This talk has been making the rounds among my game designer friends. It dissects the meaning of Farmville and connects it to other tectonic shifts happening in the marketplace of "interactables."
In a nutshell, connecting with the real world is the predominant thread of innovative products today. The iPad portends this as Apple is encouraging developers to design apps with real world metaphors.
This snippet from a box office analysis of Avatar stirs up some thoughts about marketing:
Regarding the sentiment that Avatar would need significant "repeat business" just to make up for its budget and achieve box office success, Cameron commented on sharing being a part of successful films and believed Avatar could inspire this reaction. "When people have an experience that's very powerful in the movie theatre, they want to go share it. They want to grab their friend and bring them, so that they can enjoy it," he said. "They want to be the person to bring them the news that this is something worth having in their life. That's how Titanic worked."The first thought that came to mind was the Wii, and how so many of their titles go viral because you want to bring others into the fold. Because when you're jumping up and down in your living room, Wiimote in hand, the whole family can't help but join in the fun. This also plays into my whole, "Your product should be spectacular" idea.
