Expert Professional Advice

It’s a discussion that was brought up in the Game Career Guide by Game Developer magazine. The answer: Yes.

If films are considered art then I see no reason why some video games cannot qualify – and I’ll go further – there is digital art that is not nearly as complex as video games that can be considered art.

So, while many games simply fall into a board game type of experience of moving from A to B to something else – and these would not be considered art – there is plenty of popular art that isn’t very good either and not nearly as fun, or moving as a video game.

Video games are a collaborative form of artwork – again, when the elements of storytelling, compelling imagery, music, sound effects, digital art and control components come together to offer a moving experience, we have the conditions for art. Good art moves the viewer – she experiences something… and I’m sure as video games evolve and blend with the experience of a film and tug at our emotions their status will be elevated to art.

I remember presenting my case for the weaving of video games and film over three years ago to a friend in film promotion in Hong Kong. I thought the storytelling experience could be enhanced, there could still be a traditional film to represent the director’s vision, but there could be more to experience for the viewer in another format – making it more of a personal experience. One person’s choices within the format may shape the experience differently than another. So, while my friend had experience in film festivals, film studies classes, promotion, and also in setting up some art exhibits, and then moving further into the art world – she never expressed much interest in the potential of the digital medium. But like a lot of folks who aren’t enthusiastic about the concept of digital compositions being given art status – I’d say the biggest holdup is that collectively, most of us haven’t seen anything that really moves us within the digital domain, but I’m confident it will emerge. And then it will be a lot easier to call video games or video art – art, even if it has to be mixed with traditional art to achieve that status.

Update: August 18^th if you would like to

http://www.gdmag.com

Update: People really enjoyed these cartoons – the nicest comment came from a former director at American Express who said the Media Training one reminded him of a New Yorker cartoon.

***Update: In case you can’t view the cartoon image gallery here’s a video…

BP PR Campaign 2010 video

I’ve received a lot of questions about PR activities… really what am I getting? If you are having monitoring done, and nobody really seems to enjoy this part, you probably have an intern or junior person tracking your impressions from the campaign launch. Not that it isn’t valuable to know what kind of coverage was attained, and in which markets, but those impression numbers aren’t accurate samples of which part of the audience received your message – it simply represents the aggregate audience or some multiple of the aggregate audience for that outlet.

What some folks need is to link their PR efforts with their advertising, some folks want Twitter stats, and some want social networking components, blogger campaigns, and contests.

Implementing good ideas is scarce – I’ve seen the brainstorm session introduction sheets for a number of campaigns – they go something like this: “Here’s what we did last year, we could probably do that again and maybe add something here or there.” They’re not looking at how a business operates and drivers for revenue for your business – just how they will get your campaign launched with sufficient attention to warrant it a media impression success. But impressions aren’t dollars coming into your business unit – so it can only help when someone takes the time to understand and care about your business.

We can’t help everybody, but for those of you who need a media check-up as an independent counsel, we may have a fit…

Best Game of my Life TV Commercial by Trolman, Glaser & Lichtman, PC

“I had three lives left…”

VO: Keep in mind, you really have to be injured.

A wonderful use of humor in selling their accident attorney services. The actor does a good job of delivering his lines.

***Update:

As the year is drawing to a close this looks like it will be my favorite commercial of the year (considering no elaborate sets or special effects). I haven’t seen this commercial often but I look forward to seeing it.

After significant stock index declines in 2008 and then new lows in 2009 mutual funds have had to be creative when talking about their offerings since the funds aren’t making any money. The current trend is to leave out the historical returns of the fund because the one-year and three-year returns will be negative and longer-term returns for five-year and ten-year annual returns are nearly zero or one to two percent if they did better than the S&P 500.

So, if they can’t talk about making money they harp on fees as a distraction  – see our costs are low! Yeah, but you’re still not making any money!

Mutual funds have done this before in 2002 when their one-year and three-year returns were negative due to the 2000 stock market decline.

For S&P 500 index buyers/investors over the last ten years or so their performance has suffered and as the Economist magazine reported at the end of 2008 for that ten year period European and US index investors lost around 20 percent to 25 percent – not including inflation during that period. The average investor would have been better off by taking ten years off from investing!

But that never shows up in ads — and the average investor has been saddled with investment costs over that same period so the average investor will need a high rate of return on an annual basis just to break even from the losses over the past ten years or so.

How about those target-date retirement funds? Well, they’re negative too — the stock market is not a very good vehicle to achieve retirement savings for average investors. And T. Rowe Price has the IRA contribution deadline date wrong – they’ve listed the date incorrectly since 2008 – meaning that the deadline in some cases has passed six months prior to the release of the printed magazine ad.

And the other trend is for the advertising to say stay the course and buy in now to the fund because the management has special insight into making money when they’re are good buying opportunities – Oh yeah, then why wasn’t the fund manager able to have this special insight before the big decline in 2008 and 2009 and profit from it? Or at least be in cash so as not to have negative returns from an overall stock market decline, right?

You think I’m going to trust you to know what a good buying opportunity is when you couldn’t tell the difference from a horrible impending market doom, worst recession period in fifty-years?

You’re advertising isn’t good enough to do that. Good thing I was never convinced to invest with your crummy funds.

***Update:

follow stocktraderdude at http://twitter.com

 Investment ads: Long-term = wrong-turn #2

 Investment ads #1: Long-term = wrong turn

I’ve been noticing the slogan “May the best car win” in GM advertising and they are putting the superscript TM after it so they trademarked this nonsense? May the best toaster win, may the best product win, etc. could be everywhere – the thing is, having the nerve to trademark that reassures me that General Motors doesn’t have the best cars… It doesn’t inspire my confidence – it makes me more inclined to sense that we should have let the company fail from it’s own mismanagement. I still think the solution was to let the banks bailout the automakers if there was going to be a bailout. Isn’t that why we gave them capital? And we could have let them manage this long-term process of getting another large ailing firm back on track. Remember when the automotive CEOs went around begging in their jets? The executives should have given back their bonuses for the last few years (and given up salary as was asked by a few government officials) in order to receive a bailout.

