The Funware Blog @ rmbr

Today I’m moderating a session at the Web3.0 Conference on Mobile, Social and Video Apps in Semantic Contexts. We’re going to be going through some interesting product demos and talking about the current and future state of the web3 industry for consumer apps.

Here are some of the ones we’ll chat about:

Headup - Start at 00:59

SemantiNet Introducing: headup from SemantiNet Ltd on Vimeo.

Click here to view the Browser

Delve Networks - Semantic Video

Click here to view the Delve Demo

Me-Trics (like Metrics)

Click here to view the screens

What a novel idea! To compete with established search giant Google, Microsoft has added a prizing application to its search service, LiveSearch. Although they have given no indication that they are going to offer levels, power-ups or microgames, the idea of incenting people with simple prizes and easy-to-play sweepstakes is nothing new. It will be interesting to see if they leverage the skills inherent in their Game Group to make this experience even more fun!

TechCrunch has its coverage of the service here.

This past week, TechCrunch 50 took place in SF, covering a wide range of innovative new startups and great online business ideas.

I had the pleasure of attending on behalf of GameZebo to review and analyze the field for interesting casual game and Funware applications.

Interestingly, two of the four “game” category finalists, Grockit and Akoha are both Funware apps - using games to accelerate a business objective. Learning in Grockit’s case, and “Pay It Forward” Samaritanism in Akoha’s.

And while the panelists’ questions reflected a general lack of knowledge of game design and game theory, it was obvious that the products touched a nerve - both innovative and visceral. Grockit was even a Top 5 company!

I’ve written an editorial for GameZebo that delves more deeply into these products and my experiences at the event. We’ll be doing a chat with Akoha and Grockit shortly as well - so stay tuned.

Friends (Romans, Countrypeople):

Today marks a major milestone for rmbr. We have launched our (long-awaited, oft-discussed) core Funware app for Facebook, a game called Prized Collection. In a nutshell, Prized Collection lets you buy, sell and steal your friends’ Facebook photos, all the while letting you interact with a zany cast of characters, a range of external conditions, and a deep(er) narrative.

We took some of the best mechanics of the Facebook world and applied them to our central quest: how to create a fun way to engage with photos (that eventually produces order and progress). We refined those existing concepts, applied our own vision, and voila!

We’ll keep innovating the game in the coming months, as there are a lot more things we plan to add before our Prized Collection session at Austin GDC. So start playing and let us know what you think!

“The future of design is games” is an interesting blog post from Ross Popoff-Walker. Pretty well reasoned stuff, IMHO.

The most important nuance appears in the last paragraph. The coming ascendancy of game design in all fields is driven by a demographic shift. It is this shift of power to ‘Generation G’ (Games) that most profoundly impacts the definition of narrative and fun, and what will lead to our Funware-centric future. It’s not a conscious effort on the part of designers or marketers, but rather a consumer-first approach that is inexorably pulling us in that direction.

I frequently reference a research study that endeavored to quantify the preference of women vs men for 3D and 2D entertainment. People keep asking me about the link to the research, and I realized that I had not yet posted it. So, here it is: Siggraph ACM Research

Although I’ll let you read the research yourself, the summary is that women really prefer 2D vs 3D games. Men prefer the reverse. Surprised? The success of Funware (deliberate and unintentional) applications also clearly illustrates the point when compared against MMOGs of the traditional, 3D kind.  I know, it’s weird to compare the usage of a social network to an MMOG, but I think the point is obvious: more people like to play Facebook than all the MMOGs in the Western World put together. Why do you suppose that is?

Although 2D is but a part of the equation, I think it’s an interesting element.

I’m sure many geeks have seen the breathtaking Tenori-On device that’s been under development at Yamaha for the past few years. Somehow, I was only recently turned onto it by the charming Brandon Boyer at a recent late-evening beer-patio mashup. Tenori-On is basically a 16 x 16 grid of LED buttons that let you create music by interacting with the lights as they flash across the device. If it sounds complicated, it is!

Of course, we don’t need another interface to making music. Every single sound that humans can hear can be summoned using a keyboard - whether 101 or 88 key. Even the name of the input device is evocative of its role. So, why develop a new musical interface that only seems to complicate the process of making music? After all, we’ve been making music since the dawn of civilization, and our current complement of instruments (both digital and analogue) are pretty amazing.

Because it’s more fun. Waaay more fun. In fact, Toshio Iwai, the creator of the Tenori-On, is a game designer (and artist) who explores themes of music and electronic media. Take a look at the video, and let me know if you own one of these beautiful devices. I’d love to come over and play some music. Literally.

