June 29, 2009

Hardest part of moving to the UK

Posted by Joi under traveling | Tags: , , , , , |
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Well, it’s all hard.  I thought it would be all easy  (really I did – I am a REALLY good planner) but many parts are hard.  Saying goodbye to loved ones (who all act like you are moving to the moon as opposed to a country 6 hours away by plane), realizing you have to find a NEW fav book store/bike shop/local pub/burger joint, coming to grips with the fact that you actually do NOT need to transport your 7th grade passed notes.  All tough. 

But the WORST is figuring out the PETS passport regulations:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/quarantine/pets/procedures/owners.htm

My beloved Linus P Alexander has to stay with my family until Christmas when I come back for a visit. 

The rules are rigid as the UK has abolished rabies and is justifiably paranoid of it’s return.  If you violate any of the rules, they take your dog and put him in quarantine!  for 6 months!

So I followed the rules and, get this, THE RULES INCLUDE A 6 MONTH WAIT TOO!  I was hysterical for a couple days.  At least he will be with family, but still, I won’t wake up to his snorting face in mine, pleading to go out for a walk. :(

So beware!  and follow the rules!

  • Have your pet microchipped

    Before any of the other procedures for PETS are carried out, your pet must be fitted with a microchip so that it can be properly identified.

  • Have your pet vaccinated

    After the microchip has been fitted your pet must be vaccinated against rabies. There is no exemption to this requirement, even if your pet has a current rabies vaccination

  • Arrange a blood test

    After your pet has been vaccinated, it must be blood tested to make sure that the vaccine has given it a satisfactory level of protection against rabies.

  • Get PETS documentation

    For animals being prepared in an EU country, you should get an EU pet passport. If you are preparing your animal in a non-EU listed country you will need to obtain an official third country veterinary certificate although note that Croatia, Gibraltar, Norway, San Marino and Switzerland are also issuing passports.

  • Before your pet enters the UK, it must be treated against ticks and a tapeworm

    Your pet must be treated against ticks and tapeworms not less than 24 hours and not more than 48 hours before it is checked in with an approved transport company for its journey into the UK.

  • Arrange for your animal to travel with an approved transport company on an authorised route

    Your pet must enter the UK from a listed country travelling with an approved transport company on an authorised route.

Linus says hi (snort).

Blogged with the Flock Browser
 

June 2, 2009

I am the Lost Generation

Posted by Joi under gaming, kids, online community, trends, tween | Tags: , , |
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LOVE this!  Found it at ypulse mashup today.  :)   I will put more thoughts from the conference later, but had to share this.  :)

 

May 26, 2009

Comcast DOES Care

Posted by Joi under marketing, online community | Tags: , , |
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Just a quick testimonial regarding a recent GREAT customer service SLASH social media experience I had.

I get back from a long trip to find my cable was turned off.  Strange clerical error, whatever, there are much worse things to stress about. I call, get it all taken care of and think I am all set.  But then days pass and my cable becomes increasingly more pixelated.  And then my internet goes down – and that’s just not ok.

I had heard of and seen people using the twitter @comcastcares account to help them with problems, so I thought I would try.  Not having internet in my house, I used my iPhone’s Twitterfon app and tweet my request for help.  Within minutes I had a reply saying that there weren’t any outages in the area and if I DM’d them my phone #, they could look into it further.  I dutifully complied and was then asked by another customer service rep from Comcast if they could help.  2 replies in 10 minutes!  I asked my first rep if I should get help from the 2nd rep and they went ahead and told them that they were on the case.

Within 15 minutes, I got a call form a local Chicago operator who then ran through some basic tech support and determined I needed an onsite person.  This was RIGHT before Memorial Day, so I wasn’t expecting an onsite person anytime soon, but the phone rep got someone to come ON MEMORIAL DAY.  And they actually came! And fixed it!

Now it sucks that it was messed up in the first place, but the fact that their tech support team was able to respond to my request using social media and then follow through with multiple other methods of communication REALLY impressed me. I am sure it’s not the last problem I will have with Comcast, but at least now I can have some faith that they can help me get it taken care of in the future.  Way to go Comcast!

 

May 21, 2009

NCSoft’s UGC misstep

Posted by Joi under gaming, online community | Tags: , , |
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Reading a great dialogue on The Brainy Gamer from the other day about NCSoft’s apparent naiveté when launching the Mission Architect feature for City of Heros and City of Villains.  Many users started making stories that were giving big attribute payoffs for little effort.  Many of the commenters were incredulous that NCSoft didn’t think through these fairly obvious user scenarios before launching and build in some catches.

