Theme Park Greed doesn't add up

Many many moons ago, probably more than I'd like to admit Electronic Arts released Theme Park on PC. A fantastic blue box that screamed fun just from the packaging alone. Sure enough it was a good game too allowing you to build and manage your very own theme park, it was micromanagement personified right down to the smallest of details, for example; adding more salt to the fast food made visitors more thirsty so you could push the price up on soft drinks to fleece the suckers waiting in line and increase revenue.
Graphically the game was cartoon cute, bright colours, some great detail and visually the title really popped once you'd got a pretty good park set up. At the time I think it retailed for around £24.99, I shifted an incredible amount at £19.99. Fast forward a good few years, again, probably more than I'd like to admit and EA have revived the title for iOS as a freemium title.

But unfortunately according to a couple of other blogs I've read that's where the fun stops. You see apparently EA has provided the title free to play with in-game monetization and many of the game's attractions are locked based on your level, leveling up is a fairly slow process achieved by tapping on existing attractions to earn a few experience points.You can also complete missions to earn extra experience points, this helps you to level up faster, but is nothing more than a long drawn out chore which ultimately gives you a set of rides which unless you build duplicates to just to fill things out your park is going to look very dull, unless of course you're willing to shell out Tickets to upgrade. As you progress you unlock other large areas in your theme park and each area can be themed according to your choice with a selection including Knights vs. Cowboys and Pirates. However, the process of filling each area in your park is ultimately a painfully slow one, primarily due to the frustrating level-locked items and the fact that the rest of the must have items cost Tickets, or premium currency, to purchase. For instance, a Skull-Train roller coaster costs the equivalent of more than $60 to purchase.

$60!!!???, hang on a minute, so let me get this straight, EA have decided in its wisdom to charge $60 for one 'cool' ride as an in-game purchase when I may as well click on over to Amazon and buy the full original PC version for less than $5 packed with all the rides and cool stuff for a much more rewarding experience. Its these kind of decisions by the suits that tarnish brands.
Everyone knows that games cost money to develop but have EA seriously sat down at the board room table and worked it out that to generate a break even they have to set the in-game pricing  for one item at 12 times the price of the original game? Games should be fun to play, they are after all a form of entertainment, they should also reward the player for the skill and time they invest. Monetization of products with in-app purchases should be transparent so that the end user knows what they are getting in to. Everyone loves free to play but players know when they are being taken for a ride, even a Theme Park one.

You're going to need a bigger boat

If you're going to catch the big fish you're going to need to be on equal terms, if you can't get a bigger boat stay the fuck out of the water.
If only Electronic Arts had heeded that advice when they launched the damp squib that was Need for Speed The Run. A game that failed to chart in the top ten despite the bucket loads of marketing push with TV and online media buy and as for that TV trailer - in all honesty did a Michael Bay directed  trailer really add value to consumers perceptions that the product would be good? The reviews haven't been kind either,critics have slated the title as too heavy on the story with not enough for gamers to get their teeth into.Official Xbox Magazine who scored it a big fat 5 out of 10 summed it up with the following summary -  "As it stands, we've rarely been so bored when travelling at 150 miles per hour, less inspired by a police chase or less interested in the plot of a videogame." Full review here.
I absolutely loved Hot Pursuit when it launched last year and the trailers, viral and social aspects of the marketing really propelled the title despite the fact it halved in retail price only 6 weeks after launch to devalue all that hard work somewhat.

But herein lies the problem at this time of year, EA glossed up and shoved NFSTR out to capitalize on the seasonal trade, problem is diluting a brand and trying to move what is essentiually car lovers porn into a totally new story driven direction (and one that only really had a lukewarm reception at E3 earlier in the year) was a warning sign for EA to hold the title back until Feb when retail would have been far more receptive to it. Instead it went up against the man eaters that was Skyrim, MW3, Battlefield 3 and FIFA, two of those products were from its own stable but yet all vying for market share from the same consumer. The investors would have pushed for the Christmas launch as essential, the producer probably would have liked more time for some much needed polish and no doubt the PR guys were scratching their heads trying to gain pagination in a market dominated by truly deserving games with tons more quality at even half the price.
EA need to realise that trying to combine a Mirrors Edge inspired chase story /design /bunch of bollocks to a pure driving experience that has been the mainstay of Need For Speed is only going to tarnish the brand not innovate it.

Art of Assassination

For me its not just the end product that excites me about most forms of visual entertainment, be that film or videogame but rather the processes and artistic talents that go into creating those experiences we enjoy. As much as I have enjoyed the amazing artistic talents of Jim Lee's series of comics I've collected since I was a spotty teenager I got a bigger kick out of seeing how he put the likes of Batman,Superman and Deathblow onto paper in his awesome coffee table book Icons.
At Midway I was extremely fortunate to have worked with some amazing digital artists who literally brought games to life with some truly astounding design work for titles Like Stranglehold, Mortal Kombat, Wheelman as well as other projects that never saw the light of day such as Criminal, Paladin,Hero and This is Vegas which was being developed by Surreal studios over in Seattle led by Alan Patmore.
If you love the design aspect that goes into games design and the art creation and you've checked out Parka blogs regular artbook reviews then you'll be a fool to miss the work of Gilles Beloeil  who worked on Assassins Creed, check out his personal website found here. 

Activision triples profit with digital

Providing more evidence that boxed product days are numbered and that a healthy online digital business model is the way to go Call of Duty and World of Warcraft publisher Activision has reported a near tripling of profits for the quarter ending September 30^th.
Total profit came in at $148m – that’s up on the $51m reported in the same period in 2010.

Read the full story here at MCV.http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/activision-profits-triple-as-digital-surpasses-boxed/087228

Is Buying a CityVille Guide for Facebooks biggest game worth It?