I was recently catching up with the (excellent) New Scientist magazine, when I read a fascinating interview with the researcher John Ioannidis. He has pioneered work in the analysis of experiments and authored a landmark study from 2005 called “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False”. You can read the abstract and full report at the NIH here. While his work mostly deals with epidemiology and medical research, there are some findings and hypotheses that are super relevant to a startup as well.

Among other notes, Ioannidis observed that since researchers typically first conduct a small study, then seek grant money for a larger assay, it might be difficult to raise that capital if the initial results were negative or equivocal instead of hugely positive.  So, as someone setting out to prove a hypothesis (and it’s always prove, never disprove), you’re incented to structure your first course of inquiry (and result) to maximize excitement right out of the gate.

It occured to me when I was reading the article that the valley’s tech startup model is entirely built on this premise. You take  a small lug of cash and do something quick and exciting with it. If your first result is mind-blowingly awesome, people throw money and resources at you and you move forward. Anything less, and you find yourself reconsidering your vision, capital structure and partnerships (even friendships). Failure is spelled with a small ‘f’ in Web2.0 speak (or maybe just as failr) - and any business without immediate traction is in trouble.

As a general rule, it’s tough to argue with the success of the model, though it does make you wonder about the self-referential nature of the products that have risen to prominence on its back. For every Google - an unquestioned winner in the mass market - there are 10 tech industry “hypemachine” startups with a dense following in the 408,650 and 415. Witness Twitter or Mint - both of which are exciting companies, but with followings that barely scratch the surface of the markets they play in (messaging and finance). Ask 10 people in the valley what they think of those players, and you’ll find a ‘fait accompli’ attitude pervades; “Twitter has won the short messaging war”. Geez, I didn’t even know that we had gone to war in the first place.

Like all other businesses, our success or failure is ultimately determined by consumer behavior: time, enthusiasm and money. The central premise of professional investment capital is the ability to predict the future outcomes of promising, young startups - but I wonder if we’re too enmeshed in our own sphere (drinking our own Kool Aid, as it were) to be able to distinguish things that average people like (Photobucket) vs things that tech nerds like (Flickr).

About 12-18 months from now we’ll be able to clearly distinguish the wheat from the chaff. I, for one, am excited to see what happens.

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Ok, so the sales data is out for 2007, and it’s freaking awesome!

The games industry in the US recorded a whopping 43% increase year over year from 2006 (admittedly a bit of a sideways year) and 2007. And - even more encouraging - the increase was felt across both hardware and software, boosting the industry overall in a slumping economy.

I remember that when I took my first games industry job, I had a lengthy conversation with my then bosses about how we seem to defy economic logic, posting revenue increases when the economy goes down (and even when it seems to be skyrocketing). What is it about games that makes them free of the usual economic constraints? Some theories:

• Games are a better value than other kinds of media, giving consumers significantly more hours of gameplay per dollar than any other category.
• Games are ascendant, grabbing users from all other kinds of media (and the concomitant advertising dollars), and this is independent of the macro-economic cycle. Put another way, this is a major, 20,30 or 50 year long cycle of growth that we’ve only recently begun.
•  The “Games Industry” is very broad. Unusually, our industry includes hardware, software, services and B2B products (like advertising, developer platforms, etc), so it’s really more like 3 or 4 different verticals all lumped together (casual game download sales and movie licensing revenues have very little in common).
• Console wars are the equivalent of a major stimulus package. With billions of dollars at stake, console manufacturers and their software partners pump a ton of cash into the game economy to ensure the success of their new ventures, effectively greasing the wheels of the category.

I’d love to hear your thoughts! Dean Takahashi has a good take on the issue (from the “why 2007″ perspective).

And the best part about all of it: these figures don’t even take into consideration the extraordinary growth being seen in new verticals (e.g. casual MMOs) or international markets. In short, perhaps, the best is still yet to come. Here’s to an even better 2008 - led by Funware enthusiasm, no doubt.

Oh, and as a small aside. 2 years ago at E3, Cal Morrell and I had a little wager.  I said the Wii would win this round of the console wars. He said “no freakin way”. Apparently, we’re both a smidge right, although his prediction that it would be the PS3 was certainly off. The Wii handily outsold in terms of total units, but the XBox was the cash king in 07. My further prediction: the Wii continues to grow its unit lead this year. Care to double down, Cal?

To the whole rmbr team, our investors, advisors and alpha/beta testers, wherever you are: happy Thanksgiving. We’re thankful for your assistance and support.