is prevalent within children's media culture (oftentimes in bold defiance of the regulations against it) doesn't mean that newer, more audacious developments don't warrant public scrutiny and resistance. What this partnership communicates is that left unchecked the children's industries will just continue to push at the limits of what society deems to be an acceptable level of commercialization (and commercial exploitation) in children's culture until they're reigned in or passed the point of no return (which is usually bad news for everyone involved). Or they fail miserably (on that note, I can't wait to see what the Mommy Blogs have to say about this). Either way, this Hasbro deal could present a good locus for increased public (including kids!) engagement on these issues.
For more on the Hasbro deal, check out this recent article by Claude Brodesser-Akner for Advertising Age on Habro's Transformer-ation from toy maker to entertainment powerhouse, courtesy of the CCFC, or this article in the Wall Street Journal.
And be sure to read the full statements released by the CCFC and Commercial Alert.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Hey Kids! Take Your DS to School
Via Kotaku, news about some fascinating international initiatives aimed at better incorporating videogames into school curriculum. While North America continues to lag behind in this area, school districts in the UK and Japan are making significant leaps and bounds toward finding viable educational applications for various digital gaming technologies, particularly the Nintendo DS (and now DSi). As Kotaku's AJ Glasser writes,
While The Consolarium provides suggestions about which games (and systems) might be most amenable to curriculum development (such as Brain Age), it also encourages schools and teachers to be experimental and try out other games and approaches. As Robertson (cited by Glasser) explains, "Our main approach is not to prescribe a series of lesson plans but to suggest how the game, be it Nintendogs or Hotel Dusk, can be used as the contextual hub about which learning in a variety of curricular links can grow from."
The Consolarium seems to be filling a crucial function in the movement to "digitize" the classroom, that of providing support and resources to teachers who would like to integrate new media into their teaching, but don't always have the skills and/or tools to do so. The need for a "Digital Teacher Corp" was recently identified by the Joan Ganz Cooney Centre as a key priority in raising student engagement and updating classroom curriculum. As Cooney Centre Industry Fellow Carly Shuler writes in her recent report Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children's Learning (download the full report here):
In follow up to the report, the Cooney Centre's Levine and Thai wrote in a recent article for the New York Daily News:
Looks like The Consolarium might be a good place to start when it comes time to articulate the model for how this "Digital Teachers Corps" might work.
"Leading the charge toward a Nintenducation in the UK is Scotland. Their Centre for Games and Learning (aka The Consolarium) is an extension of the Scottish Government Schools Directorate that presents teachers and education administrators with ideas for implementing all kinds of gaming consoles into schools.
Derek Robertson, National Adviser for Emerging Technologies and Learning and administrator of the Consolarium, says that the use of the DS in schools is now commonplace, compared to when he first introduced the consoles to schools in 2006. "Initially I purchased 30 [Nintendo DS consoles] and carried out my first Dr. Kawashima [aka Brain Age] trial. The extended trial saw us handing out over 450 consoles to support our project."
While The Consolarium provides suggestions about which games (and systems) might be most amenable to curriculum development (such as Brain Age), it also encourages schools and teachers to be experimental and try out other games and approaches. As Robertson (cited by Glasser) explains, "Our main approach is not to prescribe a series of lesson plans but to suggest how the game, be it Nintendogs or Hotel Dusk, can be used as the contextual hub about which learning in a variety of curricular links can grow from."
The Consolarium seems to be filling a crucial function in the movement to "digitize" the classroom, that of providing support and resources to teachers who would like to integrate new media into their teaching, but don't always have the skills and/or tools to do so. The need for a "Digital Teacher Corp" was recently identified by the Joan Ganz Cooney Centre as a key priority in raising student engagement and updating classroom curriculum. As Cooney Centre Industry Fellow Carly Shuler writes in her recent report Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children's Learning (download the full report here):
"Teachers cannot teach with devices they do not understand. Professional development is essential to the future of mobile learning. Perhaps most important is to avoid a problem that has often occurred with the incorporation of technology into education in general: It is not just a matter of showing teachers how to use the devices; rather, it is crucial to show them how to use them within their curriculum."
