Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
You'll notice that though I talk economics in this blog, I am careful around the subject of politics. In some cases, where politics intersects economics (which really is in most cases), I also am cautious about what I discuss.
So for a moment let me throw some caution to the wind and watch it blow away.
I'd like to discuss my caution.
So as I noted yesterday at GDC, part of what intrigued me was aggressive recruiting by groups employed by or part of their nation's governments to recruit gaming talent and companies. I mentioned the Canadian group, the Scottish group, and others. All were quite nice people, and many got a kick out of the fact that I actually tracked economic issues, and I had some great conversations.
I'm such an econogeek I actually had a discussion of the possibilities of Scotland using the pitch of dual urban-rural lifestyles to attract young talent, and had a discussion of Canadian entrepreneurship with the Canadian contingent (it's quite an entrepreneurial country).
This and recents article by Richard Florida on changing immigration had me thinking:
So recently I put the game Dungeon Fighter on my Asus Netbook. Dungeon Fighter is an interesting game – a side-scrolling beat-em-up game and an MMO at the same time. You play one of several unique classes (that at times vary from fantasy archetypes or expand them), fight monsters in modular dungeons, and have colorful sprite-based fun. It's easy, simple, surprisingly deep, and the Priest class whacks enemies to death with giant crosses, scythes, and rosaries, so how could I resist.
The game is of course free-to-play, but you can blow cash on getting extra equipment, respecs to re-build your character, and, of course, character clothing so you don't look like everyone else. Very standard model.
So as I played this game, I debated if I wanted to get some credits in the game for extras. It suddenly struck me that the freemium, free-to-play, and other free-but models differ from the usual monthly-charge MMO games in another way besides the obvious.
They allow you to timeshift your expenses.