MTV is using a novel approach to generate buzz for their upcoming new television series The Hard Times of RJ Berger : the company is launching a casual game that will tie into the show via episodic content. The “Chain of Thought” game centers on the theme that it’s “difficult to talk to one’s crush.” Players get points and level up by completing “conversation challenges” in which objects must be connected in the correct order to produce a sentence that elicits a positive response from the crush character. The game introduces new users to the show about an unpopular 15-year-old boy who deals with a sudden influx of newfound popularity at school and wants to figure out how to talk to his object of affection, Jenny. The title also features a “build mode” that brings in an aspect of user-generated content. Players are invited to set up their own conversation challenges along with positive or negative responses, and see them played out in a level of their own creation. The idea is to help break the ice with an actual crush or at least have fun with a friend who knows about the situation — and MTV hopes that aspect of the game will encourage players to virally share it with their friends. We spoke with VP of MTV Digital Colin Helm and Supervising Producer at MTV Digital Tom Akel about the project and wanted to know what led to the idea behind introducing a game before the series launch. Early on the team was looking for a way to “raise awareness outside of what we normally do.” As one of the first scripted shows that MTV has produced in some time, they had the benefit of a longer lead time with available assets including visuals and scripts. Using a viral casual game to promote a television series seemed like a timely play in the context of interactive digital entertainment. As the TV show progresses, new “episodes” of the game will be unveiled as well, featuring actual dialogue and plot themes from the series. This type of tight integration between a television show and its companion game is a novel approach to episodic content, and we’ll be interested to see how much repeat interest is generated from the series to the game and vice versa. The game itself is live now, so if you have a chance to check it out on MTV.com be sure to let us know what you think in the comments. The Hard Times of RJ Berger series itself premieres on June 6 at 11 p.m., and you can check out a trailer to get a sense of the show as well. For more entertainment coverage, follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook Tags: casual games , facebook , games , Hard Times of RJ Berger , mtv , MTV Digital , tv
We joked last week when Google changed its logo to a playable game of Pac-Man that the world’s collective productivity would take a sharp plunge, but it turns out that’s exactly what happened. The blog for time management tool RescueTime did the math and determined that Google Pac-Man consumed 4,819,352 hours of time, or $120,483,800 in productivity. The cost was determined by looking at how much time was spent on Google’s homepage the day the Pac-Man logo was up (48 seconds) versus the average amount of time spent on other days (11 seconds) and multiplied by the number of visitors to the site that day (503,703,000). The cost seems like a bit of a stretch, though. RescueTime assumed that the average Google user makes $25 per hour; that’s considerably higher than median income in Internet-connected nations. Also, you probably can’t assume that everyone who visited the site Friday was on the clock at work. If you haven’t wasted time at work playing Google Pac-Man already, you still have a chance to add to that lost productivity tally. Google has preserved the Pac-Man game logo at www.google.com/pacman (you can also download the game ) even though the front page has returned to normal. For more business coverage, follow Mashable Business on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook Tags: Google , online games , pac-man , productivity , rescuetime , search engine
Fußball-Quiz Spiel: Heute kommt uns die Pressemitteilung zu QuizzCamp (AppStore-Link) ins Haus. Bereits vor knapp zwei Wochen veröffentlicht, bietet sich das Spiel zur Zeitüberbrückung bis zur Fußball-WM an und stellt “über 200.000 Fragen ums runde Leder” aus der ZDF Sport-Datenbank. Neben einem erweiterten Fragenkatalog zur Weltmeisterschaft erlaubt die Applikation auch das Spielen gegen Freund und Weiterlesen…
