OfflineSo some presentation has come out from EA. What's interesting about this is that it mentions a fair bit about disruption, seemingly an indication that EA realises it missed the boat a bit. It even mentions the Malstrom article Birdmen and the Casual Fallacy.
For a more in-depth explanation of disruption, see here and/or here.
You can get the PDF here, or view it in GDocs here
Some slides of note:
This is where EA notes how Nintendo publicly talked about how they were basing they're strategy off of Christensens definition of disruption, and did so a lot. It also notes the fact that Japan was becoming more disinterested in games. You can see the video where Reggie mentions disruption and Christensens first book on the subject here.
Here's where the reference to Malstrom comes in. The slides point to this as a good example of how 3rd parties mistreated Wii and "expanded audience" games in wanting to make a cheap cash in, and how developers and gamers grew to hate the mention of such things due to the association of lack of effort which typically define such efforts from 3rd parties.
Short and succinct recap of the article in question. See sig.
They expect Wii to continue expanding (assuming no slip ups) and to encroach up towards the high end, as disruption itself predicts in such situations and appears to be playing out.
So, it seems EA may be learning a valuable lesson in various ways. It'll be interesting to see whether EA genuinely changes paths based on this, or whether internal pressures will keep them going along the same route, though it would appear from there are some pushing for a much clearer, and hopefully better for all future in how they handle things in respect to Wii (and Wii 2).
Christmas comes but once a year, and often involves large amounts of socialising, often based around wearing paper hats and fat men in red costumes. It's a shame our culture is becoming more fixated on personal health and body shape, as this period shows that fat people are the basis of all jolly well being and happiness. How can you possibly hate someone who wobbles like Jelly? Who needs jelly when you have people in extreme danger of heart attacks?
Subsequently, Christmas is a perfect time to test the power of Wii on non-gamers. Even better if you or someone else get games as a present, as now you now have more tools for experimentation. What will Gran enjoy most, whilst still pleasing the kids and the testosterone pumped 15 year old boy? Although you should first make sure if they don't mind or don't notice that you have attached pules monitors, lie detectors and a colander plugged into the mains on their head. The best friend of science is data, and the best friend of data is weird, intrusive instruments that you need to collect it. Gran should be the easiest - either she will already have had so many experiences like this in her old age, or she is senile.
Through the past year, I already have my own data which I shall present here to the benefit of science. Maybe someday, we will finally discover the elusive gene that breeds gamers, but until then, further study is needed as to what promotes these genes in people, whilst not turning them into pale, antisocial freaks. I myself know the pain that this gene in its unfettered form creates. Much money has been spent on sunblock at the height of winter.
Wii Sports always goes down well, with this being confirmed by many of my piers. Easy to get into, accessible controls and plenty of re-playability - what do you expect from sports that have been well established and played for many years?
Boom Blox is also a great success - the colourful graphics and cute characters offend none and entertain all, with the actual gameplay and content being very re-playable. The game instantly lends itself to "one more try" syndrome, and the amount of levels and various modes means there's various ways to enjoy this - from the more Jenga like levels and modes, to destroying your opponents block fortress and light-gun style levels, where shooting as many points blocks is the name of the game. It helps that it's great for single-player too, and has wiimote sharing for most modes.
House of the Dead Overkill is a mixed bag. It's gorey and violence based gameplay may turn some people off to the game, and during the Christmas period, may be considered by the family to not be suitable after having just eaten enough to turn yourself into a jolly jelly man. It's good fun, and you and a few of the other (primarily male) members of the family may still enjoy it, but not great if you're trying to get everyone involved. I haven't had much of a chance to try the other little multi-player games properly, like fighting wave after wave of zombies, or protecting civilians as zombies continuously spawn in, so I can't attest to these particularly.
Wii Play seems to be a sure fire winner. From non-violent target range, to cow racing and billiards, these are the kind of arcade-style games that are great at breeding "one more try" syndrome, and are generally multiplayer friendly.
The only disability is the insistence on choosing your Mii before hand in trying to create a versus tournament that goes on as you play each individual game, as this makes it more difficult for home made tournaments or winner stays on kind of things. Having to go back to the title screen just because someone else wants a go is no fun, unlike Wii Sports where you select your Mii after you've selected a game, allowing you to swap out the Miis as different people play. Some may not care, but I'm a stickler for keeping Mii's representative of the person playing, rather than breaking down into an amalgamation of many people, especially with Wii Sports and its skill level tracking..
