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On a Panel at Digital Hollywood Fall 2008

Sunday, October 12th, 2008

I am very excited to be on the panel entitled: Virtual World and Multiplayer Gaming Explosion - PC, Console and Mobile Tuesday October 28th (the day after my birthday) from 2:15 to 3:30 PM at the Loew’s Santa Monica Beach Hotel. If you’re going to be there and would like to meet up send me an email.

Digital Hollywood is a trade conference covering the fields of film, television, music, home video, cable, telecommunications and computer industries. It debuted in 1990. (thanks Wikipedia)

Posted in Mindark, Entropia Universe, John Bates | Comments Off

Worried about running Crysis? No longer!

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

Here is the original article. Seems it’s pretty doable for under 10,000 PED! (That’s $1,000 US.)

Gigabyte GA-EP35C-DS3R motherboard ($155)
With support for the latest memory and processors, it’s as future-proof as they come. Ground yourself before attaching components.

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 CPU ($230)
Nobody does parallel processors better than Intel (for now). After you socket the CPU and affix the heat sink, don’t forget to plug in the fan.

Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4DHX DDR2 memory sticks ($92)
Special heat sinks keep these sticks from flash-frying.

EVGA e-GeForce 8800GT 512MB ($240)
Per dollar, one of the fastest videocards ever made. Accept no substitutes.

Ultra X2 550W PSU ($85)
This power supply’s modular cables let you feed only what you need (like that smokin’ graphics card).

You can use the case, drives and peripherals that you already have, and with these upgrades you should be able to run Crysis (and the new Entropia coming soon) like a champ! Someone who knows more about computers than I do, please comment!

—————-
Now playing: Yoav - Wake Up
via FoxyTunes

Posted in Entropia Universe | 1 Comment »

SXSW Interactive 2008 - Henry Jenkins and Jane McGonigal Make the Perfect Bookends

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

This year I had the distinct pleasure of attending South by Southwest again. Two real standouts for me from the 2008 Interactive Conference were the Opening Remarks wherein Steve Johnson interviews Henry Jenkins, and the closing Keynote by Jane McGonigal.

Here are links so you can listen to them yourself: Henry Jenkins & Steve Johnson; Jane McGonigal part 1 and Jane part 2. These are videos and don’t include the entire speeches. I had found the full audio of the entire Henry Jenkins & Steve Johnson conversation online, but now I can’t find it anymore. Please let me know if you know where it is and I will post the link here. As well, you’ll likely enjoy his blog, HenryJenkins.org.

Here is my take on what they said with my thoughts interspersed. Henry is brilliant, joyful and a smart, informed optimist. He comes from such a great perspective on things. He is very interested in fan culture and he loves participatory culture. Of course it seems obvious to those of us with experience online that fan culture is a good thing to be cultivated, but lots of companies still come down on fans for infringing copyright, etc. Something Henry talked about is the difference between Hillary Clinton’s numerous I/You statements vs. Obama’s We statements. The conversation online is very much a We conversation. We pool ideas, share language and we’re building something together. What do We want to build, where do We want to go, etc. He speaks out for parents giving kids power over their voice and at the same time taking responsibility that they’re safe as they move into the world.

One point he made very clearly goes a bit like this: People are rational and they make good decisions given the options they’re faces with. So, let’s say you’re someone working at a less than challenging/fulfilling job day after day and at night you go home and you manage a Guild of 40 or 50 people in World of Warcraft, (or organize a Society in Entropia Universe!) and you’re really good at it, which is no small feat. You’re successful and doing well, and it’s fun and challenging and fulfilling. It is not bad, or evil, or stupid or wrong that you’d rather be doing that than going to your dead end, boring job. What it points out is not a failure of games and gamers, but rather a shortcoming of the current set up in the physical world, where we have millions and millions of people who are chronically underutilized in their jobs. The opportunity is there to harness that vast human potential and fulfill people at the same time.

I agree with him! And, as you look at the demographic trends you see that the Baby Boomers are moving into retirement and they’re taking a huge amount of knowledge and productivity with them as they do. Generation X isn’t going to be filling many of those positions, Gen X is already working. No, it’s going to be the Millenials. And, they’re into games. I believe that companies who pay attention to that and correct course for it stand to do far better than companies who don’t. In other words, if companies don’t make their jobs a lot more fun they’ll be running a serious risk of being trumped by their competitors who do. I also believe that some form of wiki technology, perhaps combined with gameplay aspects, will be crucial to companies keeping some of that institutional knowledge from vanishing as the Boomers retire.

Jane’s comments dovetailed very well with Jenkins’ and Johnson’s conversation, too. Jane talked about Positive Psychology, which, instead of looking at how brains can go wrong, looks at the best case for the human brain. What makes us happy? What makes us function well? She points to the undeniable similarities between what that field is finding and game design. It turns out that game design actually turns out to be about happiness and fulfillment. She boils it down to 4 basic tenets of happiness are: 1) Satisfying work to do. 2) The experience of being good at something. 3) Time spent with people you like 4) The chance to be a part of something bigger. I like to note, as she does, that it takes multiplayer games to accomplish all 4 of these. And, that probably explains why Microsoft was so slammed when Halo 3 came out and everyone wanted to get onto XBox Live (which is an MMO, albeit a very bounded one) and play Halo 3 together! She concludes that if you’re in the game design business what you may not realize is that you’re actually in the happiness business. (Trivia: When she says, “I like that someone in the back is going like that (and pumps her fist in the air)! She’s talking about me, by the way. I love what she was saying.)

