Denuology: The Observation and Observations of Denuo. » Design

THE TRIALS & TRIBULATIONS OF STARTING MY OWN (SOCIAL) MAGAZINE

mstory — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:32:14 +0000

The latest must have app on the iPad has to be Flipboard. It is equal parts content aggregator and magazine for those that haven’t had hands-on time yet which doesn’t sound too groundbreaking. It becomes very interesting because it integrates content from your social networks into other pre-selected news/content sources (e.g. Wired, Fast Company, etc.).

My relationship with this new app darling got off to a rocky start. As with most initial courtings, Flipboard was playing hard to get. While the early access to those general sources was cool, the real attractive feature (the social integration customized to my virtual circle) was hidden in a walled off garden. Unfortunately, the overwhelming demand for access meant I would be forced to wait on a list, which is the digital equivalent of a line. I hate lines. Needless to say, my first impression was not off to a good start despite the obvious potential of the app.

A lengthy ten days later (240 hours in online time) I received an email notifying me that I now had the proper access to skip the “velvet rope” but that access was short lived as an accompanying email informed me that I actually didn’t have access yet. Can you say Strike #2?

The very next day a notification laced with apologies for the previous day’s false alarm and an official approval greeted me. Playing the role of cool guy, I decided to wait a few hours before actually checking it out. I didn’t want to look anxious, right?

After eventually giving in, I soon found out that it was actually more than worth the effort and patience involved so far. The magazine representation of my social graph in short is brilliant. It not only visually represents links, photos, and other content from facebook in relevant ways but more importantly makes mundane updates from my friends look interesting. Also, Flipboard removes the need to click through the links cluttering my twitter timeline by providing useful recaps of linked material. It actually makes sense of the mixed bag of information found in Twitter. As the company states, “it always has articles you care about because it knows who your friends are.” And they are right.

Now that it is all said and done, I have my own custom magazine thanks to Flipboard.

REMINDER: Technology is Magic

btorres — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:16:44 +0000

I recently upgraded to the iPhone 4. I was waiting for the white one but I could wait no longer. Especially after this rather curt press release outlining that the white iPhone was delayed again and would be available “later this year.”

So I hopped over to the Apple Store last week, waited in line (!!), and got my new phone. I was expecting to love it. I mean I’m a sucker for all Apple design (especially in the Jon Ives era) and I loved my 3GS. What I wasn’t expecting was to be reminded, ever so humbly, of Clarke’s third law.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

But first, an aside. I’m an avid Futurama fan – and one of my favorite gags appears in the episode “A Fist Full of Dollars.” One of the characters makes reference to the fact that on primitive low-def 20th Century televisions you couldn’t see her obscene tattoo. The gag is that the tattoo IS actually blurry on our “primitive” televisions. We can’t see it.

The joke hinges on the assumption that in the future our definition of “resolution” will be completely different. An obvious assumption, but one that Futurama (and myself) thought wouldn’t happen for centuries.

But it has happened. In this century. Hell in this decade. On what Apple calls the Retina Display in the iPhone 4.

For those living under a rock the display is basically a super high resolution display. It’s supposedly high enough that your retina can’t distinguish the individual pixels. While this has been debated, it doesn’t actually matter.

Regardless of the actual science and truth behind it, to my (admittedly horrible) eyes this thing is astounding. I can’t even begin to see the pixels. On applications that take full advantage of the resolution – its an astounding difference. Everything on the screen seems more… real.

My mind no longer says “you’re looking at a screen displaying something,” it just says “you’re looking at a pane of flat glass that happens to have moving images on it.” Even this fails to describe the process my mind goes through looking at the thing.

Apologies for my effusiveness – but I can’t get over it. Every time I open the phone to do ANYTHING – I gasp a little. My brain still hasn’t equalized to this resolution as it normally does with pieces of tech.

I kind of hope it never does. It’s like the glass is… alive. It’s like what I imagine the (nerd alert) newspapers and pictures in Harry Potter to be like.

In a word: Impossible. And thus, to my puny human brain: Magical.

