For some time now, gaming companies have gathered data to improve the design of their games. Digital distribution and online gaming have enabled them to get more information on the way we play. However, as we can learn from Sega, the value of their insights is as good as those interpreting them.
Super Monkey Ball: Love it, or hate it?
An article appearing today in Gamasutra and titled “Sega Shares ‘Insight’ From Customer Feedback On Super Monkey Ball” makes an interesting use of quotation marks (the ones surrounding the word insight). Of particular interest is the last ‘insight’ in the article:
We also learned that people tend to love or hate a game — most users will give you either 5 stars (highest score) or 1 star (lowest score)
Interesting conclusion: Nobody is in the middle. Where are the good days when there were people saying, “hey, I’m feeling indifferent about this product. Let me put in some minutes of my abundant idle time to let them know”? Answer: There’s never been such days.
What’s the first brand that comes to mind if you think about instant coffee? It’s very likely you might think of Nescafé. That might not be the case for long. When a category leader feels the need to advertise against a new entrant, it might be evidence that their business is starting to hurt. And if you base your differentiation on a product attribute against an experiential poster child, you just seem clueless about what’s hitting your sales. Evidence #1: the current ads found on many of the city bus stops, shown below.
Bus Stop Ad for Nescafé
In case you can’t tell from the picture, here’s the text:
Taste for yourself. Hype or Flavor? Nescafé Taster’s Choice Vanilla.
Obviously, the “hype” brand is Starbucks VIA Ready Brew, as many of the design elements in the cup and the packaging are distinctive of the brand. Is hype a bad thing? Only if it is just hype. But if people taking “the challenge” can’t differentiate between Starbucks freshly brewed coffee and their instant version, it would rarely qualify as just hype.
Nescafé counterattacks on the basis of “flavor”. Is taste something that Starbucks can’t claim to have? Ironically, Nescafé themselves say Starbucks tastes great as we will see later in this post. To make things more interesting, someone inside their organization came up with the idea to use an ambiguous term as “flavor”, and it made it to the final ads. If you have a vanilla flavored choice, is it taste, or the vanilla flavor that makes the difference?
Keeping up with missing the point, they decide to show the actual products spilling out of the packs. The “hype” brand shows a coffee powder that Starbucks has positioned as their proprietary micro-grinding process, while Nescafé shows the coarser grains that have been traditional in their instant coffee. The problem is that Starbucks already tackled the coarse grains as something to avoid. They are creating a disease. See it for yourself in their YouTube’s introduction video for Starbucks VIA.
Sounds bad? It’s worst. Evidence #2: Nescafé’s website, which is tied to the ads, but doesn’t appear in them. To find it, I had to run a Google search, which led me to an sponsored link (not the most cost effective way). I was surprised to find out that the main claim on the website is regarding price. As I said before, they even claim both taste great! Yet they have wallpapers comparing again the flavor. Could they make up their mind?
I recommend you visit the site, and take a look at the “See the light” section, where they talk about how everything is the same, but the price and the brand. The “Shameless plugs” section shows an assortment of wallpapers, similar to the bus stop ads. Finally, and my favorite one, is the “Viva variety” section. There they claim they are on the Dark Side. Perhaps they got that one right. May the force be with them!
What is Starbucks real advantage? They have always been recognized for their customer experience management, despite the road bumps that resulted from their fast and massive expansion. Their communications address taste not being enough, but giving a great experience being it all. They don’t even make promises they can’t keep, but offer the opportunity for a good time. For an example, see these ads found last year on some BART stations.
Last Year's Starbucks Ads at BART Stations
Can they still pull off to manage the customer experience, once outside of the controlled environment of their coffee shops and into the ordinary moments in people’s houses, offices and elsewhere? They might. Perhaps, judging by Nescafé’s reaction, Starbucks is already doing so. Starbucks never mentions them. Who leads the coffee drinking experience?
In either case, Starbucks have created yet another touch-point with customers of their brand, bringing them a great taste that is guaranteed by their proprietary micro-grinding process (even if it is just words). They are offering convenience with the individual package that Nescafé seems to have copied (I’m not a big instant coffee drinker, but I wasn’t aware of such packaging until the launch of VIA). If you visit the VIA website, you’ll notice they aren’t selling instant coffee. They are selling Ready Brew. They are selling the Starbucks VIA Experience.
