I have Tivo, but I may still watch commercials

One of the major changes you hear about in advertising nowadays is that Tivo is breaking the standard tv advertising model. Tivo users blow past the ads so companies are trying to find other ways to reach consumers. Product placement, little on-screen overlays that run while you're watching your show, even ads in Tivo's pause menu.

But what I realized tonight while watching a string of SNL episodes is that as speed past the commercials, things will catch my eye and I'll go back and watch the entire commercial. Mini cows getting herded by midgets? Guy rubbing some grandma's foot? Conan running full suit on the beach? Subway car explosions? While I'm running past the commercials, these things catch my eye and I either go "wtf?" "that looks funny" or "that looks awesome" and go back.

So in MY case, I think the consumer has just gotten smarter at zoning out the crappy ads that viewers 10 years ago had no choice but to watch. Don't pour out cereal and tell me how nutritious it is, or claim I'm in good hands when bad things happen in my life. BORING. I am now recognizing I treat commercials as entertainment.

With Tivo I only watch shows I want to watch. With Tivo I also only watch commercials I want to watch - but I do in fact watch them. Advertising can be so well done that it makes me want to watch it! Someone's doing it right.

Alison on the other hand - she gets made when I make her go back ;-)

Really only finite possibilities?

Been reading 37signals recently - their design philosophy really is inspiring...

In one post, they talk about how readers warn them of websites that rip off their design, and upon a warning from 37Signals, they sometimes get a response to the affect of "how many different ways are there to design a web page or a web app?"

Whenever I run into designer’s block ... I turn to the world of wrist watches.

A wrist watch is a tiny canvas with something to keep that canvas tied to your wrist. It’s just a couple inches round or square or triangular. It has a fixed, common purpose: Tell time...

And yet somehow, with these physical and practical constraints, watch design flourishes. From analog to digital to a combination of the two, tens of thousands of designs are born. Different type, different proportions, different shapes, different perspectives, different indicators, different buttons, different bezels, etc. Fresh new designs hit the market all the time. Here are about a hundred different interpretations of the same question: “What time is it right now?”

I would think the same thing about how it's so difficult to innovate standard genres in games. How many FPS's can there really be after all? Then Team Fortress comes around... and Portal, what about Gunz? I also thought that all the genre's really have already been created (or that new genres would just be combinations of the existing ones) - but here comes physics based games like Armadillo Run.

I don't consider myself a creative person - just resourceful. I assume that I'm like most people in hoping to be on the edge of innovation.

Read: Article

Guaranteed Play Video Poker

I subscribed to "Southern Gaming" for two reasons
#1: I am really into probability (especially video poker)
#2: It was free at the time.

I admit, most of the time they just go into the recycling bin after I thumb through them, but every once and a while I stumble on some fun articles.

In this one, there was just a blurb about a new style of video poker: "Guaranteed Play(tm) video poker".

In one test version at a 25-cent denomination, a $20 ticket bought 100 guaranteed hands of Deuces Wild. Instead of starting with 80 credits on the meter, as in a regular 25-cent video poker, the meter starts at zero - that's the key to casinos being able to offer the guarantee. Bet, and the credit meter moves to minus-5. Hit four of a kind for 20 credits in this Deuces version, and the meter moves to plus-15.

At the end, if you have positive credits, you can cash out. If the meter is negative, you just walk away - you never pay more than your original buy-in, no matter how negative the credit meter gets.

So what are the potential winnings here? Let's say you break even every hand. At the end of the session, you walk away with the same amount of money as if you lost every hand - nothing... for a net loss of $20. So in order to actually make out, you have to not only stay in the black to get paid, but you need to be up MORE than the amount of your buy-in. How many people actually double their money in a casino?

To combat this problem, there has got to be some user-side benefits or else the system would fail. You'll get more hands than $20 would normally buy or much better odds.

So what about strategy? When you're playing with virtual money and you're in the hole anyway nearing the end of your session, you might as well go for the gold. A low pair with some face cards? You would save the face cards normally... but when you're -100, being -95 won't do you any good, so go for the four of a kind.
So what's going on here - why this over regular video poker?

Read: Article

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

Procedural Content from Introversion

Ah Introversion - indie development's poster child. For those that don't know, they're an independent, self publishing, award-winning game developer.

The article comes from Game Career Guide and talks about procedural content and how the industry should shift towards it. Procedural content is the act of generating content dynamically through functions. In their examples, their next game generates the layout of a city given certain arguments. Roads and building attributes are based on population density, districts, and ground elevation. Entire cities are created by functions. What would take thousands of man hours for artists and level designers now took a few weeks of programming.

However, this is nothing new. At E3 last year, this was Will Wright's big concept in Spore. Everything from lifeforms to galaxies are all procedural. .kkrieger was able to pack an fps into 96 kb with graphics comparable to current gen shooters.

They go on to point out that they are not just talking about static models, but animation, and textures. Back to spore, the animals you create must be able to walk in a believable fashion without programmers knowing what you'll develop.

Like they said, with development costs and computing on the rise, the best way to fill vast virtual worlds will be with functions - especially for indie developers with limited resources.

Read: article