So while I love the iPhone 4 and all it does – the thing I’m most thankful for is that screen. It’s humbled me. It’s reminded me that we DO indeed live in the technology-driven future that’s being created almost daily. I should be grateful to live in the era I do.

But most importantly – it reminds me, multiple times a day, of the power of human invention.

Of a simple truth. Clarke was right. Magic does exist.

Humans are the ones that make it a reality.

REFLECTEUR – Issue 65

Eric Bee — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 16:00:01 +0000

Reflecteur 65 looks into new and exciting ways digital culture brings us together and sets us apart, whether its the data from social media sites mapping our mood and location, markets catering to a specific person’s need online, or separating our social feeds by friends and ex-significant others. Also, fingerpainting with an iPad and Denuo’s foray into social gaming, via FarmVille and organic foods.

Download the latest issue here.

TENDING TO A VIRTUAL FARM

Eric Bee — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:46:00 +0000

FarmVille has long been the focal point for social gaming, what with its millions of users, socially-relevant gameplay, and showcasing the gaming potential in Facebook. However, its recent foray into branded experiences in and around the game have introduced a whole new level of possibilities on the virtual farm, something that General Mills‘ organic food brand, Cascadian Farm, saw as a perfect fit for promoting their products.

Denuo was brought on board to help Cascadian Farm extend the already awesome idea to put organic crops into the game outward into both the Farmville community and Cascadian Farm’s community. Since both communities were made up of dedicated, passionate, and extremely vocal folks, the challenge was bringing these two groups together without alienating either side.

We considered the changing gaming space and how folks are playing with each other these days and, using three key things we know about gaming culture, built a couple of ways to mix the groups together to equally enjoy this unique experience.

GAMES ARE BRIDGES, NOT ISLANDS

For gamers, games aren’t just simple entertainment. Games help create the bridge to exploring their social structure, leading them into new experiences with friends and like-minded gamers online or solidifying their love for a franchise or character. The game is not the only aspect that comprises the person playing it, just as an in-game integration isn’t the only thing comprising a brand’s identity and ideals. Good advertising and marketing inspires curiosity and discovery, just like any good game does.

Usually, in-game ads work on a single level, appearing in a game as a piece of media specific to that title or in a wider, dynamic-placement buy. The “one-and-done” nature of integrations sometimes creates an “island mentality,” where gamers only see your brand for what it is in-game and aren’t inspired to learn more about the brand and the ideals behind the logo.

With FarmVille and Cascadian Farm, the game became a terrific opportunity to build a bridge between FarmVille players and advocates and Cascadian Farm’s loyal community; a common ground for one set to learn about the other. It wasn’t about changing behaviors or ideals in either group. We started that connection by building a virtual farm within FarmVille, made up of in-game elements, that used familiar crops and aspects of Cascadian Farm’s real farm, located in the northwest. It was about showing both sides the similarities and letting the communities discover each other on their own. The in-game elements served this purpose by reflecting the real-life farm, while utilizing the familiar aspects of the game to make a FarmVille player feel right at home. This wasn’t an insular experience designed to envelope the user with a single aspect of a brand. Instead, it was about letting those familiar aspects inspire both sides to check out the other, using the game as the main connection point for communities.

And boy, did they ever.

The Cascadian Farm fanpage lit up with FarmVille players, welcoming the addition of organic crops and their support for Cascadian Farm, while FarmVille players used Farmer Joe’s wall to support the unique crop and share how they use Cascadian Farm products in their home. By supporting and encouraging both sides to work with each other, both inside and outside the game, the communities ended up becoming fans of each other, via FarmVille.

THE TOURIST TRAP

Every game has its own quirks independent of gaming’s general culture. In Halo and Call of Duty, spawn-camping is frowned upon. In fighting games like Mortal Kombat, you don’t use the “throw” move because it’s universally viewed as cheap and unfair. Unwritten rules like these are forged and enforced by the community around a gaming genre or specific title, but are just as important as rules like “push start to play.” Wandering into a game’s space and community without a deeper knowledge than the layman can result in an almost instantaneous backlash. Worse still, if a brand is involved, the backlash is more often than not focused on them, defeating any purpose to an integration to begin with.

