March 1, 2010
Not pictured: Plastic casing; Shipping
For Xbox360, any online communications beyond buying/downloading digital products requires a subscription to Xbox LIVE. I don’t find this a problem outright (subject for another post). What I do find is the mixed signals in the costs of the subscription. Buying a physical object for the service ends up cheaper than renewing a subscription.
Here’s the costs of a the same product: An Xbox LIVE subscription for 12 months.
- Buying via Xbox.com:
- $49.95 (automatically applied)
- Buying via Amazon.com:
- $49.95 (No physical thing; E-mailed code)
- $39.96 (Physical thing; Free Shipping)
For $10 less, a physical object is being manufactured and shipped to you. Even at Amazon.com having the option to e-mail you the code, it costs more to e-mail a set of numbers and letters.
I don’t expect an abolishment of the physical cards. I don’t expect online retailers not to carry them. What shocks me is that even when Amazon.com offers a non-physical and immediate delivery option, it’s the most expensive option. Can Microsoft, Amazon, and other online retailers work on a less wasteful way of selling this service?
Posted in The Games Industry is Broken 
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December 29, 2009
To say Ümloud! was a huge success is an understatement!
In 8 weeks we rebranded, filed as a non-profit, and made a successful event for our first year. $7000+ to Child’s Play successful. We certainly learned a few lessons this year which we’ll implement along with our ‘for next year’ list. Right now I’m compiling my thoughts, specifically for a panel I’ll be moderating for PAX-East this year.
Oh, it looks like I’ll be talking with Chris and others at PAX-East this year in March. While PAX will always be in Seattle around Labor Day, a second one for the East Coast in Boston is happening. I’m gathering up other panelists from other events and Child’s Play itself. The direction I plan to take is illistrate the ‘empty box’ of doing a fundraiser, rather than listing specifics of any particular event. I hope to inspire others to do events with their own flavor, rather than copy/paste existing events.
For me, this is about how and why to file for non-profit status on our own. We wanted to do a local event, enlist sponsors, get a venue, and spend money on an event. We were ‘touching’ the money. We had to be a non-profit ourselves for our protection and the ability for donators/sponsors to count their contributions as charitable. It’s been a process, let me tell you! But most of it is start-up stress which will be much easier next year.
For the Internet based fundraisers like the wildly successful Desert Bus for Hope, the money earned went to a Chip-in button directly to CP. Sponsors (to my knowledge) donated mostly physical objects, so there wasn’t money taken in by the operators. Thus the operators were protected as they never ‘touched’ the donated money.
In addition to getting back to using this blog, I’ll be covering my process on creating this panel in the next few weeks. It will be mostly me and Chris developing the Ümloud! (a local event) section.
If you’re in the Boston area March , I highly recommend you come to PAX-East! The full 3-day pass is $45 if you order by Dec 31st. $55 after that, but there’s a cap at the amount sold.
Hope you all had an awesome holiday! Have a safe and fun New Years!
Posted in Ümloud! 1 Comment »
October 23, 2009
December 9th, 2009
DNA Lounge
There’s a lot of info about it, and it’s all on the website. If you’re in the San Francisco Bay area December 9th, please come!
Posted in Ümloud! No Comments »
October 15, 2009
The charity event I’m working on is still on as planned. However, we have to go though a branding change which includes name and website. I’m hoping to have everything squared away by Monday to make an official announcement, but here’s the skinny:
- The event really hasn’t changed for San Francisco and is still on as planned!
- December 9th, 2009 will be a charity event for Child’s Play Charity involving playing Rock Band and much more.
- It will still be at DNA Lounge.
- It will not be called Fünde Razor.
- The Denver event will be Kotaku’s event, but still for Child’s Play.
- NYC, Portland, and Austin events will not occur this year.
Posted in Fünde Razor No Comments »
July 19, 2009
Last Tuesday, Chris Kohler and I signed the venue contract, so it’s really official now:
 |
Wed. December 9th, 2009
7pm – 2am
San Francisco: DNA Lounge
NYC, Denver, Austin, & Portland: TBA
|
The other cities haven’t reported in with an official date/venue yet, but they will happen. In the next few months we’ll have plenty of information about the event, but if you’re in the SF bay area, mark your calendars now!
Posted in Fünde Razor, Uncategorized No Comments »
July 5, 2009
The following is a multi-part series about how I got into the game industry.
On the Something Awful forums, Nickoten asked me the process I took to get into the games industry. I’ve told people in person, but I realized I never wrote that whole story down. To fix this, I’m going to start writing about my journey to working in interactive media. I should preface this by saying that I don’t think anyone else can take this kind of path anymore as the landscape has changed significantly. What I do hope is the overall themes of my story can help others in their own paths.
Posted in All About Seg 1 Comment »
June 27, 2009
I would like to publicly announce that I am working on Fünde Razor, a charity event for Child’s Play Charity. Specifically, I am the event planner for the San Francisco event in December. While I don’t have too much to announce yet, I’ll go into a little background about what the charity event is for and my my role is.