71 Million AMU (Average Monthly Users) is pretty hard to ignore, I never did quite get the Mafia Wars bug despite the endless requests flowing in to my Facebook page as more and more updates from friends "needing help on a job", probably just as well really since 40 million players abandoned it in little over a year.I am however fully engrossed with Cityville because it was closest to one of my absolute favourite games Sim City and at 41 years of age I realised I hadn't actually dabbled in the whole social gaming thing (which for someone who works in videogames is pretty tragic). Needless to say Cityville does borrow some gameplay structure from Sim City or is at least inspired by it, however, its economy system is a lot tougher to navigate than I expected.When CityVille guides began popping up I was pretty sceptical about the whole thing. I had never actually played the game myself but I was a huge fan of Populous on the Mega Drive all those centuries ago and my days that turned into weeks that turned into months on Sim City gave me some god like experience,I figured that there couldn't be all that much to it anyway. How much strategy could really go into building a virtual city anyway,especially on Facebook? When I saw all the hype about CityVille and the fact that there were these guides I figured there must be something to CityVille after all, and like I say 71 million players can't all be wrong...can they?
CityVille turned out to be much more complex and enjoyable than I had figured it would be, visually its colourful and eye catching which for me is important if I'm going to invest large quantities of time looking at pretty much the same things for hours on end. There are so many options, buildings, crops, businesses and additions that you have so many decisions to make, and like Sim City every decision has a knock on effect somewhere in the chain. The more I got into playing CityVille the more I realized that the strategies involved were much more complex than I had expected. I did not want to spend all my time using trial and error to get the best possible city. I wanted someone to do all that for me so I went out and bought a guide.
The guide I ended up buying is called CityVille Secrets. I'd heard some pretty good things about it after doing some digging about and it seemed like the most logical choice. CityVille Secrets is relatively new and they update it constantly so it contains the latest additions to the game and will add new updates as CityVille adds new features. I wasn't expecting too much from this guide as I have bought game guides in the past which have been pretty average. CityVille Secrets however, completely blew me away! primarily because it contains so much detailed information, secrets and strategies when CityVille as a Social network game is still fairly new.
I used the guide to see if what it preached would actually work, either that or I'd thrown the best part of the price of a Friday night takeaway down the drain, I dabbled at first but then started implementing the CityVille secrets, tips, and strategies and was pretty impressed with the results because I went from a level 13 to a level 35 in only a week of relatively little gameplay (2 hour stints). There is a lot more going on in CityVille than meets the eye and if you don't do things properly you could be missing out on countless coins and experience while playing more than you need too. If you are interested in getting the most out of your CityVille experience then I highly recommend picking up a copy of CityVille Secrets today.

E-book marketing and promotion

I'm still waiting for approval from Apple for Carved which is taking longer than I anticipated for launching my book but is due any day now, I somewhat underestimated the time for approvals since I wanted to get carved out on the 10th anniversary of the event it covers.
In the meantime I've been looking into the ways in which I need to think about marketing the book, as a novice author I have a lot of work to do to make Carved stand out the best I can on a minuscule budget. First on the list will either be a small website page promoting the book or a Facebook fan page to build up the awareness.Content wise I'm a bit wary of the Facebook direction because I need to make sure there's enough going on there to engage the audience.
With a hosted mini site I need to factor in the cost of hosting per month against sales, I could very well be paying more to host the promotional site than I'm actually making on the book. I looked at hosting options with various companies but wasn't looking to spend major amounts with email and functionality I didn't want, two companies stood out at offering a bare bones basic package and both had excellent write ups, one was Go Daddy and one was Blue Host, Go Daddy was £4.49 per month unlimited whereas Blue Host offers me the same service for £4.45, I buy much of my domains from Go Daddy and run airsoftinfidels.com with one bought from Go Daddy, my wife's forthcoming Tiara business launch also has a domain bought from Go Daddy. The book domain I bought through Go Daddy but I thought it was worth giving Blue Hosting a try in hosting the site to promote my book.
The first thing I need to do is figure out all my meta data, the keywording thats going to get people flocking to my web page, a daunting task for a mini site, I've dabbled with Keywording on Zazzle but its an area I know I need to improve on. if I get it wrong then it'll have the reverse effect and much harder to rectify further down the line.
Additionally to that I need to think about if I should engage prospective buyers via my Twitter link, this will detract from what I use it for currently so I'm not sure yet and people hate being sold to on Twitter. Facebook ads are also on the list since I know I can set a target audience with a PPC campaign but now I'm starting to accumulate costs so I need to tread carefully, advertising, hosting will all add up over time. The fact I can set a budget limit for Facebook ads and target who views them is reassuring that advertising wastage will not be much of an issue.

I'm confident my Blurb about my book is tight enough, I reworked this several times over until I was happy with it so I know that the concise information is going to drive forward the message of what the book is about.
But how much will I be spending against what I can make?, difficult to say, hosting with a reputable company is an important investment but all in I'm looking at the region of about £53 for that, another £50 for targeted Facebook click ads and possibly another £24 on printing up some coloured novelty business cards over at Moo to promote the book its getting pricey. I figured the Moo cards were a good idea, that way if I'm out and about I can just slip someone a card that promotes the book and web page in one hit which drives both traffic and awareness. That takes me to around £130 give or take a couple of pounds. That means I need to sell  in the region of 75 books a year since my book pricing is £1.99.

To be honest I might be mad, I'm on Kindle boards and so many people have done a lot less for a lot more gain so I'm borderline confused on what is the best route is, marketing ebooks I'm told isn't a science but I'm convinced that if anyone is going to buy it they at least need to know about it first.

The downward spiral of Marfia Wars and social gaming trends

18 months ago Zynga was pretty much unstoppable, loved and hated in equal measure the games publisher was teflon reincarnated with its farmville and mafia wars titles. However 18 months is a long time in an ever shifting digital market where user allegances are short and players go as quickly as they had arrived.The original Mafia Wars hit its peak on Facebook at around 45 million monthly active users in the summer of 2010. Now it has just 4.4 million monthly active users. Users come and go with most trends, what was popular last year won't necessarily be as popular this year but what I find alarming is that 40 Million players upped and left, where did they go, what are they playing now?. From a financial perspective losing 40 Million players is going to have a massive effect even if lets say only 2% of those users were actively dealing with microtransactional business in the game.

Zynga continues to expand its original Mafia Wars game and recently launched its Chicago city. Zynga helped monetize the game through a series of branded deals that promoted virtual items based on movies such as Scarface and The Green Hornet.

Initially it was perceived that social games were a massive threat to traditional videogames but the results buck that trend in the case of Electronic Arts. According to Appdata, The Sims Social now draws in 65 million monthly active users (MAUs) – the closest it has ever got to Cityville’s current 71 million user mark.Ho monthly users just nine months after it launched.

Kindle Fire pre-orders are burning down the house

It was only a matter of time before Amazon realized the true untapped potential of a handheld reading device that could go beyond what its original Kindle could provide users. Not that I think Amazon was ever really going to just sit there and be happy with a device that only provided content to be viewed entirely in black and white.
If the screenshot leak over at blog Cult of Android is to be believed then it would appear that Amazon's Kindle Fire will be the fastest selling tablet device in the world. Currently Kindle Fire is racking up pre order sales of 50,000 units a day. In the first five days since its announcement over 250,000 tablets  have been pre ordered with the potential to have 2.5 Million pre orders for the device before it goes on sale on November 15th.

Compare that to the Nook colour which took about two months to sell 1 million units and its clear to see that Nook has a major fight for survival on its hands.
Good news all round for writers and e-book authors because it provides choice, they can either release content in traditional novel text based format or further explore the possibilities of projects with coloured image based content as well such as photo books, essays and illustrative works.
The digital e-reader market is expanding faster than the content is providing even more good news for authors, as each day goes by authors only have to appeal to a smaller percentage of the e-reader population.
What will be interesting to see is how long Kindles current monochrome version continues to sell, will Kindle Fire actually start to kill off traditional Kindle sales far quicker than anticipated or will the price difference mean that it clearly divides the market between those who just want an e-reader for books and those who want to embrace video entertainment?