I think there are a couple lessons to be learned from this, some of which those of us in the kids community space are fairly familiar with:

  • Some users will be bad, very bad.  Sometimes that means inappropriate behavior, sometimes it’s blatantly breaking the rules or gaming the system.  Rather than throwing your arms up in the air and damning those users, think of them when you are designing and plan for them.  It’s useful to first design the game play for the optimal setup, but be sure to factor in a brainstorming session where you think through all the possible OTHER ways someone could play your game.  This exercise usually helps make your ideal game play even better too, plus you will be able to start patching up obvious audience weak points sooner. 
  • Have your PR and Community staff ready for anything that could happen.  Maybe you won’t have a crisis, but what’s wrong with having your staff ready for one.  Proactive verbiage on your site that acknowledges your aims for gameplay, while subtlety explaining what is NOT desired can be very useful.  Run through scenarios with your community staff (or customer service, etc) on how they would handle certain situations.  You won’t be able to prepare for everything, but going through the exercise of tackling worst-case-scenarios keeps your team agile and poised to handle any situation that they are presented with.
  • Try to stay positive – Those of you who know me personally know I have a knack for summoning the dark clouds at times.  But I am strangely the opposite at work.  Try to figure a way to spin a bad situation in a better light, like the game is much better now that your users have found that whole, etc etc.  Helps your users, game and your staff morale too.
  • Use experts.  Everyone thinks they are a community engagement specialist.  And sure, that anecdote about your kid, brother or friend who you feel is an example of a model player may give a bit of insight as to how community efforts could be designed.  But there are those of us who do this for a living, who have honed our professional instincts in various situations and have information and resources to help projects run better when you are dealing with audience feedback loops.  They will know how to handle filtering of content, when to jump in before it gets ugly (and after) and why certain choices might be better than others.  It’s their job, let them do it so you can be even more awesome at yours.

I often warn people that attaching community to your brand (whether that is a virtual world, chat/im, or ugc, etc) is a poor choice if you are not ready to support it.  And support is multi-faceted, usually involving many teams – marketing, audience, customer service, IT, design, etc.  This is not to discourage people for starting a community or adding these sorts of features, but just a friendly warning to not underestimate the resources it takes to run a community.

I think NCSoft’s idea for Mission Architect was great, as was Little Big Planet’s level designing and all the other gaming titles being inventive about how to give their fans a deeper experience.  Hopefully the missteps at this stage can simply be treated as cautionary tales that we can build off of, instead of scaring people away from the possibilities that engaging your fans on that level can offer.

 

May 18, 2009

PDAs for kids

Posted by Joi under trends
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If you’ve ever had to entertain a child in a fix, you know that technology is a convenient babysitter, as kids are mesmerized by gadgets ranging from simple mobile phones to iPhones and BlackBerrys. Considering that consumers don’t typically go anywhere without their personal tech, kid-focused apps come in handy when there’s nothing else to stop a child from screaming and crying. Covered in the iPhone Sitter trend in The Intelligence Group’s New Family Report (which you’ll be learning more about in next week’s trendcentral), a pop-the-bubbles app could turn a cranky subway ride into a giggly trip downtown. However, for those who’ve seen more than a few cracked screens or sticky keyboards, a new wave of tech for tots that imitates their parents’ devices is emerging. While toy gadgets are certainly not new, they are certainly becoming more sophisticated.

Taking advantage of children’s desire for their parents’ handheld gadgets, edutainment tech trendsetter LeapFrog recently introduced the Text & Learn. Resembling a jumbo-sized, kid-colored BlackBerry, kids ages three and up can text back and forth on the full QWERTY keyboard with virtual guide “Scout,” who also helps them navigate through a pretend browser. Games are included to help children learn the alphabet, spelling, and basic computer skills. Keeping kids entertained, learning, and away from their parents’ more easily destructible gadgets, the device’s $25 price doesn’t seem like too much to ask.

I know I should be creeped out by this, but all of you who have cared for little ones know about their obsession for grown-ups tech.  The fake candy filled phones are not a ruse that works (candy is always fun though).  Even babies aren’t tricked by their plastic teething key rings.  This actually looks like a cool direction for toddler products to me.  And breaking a 25 dollar toy is easier to swallow then a $300 iphone/blackberry

 

May 14, 2009

YPulse Mashup – June 1-2

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Just bought my plane ticket to SF for the YPulse Youth Mashup.  I will get there Monday, but there are a bunch of people gathering on Sunday evening to meetup and talk shop.  Be sure to email Carole at Privo - caltarescu [at] privo.com if you are interested in connecting with everyone.

