So I was about to fly out to Anime North when, as I was waiting to board my plane, Serdar sends news down to the gang behind Fan To Pro that Amazon had worked out a way to publish fanfic on the Kindle – and pay fanfic writers.
Economics/Geekonomics
Take A Look at ‘The Flaw’
I know a lot of you would really like to understand how the economic meltdown happened. Well, OK some of you, as we’re not all econogeeks like yours truly. It’s kind of hard to wrap your mind around everything that happened.
May I then recommend The Flaw which is available at Netflix? Weirdly it’s tag “what happens when the rich get richer” doesn’t really sum up the film’s scope, but I suppose it sells well.
It’s an interview-based documentary on the economic meltdown of 2008, told via interviewing people in the middle of it, analyzing it, and involved in it. Stringing together these interviews it creates a smart narrative – and does so without a lot of doomsaying and drama. It’s an oddly human take on a horrible occurrence, which is one of its strengths.
Dead Space In Your Face: Gaming and Rent-Seeking
Well, that was quick.
Last week I was discussing how monetization was going to be an issue in your gaming career – since there were many options that would obviously affect how you get paid. Or if you get paid. Or if you have any hope in hell of success. Well, now I’m still talking about it – along with my current obsession of analyzing game careers, of course.
One of my inspirations for that post, by the way, was the weird news in Dead Space 3 about how one could purchase quicker collection of crafting materials. Yes, a big console game that just happens to let you act like you’re in a typical free-to-play game, in a way that seemed kinda obvious.
EA was appropriately and mercilessly skewered by Penny Arcade, as was appropriate. However they were also skewered by resource collecting bugs that made the micro transaction thing a null issue.
I’m wondering if they’ll patch it or not.
Here we see another risk to gaming – and a factor to take into any gaming career you may want to have.