Then they encourage customers to share their experiences and stories with text, photos and/or video, which are featured on the site. They don’t stop there, but also invite them to share recipes on which they are using VIA in unexpected ways. They promote the VIA Road Trip, which links to a YouTube Starbucks’ channel. In short, they are creating a community, while managing the customer experience. Just what they do best. Far, far away from the tasty, flavorful and cheap instant coffee from Nescafé.
Every once in a while, I come across a piece of communications that’s blatantly deceiving. The communicating company, in this case AT&T, may believe they are saying the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But all communication requires of a receiver, and the value of what’s said has to be measured by that particular end, more than the emitting one. If I say something true, but it’s interpreted as something that’s not, the result is that I communicated a lie. We can examine the concrete example for this (personal information was erased):
Envelope received from AT&T
As you may see from the picture, they state on their envelope:
Cost of Living… UP.
AT&T Prices… LOW!
To start with, notice the use of ellipsis, instead of an actual verb. That’s an ultimate feat of non-commitment! The relationship between the word pairs is left completely open for reader interpretation. Even a negation of the statement would be allowed. If you ever tell them you don’t like what they imply, they can always tell you they were trying to imply the exact opposite of your interpretation.
However, the main problem lies in their choice of words. They are contrasting ‘Up’ and ‘Low.’ They may seem going in opposite directions, but they aren’t antonyms. It’s very likely they can’t claim their prices are going down. So they claim the prices are low. Just like the Lindt chocolate bars I can get from my school cafeteria. They are low in price, despite being on the high end relative to their product category.
By they, I mean Lindt and the chocolate bar category. Of course I would never imply that of AT&T and their services. Everybody knows their prices are low. We all also know the cost of living is going up. Costs like food… and rent… and gas… and the phone service. All going up.
I apologize if anything was left open to interpretation in this post. Seriously, it was unintended.
On Wednesday, as the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) at Las Vegas was about to start, there was a Microsoft keynote which included the date for Project Natal’s launch: Holiday season 2010. As the first obvious contender to the success of the Nintendo Wii controllers, and bearing impressive technology, one can’t help but wonder if it is all we can expect.
Earlier today, Microsoft released a related video to users of their XBLA service. This will give you a good idea of what Project Natal is all about:
Very impressive technology. It certainly brings consumer visual recognition to a whole new level. But is it really the ultimate interface? We know that having something else track our movements, and doing so without any wearable devices, has been at the top of our expectations for the future. Lately, we see it in movies all the time, from the computer user interfaces in Minority Report, to the robot controls in the recent Avatar (see my review on Avatar). Let’s take this last one as an example.
Robot Interface in Avatar
In this scene, the Colonel points at Jake’s legs, and the rig he is wearing inside the robot makes it point as well. At the same time, the robot’s left hand rests on the hip, as he probably is doing inside the machine. If he were to start dancing, the robot would dance as well, even in a clunky way. Impressive right? Later in the movie, these robots appear holding guns, and their pilots hold their hands as if they were holding one themselves. The gun is obviously missing. The not so obvious thing missing is feedback.
Remember Newton’s third law of motion? Every action has a reaction. You lift a gun, you feel its weight on your hands. When I put my grip on the handle, the fingers fit right because I feel the integrity of it pushing back. I can use my left hand to grab the barrel without looking, because I feel it coming in. For the sake of discussion, lets say that in this case the rig provides this feedback by transferring an appropriate force to the driver’s hands. What happens when there are no rigs attached, such as in the case of Project Natal?
Lets stick to the gun example. One solution would be to have a mock gun device to provide the feedback, and tell the console when the player is squeezing the trigger. But that defeats the purpose of having no devices attached. The second one is through improved resolution. What if we could not only predict where your limbs are moving, but also every other finger in your hand? Then you move a finger in front of the screen, squeeze the trigger in the game. It would be the ultimate make believe experience.
Whoever plays, or remembers playing make believes, should know its limitations. Great, I have a gun in my hands, and I’m shooting bad guys. There’s a box in front that can serve as a cover, so I duck behind it. Let’s climb the box! Oh, that’s not so fun as I pretend climbing movements, but end at the same level. There’s no box there to provide the feedback, and adding boxes on my leaving room doesn’t sound like a solution.
