Articles of Interest

A list of the various problems that can emerge when you employ the 3rd party offer revenue mechanisms that are becoming increasingly popular in F2P games.

Nexon’s revenues were up 35% year-over-year — looks like their international expansion is going well.

The Economist writes up Quest to Learn, the new school that will be based on a curriculum of games designed by Katie Salen. The article includes some interesting example games: “pupils take on the role of an ancient Spartan who has to assess Athenian strengths and recommend a course of action. In doing so, they learn bits of history, geography and public policy.” Also: “imagine they are pyramid-builders in ancient Egypt. This means learning about maths and engineering, and something about the country’s religion and geography.”

Ad Age: “In 1999, EA Sports, publisher of the Tiger games, ramped up ads and PR for about six weeks before the game launched and for a few weeks after… today EA Sports develops a marketing plan for each platform and type of content and runs it all year… The fire and fanning mentality just won’t work anymore.”

If you happened to see my IGDA or GDC lecture on “MBA Lessons” and liked what I said about motivating employees, here’s a more in-depth TED talk devoted to the same themes and research that I mentioned. The talk is by the author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

There’s more to life than games:

This Slate piece is easily the most informative article I’ve read about US healthcare.

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