-
 In May, Nokia unveiled Reset Generation, its
flagship mobile title for its reimagined N-Gage mobile platform. The
name refers to "the people who grew up with video games -- everyone
under the age of 37," said project producer Scott Foe at the Edinburgh
Interactive Festival, where he discussed what he feels is key to
innovative distribution modes for games.
Reset Generation is available online for free and
can be embedded in other sites as well -- "we do this because it's a
billboard of our brand," says Foe.
So, if the ambition is to create a "YouTube of games," what are some key factors in the process?
Part of it, recommends Foe, is bearing in mind what the delivery method
will be, and tailor it for distribution on websites and social
networks. "Keep the area of display small -- you have to be able to fit
all your social networking stuff around the screen."
This sort of "cross-pollination" should be encouraged, says Foe. "Don't
make them go to it, allow them to embed it in their sites and pass it
on easily. We should consider it ‘bacterial marketing,’ not ‘viral
marketing’ because it should be passed on by using it, by giving it to
others to use."
YouTube allows for a broad variety of video types, and similarly, Foe
says, "bacterial" games should embrace all plaforms, rather than
restricting to Flash or Java only. Signup forms and registrations are
just one more barrier to entry, Foe adds.
"In word-of-mouth marketing -– if marketing is warfare then consumers
are the bullets," says Foe. The new consumer is a "constellation of
affinity," and more consumers read Penny Arcade than USA Today.
"There's a reason for their success -- authenticity," asserts Foe.
"Too many times these days, someone makes a product and asks, 'how can
we make it go viral?' And if they’re trying to sell a chicken burger.
they put a dancing chicken on YouTube. Well, if you have a house and
you put a dancing bear in a tutu on top of it, the whole neighborhood
is going to come out to see the bear, but no one is going to buy the
house."
Instead, he advises companies to "bake the concept into the game" --
for example, says Foe, Nokia used known artists like The Behemoth's Dan
Paladin to generate buzz-worthy art for Reset
Generation to create buzz. "That didn’t take off, but the
game’s soundtrack, performed by 8-bit Weapon, did."
By
Mathew Kumar
2008-08-18 12:42:00
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