And then, there’s the big problem. Let’s pretend that once I’m past that box, I’ll run for cover on the next one. So we pretend we are running, but we must stay in front of the TV to see where we are running. Somehow we start missing the feedback from the moving ground and the sensation of moving forward. And many games, old and new, require a lot of walking. No wonder, the early demos are driving cars or waiting for balls to come at you.
Why does it work for the Wii? Well, for starters, they have a controller that provides feedback. You are actually holding something. For resolution, you have buttons, since moving the controller doesn’t have a clue what you’re doing with your fingers. And for walking and running, they kept the D-pad, and even a thumb-stick on the Nunchuk controller. Finally, Wii controllers are for hands, which most people are able to move freely to either direction. Not the same case with your legs. When it comes to the moment when you need to kick that monster on the jaw, or want to do that back flip, you may want to just push a button and let the console do it for you. There’s some magic on doing stuff you are not physically capable!
In conclusion, it seems we will still have devices on us, even after Project Natal comes out, with the exception of a bunch of games that don’t go under this constraints. Which is not that bad, as new constraints have the tendency to make us think in unexpected ways and spur innovation. Moreover, with a year left before its launch, we may expect some good launch titles, probably one from Lionhead Studios, makers of the Fable games, and involved with some of the current demos for Project Natal. Despite the limitations as an interface, I will anxiously wait to put my hands on one!
This movie has many interesting things. Also, an important warning to read at the end of this post, which as usual keeps my promise not to spoil the movie. It is a good one, but be careful. It isn’t for everyone! We can start as usual by the trailer:
There’s a longer trailer, but this does a good job at not giving too much away (You will have to go to YouTube to watch it). The only problem is that it doesn’t do a great job at setting the right tone for the movie. For that, we have the poster:
Poster for Daybreakers
Indeed, this is above all, a scary movie. Additionally, the first two scenes before the opening credits, make sure that you don’t have a doubt about it. However, it has also action, and a little of corporate intrigue. After all, a corporation runs the farming for the blood supply needed by the vampire populated world. I may add that the opening credits are amazingly composed against images which colors help to keep driving the mood of the movie.
The plot is entertaining and interesting, without being the most brilliant. The beginning of the movie goes planting many of the issues related to this vampire world, but it’s so straight forward about it that it would be overwhelming if we wouldn’t already know so many things about vampires. Some are just planted, but aren’t seen again! The music again is functional in supporting the mood, but not really exceptional. One scene in particular had me remember Psycho, but it was lacking the intensity of it’s clever strings. I’m not a music expert, but that was my take on it. Special effects are what you can expect of Weta Workshop, who’s work you’ve seen in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the first two installments of The Chronicles of Narnia. The casting is also remarkable with Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe
For me the most interesting part was how it portrayed a world were almost everyone is immortal. It had that power usually found in science fiction stories. To make it one, you would just need to change being a vampire with having a technology that makes everyone immortal. However, my particular thoughts on the immortality issue were already written in my previous post titled Fear and the Quest for Immortality, and I will keep them out of context as they are there, so that I don’t need to spoil anything as I promised.
In conclusion, it is a good horror movie to watch, with a lot of action and power struggles. But I did mention there would be a warning, and here it is. It is perhaps one of the most gory movies I’ve watched in a long time. Remember I said about District 9 having a lot of blood and gore? Well, this one has more. This isn’t just the type you come out soaked and dripping. It is a little ironic, as this movie comes from the Australian Film Finance Corporation, while Australians are well known for their stringent rating requirements.
For this reason, I would say you don’t watch this one if you can’t stand a lot of blood and gore. You will be closing your eyes a lot, and waiting for those credits to start rolling. However, if you do make it until they roll, you will get a fruit salad for your efforts. Watch it and you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Recently, I have noticed some of the ads for the New York Times that have been displayed on the San Francisco BART. This one in particular caught my attention:
The New York Times & Alice
On the small script below the add, they claim that they have more coverage of the Bay Area, every Friday and Saturday. However, the interesting part is the main copy: “The New York Times and Alice.” If you’ve never been to the Bay Area, you may wonder who’s Alice. It isn’t Alice in Wonderland, even with an upcoming movie by Tim Burton. The banner in the picture may give you a clue, but you still need to know about the Bay Area to make the association, specially since the picture doesn’t display the full name on the board. It is about Alice Waters, executive chef, founder and owner of Chez Panisse, a well-known restaurant in Berkeley, attributed with the beginning of the movement for cooking with sustainably and locally grown ingredients.