Look forward to seeing everyone!

 

May 13, 2009

Twitter thoughts

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What’s this you say – you are on twitter?  Well, welcome friend!  Some of us have been on it for a while.  Personally I have been trying to figure out why I am on it since I started.  But it’s finally made it mark in the mass market and here are some interesting twitter links//stories I found in my catching up phase:

- Wefollow – yeah, I know Ashton, Demi, Oprah, Ellen and Shaq are on twitter and they brought their audiences.  But there are some other really cool people tweeting it up and you can find the most popular ones here.  

 - My advice to newbies is to click on a persons twitter page and see what sort of things they post and how often.  For example, Quest Love from the Roots has cool stuff, but he tweets ALOT.  Also, you might not need to know when your fav celebrity is “heading to the gym” or “eating a sandwich.”  I personally like funny non-sequitor tweets and relevant industry news.

- When did you join? – cool and simple tool/site that tells you when you joined the “new” big thing.  I was part of the SXSW 07 wave, as evidenced by my 3/10/09 start date.

- Y’all know I am a sucker for a good chart.  Here are some great twitter visualization tools. :D TweetStats, Trendrr, Tweetmeme, and my fav – Xefer

 

May 1, 2009

Catching up

Posted by Joi under trends | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Ever had one of those days/months/quarters/years? You know, when some aspect of your life runs away with itself and doesn’t even send a postcard? Well, that was the blogging part of my life and I am mandating that it comes back home from it’s lolly-gagging holiday. There’s stuff to write about!

So I spent the past week catching up on the 1000 or so articles that I have been missing for the past month. I bookmarked my favs on my Google Reader and my Delicious pages, but here is some other random stuff I thought was worth blogging a short bit about.  They go from inane to biz relevant.  Think of it as me easing my way back into biz blogging.

- I just got back from a Scotland Highlands holiday with Izzy Neis (actually it’s been a few weeks now, but I miss it like it was yesterday.) If you go, DEFINITELY think about taking a tour with MacBackpackers.  It was a great way to experience such complex, yet beautifully simple landscapes.  Our guide was an amazing storyteller and shared the rich folklore and history of the Highlands.  Hearing stories about faeries and dragons mixed in with war battles is definitely the way I want to think about history.

- The Artisan Cellar in River North (Chicago) has a salad of the day that is AWESOME consistently.  Especially if you like fruit in your salads.  I am not the biggest fruit-in-salad fan, but their non-fruit ones are REALLY good. Haven’t had the panini’s but they look fab too.  They have a great wine store too to browse while you are waiting for your salads.  

- I like Miley Cyrus’s song – The Climb.  Not crazy proud about that, but I do.

- Star Trek rocked.  Although it’s hard for me to think of Sylar as Spock

- Jake McKee – The Community Guy and Ant’s Eye View Chief Ant Wrangler and his family are moving to Seattle.  Wanted to say good luck and I am SO jealous.  Love that city!

- Disney is coming to HULU!  That also means ABC is coming to HULU!  I love this service and use it tons to catch up on shows that I forgot to DVR or I watch while working on other things on my computer.  ABC was the last big station holding out in the states, so now ALL your fav shows are available.  Too bad they cancelled Pushing Daisies.  :(

- That said, though, the TV season is just about over!  I love me some prime time shows, but it’s starting to sink into my ME time, including my gaming time.  I am excited to open all the windows in my house and play video games this summer.  Sure, I will play outside, but now that TV-time is over, at least the shows I watch, I can get my game on.  :) 

- In catching up, I signed up for more sites (I would seriously love to know how many sites I am registered for.  Must be approaching a thousand) and was reminded again of annoying registration processes.  I know as well as the next person that implementing a registration process is more than making a simple form – there are objectives from many different areas.  But please, if I forget to choose my state, don’t make me retype my password. Because what happens is I won’t realize that II needed to also retype my password, usually because your form is too long.  Then I end up spending 5 minutes registering for your site instead of 1 or less.  I was sent back 5 times the other day for random checks the other day (I am looking at you dotster.com).  SO annoying! /END RANT

- I will write a separate post about my Twitter thoughts of late, but Facebook is now officially where my personal network is maintained. I guess it has been for a couple years, but now high school people, older relatives and random other people are there and en force.  I will spare you laments about the corniness of the older generation embracing the platform.  I am just happy they aren’t spewing the “Oh, you and your technology – that’s just over my head” garbage anymore.  It’s nice, as I can keep in touch with people from a distance, which makes me sound a bit cold – but seriously, I think I know too many people now.  Keeping in touch with them at all is impressive to me.  Plus, the insurgence of older peeps might make the younger peeps think twice about posting their, sometimes impressively, inappropriate content they got into the habit of posting.