As for Nook its difficult to say what happens now, too many tech companies have jumped on the tablet bandwagon only to fail miserably because they were not prepared for the market place, in most cases competitors to the iPad have released hardware but never factored into the business plan that the content wasn't there to support it. HP's TouchPad being a perfect example, with no 3G support, lack of content, no support for storage cards and high retail costs it wasn't going to scratch let alone dent what Apple was offering. Apple thrives because the content is there to drive hardware sales. Nook on the other hand needs to evaluate what it's offering its customers that Kindle Fire doesn't, it may need to re-position itself on price or functionality but at what expense to its place within the market is difficult to ascertain.

In the US, Amazon has about three quarters of the e-book market so its audience is already established and at $199 it provides a good halfway point to the iPad 2 which retails in the region of $470. Admittedly with nowhere near the same functionality as the i-Pad the Kindle Fire is still an impressive bit of kit.

In a perfect World...

If you asked me what i'd do to fix the current state of games the answer would not be a simple one, neither would it be a very popular one.
I say this because if you look closely at how videogames are trending right now you'll see a very worrying state of affairs for traditional boxed product, which, for all intents and purposes finds itself in an increasingly shrinking marketplace in a murderous economy. Yes, there will always be a market for boxed products, No, Apple hasn't killed off CD albums just yet despite launching the ipod a decade ago and No, Kindle and the impending Kindle Flame hasn't quite signed the death warrant of legacy book publishing (although Amazon do sell more digital books than paper books these days).  It's a pretty safe assumption that the next line of consoles will require monster sized hard Drives as downloadable product and DLC play an ever increasing part in video game entertainment, cloud based gaming, boxless downloadable digital is here to stay and they will continue to shape the market in which video games operate in.

Boxed product won't vanish overnight of course and in all probability larger titles and franchises will continue to have shelf presence because of the brand equity and trust in the consumers they have built over time. An example is Activisions regular map packs for Black Ops, if each map pack release can still generate over $12 million dollars each in revenue on what is probably little more than a $2 Million outlay on the dev cost for each pack then its clear that making a ton of revenue is where the focus for larger publishers in gaming is going to end up.
I know what you're going to say, "but in order to build those sales they'll need a physical product first", true, the instore physical aspect of a product on a shelf is good for the consumer because they can see it, it's real and tangible, its also good for trade but right now games bricks and mortar retail is literally on the floor and its not going to get better. Game Group, our very own homegrown specialist videogame retailer made a loss of £51.5 million before tax in the six months to July 31st, almost double its loss for the same period last year.
So what's happening?, well for starters everyone knows the global economy is the worst its ever been and that obviously isn't helping anyone. This in turn is keeping people away from premium priced luxuries which means that core gamers are buying less games than they were before. Social games like Zynga's Farmville has thrived off of the social network buzz that infiltrates our daily lives because of its free to play element. The good news is according to a study is that 82 percent of hardcore social gamers play console games, the bad news is that as the market for social gaming becomes more diverse and more accessible its taking players away from traditional console, that is to say they are actually spending less time playing console games. And before you say it, no the typical demographic of social gamers does not consist of women over 40, far from it, hardcore social gamers, at least 55% of them are male and 57% of those players are well under the age of 40.

Smaller publishers are going to have to think about the content and business model they are working to in the coming months and years ahead. If games are not offering value for money and unique experiences they will fail, the way I see it is that traditional console games will radically drop in price to a third of their current value, so for example, several years down the line Modern Warfare 4 is going to set you back £15 full price, however to get the maximum value from the game and to remain competitive in multiplayer you're going to need to fork out another £35 for  'awesome content' not including the 4 separately priced map packs plus the two additional weapon packs and uniform pack.

Even if console game pricing remained high in years to come publishers need to think about ways they can engage the player and keep them motivated with the brand with unique content and additional motivators like DLC. On the one hand overpriced map packs have been the norm but publishers and developers need to think about extending the customization options for the player as an individual. Players want to stand out in multiplayer matches, they want to create a tailor made experience of their choosing and design, they want to feel like they have invested not in just the pocket lining of the publisher for the priviledge to play but also so they can enhance and modify to tailor the games experience. Expressing themselves socially amongst their peers is incredibly important to gamers and I think so many publishers and developers are not even scratching the surface as yet.

Social Games are successful because they allow players to modify and personalize and share those experiences in the social space, there are in-game variations that make the game totally unique to the way users play it and want to play it. As more and more mobile digital devices become available they will continue to erode the physical presence of console videogames. Are map packs adding value to your experience? some would say yes others aren't so convinced, yes they support the brand in that they continue to provide an experience for the fan, remember that a brand doesn't just solely exist as the box the game came in but rather the playing experience that a user derives from the product also.

The transition as we approach the next generation of consoles is always a tricky one, the timing has to be golden, high cost consoles anytime soon will only limit the amount of users that buy into it, accessibility and content are king. Sony has superbly powerful tech but an absolutely awful functionality, Microsoft has an unbeatable functionality but limited tech even if Bluray sales are slowing. Cloud services, sharing social network and cross platform will be integral to the success of next gen, until then its going to be a rocky ride.

Free to Play or not Free to play...that is the question

Star Wars: The Old Republic is unlikely to be the last subscription MMO to successfully use the traditional business model, according to BioWare.
BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk expressed his belief that subscription-based MMOs will continue on in the future.
This is interesting considering some of the larger user based MMO titles have adopted the free to play model as a way to retain players and increase revenue. Star Wars is a relatively safe bet however, free to play works well on titles that people aren't over familair with, a sentiment that Zeschuk firmly believes in.
"Free to play is very much about trial, about 'Hey, I don't know what this is, I don't have confidence that it's any good, but I'm willing to take a look at it,' versus 'I know this is good, from a trusted source, and it's the biggest license in the world.' So it's a different value proposition."


Premium MMO's can still work, they just need to deliver the content and quality that players are willing to hand over hard earned dollars and pennies for. World of Tanks subscriptions skyrocketed earlier this year and has established itself very well even if it is a World War 2 tank sim. DC Universe Online revised its subscription model after only 9 months on sale and another clear sign that overall the genre is finding better revenue through free access. Ubisoft too will launch Ghost Recon online as a free to play model with micro-transactional content in addition to versions ported to Facebook and social network platforms. Browser based games attract millions of players through the genre and experiences they provide, moreso the playing 'experience' is vital to retaining players and market share-something that traditional publishers are only really just focusing on, the market size has been eroding the console player base as more and more viable mobile formats are becoming available to play the games on. In fact if you look at social games like Angry Birds and Moshi Monsters both those properties have now expanded onto console. Angry Birds merchandise lines and its wider adoption into the social space all initially came from a free to play model, Moshi Monsters too is now branching out into handheld platforms with moshling Zoo on DS, its lady Goo goo single and TV station, again all from a free to play module of business that generated enough revenue to compete in an aggressive marketplace.


Intellectual property, especially Sci Fi always has a massive fanbase, titles like Star Wars, Star Trek and BattleStar Gallactica have devout followers, bringing those fans into a social gaming environment is  a way to increase their experience of a brand and for the property holder to monetize its content. Battlestar for example from Bigpoint games is owned in part by NBC Universal which owns SyFy, the channel that brought Battlestar to our TV screens. 

