What Creates The Passion?

  What make me passionate about gaming; that is a very interesting statement. Well, I suppose that all this can go back to the day when I was eleven and I got my first console. But this wasn’t like any other console that I had played with; this was mine. I have two older brothers, and it is very easy for them to take precious items from you when you are more or less half their size. Anyway, this console was the Xbox that came with Halo: Combat Evolved. Immediately I was taken back by the stunning graphics, the breathtaking performance of the software running with the hardware, and of course the articulate weaving of the games storyline.

The Hardware

    Those three things were what started me on my current pursuits. I was immediately intrigued by what compilation of metal could make this whole world spring forth from a DVD and bring the human mind into understanding that you were on a ring shaped planet orbiting the outskirts of humanity’s upbringing. Still to this day I find it amazing that we all can accept that worlds are being created by pieces of metal with an electrical charge running through them. Secondly, the graphics of the game; which at that point in time were like looking into a mirror and seeing myself in the reflection. And now, people are not impressed by a game that comes out such as World of Warcraft or even Guild Wars 2. That alone blows me away.

The Storyline

  And lastly, the most important of all was the expansion from the intricate weaving of the storyline within this expanse of aliens attacking humans. Do you think that the average player, who immediately jumps for the multiplayer cares about the storyline? No, of course not. However, I believe that the writers of this story are the people who started me on my life’s journey up to now. I think almost every day about how I could write some fan fiction about every TV show, movie or game that I had played over the past week just because I am constantly thinking about how to further my creative mind. So as you can see, I have three reasons why I am passionate about gaming. I love the graphics, I love the software and hardware cohesiveness, and I love the story that drives it all. However, if I had to choose one? Then I would, without a doubt, choose the story. Think about your favorite game. Now think about your favorite character. Why do you like that character? Is there a connection through thoughts on your enemy? Do you share opinions? Or did you choose that character just because you disagree with their ideas? Perhaps that character is the opposite of yourself and in an effort to let out your alternate self, that piece of rebellion comes out of yourself. These are all very small pieces to a much bigger picture.      

Lets See The Examples

  When you are writing the story, you are practically writing how the player plays the game. For example think about Mass Effect 2. I played this game over again the day before the third game came out. There was a moment where a woman was holding a detonator, and I was given a Renegade option to either allow her to push the button, or for me to shoot her. I pulled the trigger. Not out of a long standing amount of time that was given to me, I just did it out of instinct. This is what I am trying to convey to you, I believe that if you write that moment into a game, the developer then has to find ways to work your jolt of quick decision making into the game.

There are so many moving pieces in creating a video game that a lot of people don’t realize, and personally it makes me almost shed a tear for the people who wrote out these intricate campaigns and storylines for those few gamers who play the single player for just that personal journey. So to those who are looking forward to Halo 4, Black Ops 2, and Assassins Creed III, please play the single player and understand that there is so much more to be played and enjoyed. So in conclusion on this epic speech, I am passionate about gaming through the intricate story’s that are told in each game,. Whether it is the worst story told through the eyes of a street cat, or a story that is told through the intricate eyes of Master Chief, I believe that the tale of the main character is what drives my passion for gaming.

  -SMG–

For many of you who are already members, we have a fancy new registration process that you will probably never see. Here is what it looks like:

(ooo ahhhh)

Also, because the registration is no longer modal, you can link people to it! If you find yourself in a conversation and someone says “Hey what is this gamerdna thing?” you can say “Go register and check it out at http://www.gamerdna.com/register”

It doesn’t get easier than that!

We are also working on registration improvements for the guild hosting creation as well so look for those soon.

I spent the last couple of days at OnHollywood, a conference for digital media and entertainment companies.  While there, I sat on a panel moderated by Kara Swisher (Wall Street Journal writer and co-producer of All Things Digital) where we discussed the intersection between social media and entertainment.  I’ll post a copy of the video once it is available.

I also gave demos of the new version of gamerDNA.com … Here’s the official announcement we made at the conference:

HOLLYWOOD, CA AND CAMBRIDGE, MA, June 12, 2008 – At OnHollywood, GamerDNA Inc. launched GamerDNA.com, a new crossroads for gamers, games and the websites they hang out on.  GamerDNA is a platform for gamers to join forces with friends, preserve their experiences and share the stories of what they’ve discovered in games.  The site builds upon the technologies developed for the popular 360voice and GuildCafe websites.

“As we developed GamerDNA.com, we discovered that we could be so much more than yet another destination website for gamers,” explained Jon Radoff, CEO of GamerDNA Inc.  “When we realized that we could become every player’s portable gaming identity—complete with a history of gameplay, experiences and preferences—it changed everything about our roadmap.  It isn’t just about our own properties.  We want to make every game and every gaming website more personal and rewarding.”

The company benefits from an initial registered member community of about 250,000 derived from the 360voice and GuildCafe websites.  In addition, the company has already secured exclusive distribution agreements with other Web publishers to deliver GamerDNA-enabled content and applications to over two million users per month.

“OnHollywood is showcasing the companies that are creating new opportunities in entertainment technologies including games, video and music ,” said Tony Perkins, CEO of AlwaysOn, the event host for the OnHollywood conference.  “GamerDNA is an innovative business that combines disruptive technology with a unique distribution model.”

The GamerDNA platform (which includes Web-services that allow games and websites to incorporate gaming histories, preferences and identity into their user experiences) is currently in closed development with a limited number of partners.  However, anyone may now take part in the community that’s being created by visiting: http://www.gamerdna.com

About GamerDNA Inc.

