User-createdContent
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Google slides Prizes into beta, helps you get real paid
Come on down! You can be the next contestant on the Prizes site. That was overkill, we know, but it's a necessary introduction into a new world of online solution-based social gaming pioneered by the Slide team. Acquired by the Goog back in 2010, the low profile entertainment-driven app developer has been hard at work making the web 'more social' and filling its Big Daddy's pockets. Debuting in classic Google beta form, Prizes takes your Twitter or Facebook accounts and signs you up for cash prize-winning, user-created contest shenanigans. In case you missed that fine point, we'll reiterate -- users design the challenges, you post a solution (or vice versa). Like the $40 "Give my Dad a makeover!" competition we're completely unqualified to enter, or the $30 "Comprehensive 'get healthy' plan for living in a large, polluted city" game we're sure Al Gore could win in his sleep. It's a kooky idea, but we can definitely see the service having widespread appeal. Let's be frank here: Google + social gaming + prize money = solid user gold.
Blizzard: no player-created quests for you!
I noticed this post with a good discussion thread about the idea of player-created quests, and it reminded me to mention a blurb I read recently in issue #2 of MASSIVE Magazine (which, if you haven't picked up yet, I highly recommend if you have a general interest in MMOs). In an article on DIY MMOs, there's a sidebar with quotes from Frank Pierce, Blizzard's SVP of product development, in which he states point blank that the company isn't looking into the idea of player-created content for World of Warcraft. "The game is built pretty tightly around the look and feel of the WarCraft universe as well as its lore... and it's important to us and to our players to maintain the integrity of those elements." He does go on to mention that, in general, player-created content could be very successful if the game were "designed from the ground up" to incorporate it. So, while Blizzard may someday put out a game involving user-generated quests, World of Warcraft likely won't be it. What's your take -- do you have dreams of writing your own quest lines? Do you think WoW could benefit from player-created content? Or do you prefer the Warcraft lore to be managed exclusively by Blizzard?
PS3 will see 'user-created experiences' next year, says Harrison
User-created content, which has long been a fixture in the world of PC gaming, has never managed to gain any real traction on consoles, be that due to technological constraints or a lack of online connectivity. With both of those issues out of the way in modern systems, the time is ripe for users to interact and share their creations and experiences. Sony's Phil Harrison gets behind the idea in a revealing interview with MTV's Stephen Totilo, opining* that gaming needs to move away from presenting "closed experiences." If games are to break free (God knows they want to break free), there needs to be a constant flow of communication between Sony and gamers -- more importantly, Harrison insists that said communication flows in both directions (give us money, here's your money). "Next year you're going to see user-created experiences in a number of interesting ways on PlayStation 3," goes the official and spectacularly vague PR line. A Second Life-styled virtual network has oft been rumored, but Harrison fell victim to "line distortion" before Totilo could get any concrete information about it.So, what entails a "user-created experience?" In the worst case, it's a custom wallpaper and a shared photo between friends. In the best case? Oh, it could be anything, from personalized in-game T-shirts to deadly dungeons designed to foil your friends. Be sure to ask us about it next year. * Basis for an awful pun later in the sentence.Read (and be assaulted by Flash) -- Full interview on MTV News