It is interesting how they opt to just show her first name and a cropped picture of the entrance to her restaurant in the ad. It is as if we were living in a small town, and of course, everybody knows who Alice is. The truth is, most people here do know who Alice is. Hence, the town is still small enough so that one person that makes the right impact can go by her first name only. Our communications have evolved enough so that your name and reputation can go around town with the speed of gossip in a small town. Are you one of the small town people?
Today the air smells to fireworks. Several times I see them go up in the air and with a great bang remember us what we already know. Tonight is Christmas.
The neighbor’s kids are already celebrating the novena, since in the middle of the noise from the tambourines and the maracas, you can hear the Christmas carols.
The house smells to food. Pork, beef, and chicken. Salad and fruit aspic. The plum sauce that’s always there, and the other sauce that is never the same. Almond rice. All cooking in the kitchen. Their steam reminding us that at midnight we will be full. Everything except the dessert, which is already made, but despite everything else that made us full, we still will have some.
The little ones run near the tree. They are playing, but deep down, that is their job. They are a special command, which patrols the borders of the gifts. Preventing someone else from spying on the cards, or stealing one of the gifts. You never know with the big ones, they are so naughty.
For the big ones the party starts after midnight, when the children are exhausted from their hard intelligence and defense work, and start feeling sleepy. Other children, with more energy, will likely play real games, those that aren’t their job; that is trying their brand new gifts.
By midnight, the big ones are also exhausted by looking after the children, since they never noticed the kids were only doing their jobs. However, they’ll keep moving until later, driven by the fuel of whiskey, champagne and rum. They also will move out of necessity. Because with the Caribbean dancing beats the food will come down, stoping them from feeling full. Moreover, there’s still booze to drink.
This is Christmas in Colombia, and although I’m not there this year, to everyone there, here, and everywhere else, I wish you the happiest of Christmas, with friends, family and many gifts. Gifts like love, peace, friendship, welfare, health and everything to bring you happiness!
Finally, I just want to share with you some Christmas spirit that I saw recently. Notice how smiling to the camera is more important than the green traffic light. Tonight is Christmas!
Recently, I went on a quest for the perfect umbrella. I haven’t got a chance to test it yet, but its limited lifetime warranty is far from perfect (maybe if you’re looking from the company’s perspective it is). Here is the story.
The Bay Area has a very unpredictable weather. This means that you carry an umbrella around just in case. However, after several months, I’ve found most umbrellas to be unreliable. They are small, and they often break and leak. That got me thinking about the existence of a great umbrella; something high tech. Indeed that’s what I found. You can get them light and portable, UV protected, with titanium framing, and the one I ended up buying: the GustBuster. A double canopy, wind-tested umbrella, designed to make it hold under winds of up to 55 miles per hour. A complete technological marvel.
However, technology isn’t enough to have a business. You need production, distribution, a communication strategy, etc. Then comes the warranty. An impressive lifelong warranty. Limited:
GustBuster's Limited Lifetime Warranty
It isn’t the easiest picture to read, but I’ll quote the last paragraph:
Damage resulting from accidents, alterations, failure to follow care and drying instructions, misuse, abuse, fire, flood or acts of god will not be covered.
Notice anything unusual? Yes, it doesn’t cover acts of god. If you’re a believer, as the manufacturers clearly are, then this means the umbrella isn’t covered from anything at all. Isn’t supposedly every single act an act of god? Perhaps, they wanted to refer to acts of nature… but fires and floods are already included. Couldn’t they just add earthquakes?
The good thing is that they deliver on their promise, and this seems the most sturdy umbrella I’ve ever had. On the downside, it’s a heavy umbrella, so it won’t be my most portable one. Even worst, it can resist over 55 miles per hour winds, but my high tech umbrella won’t be covered on the next worldwide deluge!
