Play Money
I’m forced to start my blog this week by simply asking myself, “Where in the world have I been?” Have I really been so naïve to think that the most extreme video gamers only play their video games a couple of hours each day after a long day at work? Boy was I ever in for a shock this week to learn that some people are what I would consider ‘professional gamers.’ After all, that’s what they do eight to ten (or more!) hours a day… every day. It is their career and livelihood. Yes, they even make money doing it. I have to admit, I have been completely ignorant to even the idea of this. Luckily, however, I feel like I experienced a ‘crash introductory course’ into the world of video gamers. After hearing the screencast presented to me this week by my professor and then after reading Play Money by Julian Dibbell, I feel like I now at least have a basic understanding of the gaming world’s potential.
In the book Play Money, Dibbell takes the plunge as a writer to educate himself and attempts to understand the gaming world. He explores the gaming world of MMORGs, or Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, and experiences the fictional, persistent world first hand. If others successfully have quit their day jobs to permanently live their life obtaining fantasy goods and selling virtual loot for real money, making more of a salary than in their previous ‘more traditional’ jobs, why couldn’t he? He accepts the challenge to find out. In one month after surviving what I would describe to be the politics of the gaming world, Dibbell succeeds. He even has $108 to spare.
The co-existence of the fictional world of video gaming and the real world intrigues me, especially after realizing that many of the virtual currencies have real world cash value. If it’s true that 200 million Americans play video games (not all MMOs, of course), and assuming this number will continue to increase, is it possible that we’ll someday see fictional currencies being considered part of the ‘foreign’ currency exchange with fluctuations of the currency depending on the stability of the (virtual) economy? The thought of that astounds me!
Another thought that fascinates me is why people spend their time in virtual realities when the realities of real world seem so parallel to the game being played? An avatar is created to represent you as the game player. Most people create their avatars to resemble themselves in real life. So what’s the point if you aren’t even allowed to take on a fantasy persona? Also, most video games force you to take part in the economy of the game (almost like you have a job). As a tie to the job, some players even have what I would consider a boss. Dibbell in Play Money obviously worked for Bob trying to track down LRC suits for him. Also, Dibbell even had a sometimes-annoying roommate, Radny who literally sweet-talked his way in to Dibbell’s virtual life. If games resemble our real life so closely, why do people try to escape to a fantasy world that sometimes seems to be just as stressful and political as our non-fictional lives? While I am not prone to be able to answer this question, I can at least now appreciate gamers in a new light. The virtual gaming world is definitely something that intrigues me. Not something I plan on getting involved in, but at least I have a new found respect for a world that I did not know existed.
The Long Tail
The history of the media industry in newspapers, television, and radio suggests that humans want whatever is popular. If a book like Harry Potter is popular, we buy it and read it. If a song like Hit Me Baby One More Time is popular, we buy it and listen to it. If a random product like Tickle Me Elmo is popular, we buy it and use it. It’s almost as if we’ve been programmed to accept whatever is given to us. We see it, we are told that it is popular, and we therefore want it. But what happens when the Internet comes along and offers all those mainstream “popular” products and so much more? The Long Tail written by Chris Anderson explains how the power of search, availability, collaboration, and selection on the Internet now offers people the opportunity to find the more obscure books, songs, products, and anything else you may be looking for. No longer does big media networks tell us what we do or do not like. We now can rely on our own personal networks and niches to diversify what we want to read, hear, and use.
But what belongs in the head? And what belongs in the tail? The head is obviously the more mainstream hits that newspapers, television, and radio push to the public. The tail consists of the niches. The niches are the rare books or musicians that you can find on Amazon, or the uncommon movies found on Netflix. The niches are successful because of viral marketing and word of mouth that all takes place online.
The real champions of the long tail right now are the creators of user-generated media. Why would a musician hire a music producer, when they could produce, promote, and distribute all of their music online by themselves? The producers of user-generated media are the ones who are largely contributing to the long tail. The physical music stores who used to only sell popular hits have now moved online. Physical music stores can’t possibly keep up with websites like Amazon financially due to the limitations of retail space. Can you imagine what Amazon would look like or how much the location would cost if it actually had a physical location? And you thought a Super Wal-Mart was big! However, Amazon is even being dated as music is being distributed purely digitally on sites like iTunes and Rhapsody. But how do these musicians succeed once introduced online? The tastemakers promote the less popular musicians through blogs and online recommendations. Because the tastemakers are considered to be so sincere and trusted, suddenly the musician has complimentary advertising, all looked at as being more authentic than an advertising campaign created by professionals in the music industry. The long tail succeeds because of the circle of trust that exists within the online community.
Would the concept of the long tail been successful during a different period of time in history? Or is the long tail booming right now specifically because of the collaboration and trust that exists on Web 2.0 today? Through search, collaboration, open source software, data management, and curious users, the Internet continues to develop. I think the long tail is in existence today only because of where we are with the Internet. Do you think the long tail will soon be taken for granted as Web 3.0 surfaces? Or will the long tail always be considered an anomaly?
