Negotiation is something that we are doing every time during our daily lives. Like when we negotiate about the time when we will return at night, deciding a place for lunch with our friends and choosing a location for a summer journey with our lover.
Also, the negotiation is an important part of the game industry. Most game producers needs to negotiate the when they were planing the schedule, priorities,relationship between the teams and searching for the funding resources. So, negotiation is one of the vital points in the process of developing games.
That's why in this month I interviewed with Ergun Aydalga, one of the owners of Aybim the Software Development Company, about the preparations and the vital things during negotiations. Software Development Industry is very similar to the game industry so I thought that this interview will be useful for the game industry too.
According to the Ergun Aydalga,one of the important things in the negotiations is the preparation process. He advised that the best way to understand the other party and deciding on your objective criteria is visiting your opponents if you have a chance. In these visit, you have a chance to meet your opponent face to face before the negotiation starts. These visits also gave you a chance to understand both the personality and the objectives of your opponent.
Another way to prepare the negotiations is the build your self consciousnesses before the negotiation. Ergun Aydalga suggests that meditating or relaxing will be useful but it depends on the individual.
Also during the interview Ergun Aydalga mentions the importance of separating the people from the problem during the negotiation. Ergun Aydalga said that the best way the do this is focusing mutual benefits during the deal. He claimed that even though other parties may be become hostile at the beginning, you can solve the issue if you can offer the best beneficial offers for both parties. Because doing this will neutralize the behavior and you gained the respect of the other parties. Thus influence them to make a deal even though you had a small chance at the beginning.
So, according to the one of the expert in the software business these are the vital points for preparation and making a successful deal. I thanked again for his time and consideration for giving me a chance to wrote this interview in this blog.
2/21/2011
1/19/2011
A Bloody Battle is Upon Us!
2010 started quickly with the release of "Mass Effect 2" but, last season didn't met the expectations of the game players except brand new game of the huge series: "Fallout New Vegas” which, wasn't graded much by critics unlike "Fallout 3". This status of the game market reflect the games sales which dropped 2% to $24.7 billion.
However, 2011 is still new and may change everything. Unlike last year, this year has too much expectations and anticipations by the audience because of the announcements of the big guns.
The first wave of the bombardment is going to happen in March. "Fable 3", "Dragon Age 2" and "Witcher 2: The Assassins of Kings" which are the three of the greatest RPG sequels will be in the front line at the battlefield. Moreover "Shogun 2: Total War", the last game of the one of the best RTS game series in all time, will start the invasion of the shelves in March. Last but not the least, "Crysis 2" which was the sequel of the best seller game "Crysis" will be on the shelves in this March.
Why wait for the March? Even though it is not a bombardment the scout battalions already released, like one of the most anticipated MMORPG, which is "DC Universe Online". Also there are rumors like "Diablo 3 and games, which don't have a specific release date like "Deus Ex: Human Evaluation" maybe show themselves in 2011. Also, important DLCs for "Fallout New Vegas" and expansions like "The Sims Medieval" will offer more for the games, which are already in the field. However, the outcome won't be decided until the end because another big sequels like "Mass Effect 3", "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" and "Batman: Arkham City" will show themselves at the last quarter of the 2011.
With the rising of the inflation, dropping sale rates and decreasing buying power around the world, will these games can beat each other and find themselves a buyer? It is uncertain and these games will be able to face a delay but with the financial status of the game market and the power of these brand names, we will definitely see a very bloody battle soon.
However, 2011 is still new and may change everything. Unlike last year, this year has too much expectations and anticipations by the audience because of the announcements of the big guns.
The first wave of the bombardment is going to happen in March. "Fable 3", "Dragon Age 2" and "Witcher 2: The Assassins of Kings" which are the three of the greatest RPG sequels will be in the front line at the battlefield. Moreover "Shogun 2: Total War", the last game of the one of the best RTS game series in all time, will start the invasion of the shelves in March. Last but not the least, "Crysis 2" which was the sequel of the best seller game "Crysis" will be on the shelves in this March.