Every once in a while, a band is daring enough to release a video relying on the power and energy of their performances, and aided by the visual style of the director. Here is a countdown for my top 5.
#5
Letter from a Thief by Chevelle
This is the most recent one, as it was just released. The soft lighting, flashing effects and the fading of the band members makes this a performing video that stands out for its simplicity. A new video of a new song, it is likely to grow with time.
#4
Reptilia by The Strokes
This is another minimalist video, with very extreme close-ups of band members and instruments, that fits well with the style of the band. Such a simple video allows the music to come through in a way that adds energy to the song.
#3
Everlasting Gaze by The Smashing Pumpkins
Powerful video of one of my favorite songs by this band. Perhaps, this video is part of the reasons I like it so much. The selection of white and black over green adds character to this performing video, until the point where you start getting some glimpses by the end of the video, before a climatic destruction takes over.
#2
The Hand That Feeds by Nine Inch Nails
This one was very hard to find, and you may notice that it was published with another name. This video has a good balance of close ups, wider band shots, and some interesting light glares that add to the good vibe of an already awesome song.
#1
Judith by A Perfect Circle
This video from David Fincher, director of remarkable movies such as Se7en and Fight Club, holds many of the quality elements from these movies. The song is impressive, specially if you know Judith is the mother of vocalist Maynard James Keenan. She was constrained to a wheelchair for more than 20 years, and this is part of the anger that comes across from the song, and also from the fitting video. Being such a personal and emotional song, this performing video is my all-time number one.
I don’t know how long these songs are going to be available on YouTube, as paranoid record companies chase people that publish there. Additionally, I don’t know if you will be able to watch the videos anywhere… another result of the said paranoia. However, I do expect that if you like the songs as much as I do, you also imitate me in legally owning them, to prove the paranoid how wrong they are.
What an incredible movie-going year! I have commented here on the best movies I’ve watched lately. The truth is that after Inglourious Basterds , I thought there wouldn’t be a better movie in a while (see my post on Inglourious Basterds). Avatar may be the one that proved me wrong. I admit I didn’t feel like clapping at the end of this movie, although everyone was clapping. Inglourious Basterds still gets the credit for that. However, this is a movie filled with beauty, so incredible, that you can forget the fact that a lot of it is computer generated. It will fill you with joy and awe, and just then it will make your heart ache as you get into the climatic ending.
Avatar Movie Poster
As usual, these comments won’t have any spoilers, so you can be assured I won’t ruin the movie for you, and we will start by the trailer. For this movie in particular, is one that doesn’t tell much about it. It just prepares you for a science fiction feast and special effects extravaganza written and directed by James Cameron, the director of Titanic. The trailer omits to say he is also the director of Aliens (the second one), The Abyss and the first two Terminators, which seem to be closer than Titanic to the images you are about to see. Watch the trailer for Avatar below.
To be fair, since the trailer wasn’t saying much, I wasn’t sure if I should expect this movie to be good. It turned out it is incredible! To begin with, the world it is set in, which you can see in the trailer, grows with the movie and becomes convincing and coherent. It certainly helps to have a group of scientific and ethnographic advisors, as you will see if you pay attention to the credits (before you get to the talented army of special effects artists). The native, language, plants, animals, landscape, music, and many other tiny details fit together to make it a believable world.
The plot immerses you into this world, allowing you to learn a lot about this particular world, alongside it’s main character. If you attempt to guess what comes next, perhaps you will be able to get it sometimes, since the writing is well structured and relevant through out. But don’t try to do this. Instead, let go to it, and don’t try to beat it. You will find yourself in one of the most outstanding emotional experiences in movies.
There are no warnings for this movie, besides it is a science fiction one. If you don’t like the genre, you should still watch it. It is likely you will forget you are watching a make-believe world, and enjoy a story that tells a lot about our own history. In case you aren’t convinced yet, I can tell you today, three days after opening, this movie is ranked 25 in IMDB’s top 250 movies of all time (Inglourious Basterds is 67). It is an amazing movie that I want to watch again… next week!
Have you watched it? Let me know if you agree or disagree… but please, don’t spoil it for others!
