Aurora Seen from the ISS in Orbit

I took a trip to Iceland in December to do some marketing work on a videogame I'm working on. I did get to sample the Icelandic attractions of things like the Geo Thermal delights of the Blue Lagoon, this was at night after a 3 hour flight from the UK and in freezing sideways rain, I never knew rain could fall sideways but the -2 windchill factor contrasted weirdly with the hot spa was an experience I'll never forget.
Of course the other thing that took some getting used to was the 5 hours of daylight. My biggest regret though is that while I was there for the entire week I never did get a glimpse of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis). This simply stunning phenomena is caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere. The green hue is caused by oxygen emissions but can also be a brown-red colour depending on the amount of energy absorbed.Nitrogen emissions give off blue or red. Auroras are associated with the solar wind, a flow of ions continuously flowing outward from the Sun. The Earth's magnetic field traps these particles, many of which travel toward the poles where they are accelerated toward Earth.

Missing this amazing light show was a huge disappointment for me as its one of those things you add to your bucket list, still, there's always things like this stunning footage taken from the ISS in orbit to keep that dream going.

Candy Colored Nightmares

Allow me to introduce you to the work of artist Dave MacDowell, a self taught artist from Virginia, satrical 'candy coloured nightmares' and paintings with an edge.Movies, Politics, Music..no media gets out alive! Judging by the 83,000 views of his Flickr paintings page he's a popular guy.

Check out his blog here
Check out his Flickr paintings page here

"Who Ya' Gunna Call?"

Battlefield 3 and 3.9 Million Grenades

The Battlefield 3 FPS launched more than 12 months ago, and its through its popularity as one of the leading military shooters on the market that it still generates more than 1 terabyte of data a day.
Publisher Electronic Arts tracks more than 50 different telemetry events associated with multiplayer combat for each player in a game pulling in some truly staggering data.
For example, the data reveals that every 15 minutes, Battlefield 3 players throw 3.9 million grenades, destroy 648,000 vehicles, and create 24 million explosions.
EA has 275 million registered users, it captures 50TBs of data per day, and it monitors 2 billion monthly game sessions. You sir, are being watched.

Iron Man 3 poster

IRON MAN 3 Poster

Loving the look and feel of the latest posters for Iron Man 3, the latest features our Iron Clad protagonist Tony Stark stripped of his lethal Ion charged gauntlets and mean looking helmet and I've got to say the Iron Patriot Armour that Commander Rhodes will be flying looks absolutely stunning.

Iron Man 3 is directed by Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) working from a script that he co-wrote with Drew Pearce.
The posters have a "reveal" aspect to them that not only strips away some of the mystery and secrecy of the characters but proves that these characters are now firmly established within the Trilogy of films. Iron Man 3 opens on May 3rd.

Never Dilute Your Brand

Video-game behemoth Electronic Arts finally woke up and smelt the coffee recently when it announced that it is to mothball its Medal of Honor franchise. On a recent investor call EA's COO Peter Moore confirmed that the Medal of Honor series will not be returning in the near future.
In the call Moore said, "We struggled with two challenges: the slowdown that impacted the entire sector and poor critical and commercial reception for Medal of Honor Warfighter.
"Medal of Honor was an obvious miss. The game was solid, but the focus on combat authenticity did not resonate with consumers.
"Critics were polarized and gave the game scores which were, frankly, lower than it deserved. This one is behind us now. We are taking Medal of Honor out of the rotation, and have a plan to bring year-over-year continuity to our shooter offerings."
One of the biggest challenges EA faced with rebooting MOH was that it already had one of the best shooters on the market in the form of its Battlefield franchise. Rebooting a modern Afghansitan themed MOH and following that up with its lacklustre MOH Warfighter sequel last year did nothing but cannibalise its own brand and alienate MOH and BF3 fans.

Rather than focus its entire energy in strengthening its BF brand it decided instead to take on Activision's Call of Duty franchise with two different products, the problem was both products were fighting for exactly the same consumer dollar.
Why anyone in their right mind at EA thought that offering two modern day military shooters to exactly the same buyer in the same year from the same publisher was a sound idea I have absolutely no idea.
Medal of Honor made its gaming return in 2011 after a three-year hiatus with an agressively cool marketing campaign ("Experts in the Application of Violence) which based its dark and moody brand message on a Tier 1 Special Forces character called "Cowboy" who just so happens to be a real Tier 1 operator. The game, developed by both Danger Close and DICE, received a lukewarm critical reception but fared reasonably well commercially. Last year’s MOH: Warfighter, fared far worse and sold just over 300,000 units in its first week in the US, significantly below analyst expectations. By contrast MOH sold 2 million copies in its first two weeks on the market.

