Google Buzz will nullify Facebook

February 9, 2010
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The echo chamber is abuzz with, we’ll Google Buzz. While some are negative:
But like many Google services, it lacks any imagination or compelling reasons to use it. (Starting with the name, a rip-off from Yahoo.) As a result, it’s probably not a threat to any of the services it’s trying to disrupt.
I’m a little more [...]

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How do virtual worlds build community?

February 3, 2010
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More virtual worlds and virtual world projects are shutting down. Some may remember Google Lively died a year ago. More recently it’s been vSide, Metaplace, and now Project Wonderland. It really does seem to be the end of Virtual Worlds 1.0. I and a few others have even begun to ponder what will be part [...]

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Social gamers aren’t looking for games

January 28, 2010
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Talk to most hardcore gamers and they don’t consider social games to be games at all. Talk with many social gamers and it’s likely they don’t consider what they’re doing a game either. So what exactly are they doing? Facebooking, that’s what.
Urban Dictionary defines Facebooking as a verb:
To check your facebook profile, search for something [...]

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Social gamers don’t comparison shop

January 23, 2010
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Zynga’s strategy to copy and crush the competition could be more successful than it was for even Microsoft because social gamers don’t comparison shop.
One way Zynga creates huge hits is by identifying popular games from other studios, creating a near replica, and then beating the original with a bigger marketing budget.
The fact that Zynga can [...]

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Why are movie based games failing?

January 20, 2010
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While Avatar the movie is a huge hit, it seems that Avatar the video game is a flop. What’s even more interesting is it seems the industry is turning away from licensed franchises. The game industry has a long and lucrative history with licenses, so why are they failing now?
“Our plan is to take more [...]

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