Why wait for the March? Even though it is not a bombardment the scout battalions already released, like one of the most anticipated MMORPG, which is "DC Universe Online". Also there are rumors like "Diablo 3 and games, which don't have a specific release date like "Deus Ex: Human Evaluation" maybe show themselves in 2011. Also, important DLCs for "Fallout New Vegas" and expansions like "The Sims Medieval" will offer more for the games, which are already in the field. However, the outcome won't be decided until the end because another big sequels like "Mass Effect 3", "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" and "Batman: Arkham City" will show themselves at the last quarter of the 2011.
With the rising of the inflation, dropping sale rates and decreasing buying power around the world, will these games can beat each other and find themselves a buyer? It is uncertain and these games will be able to face a delay but with the financial status of the game market and the power of these brand names, we will definitely see a very bloody battle soon.
1/09/2011
Big Pocket of Duty
Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops earned a milestone by gaining 1 billion dollar revenue since the game released on November 9. According to the Gamespot:
"In the first 24 hours, 5.6 million gamers answered the latest Call of Duty for a total of $360 million in sales. Within the first five days, Black Ops sales had reached $650 million. Those numbers trumped last year's opening for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which posted a 4.7 million unit, $310 million one-day total and reached $550 million in five days."
Even though Call of Duty is a shooting game not a RPG, I still want to the write about this success. Because this achievement may effect not just RPG but, entire game industry as well.
You may want to know how this is going to effect the game market? The reason is simple. Activison's Call of Duty: Black Ops is one of the products that earn so much money in so litle time that, achievement can be compared with the James Cameron's Avatar Movie. Also, this success shows the accomplishment of a game that one can make on the sales chart.
Of course, best selling is not a new thing for the game industry. If I remember right, GTA 4 gained nearly 155 million dollar at their first three day. Also, everyone knows about how Blizzard earn more than 1 million dollars in every month thanks to the World of Warcraft.
However, I believe that no game has earned 1 billion dollar so quickly in the entire history of game business. This maybe a sign that game industry will become the most profitable market in the entertainment business.
On the other hand, there is always a downside. Recently, Best Buy announced that their entertainment software sales down 15.4 percent in the last 14 months. Also for the last holiday season their sale down 1.6 percent since last year. But according to the news, Best Buy already have problems about decrease in the sales of the other departments. So this decrease do not show the real potential of the game market.
"In the first 24 hours, 5.6 million gamers answered the latest Call of Duty for a total of $360 million in sales. Within the first five days, Black Ops sales had reached $650 million. Those numbers trumped last year's opening for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which posted a 4.7 million unit, $310 million one-day total and reached $550 million in five days."
Even though Call of Duty is a shooting game not a RPG, I still want to the write about this success. Because this achievement may effect not just RPG but, entire game industry as well.
You may want to know how this is going to effect the game market? The reason is simple. Activison's Call of Duty: Black Ops is one of the products that earn so much money in so litle time that, achievement can be compared with the James Cameron's Avatar Movie. Also, this success shows the accomplishment of a game that one can make on the sales chart.
Of course, best selling is not a new thing for the game industry. If I remember right, GTA 4 gained nearly 155 million dollar at their first three day. Also, everyone knows about how Blizzard earn more than 1 million dollars in every month thanks to the World of Warcraft.
However, I believe that no game has earned 1 billion dollar so quickly in the entire history of game business. This maybe a sign that game industry will become the most profitable market in the entertainment business.
On the other hand, there is always a downside. Recently, Best Buy announced that their entertainment software sales down 15.4 percent in the last 14 months. Also for the last holiday season their sale down 1.6 percent since last year. But according to the news, Best Buy already have problems about decrease in the sales of the other departments. So this decrease do not show the real potential of the game market.
12/16/2010
ESA's influence on Game Industry
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) define themselves as:
“The U.S. association exclusively dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of companies that publish computer and video games for video game consoles, personal computers, and the Internet.”