So, I recently registered TheFungineers.com. As Erik Bethke of GoPets.com points out, building game elements into everything can lead to better outcomes. Think of LinkedIn.com. There’s a green bar that shows you how complete your profile is. It drives people bonkers when it isn’t 100%. So, they add their picture and ask their friends to write them a recommendation, and take the steps they need to take to go from 50% to 60% to 80% and then finally 100%! Woo hoo! I’m 100% It’s a game element and it works very well for Linked In, I bet. I also think that the coffee cards some cafe’s give out, where you buy 10 coffees and your 11th is free, is also a game. No, it’s not very complicated, but it works!

Finally, I want to give a shout out to Edward Castronova whose excellent book Exodus to the Virtual World (and his previous writings, as well) explore this idea very deeply. Castronova suggests that game culture and virtual worlds will have an impact on the real world, forcing policy makers to consider fun, fulfillment and happiness in their policy decisions. I freakin’ love it. At first I fought him and his line of thinking, but once I was a bit further into the book I was a convert.

Posted in Business, Virtual Worlds, Entropia Universe | 1 Comment »

I am off to South by Southwest 2008, are you going to be there?

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

I will be at South by Southwest this year. It is a great festival and music conference. I spoke there in 1994 or 5 when they had just opened up the Interactive portion of the conference and I’ve been to that part a time or two. I am very excited to be going back and to be able to stay for the whole thing! If you’re going to be there get in touch with me. I will be representing Entropia Universe, my favorite client!

I am looking especially forward to the ScreenBurn Festival, all about computer gaming. Here are the panels. Anything you think is a “definitely don’t miss?”

screenburn

I am also excited to see Sia, I have to admit!

Posted in Entropia Universe, John Bates | No Comments »

Latest posts about Entropia at Entropia Gateway…

Monday, December 10th, 2007

My latest about Entropia just went up at Entropia Gateway… See it there!

Another E4ALL Interview.

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

I am not sure about the outlet for this interview, but here it is. I kind of miss a sympathetic editor, but it’s a fun interview and I love his accent! And, YES, next conference I will lose the white neck band and get some spray on hair. Rock on!

Posted in Virtual Worlds, Entropia Universe, John Bates | No Comments »

I Have Been Mashed-up by McCormick!

Monday, October 29th, 2007

I got a call on Friday at about midnight from Justin at Mindark and he was laughing out loud. Once I finally got him to calm down I understood someone had done something really funny with the GamePro interview from E4ALL. Little did I realize it was the one and only McCormick. Yes, I feel a little bit like a goofball, but this is SO funny.

Here is an interview I did last week at E for All in LA… http://eforall.gamepro.com/player.cfm?vid=117260

And, here is a hilarious remix of that interview. Listen closely. It’s even funnier the second time when you understand everything that is being said…
http://www.entropiaforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85950

I hope you enjoy it…

McCormick avatar EF

McCormick’s avatar from Entropia Forums… Bears a slight resemblance to the woman who interviewed me. Coincidence? I think so.

If you like that one, this is a video done inside Entropia Universe called The Truth about Entropia Universe. It’s hilarious and you’ll hear the name, McCormick near the end… Coincidence? I think not!

Posted in Funny Things, Entropia Universe, John Bates | No Comments »

Interplanetary Business Development

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

Virtual World Entropia Universe Offers Platform for Companies Marketing Online.

LOS ANGELES, CA–(Marketwire - October 18, 2007) - E for All Expo — Entropia Universe, the leading virtual world platform for online entertainment, social networking and e-commerce using a real cash economy, opens its platform to partners and affiliates interested in obtaining their own planet in the Universe. Companies looking to extend their online presence can join a number of partners like China’s Cyber Recreation District and others in the most secure virtual world. Entropia will be discussing new partnerships as well as strategic business development opportunities at the E for All Expo in Los Angeles on October 18-21 in booth 923. Read the full release.

All I can say at this point is that I’m very excited about the people we’re talking with. I definitely enjoy being involved in Interplanetary Business Development. Stay tuned for more.

Posted in Virtual Worlds, Entropia Universe | No Comments »

E For All is in Full Swing!

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

It is not without a certain sense of irony that I post this picture of me doing what every guy seems to do, or want to do, at a trade show: take a picture with the pretty girls. These young women were with us for the whole show. They were delightful, and of course, beautiful. And, they got good at explaining the game quickly, too!

Here is a link to my post at Entropia Gateway… There are more photos and more about the show there.

Posted in Virtual Worlds, Entropia Universe | 1 Comment »

Hilarious for Entropians

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

Last night I was driving here in Los Angeles with David Simmonds of Mindark. David is English and has lived in Sweden (and Entropia) for years. As we were driving he turned to me with a quizzical look on his face and said, “What is zing ped? I see it everywhere here.”

For a split second I was an confused as he was. A new way to quickly move PED in Entropia? Why would they be advertising in LA? And then I started to laugh. What he meant was Ped Xing; pedestrian crossing, written all over on the roads here in LA. Since it’s written to be read in the direction you’re traveling is looks like Xing Ped. We both had a great laugh at that.

Ped Xing

Posted in Funny Things, Entropia Universe | 1 Comment »

Archive for the ‘Entropia Universe’ Category

On a Panel at Digital Hollywood Fall 2008

Worried about running Crysis? No longer!

SXSW Interactive 2008 - Henry Jenkins and Jane McGonigal Make the Perfect Bookends

I am off to South by Southwest 2008, are you going to be there?

Latest posts about Entropia at Entropia Gateway…

Another E4ALL Interview.

I Have Been Mashed-up by McCormick!

Interplanetary Business Development

E For All is in Full Swing!

Hilarious for Entropians

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