7-11 will soon offer FarmVille -branded products that will unlock virtual, 7-11-branded items in the popular Facebook game. Two other games from game-maker Zynga will also get tie-ins with the stores: Mafia Wars and YoVille . Seven thousand 7-11 stores will offer around 30 branded items, including Slurpees and ice cream, among other things. When a customer buys one of the promotional products, he or she will then be directed to perform some special task in the game world to acquire one of the 7-11 items. This is the first retail partnership of this kind for Zynga, although this deal grew out of a more limited program in which the company sold FarmVille , Mafia Wars and YoVille game cards at 12,800 participating 7-11 stores . Zynga is no stranger to virtual branding promotions, either; it has been selling brand-sponsored FarmVille crops since last month. The company has been very busy making deals over the past few weeks, actually; it just signed a five-year agreement with Facebook involving the use of Facebook’s proprietary virtual currency, and it is also launching games on MySpace , including the new Bangkok expansion for Mafia Wars . For more entertainment coverage, follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook Reviews: Facebook , MySpace , Twitter , Yoville Tags: 7-11 , facebook , farmville , Mafia Wars , online games , promotion , social gaming , yoville , Zynga
If Friday’s Google Doodle didn’t feed your Pacman Fever, you download the special Google version of Pacman and play on your own time! Over at StackOverflow , users worked together to figure out how to extract and host the special version of Pacman, created by Google in honor of the yellow guy’s 30th birthday, for play online or off. You can play the game live at http://macek.github.com/google_pacman/ or you can download the code and run the game from your browser anytime, by downloading the source at Github. This is what you want to do: 1. Go to http://macek.github.com/google_pacman Click on the “Download Source” button near the top of the page. It doesn’t really matter what option you choose for downloading, TAR or ZIP, but if you are on a Windows machine, choose Zip. 2. Unzip the Folder The folder will have a name like “macek-google_pacman.” Once unzipped, you’ll see some files and a folder labeled source. Double click on the index.html file. 3. Play Google Pacman Enjoy! Other Pacman Options If you find your Pacman needs not being met by the Google version of the game, there are some other free or inexpensive alternatives! Namco has a special website set-up in honor of Pacman’s 30th Anniversary which includes history about the game, art, and games you can download for your PC or mobile device. Windows users can download the original Pacman game from Namco’s official site for just $2.99 . You can download a trial version first to see if it’s worth the $3. Mac users can enjoy Pac The Man X , a free Pacman clone for Mac OS X. The game supports one or two players and is fun, but be aware that it moves much faster than the original game. Linux users can enjoy NjAM , which our friend Richard Stallman will like, as its licensed under the GPL. On the iPhone, Ms. Pacman and Pacman Championship Edition are both on sale for $0.99. Pacman Lite is also available for free. On the Android front, at one time, Namco had an official Pacman game available in the Android Market but we don’t know its current status. However, Mazeoid , a Pacman clone, is available for free. You Tell Us: Best Pac-Man Ever So what is your favorite Pac-Man game of all time? The Arcade, the NES, maybe a mobile version? Let us know! Tags: games , pac-man , pacman , software
Bislang mit Preisen zwischen 2€ und 3€ ausgezeichnet steht das Breakout- Spiel “Jet Ball” (AppStore-Link) kurzfristig zum kostenlosen Download im AppStore bereit. Version 1.4.2 des Spiels wiegt knapp 10MB, bietet dafür jedoch mehr als 60 – regelmäßig aktualisierte – Level, drei Schwierigkeitsstufen, 60 Stein-Typen und mehr als 20 Power-Ups. Gespielt werden kann sowohl zur eigenen Weiterlesen…
MySpace has launched a new initiative to invite social game developers like Playdom , Zynga , TheBroth and Meez to work directly with the MySpace Games team of developers to improve the experience for social gamers on the site. MySpace launched its MySpace Games platform earlier this year, and the company has already said that it hopes to increase user engagement with games and apps from around 20-30% to something more like 50%. The company believes the program, called MySpace Games Lab, will increase the quality of the gaming experience. Developers and project managers from game-making companies will work in MySpace’s Seattle and Los Angeles offices to learn the best ways to make use of the platform. One specific goal: Help developers avoid annoying users with unwanted, spam-like