Basically, this association helps the publicity and marketing needs of game development companies. Moreover they offer services like global anti-piracy program, business and consumer research, government relations and intellectual property protection efforts. I think that because of their interest on publicity, they also organize the world’s biggest game exhibition E3 Expo. With E3 Expo, most of the game development companies have a chance to show their products to the public.
Also, E3 Expo define themselves as:
“E3 Expo is the world's premiere trade show for computer and video games and related products. The show is owned by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the U.S. association dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of the companies, publishing interactive games for video game consoles, handheld devices, personal computers, and the Internet.”
In E3 Expo, most game development companies shows their product and enter into a marketing race, which also involves dance show with beautiful girls. One of the important influences of E3 Expo is this marketing race. This race makes the competition between companies more creative. With this sentence I don’t mean just the dance shows, as marketing activity, there are more facilities and activities handled in E3 Expo. This race looks like a battlefield that every company shows their strengths and competes with each other. After everything is over most companies create more innovative features in their games to gain advantage from the competition.
Moreover, E3 Expo helps to the game development companies to position themselves for both their company and their products. They had a chance to see their competitor’s strength and their advantage against them. Thus, game development companies plan their marketing and business strategies accordingly.
In the conclusion, ESA influence game industry by organizing E3 Expo, which gives a chance to many game development companies to compete with each other in an arena and position their company policies depending on the outcome of this event.
“The U.S. association exclusively dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of companies that publish computer and video games for video game consoles, personal computers, and the Internet.”
Basically, this association helps the publicity and marketing needs of game development companies. Moreover they offer services like global anti-piracy program, business and consumer research, government relations and intellectual property protection efforts. I think that because of their interest on publicity, they also organize the world’s biggest game exhibition E3 Expo. With E3 Expo, most of the game development companies have a chance to show their products to the public.
Also, E3 Expo define themselves as:
“E3 Expo is the world's premiere trade show for computer and video games and related products. The show is owned by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the U.S. association dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of the companies, publishing interactive games for video game consoles, handheld devices, personal computers, and the Internet.”
In E3 Expo, most game development companies shows their product and enter into a marketing race, which also involves dance show with beautiful girls. One of the important influences of E3 Expo is this marketing race. This race makes the competition between companies more creative. With this sentence I don’t mean just the dance shows, as marketing activity, there are more facilities and activities handled in E3 Expo. This race looks like a battlefield that every company shows their strengths and competes with each other. After everything is over most companies create more innovative features in their games to gain advantage from the competition.
Moreover, E3 Expo helps to the game development companies to position themselves for both their company and their products. They had a chance to see their competitor’s strength and their advantage against them. Thus, game development companies plan their marketing and business strategies accordingly.
In the conclusion, ESA influence game industry by organizing E3 Expo, which gives a chance to many game development companies to compete with each other in an arena and position their company policies depending on the outcome of this event.
12/03/2010
Rise of The Machines in Game Industry
Peter Molyneux who is the head of the Microsoft European games division is working in a new project which may have a lot of impact in the future of game industry. Anyone who is interested in game industry, should recognize the name of Peter Molyneux. He is a game industry legend who has created many titles including one of the important RPG game: Fable.
His new project is about a virtual boy, Milo. In this project Peter Molyneux created a 11 year old virtual boy and he invites us to become a part of this boy's world. In his video, he describes unlike the other consoles you don't need a controller pad in order to interact with Milo's world. All you have to do is moving your body and the camera will recognize your moves and help you to interact this world even more realistic than Wii. The biggest technological achievement is how can you interact with Milo. You can use your voice for making a decision rather than click any button. Also, Peter Molyneux shows us that we can talk with Milo and he will talk back with us like a real person.
Another video about Milo was released a year ago. In that video you can see how a person can interact with Milo by talking and even receiving a paper (which he can even analyze what you draw in that paper) from you. However, In this last version Peter Molyneux didn't show that Milo still can analyze a paper and it's content and give a feedback like the old video. So, I didn't know that Milo still can do this trick but I am assuming that he still can do that if you have that scanner which make Milo to analyze the paper.
