Why Crowdsourcing is good for the video game industry

According to crowdsourcing.com, one definition of crowdsourcing is: "The act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call." In other words, why have one person do the job when you can outsource to the crowd and have them do it for you. This principle is starting to be applied to more and more businesses in order to help determine priorities and solve problems. The video game industry in particular stands to gain a lot from crowdsourcing due to its very active and vocal fan base.

One of the best examples in video games of crowdsourcing lies over at the Playstation blog. Playstation.Blog.Share is a tool that uses public engagement to identify and rank features that should be implemented. Users submit ideas and other users can comment and vote on them - up or down. The more an idea is voted up, the more likely that idea will be addressed. Bad ideas are similarly voted down. Users that submit ideas that have the most votes rank on the leaderboards and users can compare themselves to other users. If an idea is implemented, it becomes an Idea in Action and is highlighted by a post and status that designates that idea has having been implemented.

Now let's look at a non-video game crowdsourcing website - Mystarbucksidea.com. Notice any similarities? Leaderboards, Ideas in Action, and voting are all there. The major differences only involve layout and coffee. You will start to see more and more of this as companies learn how to harness the power of their consumer base to generate ideas and prioritize them. The Starbucks website is powered by Salesforce which means that this type of application should be easy to setup for other companies as well.

Crowdsourcing is very good at figuring out what your consumers want but there is always room for improvement. Let's look at some ideas for improving the Playstation blog:

• Remove old items that can't be addressed
• The five most popular ideas were all submitted on March 17, 2010 which is more than two years ago. The most popular idea, adding cross game voice chat, isn't even an option for the PS3. Yet when someone navigates to the site the first idea they see is cross game chat. As a tool for prioritizing work, having old ideas that can't be implemented on the front page limits the other ideas from bubbling up. Try creating a new category for ideas that are good but can't be done currently - you know you need cross game chat in the PS4 so just remove it from the list of ideas so that other ones can take its spot.
• Highlight Ideas in Action
• One of the best ways to connect with consumers is to show that their ideas have made an impact. Nothing does that better than showing user-submitted ideas that have been implemented. Currently you have to click on the Ideas in Action category just to get to a list of ideas that have been implemented - not exactly hard to find but not highlighted either. 
• Check the Starbucks website to see how they highlight ideas they are working on or have implemented directly on the front page.
• Reward the top contributors and show what they have won
• Being on top of the leaderboards might be fine for some people but there are a number of other rewards that could drive interest in creating ideas. Implement trophies to users who submit the best ideas or offer PSN items like avatars. Also show what people have won so that users are aware of what is possible.
• Move the FAQ down
• Having a submission FAQ is good but it shouldn't be the first thing users see. Keep the big Share button and move up the most popular ideas so it's the first thing users see. 

Implementing these improvements will go a long way to better connect with users and show them that they are being listened to.

Finally, let's look at some common properties that are needed for any successful implementation of crowdsourcing:

• Constant feedback with users
• Having people within the company responding to comments and encouraging discussion shows that the company is paying attention.
• Constantly adding to Ideas in Action
• This is crucial for showing that submitted ideas can be made a reality. Even more important is showing progress on ideas even if they can't be implemented so that new ideas can overtake old ones. If ideas never get implemented, soon users will stop submitting ideas altogether.
• Small team to manage ideas and link duplicates together or provide way for users to find duplicates.
• With all of the ideas coming in, companies must find a way to manage this large data influx. See this Lactose post to get a sense of how many duplicates could potentially exist for an idea. Managing this deluge of information requires a team of dedicated resources or the ability for users to easily find existing ideas and link them together.
• Point or achievement system to highlight top ideas and participants
• Also known as gamification, companies should implement leaderboards to encourage users to compete for ideas. The next step is providing tangible rewards for ideas that are implemented. Even users at the top of the leaderboard won't care so much when they realize that being on top doesn't provide any kind of reward.

Crowdsourcing will become even more crucial in the future as social media increases and companies start connecting more and more with their consumers. Companies that embrace it will be able to deliver better products to consumers and those companies that ignore it do so at their own peril.

Max Payne 3 Impressions

Max Payne booth at Pax East

I had the pleasure of seeing a preview of Max Payne 3 over at the Rockstar booth at Pax East 2012. The line seems long at first but it went pretty quickly. Rockstar employees were giving guided tours where you got to play  a demo portion of the game while they explained features to you and answered any questions you had.

The demo itself took place in America (before Payne travels to Brazil) where for some reason Max is getting shot at. You run and gun your way through a bar, the kitchen, and eventually through some back alleys which is where the demo ends. The first thing my adviser told me is that while cover exists in the game it shouldn't be used all that often. This is a still a run-and-gun game with bullet time. Cover works by pressing a button to snap your character to a wall, similar to other games. I noticed that whenever I was in cover, Max moved much more slowly. You could still pop out and shoot but you weren't nearly as agile as when you were just running around shooting people. While I would normally chastise such mechanics, placed within the context of the game it is a subtle way to encourage the player to only use cover when you need a break (such as for reloading). Otherwise, you should be running around shooting guys in the head.

If you have played previous Max Payne games, you will remember that one of the best moves to use is the diving bullet time which is very much present in this latest game. I always used the dive move whenever I could - around walls, through doors. You can stay on the ground shooting after a dive before getting up as well. Another interesting mechanic is that death is handled through bullet time. When you get shot enough, you start falling down and the crosshair starts moving towards the last enemy that shot you. If you manage to kill the enemy before you hit the ground, then you get to stay alive. The move is handled very well and definitely shakes things up in regards to giving players second chances at life.

The comic panels make an appearance except this time they are more integrated into the gameplay. So instead of seeing a sequence in between levels the sequences are interspersed throughout the same level, such as introducing a boss or getting ambushed. I thought that the comic panels could sometimes be abrupt in starting and ending but it keeps your hands on the controller as you never know when the action might begin.

I am pretty excited for the game. It looks to capture the essence of the original Max Payne games while adding a distinct multiplayer experience with bullet time. The game is coming out May 15.

Contracts and Consoles

The Verge published an article recently claiming that an Xbox would soon be released for only $99.  One minor caveat: it comes with a 2-year contract a la cell phone.  Termination fees and all.

Now, the subscription service has some benefits, most notably that for the duration of the contract you have access to Xbox Live Gold.  A standard Xbox with 2 years of Live comes out to only $39 less ($459 vs $420) than the subsidized version.

Personally, I don't like recurring payments.  However, they absolutely lower the barrier for entry.  Add in the value of an Xbox Live Gold subscription and this isn't that bad of a deal while making the initial cost affordable to many kids with birthday money or parents on a tight budget.  Sure, the long term cost is slightly more, but that's in the future - what counts is that it costs less now.  America invented razor and blades, and this is a red-ringedblooded American console.  Eat it up, 99%.

The console contract marks the start of a new era.  With tighter integration between connected services and the console, I suspect within a generation or two, buying a console will basically require a contract.  There will be no Xbox Live Gold or PSN Premium - just Xbox and Playstation.  If you've got the console, you've got the sub.  Perhaps there will be a cheap family friendly Nintendo that will try to create a niche, but what Microsoft understands is that the most family friendly thing there is a low starting cost.

This is the flip-side of the longstanding subscription incentive to add value to the people who are already paying - something that has sometimes had backlash from the gaming community.  Now the approach isn't to just add value but also decrease initial cost and lower the barrier of entry.

I don't like it, but it's smart and I think will ultimately be the standard model within 1-2 console generations.