Background
Child’s Play Charity is a foundation created by Penny Arcade to provide video games, toys, and other financial support for children’s hospitals around the globe. The Child’s Play website can tell you more in detail about what they do.
Fünde Razor was founded by Joel Johnson (currently the editor of Boing Boing Gadgets) started Fünde Razor in NYC where Rock Band is played to raise funds and awareness for Child’s Play. Last year the event was in three cities: NYC, Denver, and San Francisco. The other cities run by other bloggers like Brian Crecente (Kotaku), Gawker Media, and Chris Kohler (Wired Game|Life). The idea is to have a nation wide event where all cites have the events on the same night. More cities and more people are involved, but I’ll wait for Joel to make that announcement.
The overall purpose of Fünde Razor is to raise awareness for Child’s Play. Come to the events if you can, but if you can’t, consider donating directly to Child’s Play. This makes the judgement of success less about the returns of the one night, but the overall fundraising goals of Child’s Play.
My Involvement
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Fünde Razor 1 Comment »
May 23, 2009
The past few days I’ve been playing the iPhone port of Myst as previously mentioned and have a few thoughts to review.
Scope of this Review
I think it’s important to realize that this is a culturally significant title on a platform never dreamed or intended to be on. There is much said on the game itself in the past sixteen years and I don’t think I have much to uniquely contribute from reviewing the iPhone version. What I intend to focus on is that nature of porting the title onto the iPhone and review the choices made. This review is about how this title works on the iPhone and less about the content.
As someone who claims himself as the resident Myst nerd, there isn’t much Cyan Worlds needed to do in order to buy the title. I own the Myst board game, so I can be counted as part of the base audience. My goals with this project is how this title can attract a new audience to the title. Stated different, how can the new platform revive the franchise. As I stated before, you can earn a one-to-one relationship between the desktop computer experience with a portable device. Success then is how closely the title can communicate the essence of the original experience.
Posted in Reviews 1 Comment »
May 10, 2009
Filling out the application for speaking at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) on Higher Education in video games. Since the Boing Boing interview, I’ve had a strong desire to start a substantive debate of the roll of academics with the video games industry.
What sparked my desire to do this lecture came from a conversation I had while standing outside a GDC party for Steam/Valve. While talking to a man whom had at least 15 years in the industry, he really brought to light the disconnect between academia and the industry. We got on the education subject and snapped back by saying he preferred students from DigiPen and Fullsail because they do what they are told. I have a much different take on the situation as I consider students from these and other schools with much more respect than he did. I want to make sure there are enough students out there to prove me right and him completely wrong.
Here’s the text I used in applying for the PAX lecture. Obviously not set in stone, but I’d love your feedback as I start shaping this lecture in the next few months.
Title:
Making a Career in Video Games
One-Paragraph Description:
Are you looking for a job with a game studio, or a career in interactive media? Learn how to identify the styles in game development curricula and the tools to help you find the best education for more than a job, but a lifetime’s work in the gaming industry.
Is there anything else you think we [PAX staff] should know?
This lecture will provide tools and perspective for finding the right curriculum for the student. This entails a two part approach. First, a student needs to start figuring out what direction he or she wants to take. The second part is knowing what information to extract from potential institutions. From this foundation, attendants can make solid decisions on which schools are applicable to their educational goals. Potential undergraduate, graduate, and transfer students will all find this lecture helpful.
I include my credentials to represent my own personal expertise, but it does not illustrate endorsement by any current or former employers.
Credentials of Highlight:
* First recipient of a Bachelor of Fine Arts in New Media at Emerson College.
Created the first BFA New Media curriculum at Emerson College, Boston.
* Emerson College, Enrollment & Student Affairs
Created tools and content related to admissions and enrollment for duties related to being an admission counselor.
For more information about me, visit http://segonmedia.com/
Posted in Education & Curriculum No Comments »
May 4, 2009
Myst is now released by Cyan Worlds on the Apple iTunes App Store.
Official Website @ Cyan Worlds | This link opens iTunes right to the application.
Myst is one of the trifecta of games that got me into this art form of interactive storytelling. It’s a body of work that helped shape me as an artist in new media and made me what I am today. Which is why I’m buying the crap out of this title. I have the Myst board game for goodness sake!
I hope that Cyan Worlds does a postmortem on bringing the game to the iPhone. A few immediate questions I have are what kinds of decisions were made to update the port. Was there a point where they pulled punches to make the game have the spirit of the 1993 release? I also want to know what they did with the LAV scenes. Can’t wait to play to look how they turned out on the iPhone.
On a forward-thinking note, I hope this will help Cyan Worlds fund a new project from their studio. Honestly, I hope it’s something not Myst related. Heresy, I know. I love the Myst franchise. I love the work Cyan Worlds has done. But I think it’s time to move away from the past and start with something new.
Note: I did copy the above image from the Boing Boing Gadgets article. I can also screencap it myself, but I’m lazy.
Posted in Electronic Entertainment No Comments »
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