During the break, I had a nice chat with Gus Andrews. She is in the IRC chat and will also be going to Media Giraffe. I also spoke briefly with Beth Kanter, whom I know from nptech. She filled me in a little on what is going on with Tech Soup and Second Life.

Note: As the IRC backchannel gets active, my note taking seems to be slipping a little.

“Tessie” representing MTV, per se. (not the person on the program… I missed the name)

Just Cause, research that deconstructs how young people understand social action.

80% believe helping the community and others is important and the right thing to do, but only 19% said they are very involved. MTV is calling this the activation gap.

Important aspect, new communities. New communities are defined on how people connect, which isn’t just local. Young people need specific pathways for fun involvement.

Activation strategies. ProSocial organizations should leverage technology and online social networks. Play where they play.

Urban Video Game academy… A good resource at looking at how games perpetuate stereotypes.

Also, looking at Second Life, and Global Kids

Kate Connally, VP AddictingGames

Find and promote 12 new free online games each week. To do this, they need a lot of games, a lot of different games

Games need to be topical, viral and different. How about a ‘Sexual Health’ Tetris?

Talk about “Zombie Escape”, helping kids deal with escaping peer pressure. It got lots of play. Talk about Darfur is Dying. When they promoted this, the deep jarring game got a lot of complaints. They learned about the importance about giving clues about a game like that. “McDonald’s videogame”, excellent example of using humor. (high replay rates)

Advice: Gameplay, Gameplay, Gameplay. Keep it simple. Decorate with jokes and gags. Jokes and gags hold people’s attention. Develop a voice. Build a message with sequels. (Think about the master narrative). Build a complex world in relatively consumable chunks, like Lost.

Always include your email address in your game to get feedback.

Question about economic sustainability of casual games: One of the most successful is the $19.95 type games that you download. The most common audience is women over 45. They have credit cards and buy things online.

For flash games, development can be done in the three to five thousand dollars. Yet, there are usually low production values.

06-G4C