So, may the best car win – it won’t be one of yours!

Dear GamePro:
Congratulations on your transition into your new magazine format (#257/Feb). I haven’t read your publication since I was a kid, but having had a professional interest in all media related to storytelling I’m glad I did come across your magazine again. There were a number of interesting comments on display to summarize the reviews you conducted:
An unabashed tribute carves out its own niche.
You really can’t go home again…
Two iconic franchises meet, but the results are less than exciting.
Let’s hope the movie is better.
It’s so much more than just a cash-in sequel.
A short rocket flight that has its moments but never quite reaches orbit.
Style trumps substance is this surprisingly great action game.

In the God of War Collection review on page 81 it states, “The series wasn’t revolutionary by any stretch – the story is an homage to the countless myths and legends we read in grade school…” The narrative is actually the story of Hercules – seems a bit strange that the reviewer or someone in editorial did not recognize this. But not knowing Greek mythology is forgivable, the main attraction to the issue was the coverage of the Russian novel that was turned into a game, the interview covering humor and the interview showcasing the storytelling within Heavy Rain. And part of what you revealed about Heavy Rain seems like it draws from one scene from films such as Black Rain and Saw, and the original Saw draws from the final scene in Mad Max.
Another odd point of note was during the Brutal Legend interview, page 32-33, “I had never even heard of Budgie before we started this game, but our music director Emily found them and they’re kind of like proto-metal, from the before metal times. They have this awesome song Breadfan…” The music director found them? Metallica covered Breadfan twenty or more years ago during their most influential period bringing attention to Budgie as one of the bands that inspired them.
These interviews show the potential of the medium for compelling storytelling – and it’s refreshing to see that rather than following structures without meaningful storylines that are simply moving a character along from point A to point B.
Well done!

Rosetta Stone advertises an immerse language experience as the quickest way to learn a language, but to call it software isn’t really accurate, they’re just selling flash cards – or more simply photographs, disguised as language learning software.  The viewer clicks on the picture to select an answer to the question – it is poorly designed without regard to any modern e-learning research and techniques. Do not waste money purchasing such a program to learn Mandarin – there are no conversation exercises – and no animation for any of the vocabulary. The only reason Rosetta Stone might be useful is as a vocabulary review before you take a test.

As a language learning product it fails.

As a gift I received a Mandarin vocabulary and phrase book – and then got into a two hour phone call with a contact from Taiwan where I practiced some of the phrases and developed a game show where I approach Chinese tourists on the street and test them on their understanding of my Mandarin. Here’s an update of some of footage from the show:http://www.metacafe.com/w/5478477

http://www.metacafe.com/w/5487511

http://www.metacafe.com/w/5487539

http://www.metacafe.com/w/5492543

TV information product sales pitches rely on credulity… Let me save you some time and money:

*Internet:

What is referred to as Anthony Morrison’s system in the infomercial isn’t really a system at all but a front for affiliate marketing to the uninitiated. The claim is that his sales program will walk the buyer through making an income from promoting the products of established companies…but the oldest example of such a business model is the Amazon Associates program where people act as affiliates for a five percent referral fee for the sale. So, you’d have to refer roughly $100,000 worth of business to earn $5,000, and then think about doing that each month or every few months – it’s not going to happen. This Amazon sales program has been going on for over ten years and there aren’t many people who can make much income from it. The one thing Anthony leaves out is how you get massive amounts of website traffic without paying for it – you need thousands or hundreds of thousands to millions of website visitors because only one or two percent of them will convert to a sale. He doesn’t mention it because it’s nearly impossible. As of April 2008 it’s been estimated that there are 162 million websites – good luck getting yours noticed and driving a sale to someone’s site. *Updated 8/10

Real Estate – no money down:

Carleton Sheets and other real estate program hucksters provide outdated techniques for acquiring property at little or no cost. Ask your bank’s mortgage department… they’ll tell you it is foolishness. The only way to get a good deal is to take advantage of another person’s misfortune – they don’t mention that in the infomercial.

Cash Flow notes:

This one has been around for fifteen years or more by various companies, at first they offered seminars to introduce you to the business. I spoke with the operator of the seminar and he couldn’t prove he had any substantial income from cash flow notes. The cash flow notes infomercial simply says: 1) Find them 2) List them 3) Make money. But that’s not even a three step process: 3) is a result, not a step…

No one is going to find them for you – and why would any serious buyer pay a mark-up price when if it’s so easy to find the notes, the buyer could easily work with a note holder directly? Call a few note buying firms directly and ask them how the industry works and tell them about that wonderful two step process which you hope will bring you a large income… they could use a laugh.

Forex and stock trading infomercials, etc.

They claim: Just follow the arrows…

Just show me your tax returns and audited financial statements.

If it’s such a wonderful program why don’t you trade it with real money for a year or two and then come back to me…

I’ve got a system too, it’s called you flip a coin until it comes up tails ten times in a row and then I’ll listen to you… infomercial jerks.

John Hancock TV commercial: Text message, “Tell me that won’t happen to us.”

Verizon TV commercial: Focus group – Cable guy, “Why are we listening to customers? Seems dumb.”

Optimum Vs Fios TV commercial: A simple straightforward reasoning for choosing Optimum – value.