In follow up to the report, the Cooney Centre's Levine and Thai wrote in a recent article for the New York Daily News:
"We should start by introducing digital innovation in every school. Teachers are resistant to using digital technologies because they cannot teach what they do not know. Schools of education and professional development programs are using a Stone Age approach to deploying games in classrooms. That should change now.
As a down payment to President Obama and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's challenge to improve school outcomes and teacher quality, we propose the establishment of a Digital Teachers Corps. It would integrate new digital games from research-tested educational media programs such as Sesame Workshop's "The Electric Company" to improve children's essential literacy and math skills and to attack the weak performance of English-language learners across subjects. Games and simulations perfected by our military institutions and medical schools could be adapted to teach higher-level content in science and technology as well as world languages - all areas where the U.S. has fallen behind."
Looks like The Consolarium might be a good place to start when it comes time to articulate the model for how this "Digital Teachers Corps" might work.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Paid to Play - Club Penguin Recognizes Playbour, Cont'd
Quick update on the Club Penguin story. This week's edition of the Club Penguin Times provides further details about the new salary feature: Starting May 1st penguins who "work" as tour guides and/or secret agents will be "paid" 250 Coins a month (per position, which means that some industrious penguins can earn 500/mnth). They'll receive their "paychecks" through Penguin Mail. Too cute!! :) BTW: Check out this article on Associated Content about "What the New York Times Can Learn from Club Penguin", which describes how the Club Penguin Times has an "average monthly readership of about 6.7 million readers a month"...yowza!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Paid to Play - Club Penguin Recognizes Playbour
Wow...I'm so impressed by Club Penguin's most recent developer blog post, a.k.a. Community news post, announcing that they will soon be "paying" members who perform community services in-game. They're not giving many details yet, but the post is titled "Penguins Getting Paid!", and includes the following teaser description:
Payment will no doubt come in the form of coins or items, of course, but it's a payment nonetheless. The reason I'm impressed is that by "paying" players for their contributions Club Penguin is acknowledging the value of the players' "immaterial labour". Players' willingness to perform (virtual) community services is often an important of part of virtual worlds -- it helps to ensure that in-game communities run smoothly, and fosters inclusiveness and camaraderie among players. Many games "offload" community building activities onto players. Well, offload is perhaps a strong word, since determining the nature of one's own "community" is empowering and a huge part of what makes virtual worlds so appealing. But even if the tasks are undertaken voluntarily, that doesn't mean they aren't also productive, generating a form of immaterial labour or "playbour" necessary for "producing" the virtual world experience, which is then promoted and sold to other players (via membership fees, etc.). Recognizing the value of this labour is a key step in preventing its exploitation, so kudos to Club Penguin for further empowering its young players and communicating to them that their time and energy is a valuable and important part of the site (and a key component of its business model).
With the spread of virtual communities and player-generated content, immaterial labour is becoming an increasingly relevant area of debate and study. Check out the following sources for further discussion of the various issues involved:
Julian Kücklich (2005) "Precarious Playbour: Modders and the Digital Games Industry", Fibreculture Journal, issue 5.
Greig de Peuter and Nick Dyer-Witheford (2005) "A Playful Multitude? Mobilising and Counter-Mobilising Immaterial Game Labour", Fibreculture Journal, issue 5.
Andrew Herman, Rosemary J. Coombe & Lewis Kaye (2006) "YOUR SECOND LIFE? Goodwill and the performativity of intellectual property in online digital gaming", Cultural Studies, Vol. 20, Nos 2/3, pp.184-210.
Terranova, Tiziana (2000) "Free Labor: Producing Culture for the Digital Economy", Social Text, 18(2), pp.33-58.
Pybus, Jennifer (2007) "Affect and Subjectivity: A Case Study of Neopets.com", Politics and Culture, issue 2.
Côté, Mark and Jennifer Pybus (2007) "Learning to Immaterial Labour 2.0: MySpace and Social Networks", Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization, 7(1), pp.88-106
Or (if you have subscription access) my own paper from a couple of years ago: Grimes, Sara M. (2006) "Online Multiplayer Gaming: A Virtual Space for Intellectual Property Debates?", New Media & Society, 8(6), pp.969-990.