I know that this video will inspire many individuals who are interested on game industry and technology like me. Because, Milo offers too many technological improvement that it's hard to not getting excited especially if you think about what future will hold for us. Nevertheless, I don't think this technological improvement make an instant change in the game industry. It is too early to use the same or similar technology in AAA games like Mass Effect. But I think that we may see the baby steps of this technological improvement with more basic games like Milo. Of course this will all clear after how much Milo will be successful in the shelves after it was released.
You can watch this video;
and this was the video which was released one year ago;
His new project is about a virtual boy, Milo. In this project Peter Molyneux created a 11 year old virtual boy and he invites us to become a part of this boy's world. In his video, he describes unlike the other consoles you don't need a controller pad in order to interact with Milo's world. All you have to do is moving your body and the camera will recognize your moves and help you to interact this world even more realistic than Wii. The biggest technological achievement is how can you interact with Milo. You can use your voice for making a decision rather than click any button. Also, Peter Molyneux shows us that we can talk with Milo and he will talk back with us like a real person.
Another video about Milo was released a year ago. In that video you can see how a person can interact with Milo by talking and even receiving a paper (which he can even analyze what you draw in that paper) from you. However, In this last version Peter Molyneux didn't show that Milo still can analyze a paper and it's content and give a feedback like the old video. So, I didn't know that Milo still can do this trick but I am assuming that he still can do that if you have that scanner which make Milo to analyze the paper.
I know that this video will inspire many individuals who are interested on game industry and technology like me. Because, Milo offers too many technological improvement that it's hard to not getting excited especially if you think about what future will hold for us. Nevertheless, I don't think this technological improvement make an instant change in the game industry. It is too early to use the same or similar technology in AAA games like Mass Effect. But I think that we may see the baby steps of this technological improvement with more basic games like Milo. Of course this will all clear after how much Milo will be successful in the shelves after it was released.
You can watch this video;
and this was the video which was released one year ago;
11/15/2010
Small Games are Growing Up
Nowadays, you can easily find information about business in game industry if you attend conferences about games. GDC(Game Developers Conference) is one of these conferences which offers information about game market and business to the audience.
One of the main focus point in these conferences is about small social games like famous Farmville. The interest of the social games is growing in each day and this attract big designer who is famous about designing "old school" games in 80's and 90's similar to the today's social games.
The biggest differences between small social games and the today's big games are budget and their team work. A social game needs small teams and a very low budget. Thus, it affected the production time span of the games and makes it easier to funding the necessary resources. Social games can be created in six months with small teams however big games like "Dragon Age: Origins" needs more team work and a bigger budget around 40 million dollars. Chris Kohler, the author of GDC: Big Designers Find Satisfaction in Small Games, describes the comment of Brenda Brathwaite as:
“It feels to me like 1981 or 1982,” said designer Brenda Brathwaite at a Game Developers Conference panel here Tuesday afternoon. Brathwaite worked on the classic Wizardry role-playing games and is now creative director at San Francisco social media company Slide. “I remember, early in my career we would make a game in six months. I love the idea of just putting a game together with a small group of people. I can’t imagine anything I’d rather do.”
Of course with the support of great designers, small games reach high quality. Small games attracts big designers for numerous reasons. Some of them like to work in small teams which, Eskil Seenberg implies that there is no office politics in small teams.
Even though small games are growing and they possessed more quality with the support of great designers, the big games (which described by the game industry as triple A games) still defend their throne with their physics (physx technology) and visual technological power.
One of the main focus point in these conferences is about small social games like famous Farmville. The interest of the social games is growing in each day and this attract big designer who is famous about designing "old school" games in 80's and 90's similar to the today's social games.
The biggest differences between small social games and the today's big games are budget and their team work. A social game needs small teams and a very low budget. Thus, it affected the production time span of the games and makes it easier to funding the necessary resources. Social games can be created in six months with small teams however big games like "Dragon Age: Origins" needs more team work and a bigger budget around 40 million dollars. Chris Kohler, the author of GDC: Big Designers Find Satisfaction in Small Games, describes the comment of Brenda Brathwaite as:
“It feels to me like 1981 or 1982,” said designer Brenda Brathwaite at a Game Developers Conference panel here Tuesday afternoon. Brathwaite worked on the classic Wizardry role-playing games and is now creative director at San Francisco social media company Slide. “I remember, early in my career we would make a game in six months. I love the idea of just putting a game together with a small group of people. I can’t imagine anything I’d rather do.”
