So I finally have a bit of time to sit down and write this review.  A few weeks ago, the First (what is to hopefully become annual) event, Podcamp Michigan 2008, was held to discuss Podcasting and Social Media.  Okay, well a podcamp is supposed to be based around Podcasting and it is supposed to be an un-conference, which is more of a free form gathering based upon a topic of interest being mainly new media type stuff.

Overall it was cool and the attendance shows there is a grassroots movement in this Michigan and nearby (hi Canadians) for working with new media, social networks and podcasting.  There are some cool people doing some awesome things, such as the myMac podcast and website by Tim Robertson as well as Rick Stringer and the Variant Frequencies podcast.  There are also several other social media mavens such as Shannon Paul, who is working for the Red Wings organization to bring them into the new media realm.  All very cool stuff as well as the potential for a greater movement here is in place.  Jeff and another rep from Scate was there to check it out for a potential audience for their Ignite product.

There was a small room in the back, which if you didn’t know about, you might have missed some great chat time and more of what I sort of expected.  There seemed to be a bit too much standard conference fare verse networking time, but with only about one month of planning for the event, I will take what I can get.  There was some great twitter conversations going on during the conference, so we almost didn’t need a separate room, but it worked out pretty cool.  Search on #pcmi08 for the conference twitter feed or click here.

Mark Ijlal gets all the props for making the big leap and setting a date, time and place for Podcamp Michigan and then he went on to make it all happen and it worked out as a great success!  Here is a cheers to him for all his hard work!  I did notice some of the folks, who were there early left and didn’t return after lunch, so I wonder if they were getting anything out of it.

I would expect Podcamp Michigan 2009 to be bigger and better as well as most attended by a lot of newer folks as well.  See you all then.!

So, I have been thinking lately about all the different meeting locations for a variety of different meet ups. Such as you might have an individual one-on-one meeting where you want to discuss business. Perhaps you have a one on several or a team meeting. Perhaps you have a larger group that wants to do some form of meetup. There are a variety of places, that offer different services, but they are all different and not all are listed on the web, nor the prices for some of those. I hate having to pay for wifi when I go into a Starbucks! It should be free, but it isn’t, so for me, I don’t like to visit their establishment, whereas a Coffee Beanery has free wifi. Then there is the seating issues and where do you put the laptop (or several in some cases.)

There are places like Buffalo Wild Wings, where they have free wifi, but the noise is loud and not much business is done there necessarily, but it might be fun if you were by yourself.

So what places are good and fun for you or your group? What places are receptive? What places are cheap or expensive? If it is a chain, just mention one reference and go from there, although, each location will be different, so we can mention the street address if it is diffrent than the rest.

I will then create a page to sort of keep up the information, but I need input beyond what I have here.

Thanks!

Rich

Advisory Board - form one now, I have one!

So I read a good article, that says forming Adivsory Boards for you business are a good and healthy for your company. Some concepts about them… use those familiar with your industry. Use those that have lots of experience and have succeeded before in business. Use those in complimentary industries. Some other good indivudual types are: marketing directors, technology specialists and human resources consultants, perhaps economics professors as well as retired executives from other industries. It is advised that you compensate your advisors in some fashion as well, but I am not going to go into that one. I definately plan to expand the advisory board for my company, Moya Entertainment as well!

The board should not include the company’s regular bonding agent, accountant and attorney as they have a biased interest in your business.

Podcamp Michigan - I plan to be there for at least some of it!

- this is the 1st one here in Michigan and it is shaping up to be spectacular. There are over 50 individuals that have said they plan to attend, so this is going to be awesome!

A report recently posted by Crain’s of New York covers the Game Development scene in NYC, which is a bit better off than here in Michigan.  The report takes it’s cues from this PDF report generated by the Center for an Urban Future, which I believe is a NYC company.

Of course it talks about the 10% + growth per year of the industry and it mentions the current companies in the area.  Detroit is in a very similiar situation, but I would venture to say with a bit fewer companies in the sector, although the game programs in the universities and the local area are stronger as are the tax incentives (if you include the film incentives here), but I believe we are weaker overall on the working with the local IGDA chapter as wella s getting the word out to those outside the Metro Detroit area that development in Detroit can and is happening.  Take a look below for the recommendations.  One caveat, I only perused the paper so far and didn’t read it in full other than the reports recommendations.  I have seen enough of these type reports I could probably write one!

continue reading "Report on Game Development in NYC - although they are in a bit better shape than Detroit, Michigan"

The key word here is Massive. 

Do not forget it.  Here is a list of questions that you will need to answer prior to even deciding to move forward with such a proposition.  Answer these adequately and you are now ready to move forward in some fashion.

1. What is the Purpose of the MMO in what is it trying to achieve from those visiting the MMO?  Is it their enjoyment or some ulterior motive?  Such as driving traffic to some other product in real life?

