Facebook ready for hard core?

Facebook games are played by millions of people. But "our" industry doesn't like these games. Some of these games we do not even consider to be games.

An article on techcrunch takes a view on things and is a pretty good read. Go there. Get back here when you're done.

So, there you go. Basically most games on Facebook use identical mechanics. Most games reuse whatever the big thee come up with and reiterate the same games all over again. Rarely do we see a new idea. If something new and successful appears its either cloned immediately or bought off by the cash heavy competitors.

So - what are the next steps on Facebook games in your opinion? Is Facebook ready for hard core gaming?

I might have a panel to moderate on GDC Europe about this topic so be creative - I might ask your question or state your opinion!

Facebook - Wild Zone

We are all aware that cloning games, monetization ideas or even whole game mechanics is daily business on Facebook. Now EA didn't like that Zynga did clone their beloved "The Sims Social". It seems Zynga this time stole one of the favourite toys of a publisher and they are not amused.

What is amusing though is the level of detail at which Zynga cloned Sims Social. They even copied textures down to the exact RPG color value.

This doc reads: http://www.scribd.com/doc/101954002/EA-v-Zynga-Complaint-Final

The question is what comes out of this trial. Can they force Zynga to remove the game? And the key question is: does this change how EA's own Playfish "clones" games?

Update: History of Zynga cloning lab

Clarification - Bigpoint

Under no circumstances I suggested that Bigpoint as a company has problems in my last blog post - on the contrary. Even if some games so have problems after running 6 years a company like Bigpoint has a diversified portfolio to counter those revenue holes.
Want to see? On my last post I showed you this Google trends chart:

You see clearly that the 2 big hits Seafight and Dark Orbit suffer by age. Now lets move that picture into the right relationship when examining Bigpoints other projects: 

Same trend graph but Famerama added:

As you can see Seafight and Dark Orbit are so tiny against Famrerama that you can barely imagine how big that game is for Bigpoint. As they expand their casual portfolio I guess thats only part of the picture. They just anounced Rising Cities.

Browser games f2p saturation?

Readers who follow the industry know that Bigpoint recently lost some of their talented managers. Readers with detail knowledge also might know that Travian lost their CEO with the original founders moving back in, merging their Travian Games with Travian Publishing.

So what is happening? Is this the first sign of saturation? It can't be denied that the amount of free to play content has increased 10 fold over the last years. As the games industry finally accepted the concept the number of titles being released is staggering. This means competition is much higher, choice is manifold so users leave games more easily for new experiences.

You can see some effects of this by using google trends (I love this tool): Seafight. Dark Orbit, Drakensang Online and Pirate Storm, all Bigpoint:

Since beginning of 2012 there is a huge downwards trend in Bigpoints' key titles while their new ones didn't catch up yep (Note: Farmerama and SG not mentioned). Interesting to see that Bigpoint tries to find a replacement for the troubled Seafight with Pirate Storm or Kultan - why else would they release two similar pirate games at once.

Let's trend some strategy titles Travian vs. Grepolis vs. Ikariam and OGame:

It seems that the downwards trend started sooner on this genre. 2009 generally was a year where a lot of games has been hit (see first chart - Seafight).

What happened 2009? What happened begining of 2012? I am into this and very curious.

Let's discuss!

GDC 2011 talk posted

I get many requests for the slides of that talk, so I simply posted it on slideshare here.

Have fun, and don't forget to quote me please when you use it.

GDC 2011: Out of Client services

View more presentations from Teut Weidemann

This will change the world of technology

Simply watch it how natural it works. Its Minority Report for the masses.

An entirely different topic: upgrading iMac 2009

I spend some time thinking about buying a new machine. I use an iMac i7, late 2009 model for work and gaming and I love it. Apple didn't manage to anounce a new one so I upgraded my machine with a SSD and a new graphic card. Wait, a new gfx card - usually not possible on an iMac. Well, Apple used very similar layouts for 2009 up until 2011 models so the 2011 card fits into the 2009.

You can see the work needed here: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac-Intel-27-Inch-EMC-2390-Graphics-Card-Update/9553/1

GDC Europe talk 2010 and its echo

At GDC Europe 2010 I did a talk together with Chris Schmitz from Ubisoft about free to play monetization. An editor from Gamasutra (Brandon Sheffield) wrote an article about it which spawned a heated discussion about ethics in free to play games (see comments underneath article).

So for your enjoyment read this first:

GDC 2010 talk by Teut Weidemann - with comments

and then their really well done fllow up:

Playing with fire: Ethics and Game Design

PC/Console gaming is dead - oh really?

My talk from Quo Vadis 2012 about the usual returning statements that either the PC or Console is dead -which never happens:

PC gaming is dead - oh really??

View more PowerPoint from Teut Weidemann

Golem Quo Vadis Interview II

The second interview by Golem.de with me about the future gaming market  (German only, sorry folks)

- which fit my talk at Quo Vadis about the future of the industry (see newer posts)

Video: Teut Weidemann - der Tod von Konsole oder PC (7:26)

F2p market foundations

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

F2p market foundations

View more presentations from Teut Weidemann.

Community Management vs. Support - Fight!

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Community Management vs. Support - Fight!

View more presentations from Teut Weidemann.

F2p foundations II and OOC issues

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

F2p foundations II and OOC issues

View more presentations from Teut Weidemann.

2x Podcasts mit Teut

Sorry, German only: 2 Podcasts mit mir und anderen Veteranen:

Einmal der Pflichtpodcast Spieleveteranen, hier anzuhören oder per iTunes abbonieren:

Spieleveteranten Podcast

und ein zweites mal über alte Zeiten und meine Rainbow Arts Zeiten:

Radio Paralax Interview

knapp 4.8 Stunden über Retro, Amiga und Co.

Clint Hocking about Gamer Generations

This talk impressed me not only because its presented in very funny and direct way but also because he views gaming from a different perspective.

Noch ein Interview

Ein kurzes Videointerview was ich auf der Quo Vadis noch führte findet ihr hier.

German: My video Interview on Golem.de

Ich wurde interviewed aufgrund meines Vortrages auf der Quo Vadis über den Games Markt 2015. Der Vortrag hängt als PDF im Artikel am Ende von Seite 4 und kann aber auch hier runtergeladen werden.

Video: Interview mit Teut Weidemann über den Spielemarkt im Jahr 2015 (7:58)

Creating Worlds

I wonder what influence the movie Minority Report had on the industry regarding interfaces, but this video one beats it all. Touchscreen is the latest craze of the industry, the iphone woke up the mobile industry and now computers move to touch as well. This one shows the future, watch this first before the second video, which shows the touch interface in the real world ... awesome stuff!

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

Next² Console Generation?

If games characters look like the following in a couple of years, where will movies be? The following pictures are all 3d rendered images, most of them can be found at Cgsociety.org.

Lecturing and Teaching at Universities

As some of you know I am an active teacher at two universities. One course is Game Design at the Media Design Hochschule in Düsseldorf (also active in Munich and Berlin), the other one is the famous Filmacademie in Ludwigsburg (even earned OScars for their films).

At the first I am looking for an easy to use level design tool with a game attached already. They need to learn the tool pretty fast and be able to design a complete, playable level within 1-5 weeks. Any recomodations? This can be an online game, single player game (any genre) and needs to be freely available.

Please leave comments about recomodations.