Book Review of Nintendo Magic

By Tommy Leung on 05/28/2010 in Games

Nintendo Magic: Winning the Video Game Wars

There is one other book that talks about the business and history of Nintendo: Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered the World by David Scheff. That book is no longer in print. It hasn’t been in print for a long time. I have the 1999 paperback edition. I bought it used many years go. The cover is worn. It’s an old book and it shows.

I have several books on the history of video games. I love the industry. I don’t play nearly as much as I used to but, I grew up wanting to make video games. Video games had me at Mario.

When Nintendo Magic showed up as a recommendation for me on Amazon, I was intrigued. There are few books about the business side of video games and even fewer about specific companies and their successes. I was waiting for someone to write a book about the amazing success of the Nintendo DS and the Wii.

I have closely followed Nintendo ever since I was able to figure out how to use the internet to find information. So when Nintendo was warning of troubling times for the video game industry, I was listening. I was captivated by what Nintendo was publicly saying about the video game industry long before the success of the Nintendo DS and the Wii.

Continued Exclusively at AssociatedContent

Invest in You

By Tommy Leung on 05/23/2010 in Life

The economic future I see is very gloomy. Hopefully, I’m wrong. I’m not the only one who doesn’t see an economic recovery. There’s an entire community of economists who don’t. You won’t hear many of them on TV. I guess their position isn’t very popular.

There is one that you might have heard of: Peter Schiff. He predicted the economic crisis we are in when everyone else laughed at him.

The economics really doesn’t add up to a recovery. But, economics isn’t really a science. Not a science like physics at least. Physics can predict the future if given all the variables. It can tell you exactly when a ball will reach the ground when dropped at a certain height in a certain condition.

Economics can’t do that. Economics can’t time it that accurately. Even if one can predict that the economy will go to hell in a hand basket and be correct, it doesn’t mean there won’t be some very prosperous stops along the way.

In the end, none of us really know. Economists aren’t psychics.

We do know we aren’t in a boom. That’s apparent. The economy is in the toilet. That isn’t a prediction. That is the reality. Right now. Whether the economy will recover next year, five years from now, or ten no one can be sure. It can even get incrementally worse for ten years. No one knows.

The only thing that is sure to be a good investment in bad times and good times is you. Whether unemployment sky rockets or falls through the floor, improving yourself is going to be pay off.

It is easy to forgo self improvement in good times. It’ll take a lot of people to frog leap you for it to really matter. And besides, the other guy is probably thinking the same thing. So we all stay in relatively the same place while the good times keep rolling.

It is in the bad times that we suddenly realize that we have to do something to be better than the other guy. The competition is fiercer. The jobs are fewer. The other guy is thinking the same thing. And so it becomes a matter of who can work harder and smarter. The one who continuously improved through good times is sitting in the best position. He’s way ahead of the pack.

If you haven’t been constantly learning as much as you can, it isn’t too late to start now. It’s never too late. There’s always those who are still praying that the good times return instead of doing something about it. Leap frog those guys first.

I’d recommend looking into personal branding. The economy will eventually improve. When it does, the social trends forming right now are going to still be here. Don’t let the rug get pulled from under your feet. The world of Google, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, social media, and the rest of Web 2.0 isn’t only here to stay, it’s here to dominate the way we live, work, and play for the foreseeable future.

So start or continue to invest in you. It’s the safest investment you can make.

Tale of Two Pizza Shops

By Tommy Leung on 05/13/2010 in Marketing

There are two pizza shops that are the same distance from where I live. One is a block down and half a block to the left. The other is a block down and half a block to the right.

The one on the right just recently opened. It had opened after I had moved here. I’ve only been here for a little over half a year. The one on the left appears to be established. It was here before I got here so, it appears old to me.

It is always imperative to know where the pizza places are in a new neighborhood. You need to know the coffee shop, the supermarket, the bank, the gym, the liquor store, and the pizza place. At least, those are the establishments I visit most.

I tried the established pizza place and I liked them. When the new pizza place opened up, I tried them. Their pizza wasn’t really to my liking but, they are open until 1AM. They were also very nice. I had heard the people working there talking about superior customer service during a late night pizza run. I didn’t think much of it, every business thinks they provide or want to provide “superior customer service”.

I continued to go to the old pizza place. I liked their pizza better. They were nice enough. They weren’t rude. Nothing extraordinary. Just pizza that I liked.

One day, I was walking home and passed one of the guys from the new pizza place on the street. He smilingly nodded at me acknowledging that he knew me. I nodded back–it’s only polite.

When I walk home from the gym, I have to pass the old pizza place. One night, I walked past the owner of the old pizza place as he was locking up. He saw me and looked away as if he didn’t know who I was. We’ve briefly chatted and I’ve been to his pizza shop enough.

I really didn’t think much of this either. It’s New York. No offense taken.

Tonight, I bought pizza from the new place. They have a special $1 regular slice of pizza on Wednesday. I didn’t really want pizza but, for $1 a slice, why the hell not? It gave me the crave.

The man behind the counter was as courteous as ever even while I was spending no more than $2. He was also very nice to the other customers in the shop. As I left the shop, I remembered when this place opened and how often it was empty. That has changed. It’s rarely empty now.

I still don’t prefer their pizza but, I prefer their service. And I think I prefer it enough to go there instead from now on. Great customer service does count for something.

There was a third pizza place across the street from these two. It is now closed. They must have had mediocre pizza and mediocre service.