GamerDNA is building a community for the millions of people around the world who are passionate about the immersive, engaging experiences that can be found through games. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, GamerDNA is funded by Flybridge Capital Partners and led by a team of online media and computer games veterans from Eprise, New York Times Digital and Electronic Arts Mythic. More information is available at: http://www.gamerdna.com

I just wanted to chime in and let everyone know that we are aware of a few issues following the cut over to the new GamerDNA.com site.

1. Guild event scheduling is hurting
   We have a known bug that is making the scheduling of guild events not function correctly. Something is causing the dates to change after submitting them. We are working to track down the issue. It turned into a bigger snare than we had thought it would be, but we are getting there.
2. Browser support
   Unfortunately, our support for Internet Explorer 6.0 is degrading as we move forward. This is mainly because all of us use Firefox 2, and IE 7 for development… and we double check in Safari. So outside of those three browsers, We are a small team and we simply don’t have the resources to test all pages and functionality in every browser. We will be continuing to work to improve support in some areas and making the site more friendly to as many browsers as possible, but using the latest version of your browser will always help!
3. Profile page appearing too wide
   Speaking of browsers, in Firefox 3 RC, Safari, and Opera 9.x the profile page, member home, and game pages are stretching beyond the screen width. This is due to the picture strip at the top of those pages not behaving the rules of layout! We are aware and working on a fix.
4. Performance
   We have seen complaints about site performance and will be continuing to tweak servers and pages to get things running smoothly. From our side things seem to be running fairly well with a few moments of weirdness. We are looking into the weirdness.
5. Login issues
   A few people have reported that they are getting logged out of the site at random times… or that they are unable to log in. We are investigating this as well, but it is hard to recreate so the going is slow.
6. Search Engine
   Our site search engine is still turned off as we look at higher performing alternatives. The one we were using throughout our closed beta up and died when we went live with it. But we will raise it from the dead as soon as possible.

We understand some of you are upset with the bugs and we are doing everything we can to get them understood, fixed and deployed. We are doing another build today to get a few fixes in and will continue to do builds and hot fixes all week as we track things down.

That is it for now! A special thanks to everyone sending in positive feedback too… we dig that… keeps us smiling over here when the flood of bugs becomes unbearable! Everyone at gamerDNA is a gamer… and just wants to build a fun service and community that we ourselves find compelling. With all of your help submitting bugs and being patient, we will get there!

Any comments can be sent through the Feedback & Support form.

Jon Radoff (CEO, captain of this crazy ship) will be in Los Angeles June 10th demoing our new site (right before our open beta!) at the OnHollywood conference. If you are going to be there, check it out:

Socializing Online Entertainment Demo Competition
More online entertainment sites are socializing their content, this debate uncovers what is working and what is not. You be the judge on which one works the best.

Kara Swisher, Co-Producer, D: All Things Digital
Drew Curtis, Founder & CEO, Fark
Jon Radoff, CEO, GamerDNA
Rooly Eliezerov, President & Co-Founder, Gigya
Abdul Khan, Co-Founder, I Beat You

Read more about the event.

Some pretty heavy hitters in there! Time to go crank on more code!

It was only a matter of time (being that I come from 360voice) that we would start importing Xbox Live activity into your gaming profile. We also changed around the automatic entries a bit… and will continue to evolve them. Here is one of mine:

It has many of the same elements that we explained before, but a few little tweaks…

1. We are now calling out the primary changing metric in HUGE text for all to see… for Xbox it is gamer score, for XFire it is time.
2. Underneath that we are doing the roll-up of stats so it is easy to see what contributes to that over all metric.
3. The auto-narrative comes from the gamerDNA bot for all content…so that it is clear where it is coming from.
4. The gamerDNA bot talks addresses you directly in the entry. That way we can ask questions and you can feel compelled to respond.
5. The embellishment that you can add to any entry appears underneath, properly called out and referencing the above comment.
6. If you are logged in and you view your profile, there is a call-to-action to add an embellishment to your item. This link launches the DNA panel.

A few things you will see in the short term:

1. We will be separating out your manual stories and the automatic generated activity. On your profile it will be easy to see which is which and flip back and forth. This will prevent the activity from taking over fun manual stories that you put in your profile.
2. We are still playing with the terminology of the actual content… experiences is morphing into “stories” and “activity” to properly explain what they are. You will see this reflected in other areas of the beta site as well.

Keep the feed back coming!

No, really: http://www.360voice.com/tag/RantingTweety

I could easily use the editing features to explain that I set up the blog more than a week before I actually purchased an Xbox. But I’m way too entertained by the despair of my console.

In other news… boy howdy, I SUCK at console controllers. At one point, my better half attempted to explain how to properly use the controller. This is somewhat like trying to teach my beagle how to build model rockets by speaking to her in Cambodian. Anyway, it hit me that I was getting a taste of how my mate feels when I try to explain MMO mechanics.

We at GamerDNA are all about building bridges between consoles and PCs, and I will get started with my bridge building just as soon as I learn to use my thumbs for something besides hitting the space bar.

In the states, we are celebrating Memorial Day today… so if you were looking forward to our weekly build, packed with new features and functionality, you will have to wait until tomorrow! Tuesday is our Monday this week.

If you are looking for a good post about Memorial Day, I think our own Director of Community, Sanya made a great post on her personal blog. Go check it out:

There are a lot of people in the military who play MMOs. Life in the service for most people consists of being on a base very far from home, but not far from industrialization. I know many people for whom a new post is just a new place to plug in a computer. All that changes is the time zone.

Read more