Digital Connections

 
 

Getting To The Gray In Gameplay

Caption (image via Flickr).
Most games that include moral choices let users choose between hero and villain — with no options in between (image via Flickr).

As video games continue to mature as a medium, one of the major narrative elements being included in AAA titles is the idea of your character’s moral choices having an effect on the outcome of the game and the game world itself. Some of the top games of the last year have incorporated this element, including “nFamous” and “Fable 2″ (where your character’s moral choices not only affect the world, but also your character’s appearance, ranging from saintly to devilish). Several major upcoming titles are also using this element: “Mass Effect 2″ and “Dragon Age,” to name two, both currently under development by BioWare.

But there’s a problem with this approach. In almost every game that features these kinds of moral decisions, the choices aren’t just easy, they’re totally transparent. The first decision you make is whether you want the character to be the good guy or the bad guy, and then all decisions you must make to achieve that outcome are predetermined: Feed the puppy to be the good guy, kick it to be the bad guy. As former Activision developer James Portnow put it in his column this week on Gamasutra: “We tend to deliver to our players all the exciting possibilities of either being Mother Theresa or being Hitler.”

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Find Fans Far from Facebook with the Fan Box

Facebooks newly-launched Fan Box helps marketers bring the action to fans with embeddable widgets (image via Flickr).
Facebook’s newly-launched Fan Box helps marketers bring the action to fans with embeddable widgets (image via Flickr).

The meaning of “social networks” has connotations far beyond that of a destination site where people go to keep in touch with their friends. Fittingly, the world’s largest social network wants to be far more than a site people visit.

The new Facebook Fan Box exemplifies the transition. Built on Facebook Connect, the service where publishers can allow visitors to register for their sites using their existing Facebook logins, the Fan Box lets publishers bring their Facebook Page content to their site. Visitors to those Fan Box-enabled sites who log in via Facebook Connect can then become fans of the publisher’s Facebook Page.

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The Fastest Way to Lose Money

The scam truck
Image by jepoirrier via Flickr

Friday night, a friend of mine instant-messaged me on Facebook saying he needed my help. On his profile, there were several messages urging people to contact him right away. I was of course concerned.

Soon it became apparent that it wasn’t my friend at all. His identity had been hijacked by a scammer who posted the messages to his profile and IMed his friends. The Nigerian scam has been going on in this form at least since January, when Silicon Alley Insider and TechCrunch reported on it. It’s a reminder that wherever consumers go, scammers and other malevolent elements will follow. In this case, it’s also an unfortunate brand association with Western Union, as you’ll see momentarily.

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Twitter Contests Take Off

  • Posted on  3:08 pm by 360i

Twitter Contests Take Off
O.A.R. used Twitter to engage fans by inviting them to submit lyrics to @ofarevolution (image by Neek11 via Flickr).

By Matt Hirsch, Digital Publicist at 360i

Contests and giveaways are becoming a popular way for many marketers to help create buzz for their presence on Twitter. Depending on your company’s goals, these promotions can be extremely effective ways to add followers or encourage deeper engagement. While there have been quite a few Twitter contests that have received attention lately, there have been two in particular that captured my interest: Orbitz’s free ticket giveaway and O.A.R.’s songwriting contest.

If you viewed the Orbitz Twitter page on June 24, you would have been come across the following tweet: “We’re giving away a free airline ticket today! FOLLOW @Orbitz & RT this msg to be eligible to win.” By encouraging people to retweet the message and offering a significant prize, the travel Web site created quite a bit of viral spread for the one day promotion. The promotion spiked the number of Orbitz followers by over 10,000 in a single day (according to Twitter Counter).

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Six Ways To Improve Conferences

David Berkowitz has been to his share of conferences - and he has some tips for ...
David cites the 140 Characters panel with Rick Sanchez and Ann Curry as one of the best. In this column he’s got six ways to improve industry conferences (image by David via Flickr).

In May and June, I participated in 13 events as a moderator (six), panelist (four), and featured or keynote presenter (three). They weren’t evenly dispersed; May brought a stretch of four events in two and a half days, while June had a span of three events in three cities within 48 hours. It was both thrilling and tiring, and I’m glad I get to return to the day job for a while.

Along the way, I came up with a few thoughts on what can make events even better for all participants going forward. Some organizers have a real knack for this; Jeff Pulver in particular deserves a lot of credit for his thoughtful considerations that he incorporated into his 140 Characters Conference. Ultimately, participating in so many events spanning a range of topics mostly around social media topics gives me a way to cross-pollinate some of the best of what I’ve seen.

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The Social Marketing Playbook Quiz - Are You Game?

  • Posted on June 29, 2009 8:00 am by 360i

We published the Social Marketing Playbook with the hope that it would be widely read and shared among people with a genuine interest in and passion for social marketing.

To date, nearly 15,000 of you have downloaded the Playbook. Whether you came across the Playbook from our blog, from Twitter — or perhaps in an email from a friend or colleague, we’re grateful for the broad readership and positive feedback we’ve received thus far.

That said, the Playbook was not intended to be a one-and-done document (why not continue with the sports metaphor). Instead, we hope you will download a copy of the Playbook and revisit it as needed. It’s yours to keep, and we invite you to treat it as such. If you have not downloaded the Playbook already, you can do so here: http://360i.com/playbook.

The brief quiz below will test your knowledge of some of the key points outlined in the Social Marketing Playbook. You can also download a PDF version of the quiz — complete with answers — here. At the end of both versions of the quiz you can review the correct answers and explanations.

CONTEST: 360i is giving away 10 hard-bound copies of the Social Marketing Playbook during the month of July. To enter the drawing, take the quiz below and enter your email into the “Your Name” field at the beginning of the quiz (your email will only be used to contact you if you win). Good luck!

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In Search of the Next Big Thing at Digital Media Conference

At Digital Media Conference 2009 in Washington, DC, I moderated a panel called “What’s Next in Social Media?” The discussion invariably turned to ‘the next big thing.’ At least, it did because as the moderator I could ask it, and as a bonus I didn’t have to answer.

No one on the panel was willing to draw a line in the sand and say, “This is it.” I tried asking the question I get all the time: “What’s the next Twitter or Facebook?” Still nothing. And this was a smart bunch, including Ben Ilfeld, Co-Founder & Operations, The Sacramento Press; Chris McGill, Founder, Mixx; Haroon Mokhtarzada, CEO & Founder, Webs.com; and Bev Yehuda, VP, MultiVu, a PRNewswire Company.

Some of the speculation turned to Google Wave, but expectations were all over the map. The panelists seemed to agree that it would be something – but will it be something that early adopters would love, or will it cross that proverbial chasm?

There’s also this sense that we’re still learning how to use what we have. Twitter and Facebook Connect are two platforms in their infancy. Many sites and platforms are becoming more useful as they adapt to work well from various devices. New tools keep emerging to make it easier to make your information and identity portable, while aggregating whatever you want where you want it. It’s tough to say what this will like.

The panel closed with a discussion around changes in communication. As @sophieci tweeted while quoting the panel, “Twitter=protocol which furthers asynchronous behavior. Easier to multitask with this kind of solution.” Haroon also noted Yammer became an effective tool to communicate internally and keep track of conversations. Despite all the talk of what’s next though, Ben Ilfeld asked the room how many checked their corporate email while at the conference, and everyone raised their hands. He just wanted email to work better. if that’s what’s next, and Google Wave may even play a part in it. Okay, it’s not all that Jetson-esque, but we’re still waiting for our flying cars, so Outlook and the BlackBerry may still be a big part of the future of social media.

 

 
 
 
 
 

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