Get the kettle on there's a war on

Hardly what I'd call the best kept secret in the world but EA's latest and greatest episode into the Battlefield series on PS3 and Xbox 360 gets its beta launch today. Yes indeed, access all areas and it'll mean more late nights, eating raw coffee from a jar or drinking copious amounts of Red Bull just to stay active in the kill zone.

In a matter of weeks EA's two biggest titles will be duking it out for the Christmas sales once again and capturing two segments of the playing market, namely footie fans for the next Fifa and FPS fans keen to get their gun on before Actvisions MW3 hits in November. The War of words between EA and Activison shows no sign of slowdown, on the one hand the sniping about who has the better product has been well documented across the specialist press sites but now that the May 7 court date for ex Infinity Ward members West and Zampella has been set they'll be a lot more mud being traded.

EA should rest assured though, from what I've seen Battlefield 3 is a much more tactical led gameplay style to the traditional run and gun of Activision's FPS series, Black Ops has always been a faster more rapid fire game, besides, other than its single player content Modern Warfare 2 was no different but larger maps and a different objective layout makes BF3 require more brain matter as to how you're playing each of the levels.
A slower more tactical process of identifying enemy targets and weaknesses within their position on a map rather than visually radar tracking your next takedown with an Uzi is a welcome difference when two of the largest FPS titles go head to head over a relatively short release timing from each other.

The Battlefield series is hugely rewarding, it's been well over 2 years since battlefield 1943 launched and I'm still playing it, diversity, map size and vehicle use help differentiate the product, obviously EA's Medal of Honor reboot was a slight hiccup despite strong sales but I just Know that Battlefield 3 will put the franchise firmly back on track with some stellar review scores and strong sales.

CARVED - an ebook is born.

Things are now at a crucial phase of my writing 'career', I say career but its more of toe dipping experiment to see how my wares will be received. My book "CARVED" is complete and has been edited by Joe Konraths editor Diana Cox, its now currently being formatted by a very close friend of mine, Paul Rhodes who runs Orb Entertainment here in the UK. Paul's publishing experience is second to none and since paul heads up the digital book side of things over at Walker Books I know I'm in good hands. I've decided to start small, the book is a novella of sorts so its fairly easy on the eyes.

The book is all about my personal experiences and the subsequent criminal investigation into the Thames torso case that happened almost a decade ago when I discovered the butchered torso of a 5 year old boy floating in the River Thames. As a story I think it has a very unique pitch. I say unique because its story could quite easily be percieved as fiction, but its not, in its very real sense its a personal journey, a bid by me at finally getting closure in what what was one of London's worst crime for over 40 years.
Writing about this traumatic experience has been somewhat cathartic, a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Guilt is a terrible thing to live with, the guilt of wondering if you did enough, the questions and blame you place on yourself eat away at you for years, gnawing away when you're alone in thought. For me the book reinforces certain facts, the doubts I had are now erased and all from putting words on paper.

Carved will be available from September on all major e-reader formats such as Kindle, Smashwords, Nook, Createspace,B&N and Overdrive.

YOUR COVER DESIGN IS KILLING YOUR EBOOK SALES

However long it took you to write your book the chances are you've spent a lot of time on it, you've read through what was initially a tangled mess of structure, formatting and grammatical errors to get to a stage where you're now ready for an editor to add that last little bit of polish.
When this blog started several months ago I wrote about how important it was for ebook authors to give their book the best possible cover they could afford in order to attract potential readers.
So why is it that authors are still making the same mistakes despite the likes of Joe Konrath, the veritable king of epublishing underlining the same critical factors on his blog which has hundreds of followers.

I'm a regular on Kindle boards and I'm still horrified by some of the book covers people are putting out there, the very same people who complain about the lack of sales on the boards at a later point. Remember this is a book that might have taken over two years to write, I find it strange that people who would dedicate that amount of time to writing a story for others to read completely ignores the importance of the cover design to promote it to their potential readership.
The key to a good cover is content, specifically content that hints at the main story elements or characters that appear in your book, however, before you set your sights on that content there are other factors that you must consider before finally deciding on what image or design is going to represent your book.

The first factor you need to consider is how you are positioning your book to the marketplace, that is to say, what sums up your book to your audience in terms of genre, can you explain what the synopsis of the book is within two sentences or less so that you can position it as something people can relate to?- for example "  A taught hi-tech thriller of modern intrigue and action set in Dubai". Positioning your book allows you to see where you fit within the marketplace, because the first thing you'll want to know is how many other thrillers are there that are also set within the Middle East.

The second factor you need to consider is what is the single biggest draw for your book, is it the title of the book, the story or your lead character. I've lost count of amount of covers I've seen on Kindle Boards that feature a bland photo depicting field with clouds or just clouds and really bad typography. There's absolutely nothing compelling in covers that are so vague that they say nothing about the content of your first book,hear me when I say that readers want to be engaged with your story the second they lay eyes on your cover, the last two years of your life have been spent hunched over a PC and you're killing your chances stone dead with poor design choices.

The third factor is competition - what are competitors or established authors putting on their front covers in terms of design? If you're writing sword and sorcery fantasy novels then you're going to need to look into that genre to see what has gone before, yet another wizard and a dragon on the cover aren't necessarily the best choices to run with. Picking out a dramatic or core story element involving the protagonist might be what works in separating your book from the myriad of others within the genre. Researching this area is essential and you really need to invest the time here. The chances are you already read books in the genre you decided to write in, its a good idea to gather all those books and have them in front of you so that you can see how effective their typography and design layout is. What colours are prominent, what fonts work better than others, is the authors name big or small, illustration or photographic media?, its the pieces that all come together to create a cover.

Finally you need to be brutally honest with yourself, before you decide on the cover get feedback from friends or family and if you have a choice of two or more designs get a vote. Just because you like the cover doesn't mean that someone else will, this book isn't written for you its written for others and you need to realise that more than you probably think. Ask yourself the question"Is my cover design giving my book the best possible chance in the marketplace?". If you have even the smallest amount of doubt on the answer then you need to rethink your design. There is no point in releasing two years of effort with a cover you don't believe in.

Some people will complain they can't afford a designer for their cover, sorry, but thats bullshit, if you can afford an editor then you can throw some money at a designer too, and if you can't then you should save the money and hold off releasing the book until you can afford it. Remember this is time you invested in the story, don't throw all that away with a shoddy cover you spent 30 mins on. Sources like Devianart have hundreds of designers who also freelance at vastly reduced fees, local art colleges or searches on the forums will also point you in the right direction.
Design programs such as Photoshop Elements is a cut down version of its more expensive big sister product Photoshop but still contains a comprehensive graphics package at a fraction of the price, coupled with the awesome step by step book Photoshop Elements book for Digital Photographers you should be able to get something together fairly easily.
I use both Photoshop Elements and the above mentioned book to create images for my zazzle store, I'm no whizz kid by any means but the simple step by step instructions on image manipulation will help you get the most from your images or photos for your book cover.
Alternatively you can consider book design packages if you want to save money and have total control of the books look and feel, there are many programs out there and one that comes highly recommended is Book Cover Pro, its easy to use, even for the novice and you can either use the background templates they provide on their own site over at www.bookcoverpro.com or click and drag jpeg and tiff formatted files into your book cover pro templates.