"Have you ever thought about taking the quizzes to become a tour guide or PSA (Penguin Secret Agent)? If your penguin is old enough, and you're interested in helping out around the island, you might want to consider the challenge... It's going to be announced in the newspaper later this week that starting May 1st, penguins will get paid every month for doing those jobs!"
Payment will no doubt come in the form of coins or items, of course, but it's a payment nonetheless. The reason I'm impressed is that by "paying" players for their contributions Club Penguin is acknowledging the value of the players' "immaterial labour". Players' willingness to perform (virtual) community services is often an important of part of virtual worlds -- it helps to ensure that in-game communities run smoothly, and fosters inclusiveness and camaraderie among players. Many games "offload" community building activities onto players. Well, offload is perhaps a strong word, since determining the nature of one's own "community" is empowering and a huge part of what makes virtual worlds so appealing. But even if the tasks are undertaken voluntarily, that doesn't mean they aren't also productive, generating a form of immaterial labour or "playbour" necessary for "producing" the virtual world experience, which is then promoted and sold to other players (via membership fees, etc.). Recognizing the value of this labour is a key step in preventing its exploitation, so kudos to Club Penguin for further empowering its young players and communicating to them that their time and energy is a valuable and important part of the site (and a key component of its business model).
With the spread of virtual communities and player-generated content, immaterial labour is becoming an increasingly relevant area of debate and study. Check out the following sources for further discussion of the various issues involved:
Julian Kücklich (2005) "Precarious Playbour: Modders and the Digital Games Industry", Fibreculture Journal, issue 5.
Greig de Peuter and Nick Dyer-Witheford (2005) "A Playful Multitude? Mobilising and Counter-Mobilising Immaterial Game Labour", Fibreculture Journal, issue 5.
Andrew Herman, Rosemary J. Coombe & Lewis Kaye (2006) "YOUR SECOND LIFE? Goodwill and the performativity of intellectual property in online digital gaming", Cultural Studies, Vol. 20, Nos 2/3, pp.184-210.
Terranova, Tiziana (2000) "Free Labor: Producing Culture for the Digital Economy", Social Text, 18(2), pp.33-58.
Pybus, Jennifer (2007) "Affect and Subjectivity: A Case Study of Neopets.com", Politics and Culture, issue 2.
Côté, Mark and Jennifer Pybus (2007) "Learning to Immaterial Labour 2.0: MySpace and Social Networks", Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization, 7(1), pp.88-106
Or (if you have subscription access) my own paper from a couple of years ago: Grimes, Sara M. (2006) "Online Multiplayer Gaming: A Virtual Space for Intellectual Property Debates?", New Media & Society, 8(6), pp.969-990.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Virtual Playground Monitors
Via yesterday's New York Times, a great article by Leslie Berlin (who is the project historian for the Silicon Valley Archives at Stanford) about the different techniques and technologies used to moderate children's virtual worlds for inappropriate/dangerous content and risky behaviours. The article focuses on vw's that try to monitor "intent as well as content"...rather than simply blocking keywords or limiting communication altogether. It also describes that bullying and disclosing personal info remain the most common dangers faced by young people online. According to Berlin, the biggest challenges for vw moderators are keeping up with "user innovations" aimed at bypassing moderation tools (such as "workarounds" or "secret codes"), as well as striking a balance between technological solutions and human judgement when it comes to deciding which words, workarounds and behaviours should ultimately be filtered out. However, this "balance" is becoming increasingly reliant on technology and sophisticated in-game surveillance tools. She describes the process as "a continuing game of cat and mouse between the young people and the technology designed to protect them." For instance:
Berlin goes on to describe that the NetModerator program is already being used in a number of virtual worlds for children, including Cartoon Network's FusionFall, which uses the software to monitor open chat and player-to-player e-mail. Is this reminding anyone else of Minority Report? Private surveillance technologies being used for extensive data-mining and profiling...not exactly what pops into your mind when you think of a playground monitor, nevermind the deeper questions this raises about how these particular "patterns" are established and what other behavioural trends are being tracked concurrently.
