Kinect Effect... will it be like this....?

To be honest, I still sincerely doubt whether we will play games in this way. I would always miss 'feedback' whether it be through the controller in my hand, vibration, a steering wheel (makes sense driving a car)... etc. This is the same reason why a lot of people prefer a BlackBerry over an iPhone. The typing just feels better if you can feel buttons...

If you disagree - let me know !

Call of Duty - My personal best KD Ratio...

My personal best Kill-Death Ratio today in Call of Duty: 2,57...

I play on PC - Join me! ;-)

Trailer: GTA V Debut Trailer

It looks more like a film than a game, incredible! - Let the long-winter-days come -

I need time to play games! Grand Theft Auto V looks very promising. I hope that there is character development in the game like in Fallout and World of Warcraft. Up to now the games have been a bit too linear in my opinion, just running from mission to mission and do some side-quests. Although I really enjoyed GTA4, especially the scripted events with Ricky Gervais, driving in the sunset, listening to the coolest tracks on the radio and yes... of course... the strip club! ;-)

Uncharted 3 & Release of Drake Magazine...?

It's great that from time to time I can still be surprised...

I recently received a press release about 'Drake - The Magazine'.
In The Netherlands we've had magazines called Linda (the most successful), Jan, Matthijs (one-off), Felderhof and many others. Now for the first time, a magazine has been released with the name of a fictitious character from a 'videogame'.

Drake, the main character of Uncharted features in his own magazine about 'adventure, risk and chances'. The magazine was released a week ago and no one less than Giel Beelen (one of the top Dutch radio DJ's) presented the launch and handed out the first copy to the press.

Below a screenshot of the game, I can't wait until I find time to actually play the game!

Will this be our future? Deus EX: Human Revolution Trailer

It looks stunning!

A-Social Gaming?

Although I HATE the term 'social gaming' - since gaming in itself mostly is a social activity (either with other players or social interaction with your character in the game), I thought I'd post this well designed Infographic about 'social gaming' from Mashable, thanks to Lauren Drell.

It shows you something about the economics of social gaming and apparently some things have changed...! I told my audience yesterday that most of the time just 1% of all gamers is totally hooked on games and spends a lot of cash on in-game items, mostly 9% tries it for one time to see how it works and buys a few credits or in-game products and over 90% plays the game for free. You still need those 'free-players' however to establish a large consumer (player-) base.
This infographic however claims that over 80% of all 'social gamers' (read: gamers that play 'casual games' within 'social networks' or dedicated gameportals) spend REAL cash for VIRTUAL goods.
I found that amazing! Imagine how much money you can make selling virtual branded products in games. I know that Diesel is making MILLIONS in PlayStation Home selling virtual collection.

This graphic also says that Angry Birds have been downloaded 140 million times, but I recently read on Gamasutra that 500 million people are playing the game, so ... another reason why you shouldn't trust to much on research, data and these beautifully designed Infographics... But they give an idea what's happening on my Playground! 

Missing Our Deals Will Haunt You - Little Girl TV Advert - Phones 4u

This young girl surely looks a lot like 'Alma' from the hit-game series F.E.A.R. Don't you think?

This scene REALLY freaked me out the first time I played it through...

My presentation during Games for Brands in London today

Check out my presentation at Games 4 Brands below 

BrandNewGame @ games for brands final

View more presentations from Bart Hufen [BrandNewGame]

This is the first version of my presentation for today.

To download a free copy of my book, please go to www.brandnewplayground.com and spread the word! Let me know what you think through Twitter @BartHufen

Early-stage Startup Vetter seeks Gamification suggestions

This is a guest post from Duncan Murtagh, co-founder of Vetter. 

Vetter is a web-based Idea Management System.

Among the many requests and recommendations we've received while building out Vetter over the last two months, adding gamification has come up the most. We see the implementation of some game mechanics as simultaneously the most fun sounding and the most daunting.

Any gamification features must not make the system harder to use

Our web-app's key selling point is that unlike competitor's complicated, feature heavy, systems, ours is feature-light and you can figure out how to use it in a couple of minutes (at least that's what we reckon anyway). So we have to think very carefully about adding any feature that would require a page to explain it. We've learned this from the success of HipChat's private group chat service, which has lots of features but they don't make the system hard to use, so HipChat has managed to land loads of big clients. Our No. 1 priority is to keep Vetter a low-maintenance system for a manager in a business. 

We're here to tap the creativity of the Gamificaton & Branding readers
So far, our only adventure in gamification has been the addition of a simple leaderboard of 'Top Idea Submitters'. We're wondering if the smart people that read this blog (that's YOU!) might have suggestions for how we could use game mechanics to increase usage of Vetter? Please post your ideas in the comments below and I'll do my best to reply to all suggestions. A quick explanation of how the system work's can be found on Vetter's How it Works page.

Lastly - our own gamificaton idea - is it any good?
My co-founder Steven and I have though about creating a points systems for users, with some type of cute icon appearing beside user's names to indicate where they stand in the system. Our intitial thought was that the points system would be something like:

• Rating an idea – 1 point
• Submitting an idea – 3 points
• Getting an idea through the vetting and to the boss – 5 points
• Having an idea marked as implemented (likely after some time) by the boss – 15 points

Bart Hufen added this comment: @Duncan and @Steven please check out my presentation about Gamification at Slideshare or join me tomorrow in London at the 'Games for Brands' event.

Potential Spoilers: Harrison Ford Playing Uncharted 3 Japan

A good way to market your videogame, let the inspiration to you game play the game.

Harrison Ford is playing Uncharted 3 in Japan... it looks amazing. Curious if this brings back memories for him from Raiders of the Lost Arc, The Temple of Doom or other epic films featuring him!