DO
Look at competitor covers
Research your genre
Spend time positioning your book
get feedback on your chosen cover from friends and family
invest in a designer to create your cover

DON'T
Use images that are vague more than they are 'arty' or alluring
Slap text on a stockphoto as an easy, cheap fix
Use small script fonts you can't read when the cover is reduced in size
Use standard fonts, experiment with new ones.

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SUPERHERO OF THE MONTH

I love finding new blogs, especially ones done really well with lots of stuff to dive into - Superhero of the Month is one such blog, it's a superhero redesign site. Each month a superhero or villain is chosen for readers to put their imaginations to the test, pencil to paper, and come up with their own take on how they would design the character.

Contests are judged by a revolving door of contributors invited by SHotM. These include sponsors, past contest winners, and those involved in the comics industry. Each month's entries are narrowed down to the "top five" entries by the judges for the month's contest. Judging is based on originality, quality, reader comments, and following the guidelines. The winner is then chosen by a popular vote poll.

Superhero of the Month has been lucky enough to be featured on MTV Geek, Project Rooftop, and Big Shiny Robot! On July 20, 2011, they were named Bloggers Blog of Note.
Check it out here

$45 Million of nothing

Once upon a time there was a company called Midway Games, they made computer games, in fact they made a lot of video games, big expensive cash soaked video games that ran up huge development budgets. They had a creative talent pool that contained  some of the best people in the games industry, everyone from coders to development leads to artists and modellers.  It's probably worth noting that the whole "fewer,bigger,better" concept to video game output that CEO David Zucker was pushing as a mission statement all those years ago sort of fell short of delivering 'better' on more than one occasion in the time I worked there.

If ever there was a need to learn how to fill bin bags with cash and throw it out of a window on a windy day then Midway would be your tutor, well educated in the process of ramming as much cash into a shredder as it possibly could with no real control of how to stop it. Studios like Surreal in Seattle, Midway Newcastle and Midway in Austin Texas had burn rates which ran in to the hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to maintain the development and churn required month in and month out. MAG (Multi Action Genre) games were all the rage for the Midway Luminati who's only real strategy was to throw a ton of money at several large games and reinvent the action genre with a Hollywood twist, in order to do that you need people, lots of people, studios were staffed with headcounts in excess of 80+ people full time to crank those projects out.

Chicago was busy on John Woo's Stranglehold and Ed Boon was putting the late nights on Mortal Kombat Vs DC, Midway Austin had pretty much wrapped on Area 51 Blacksite but not before kicking it's creative director Harvey Smith out the front door after comments he made about the game to press at the Montreal Games Festival. Midway Newcastle was busy dealing with Hollywood diva Vin Diesel who, much to everyones irritation, didn't bother showing up to pre booked VO recording sessionson several occasions (and even when he did he'd stay there for 3 hours rewriting the VO script so no work got done anyway). As for Austin they had also been chipping away on a semi open world heist game called Criminal, a title it had been working on for 4 years to the tune of $20 Million spent on "research and development". The only major problem was, after 4 years, it had very little to show for it save for huge amounts of stunning concept art pinned to its office walls, Terabytes of pre rendered sequences, a script with Hollywood director Tony Scotts semi approval and  a protagonist that could walk around sections of the open world  but couldn't drive anywhere or use the vehicles in it.

Jump ahead to around mid 2009 when the money woes began to kick in, the decision came to scrap Criminal and close Austin despite the thousands of man hours spent on the game. Surreal Studios on the other hand had been busy for the last few years trying to figure out where to position This is Vegas, yet another attempt at an open world product that had been given the moniker the 'poor man's Grand Theft Auto' but with added gambling and a fucked up story involving Pandas and hotel room buggery. These guys were on full churn and burning through cash like it was going out of fashion.
The release date was a fluid one in that it kept changing after quarterly product reviews and the game went back at least 3 times in the space of eighteen months when I worked on it, finally I took myself off the project and dumped it on the new guy who started in my dept. I couldn't focus on it anymore and I didn't have the same enthusiasm as when I started on it and the only persona it had was that of a turtle on its back flailing its limbs about...stuck. This is Vegas looked pretty good to be honest but the longer it went on in development hell the more features got cut, things went from bad to worse when Midway Chicago decided to release a trailer that confused the hell out of everyone with an IGN exclusive. This in turn caused the forums to light up and totally rip it apart, on and on it went, "we need more time and money" came the cry from the studio over and over again. By now the budget had gotten way out of control, $35 Million dollars out of control to be precise, and in the final days when Midway was scrambling around for a buyer the game still needed another $15 Million dollars and another eighteen months in order to wrap it, by then of course most of the game was out dated. Its kind of like the guys who paint the Golden gate bridge, by the time they finish it they have to go back to the start to repaint it again because the first coat is flaking off.

To cut a long winded story brutally short, Warners bought Midway for $33 Million, about the same amount Midway had pumped into John Woo's Stranglehold as a dev budget back in 2007. For this fee they got all the studios and I.P and complete control over back catalogue, much of the studio staff were either let go or integrated into the current Warner Bros development teams.
By E3 2010 Warners had long since broken up what was left of Surreal and called it quits for This is Vegas, an act that highlighted the power of Warner Bros but also an incredible waste of time,money and talent. The waste was pretty prolific because invested properly it could have been spent on smaller dev projects for better returns had Midway senior management been much more akin to what the market actually wanted rather than what they thought it needed (which wasn't a poor mans GTA). The real gem of course was Mortal Kombat, Warners only really had eyes for the ultra violent beat em up to add to its catalogue which it was expanding having also bought the rights to Lord of the Rings when EA decided to walk away from the franchise. Midway destroyed itself with bad management, the tactic of throwing lots of money at a problem doesn't always fix it, sometimes it over complicates it. Midway had excelled at recruiting good studio talent, something it was very proud of, it employed some of the best the games industry had to offer at studio level, in the end these people were badly let down by decisions that never made any sense, the problem was there just wasn't any direction or accountability. The mounting cash spend was  a mutating mess that had been locked away in a backroom which everyone chose to ignore hoping it would go away. It didn't and it grew so big that it busted out of the room and became a monster everyone couldn't help but notice and was far too late to do anything about. And that ladies and gents its a super abrigded version of how to blow $45 Million dollars on absolutely nothing.


Sidenote: What else can you get for $45 Million?

Talking of bridges-I've since found out that $45 Million was the amount that California was proposing to spend erecting an anti suicide net on the Golden Gate Bridge to deter jumpers from throwing themselves off it -there's probably a hidden message in that somewhere.

