Hello, my name is Mike Gowen.

Hot Sidebar Action: December 4th

• Dr. Awesome iPhone Game
  Super cool new game for the iPhone. Grabbing it now.
• Second Life Foresaw the US Banking Crisis
  Interesting little blurb about using virtual worlds to predict real world behavior.
• Quote
  Brilliant quote from John Gall.
• The Design Studio of Mike Precious
  Some amazing work here! Very inspiring.
• All WotLK PVE Content Defeated
  Nihilum/SK Gaming have completed all the raiding content in WoLK. Wow.
• Google Lively To Shut Down In December
  Um, that was fast.
• SGN’s iFun Turns iPhone Into PC Game Controller
  This is pretty incredible. I’m not sure how practical it will turn out to be, but I love the innovation.

Scrapblog takes home two Adobe MAX Awards!

The winners have been announced and Scrapblog has taken not one, but two Adobe MAX awards in both the RIA category and the coveted People’s Choice Award! We could not be more excited about this. We’ve had our eye on this prize since the birth of Scrapblog and we can finally check that off our list. Kick ass!

PackRat Launches a Subscription Option

PackRat has just launched a subscription option for players called PackRat XL. I had a feeling this was going to happen sooner than later. Judging from the forums, it appears to have been well received dispite the backlash of the original ticket launch. This move rounds out a solid revenue model short of advertising, but as Josh has mentioned in the past, ads were never very lucrative for them. I hope it works well, I’ll be watching closely.

Scrapblog is an Adobe MAX Award Finalist, Vote For Us!

And we’re pumped about it! Please help us out by voting for us. We would greatly appreciate it!

Hot Sidebar Action: November 10th

• Top 10 Most Original Facebook Games
  I would have put PackRat on this list, but a solid list nonetheless.
• The Facebook Marketing Bible - November 2008 Edition is Now Available
  The title says it all. Grab it!
• Free Realms
  New virtual world from Sony. Going to check it out.
• Who’s Growing on MySpace? Top 10 MySpace Games by New Players This Month
  Inside Social Games rounds up the top 10 games on Myspace.
• My Favorite Commentary on the Virtual Goods Summit
  Bret extracts a few choice nuggets from Adam Martin’s coverage of a few recent conferences.

Hot Sidebar Action: October 28th

• The Princess Rescuing Application: Slides
  Slides from a recent presentation by Dan from Lost Garden on applying game design principles to application design.
• Top 10 Best Looking Facebook Games
  Inside Social Games ranks the best looking Facebook games.
• An In-depth Look: Mob Wars
  KISSmetrics takes a look at what has made Mob Wars so successful.
• The Art of Using Notifications within Facebook Applications
  KISSmetrics takes a look at the different notification methods used by publishers on Facebook.
• 50 Beautiful Blog Designs
  The title sums it up. Some great stuff here.
• The Art of Using Challenges within Facebook Applications
  KISSmetrics takes a look at how challenges are used within Playfish’s games.
• The Art of Gifting within Facebook Applications
  KISSmetrics runs through the gifting flow for a handful of popular Facebook apps.
• SocialDeck Releases First iPhone Game with Facebook Integration
  I’ve been waiting to see who would be the first to do it. Simple game, but its a first step.
• How is the Facebook Redesign Affecting Social Games?
  Inside Facebook takes a look at how the redesign is affecting (or not affecting) the gaming app charts.
• Why LittleBigPlanet Is Web 2.0 For Games
  Gamasutra compares LBP to common aspects of the Web 2.0 space.
• GDC 2008 - Part Two - Game Design Workshop
  Old post from Click Nothing about the Game Design Workshop at GDC2008. Forgive me I just discovered Click Nothing.
• You’re Infected! And dispeling.
  Sounds like there is more to the zombie event than meets the eye.
• Braiiins for breakfast?
  WoW has an event going right now where people are turning into zombies. Sweet!

Hot Sidebar Action: October 21st

• 5 major cultural differences between Games people and Web people
  Andrew compares a few differences between the web world and gaming world. Great insight for those of you web people getting wrapped up in the wave of social/casual game design, myself included. Or vice versa.
• Virtual items design: Build it yourself or use UGC?
  Andrew shares an old email from Charles Hudson with soem great advice regarding UGC goods.
• Designing a Level System
  Elder Game has nice write-up on considerations when designing level systems.
• Game Design Lessons From Evolutionary Psychology: Social Status, Pt. 3 - Bling
  Part three of Bret’s series on social status in games.
• Game Design Lessons From Evolutionary Psychology: Social Status, Pt. 2 - Leaderboards
  Bret talks about leaderboards and their relation to socil stauts in games.
• A Feature Set from a “Core”
  Brenda Brathwaite follows up her first post about defining a “Core” in your game design.
• Free to Pay to Play
  A nice examination of the subscription model versus dual currency systems.

Hot Sidebar Action: October 16th

• Theme and Game Design
  Danc examines theme usage in game design. Another great Lost Garden post!
• Game Design Lessons From Evolutionary Psychology: Social Status, Pt. 1
  Brett examines the intrinsic human desire for status and how it is applied in Facebook games.
• The “Core” of a Game
  Brenda Brathwaite talks about the “core” of a game, and how everything needs to support it. Looking forward to the follow up posts she is promising.
• Using dual currency systems is the best way to sell virtual goods
  This is oldie but a goodie. Matt Mihaly explains the concept (and genius) behind dual currency systems. Must read!
• Kinoma Redesign Process
  I love when Jesse does redesign posts! He’s such an incredible designer and it’s always inspiring and informative to get a glimpse into his process.
• Ask 37signals: How did you come up with pricing for your products?
  A quick look into how 37signals prices their products. I love these posts!
• Do It Yourself First
  37signals gives sound advice for those looking to hire for any position.
• Sequoia Capital: Armchair quarterbacks
  Jason Fried comments on Sequoia Capital’s advice to startups. “Good advice comes before the bad times roll, not after.” Dead on.
• World of Warcraft - Mirrors, Patches, Files
  If your ISP ruthlessly blocks all ports and you cannot use the Blizzard Downloader, you can find all the patches here.

PackRat Launches Ratzilla with a Dual Currency System

The guys at Alamofire just released a HUGE update to PackRat, entitled Ratzilla. Lot’s of new changes that I have yet to go through.

But the REALLY big news is that they’ve now implemented a revenue stream via a dual currency system. You can now buy tickets, which can in turn be used to buy items or credit…

“PackRat Tickets can be used to purchase rare, retired and premium cards. You can also convert your tickets into credits if you like.”

“You can exchange tickets for credits (1 ticket = 100 credits).”

I’m a big fan of dual currency systems, and I’m excited to see how it all plays/pays out for them.

Daily Hot Sidebar Action: October 14th

• 3.0.2 Patch Notes
  The notes for today’s upcoming patch in World of Warcraft.
• WoW Micro-transactions
  Tobold reports that WoW will have paid character customization in the upcoming expansion. This is very interesting news.
• Three Decisions to Make on Virtual Goods
  Eric (IMVU) sums up the tough decisions you’ll need to make to be successful with virtual goods.
• Monitoring Status Messages: Growing Gifts Brilliant Innovation
  A nice little innovation tidbit within Growing Gifts.
• How to Build a Successful Social Game: Design for Play With Strangers
  Good insight from Bret regarding gameplay with friends and strangers. But I wouldn’t dismiss competition between friends (Scrabulous).
• Prepared the 36 Boxer of World of Warcraft
  Prapered is a 36 character multi-box setup. Madness.