- Michelle Obama’s was on Sesame Street, reminding parents that they TOO have to have healthy habits, if they want their kids to have them.  So sad that this gets forgotten.  Also dig the fact that they are using some of that HUGE lawn to make a garden.  Can’ remember the blogger who was wishing for this before the election, but glad they got their wish.

- I will end with bigger news – Hasbro/Discovery Channel on it’s way. I know there are tons of people incredibly wary of this, especially the worry of it’s blatant consumerism.  I can completely see that position, although, I would argue, that most television is like that, especially kids tv.  And while that doesn’t make it better, instead of lobbying for one extreme or the other, we should strive for a happy medium.  

As some of this post will show, I am a media junkie, but I am not just a consumer automaton.  Some would say, that’s because you are an adult and have reasoning capabilities (and I would say thank you).  But I was also babysat by cartoons growing up and spent more than a few hours playing video games.   It is possible to separate and learn to critique, either on your own but hopefully with the help of adults who care. Media criticism education should come from everywhere – not just in schools, but in informal situations too, at home, at friends/family houses, but especially at the store.  It’s hard to tell a kid “No, you can’t have that” but that’s how most of us got over our consumerist yearnings growing up.

 

April 1, 2009

Kids Online unconference – May 31

Posted by Joi under Safety/Privacy, gaming, kids, marketing, mobile, online community, television, tween, virtual worlds
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Hi all –

First of many plugs about the Kids Online Unconference that is happening the day before the Ypulse Youth Mashup. The whole thing is 5/31/09-6/2/09, but come to what you can.

We need to start getting a headcount, so if you could let myself or any of the other coordinators know if you are planning on attending, that would be great!

To sign up for the listserv we have set up, go to this link http://lists.idcommons.net/lists/info/kidsonline and click the “Subscribe” link.

Thanks!

 

March 25, 2009

GDC09 Notes: Designing Engaging Relationships

Posted by Joi under gaming, marketing | Tags: , , , |
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GDC09 presentation by Scott Rigby at Immersyve
Powerpoint deck and white paper available at:
http://www.immersyve.com/downloads/

- Fun can have negative aspects – not always positive
- work involved, stress, etc – all can be fun

- Collecting Behaviorial Data (telemetry)
- Outcome based rather than Causal

- The underpants Gnome Dilemma (South Park reference)
- 3 part business plan
- Collect Underpants
- Something
- Collect Profit
- We know that if we make the game fun then people will love it, but what is the middle part – how do we ensure fun

- Motivational Research is happening at the academic level

- Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS) Model
- Competence – to grow in skill
- Autonomy – experience personal agency/choice
- Relatedness – meaningful connection to other players – real or NPC

- Just tracking fun is not an indicator of retention – using PENS is better
- long term and short term (they had data from their study to back claim)

Competence
- efficiency, growth, mastery
- High intention to outcome ratio
- Mastery in Moment-to-monent gameplay
- getting good feedback in wins and loses
- granular, sustained, cumulative
- w/i session, w/i game, global
- guitar hero is a good example of this
- Rewards
- not just happy things, but also info to get better works well as a reward
- Challenge
- stretch, don’t overwhelm
- watch for boring and anxiety extremes
- sustained challenge is high on fun, but low on PENS
- player gets exhausted if challenge is sustained too long
- being able to express mastery is key
- PWNAGE :)
- Shaming is not helpful

Autonomy
- sense of personal agency or volition
- I am the cause of my actions, not the game design
- Opportunities for Action (OFA)
- Interactive opportunities x Possible Actions = OFA
- Not about creating more, but about perceived opportunity
- density of choice
- Make sure schemas are met
- If in other situations things work a certain way, make sure that it consistent
- in one game when you shoot at a box on the wall it explodes, but in another level the box is just a texture on the wall and does nothing when shot
- player is reminded of his place in the game at that point and enjoyment decreases

Relatedness
- connected/mattering to other people, either real or NPC
- Give positive contextual feedback – especially in the case of NPC, don’t make them just filler
- Random dialogue and serious attitude in NPCs is demotivating to players

Application
- Ask questions during game design phase
- How will overall or specific game play satisfy needs?
- Can I satisfy multiple needs simultaneously?
- Heat Maps in Game
- Push Short Surveys in game in different areas to gauge what needs are being met or not in what areas of the world

These concepts were found to be fundamental – across geography, age and game genre

 

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