The new SLS AMG site by Jung von Matt/Alster brings a immersive full motion video flash experience that lets the user experience the new car hands on. Using context sensitive actions in a series of quck events, users are asked to press certain key commands to progress through the experience. For example, in one scenario the user is asked to press the down arrow to brake, and while still holding the key is asked to press the space bar to accelerate. The user is then told to release the brake, which results in the car peeling and accelerating forward. In another scenario, the user must time the key presses in order to shift through the gears. Experiences like these are immersive and give the user an active role in the experience. The history of the medium can be traced back to the 1980s, when the first full motion video game was released on the laserdisc. It was called Dragon’s Lair. Its legacy lives on in the new SLS AMG site.
Posted by michael
Nick O’neill did a nice write up summary of John Pleasants’ talk on social gaming at #SXSW http://bit.ly/dn1726 – I wanted to add a couple points I heard that stuck with me.
STORED VALUE & THE FACEBOOK CURRENCY
Playdom’s monetization strategy is free to play, build engagement and convert to paying customers through microtransations. Common among social games – what was interesting though was that while only 2% of gamers typically make a transaction – those with stored value in their accounts are up to 4x more likely to spend. Good piece of data. You could make the case that everyone should get an account with some credit value when they join.
And under the header of what’s next he also noted that Facebook currency could explode through social games simply due to the platform’s scale. This begs the question whether facebook currency ever migrates offline as well…stay tuned.
If you have any interest in social gaming I recommend finding the video or podcast of this session or at least finding some interviews with him. You’ll get a good dose of data and insight…
http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/682
Posted by Matt
Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio plan to release iPad optimized web sites once the device comes out next month. Both sites will automatically detect when web surfers arrive via iPad and display the optimized content. The difference? No flash content. NPR plans to replace the current flash audio players with HTML 5 based players instead. Unlike NPR, WSJ will only serve up a flash free front page. If the user digs deeper into the site, they will encounter the soon to be infamous “blue box”, the lego symbol that displays when flash content isn’t supported. HTML 5 was developed to reduce the use of proprietary plug-ins like Flash, Silverlight, JavaFX. Although the technology is still nascent and not yet widely supported, sites like Chrome Experiments have been showcasing some incredible creative experiments that can be achieved with the new technology. Whether this is the start of a new trend is still to be determined, but devices like the iPad could accelerate the adoption rate for HTML 5. (nytimes)
Posted by michael
Article
Found this article related to the ongoing trend of social media & Facebook. The article states that Facebook is now sending weekly analytics to owners of Fan Pages. This seems like a minute detail, but is a large leap in the right directions for brands using Facebook to target audiences. In the future this could lead to brands using Facebook as an essential site for their advertising.
In the weekly report the following is provided: number of fans added, comments, likes and visits in the past week.
Posted by michelle