Netizen

Monday, August 06, 2012

Zynga Fixes

Mobile is a trend, it is a tsunami, and it is not new, it has been going on. So the thought that Zynga should place a major emphasis on mobile is to state the obvious. Mobile is going to be the central computing experience for most people. They are out and about but they are connected, they are online. Mobile is where the center of gravity is headed, if it is not there already. And that has implications for numerous companies, many industries.

Being metrics driven is important. But being only metrics driven can feel empty. Creating games is artwork. You can't get rid of the metrics, but you can't be a slave to the metrics either. What makes for a great actor? A great director? A great movie? What makes for a great game?

There's A Major Flaw In Zynga's Plan To Fix Itself

It has no choice but to figure out mobile. Zynga's mobile users are growing three times faster than its web users. ...... Farmville, which first put the gaming company on the map, has led to a slew of other "ville" attempts, like Castleville, Cityville, YoVille, PetVille and FishVille. Most have not been able to attract the same user-base as Farmville. .... "The 'With Friends' network is the same strategy as ville games," says the source "Pick a franchise that has one hit and double down on the franchise as each game performs worse and worse."

Going mobile is as much a strategy as going online is. That is a broad direction. Then you have to figure it out.

Wall Street is even more metrics driven than Zynga. Way more. It looks at cold, hard cash, earnings.

Zynga And Mobile

Zynga and Facebook are in the same boat. They are both trying to figure out mobile.

Zynga's Rocky Shift to Mobile

To turn around its flagging business, Zynga Inc. is betting big on mobile games and creating a network that connects mobile-game players..... people have shifted to playing games on their mobile devices instead of on personal computers. Zynga says the number of people who play its games on mobile devices is growing three times faster than the number of those who play on the Web. .... Zynga's shares closed Friday at $2.72, down 73% from its December IPO price of $10 ..... Pincus said his vision for mobile games is to connect a large network of game players across a variety of platforms

Fred Wilson, Mark Zuckerberg And Mobile

Zynga: Could It Reinvent Itself?

This blogger below argues Zynga got down the science right, but is failing on the art part.

Zyngapocalypse Now (And What Comes Next?)

Both inside and outside the walls of Facebook, the story of social games has become one of dead geese and golden eggs, flatlined growth, formulaic games and shady practises..... the main problem in social games was that the product was almost identical across all providers, and that social game makers had trapped themselves into thinking that it had to be so. I said that this had led them to treat the market as akin to fast food ..... I thought Zynga would miss the opportunity to spend incoming investment on building better products and instead inflate the kind of product and business model that they already had. .... without constant and heavy promotion, social games tend to fade away pretty quickly ...... the business model of social games is hollow because the value it provides is poor. ..... The obsession with tactics is directly related to the obsession with metrics, and this leads to a culture which devalues original thinking. Social games have the exact same problem as network television in that respect, in that there are far too many quants running the show, demanding numeric proof for decisions. Quants understand little to nothing of why players play games ..... Timidity rules. .... The second generation needs to be thinking like HBO, not network television. It takes research and prototyping time to develop good game dynamics, but more than that it takes the right technology, talent and faith. This last quality is perhaps most frightening because it pretty much means letting the inmates run the asylum. ...... You may wish that game design was a process, but it’s an art. ..... why should the player play your social game as opposed to a downloaded PC game, a DS game, an Xbox game and so on .... ........... Social games do not bring people together. Most players in fact play them in a largely single-player fashion, making contact purely for reasons of necessity like trading, earning Energy and so on. ..... Players play to achieve, to do, to build, to create, to explore, to destroy and to win. ... What games don’t do particularly well is the whole “living a virtual life” thing. ....... (this is why poker is still Zynga’s most solid game), it’s all about the self-propelled, self-organised and self-successful player. “Social” simply helps that happen faster, in what we designers are increasingly calling “parallel design”. ...... most players’ game graphs in their Facebook games are either empty or full of the orphaned accounts of those who stopped playing. ..... G2 social games will probably have very different delivery to G1, like the difference between “software” and “app”. ..... If Yahoo was “Search, Generation One” then Google was “Search, Generation Two”. .... A similar shift is what will make “Social Games, Generation Two” real

I think the guy just called Zynga the Yahoo of social games, as in what Yahoo was for search. That is not flattering. Zynga is taking a beating in the public market, sure. But maybe it can reinvent itself.

Sunday, August 05, 2012

Jackson Heights: My Neighborhood

I am at a stage in my life when I want to clutch a neighborhood, and Jackson Heights is perfect for that. For me.