messages and notifications related to games — the sort of thing you’ve no doubt seen on competing platforms. Taking Games Seriously Music is MySpace’s big claim to fame, of course; the network is home to countless bands who share their music, tour info and more. A push into video characterized the previous couple of years of the social network’s existence, and now it looks like games might be the next frontier. It’s a reasonable strategy; if you need proof, just look to FarmVille creator Zynga , which is now valued at $4 billion . Zynga offers games on both the Facebook and MySpace platforms, but MySpace has been responding to recent backlashes against Facebook by deploying privacy standards that Facebook users complain they don’t have. This new commitment to improving the gaming experience by cutting down on unwanted updates and other nuisances common to Facebook is a move of similar character. MySpace Co-President Mike Jones told us that a “substantial portion” of the site’s page views are driven by music, and that he hopes to achieve similar success with games. “We’ll take games as seriously as we’ve taken music,” he said. To that end, the company has hired Manu Rekhi as the general manager of the games and development platform, and has also brought on anthropologist Raquel Recuero (who previously worked with Twitter ) to improve user experience. Following those hires, the Games Lab program is the next step. Developers small, medium, large, new and old will participate in the program, though it’s an invite-only affair. Neither Rekhi nor Jones would get too specific about exactly how the new Games Lab program will change the way MySpace Games are played, but the idea is to work with developers to “protect the common good” of users and figure out what those developers want to see on MySpace that other platforms like Facebook lack. If you haven’t been paying attention to games on MySpace, this might be the right time to take a look. Let us know what you think if you do. For more entertainment coverage, follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook Reviews: Facebook , MySpace , Twitter Tags: games , gaming , manu rekhi , meez , Mike Jones , myspace , myspace games , myspace games lab , playdom , raquel recuero , social games , social media , social networking , thebroth , video games , Zynga
Zwei schnelle Hinweise auf den AppStore: Zum einen empfehlen wir einen kurzen Blick auf das heute veröffentlichte Spiele-Paket “Sync” (AppStore-Link). Die kostenlose Applikation kombiniert 8 klassische Brettspiele – u.a. Schach, Reversi und Mühle – unter einer Oberfläche und erlaubt das Austragen von Online Multiplayer-Spielen sowie den Text-Chat mit anderen “Sync”-Nutzern. Nach eigenen Aussagen zählen die Weiterlesen…
Today, ESPN Interactive announced that it is developing a slate of games for social media platforms, including Facebook . The sports brand has inked a two-year deal with social gaming company Playdom to build the games, the first two of which should launch in Fall 2010. Other platforms for the games will include Bebo, Hi5, MySpace and Tagged. In addition to launching on social networks, mobile apps will also be available. Raphael Poplock is ESPN Digital Media’s VP for games and revenue strategy and development. He said today in a statement, “Our deal with Playdom marks ESPN’s first major presence into the social gaming space. The sports genre for this category of games has gone virtually untapped thus far, and through this agreement, we have an opportunity to be in front of a highly engaged audience and at the forefront of what is currently the fastest growing games category out there.” ESPN Interactive has a long-time relationship with EA for developing and marketing console games. ESPN Arcade is the brand’s casual gaming arm, and it’s been growing and helping to increase users’ time on ESPN.com. Social gaming was the missing puzzle piece for ESPN, and we can’t wait to see what Playdom comes up with. What kinds of sports genre games would you want to play on Facebook or other networks? [img credit: prettywarstl ] For more social media coverage, follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook Tags: ESPN , games , playdom
Via eMail hat uns Tony das im Anschluss eingebettet Youtube-Video zukommen lassen und berichtet von seinem Uni-Projekt an der Bauhaus Universität in Weimar. Im Rahmen seines “Interface-Desing Studiengangs” entwickelt, zeigt der 106 Sekunden lange Clip einen iPhone Arcade-Automaten und erinnert uns an den April-Scherz des Thing-Geek Shops. Der Arcade-Automat basiert auf dem hier besprochenen Wii-Remote-Hack Weiterlesen…
