I’ve now watched Apple run roughshod over a few industries. People laughed when they announced the iPhone, now they’ve essentially run away with the market. And much of that success is due to software. American companies learned the painful lesson and now Japan’s are.
Japan’s rise was built on the back of two major trends – the transition from analog to digital and miniaturization. Apple’s success has shown that today’s trend is not only hardware to software but intuitive software that just works. Japan is poorly positioned to take advantage of this trend having long ago ceded their OS to Microsoft and other companies. They make great stuff but it’s quickly commoditized as PC manufacturers have found. Perhaps more troublesome is the generation of software developers lost. Japan isn’t known for the great software the way America or some countries in Europe is. Israel is better known. But Japan also gave us the Ruby programing language. They have the skill, they as a nation or industry just never seemed to put much emphasis on it. Sadly that puts their companies at a stark disadvantage to Apple - Plummeting profit could help Howard Stringer turn Sony around.
“He’s been trying to turn around a culture that was formed more than 60 years ago but isn’t up to the demands of the 21st century,” said Richard Doherty, an analyst with technology consulting firm Envisioneering Group. “He’s now rallying the troops and saying, ‘Hey, we need to move faster.’ “
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So I've been thinking about the premise of your "Immersive Story" concept and think it may be inherently flawed. It's not only predicated on the success of Virtual Worlds, you claim it can drive it.
The thing is, we have virtual worlds all around us. Say my new Wii Fit, for example… My wife and I both log our workouts, activity and morbid obesity in a "virtual world". WoW, Halo, Grand Theft Auto, etc. are all based in virtual worlds. I could go on but you get the point.
Games all have some sort of plot. Whether it's slaying dragons, shooting bad guys or stealing cars there is a plot that exists, otherwise there wouldn't be a point in playing. Immersive Story is a guided plot activity. At best, it would be some sort of AI that is a step up in sophistication from our current games.
Where I get stuck is in the application. Immersive Story is an enhancement of our current games. Even if it is cooler than what's out there I'm not sure it's the solution for people to get over the hump about next-generation virtual worlds. I can race against users in Japan on my Mario Kart. Even in it's infancy that's still a pretty good start to virtual worlds. If you're suggesting a bigger step than that I think you need something innovative, an idea that resonates with people in a new way or allows them to do something they can't already do.
Facebook isn't gaining in popularity because it has a better interface for uploading photos than MySpace. Nope it allows users to interact with their friends in a way that suits their needs more than the competitor. Granted, I haven't totally figured out what's so great but it is different.
Virtual worlds need something totally different. An upgrade to gameplay isn't it.
Lewis, thanks so much for posting the comment to a completely unrelated post about Japan and software development. But I guess when inspiration to rip on a guys idea hits you, you've got to just get it out.
You're correct that immersive story isn't that much different than games and the like, but I think the focus on story rather than the game aspect is important – a distinction worth making. If we don't make such distinctions we would just group comic books with Gone With the Wind the movie. They're not only indifferent mediums but different types of stories. Yes they're both stories, but we see them very differently. Granted both exist today and what I talk about is vapor, all theory. But seen One Coin Comics and Ruben & Lullaby has inspired me to try and move away from just yapping in theory and try and build some immersive/interactive stories. Maybe then the clear distinction I see will become more obvious.
You should see this and my ImmersiveStory.org sites evolve over the next week or so to adjust to this new tact. And seeing how poorly this post was written and rushed out, my writing sure could use the re-found vigor.
Why are you always so negative?
I sure wish your blog sent me an email when someone responded to my comment. You are SO not hip. :) Even if it did give me the option, I didn't get an email and I would have certainly liked to write a timely response to a "Gone With the Wind" comment. Time has passed, oh well… sigh…
You've always been able to select the option to subscribe through email from the Feedburner subscription page – Subscribe to Justin Gibbs by Email
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