"Critics were polarized and gave the game scores which were, frankly, lower than it deserved," EA COO Peter Moore told investors. "This one is behind us now. We are taking Medal of Honor out of the rotation and have a plan to bring year-over-year continuity to our shooter offerings."
The question remains why EA even attempted  to cannabalize its own brand by diluting it against a far superior and better performing product, Battlefield’s stock has never been higher, with EA revealing that the Premium subscription service for Battlefield 3 has attracted 2.9m subscribers and generated sales of over $108m.
The fact is EA wasted a ton of money and time by diverting attention into a lesser performing brand when it could have created a significant war chest to formulate a killer strategy to catch up to Activision. As a brand things have never looked so positive for Battlefield 3, the game has sold 10 million copies worldwide, across all platforms. What’s even more important to know, the sales numbers only include until December 31, 2011.

Coca Cola only have one Cola, there are different versions of it sure, Diet, Vanilla,Cherry but it focuses on delivering a strong brand message on that one brand. Coca Cola, Santa drinks it, Polar Bears drink it and those young trendy 20 somethings frolicking in the park on a summers day drink it. The fact is there isn't another similar Cola product closely similar to Coca Cola that Coca Cola promote, and why should it?, its not necessary, it doesn't need to deliver another closely matching product to dilute its own brand to the same consumer which is exactly what EA did when it launched two closely matching genre titles together.
If you have a strong brand but an equally more powerful competitor in the same market space you have to focus all your energy into reinforcing what you have, not weakening its brand message by adding another "me too" entity into the same space when the market doesn't require it.  




 

KICKSTARTER: How To Sell Your Project Successfully

Know What You're Getting Into Before You Start
It's important to have a goal before embarking on a fund raising drive of any kind and its no different with Kickstarter. On the one hand it provides you with an incredible opportunity to realize a project you've always wanted to do but on the other hand also heaps a ton of responsibility on you to make good what you'll deliver your legions of backers or "pledgers" when they invest in your concept. Planning is absolutely essential, ramping up an appeal is in effect a business plan that total strangers are going to invest in and they're only going to invest in something that they have absolute faith or respect for. Cost your project out down to the penny and know what your break even point is, consider the resources and time you'll need to invest and above all network with people who may have the skills you'll need to rely on. People don't part with money easily these days and in order to get commitment from them you're going to have show some commitment yourself which is why coming up with a watertight plan is important. Be sure to explain clearly what the project is you are seeking pledges for, why you are seeking funding and the efforts you'll be making to ensure the project comes together.
Backers are ultimately looking for cool projects to be a part of, to be inspired and to be able to say "I helped fund that" empowering people to act and make a difference gives them an amazing feeling. Indie projects are always held in high regard, ones not hindered by executive chains of command preaching down through the ranks of Monday morning board meetings and corporate greed. Backers are looking for trend setters, for projects that appeal to them because it's something they've not seen before or that innovate in some way. Above all though backers are looking for a decent ROI (Return On Investment), there has to be a decent incentive to offer your backers to become involved in funding your project. A favourable mention in the back of your book for $5 pledged might be fine but don't expect that to have the same appeal at $10 Pledged. What you offer in return will ultimately dictate if your project gets off the ground.
Above all remember that you're also going to have consider what resources you have available in order to fulfil all your pledgers incentives, the logistics and all "the smaller nitty gritty stuff" are going to take up time and man power to honour so make sure you plan for it.

Avoid Talking Negatively - Remember your ABC (Always Be Confident)
No one wants to hear how your other attempts at funding have failed or how the bank manager broke his promise to lend you cash or how previous business partners let you down. Talking negatively or including any other type of sob story is just burning up crucial air time on how awesome you can make your project sound. Have something to say that keeps the tone positive and on the up, inspire people to believe in your project as well as yourself so be sure to present the product in a positive but relaxed tone and absolutely do not beg.
People are a lot more receptive to an idea if you can sell it with confidence, that means being able to make them just as enthusiastic about the project as you are. A well edited video of you talking about your project edited in with the ideas, sketches,prototype,blueprint,script,story or whatever it is you have will help sell your concept for someone to pledge in.You are the storyteller, tell a story that people cannot afford to ignore.Do your homework and check out other Kickstarter videos to get an idea of the sort of content people are including but more importantly how they are connecting with potential Pledgers.
How you inspire people with your concept is entirely up to you but remember you are selling the idea as well as yourself to people you'll probably never meet.
A positive attitude sprinkled with some insightful information or humour will pay off massively.
Two fantastic examples of this are Jeff McComseys Kickstarter  project, a Zombie Graphic Novel FUBAR:Empire of the Rising Dead and Tim Schafers super slick and humour filled pitch for his Kickstarter funded Adventure game which reached a staggering $3.3 Million in funding to the tune of some 87,000 backers and achieved 100% funding in just over 8 hours.
While both projects are vastly different they both give the reasons they are seeking Kickstarter funding and are openly honest about the whole process and this really helps the projects connect with potential backers.