Its the net worth of Rob Drydeck

Its the per season budget of Game of Thrones

Its what NBC paid Conan O'Brien off with

Its the total cost for upgrading the Royal Norwegian Air Forces radar systems

Googles main man Larry Page bought a yacht called 'Senses' with it

It buys you this house

The First Steps to Making Money with Photography

If you're into photography to the extent that you're always looking on advice or inspiration on what you can do with your camera then Photopreneur might just be the blog for you. I mean who isn't looking to squeeze a few more dollars here and there in this sort of economy?
Photopreneur exists to identify opportunities for professionals, hobbyists and for camera-owners who want to earn from their photography and has some great advice worth listening to. Photography is getting more and more competitve as the years pass putting more and more emphasis on mastering a technique to define yourself, either way though check out the blog and see what it can do for you.
The First Steps to Making Money with Photography

When txt messaging = FAIL!!!!!

Check out the hilarious auto correct txt fails here

FIREFALL-World of Warcraft with lasers and shit

Check out the fantastic gameplay trailer for Firefall from Red 5 Studios, an open world co-op bug hunting shooter for PC. Red 5 Studios was founded by former World of Warcraft team lead Mark Kern and introduces Class-based combat which focuses on competitive multiplayer and massive cooperative play.

The Decline of the Italian Plumber

When Nintendo launched the 3DS in March of this year it was fairly safe to assume that the all conquering Italian Plumber would break new ground with a new found audience, its brand new 3D technology, built in camera and bells and whistles was sure to have people lining up in droves eager to experience the valhalla of handheld gaming. Or was it?, latest figures show a disasterous sell through of the handheld which has forced Nintendo to commit Hari Kiri on the retail price and dropping the units retail price by up to a third in an announcement that went global today, in the US the $249.99 figure will be axed to a more shopper friendly $169.99.

Nintendo sold its entire allotment of 400,000 Nintendo 3DS units during its February 2011 release in Japan,In Europe, Nintendo managed to offload 303,000 3DS units during its first two days on sale and initially it was a good sign that the handheld market was good for another rinsing. However, a bad ecomony, inflation and a poor launch title lineup have eroded much of the initial sheen that Nintendo came to the market with. Nintendo reported a net loss of 25.5bn yen ($324m, £201m) for the April-to-June quarter, compared with a loss of 25.2bn yen last year.Nintendo's total sales during the quarter fell by more than 50% to 93.93bn yen. The lower price aims to create "momentum" for the console and "accelerate its market penetration toward the year-end sales season," Nintendo have stated.

The lower price will no doubt have a strong effect particularly during the Christmas season but unless Nintendo can deliver a much broader range of titles it will struggle to reinforce consumer confidence. Buyers are extremely savvy when buying into tech, price is a core motivator for purchasing but price alone will not commit consumers into a device that can't sustain its users with product that fully embraces the new tech it contains. The continuing rise of smart phones, tablet devices and online social games all take market share away from Nintendo. As for the economy, families are buying less and have less money to spend on luxury items. The increased VAT in the UK from 17.5% to 20%, movements on taxation and tax credits for families and increased fuel prices all have a say in what people are prepared to spend money on.

For years Nintendo has been complacent about its place within the videogame market throwing vast sums of money at Celebs such as Beyonce, Kylie Minogue, Ant & Dec and Helen Mirren ( Dame Helen Mirren was paid £500,000 to promote wii fit for ads that lasted no more than 30 seconds) in advertising designed to show a broad user for its products. While no one can deny the Wii Fit has been a success in terms of market penetration it makes little difference to the money men at Nintendo who are counting the costs of a tough economic climate. By all intents and purposes Nintendo had a pretty strong E3 earlier this month but it hasn't quite hidden the fact that the latest figures show a company literally haemorrhaging cash and is in more need of an Italian plumber than we are.

Has Digital killed Photography?

Nan Goldin has said the arrival of digital technology has compromised photography as a medium: 'The whole issue is so depressing to me.'
Despite the fact I've never heard of Nan Goldin or familiar with her work although as ignorant as that comes across-considering she's won more awards than I've had hot dinners ( won 2008 Hassleblad photography award and Kodak Fotobuchpreis, Stuttgart to name but two) I will say that for me, if anything, digital has allowed me to embrace photography in ways I would never have imagined.

Digital for me is about accessibility and while I would agree that the entire concept of taking a photo in this modern age is probably taken for granted a little too much due to the myriad of mobile devices that can take a photo I still think its empowering to be able to capture a moment in time wherever and whoever you are.

Purists will argue that the processes of taking photos and developing them in a dark room is the only way to take 'real' photos. I agree to an extent that traditionally the darkroom processes of creating photos has to be experienced for you to be able to truly appreciate photography, I was fortunate enough to learn the basic skills at art college but for me the process was a long drawn out chemical soaked affair that potentially put me off, I'm not patient, and I don't have the time and space for darkroom processing.

25 years later I embraced photography again but this time with a digital camera, eighteen months in and I'm still getting to grips with exposure but the important thing is the accessible way that I can shoot and delete within the same time frame. To perfect my photo and get the image I want there and then means everything to me. The frustrations of getting a roll of film back from the chemists that came out black or covered in quality assurance stickers are long gone. For me digital has meant being able to use the photos I take for other purposes, Zazzle.co.uk for example provides a marginal income that has allowed me to pay for the editing costs of my first novel. The only problem I see with digital is that photography exists in a digital format more than a physical one. Do you print out your photos or share them on Facebook?

Are we killing photography by forwarding links to our Flickr and Facebook pages rather than driving to a friends house and sitting down over a coffee to show them off in a book or as a batch we printed earlier that day?

I'd be the first to agree that more people should print more photos of the images they take, memories shouldn't exist just on a memory card and we should all be encouraged to print more images than we do now in order to share and socially interact. Maybe thats what Goldin is getting at I don't know ( I'm ignorant remember) but digital photography opens the doors to a larger audience than traditional photography does whichever side of the fence you're on. Surely thats the important thing isn't it?

What do you think?

VIDEO: Skittles Newlyweds - best viral ever? (NSFW)

One of the things I love about marketing is the myriad of directions you can take in reaching your target audience. Obviously the way in which you position your message is important to your brand and having a single benefit that hooks in your audience is vital especially since media approach is even more mobile than it was five years ago.
Virals are nothing new of course, they've been around for a few years and there are thousands of them vying for your "forward" click. When I think of Skittles I think of thousands and thousands of the sweets falling from the sky (Taste the Rainbow) or the 'King Midas' advert where everything the guy touches turns to Skittles.
Rarely though do I associate Skittles with porn, I buy packets of Skittles for my kids for god sake but I have to say this viral though extremely adult in theme is irresistibly one you would most certainly forward to a bunch of friends.(I have to say my own wedding night was a lot tamer by comparison).

Many years ago I got into a huge heap of trouble when I tasked a London based viral agency with creating a viral for Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks. As you're no doubt aware the MK franchise is one of the bloodiest beat em up video-games on the market and made its name through its gruesome finishing moves of spine removal and dismemberment. So I tasked the agency with creating something equally as gory and outlined an idea about a group of businessmen around a conference table discussing sales numbers and having them fight, the viral is known as "blood on the carpet".

