Author Archives: David J Edery

Articles of Interest

Posted on January 17, 2007 | 1 comment

  • Andre Vrignaud asked the Xbox community to tell him how Live should evolve. Tons of responses. Skimming them will give you some insight into the desires of Xbox’s most passionate customers.
  • A detailed account of a virtual war that has erupted in Second Life.
  • Ubisoft is attempting to crack the “very young / pseudo-edutainment” market with a game that lets kids create images, brush a monster’s teeth, play dress-up, etc.
  • Via Edge, go make yourself a Parappa the Rapper-style 2d dancing image. You’ll waste ten minutes of your life and love it. I want this fleshed out and turned into a game!
  • The development contract for Call Of Duty: Finest Hour has been published and picked apart by Gamasutra, for all the world to see. (Long article — I’m still working my way through it.)
  • The top 15 selling games in Japan this past week were for Nintendo hardware; all but two were published by Nintendo. Wow. This helps illustrate two things:
    1. One more reason why Sony should be freaking out [they have always relied on the Japanese market to safeguard them against Microsoft] and,
    2. Why third party publishers are becoming worried about their prospects in Japan [Nintendo IP generally steals the show on Nintendo hardware, and Sony has a better reputation than Nintendo when it comes to working with third party publishers. Hopefully with the help of more titles like Blue Dragon, Xbox can finally begin to fill the void…]

    And speaking of Nintendo, check out this cute Wii-related weight loss testimonial (thanks, Ben).

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Sharing the Wealth

Posted on January 16, 2007 | 6 comments

I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that lately, when someone asks me for advice on building up their community-centric media project, my answer often includes the following question: “What are you doing to drive financial value back to your users?” I say embarrassed because this question invokes tragicomic memories of failed dot-com startups; you know, the websites that paid you money for websurfing (“make pennies per day!”) Or, for that matter, more recent sites that prove the classic pyramid scheme is alive and well.

Past failures and frauds aside, there’s clear evidence that creating economic opportunities for users can result in big bucks for businesses. This has long been obvious outside the entertainment industry — eBay, Google (adSense), and Amazon (Marketplace) all make a ton of money by riding the efforts of users. But in entertainment, many people remain fundamentally opposed to sharing the wealth. Why bother, they ask, when users aren’t demanding it? (see MySpace, YouTube, etc.)

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Posted in User-Generated Content

Pooka the Ghost

Posted on January 15, 2007 | Comments Off on Pooka the Ghost

Apologies — I wanted to write something intelligent this weekend; instead I spent all of it playing with Pooka, our new whippet. (We didn’t pick the name Pooka — she’s three years old and she’s had that name since she was born. Feels wrong to change it.)

But I also occasionally call her “ghost” because she’s entirely white and utterly silent. I’ve never met a dog that doesn’t bark or yelp or anything. We’ve heard her whine once — when Eve left the house and Pooka got separation anxiety — and we heard her growl for about a second, when another dog tried to paw her. That’s about it.

Anyway, much time spent giving treats, learning dog mannerisms, and keeping Pooka off the bed (she still jumps on it when I’m not looking, but she’s smart enough to fly out of the room when I walk in… *grin*)

Something more worth reading to come soon. Thank you for your patience.  😉

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Posted in Personal Stuff

Five Things About Me

Posted on January 11, 2007 | Comments Off on Five Things About Me

I got tagged with the “five things” influenza that’s ravaging the blogosphere. I could ignore it, but where’s the fun in that? So here’s five things you probably don’t know about me:

  1. My first favorite games were Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, Hero’s Quest, and Might and Magic 2. My best friend and I still occasionally chant the tune (in unison) that M&M2 made each time you destroy a skeleton with “turn undead” (“na-na-na, na-na-na!”)
  2. I got into medical school (Mt Sinai, NYC) when I was a sophomore in college. I didn’t end up going because every time I saw blood, it made me want to puke. Contrary to popular wisdom, the urge to puke did not wane with repeat exposure. My father still wakes up screaming from time to time as a result of my decision.
  3. My first language was Spanish. My parents wiped Spanish from our home when some teacher complained I was incomprehensible. Now I have a BA in English Literature and can’t speak Spanish worth a damn. Stupid teacher.
  4. My wife and I are frequently compared to “Dharma and Greg.”
  5. I love really good dark chocolate. But I can barely stand the taste of milk chocolate, no matter how fancy.

And now, for my shameful contribution to blog pollution, I tag Ben Mattes, Henry Jenkins, Parmesh Shahani, Danc, and Chris Avellone.

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Posted in Personal Stuff

Articles of Interest

Posted on January 9, 2007 | 1 comment

  • Worldwide wrap-up of notable happenings in video game academia this past Fall.
  • Linden Lab has open-sourced the Second Life client. Given widespread recognition that the current client isn’t very user-friendly, the announcement has been greeted with enthusiasm by many bloggers. Linden Lab claims it will someday open-source the server code, but I’ll believe that when I see it.
  • Everyone is talking about Slamdance (specifically, the festival’s decision to eject a controversial contestant, Super Columbine Massacre RPG, given pressure from sponsors.) Now three fellow contestants have withdrawn from Slamdance in protest; most industry bloggers appear to be cheering them on (primarily for rejecting double-standards, re: the treatment of controversial films vs. controversial games.)
  • Lots of (good!) Microsoft-and-games-related news:
    • From CES, 10.4M Xbox 360s shipped, 2.7M units of Gears of War shipped in 8 weeks, attach rate of 5.3 titles per Xbox 360, 5M+ members of Xbox Live, 20M+ XBLA games downloaded, and 2M text/voice/picture messages sent via Live per day. Estimate of 13-15M consoles shipped by fiscal year end.
    • Also from CES, IPTV is coming to the Xbox 360 (by holiday season ’07). Personally very excited about this one.  🙂
    • The New York Times has published a glowing review of Vista, as it pertains to games. The review focuses on the importance and usability of parental controls in the OS.
    • Via FierceGameBiz a few days ago, news that movie downloads on Xbox are surpassing those of several major e-tailers (including Amazon), despite an obviously smaller customer base.

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Bridging Demographic Gaps

Posted on January 7, 2007 | 8 comments

A couple of weeks ago, Kim Pallister and I were chatting about a particular video game. Kim mentioned that it would be nice if the game included a “little kids’ mode” — i.e. one in which the player can’t actually lose and doesn’t even need to follow any “rules” per se; he/she can just experiment with the controls and have fun within the virtual environment. (I believe the comment was inspired by the exploits of Kim’s two-year-old twins.) In essence: open the game to more members of the household (in this case, very young children) without much additional cost.

Shortly thereafter, I read a post on Ben Mattes’ blog exploring a related theme; offering “little brother” co-op mode in hardcore games, so that experienced gamers can more easily invite less dextrous family members and friends to play along. A quote:

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Posted in Design / Production

Articles of Interest

Posted on January 5, 2007 | 1 comment

  • Via Slashdot, word that the Milgram experiment was recreated in a virtual environment. I always thought that the video footage from Milgram’s original experiment was incredibly powerful stuff that every high school student should be required to watch. (PS. Best — if most twisted — Slashdot story comment I’ve read in a long time: “So when does this come out for the Wii?”)
  • Also via Slashdot, a research team at Intel built a game that works entirely within Google Earth.
  • One year ago, I would never have guessed that HDTVs would soon be in 33M US homes.
  • Ian Bogost writes about the Burger King Xbox 360 games, noting that there’s more to these games than the brand loyalty they might generate. Quote: “Burger King used these games as a lure to draw Xbox owners into their stores… the same strategy fast food companies use in their kid’s meals every week… In the world of marketing, this strategy is called promotion.”
  • In case you’re curious, Next Gen has posted a thorough list of Games of 2007 on Xbox 360.
  • A web portal, designed with the Wii’s opera browser in mind, offering free flash games. I’m so curious to see how Nintendo responds to initiatives like this (assuming it responds at all.)

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Posted in Articles of Interest

Interview with Trip Hawkins (Digital Chocolate)

Posted on January 3, 2007 | 8 comments

I thought I’d start off 2007 with something fun. That said, check out my recent interview with Trip Hawkins, the Chairman and CEO of Digital Chocolate. Prior to founding Digital Chocolate, Trip also just happened to found Electronic Arts and 3DO. Interest piqued? Let’s get on to the Q&A.  🙂

You’re best-known for your central role in the founding of Electronic Arts. Would you mind sharing a few little-known stories about the birth of EA? How did decisions made in the early days set the stage for what EA would become?

I came up with the idea for EA when I was a teenager and saw my first computer in 1971. I had already started designing simulation games but they were complicated to play. The instant I saw that computer I realized I could put the complicated stuff inside the computer and create “real life in a box.” I then laid the groundwork by studying computer science and other relevant topics in college. It was during a summer computer programming job in 1975 that I thought it out and decided to start my computer game company in 1982. I really did plan it that far in advance. Again, I continued from 1975 to shape my experience to support EA’s eventual birth, including getting an MBA to learn more about business and going to work for Apple to help build the market for computers in the home so that I could then sell games to play on them.

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Posted in Interviews

Articles of Interest

Posted on December 13, 2006 | Comments Off on Articles of Interest

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Posted in Articles of Interest

Whither Viva Piñata 2

Posted on December 11, 2006 | 3 comments

Today my buddy Rhys called me out for criticizing Viva Piñata a couple weeks ago, then playing it for significantly more time than I initially intended. (I’d have kept my indulgence a secret, but the Live achievements system sold me out.) So I’ll admit it: I’ve played Viva more than any other 360 game I own. So sue me.

Many other people have written detailed descriptions of why they like this game, so I’ll pass. Instead, I’d like to focus on what I think the Viva Piñata franchise could become, and what that means for gaming in general. In short: I’d like to see Viva Piñata 2 (assuming it’s ever made) focus more on self-expression and social networking.

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Posted in Design / Production, Social / Cultural, User-Generated Content