For instance, another example described in the article is a new technology by Keibi Technologies, which is used to "determine whether user-generated content — like videos, images and text — contains objectionable material." It also builds a profile of every person who uploads content, and is currently used by "several sites aimed at children and teenagers"...which makes those profiles all the more comprehensive (and potentially invasive).
In some cases, using these tools has allowed sites to reduce moderator staff from over 20 people to just 3 or 4. But of course, the sites and designers don't want us thinking that they're relying solely on automated filter software (which has in the past proven itself almost invariably ineffective and/or overly-restricting). The argument is that because so much of the obvious stuff is being flagged by the system, moderators now have more time to focus on the "subtle or hard-to-interpret messages"...interactions and behaviours that aren't outright "offensive", but that may hint at something much more serious (such as the suspected presence of a predator, or that a user may be suicidal). The work that moderators do is definitely incredibly important -- particularly in children's websites -- it's difficult, complicated and for the most part surprisingly undervalued. If these technologies are truly making their jobs easier and allowing them to get into the grey areas a bit more, then that's great...but seeing as so much gets by moderation systems as it is, and that even the most advanced software still can't accurately predict human intention...and seeing that the increased reliance on automated systems is resulting in drastic reductions of human moderator staff rather than a simple shift in focus...it kind of makes this whole line of argumentation pretty sketchy.
Berlin and her interviewees also describe some of the "workarounds" that kids and teens use to circumvent filter technologies, highlighting the continued weakness of these systems. For example, they use:
The article also has some useful stats about growth in the kids' vw sector, such as:
My big takeaways from this article? The sense that the more things change the more things stay the same...despite the big push for "safety first" in many of these sites and guarantees of 24 hour human moderator services, there's still a huge drive to rely on technologies that seem...for the most part...not all that different from the automated filter systems of five years ago. More sophisticated maybe, but not exactly a horse of a different colour. Second - more and more evidence of the huge piles of data being amassed in these sites, as well as the troubling convergence of surveillance and profiling...using "safety and security" as an excuse to not only monitor and analyze children's behaviours online, but also to make decisions about them based on "predicted intentions." Third - the incorporation of UGC into the mix....I'm sure they are definitely looking for offensive materials, but how is that measured, what are they looking for, whose interests are being prioritized (corporate copyright regimes, anyone?), what's the impact on free speech/expression, and...of course...what else are they looking at (likes, personal habits, consumer trends, etc.).
NetModerator, a software tool built by Crisp Thinking, a private company based in Leeds, England, can monitor online chat “for intent as well as content,” says Andrew Lintell, the company’s chief executive. To build the tool, he says, Crisp Thinking analyzed roughly 700 million lines of chat traffic, some from conversations between children and some, like conversations between children and sexual predators, provided by law enforcement groups.
The software is integrated into a virtual world’s site. If the technology uncovers phrasing, syntax, slang or other patterns in a conversation that match known signs of bullying or sexual predation, it sends an alert to a moderator, who can then “drill down” to look not only at the entirety of the specific conversation, but also at every posting from either participant.
“We can capture a full picture of a user’s history on the game,” Mr. Lintell says. NetModerator also includes a filter that is updated regularly to include new words, abbreviations or character combinations that can be read as words, like “sk8.”
Berlin goes on to describe that the NetModerator program is already being used in a number of virtual worlds for children, including Cartoon Network's FusionFall, which uses the software to monitor open chat and player-to-player e-mail. Is this reminding anyone else of Minority Report? Private surveillance technologies being used for extensive data-mining and profiling...not exactly what pops into your mind when you think of a playground monitor, nevermind the deeper questions this raises about how these particular "patterns" are established and what other behavioural trends are being tracked concurrently.
For instance, another example described in the article is a new technology by Keibi Technologies, which is used to "determine whether user-generated content — like videos, images and text — contains objectionable material." It also builds a profile of every person who uploads content, and is currently used by "several sites aimed at children and teenagers"...which makes those profiles all the more comprehensive (and potentially invasive).
