Paradox of the Active User (RTFM)

People like features, and will pay more for it, but the traditional active user doesn't read the manual and just starts using the product. The result is an uninformed user that statistically took more time to accomplish his/her task than if they spent time reading the manual in the first place.

This interests me because it seems to be the exact reason why I feel games MUST have active tutorials. Then, if the game is deep enough, it's supplimented by a detailed instruction manual. Unfortunately I can't recall a game that's had a good tutorial and scenarios that assist with the learning curve.

You know, I've always had in my mind that there were a few indicators of when you've made it as a game developer:

1. Your product is (at least attempted) to be shared illegally. I'm not saying to leave out copy protection, I'm saying that it's good when people like your product so much that they go out of their way to get it


2. You've made it to the top of search engine results (without paying for it)


3. You have a faq and message board on gamefaqs

Now this makes me question that last one though. Should you really ever have questions frequently asked about your gameplay? (or anything for that matter?) If you think about it, you should have addressed all questions in-game... or at least in some easily accessible way.

Read: blog article, definition

Competing on the Basis of Speed

Concept of "fast companies":
Dell: through speed - significant cost advantage due to low cost infrastructure. They have cheap price per component not because they buy cheaper - they buy at same price of course, but cheaper surrounding infrastructure. (1:25)
Toyota: Brought Prius from concept to market in 15 months
Google: competes on speed in software dev area

Competing on basis of speed gives : 1) a significant competitive advantage, and 2) a large barrier to entry - companies need to catch up.

Things that kill speed:
complexity
3 faces of complexity

1. waste: anything that depletes resources/effort/space/money - keep it simple
2. Inconsistency: uneven, unbalanced, etc - make it flawless
3. overload: excessive or unreasonable burden - make it flow

1) waste
Keep common infrastructure
achitecture/convention/tools
keep simplifying the code via refactoring

a dev process that anticipates change will result in software that tolerates change

Toyota's design process:
"set based design" (9:45)
They have 10 engines and pick one before production - not use one and keep making changes.
Makes decision as late as possible

Make decisions reversible whenever possible
-when change creates complexity, refactor

Paused at 13:00... fascinating, but getting sleepy...

Watch: google video

From Jawed of YouTube

Killer apps section
14:11 wikipedia
It really was proof of social collaboration. You don't necessarily get chaos with everyone involved, you can get good things.

18:00 del.icio.us
Creditted with introduction of tagging.

in short:
Used earnings at paypal to create video sharing website. Didn't work initially, but they noticed that they had to keep ppl there. Redesigned for that and it worked. Fastest growing website to date.