gifting
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RIM adding BBM app gifting to BlackBerry App World
So you've got this hot new "super app" off BlackBerry App World, and want to share it with a friend? You could message them the name of the program, but that's so 2010. Soon, BlackBerry's going to have its very own "Gift This App" functionality through BBM, which will let you take advantage of that handy new carrier billing to debit the cost of the item and wing it to your recipient. RIM envisions the functionality used by parents who want to limit their children's access too, by taking full control of their purchases and subscriptions from their own remote handset. Now, we'll just sit back, relax and wait for RIM to ping us with a release date. PR after the break.
Amazon introduces Kindle book gifting just in time for the holidays
It's not the Kindle lending feature that Amazon has in the works, but the company has just rolled out another fairly big Kindle feature for those feeling a bit generous this holiday season. That comes in the form of a new "give as a gift" option now present on Amazon.com, which will let you send an e-book to anyone with an email address, who can then read it on the Kindle-friendly device of their choice (or an actual Kindle, of course). As Amazon is all too happy to point out, it's the first major bookseller to offer such a service, but we've got to guess it won't be the last.
It's the thought that counts, but just in case, Amazon patents gift conversion system
The holiday season is drawing close, and gifting soon to begin, which almost certainly means another pair of woolen socks (oh, joy) from dear Aunt Mildred. What could you possibly do to escape your sheep-shorn fate? The top brass at Amazon have a plan -- they've patented a system by which your gifts will magically be converted into things you actually want. It's like Gmail filters for products, really, in that you set up a series of rules, and if the gift you're sent falls under one of them, you're sent an item from your Amazon Wish List (or a gift certificate) instead. Apparently they've even thought up conversion rules for media formats, which should come in mighty handy for those relatives who can't tell PS3 from Xbox. Why can't Aunt Mildred just look at your wish list to begin with? Hey, she's your aunt. Why don't you be a dear, give her a good old-fashioned telephone call and ask?
Ways of designing social into virtual spaces
One of the strongest glues between a person and their favorite MMO is friendship and community. However, those two things don't come without strong socialization, which in turn is something that doesn't happen in an MMO entirely by accident. A recent blog post by Raph Koster discusses the many ways of making virtual spaces more social by thoughtful design, a subject that we here at Massively take a lot of interest in, strangely enough.While the first two chunks of Raph's post are arguments for actionable design to encourage socialization, it's the last piece of the post where the fleshy part resides. While there are numerous good suggestions for designing better social opportunities, the ones that strike us as our most desirable for MMOs are gifting, mentors, looking for conversation tools and alternate advancement systems for social elements. Those four items are certainly something that more titles could use -- especially as more and more games integrate web tools similar to Facebook.It's hard to say whether or not we'll actually see any of these taken to heart in many MMOs, but it's nice to wish for things -- and maybe if we pester developers hard enough they'll figure it out sooner rather than later.