1.a related to 1.  What is the Unique Selling Point of the MMO that will drive the traffic to the game and keep current members around while attracting new members?

2. Is there any game element to this or is it strictly a chat room with graphics and some social aspect to it other than chat?  If there are game elements, then what is the expected game elements?

3. Will this be a download required client or not required and needs to run in the browser?  This is very important as it really dictates the direction and flexibility of the game.  In a web browser makes senese in certain instances. 
4. 3D or 2D?  3D in browser is limited, but doable.  2D in browser is much easier as their is more examples out there.

5. How will the MMO funding be worked out?  This is sort of tied into the rest as well and is not a trivial thing.  There is the upfront development costs, then there is the roll out costs and bug fixes early on, then there is the maintenance of the servers/bandwidth that should not be underestimated.  Blizzard’s team for WoW increased by almost a factor of 10 when WoW hit it big (200 -> 2000). This is just for maintanance.  Of course there is upgrades as well to keep the content new and improved.  By funding itself from within the MMO: I mean will there be advertising inside the MMO or on the web pages associated with the MMO?  Brand Placements in game?  Selling accounts by month or one time fee?  Microtransactions?

6. Social Networking is an important part of any MMO.  How will you cater to this need.  Will it tie into a social networking website, perhaps one you own and run?

7. User Submitted content required?  ala SecondLife?  Is this something the users can do and/or sell to other players?  How.  This economy as well as the economy of the game needs worked out, altough the economy can be worked out easily, it is more important to answer the question of will there user submitted content as this dictates early design decisions.

8. Who owns any IP created in the game for the game or by users?  Not a big deal, just one of those things. 

9. Scope is very important in a lot of design decisions and dictates the up front costs of getting going.  Creating a MMO isn’t a trivial
undertaking and to really make it succeed requires a LOT of hard work.

A demo of some core functionality can be put together relatively easily, but it still isn’t a trival thing, although life has been getting easier for us developers.  There are a LOT of examples out there now, so if you want to make one, just provide examples of existing MMOs and how yours will be different and you can move forward from there.

This is also not something that you could really ask a developer to just sit down and spit some code out and have a MMO up and running in a week, especially exactly as you envisioned.  However, a prototype could probably be done relatively fast, depending on the amount of money one is willing to spend to get ‘er done as you might say.
 

Here are some services / companies, which are supposed to allow you to get your video out to the masses.  Of course, you will need to take a look at all these and evaluate them on their own as well as evalute the sites they post to, since some of them will then claim ownership of the videos at least to use as they will, if not outright ownership of the copyrights.  I personally like to keep ownership rights to myself, but then the distribution is low, which is perhaps not what is wanted when starting out.  So here they are:

 Tube Mogul - 150 free uploads per month - webservice

Hey Spread

VideoPostRobot (software, not free)

Additional non-video specific, but good for distribution:

Pod Pusher - not video distribution as much as putting your RSS feed listed up on a variety of directories, but it is sort of relevent to the topic at hand.

Social Poster - used to get the word out about your posts, not directly distribute and post to video sites.  (Firefox only)

Well,

 I have been toying with the idea of getting into video production for a while now, either for tutorial stuff related to software or just for working with some of the historical martial arts I do or even creating a new ’series’ that is all about comedy and fun.  I might still pursue this, but for now, check this out:

 http://www.virtualhosting.com/blog/2008/the-video-blogging-toolbox-100-tools-resources-and-free-software-packages/

 I came across this on some of the lists I belong to and it is just an amazing resource for getting into the online new media space for video, so I thought I would share it with you.  Enjoy!

Every first Friday of the month from 4-6 pm, the Technology Incubator Tech Town, located near the Wayne State University has a gathering to talk about various activities and networking oportunities.  It seems like a pretty cool thing to try and make and I hope to make it down there tonight.  I will let you know how it goes.  See you there if you make it.

 Tech Town is one of the 3 big business accelerators in the area along with Automation Alley and Ann Arbor Spark. 

Lets help Michigan get some excellent support for the Children in this new center sponsored by the Starlight, Starbright Foundation:

 Vote now here:  http://www.colgate.com/app/Colgate/US/Corp/CommunityPrograms/show-the-love/vote

You can also read more about it, but basically it is a Fun Center for kids staying at Children’s Hospital of Michigan.  You can vote once a day, so add it to your browser tab as a home page and do it once a day.  It is currently close between Detroit and Houston winning the vote.  All others are pretty much out of the running, so spread the word and make this happen!

I had an interview Tommy Onyx, who owns a local web development company, that is also into building communitites in Second Life. It was very cool to chat with him and also hear about some of the cool stuff from the Detroit Electronic Music Festival.

Loudbaby.com
Web sites that SCREAM for attention!™
Detroit-Life.com
The Motor City inside The Metaverse™

continue reading "Interview with Tommy Onyx of Loudbaby!"

 

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