My second guest post on the New York Times Freakonomics blog is up; in this one, I explore how two video games, Rock Band and Guitar Hero are fundamentally changing the way that music industry executives think about promoting and selling music. While this story is interesting in and of itself, I chose it because [...]
There are lots of interesting articles on games and business recently. A slightly older one is a BusinessWeek slideshow on 33 ways that game companies can make money from games, some of these methods are only relevant to game companies, but they offer interesting hints as to how game companies and other businesses can work [...]
With confirmation today that Obama is advertising in billboards in the Xbox 360 racing game Burnout Paradise, Presidential politics have apparently started to take games seriously as way of reaching voters. Less serious is this pro-Obama voting simulator. There are also prediction games using the presidential election, and Ian Bogost’s Campaign Rush.
I was particularly intrigued by news that Allstate is piloting a program which seeks to determine if playing video games could make better drivers out of those over the age of 50. This news caught my eye for two reasons:
If the study is conclusive and positive, Allstate plans to offer discounts to mature drivers who [...]
Few markets are as boring as the one for bathroom scales. There’s nothing sexy about a product that tells consumers how overweight they are. No advertisement will inspire consumers to rush to the store, just to buy the latest in weight-measuring technology. No technological advancement, short of a magical fat reduction system, would inspire most [...]
Changing the Game (order via Amazon or B&N) is a fast-paced tour of the many ways in which games, already an influential part of millions of people’s lives, have become a profoundly important part of the business world. From connecting with customers, to attracting and training employees, to developing new products and spurring innovation, games have introduced a new level of fun and engagement to the workplace.
Changing the Game introduces you to the ways in which games are being used to enhance productivity at Microsoft, increase profits at Burger King, and raise employee loyalty at Sun Microsystems, among other remarkable examples. It is proof that work not only can be fun--it should be.