In some cases, using these tools has allowed sites to reduce moderator staff from over 20 people to just 3 or 4. But of course, the sites and designers don't want us thinking that they're relying solely on automated filter software (which has in the past proven itself almost invariably ineffective and/or overly-restricting). The argument is that because so much of the obvious stuff is being flagged by the system, moderators now have more time to focus on the "subtle or hard-to-interpret messages"...interactions and behaviours that aren't outright "offensive", but that may hint at something much more serious (such as the suspected presence of a predator, or that a user may be suicidal). The work that moderators do is definitely incredibly important -- particularly in children's websites -- it's difficult, complicated and for the most part surprisingly undervalued. If these technologies are truly making their jobs easier and allowing them to get into the grey areas a bit more, then that's great...but seeing as so much gets by moderation systems as it is, and that even the most advanced software still can't accurately predict human intention...and seeing that the increased reliance on automated systems is resulting in drastic reductions of human moderator staff rather than a simple shift in focus...it kind of makes this whole line of argumentation pretty sketchy.
Berlin and her interviewees also describe some of the "workarounds" that kids and teens use to circumvent filter technologies, highlighting the continued weakness of these systems. For example, they use:
...spammers’ tricks like inserting random spaces or deliberate misspellings into their chats. Ms. Littleton has heard of users trying to identify their hometowns in code. (“Opposite of pepper, body of water” is Salt Lake City.) Ms. Marshall has intercepted them trying to share phone numbers by typing the letters that correspond to the digits on a telephone keypad.
When one site blocked the word “love,” Ms. Marshall says, the children substituted the word “glove.”
Such ingenuity is one reason that technology alone will never provide enough protection, she says. “Kids will find a way to communicate,” she says, “and you can’t block every word in the dictionary.”
Technologists agree with her. “There’s no silver bullet from a technical standpoint to do this,” says Mr. Smith at Keibi. “This is about helping humans to make a decision about whether there is a problem.”
The article also has some useful stats about growth in the kids' vw sector, such as:
By the end of this year, there will be 70 million unique accounts — twice as many as last year — in virtual worlds aimed at children under 16, according to K Zero, a consulting firm. Virtual Worlds Management, a media and trade events company, estimates that there are now more than 200 youth-oriented virtual worlds “live, planned or in active development.”
My big takeaways from this article? The sense that the more things change the more things stay the same...despite the big push for "safety first" in many of these sites and guarantees of 24 hour human moderator services, there's still a huge drive to rely on technologies that seem...for the most part...not all that different from the automated filter systems of five years ago. More sophisticated maybe, but not exactly a horse of a different colour. Second - more and more evidence of the huge piles of data being amassed in these sites, as well as the troubling convergence of surveillance and profiling...using "safety and security" as an excuse to not only monitor and analyze children's behaviours online, but also to make decisions about them based on "predicted intentions." Third - the incorporation of UGC into the mix....I'm sure they are definitely looking for offensive materials, but how is that measured, what are they looking for, whose interests are being prioritized (corporate copyright regimes, anyone?), what's the impact on free speech/expression, and...of course...what else are they looking at (likes, personal habits, consumer trends, etc.).
Monday, April 13, 2009
Opportunity Alert: Stupid Fun Club and the Corus PhD Fellowship in Television Studies
Two very appealing new opportunities have been announced over the past few days that I thought might be of interest to readers of Gamine Expedition. The first, via Emily Claire Afan over at Kidscreen, stems from an announcement that Will Wright will be leaving his current position at EA to head up their newest collaboration...a multimedia IP think tank called the Stupid Fun Club. As Afan writes:
Wright has dabbled with the Stupid Fun Club as some sort of mysterious side project for several years now, but its past projects (and existing website) don't reveal much about the future scope and aims the "idea hub" might take. I'll be keeping an eye out for additional info...and job postings!
The second opportunity is academic-oriented, and comes in the form of a pretty sweet PhD fellowship in television/cross-media convergence studies at the University of Alberta, funded by Corus Entertainment. Here's a reprint of the fellowship position description - notice that the deadline is fast approaching!:
The entertainment think tank is in charge of developing new IPs across a variety of media from video games and movies to TV, online and toys. Will Wright, the designer behind the hugely popular Sims franchise, and most recently Spore, will be leaving EA to run Stupid Fun Club, which he and the video game publisher own equally as principal shareholders.
