Som(a)niloquy

Taking back the boxed games?: Do you prefer eVersions

Are you buying family games this Christmas? We are. We bought a few favorites for the kids, but actually took them back in favor of the eVersions. This was a choice my wife made. That really surprised me. Let me just say in our family, she is not the gadget freak the rest of us are. My Kids and I play games on all of our devices (we have many, one of the perks being in the gadget/game/app development business). She has always resisted using them…until now. To set the scene, about two weeks ago the kids introduced her to Angry Birds on the iPad. She was instantly hooked. Then this last weekend the  Electronic Arts sale was announced and I grabbed many of the titles for 99 cents that were usually $6.99 – 9.99. One of the games happened to be the same as a boxed game she had bought, Piktureka, as a Christmas present . After playing as a family and enjoying the sounds, unique and enjoyable playtime, she bagged up the boxed version and took it back to the store.

I asked her why,  and she said that it just  made sense. The iPad version reduces clutter, is more fun to play, you can’t lose pieces,  and she really likes the sound effects. And to top it all off this is coming from the least techy person in our house. So there you have it. What games are you buying this Christmas. We are also enjoying Clue Spy, Yatzee, and the kids really like Life, although Life for me feels a bit claustrophobic on the iPad.

TRON: Legacy – What’s in a worldview?

by Ryan Green
heckling by Chris Skaggs

This last weekend, some of the guys at Soma took a field trip to the theater to experience TRON: Legacy in its full IMAX 3D glory. (I have it on good authority that for true awesomeness and full rumble effect, rows 4-7 front and center is the sweet spot.) Mike and I, who are stationed up here at “Soma Games : High Altitude Command” in sunny Colorado, were pretty disappointed to miss this event with our fellow mouth-breathers and resolved to plan our own nerd-outing.

First, however, I had to come clean with the boss. I had never seen the first TRON. His response reassured me I wouldn’t be kicked to the virtual curb: “The original Tron was a bit like the first [name withheld for boss protection] movie – it kind of sucked. You’re not allowed to SAY that in geek company but it’s the truth we all know about. We still love you Ryan.” – (Chris: The movie in question is Star Trek. C’mon, you know I’m right.)

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Can they share?

So you have built a community or tribe around your games. You’ve uploaded some great trailers and teasers as well as some funny clips from your trip to PAX last year. You even have a blog with readers. With that alone you are way ahead of some in this industry in that you are creating content beyond your game. But do those who love what you make have a way to say it?

I hear this a lot, “I have a web site and a blog but no one reads them”. Yes, those assets are important, but if you don’t have a way for people to yelp, tweet, like, buzz, rate, review or the many other ways people are sharing, then you are missing out on the greatest value your community offers. Allow them to spread your brand’s greatness via word of mouth. Every day these tools get better at sharing your message.
Add these sharing tools to everything you have on the web.
We reviewed a game a while back and in the process tried to contact the creator. We tried everything, but there was no way to reach them let alone share their information. As a result we were left writing a review that had to make certain unflattering assumptions about the game and the team behind it. If we’d had a chance to engage with the development team I suspect we would have written a rather different review.

Our friends at Intel have done a great job with this. Each of their units has their own community. What we have noticed is that they don’t stop at giving their fans ways to share Intel content. They go beyond that, and actively engage with them as well as reciprocate and share what their community is doing. When we live in a world that is getting more and more cluttered with web content, people start to tune out the mass media blitz. They are more and more turning to their friends for recommendations. In the game world I personally look for what my friends are playing and usually only buy a game based on what someone else said about it. I trust what my community says over a stranger’s review. What we need to realize is each of our fans have a small tribe of their own. They are waiting for us to offer them content to shout about. When they do shout, you can be guaranteed their friends will want to find out what all the fuss is about.

Here are a just a few guides that can help you add the sharing tools to your web assets.

• Facebook like button
• Tweetmeme button
• Share Anything
• Yelp

Publishers Are Missing What Gaming Is About

There is a natural and obvious place where book publishing and video games should overlap. But for this connection to thrive, publishers will need to break out of some old patterns to see what gaming really brings to the table instead of seeing this bigger-than-hollywood business as just a marketing add-on to books and magazines.