When it went live it went everywhere, and I mean everywhere, when we saw the viral seeding report after a couple of days it had been watched from places as far away as the Faroe islands to Tibet...then we got a phone call from the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority)and a not very nice man asking us to remove the viral.
"We want you to remove the viral" said the disgruntled ASA employee.
"What do you mean you want us to remove it, remove it from where?" we replied.
"From the internet"said the ASA man.
"Exactly how do you imagine we do that, this is on thousands of sites all over the world?" we replied.

Now if memory serves me right we never quite got a reply to that one because no one really knew (including the ASA) much about establishing guidelines for age gating videos and online content. From that day forward though the ASA enforced specific guidelines for viral advertising and kept a close eye on what we produced for our campaign material. We didn't have the balls to tell the US office in Chicago about the viral because we knew they'd kill the concept but I'm pretty sure that Ed Boon, Mortal Kombat's creator liked it. So you can personally blame me for that, little ol me changed the rules for ASA guidelines on virals, well, me and London's premier viral agency Maverick anyway.

The problem is you will never ever be able to successfully police the internet for content, everything from Extremist manifestos to 'that video' (the one with the two girls and the cup) go viral because its user generated and seeds to thousand if not millions of sites because it forms social currency. We all value the need to contribute to conversation, your own hierarchy within your group of friends is influenced by what you contribute socially to that group, if you know something that one of your friends doesn't your social hierarchy is one of influence and knowledge for that specific subject and your standing within the group is increased. Personal recommendation from a friend, the concept of word of mouth is marketing gold, as an owner of a brand you can influence it with your audience but you can't control it, that is to say you can't make people want your product,you can certainly make them talk about it but you can't control the end users decision to own it. Marketeers want you to engage with their brands by forwarding their brand messages on, they encourage the conflict of social heirachy within your group at every possible opportunity.

The Art of Levi Hopkins: Aqueducts, Forests, and Sinkholes (GW2)

The Art of Levi Hopkins: Aqueducts, Forests, and Sinkholes (GW2): "Concept Art for Guild Wars 2 as seen on the Arenanet Blog."

Having worked in videogames for the last 19 years and witnessed first hand the amount of work that goes into concept art I've always been a sucker for what I call fantasy art. The majority of dev art never sees the light of day external of a dev studio unless a savvy producer or the artist decides to publish an art book or run a blog, thankfully people like Guild Wars 2 artist Levi Hopkins does just that.

There's blood in the water...

I've finally taken the first steps into taking my ebook publishing 'career' a step closer, my short story "Carved" is now with an editor and no doubt undergoing some grammatical surgery to bring out what I'm hoping will be the best of my writing in a very personal account of one of the UK's biggest murder investigations.

Carved tells my side of the story as a witness in the Thames torso murder that happened ten years ago in September shortly after the 9/11 attacks when I discovered the butchered torso of a 5 year old boy in the River Thames.
The book will be released onto Kindle,Createspace,Nook,B&N,Smashwords and Overdrive through ORB publishing.

I've got to say that while the prospect of launching an Ebook is a somewhat gigantic leap into the unknown the whole thing fills me with a certain amount of dread as well, the fact I'm putting my name on something and releasing it into the big wide world will either be one of the best things I ever did or I'll just curl up and die when the reviews come in.
But then I guess that's what it's all about isn't it, laying it all out there for your peers and critics to love or loathe.

My main saving grace is that it provides me with a unique opportunity to write about a very personal and life changing event that very few people ever experience. If the book was fictional then I'd have a problem, it would have nothing trully unique to make it stand out from all the other crime novellas and short stories on the market. The fact that its non fiction and based on a true event means that it's far more appealing, or at least that's the hope. Thats not to say that the market for fictional novellas is weak, far from it but the very real personal aspect of my story meant that it was far easier to write with just enough content that it isn't padded out with uneccessary filler.

Someone once said "there's a book inside each of us" I guess the ultimate trick is to figure out how you get it out and get it working for you.

Battlefield 3 Vs Modern Warfare 3

There's a fight brewing and it'll be a big one, two of the biggest FPS franchises in videogames will go head to head in an effort to dominate the digital battlefield late in 2011.

So who has the edge, EA's ultra detailed Battlefield franchise from big hitters DICE or Activisions Modern Warfare juggernaut from its triple studio effort Infinity Ward,Sledgehammer and Raven studios?

The interesting thing about both publishers and developers is that the last eighteeen months hasn't all been plain sailing for either of them. Activision are still buffing out the dents from what could be a costly court action and PR mess as former Infinity Ward employees Jason West and Vince Zampella contest ownership and loss of earnings among other things in what could be a very revealing court case. DICE on the other hand have to maintain momentum and get back in gear from the hiccup with the luke warm reception for the Medal of Honor franchise despite a brilliant marketing campaign and P&L targets being met. EA's primary problem is that Medal of Honor and Battlefield are fighting for the same space and the same consumer dollar in a tough economy. This is further compounded by the fact it uses the same dev talent to help develop both internal franchises rather than opt for new teams and a distinctively different look and feel.

Another factor coming into play is the 30 FPS Vs 60 FPS, traditionally the higher framerate is superior so it will be interesting to see how Battlefield 3, a 30 FPS product fares on home console against MW3 superior 60 FPS. Ideally EA needs to define how and when the two franchises can share the same buyer and introduce more innovation to the Medal of Honor franchise sadly lacking in the Afghanistan themed Tier 1 Ops reboot.
For Modern Warfare 3 lead studio Sledgehammer has had considerable financial backing from Activision to prop up the remains of Infinity Wards heavily depleted dev team, Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey founded Activisions Sledgehammer studios back in 2009,the pair previously employed by EA at Visceral Games, the makers of EA's space horror "Dead Space".
Activision will be relying on brand strength and the current strong retailer pre sale backing for its Novemeber launch. It has its work cut out to see if it can't grab the sell through crown from Treyarch who has helped Activision sell through 3.72 million units of COD Black Ops in the UK beating Infinity Wards Modern Warfare 2 tally by twenty thousand units.
DLC will play a major part in maintaining the franchises longevity with fans,Activision no doubt also still confident it can squeeze a cost of 1200 MS points for additional Map packs with its Xbox 360 consumer.

With map packs such as the recent Annihilation pack adding to the ever growing Call of Duty cash cow several months down the line from release it's a big market to dominate and proves that DLC not only maintains brand awareness but enforces brand loyalty to FPS fans.
Battlefield on the other hand has already wowed global audiences and FPS fans with a simply stunning viral campaign of in-game video footage that has underlined its full committment to delivering visceral FPS experiences and incredible attention to detail.

Like I say, there's a fight brewing, its up to you to decide what team you're on.

Bin Laden Raid - The comic book

Captain Dale Dye,Vietnam veteran Bronze Star and Purple heart recipient, businessman, movie consultant, actor and writer adds yet another impressive accolade to his ever growing talents as the first one out of the gate to cash in on the Navy SEAL induced demise of the world's most wanted terrorist and porn collecting muslim Osama Bin Laden...with a comic book.

