Comments on: The Item Model

By: A Roundup of Technologies at Suttree - Casual Games, Social Software

A Roundup of Technologies at Suttree - Casual Games, Social Software — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:57:20 +0000

[...] Thirdly, there are portal and home pages. I’ve not seen what the PS3 offers in this respect but the Xbox360 and Wii both offer customisable home pages and, in the case of Wii weather and news, portal pages too. Whilst this isn’t the most revolutionary of things to include, it does lead the way for some other, more interesting choices. On the web, personal home pages aren’t very successful. Portal pages are very Web 1.0 and seen as one of the ills of the time. However, personal customisation is huge – look at the whole Item Model where people pay for virtual hats, stickers and extras for their virtual avatars. Look at mobile phone covers and ringtones, any typical MySpace page. Given the option to customise, most people do, so console support for this opens up a number of possibilities. [...]

By: Casual Games and Micro Payments at Suttree - Real Artists Ship

Casual Games and Micro Payments at Suttree - Real Artists Ship — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 13:25:44 +0000

[...] Personally, I think that the Item Model is the long term bet, but two to three years away and part of a package of payment options. It needs another poster child outside of Puzzle Pirates (with its’ subscription only shard and its’ free-to-play, pay-for-extras shard called the Dubloon Oceans) and, more recently, Habbo Hotel. In the meantime, advertising in any form will continue to be the most reliable option, embedded into the game or online and around the offline game community. And then there’s skill gaming, gaming for money, the honest dark horse. Would the Microsoft consider opening up games bought from Live Arcade and placing a bartering system around them? Beat my best score and earn credits? That would change things considerable, but I doubt it’ll happen. [...]

By: Casual Games, Social Software and now Real Life at Suttree - Real Artists Ship

Casual Games, Social Software and now Real Life at Suttree - Real Artists Ship — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 08:27:43 +0000

[...] If web-mogs are one side of the Massively Casual Online games trend, then the Item Model is the other. MCOs are where Casual Games and Social Software collide. They bring elements of Passive Gaming and Web Mogs along too. My ideal MCO will have the offline learning of EVE Online, the RESTful APIs of a sharing website like Flickr, the persistance of any decent MMORPG and the passive immersion of web mogs. [...]