September 27, 2007

More about Coobico


There were a few press-reactions to Coobico's start lately, for example from Developmag and Worlds in Motion.
This week I sat down with Worlds in Motion's editor Leigh Alexander to talk about casual MMOs:
"'More' is the typical game-industry's approach to everything: more levels, more graphic power, more customization and even moreso, intertwining features. Here is a lesson that the game-industry can learn from the Web 2.0-world -- less is more, really," Winter opined. "Less is what a casual audience of above-30-year-olds are looking for. They don't want to waste their time and money on upgrading graphic-hardware just to play Crysis in all its beauty. They are looking for some thirty minutes of ease and challenge besides their working-life, their family and hobbies, instead of spending endless hours of grinding in an online-game."

Communities are the key to online worlds, Winter says -- and the current community within MMOs currently reflects, he notes, the industry's "max-out principle," where the learning curve to fully engage in the virtual society is steep. "This doesn't mix well socially with the casual market," Winter says. "Such social discrepancies -- almost like culture shock -- are among the biggest shortcomings of recent multiplayer-products."

The whole interview can be found at Worlds in Motion: Linking People's Lutz Winter Talks Casual Adult MMO


Mehr über Coobico
Nach dem Start von Coobico gibt es bereits ein paar Pressestimmen zum Projekt, z.B. von Developmag und Worlds in Motion.
Mit dem Redakteur von Worlds in Motion, Leigh Alexander, habe ich mich diese Woche zu einem Interview über Casual MMOs zusammengesetzt:
"'More' is the typical game-industry's approach to everything: more levels, more graphic power, more customization and even moreso, intertwining features. Here is a lesson that the game-industry can learn from the Web 2.0-world -- less is more, really," Winter opined. "Less is what a casual audience of above-30-year-olds are looking for. They don't want to waste their time and money on upgrading graphic-hardware just to play Crysis in all its beauty. They are looking for some thirty minutes of ease and challenge besides their working-life, their family and hobbies, instead of spending endless hours of grinding in an online-game."

Communities are the key to online worlds, Winter says -- and the current community within MMOs currently reflects, he notes, the industry's "max-out principle," where the learning curve to fully engage in the virtual society is steep. "This doesn't mix well socially with the casual market," Winter says. "Such social discrepancies -- almost like culture shock -- are among the biggest shortcomings of recent multiplayer-products."

Das ganze Interview gibt es bei Worlds in Motion: Linking People's Lutz Winter Talks Casual Adult MMO.

:) <- Lutz

September 06, 2007

Coobico going online


The reason why I'm pretty silent in the recent months (sorry, no twittering, Yves) is my current project Coobico. Coobico is essentially a web-community and a multiplayer-strategy-game, running on Flash. Think HabboHotel meets MySims.
It will stilll be a long road till its alpha-stage, but I'm going to post news about Coobico's progress as often as possible at coobico.com, so drop by and keep yourself updated.

Coobico geht online
Ich habe mich in den vergangenen Monaten zugegebenermaßen reichlich abgekapselt, um an meinem aktuellen Projekt Coobico zu arbeiten (daher leider die fehlende Zeit für Twitterings, sorry, Yves). Coobico ist ein Webchat und Multiplayer-Aufbauspiel, eine Mischung aus HabboHotel und MySims.
Es wird noch ein Weilchen bis zu einer fertigen Alpha-Version dauern, aber ich werde zwischenzeitlich so oft wie möglich über die Fortschritte unter coobico.com bloggen, also schaut bitte herein, wenn Ihr auf dem Laufenden bleiben möchtet.

:) <- Lutz

September 04, 2007

Jaipuria- and Friendster-Patent, deadlocked?


The Jaipuria-patent, a new essential social-networking-patent is going to be auctioned in October. Amit and Pradeep Jaipuria's patent, issued in Mai 2006, claims the property of creating online networks, searching a personal and a peer's network database under advanced privacy features...
Read more...

Jaipuria- und Friendsterpatent in der Grabenstellung?
Im Oktober wird in Chicago das Jaipuria-Patent versteigert, ein weiteres grundlegendes Patent im Bereich sozialer Online-Netzwerke. Amit und Pradeep Jaipurias Patent, das im Mai letzten Jahres ausgestellt wurde, gibt an, das Anlegen und Durchsuchen sozialer Netzwerke mit bestimmten Zugangsberechtigungen erfunden zu haben...
Mehr davon...


"A user registers with the online community and personally adds individuals that they know to their personal networking database. While adding these peers to the networking database, the user grants a specific level of access to each individual... Based on the level of access granted by the user, the peer may or may not be able to access the users information or the user's personal databases for potential networking." (patent-application excerpt)
I'm no longer wondering about the weird practises of the U.S.-patent-system, software-patents and prior art, blabla yadayada. What really surprises me this time is the issuance of a patent seemingly contradictory to already existing intellectual properties. The Jaipuria-patent seems to be in conflict with the so-called Friendster-patent in various details, for example searching my and my peers' networks.
Does anybody have a clue about this?



