A post on the Facebook developer’s blog about new APIs to allow more access to users’ content is raising a bit of a blog storm. Everyone seems most concerned with whether opening up Facebook status updates will kill Twitter. My concern is that these advertising, aka ‘virality’, channels will surely increase the amount of spam [...]
Tagged Facebook, Funware, SpamI just received an email from Facebook in Spanish telling me that a friend commented on a photo I uploaded. I’ve never used Facebook except in English. The comment that the user added is in English. The commenter likely used a Spanish configured computer to make the comment. Why did Facebook choose to inform me [...]
Tagged FacebookSalesman: Hi there. Since you’re on a car lot, you must be researching to get a car. Right? Me: That’s right. I know I need a car. I just need to see what the options are today. Salesman: Well… we have these ‘normal’ cars priced from like $20,000 to over a $100,000. But you should [...]
Tagged Open Source, Software EngineeringI’m about to turn off Notes notifications because Facebook Notes have suddenly become the new method of sending Chain Letters and Chain Emails. I remember in the early days of email getting these “Forward this on to 10 friends and Bill Gates will give money to sick children.” or similar things. This caused me to [...]
Tagged Facebook, Social NetworkingEA is getting into the most explicitly for-profit side of virtual goods by selling a Time is Money DLC for Skate 2. The content of the DLC serves purely to unlock features that previously could only be unlocked by playing the game more. I have to commend them for the honesty of the title, at [...]
Tagged Games, Virtual GoodsWhen I brought up the term ‘funware’ yesterday, a coworker said something about it not being ‘fun’ and that instead of ‘funware’ maybe it should be called ‘obsessionware’. It has occurred to me that maybe the funware or social gaming phenomenon has more in common with gaming than games.
Tagged Funware, Games, Silicon Valley CultureI’ve been having an email conversation in which I was asked, “I’m curious, as I don’t have a traditional games background, whether you saw the same drivers that web devs follow coming from the executive/business teams of traditional games? I would have thought that there would always have been that pressure from the "accountants"?”
Tagged Funware, Games, Silicon Valley Culture[I will use the term funware to distinguish the new genre of 'social games' from what could be called 'traditional games'. It’s not a well-defined term. It's just to make it easier to write this post.] Awhile ago, there was a series of posts in the game industry blogosphere regarding “games people” and “web people”. [...]
Tagged Company Culture, Funware, Games, Silicon Valley Culture