From this investment, EA also gains the right to develop game concepts from SFC projects.
Wright has dabbled with the Stupid Fun Club as some sort of mysterious side project for several years now, but its past projects (and existing website) don't reveal much about the future scope and aims the "idea hub" might take. I'll be keeping an eye out for additional info...and job postings!
The second opportunity is academic-oriented, and comes in the form of a pretty sweet PhD fellowship in television/cross-media convergence studies at the University of Alberta, funded by Corus Entertainment. Here's a reprint of the fellowship position description - notice that the deadline is fast approaching!:
The Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta is pleased to announce the establishment of the Corus Entertainment Ph.D. Fellowship in Television Studies commencing September 2009. The fellowship is worth $10,000 per year and is eligible for renewal subject to successful progress through the program of study. Applicants should be working within the broader area of critical-cultural television studies. However, the specific area of research interest is open (i.e. industry analysis, audience reception, fandom, textual criticism, convergence culture, etc.).
The successful applicant will also receive the Sociology department’s standard PhD funding package. This includes four years of GaP funding initially worth approximately $21,500 per academic year as well as nomination for the Provost’s Doctoral Entrance Award which covers tuition. The University of Alberta also offers numerous competitive doctoral grants and awards and the department’s graduate students have a notably high success rate in securing both on-campus and national research grants. International students are eligible to apply for the fellowship.
The deadline for application is April 30, 2009. It is anticipated that the decision to award the scholarship will be made no later than May 15, 2009.
Corus is a market leader in specialty television and radio with additional assets in pay television, advertising services, television broadcasting, children’s book publishing and children’s animation. The company’s multimedia entertainment brands include YTV, Treehouse, W Network, CosmoTV, VIVA, Movie Central, HBO Canada, Nelvana, Kids Can Press and radio stations including CKNW, CKOI and Q107.
Questions about the fellowship or letters of interest should be addressed to:
Dr. Serra Tinic
Associate Professor, Media Studies
Department of Sociology, Tory 5-21
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB T6G 2H4 Canada
Email: serra.tinic@ualberta.ca
Tel. 780.492.0480
Questions about applying to the Ph.D. program should be addressed to:
Dr. William Johnston
Associate Chair, Graduate
Department of Sociology
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB T6G 2H4 Canada
Email: william.johnston@ualberta.ca
Monday, April 06, 2009
Spore API - How Cool is THIS?
Via Dmitri Williams through the Gamesnetwork email list, news about an incredible opportunity for academics and researchers being offered by EA/Spore. Not sure when this was officially launched, but it's the first I've heard of it, and although I don't have time to comment right now, you can expect a post very soon filled with lots of "wows" and "awesomes". In the meantime here's a copy of the full announcement:
Exploring Custom Content in Spore
Spore is a social network based on player creativity. Each user in Spore is equipped with powerful 3D editors that enable the user to design any creature, building or vehicle they imagine and then share their creations with each other. Spore also allows players to exchange ideas and critiques about each other's creations, keep track of a creator's most recent work and collaborate on projects. Since the launch of Spore back in June of 2008, over 3 million users have joined and created nearly 100 million assets. The community also continues to grow with a new user joining every minute and a new creation being shared every second. For a glimpse into this online community, see www.spore.com/sporepedia which provides basic information about the newest and most popular creations among other perspectives. Sporepedia reveals that creations have spanned a broad space, alluded to a wide array of genres (Star Wars, Sesame St., Pokemon) and even explored new ideas in architecture, sculpture and other design.
However, one website alone is inadequate to explore this huge collection of custom content. As a result, Spore has released the Spore API: www.sporeapi.com. It is a collection of public web services that provide access to data about user activity, their relationships and the content they produce. This poses a unique opportunity for aspiring or seasoned developers, academics, and data visualization gurus. What tools can be built to navigate through this data set, track trends, organize and discover new content? For the novice, building a web application that allows a user to easily navigate through the millions of Spore creations and social web would be a tool welcomed by the community. For the more advanced student, understanding the propagation of ideas across the social network or building recommendation algorithms based on past user activity are just some examples of research projects to pursue. In any case, the Spore API awaits new approaches to exploration and understanding of this unique online world.