"A user registers with the online community and personally adds individuals that they know to their personal networking database. While adding these peers to the networking database, the user grants a specific level of access to each individual... Based on the level of access granted by the user, the peer may or may not be able to access the users information or the user's personal databases for potential networking." (patent-application excerpt)
Ich wundere mich längst nicht mehr über die seltsame Praxis des U.S.-Patentamts und amerikanische Software-Patente die geistiges Eigentum auf Ideen anmelden, die es schon Jahre zuvor gab. Was ich allerdings erstaunlich finde, ist die Bewilligung eines Patents, das sich mit bereits bestenden Patenten überschneidet; das Jaipuria-Patent scheint in einigen Details dem Friendster-Patent sehr ähnlich zu sein, z.B. bei der Suchfunktion.
Hat jemand ein Idee, wie so etwas zustande kommen kann?

:P <- Lutz

Back on track


That was a pretty long blog-out. Some weeks ago, the graphic-card of my notebook was fragged and I needed to do without the computer for more than a week. When I finally got it back, I was quite relieved that my original system was not wiped out--that really saved me some time, I just needed one or two days to transfer my critical data back to the notebook. Afterwards I stuck my head deep into my work again, ugh.
Read more...

Wieder an der Arbeit
Das war eine lange Blogpause. Vor einigen Wochen ist meine Grafikkarte abgeraucht, mein Notebook mußte zum Austausch eingeschickt werden. Ich mußte für etwa eine Woche auf meinen Rechner verzichten. Immerhin hatte ich das Glück, daß der Support nicht mein gesamtes System überspielt hat -- so dauerte es nur etwa 2 Tage, bis ich alle meine kritischen Daten wieder eingespielt hatte. Danach habe ich mich wieder in Arbeit eingegraben.
Mehr davon...


What did I miss in the meantime?
Mr. Wong lost their ugly logo in the meantime--a stereotypical chinese cartoon-figure, which aroused the irritation of a bunch of ABCs. As far as I remember, the founders of Mr. Wong were going for a competition to create a new logo for their german social bookmarking service. I was too busy ignoring this, cause I generally dislike the idea of leaving the design of your corporate identity to your audience.

Then there was Web 2.0 Startup Meetup in Hong Kong in August--thanks P.K. from Editgrid for pointing me to the event. I would have loved to show up, according to Angus Lau's posting at 852signals, it was seemingly a nice event.

Which brings me to "blog-day", which I missed out last week. Let me catch up with introducing some new items in my blogroll now: I already mentioned Angus Lau's 852signals, a fabulous blog about Web2.0 in Hong Kong. Another blog which got me hooked up is Lost Garden; Danc is writing a lot of solid material about game-design (some of his articles are being published at gamasutra). And last but not least: Olav Müllers brettspieler.blogspot.com (german only), nice to see you blogging, Olav. ;)

What am I going to miss?
On Sept 16-21, 2007, the Hong Kong web community will meet up at web gathering 3 for some chitchat with Jeremiah Owyang from PodTech of Silicon Valley. Sorry, guys, I'm still going to be stuck in Germany at that moment. Read more here, if you want to attend. I'm going back to my work in the meantime...




Was habe ich in der Zwischenzeit verpaßt?
Mister Wong haben auf ihr häßliches Logo verzichtet, die stereotype Darstellung eine lächelnden Chinesen -- welches in die Kritik einiger ABCs geraten war. Soweit ich mich erinnere, wollten die Macher von Mister Wong einen Wettbewerb für die Erstellung eines neuen Logos für den deutschen Bookmark-Service ausschreiben. Ich bin um den Verlauf dieser Idee allerdings nicht weiter am Ball geblieben, da ich es wenig glücklich finde, seinem Publikum das eigene Corporate Design zu überlassen.

Dann war da das Web 2.0 Startup Meetup in Hong Kong im August -- meinen Dank an P.K. von Editgrid, der mich darauf hingewiesen hatte. Ich wäre gern mit dabei gewesen, gemäß Angus Laus Eintrag in 852signals war es ein interessantes Treffen.

Was mich zum "Blog-Tag" bringt, den ich letzte Woche verpaßt habe; ich hole es deshalb schnell nach, ein paar neue Blogs in meiner Blogrolle vorzustellen: Wie schon erwähnt, ist da Angus Laus 852signals, ein sehr lesenswertes Blog über Web2.0 in Hong Kong. Außerdem lese ich in den letzten Wochen regelmäßig Lost Garden; Danc blogt dort sehr solide über Spieldesign (einige seiner Artikel wurden bei Gamasutra veröffentlicht). Und zu guter letzt: Olav Müllers brettspieler.blogspot.com -- freut mich, daß Du auch blogst, Olav. ;)

Was werde ich noch verpassen?
Am 16. - 21. September trifft sich die Web Community in Hong Kong zum Web Gathering 3 mit Jeremiah Owyang von PodTech aus dem Silicon Valley. Schade, ich bin zu der Zeit noch in Deutschland. Hier gibt es mehr über das Treff, für alle die reinschauen möchten. Ich gehe in der Zwischenzeit wieder an die Arbeit...

:) <- Lutz