Changes Within the Music Industry
Ever since the boom of the Internet, the music industry in the USA has certainly changed. No longer do we need to get in the car to drive to the music store to listen to various artists before selecting a CD that we like. Now, we open the iTunes window, preview different songs, and purchase and download the music without ever leaving the comfort of our own home. It then comes as no surprise that CD sales in 2008 were down, while digital music downloads were up 29% from 2007.
The birth of the MP3 music file was monumental. MP3 files have forever changed the way music is distributed. The MP3 file has enabled free music sharing, both legal and illegal, paid download services, such as, iTunes and Amazon, and live streaming music, such as Pandora and iLike. The easier distribution of music has certainly made it near effortless for the consumer to enjoy their favorite musicians. The ease in distribution has also made the barriers to entry in the music industry almost nonexistent.
So with the invention of the MP3 music file, you would assume everyone was happy, right? WRONG! Consumers and new musicians were the only ones happy. The recording industry and established artists were furious. When the birth of the MP3 music file took place, the music industry was still trying to determine how they could make money from the new file type. Unfortunately the learning curve was steep and took them some time. Too much time in fact. By the time they figured it out, Napster had already allowed consumers with minimal knowledge of the Internet to freely share files. Once the recording industry figured out how to make money off of MP3 files, this free file sharing was deemed illegal. Consumers didn’t understand the ramifications of this free-for-all and continued using the site. It was at this point, the music industry would forever be changed. The recording industry decided to sue Napster in 2000.
Instead of the recording industry finding support in its legal action against Napster, it instead saw illegal exchanging and downloads of music increase. The decentralized peer-to-peer file distribution has taken on a world of its own. This world being so big, I am neither knowledgeable nor comfortable enough to even discuss it. However, if file downloading copyrighted music without a fee is illegal in the U.S., why is it legal in some countries? Is it because the music industry knows the U.S. is capable of paying for music? Is the U.S. being taken advantage of because of a stronger economy?
Just yesterday Google launched its free music download service in China, removing the beta label and all. How is it that this business model is arranged in China, but not in the U.S.? Will the music industry really require the U.S. to pirate approximately 99% of all music files before it will even consider striking a deal like this with the U.S.? Unfortunately, I doubt the U.S. will get such an easy break.
The Search
At first glance, I questioned an entire book written on search. Who in their right mind could entertain readers for 288 pages while talking about things such as algorithms, page rank, indexing, etc? I was hesitant to begin the read fearing the book would be written in a technological language I couldn’t understand. However, after taking the mandatory plunge, The Search written by John Battelle not only captured my attention, but also spoke to me about something I’m passionate about… Google!
In the book The Search, Battelle gives a brief history of what search used to be, what search is today, and what search might look like in the future. Battelle focuses the majority of the book on Google, since it’s impossible to talk about search without mentioning Google’s name. The success story highlights two young Stanford University Ph.D. candidates, the two founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The story is inspirational, mainly because of its unorganized beginnings, the company’s rapid financial growth rate, and the “Do No Evil” corporate philosophy.
While Battelle does obviously make mention of other search engines, such as AltaVista, Ask, and Yahoo, Google appears to be the search engine of choice, at least for today. If you had said in the 1980s “Google It,” people would have looked at you as if you were crazy. Now, however, if you say “Google It,” you’ll see a movement of the crowd reaching for their computers, mobile phones, or any other type of device with Internet access. Will Google continue to be the market and technology leaders when it comes to search? Or do you think Yahoo or Microsoft will steal away the thunder? For my own personal interests, I hope Google is here to stay.
The book this week made me feel ‘search nostalgia,’ a feeling I didn’t realize I had. When I first started using the Internet, I can remember visiting AltaVista to perform a search. Did I find this site on my own? Did a friend tell me about it? How did I get there? More importantly, when faced with a blinking cursor in the blank search field, how did I know what to type in?
My memory from those early Internet days seem to fade away and immediately I find myself using Google for everything. Did I use other search engines in the meantime? Apparently if I did… they didn’t leave much of an impression. Today, I visit Google’s site time and time again. I can’t imagine my life without Google. I have willingly drunk the Google kool-aid. Google is my homepage; I participate in three Google Groups, Google Maps is my personal GPS, Google Reader is where I go for all my RSS feeds, and about the only thing I’m missing is my Gmail account. I am a Google user… not a Yahoo user. I’m wondering even, if Yahoo did beat out Google in the quest for “the perfect search,” would I be willing to abandon the Google ship and sail away with Yahoo? I can’t give a definitive answer. The only sense I can make of this is, without question, we are all living in the Google Era.
Naked Conversations
The types of reactions I received from friends and strangers while reading the book titled, “Naked Conversations” was entertaining. In public, I literally saw people slow down to do a double take at the title of my book. Was I really reading a book like that in public? To their dismay however, “Naked Conversations” kept the pillow talk to a minimum. Instead, I learned the importance of two-way conversations between organizations and its customers through blogs. For decades, corporations have thoroughly grasped the concept of layering their clothing, keeping themselves concealed from its customers. However, today, corporations are beginning to slowly expose themselves through blogs, making themselves vulnerable and naked in front of the customer.