No Need for FTC on Apple vs Adobe

By Tommy Leung on 05/05/2010 in Politics

It may appear that I would be slightly biased in favor of Apple in this debate. I have just shipped an App Store title, Propaganda Lander, that Apple appears to like as they’ve featured it in their New and Noteworthy section under the Games category. I can assure you, I don’t know anyone at Apple. The game is just quite good.

So let’s remove all worries of bias by stating that I’ve also worked on a lot of Flash projects–just check my portfolio. I love what Flash has enabled for games in the web browser. As a developer, I’m not fond of some of the seemingly voodoo-ness and slowness of Flash. On the flip side, I am not enamored by Apple’s App Store development tools–I’m a PC.

This is the rare time that I get to integrate marketer, game developer, and libertarian into a single discussion. I honestly do not want to have to do this often as it would mean the government is increasingly inserting its unwanted tentacles into my beloved video game industry–stay out please.

I’ve been following the Apple/Adobe debate ever since Apple announced iPhone OS 4.0 and the change in developer agreement that disallowed Flash cross-compiling–allowing developers to build apps using Flash tools for sale on the App Store. Then there were rumblings of FTC involvement–apparently, they weren’t happy with just annoying Google in their AdMob purchase.

First off, I would the FTC to show me where the trust is that Apple creates by disallowing the use of Flash on their mobile devices. The FTC can’t show the trust because there is no trust. They have to rephrase the issue to “anti-competitiveness”. What does that mean? Is it when the government grants Con Edision or National Grid or Verizon the monopoly (trust) to offer electric, gas, or telephone service in certain territories? That seems quite anti-competitive to me, I can only pick one provider for each of those services based on where I live. Strange how the FTC doesn’t bother those guys.

Apple owns the App Store. Apple owns the iPhone OS. If Apple discontinues the iPhone and the App Store tomorrow, all of this is moot. Flash won’t die if this happens. Adobe will be just fine. So what’s the problem? Why is it that Apple should be obligated to allow anyone to use their property as they like? There is no such obligation. This debate is completely ridiculous.

It is Apple’s responsibility to regulate their App Store. Not the FTC. Apple disallows porn on their App Store because they don’t want it there. By the FTC’s ideals, porn SHOULD be allowed on the App Store because its unfair to the porn industry. The porn industry is missing out on the millions of iPhone users who could have access to their content. Ludacris.

But, that’s the argument for Apple allowing Flash on their platform. It doesn’t make sense. Apple created the App Store and is largely responsible for making it as successful as it is. Apple is not obligated to give Adobe any share of that pie. In a free society, private people or groups are allowed to freely choose to work together or not.

If the market decides that they want Flash content on their mobile device, Apple will lose market share to the plethora of other mobile phones out there. Developers will move to other platforms and Apple’s revenue will fall. They’ll have no choice but to support Flash when that time comes. But that’s up to the market to decide. The market is you and me. We make decisions every day that regulate all actors of the market. No one needs the FTC to pretend as if they have a crystal ball and can see into the future and know what is best for us.

So not only is any FTC involvement completely unnecessary but, it is not congruent with a free society to force private groups to work together.

So FTC, GTFO.

Video Games Are Already Art

By Tommy Leung on 04/28/2010 in Games

Refuting Roger Ebert’s “Video Games Can Never Be Art” from an Entirely Different Angle

Not long ago, Roger Ebert wrote a blog post titled, Video games can never be art. I was actually busy making a game so I never got around to responding to it. I just rolled my eyes and went back to work. Someone has to make these things that can never be art.

Roger Ebert and I sit on opposite ends of the ‘video games as art’ debate. He adamantly believes that video games are not art and cannot be art. I don’t just think video games can be art, I believe they are art. I’ve long believed that video games are art and have even put it into writing. My favorite example for making the case being the Mass Effect series.

I am biased. I grew up with games. I love games; all of it, from the actual games to the industry of games. I make games for a living. There’s no denying it, I am biased.

That doesn’t mean Ebert is objective. We all know who he is. He is biased in the opposite direction. He is biased to film.

Whenever Ebert claims that video games cannot be or are not an art form, a fire spreads through the games industry. For one reason or another, we really want Ebert to tell us that video games are an art form. As if Ebert is the gatekeeper to what is art.

Continued at Associated Content

Five Easy Minutes

By Tommy Leung on 04/24/2010 in Life

We are surrounded by products that offer us a quick and easy solution. We see most of them with fitness products–4 weeks to six pack abs! Isn’t it odd how many of these programs there are? Certainly, if any of these products worked as advertised, why would we need another?

The secret is this: they don’t work.

Often, there is no quick and easy way to where you want to go. There are only snake oil salesman telling you they’ve found the shortcut. The long forgotten secret. The magical incantation.

If there was a quick and easy way, no one would have to sell it to you over and over. It would be widely used. That’s what happens to good ideas: they spread.

There are best ways to do things. There are optimal ways to six pack abs. It just isn’t going to take 4 weeks. It’s quicker than doing it wrong. But, it’ll be work–hard work. It’s definitely not magic.

So buckle down and do the work; it’ll get you there. It won’t be quick and it won’t be easy but, you’ll get there.

Greatness doesn’t come in 4 weeks, just 15 minutes a day, or in five easy minutes.

SuperTommy is Awesome

By Tommy Leung on 04/13/2010 in Life