Deliver What You Promise
If you're going to offer to deliver a signed lithographic print, guess what - you're actually going to have to deliver a signed lithographic print, once you've made that offer there's no turning back so carefully configure your backer incentives as being ones you can comfortably deliver. Resources are important, not only from a fulfilment perspective but also from a time perspective. You want to be able to dedicate as much time and manpower to your project as possible rather than have key personnel or team members running around trying to process the Kickstarter fulfilment of wrapping mugs, mousemats or leather bound art books or whatever gifts you are using for incentives for posting to pledgers. If you can't deliver it, don't promise it.

Be Clear On What You Are Offering
Keep things clear and simple, don't stuff your offerings with paragraph after paragraph of text, a snapshot or a brief overview of what you are offering backers per amount pledged is easy enough to advertise with a simple graphic, photo or image. These are sometimes labelled as "packages", a package is the deal you are offering your backers and will be broken down by monetary pledge. For example for $65 you might offer a Premium package which contains whatever it is you're going to offer, for $90 or more though they'll get the Collectors package which is made up of the same content as the Premium package but perhaps with something extra thrown in as a bonus.
An amazing example of beautifully realised packages is shown on  the Creatue Box Kickstarter page here.


Don't Get Sunk by Hidden Costs
There are some fantastic success stories on Kickstarter of late, there are literally hundreds of creative projects that have seen the light of day because they got the funding they deserved and became a reality.However, there are also some Kickstarter projects that became a reality but at a much larger cost than anticipated like the guys at War Balloon Games who detailed their painful expenditure here. The Hidden costs of Kickstarter can literally make or break your project, Kickstarter themselves take a 5% cut of your fees when the project reaches its funded target, Amazon takes between a 3-5% fee for credit card processing. Other cost you need to consider are things like manufacturing and delivery charges for backers incentives which can all quickly add up if you've failed to cost things out beforehand. Those t-shirts you're thinking about offering, have you costed the design, t-shirt stock, printing and delivery outside of the US?
What about third party fulfilment houses, if you haven't got the manpower to pick,pack and ship 3000 t-shirts you're going to need to pay someone who can.
Offering up posters, folded flat? because if you're using cardboard tubes those aren't cheap to post.
The best example I've seen on Kickstarter of calculating postage costs is the global map by the guys at Creature Box on their Kickstarter page, a colour coded map and Fed Ex costs are added per colour zone, these guys have clearly done their homework.
Another fee to consider is the legal fees for sorting out the necessary trademarks,copyrights and other protective measures to your I.P. This may be the digital age but your project is going to need some form of protection when it makes it to the big bad world.

Good Luck!

No one pays $60 to go to a funeral.

Just how real is "realistic" and more importantly how realistic do you want it, If video games are a form of entertainment then shouldn't their primary purpose be to entertain?
Specifically I'm talking about military based FPS titles, Gamespot writer Tom McShea penned an 800 word article based on his findings at E3 for Electronic Arts upcoming shooter Medal of Honor:Warfighter, McShea clearly wasn't happy about the level of realism and stated that regenerating health and respawning teammates trivialised the sacrifices that the game professes to honor. Producer Greg Goodrich to his credit pointed out that Medal of Honor: Warfighter makes no "realistic" claim—it is simply "authentic" in terms of the tools, weapons, uniforms, dialogue and other supporting features depicted.
Medal of Honor: Warfighter will come with a "hardcore" mode that strips out the regenerating health but I for one would not want to see this as a default option as suggested by McShea. How realistic do we really want military FPS titles to be, do we continue to acknowledge that the taking of another life is indeed horrific and profound but remove that shocking emotional effect from video game entertainment to protect the viability of the product or do we include it at the expense of taste and economic success?