Some no-no's, or only for playing when everybody else has given up or you want some alone time:
Super Mario Galaxy is very much single player only, and whilst it some times attracts eye with its wackyness, its long cut scenes often bore people, especially during the introduction as they just want to get on with it. It does have a co-op mode, but it's more useful as an introduction for less skilled or experienced players - whoever is second player controls a second pointer, firing star bits to effect enemies and whatever else, and has the ability to grab enemies.
The game is often a bit complex to get someone who is new to gaming involved in - it's use of spherical worlds whether you're on the inside or outside creates perspective issues, and prolonged objectives and trying to take note of both the pointer and controlling Mario himself creates co-ordination issues.
Super Paper Mario - this one is obvious. No multiplayer, prolonged cut scenes especially for the intro and potentially confusing or overwhelming item and character mechanics. Everything about this game single-player only.
This concludes the presentation of my findings, or at least some of them. Any other data gathered chime in, it all helps. I fully expect NSMB Wii this Christmas to be a winner for sure.
I'm temporarily back again for 5 posts all of which I'll be intermittently disconnected while typing.
"Who is this man of the origin of modplan?" I telekihearis you say?
"Why do I care" you shout at your screen! "STOP READING MY MIND!" the paranoid of you scream. I am not reading your mind, you're reading mine!
Here is a basic summary for TL : DR syndrome afflicted readers: applied to college, didn't get college, got internets, didn't get internets, got internets again, went on forum instead of porn.
The long version:
Applied to college for computer related course that covered all manner of spiffy things to get a foot in the ladder of a more recent interest of mine, programming. Well, I say applied, the course was full and was told by the cool teacher dude that he'd call me if someone dropped out so I could get on. Then the oddest thing of hoping someone drops out of a future life oppertunity so you can take their place before probably dropping out yourself and letting someone else in. They should probably start letting people have decimal qualifications for people who only get part of the experience on a course considering how common it seems to be that people drop out.
Some may have noticed my short posting spurt a while ago. Currently I don't have yer typical landline internet access, and am making do with one of those pay as you go dongles. Suffice to say, the connection will have dropped and reconnected 10 times during this, all without you not knowing my pain! The wonders of modern technology! We also don't have a landline phone, nor do I have any credit on my mobile.
Which is marvelous when you think about it. I'm downstairs cooking pie and chips when presumably the teacher calls and I miss it. Either that or some other bugger I don't know making me think so. Either way, didn't get into college, but at least me chips didn't burn.
Tattle byes. You may be seeing me posting a bit more, maybe not. Depends how far my 3gb top up lasts.
A jot down of some thoughts on the topic of how information spreads, how misniformation affects that etc.
Whilst there are plenty of problems with the sources of news, the way that news spreads and peoples own way of re-telling and piecing together the information they get amongst each other and through out society can cause just as much harm or good as the reporting itself. The effects of bad reporting or lack of complete information can create nightmares for individuals, companies and politicians as the effect then becomes magnified by the way that information spreads and people try to make sense of the relevant information, and the effects of wild fire gossip on its own can distort information and peoples own views, especially if the media picks back up on that reaction as part of its reporting. This essentially creates an echo chamber, causing disparity between what should be known as fact and fiction, leaving an impenetrable mess of notes and vibrations leaving it impossible to be left with a clear view of anything.
The People
First, lets point out fundamental things about the very individuals and groups that become part of and help accentuate this mess.
A fundamental point point about people in general, and no, it is not that they're inherently evil...no, it is not that they're idiots. No, it's not that we're all involved in a giant inter-continental game of Chinese Whispers. It's that we as people simply do not always have the time nor inclination to keep as close track of the multitude of subjects and hundreds of different things that happen every day. Everything comes to us through many filters we have consciously or unconsciously built, rather like the automatic sorting of spam in your email inbox, amongst potential tagging features that allow you to mark different pieces of mail not just under different topics, but of importance (with the 2 not being mutually exclusive).
A good talk on a subject very similar and has influenced my thinking on this called "Filter Failure not Information Overload", which addressed the point that it may not be information overload that is a problem for us moving into a world where we're even more constantly bombarded with information and such on a daily basis, as humanity has always been facing what always seemed an insurmountable amount of information to absorb, but a fundamental filter failure in how we address and handle the information we both send and receive in the modern age.