Dye who served with the 1st battalion 5th Marines in Vietnam and acheived rank of Captain has lots of fingers in the media pie. On his retirement from the Marines he founded Warriors Inc, a production company that trains actors for authentic military roles in TV and film which included HBO's Pacific, Band of Brothers, Oliver Stones Platoon and Spielbergs Saving Private Ryan.
Dye's latest writing foray see's his military prowess extend to the comic book format with his latest offering "Codeword: Geronimo" an 88 page graphic novel depicting the clandestine US Navy SEAL raid into Abbottabad, Pakistan to kill Osama Bin Laden. Released in September just prior to the anniversary of the Sept 11th attacks on new York the graphic novel has been written by Dale Dye and his wife Dr Julie Dye. The graphic novel has been illustrated by comic book artists Gerry Kissell and Amin Amat and will be published by IDW.
What's interesting to me is that I raised the issue of cashing in on the Bin Laden raid during a 90 minute meeting with a specialist Military book publisher based in Oxford earlier this month. Having emphasised to them that the first one out of the gate with a publication that could recount the final moments of the Worlds number one terrorist could generate decent revenue I was surprised to be told there just wasn't enough information to generate the content.
Except for a full colour 88 page comic though eh?, DOH!

5 Ways that games are bringing realism ever closer

With the latest videos and announcements from GDC ( Game Developers Conference) of EA's next stunning shooter Battlefield 3 due out later this I thought it would be good to touch on the various ways that developers are looking to blur the lines between videogame and real life.
Patrick Bach, a senior game developer at EA's DICE studio in Sweden has been wowing specialist games press journalists with Battlefields incredible visuals emphasising that the game would go a long way towards conveying the feel of battle, the potential pain of a shot fired and the impact of soldiers at war. On top of that it would demonstrate DICE's zeal to present "next gen tech" on a "current gen platform.

Above: A impressive screenshot from Battlefield 3 showing a US Marine standing guard in an Iraqi town

Below: Real Life - A US Army soldier in Agfhanistan

1. Realism: providing players with an immersive experience that delivers true to life visuals, environments, emotions and NPC's that help take the whole experience to another level.

2. Sound Design - For Battlefiled DICE studios joined with the Medal of Honor team to record weapon sounds with the Swedish army when they were out on manoeuvres, allowing them to record the games sound with 84 microphones set up at different points.

3. Character - having a central protagonist that is utterly believable, someone that the player can empathize with at every level, making them almost human in way that these characters live within your game.

4. Story - current events and conflicts provide rich pickings for story and script writers to bring home a truly believable story that sets the scene perfectly.

5. Attention to detail - Architecture, vehicles, weapons, human emotional responses, lighting, physics and artificial intelligence are just some of the elements increasing in complexity as game technology evolves  to bring a level of detail never seen before.

The Photobook is Dead Longlive the Photobook...

What next for the photo book, those eye candy tomes we all love to flick through on the proverbial coffee table?The natural progression seems to point to digital if everything else is taken into consideration, comics, magazines and books have all seen a move to digital formats although not quite in the mainstream way that their paper counterparts have enjoyed so far but I'm betting that in the next five years we'll see a massive increase in the way digital  platforms provide the means to view traditional published media.
I grew up reading comics and I have to admit I'm reluctant to give in to an entirely digital model, the same for Photobooks, I love being able to pick up a decent sized coffee table book packed with photos to paw over and the thought of flipping pages on a digital tablet leaves me slightly cold.

Currently the way of the electronic paperback, Kindle, Smashwords and other ebook publishing formats have helped break down the restrictive barriers for indie authors and amateurs to realise their own book. However the route for photobooks has been somewhat slower because in order to fully maximize formats like the ipad  a small degree of Html coding is required in order to template the book before you put it out there which I think is restricting a large degree of the audience. Making money from traditional glamorous paper photo books however or using Blurb.com as a platform to make money is extremely difficult and the larger the book, the larger the retail and production cost, some of the higher paginated photo books on Blurb.com are priced at over $100 per book, some even higher, a trip to Amazon underlines the stark reality of pricing when you can buy books by professional photographers such as David Notons Photography Essentials waiting for the light which is 192 pages (24 X 26 cm) of full colour photographs and advice for around £16.

So where does that leave Photobook pricing for your digital project for an i-pad version? since you've effectively removed the cost for print and manufacture which is where the majority of where companise like Blurb.com costs are tied up you can price the book at a much lower retail price. To remain competitive you have to look at the content and pricing of other book projects, what you offer as value for money is important, remember that with platforms like i-Tunes you're going to come away with 70% of the profit less whatever taxes you have to pay but its a much healthier chunk. A price in the region of $5 would certainly provide a good motivational price incentive to buy and for a digital format its far more realistic than pricing it the same as its paper counterpart, the chances are you have the potential to make more money taking a 70% i-Tunes royalty than you do with a traditional print model royalty so you shouldn't look at a price of $5 as de-valuing your photographic work. With the vast range of Tablets being made available through 2011 and 2012 the formats are emerging to make good revenue from the digital book side, the downside is that the photobook is no longer a physical entity to have in your library or have sitting on your coffee table, instead it lives and breathes inside the digital shell of whatever reading device you're using.

The Photobook is Dead, Longlive the Photobook

Blurb.com project

My latest and greatest project comes to fruition shortly, overall its been a love hate relationship, I love the fact that the project came together like my first book in the series did because it's allowed me to work with and showcase some truly talented people, however I hate the fact that Blurb.coms pricing policy makes it so hard to price photo books over 80 pages competitvely within the publishing retail sector allowing me to promote it to a much wider audience on sites like Amazon.

I've had good results with Blurb.com, the paper and print quality are excellent, its own Booksmart template is a very good tool to build the books and the ease of use is great. My only really gripe is that it would be nice for more page templates to be provided in order to really broaden the design concepts as well as better profit margins for 'book builders' who choose to sell their books online through Blurbs bookstore.

There are other Photo book programs out there from the likes of Lulu, Vistaprint and Photobox among many others so I can't really compare the quality of these against Blurb other than what the forum response has been which points to Blurb as being a leader in the field.
Airsoft Infidels: The very best of Airsoft & Milsim photography Book 2 is the second book I released in this series, I'm contemplating a third and final book but other personal projects, a full time day job, a thriller novel plus a family make it a difficult project to fulfill. I quite like the fact that Airsoft as a sport is still fairly niche, athough trying to explain to various people exactly what it entials takes longer than necessary especially when you start explaining all the kit,weapons etc.
Out of the three books I know that exist for Airsoft Photography I've released two of them and was the first to do so with Airsoft Infidels: The very best of Airsoft & Milsim Photography (Book 1) which I've since updated and am considering re-releasing with a new cover.

The new book (see below) has a website found here
I'm promoting the book on Twitter where you can follow my progress.
You can buy a copy of the book over at Blurb.com shortly.