speculation

Behold The Marketer: Your Unexpected Future In Gaming

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So as I watch the fallout from the PS4, watch Kickstarters rise and fall, and eagerly await my Ouya so I can play Sela the Space Pirate since my phone is old, I’m speculating on the games industry once again.

I’m not even sure we can call it one industry anymore.  it’s kind of like lumping Pengiuin, Lulu, Kinkos, and the Canon printer division together and calling it “Publishing.”  Yes, technically true, but you’re really dealing with a pretty broad range of subjects.

But that industry, as broadly as we define a place where Angry Birds and World of Warcraft are lumped together, is one that’s important.  It’s one that’s growing.  It’s one that we professional geeks want a piece of.  It’s just hard to know where to find that piece when Ninjas can fight fruit or each other.

But one piece some of us should look at is marketing.

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AODSF 2012: Convention Report And Speculation

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Just finished up my latest visit to AODSF, a con in San Francisco I’ve been doing events at for awhile, and wanted to give my latest report.

Sadly I didn’t get to to do much as my day and life was pretty busy.  Though I did note I was up to my armpits in Homestuck characters.  Not literally.  Much.

The convention was as usual quite fun.  It’s a tight, focused affair that runs in a hotel next to Japantown San Francisco – which cleverly means the con basically triples it’s size.  It’s friendly, crowded, and pretty active.  This year was no different, and as usual, it was a lot of fun – the convention runs smoothly.

In fact it’s an odd convention to review as it’s consistently high quality.  However there’s a trend I’d like to note . . . so let’s get on with that . . .

Anyway, I ran three events there, two progeek, two for fun – and what went on was pretty interesting to observe.

Fanart And Careers:  Based on my Focused Fandom book, this was a panel on my findings about, you guessed it, fan art and careers.  Attendance was a little higher than I expected, and the amount of professional interest was definitely higher.  More on this later.

Fan To Pro: The panel I always do – this one was even more packed and a lot of people were sharing stories and participating.  The stronger attendance was pleasing of course, but as noted, I think there’s a trend . .

Crossover Mania: This is my gameshow of creative crossover creation.  Not professional, and in fact by the end pretty damn unprofessional, but that’s not the point.  Also the phrase “Timey-Wimey Scooby-Doobie” was used.

So what’s the trend I’d been noting all along?  Basically that AODSF in particular seems to be getting more and more of a “professional” orientation in its events, because I certainly wasn’t alone with my panels.  There were other panels on similar subjects, and interest was high.

Lately, the last few years, I think cons and fandom have become more “progeeky” over time.  Things that I once said that were unusual, about how hobbies can affect careers, are now normal and mainstream.  Maybe it’s the economy, the internet, culture changes, but hobby-merged-with-job is a lot more normal in the geekosphere.

This pleases me greatly of course, but at AODSF it’s the first time I’d really felt it viscerally.  I’ve seen them take a lead on organizational techniques and base-broadening, so it fits . . .

I’m quite pleased with that . . .  and it just means I have more to do . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

You Win This Time, Virus

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*sigh*

OK, I caught what was going around.  I resisted as long as I could, but I am sick.

I should clarify this, since there’s so many ways to get sick:

  1. I did not get the flu from what I can tell, but if I did it’s a mild one.  I know this as, based on what I’ve heard about the latest flu, I lack the desire to kill myself.
  2. It does not appear to be the new horror from Australia as I and the toilet are only experiencing a platonic relationship.
  3. It does resemble a lot of secondary infections I saw people getting – after having the flu.

So I kind of feel lousy, I’m not too productive, and I’m doing only about a half day of work because I want to sleep.

However note that “half day of work.”  It’s fantastic I can work at home if needed (which helps in having a cool boss and employer).  I dread to think what it’s like in places where people can’t – or won’t – take advantage of this.

Honestly, though I feel work from home has been overrated and overused, it’s also been vastly underused.  In short, work-from-home isn’t really being studied or used strategically.  Having seen viruses and colds rip through offices like a chainsaw through jello, having had friends with children discover they’ve birthed little plague carriers, I think work-from-home needs to be evaluated seriously.

Not a fad.  Not a dodge.  Not a reward.  A strategy.

We’re still married to the workplace via the shotgun of tradition.  Thinking a little differently could help.

If illness hits an area, why not make Work From Home manditory for some so you can avoid spreading disease in the first place?

Have work from home drills to see if people can suddenly shift gears?

Find out who can work from home and try them out.  I was once part of a study on this and found that A) I was 16% more productive, and B) I could really only work from home 3 days out of 5.

So let’s consider this.

Now I’m going to go feel miserable.  Yet, strangely productive.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.