Of course with the support of great designers, small games reach high quality. Small games attracts big designers for numerous reasons. Some of them like to work in small teams which, Eskil Seenberg implies that there is no office politics in small teams.
Even though small games are growing and they possessed more quality with the support of great designers, the big games (which described by the game industry as triple A games) still defend their throne with their physics (physx technology) and visual technological power.
11/01/2010
Importance of Team-working in the Game Industry
Marc Mencher, the author of Becoming a Stellar Games Industry Manager, Part 1: Building a Great Team, describes the meaning of team as;
"A team is a group of people working together to achieve a goal, which can be anything from winning the World Series to creating the newest FPS. At its best, a team uses a ton of mad skills to come up with (hopefully cost-effective) non-traditional solutions that give their company a major edge on the competition. At its worst, it’s a bottomless pit with the potential to sink the company ship forever."
Team-working is a must in the game industry. This factor applies all games not just RPG games. Developing a game needs knowledge and skills that can not be provided by one person. Like designing, programming, testing. Also, it's too complex to handle by just one person. Because of these reasons a game can not be created by one person even you have the enough money to do it. So, you need to create teams and merge these teams with your leadership skills in order to create a game.
Creating these teams are also the crucial part of the game development for the leader of the project . A leader of the game project had to think about who he/she is going to work with. The most important requirement in a team is the fact that members must have skills and knowledge in their related fields. Especially they need to have problem solving skills because game development means: Solving various bugs as well as common problems that may occur in the development process.
After the process of creating teams, the most important process of the team-working in game industry is scheduling the meeting between team leaders and leader of the project. Because of the numbers of teams in the game development process, the communication between the team members and the leader of the project is nearly impossible. Therefore, the meeting between the leader of the project and team leaders is crucial part of team-working in the game industry. The Leader learn everything about teams and team members with these meetings or the reports of team leaders.
Also the video which is an interview with Patrick Curry shows the important factors about game development process as well as team working;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vassKL9bbbE
In the conclusion, team-working is an essential part of creating a game. But a leader of the game project have to understand the importance of recruiting team and communication between the team leaders in order to have maximum effect on their project.
"A team is a group of people working together to achieve a goal, which can be anything from winning the World Series to creating the newest FPS. At its best, a team uses a ton of mad skills to come up with (hopefully cost-effective) non-traditional solutions that give their company a major edge on the competition. At its worst, it’s a bottomless pit with the potential to sink the company ship forever."
Team-working is a must in the game industry. This factor applies all games not just RPG games. Developing a game needs knowledge and skills that can not be provided by one person. Like designing, programming, testing. Also, it's too complex to handle by just one person. Because of these reasons a game can not be created by one person even you have the enough money to do it. So, you need to create teams and merge these teams with your leadership skills in order to create a game.
Creating these teams are also the crucial part of the game development for the leader of the project . A leader of the game project had to think about who he/she is going to work with. The most important requirement in a team is the fact that members must have skills and knowledge in their related fields. Especially they need to have problem solving skills because game development means: Solving various bugs as well as common problems that may occur in the development process.
After the process of creating teams, the most important process of the team-working in game industry is scheduling the meeting between team leaders and leader of the project. Because of the numbers of teams in the game development process, the communication between the team members and the leader of the project is nearly impossible. Therefore, the meeting between the leader of the project and team leaders is crucial part of team-working in the game industry. The Leader learn everything about teams and team members with these meetings or the reports of team leaders.
Also the video which is an interview with Patrick Curry shows the important factors about game development process as well as team working;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vassKL9bbbE
In the conclusion, team-working is an essential part of creating a game. But a leader of the game project have to understand the importance of recruiting team and communication between the team leaders in order to have maximum effect on their project.
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