Because people do not always have the time nor the interest/inclination, this means they are more likely or will definitely miss various amounts of information depending on how far out the topic is from their "core" interests, their social connections, etc. Subsequently, this means the knowledge they do have is likely to be incomplete. Also here comes the social interaction part - they end up relying on or receiving information through friends or family. Second hand information that will likely be simplified for the sake of conversation and brevity. If this process goes through a chain of several people, whilst quicker and easier to digest for someone less interested (and who probably won't take much note anyway), means a far higher likelihood of the absence of potentially important minor and major details. This leads to certain assumptions or overall views being constructed from incomplete knowledge. This is not absolutely dire in all situations though, as sometimes certain issues or topics are just that simple to grasp. However, in quite a few cases leads to what might be important topics having their debates and idle chit chatter coloured and skewed, purely because the information was not there or available to them to be able to take a solid, grounded stance (no matter which side of the fence they're on).
The Vacuum
Are we suddenly heading out into space? Is Scotty going to beam me up just to tell me TL;DR?
No. Sadly for you the reader, I do not have the budget for such extravagant special effectences to put down on paper what would surely be wondrous passages of text that you could only imagine.
Using the word vacuum in this case refers to a vacuum of information. When Ripley opened the airlock doors, air rushed out along with several weeks of rubbish that had built up, rushing to fill that empty void, the vacuum of space at work. Much the same applies here. As already touched upon, given a lack of clear information, assumptions, "educated" guesses and judgements based on common sense will rush to fill the void. Effects will vary, but this causes a minimum of slight confusion or misappropriation, and a maximum of infinite internet memes, massive misunderstanding and undermining of the very topics and discussions themselves, to the point where all sides will be convinced that they are right, but when pressed, will never be able to tell you why or how they truly and rationally came to that conclusion. Their beliefs will simply be repeated as if they are obvious and discussions will either break down or become an endless cycle of arguing. If this were applied to society at large, it may even lead to violence and war.
There's still a section or 2 more to do further explaining etc, but do you think so far that this reflects the real world fairly accurate? Other thoughts to add?
A while ago I made a posting about a new site idea I had that no one really cared about. The general idea was to combine twitter like updates that in themselves combined several pieces of information/news, with lengthier articles that could go into the nitty gritty of stuff.
So now I've made a little tester site that no one will really care about:
http://branchedgaming.blogspot.com
accompanying identi.ca (twitter-like) live updates:
http://identi.ca/branchedgaming/
and Twitter feed:
http://twitter.com/BranchedGaming
It's very rough around the edges, with some basic content as examples - what do you think?
Some little niggles and problems that'll be addressed once I get more knowledge/experience points/helpers/energy:
The feed to the right on the "main" blogspot page under knee-jerks is just an rss feed of the Identi.ca updates. If there's any smart jubblies who know of a way to integrate them better (whether in blogspot, wordpress, whatever please let me know.
Preferably the Identi.ca updates would have more emphasis too, as I'd consider those to be the driving force.
I placed the blog (article posts) archive underneath the articles. Need a way to put in a "click this to read more" link to save space and bring the archive into better view.
The 140 character limit feels small. Too small. Would prefer it if it were double - is there any other services that have larger limits than that?
Generally crappy blogspot template.
If anyone wants to help or write for it, I really don't mind - even if it's a one time thing. This is still mostly an experiment to see what this would look like and better gauge interest.
I have the key to the universe!
Or at least understanding business, and in relation to gaming, Nintendo better. How? Well this arrived yesterday:

Oops, wrong way...

Quite simply: This book has been great so far. It's basically the theory of gravity or relativity to business. Whichever theory is most important to you. Maybe you don't even recognise the theory or gravity while you float there at your screen.
I've gone on about this for long enough in the forums in all the "Teh NInetendo casullls!" threads. Suffice to say, you cannot argue with disruption, unless you like arguing against brick wills. It is pretty much business fact now, and scares the shit out of every exec (as it makes their demise inevitable via being good managers and listening to their customers - who would've thought!). If you want to know why this would apply to gaming:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5foJ-cwj4Mk
http://news.cnet.com/Nintendo-on-the-latest-technical-divide/2010-1041_3-6180215.html
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/magazine/features/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001995536
IIIII HAAAAVE THE POWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH.
