Friday, May 29, 2009

Why are games so addictive?


There are a few theories that help us form an opinion why games are so addictive.
One is the theory of ‘Flow’ – defined by Mihaly Csikzentmihlyi (try to say that out loud). The gamer balances between boredom and frustration. If a game is too easy, he or she will lose interest. If it’s too difficult, people will get frustrated and stop playing.

A second aspect of gaming is that gamers always needs to have the feeling they are making progress towards their goal. The gamer needs to develop skills to ensure progress as the game will get tougher and tougher over time with each next level.
If you combine these two theories you will see that gamers will have a moment of self reflection as soon as they fail in a certain level and are on the maximum level of frustration. Should they succeed the next time, the gamer will be rewarded by the game (Level up! Or ‘Congratulations) and himself (relief that the difficult task was completed successfully. So positive feedback and rewards are important as well, just as it is in real life.
The feeling of being able to master or control a situation is a fourth reasons why games appear to be so addictive. The increased and developed skill per level and the fact that good games are easy to learn, difficult to master.
Finally why games are so addictive is invoked by the theory of absorption. Just like books and films, games have the ability to soak up gamers. You will be literally be sucked into a game if the flow is right. According To scientists there are multiple levels of emersion. But this will be discussed in a new posting.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Social > Media - All current options

An interesting overview of the current options people have online. It's clear that consumers will in the future be more and more connected and will keep on sharing media and linking to eachother. The expression 'Your neighbour is your best friend' is HISTORY! ;-) A friend is only a phonecall, sms, click or poke away!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

3D Face Creation from a Single 2D Photo - It's Happening!

In my opinion this tool would be GREAT for Shooter games where you can finally recognize eachother ingame by the way one looks. Hopefully games like Battlefield, Call of Duty and Killzone will incorperate this in the near future! This could also be applied to MSN avatars or your future CAE's' (Cyber Alter Ego's )...

Augmented Reality by Hitlab

A nice showcase of the applications of Augmented Reality by the Discovery Science Channel

Augmented Reality

Please check out this video if you do not know what Augmented Reality is, it's really cool!

Friday, May 15, 2009

Top 10 downloads Appstore: Games, Games, Games!












Interesting to see that 8 out of the top 10 downloads in the Apple store are games. Also when you bear in mind that the Nokia N-Gage was a giant failure some 5 years ago… Does this mean momentum is more important than we think?












Saturday, May 9, 2009

Amazing Assassin's Creed Screenshots

An absolute, visually, stunning game released in 2008, was the long anticipated Assassin's Creed.
Check out these screens to understand what I mean. Never have I experienced hights and climbing buildings like this.

The story goes:


Jerusalem, 1191 AD.

The Third Crusade is tearing the Holy Land apart. You are an elite Assassin sent to stop the hostilities by suppressing the powers on both the Crusader and Saracen sides. But as you carry out your missions, a conspiracy begins to unfold. You find yourself tangled up in a conflict that threatens not only the Holy Land, but the entire world.

"Nothing is true, everything is permitted."


I will also upload the gametrailer to Youtube.
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Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Game Genres

I have tried to define which genres there are in digital gaming (all platforms).
Please note that I do not consider online or offline or singleplayer or multiplayer a different genre. Neither the way in which gamecharacters or motion is controlled. Wheter it be mouse, keyboard, a Wii controller or a phone, the way of controlling a game does not determine the genre in my opinion.

Please respond to this article and challenge the segmentation I have made.

[Click on the image to enlarge it...]

Friday, May 1, 2009

Wilkinson Game - A Great Success!?

















The viral clip was really funny with a 'Rocky'- kind of training session in a short film with an actual plot. The game however is poorly executed in 2D and hardly a resemblance to the 'Tekken' or 'Mortal Combat' kind of games it is inspired by.

Check it out below if you like, the introduction video is very cool.


Wilkinson Fight for Kisses game

Games market to boost up to 70 Billion in 2012!

PriceWaterhouseCoopers have announced that the total revenues in games hardware and software will be nearly 70 Billion in 2012. It is still the fastest growing industry with growth rates of mostly double digits.

The average growth rate of the video games market is 10% per year. Currently the total revenues of games & hardware is larger that the music and DVD industry combined.
























It is to be expected that the mediaspend of ingame advertising will grow up to 2 Billion in 2012.


























Ingame advertising will bring great opportunities for great brands like Coca-Cola, Mars, McDonalds and other world leading brands and global potentials.