Avatar photoSteven Savage

Behold The Marketer: Your Unexpected Future In Gaming

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So as I watch the fallout from the PS4, watch Kickstarters rise and fall, and eagerly await my Ouya so I can play Sela the Space Pirate since my phone is old, I’m speculating on the games industry once again.

I’m not even sure we can call it one industry anymore.  it’s kind of like lumping Pengiuin, Lulu, Kinkos, and the Canon printer division together and calling it “Publishing.”  Yes, technically true, but you’re really dealing with a pretty broad range of subjects.

But that industry, as broadly as we define a place where Angry Birds and World of Warcraft are lumped together, is one that’s important.  It’s one that’s growing.  It’s one that we professional geeks want a piece of.  It’s just hard to know where to find that piece when Ninjas can fight fruit or each other.

But one piece some of us should look at is marketing.

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Channel A: The Life of a Card Game

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(A guest post by Ewen Cluney)

494bb2c8ce284dcb939e61f3f268ce41_largeI hit on the idea for Channel A during the ridiculous rush of inspiration that came from discovering Cards Against Humanity. I’d had tremendous fun playing CAH with my friends, and being that rare creature, a tabletop RPG fan who isn’t much into board games, I desperately wanted to explore this new design space of card games that are more about words and social interactions. I also wanted to make something that was less Cards Against Humanity (“A clandestine butt scratch.”) and more in keeping with my own shiny anime-inspired aesthetic.

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How Blogging Helps Your Career #10 – The Trophy Case

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(The roundup for the “How Blogging Helps Your Career Series” is here)

Ever been in an interview and wondered how you prove you know what you’re doing in that short time?

Ever tried to convince someone of your competence if, say, you’re trying to run a convention or help them with a project?

Ever wonder how, in the end, we can kind of ever prove in a few minutes that we’re good at things?  Because it seems way, way too much of our life involves that.  If you’ve ever been on the job search or tried to justify a promotion, you know what that’s like.

We have to show wins.  We have to show proof.  This is one reason I try and end every in-person interview by giving someone a copy of one of my books, because it’s hard to say “you can’t do project management” when I can self publish.*

The proof in many cases has to come quick, fast and solid.

That’s your blog.  Your blog is a trophy case.

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