Jackson Heights, Queens

Bounded by Roosevelt Ave., Broadway, Leverich St., Northern Blvd., and Junction Blvd...... numerous bus routes converge ..... A major renovation of this facility, completed in 2005 by the MTA, cost over $100 million. It includes one of the first green buildings by the MTA, the Victor A. Moore Bus Terminal, which is partially powered by solar panels built into the roof. ..... the largest subway stop in Queens with six subway services and five bus lines (Q32, Q33, Q47, Q49 and Q53). The Q33 bus goes to LaGuardia Airport's main terminals and operates 24 hours a day. The Q47 bus goes to the Marine Air Terminal. The Q53 bus goes to Rockaway Beach, Queens. ..... The community is bounded by Northern Boulevard to the north, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to the west, Roosevelt Avenue to the south, and Junction Boulevard to the east ..... The Jackson Heights name comes from Jackson Avenue, the former name for Northern Boulevard. ..... British Airways moved its United States corporate offices to ...... large garden apartment buildings (the term was invented for buildings in Jackson Heights) ..... The community was initially planned as a place for middle- to upper-middle income workers from Manhattan to raise their families. The Jackson Heights New York State and National Register Districts range from 93rd Street through 69th Street between Northern Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue..... the first garden city community built in the United States, as part of the international garden city movement at the turn of the 20th century. There are many private parks (historically called "gardens" by the residents) within walking distance of each other. They are tucked in the mid-blocks, mostly hidden from view by the buildings surrounding them. ...... ten to fifteen minutes to 53rd Street and Lexington Avenue via the express E train or 63rd Street and Lexington via the F train ...... The main retail thoroughfare is located on 37th Avenue from 72nd Street to Junction Boulevard, with more retail on 82nd, 73rd and 74th Streets on the blocks between 37th and Roosevelt Avenues ...... 82nd street contains many national chain stores located in Tudor-style buildings ..... South American retailers and eateries, predominantly from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru dominate Northern Boulevard from 80th Street east to the border of neighboring Corona at Junction Boulevard. Roosevelt Avenue is also lined with various mainly Hispanic retail stores. ...... Jackson Heights is among the most diverse neighborhoods in New York City, and the nation. Jackson Heights is home to large numbers of South Americans, particularly Argentinians, Ecuadorians and Colombians, South Asians,and East Asians. ...... 11372 ZIP code .... The total population of this area was 66,636, of which 57.17% were Hispanic or Latino of any race, 20.35% non-Hispanic Asian, 18.60% non-Hispanic White, and 1.78% non-Hispanic Black or African-American. ..... The largest Hispanic groups included South Americans with 29.41% of the total population, Mexicans with 10.93%, and Dominicans with 6.18%. ..... There were 23,906 occupied housing units, of which 65.94% were renter occupied ..... Colombian broadcaster RCN TV has its US-American headquarters in the neighborhood, reflecting the sizable Colombian population in the area. ...... measured crime has declined more than 79% in the last 15 years (1993 to 2008). As of January 2008, the murder rate is down over 82% and grand larceny auto is down 90% from 1990. ....... Travers Park is the main local playground. .... the PlaNYC initiative to ensure all New Yorkers live within a 10 minute walk of a park or playground. ...... The newly opened playground at P.S. 69 is the latest schoolyard to be renovated and opened to the public during non-school hours through the program, which is turning schoolyards into playgrounds in neighborhoods across the city ........... Notable natives and residents .. Alfred Mosher Butts (1899–1993), invented Scrabble in 1938, and perfected it at Community Methodist Church ..... Chester Carlson (1906–1968), invented Xerox copy machine in his Jackson Heights kitchen .. Robert P. Casey (1932–2000), Governor of Pennsylvania from 1987 to 1995 ... Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977), an English comic actor and director who used mime, slapstick and other visual, non-verbal comedic routines. .... Howard Stern (born 1954), host of The Howard Stern Show ... Film location .. The film "Coming To America" is based in Jackson Heights. .. Part of The Usual Suspects was filmed in Jackson Heights around 34th Avenue and 82nd street ... It is also the setting for the TV show Ugly Betty, where Betty and her family live

A Tour of Jackson Heights, A South Asian Neighborhood
Overview of Little India

the place for some of the highest quality Indian food in New York City; South Asian jewelry, clothes, and music; Bollywood films; and plain old people-watching. This is a great neighborhood for strolling and taking it all in. ..... Shaheen's is very well known in the Pakistani community. On a weekday, its clientele are almost exclusively Pakistani men. ..... Jackson Heights is a great neighborhood for stocking up on Bollywood films and music. ..... the second largest motion picture industry in the world, and its masala-style films invariably include plenty of song and dance. ........ Butala Emporium, a perfect place to find an Indian gift. ..... