May 2002
- Random Resets John Robert Arras
- Random Resets Kwon Ekstrom
- Random Resets John Robert Arras
- [MLP] The use of ecology models Rayzam
- Interesting things to do (was: Player Accounts on a Non-Commercial MUD) John Buehler
- Apple WWDC? amanda@alfar.com
- Apple WWDC? Nathan F. Yospe
- Apple WWDC? Amanda Walker
- Apple WWDC? Sasha Hart
- Apple WWDC? amanda@alfar.com
- Apple WWDC? Brian Hook
- Apple WWDC? John A. Bertoglio
- Apple WWDC? Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Apple WWDC? Matt Mihaly
- Apple WWDC? shren
- Apple WWDC? Matt Mihaly
- Apple WWDC? John A. Bertoglio
- Apple WWDC? James Edward Gray II
- Apple WWDC? Brian Hook
- Encouraging groups without grouping Brian 'Psychochild' Green
- Introduction and My solution to Powergamers, Treadmills, and Content Devaluation. Ken Raisor
- The audience is the medium. For now. John Szeder
- The audience is the medium. For now. John Buehler
- The audience is the medium. For now. Damion Schubert
- The audience is the medium. For now. Ted L. Chen
- The audience is the medium. For now. Shane Gough
- The audience is the medium. For now. Michael Tresca
- The audience is the medium. For now. Ted L. Chen
- The audience is the medium. For now. Marian Griffith
- The audience is the medium. For now. Vincent Archer
- The audience is the medium. For now. Damion Schubert
- The audience is the medium. For now. David B. Held
- The audience is the medium. For now. Ted L. Chen
- The audience is the medium. For now. Marian Griffith
- The audience is the medium. For now. F. Randall Farmer
- The audience is the medium. For now. J C Lawrence
- The audience is the medium. For now. Frank Crowell
- Ownership of characters Jasper McChesney
- Explorers? (Was: Codename Blue & Facets - Nick Yee's new studies) Brian 'Psychochild' Green
- Befriending Critters (was: Random Resets) Arthaey
- Questions about server design Ben Chambers
- Questions about server design Michael Bayne
- Questions about server design Sean Middleditch
- Questions about server design Mike Shaver
- Questions about server design Kwon Ekstrom
- Questions about server design szii@sziisoft.com
- Questions about server design F. Randall Farmer
- Questions about server design James Edward Gray II
- Questions about server design Shane Gough
- Extensibility Ben Chambers
- Extensibility Ammon Lauritzen
- Extensibility Kwon Ekstrom
- Extensibility Ben Chambers
- Extensibility "Christopher {siege} " OBrien
- Extensibility Sean Middleditch
- Extensibility Sean Kelly
- Extensibility John Buehler
- Extensibility shren
- Extensibility John Buehler
- Extensibility szii@sziisoft.com
- Extensibility John Buehler
- Extensibility szii@sziisoft.com
- Extensibility Mike Shaver
- Question: Any published research on Sims type game personae? susan wu
- [MLP] Why care about levels? (was: The use of ecolo Richard Woolcock
- [MLP] Why care about levels? (was: The use of ecolo gy models) Jon Lambert
- Component Design (was: Extensibility) Scion Altera
- [BIZ] Selling Stock (formerly Blacksnow revisted ) Robert A. Rice, Jr.
- Games are Hot. Period Michael Tresca
- Games are Hot. Period Gladimir
- Games are Hot. Period Richard Aihoshi aka Jonric
- Games are Hot. Period Freeman, Jeff
- Games are Hot. Period Richard Aihoshi aka Jonric
- Games are Hot. Period Koster, Raph
- Games are Hot. Period Vincent Archer
- Games are Hot. Period Richard Aihoshi aka Jonric
- Games are Hot. Period Matt Mihaly
- fun Matt Mihaly
- [TECH] Shortest Path William Murdick
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Reconstruction Ted L. Chen
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Reconstruction John Buehler
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Reconstruction Ted L. Chen
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Reconstruction Eli Stevens
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Reconstruction Jon Leonard
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Reconstruction Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Rec onstruction Robert Zubek
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Rec onstruction ceo@grexengine.com
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Reconstruction Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Reconstruction Ted L. Chen
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Rec onstruction Koster, Raph
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Rec onstruction lynx@lynx.purrsia.com
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Reconstruction Ted L. Chen
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Reconstruction Rudy Neeser
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Reconstruction Matt Mihaly
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Rec onstruction Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Reconstruction John Buehler
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Reconstruction Ted L. Chen
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Reconstruction Mike Shaver
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Reconstruction John Buehler
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Reconstruction amanda@alfar.com
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Rec onstruction Koster, Raph
- [TECH] Voice in MO* - Phoneme Decomposition and Rec onstruction Steve {Bloo} Daniels
- Combat with Style (was Player Accounts on a Non-Commercial MUD) lynx@lynx.purrsia.com
- Playskins Koster, Raph
- People were talking about resets.. Anderson, David
- People were talking about resets.. Sasha Hart
- People were talking about resets.. Anderson, David
- People were talking about resets.. John Buehler
- People were talking about resets.. Anderson, David
- People were talking about resets.. Arnau Rossell=?US-ASCII?Q?=F3?= Castell=?US-ASCII?Q?=F3?=
- People were talking about resets.. shren
- People were talking about resets.. Anderson, David
- People were talking about resets.. David B. Held
- People were talking about resets.. shren
- People were talking about resets.. Anderson, David
- People were talking about resets.. Michael Tresca
- People were talking about resets.. Fred Clift
- People were talking about resets.. Lars Duening
- People were talking about resets.. Michael Tresca
- People were talking about resets.. Rayzam
- People were talking about resets.. Matt Mihaly
- People were talking about resets.. Tand'a-ur
- People were talking about resets.. John Buehler
- People were talking about resets.. Leland Hulbert II
- People were talking about resets.. lynx@lynx.purrsia.com
- People were talking about resets.. Jason Murdick
- People were talking about resets.. Jeff Lindsey
- People were talking about resets.. Ben Chambers
- People were talking about resets.. Sasha Hart
- People were talking about resets.. David B. Held
- People were talking about resets.. Sasha Hart
- People were talking about resets.. Anderson, David
- People were talking about resets.. David B. Held
- People were talking about resets.. Acius
- People were talking about resets.. Marian Griffith
- Question about copyovers. Anderson, David
- Question about copyovers. Tand'a-ur
- Question about copyovers. Anderson, David
- Question about copyovers. Kwon Ekstrom
- Question about copyovers. Adam
- Question about copyovers. Oliver Jowett
- Question about copyovers. Kwon Ekstrom
- Question about copyovers. Lars Duening
- Question about copyovers. Jon Lambert
- Question about copyovers. fred@clift.org
- Question about copyovers. Zach Collins {Siege}
- Question about copyovers. Smith, David {Lynchburg}
- non-violent activities (was People were talking about resets..) Ammon Lauritzen
- References on personality and emotion models Robert Zubek
- Multimodal interface conference. Rayzam
- Hyperbolies R Us shren
- Hyperbolies R Us Matt Mihaly
- TECH: Systems Administration Issues Thomas Leavitt
- Questions about ... XML as data format Adam
- Questions about ... XML as data format Anderson, David
- Questions about ... XML as data format Kwon Ekstrom
- R&D Matt Mihaly
- R&D Dave Rickey
- R&D apollyon
- R&D shren
- R&D Zach Collins {Siege}
- R&D Sean Kelly
- R&D Matt Mihaly
- R&D Sean Kelly
- R&D Derek Licciardi
- R&D Brian Bilek
- R&D Richard Aihoshi aka Jonric
- R&D Damion Schubert
- R&D Matt Mihaly
- R&D Brian Bilek
- R&D amanda@alfar.com
- R&D Dave Rickey
- R&D Brian Bilek
Dave Rickey wrote:
> Classic business school example: Take a look at the toothpaste
> aisle in a supermarket. 99.9% of the products you see there would
> need analysis in a fairly good lab to show differences in their
> category (Gels, pastes, hybrids and anaesthetics). Toothpaste is
> a pretty simple product, and everybody in the business knows how
> to make a product that will clean your teeth.
> Everything you think you know about what makes one toothpaste
> better than another is the result of clever marketing campaigns.
> Toothpaste company executives are not in the toothpaste business,
> they are in the brand management business. They can move from a
> toothpaste company to a candy company and then to a tobacco
> company, and they are *still* in the brand management business.
> With certain narrow exceptions (sports games, mostly), games don't
> work that way (at least not yet). You cannot take a generic
> product, 99% similar to everything else in the category, throw
> lots of money into marketing, and guarantee a profit. This drives
> your typical business exec absolutely *nuts*. It hasn't even
> matured enough to be handled like music and movies. With only a
> handful of exceptions (Sid Meier, Will Wright, John Carmack, Peter
> Molynieux, and that's just about the list) you cannot even bank on
> particular people to consistently deliver profitable products.
> "Past earnings are no guide to future performance."
I am quoting the above as a whole because I think you're making a
great point. Branding is a wonderful way, and with the case of a
good like toothpaste (commonly available, many substitutes, little
feature or quality variation), one of the very few ways to
differentiate your product. You can even be too good at branding.
Another classic business school example: "Band-Aids," or "Q-Tips."
When your brand name has become the generic term for a class of
products, including your competitors', your marketing dollars are
now helping the competition.
However, I would suggest that branding is not the only way to
differentiate a product. At least, not branding in the context
you're using it (that is, brand "image"). With a more complex
product than toothpaste, you can spend some of your development
dollars on changing the feature set of the product, and improving
its quality; not just spending dollars to change the -perception- of
benefit and quality in the minds of the consumer. A product or
brand might also be differentiated based on cost. This strategy is
more difficult in a market such as the one for toothpaste, since
competition is so fierce.
I agree that computer games do not fall into this category, nor
under the 'entertainment' category where you would find music and
movies. Computer games are a hybrid, and rather than expecting them
to mature into a more commoditized marketplace, or even one that
looks like the music business, I envision it as a category unto
itself. I'll call it "Interactive entertainment," and while it
certainly isn't a mature market, I see it as continuing to differ
from pure entertainment, and I never see it becoming commoditized
due to the nature of the products. The platforms - I think it will
be more difficult to differentiate them as we see more of a
convergence of computing, console, and Internet technologies. I see
product success depending on the innovation and creativity of
developers. In the interactive entertainment business, I see
businesses pulling processes and best practices from a range of
other industries, but often defining many on their own.
It is an exciting industry!
> In the brand management business, R&D is an expense you undertake
> in order to safeguard your current brands. Sometimes it creates
> new brands, but that's usually an accident, or an act of
> desperation. 3M was a company built on sandpaper, the MicrosSoft
> success story of its day, sandpaper was an incredibly useful
> product, and 3M held the patent. Desperate to find new ways to
> sell sandpaper (because of overvalued stock creating expectations
> of increased earnings), one executive went so far as to develop a
> technique for *shaving* with the stuff. Finally, they got
> desperate enough to remember some geek in the labs who had the
> idea of *not putting sand* on the paper, but selling the sandless
> paper with adhesive on one side as a packaging tool.
> Did I mention that they had already fired the employee in
> question, because he spent too much time thinking of wierd stuff
> rather than finding cheaper ways to make sandpaper?
I agree with the statement you make above, but I would point to the
fact that brand image is not the only way, nor necessarily the best
way, to differentiate the products, especially when dealing with an
industry where buyer knowledge is high (as it is in the case of
gamers). I can spend all the marketing dollars I want to hype a
buggy game, but in the end it is still a buggy game, and buyers will
catch on to this quickly in this market. Specifically with regards
to the online games, though this also holds true for single player.
My view is that in the 'interactive entertainment' industry, perhaps
R&D dollars are better spent elsewhere. I see two different areas
of interest - product engineering (3d models, game engines, new
media, etc.), and more traditional brand research, such as
researching the mind of the consumer. But the dollars spent here
don't necessarily need to go into brand image - imagine if focus
group research tells you that gamers want a bug-free game above all
else. That would affect where and why you spend money on
development, and how heavily you spend on QA. Not brand image - In
this industry, isn't it somewhat hard to build a brand image based
on perception?
While traditional, popular business school examples such as the
toothpaste market, 3M, Harley Davidson, Porsche, and so on are
useful, I don't think they are an accurate gauge of the interactive
entertainment space. MMORPG's, and other related games, are in many
ways breaking new ground. Even Microsoft is a stretch - their
business model became wildly successful, in part, because they built
their business relationships to take advantage of the very high
industry switching costs. Computing platforms were prohibitively
expensive, and so Microsoft went to the hardware manufacturers &
application developers and built strong partnerships, offering a
competitively priced platform with attractive (though not
necessarily the best) OS features and supported by application
launches that met a wide variety of business needs. The initial
heavy expense paid off because switching costs practically -forced-
businesses to be brand loyal. In computer gaming, brand loyalty is
almost nonexistant.
Also, in a more traditional business model, marketing is often
broken into two different areas: Brand marketing and product
marketing. While marketing principles are similar across both
functional areas, the way dollars are spent is very different.
Brand marketing is more focused on brand image, and dollars are
spent on advertising and other tools to change the awareness and
perception of the consumer. Product marketing is where,
traditionally, more R&D dollars are spent. This is the market
research into the needs and values of the marketplace, and research
into new and improved products. In the computer games industry,
this will probably look very different than a traditional business.
In addition to dollars spent on developing better products, I would
say that even something like a company-sponsored community message
board could be considered R&D. When developers interact with the
consumers on a daily basis, getting new ideas and collaborating on
new products, I would call that R&D (and maybe the government would,
too :).
In short, I would agree with what you are saying about brand image,
but I disagree in how you are presenting it - as the only way in
which marketing dollars are spent. Or, if what you are telling me
is that brand management is the only way that the gaming industry
sees marketing today, I think perhaps a move towards a more
traditional product/brand marketing model might be of benefit to
some companies.
This, of course, is conjecture by someone outside the industry. I
certainly don't have access to the primary market research that
gaming companies have no doubt spent a great deal of money on.
-Brian
- R&D Brian Bilek
- R&D Matt Mihaly
- R&D Dave Rickey
- R&D Richard Aihoshi aka Jonric
- R&D Jessica Mulligan
- R&D Damion Schubert
- Conversation logs? Robert Zubek
- Conversation logs? Rudy Fink
- Conversation logs? Vincent Archer
- Conversation logs? Shane Gough
- DGN: Elastic Advancement in MUDs? Jeff Lindsey
- DGN: Elastic Advancement in MUDs? David B. Held
- Building histories off civilizations automatically adam Martin
- ADMIN: Virii and mail forgeries J C Lawrence
- Hi from the Dragon Empire's CLM Peter Tyson
- Linux gaming ( was Apple WWDC? ) Kevin Mack
- [TECH] Preferred LPC replacement? Jeff Bachtel
- [TECH] Preferred LPC replacement? Damion Schubert
- Who `owns' conversation logs? Joshua Judson Rosen
- The Online Gaming Life for Me! Michael Tresca
- Boredom Ben Chambers
- Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility [was Boredom] Ron Gabbard
- Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility [was Boredom] Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- "MMOG" Bible Brian 'Psychochild' Green
- "MMOG" Bible David Kennerly
- TECH: Single process v.s. multi process? Philip Mak
- TECH: Single process v.s. multi process? Smith, David {Lynchburg}
- TECH: Single process v.s. multi process? Bruce Mitchener
- TECH: Single process v.s. multi process? Bruce Mitchener
- In defense of "soloability" [was Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility] Clay
- In defense of "soloability" [was Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility] apollyon
- In defense of "soloability" [was Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility] Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- In defense of "soloability" [was Law of Diminishi ng Marginal Utility] Koster, Raph
- In defense of "soloability" [was Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility] Michael Tresca
- In defense of "soloability" [was Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility] Paul Schwanz
- In defense of "soloability" [was Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility] Martin C. Martin
- In defense of "soloability" [was Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility] Dave Rickey
- In defense of "soloability" [was Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility] Sanvean
- In defense of "soloability" [was Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility] Matt Mihaly
- In defense of "soloability" [was Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility] Michael Tresca
- In defense of "soloability" [was Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility] Kwon Ekstrom
- In defense of "soloability" [was Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility] Ron Gabbard
- Game shows Peter Tyson
- What keeps people interested in social muds? Martin C. Martin
- What keeps people interested in social muds? Rudy Fink
- What keeps people interested in social muds? Martin C. Martin
- What keeps people interested in social muds? Joshua Judson Rosen
- What keeps people interested in social muds? Ron Gabbard
- What keeps people interested in social muds? Marc Bowden
- What keeps people interested in social muds? Joshua Judson Rosen
- What keeps people interested in social muds? lynx@lynx.purrsia.com
- What keeps people interested in social muds? Richard A. Bartle
- What keeps people interested in social muds? Martin C. Martin
- What keeps people interested in social muds? Richard A. Bartle
- New Beginings Drylar Levre
- New Beginings Acius
- New Beginings ceo@grexengine.com
- New Beginings Bruce Mitchener
- New Beginings David B. Held
- New Beginings Kwon Ekstrom
- New Beginings David B. Held
- New Beginings Kwon Ekstrom
- New Beginings Sean Kelly
- New Beginings Lars Duening
- New Beginings David B. Held
- New Beginings Lars Duening
- New Beginings Bruce Mitchener
- New Beginings David B. Held
- New Beginings Kwon Ekstrom
- New Beginings Paul Schwanz
- New Beginings Zach Collins {Siege}
- New Beginings Miroslav Silovic
- New Beginings David B. Held
- New Beginings Draymoor a Vin il'Rogina
- New Beginings David B. Held
- New Beginings Kwon Ekstrom
- New Beginings Bruce Mitchener
- [DGN] Creating a MUD Richard Krush
- [DGN] Creating a MUD Acius
- [DGN] Creating a MUD Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- [DGN] Creating a MUD Edward Glowacki
- [DGN] Creating a MUD Kwon Ekstrom
- [DGN] Creating a MUD Edward Glowacki
- [DGN] Creating a MUD Fred Clift
- [DGN] Creating a MUD David Bennett
- [DGN] Creating a MUD fred@clift.org
- [DGN] Creating a MUD Damion Schubert
- [DGN] Creating a MUD Taylor
- [DGN] Creating a MUD Matt Mihaly
- [DGN] Creating a MUD Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- On the creation of constructive/social behaviours in online games! Marc Demesel
- [DGN] MUD Books James Edward Gray II
- [DGN] MUD Books Scion Altera
- [DGN] MUD Books Jeremy Noetzelman
- [DGN] MUD Books Tand'a-ur
- Positive reinforcement for socializing [was In de fense of "soloability" ] Jeff Lindsey
- Character skill distribution and trade-offs Ron Gabbard
- Character skill distribution and trade-offs Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Character skill distribution and trade-offs Vincent Archer
- Character skill distribution and trade-offs Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Character skill distribution and trade-offs John Buehler
- Character skill distribution and trade-offs Sean Kelly
- Character skill distribution and trade-offs Ron Gabbard
- Space partitioning, R-Trees? Dread Quixadhal
- Space partitioning, R-Trees? Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Space partitioning, R-Trees? Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Space partitioning, R-Trees? Crosbie Fitch