The idea of “tourist theory” is an easy way to generalize this. When you stake your claim for space inside a game, you’re also moving into a community and, like any good neighbor, the rules of the land must be understood and followed, especially if they come from the community themselves. If you’re not a friendly neighbor, you’re merely a tourist in unfamiliar territory; someone passing through and taking in the aesthetic for your own personal gain instead of establishing roots in the community.

When we approached the extensions to the FarmVille integration and the virtual farm, we made sure to adhere to the community-level niceties present in the game, from gifting other players who send us gifts, to not cluttering other people’s farms and walls with signposts and requests. It also helped that 90 percent of our office plays FarmVille on a regular basis and is familiar with the ins-and-outs of the game. Knowing the limitations and potential behind the integration, the game, and the extensions to them both, we were able to join the other players without causing a stir or seeming like unfamiliar faces. The focus became less about what we were doing in the game and more about how we could help other players out (which, as of this writing, our resident FarmVille expert is fulfilling “Bee Requests” for our neighbors).

IF IT’S SOCIAL, BE SOCIAL.

If you approach in-game opportunities without regard for your audience, you’re playing with fire. If you’re doing this in a social gaming environment and also not being social with your fellow players, you’re coating yourself in gasoline and juggling lit signal flares. Just as the main aspect of a first-person shooter is, y’know, shooting in first person, social games are based on the socially sharable aspects of the gameplay; aspects any brand playing in this space should make a primary factor in their integration.

It’s simple: when you’re in the game, be IN the game. Games offer a terrific opportunity to interact with consumers on their terms in a familiar, friendly space. Farmer Joe Cascadian, our profile created to tend to Cascadian Farm’s virtual farm in FarmVille, was never intended to be more than a proxy for playing the game; a necessary step to getting players to check out the virtual farm. Once the program began, though, Joe became the defacto representative for the brand and its game involvement, taking neighbor requests, asking and answering community questions, and generally becoming the in-game voice for the brand during the promotion. When you add in the various social functions we could accomplish in the game, maintaining our social presence within that experience became just as important as maintaining the virtual farm. Knowing how enthusiastic the FarmVille fans can be, we also established a “community event” over at the Cascadian Farm fan page. We did this to give both Cascadian Farm fans and FarmVille players an opportunity to connect and share content, based on questions and activities posed to the communities over Facebook.

It may take different forms across platforms, games, and gaming networks, but player interaction and a dedication to the social nature of the game is vital to an integration’s success. Whether it’s connecting in a third-party forum devoted to the title or reaching out to fans directly via connected consoles like PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, playing along with your integration’s fans is a necessary step in the program. Otherwise, you’re just taking up space.

HAVE FUN

This might be the most important thing one can take away from being in a game. You’re in a videogame! Jeff Bridges had to get zapped by a billion-dollar laser to make this kind of thing happen, so count your blessings. The folks who are seeing your integration are seeing it while they’re taking a break from the business of the day, so make your integration just as fun and enjoyable for players to interact with.

Come check out our virtual Cascadian Farm at http://bit.ly/FarmerJoe and www.facebook.com/FarmerJoeCascadian. Also, be sure to hit up Cascadian Farm’s fanpage at www.facebook.com/CascadianFarm for our community events.

REFLECTEUR – Issue 64

Eric Bee — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:47:54 +0000

New and improved, with 50 percent MORE culture, it’s this week’s Reflecteur!

This week, our digital culture experts turn their eyes toward the demands of the famous, whether its the curiosity of people when it comes to celebrity tour riders or newer celebrities like the double-rainbow guy asking what could be better than a full-on, complete rainbow. Also, catalog living, avoiding your friends via location-based apps, the secrets of popular music exposed by the Axis of Awesome, and Youtube as a historical film archive. All contained in this blockbuster, 50% bonus-filled edition of Reflecteur!

Click here to download this week’s issue.