Windows has been a bit of a shit to me recently. Windows Installer kept corrupting itself somehow (showing itself as me not being able to install or uninstall anything). The DLL Mafia?
Being an idiot, I thought this might be the perfect time to set about updating my drivers. Uninstalled the old ones first (just for best practice, I've become more paranoid). Restarted. How did I uninstall? Ask Via. They must have the crow bar to windows.
Hooray for black screenness! I assume it now can't pull out of its arse/a teacup/install teh generic driver. Oh, it can show me the splash screen with the XP logo and loading bar, but decides for a login screen it needs to use something extra special that it can't do.
Maybe this is why they call it XP. The unnecessary grinding (to a halt). Maybe I'm not a high enough level yet? Do I need more Mana?
Can't find the XP CD either. Do I need to talk to a bridge troll to activate the quest and head to Rivendell mines/dungeon/very dark place?
Also:
You think Chrome is fast? Try the latest nightly builds of Firefox:
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/
Create a new profile specifically for it (so if anything bad happens bokmarks don't get lost or anything, and you can keep it clutter free from your mass of extensions. If that's how many FF extensions you have, your house must be full of extension leads....).
You can find out how here:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Managing+profiles
Then do this:
https://wiki.mozilla.org/JavaScript:TraceMonkey#Playing_with_TraceMonkey
* open a new tab
* type about:config and hit enter
* read the warning and heed its wisdom
* enter jit in the filter field
* double click on javascript.options.jit.chrome and javascript.options.jit.content to change their values to true
It enables TraceMonkey, new javascript related thing. It'll render pages quicker using it.
Also try testing out the new HTML video tags at this site:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Cultural_videos
Much less need for flash now! You'll have to click the video thumbnail, click play, then more, and select native browser support (or something like that).
And finally:

Her clothes fade on and off as system resources get taken up. Best desktop thing ever?
Maybe I should get more human contact....
The idea of personal preference is broken. Why? Well, let me explain that rather bold idea.
The idea of personal preference is broken because it's become an excuse. A get out, from reviewers to politicians and their supporters to just about every other thing. It's a get out because people use it as a way to not be taken up on what they've said - even if what they've said involves matters of fact or ignorance, and has become an excuse to break free speech.
Another bold claim? Let me take Youtube comments as a widely hated example.
I post a negative comment on the video. Nothing wrong with it - in this case I truly am just giving my opinion afforded to me by the comments system. Then, someone addresses me in the ubiquitous get out to justify their own liking of said thing "If you don't like it don't watch it!" as if they're so insecure that any negative comment will shake their entire outlook on life.
This logic is broken for several reasons:
1) Highlighted videos - on the Youtube front page videos that are supposedly of worth are put up for me to possibly check out. This breaks the logic because I've been told something is supposedly good, and the fact it's even staring me in the face means I'm more likely to check it out. Then if it so happens I don't like it, I use my free speech powers and give the video a low rating and post a negative comments. More recently recommended videos has also cropped up, which while might be more accurate in my personal preference, still leaves the chances open to finding a video I don't like, and therefore commenting and voting so.
NB: This can also conversely be used as an excuse to make an uninformed, broken logic opinion both positive and negative, as a get out of being taken up on said uninformed opinion.
2) Search engine itself - while Google may pride itself on it's search engine, it isn't psychic and still has to provide a balance between more precise finding and also bringing up related (ie not exact matches, and to an extent not that related matches too) stuff. This also leaves me open to finding something I might not like, even when trying to order results in relation to how relevant they are to the original search.
3) The comments and voting system itself. They are there expressly for opinions sake, both negative and positive. While again, this is not an excuse for uninformed bias, flaming et al but also nor is this an excuse for unbridled flattery. By the logic of people who put "Don't watch if you don't like!", every video would be 5 stars or zero and every comment would be glowing praise. Why zero? Well, if people don't like then they don't watch or don't comment/vote, leaving the possibility open for videos with no ratings, as anything below 5 would contain a negative element to justify the lack of a maximum rating - whether it be not long enough, not funny enough to warrant 5 stars, etc.
This ties into personal preference because they use the idea of personal preference to say and justify with broken logic that the only videos anyone ever watches or sees are ones they like, and completely breaks the idea of free speech because you aren't allowed an opinion if it doesn't conform or isn't positive. Fuck off idiot Youtubers, basically.