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Little Big Planet Online Hits the 2 Million Mark
Wow. Via Chris Remo over at Gamasutra, news that earlier this week, the much discussed, much adored LittleBigPlanet hit the 2 million mark...in online players! (VGChartz puts total sales at 2.13 million). Together, these 2 million players have created 725,000 online levels, generated about 4 million comments, and played the game over 125 million times. As Remo writes:
Follow the links for Youtube clips of these and various other awesome and/or pop culture-inspired levels. My favorite clip among them is this one of a uber-cool "Mirror's Edge" level.
The article also includes an interview from Sony marketing director Mark Hardy, who describes that LittleBigPlanet "is giving people from every walk of life the opportunity to express themselves creatively. The game is just the start. This is Creative Gaming: never-ending experiences that take on lives of their own through their players." Nice! If anyone knows where I can find out some user demographic stats for this game, esp. in relation to online participation rates, please please please drop me a line. I've had this game and all the fascinating developments around it (UGC, IP, cross-generational play) slotted as my next research project for awhile now, and it's exciting to see it's becoming such a massive, community-generating success. Now...if I can just finish writing this thesis already so that I can get started on the analysis ;)
In other news, the Cartoon Network's branded MMORPG FusionFall also hit a milestone this week, passing the 4 Million mark...pretty impressive considering the game has only been out since January. According to VirtualWorldsNews, this number describes "registered users," including both free-to-players and subscribers (a.k.a. basic and premium memberships). VWN describes:
Apparently, once you get past the first couple of levels, the game is actually quite fun and addicting to play. I'll have to give it another go asap.
The PlayStation 3-exclusive sidescroller relies heavily on user-generated content both to provide more gameplay for owners of the game, as well as to serve as grassroots-level marketing demonstrating its avenues for creativity.
[...]
In a press release today, publisher Sony Computer Entertainment specifically called out a number of particularly impressive levels, including "LittleBigPlanet Takeshi's Castle," "LBP Jurassic Park," "LBP-MotorStorm," "LittleBigCalculator," "Uncle Fritz's Funhouse Frenzy," "Illumina Garden," and "Huge Pinball Machine," which it calls a "community favourite."
Follow the links for Youtube clips of these and various other awesome and/or pop culture-inspired levels. My favorite clip among them is this one of a uber-cool "Mirror's Edge" level.
The article also includes an interview from Sony marketing director Mark Hardy, who describes that LittleBigPlanet "is giving people from every walk of life the opportunity to express themselves creatively. The game is just the start. This is Creative Gaming: never-ending experiences that take on lives of their own through their players." Nice! If anyone knows where I can find out some user demographic stats for this game, esp. in relation to online participation rates, please please please drop me a line. I've had this game and all the fascinating developments around it (UGC, IP, cross-generational play) slotted as my next research project for awhile now, and it's exciting to see it's becoming such a massive, community-generating success. Now...if I can just finish writing this thesis already so that I can get started on the analysis ;)
In other news, the Cartoon Network's branded MMORPG FusionFall also hit a milestone this week, passing the 4 Million mark...pretty impressive considering the game has only been out since January. According to VirtualWorldsNews, this number describes "registered users," including both free-to-players and subscribers (a.k.a. basic and premium memberships). VWN describes:
FusionFall combines a a fair amount of gameplay, both in roleplaying and action-oriented styles, and is also looking to add in more social options. To celebrate the milestone, Cartoon Network is giving away a free Zak Saturday Bubblehead Helmet virtual good.
