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OpenFeint X – Free-to-Play Virtual Goods based Games

Congratulations to Jason & the Aurora Feint crew on launching OpenFeint X - the coolest thing since sliced awesome! Now you can build free-to-play iPhone games just like the ones on Facebook with virtual goods, micro-transactions,  millions of players and all that stuff! Aurora Feint rocks the iPhone games market once again. If you are [...]

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DeNA invests in AuroraFeint

I’m very excited to announce that the Japanese gaming company DeNA has made a strategic investment in AuroraFeint, makers of the social gaming platform for iphone games – OpenFeint. DeNA has taken a 20% stake in the company and is going to play an important part in AuroraFeint’s international expansion. Aurora Feint is on a roll, [...]

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Digital Chocolate to use OpenFeint

Digital Chocolate, one of the most frequent publishers of iphone games is going to use OpenFeint for scoreboards and achievements. This is a huge win for OpenFeint, that already has more than 3 million active users on its platform and more than 200 games in the app store. I have covered OpenFeint several times before [...]

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The Psychology of Immersion – Virtual Reality Is Reality

A recent article in Wall Street Journal talks about virtual relationships and their affect on real relationships.  According to a recent study cited we can learn the following about the cognitive processes in players brains: On a neurological level, players may not distinguish between virtual and real-life relationships People socializing in virtual worlds remain sensitive to subtle cues like eye contact - in one study, participants moved their avatars back if another character stood too close, even though the space violation was just virtual Our brains are not specialized for 21st-century media - There is not switch that says "Process this different because it is on the screen".

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Frets On Fire – Open Source Guitar Hero

Frets on Fire is a game about musical skill and fast fingers.  The aim of the game is to play guitar with the keyboard as accurately as possible.

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Frenzoo- Second Life in Hong Kong

I told you and showed you about HiPiHi - China's Second Life....  Here comes Frenzoo - Second Life for teenage girls in Hong Kong..According to Brand Republic "Frenzoo, an Asia-centric 3D virtual world aimed at teenage girls, will soon come out of stealth mode to connect consumers in a Second Life-like experience.".Via Angus.

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Advertising On Loading Screens – New Oppertunity

Have you ever wondered why there are is no advertising on loading screens of Flash-heavy sites? So does Adverlab , and they really raised a good point. I actually tend to skip Flash-based sites if they don’t load at once, and I dont think I am alone. Taking advantage of the loading time is actually [...]

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Virtual Worlds, Games and Avatars

Susan participated in an Avatar panel at SXSW in Austin and shared some of her notes with us on Avartars, Virtual worlds and Gaming. She also points to a very interesting academic study on Game Studies (download). Main points: Games need more laughter in the slaughter Players want to help other players do well in the game [...]

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A Visit to HiPiHi – Chinas Second Life

After a very good board meeting with Maxthon, I paid a visit to HiPiHi - Chinas answer to Second Life. This came about after I had written a short post on them earlier and got an invitation to swing by their office. Kaiser Kuo (Ogilvy) and Xinhua Liu (early investor in HipiHi & Technology Director at [...]

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Off to China & Piper Jaffray Conference

It will be great to meet Bill Tai (CRV), David Zhang, Yuzhu (WI Harper), Jeff and Carol (Maxthon) again - just hope it will not be as cold as the last time.. If you want to meet up in Beijing please let me know, schedule is quite tight - but long is the night..;) Who knows, maybe I even will have time to shoot some cool Beijing street scenes?

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