Not a week goes by when we don't hear on the news that another soldier has been killed by an IED in Afghanistan, the Taliban's current preferred weapon of choice but my question for Mr McShea is does he want the horrific realism of injuries caused in combat to be reflected in entertainment products like military genre  video games. Will the inclusion of seeing a young soldier screaming in incredible pain with both legs missing below the knee whilst his uniform is on fire bring anything new or do anything more to reflect the realism in war. I know for a fact I don't want that level of realism in my games, that doesn't mean I'm not aware of the sacrifices our soldiers are making or even makes light of the life changing injuries that have a devastating effect on the physical and mental state of our veterans.
If I get shot two or three times in one instance on a real battlefield, chances are I'm either going to be dead or seriously injured, maybe even paralysed. I really don't believe that including the realism of life changing wounds in a battlefield situation is going to do anything for FPS games. So what are we talking about here?, we get shot in the game, fall to the ground bleeding from three 7.62mm rounds that ripped into us from a compound seventy metres away, then we wait for a team player posing as a medic to come over because we're mashing the call for help button like crazy. 3 mins later he arrives having taken the long way round from the construction site(Battlefield 3), my game is now on hold as I'm still on the floor, my joypad is vibrating and I'm still bleeding. Okay so now we've called for a medevac from the aircraft carrier and one of my team mates (who I don't know) needs to run out into the open and pop smoke for the chopper to find us in the Gulf of Oman map somewhere by veterans retreat, that's another 5 mins before the chopper can safely  land and still I'm on the floor and can't get back into the game. Turns out that my main artery is ripped and I'm bleeding internally, medic's got to cut me open and clamp it but I need to stay conscious that's another 2 mins spent on a bloody floor with med packs, plasma and crap everywhere. All the while I'm using up one medic, one guy popping the smoke and probably another three team mates to secure the landing zone. Is this the realism we're talking about? because so far I've been in the game 9 mins and on the floor 8 mins unable to play.
Video games are as stated at the top of this article entertainment but they are also a business, there are investors, there is a product, there is a consumer and there is a profit to be made.
Under no circumstmances am I remotely trivialising the sacrifices made by serving soldiers when I say that, but that is the fact, a brand and a product has to have appeal in order for people to buy it. EA's Medal of Honor reboot in 2010 was heavily criticised as being too realistic with the military jargon that it went against the product, that also calling the enemy "the Taliban" was also wrong, but hang on, I thought you guys wanted realism, I thought you wanted to follow proper radio protocol and all the glossy tier one chatter didn't you?
In the single player campaign for Battlefield 3 you experience in first person view your own execution at the hands of muslim extremists, they toy with you in front of a camera set up to film the act which in this case is your throat being cut. I did feel uncomfortable while playing it, it made me slightly uneasy but its because I'd seen the 2004 Ken Bigley video, a barbaric and inhumane act as you can imagine, an innocent man having his head cut off on video for all to see.
God I wish health regeneration did exist in our daily lives, perhaps then those four hollow point bullets fired by Mark David Chapman into John Lennon's back wouldn't have been felt for generations since. Do we really need to understand the complexities of soft tissue trauma caused by hollow point rounds in order to appreciate the dangers of firefights while playing a game on xbox Live on a Saturday night?

Developers have a huge responsibility for product content, finding a perfect balance and doing so with a  level of taste that does not offend is no easy task.If I play Battlefield 3 it really doesn't bother me that when I destroy a tank the opposing player / occupant doesn't tumble out of the hatch with his uniform on fire with the skin melting from his face, I don't necessarily require that specific level of detail to realise in real life that is what does happen. I'm more than happy to have in-game characters with the same level of speech and expression as LA Noire, I'm quite happy to have 5 times more collateral damage to objects in games and I'm as happy as Larry to have an unrivalled selection of firearms and attachments and medals to obtain. Give me an Osprey I can fly with the whole multiplayer team on-board, give me access to each and every floor and building in the multiplayer map and all at the sacrifice of experiencing what real bullets do to real bodies, that is more than fine with me.Game play and the complexities of game design mean that there needs to be a degree of flow to how games are played, sometimes this is done at the creative expense of what reality actually proves otherwise. This balance is a paper thin line that developers are challenged with staying within, not just for the sake of game play but as an entertainment product that won't offend because its being seen to trivialise active duty soldiers in combat situations.I'd very much like to know where Tom McShea was when EA released Medal of Honor Allied Assault, did the lack of combat realism and the fact we weren't exposed to seeing 19 year old American boys screaming for their mothers with their lower intestines on their lap on Omaha Beach make this product a poor one?, depicting a place where over two thousand soldiers were gunned down in the surf in an attempt to storm 600 yards of beach, did that mock the actual veterans that went through it all? Did Mr McShea criticise Mr Speilberg for Saving Private Ryan, I mean, that's a movie right?, another entertainment product where Tom Hanks probably had a personal assistant bring him hot coffee between takes of storming up that bloody beach for the fifth time in a morning. That doesn't mean Tom Hanks didn't understand or appreciate any less the magnitude of the horror one morning in June 1944.
Tom McShea's article does raise some interesting points, unfortunately without actually suggesting any alternatives. Real soldiers don't regenerate health over time, yes we all get that Mr McShea but what is it you really want, what level of realism do you want because no one pays $60 to go to a funeral?

Tom McShea's original article can be read here