Robert Scoble and Shel Israel explain in their book “Naked Conversations” that blogging is like word of mouth on steroids. When marketers try to influence us with their powerful advertisements or direct mail campaigns, most of us are irritated before the advertisement is even complete. We are bombarded with companies trying to capture our full attention, when we just simply don’t have the time or the interest. We lack the trust and the confidence in the company, and wish they would just leave us alone! On the contrary, when our friends and family share their opinions on a product or service, we listen whole-heartedly taking everything they say as gospel. Why is this? The people we allow into our circle of trust are limited. Once you’re in that circle of trust, deception is about the only way to get kicked out.
For the first time, as Scoble and Israel point out, businesses that blog are being let in to people’s circles of trust. The companies that have accomplished this are willing to be transparent with their customers, and are having two-way conversations by listening and engaging with their customers. A perfect example of a company that has been allowed inside the circle of trust is Mozilla Firefox. Blake Ross, the creator of Firefox, started blogging about the creation of the new web browser as a way to vent about his frustrations with competing web browsers. Once the blog began, word of mouth took over. Since then, customers flock to download the web browser, and Firefox leads the way with downloads per day. In fact, the customers themselves spearheaded the only advertisement that Firefox has run. Customers took up a collection to run a two-page ad in the Sunday edition of The New York Times. If that isn’t trust and dedication from the customer’s perspective, I don’t know what is.
While Scoble and Israel are obviously huge advocates in company’s blogging, they did admit that not all companies have the capabilities or the culture to properly participate in the blogosphere. They discussed some of the right and wrong ways for companies to blog and pointed out that although there are no formal rules on how to blog, the simplest concepts to adhere to is to be real and have truly naked conversations with the audience. Scoble has even created a corporate weblog manifesto that lists out 20 suggestions to live by if you decide to start a corporate blog. If you plan on marketing on your blog, the general advice is don’t do it!
Allow your customers to trust you, and strive to be invited into their circle of trust. In this Conversational Era, be a part of the conversation through the 80/20 rule. Initially you might have to do 80% of the talking while you build your level of trust. But won’t it be a wonderful day when your customers are the ones talking for you?
We the Media
Times are changing. Specifically, the role of the media in our lives is changing. Grassroots journalism has taken the place of big media. The days of waiting for the five o’clock news for all of your information are over. In the book “We the Media”, Dan Gillmor challenges each of us to become citizen journalists. He explains that previously, the Internet allowed us only to read. At the time, big media still had a tight grip on the dissemination of information. The freedom of information was limited by the media, on whom we so greatly relied. However, our forefathers had no idea they’d be doing us all THIS big of favor when drafting The First Amendment in the Constitution of The United States. The Internet of today now allows us all the freedoms to read, write, and publish!
While big media is attempting to adapt, it seems like they cannot change quickly enough. Dan Gillmor explains that big media certainly feels the pressure of today’s demands. A journalist previously never felt the effects of a dwindling audience. However, any journalist today is probably threatened with losing his or her job. The audience no longer wants to listen to the news; they now want to be the voice of the news.
A perfect example of the citizen becoming the reporter is in South Korea. The website OhmyNews.com was established in 2000 by Oh Yeon Ho. Oh explained that “Every citizen’s a reporter” and citizens have a willingness to report on topics that typical reporters wouldn’t cover. OhmyNews.com has even been celebrated in its participation for getting the most recent president elected. The immense levels of participation by the Koreans on OhmyNews.com are astonishing. America would be wise to follow in the Koreans footsteps of such a strong level of participation in citizen journalism. There really is a way to make a difference now.
Gillmor also discusses the levels of trust within journalism. The audience is growing more and more skeptical about what big media is feeding them. What is their motivation? Who is paying them for their obvious slants on certain topics? The audience is growing tired of the never-ending biases and wants the facts from a neutral or at least an incentive-free individual. So, how do you know whom to trust anymore on the Internet? Very often bloggers will have information posted about themselves on their blog pages. By verifying what their motivations are (you can easily discover this by reading a few of their archived pages), and finding out who they work for, it’s fairly easy to decide if a blogger is a reputable individual wanting to maintain the integrity of their blog. Full disclosure with a comments section is also another key element to look for. Trust will be built slowly, but you do have to start somewhere. Gillmor points out “when there are lots of citizen reporters scrutinizing what other people say, they have a way of getting to the truth, or at least shining light on inconsistencies.” In a sense, the checks and balances on the Internet work because the audience isn’t willing to accept anything but the truth.
Dan Gillmor ultimately concludes his book with a challenge. If you’ve got something to say, let the world hear it! The voices of citizens are being heard and taken seriously. News in the digital age demands user participation. We are all responsible to report, edit and fact check. Nothing is newsworthy until We the People say it is.
Is there something you’d like to say?
Industries Aversion to Change
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Jayna’s Test Utter
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