This goes into other areas too. People use personal opinion as a get out when, say, they're political ideas or thoughts are challenged. What they forget though is at some point those thoughts and ideas have to be based on fact, eg numbers of immigrants, crime rates, etc. These facts themselves are often what are being debated, along the fact of context these things come out of. Interpretation plays a part, but only so long as the facts and the fact of context is taken properly into consideration, and it's these that are most likely being debated at the heart of any argument, as meaning and interpretation is derived from the facts and context. It is most often misinformation and a lack of these that most often lead to different opinions today, and "It's just my personal preference/thoughts/ideas" in these cases becomes a get out, a scape goat, and breaks the idea of personal preference because of that, to the extent personal preference no longer means anything, and is just an excuse to not be challenged and live in blissful ignorance of everybody elses world and ideas.
This then has carried over to other areas, professional areas. To help keep it relevant, games journalism is a good example. Every time there's a controversy over a review, the old get out of "It's just an opinion" comes out. Never mind the fact of that opinion being based on very selective picture of a game, never mind that opinion being influenced by the fact of NDA's restricting them from saying negative things, and never mind the fact that these things are what makes most of games journalism so laughable and broken, and that justifying these appalling, industry breaking facts only serves to make games journalism both in reviews and news irrelevant. Never mind the fact that reviews are, essentially, a public service, designed to help the end reader whether the quality of a product, both in it's more genuinely subjective view of entertainment value and less subjective view of whether the quality of product is up to standard (in this case, how buggy a game is, presentation, if on PC it's compatibility not just in specs in terms of actual hardware demand, but in OS and hardware itself it can run on, which can overlap a bit, but can still be separated to some degree). Without these basic standards of writing and at least some degree of personal separation to help make a better, wider judgement on behalf of the readers, leads to people saying most major reviewing outlets are pointless, thanks to making themselves pointless by not holding themselves to a higher standard, the excuse of "it's just an opinion/personal preference!" both perpetuating that lower standard and thus lower expectation from readers, and the general lack of genuine credibility that gaming journalism seems to have.
This is why ideas of personal preference, which also go some way into free speech, are broken and are becoming even more broken, at least amongst the public. Using it as a get out for not being taken up on both the opinion itself, the facts (if they are indeed facts in the first place) that those opinions will be based on down at some level. Whether it be a fact of compatibility, a fact of numbers and statistics, the context that defines those numbers and statistics, or even just the simple fact that search engines aren't perfect.
Free speech goes both ways, both as expression, and a criticism of expression and what it's based on. Without it we wouldn't be anywhere near as far as we are now, please don't put a big "It's just my opinion!" blockade in front of that progress now.
My sleep cycle is incredibly odd.
It's probably based on the position relative to the earth and the moon and their gravitational pull on my chest hairs, or something.
Start at the normal cycle. Up in the morning, sleep at a sensible time at night. After a few days, I stay up later and later, and also get up later and later. Eventually I completely swap around and stay up all night, while sleeping all day. The process continues, until I'm back to normal. Of course, not for long and the cycle continues.
Am I some kind of sleep based were-wolf? Maybe as the moon cycle changes I actually just transform, to the point where I become a wolf during the day and human again at night?
Probably just weird.
Who here listens to Radio 1? More basically put, only listens for the music?
Who here then, listens to the radio for actual programmes? Radio 4 anyone? Not Jo Wiley peddling the latest shite "indie" bands (indie because they were fashionable clothes, not because they're from an independent label or are musically independent), but proper programmes.
What happened to the age where we listened to Radio for the shows? Maybe it's just the teenage world, but we've forgotten that Radio still has a lot to offer, especially on the comedy front. In fact, most of the biggest British comedies in recent years have come from radio (Little Britain, Mighty Boosh to name some of the most recent), to then be transferred over to TV before being evangelised by 13 year old girls and students (The Mighty Boosh).
Hell, we owe some of our greatest output ever to radio. Without The Goons, and also I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again (which had a very young John Cleese amongst other future comedy heroes) we probably wouldn't have had Monty Python, amongst other shows that grew out of that (Like the still going to this day I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, still funnier than 95% of the comedy ouput on TV).
Do yourself a favour, and listen to the radio more often. Not radio 1, but what radio really is, has been and should still be.