Apparently, once you get past the first couple of levels, the game is actually quite fun and addicting to play. I'll have to give it another go asap.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Hello Kitty MMOG Coming to North America
Via the WarCry Network, news this week that Sanrio's girl-oriented MMOG Hello Kitty Online, based on Hello Kitty and other cutesy-bootsy Sanrio characters, will soon be expanding its services to North America through a partnership with Aeria Games & Entertainment Inc.. Here's an excerpt from the Sanrio/Aeria joint press release:
The game will be "free-to-play with optional premium upgrades," a model that is proving to be immensely successful these days (see last week's post on Club Penguin). Already successful in various parts of Asia, Hello Kitty Online will continue to announce and implement expansion plans throughout 2009. In addition to promoting the Sanrio brand and media characters, the game is intended t establish itself at the nexus of the "underserved female gaming audience" by providing a "magical and cute" environment focused on themes of friendship and caring (sound familiar? i wonder if they'll ever design a vw for girls that doesn't revolve around those themes)...both virtually and IRL. As described in the press release:
Very much in keeping with the growing/ongoing "games for change" trend spreading across kids' digital culture (e.g. see this recent MediaPost article about Nickelodeon's "Games for Social Change"). Additional details can be found in a recent post on Gamezig,which describes some of the Hello Kitty Online charity events that have unfolded to date. Here's the excerpt:
Sanrio and Aeria Games have announced that similar virtual-to-real world charity initiatives will be coordinated for the North American market as well. I wonder what they (or the kids) will come up with. Oh corporately manufactured charities...such a cool opportunity for kids to get involved in social movements, but why is the cost always that kids end up being enlisted in viral marketing and brand promotion?
The announcement was made at the 2009 Game Developer Conference®, held at San Francisco's Moscone Center from March 23-27. Hello Kitty Online is the eagerly anticipated official massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) of the Hello Kitty universe. Aeria Games will manage North American online publishing and game service operations for Hello Kitty Online. Sanrio Digital will manage retail publishing of the game and operate SanrioTown (http://www.sanriotown.com ), the Sanrio-themed portal and social networking site integrated with Hello Kitty Online.
"Sanrio Digital is very excited to partner with Aeria Games, who will be our online publisher and operator for Hello Kitty Online in North America. With Aeria Games' leadership position in the free-to-play casual MMO sector and Hello Kitty brand awareness among the underserved female gaming audience, Hello Kitty Online will grow into a leading social gaming destination for teens and female adults," said Robert Ferrari, Vice President of Publishing & Business Development of Sanrio Digital.
The game will be "free-to-play with optional premium upgrades," a model that is proving to be immensely successful these days (see last week's post on Club Penguin). Already successful in various parts of Asia, Hello Kitty Online will continue to announce and implement expansion plans throughout 2009. In addition to promoting the Sanrio brand and media characters, the game is intended t establish itself at the nexus of the "underserved female gaming audience" by providing a "magical and cute" environment focused on themes of friendship and caring (sound familiar? i wonder if they'll ever design a vw for girls that doesn't revolve around those themes)...both virtually and IRL. As described in the press release:
Aside from redefining traditional MMO gaming with the inclusion of integrated social media services provided by SanrioTown, Hello Kitty Online connects the virtual world with real world charity events: during past beta events, Sanrio Digital translated player activities into real donations to charities such as UNICEF. Sanrio Digital intends to continue charitable initiatives as part of North American strategy for Hello Kitty Online.
Very much in keeping with the growing/ongoing "games for change" trend spreading across kids' digital culture (e.g. see this recent MediaPost article about Nickelodeon's "Games for Social Change"). Additional details can be found in a recent post on Gamezig,which describes some of the Hello Kitty Online charity events that have unfolded to date. Here's the excerpt:
"In a recent beta, the event "Food for Friends" invited players to craft virtual items to raise money for UNICEF and the Asian Youth Orchestra. A similar event named "Helping Hearts" asked players to craft virtual items that Sanrio Digital then converted into hundreds of real gifts for the children of the Po Leung Kuk residential child care unit.
Sanrio and Aeria Games have announced that similar virtual-to-real world charity initiatives will be coordinated for the North American market as well. I wonder what they (or the kids) will come up with. Oh corporately manufactured charities...such a cool opportunity for kids to get involved in social movements, but why is the cost always that kids end up being enlisted in viral marketing and brand promotion?
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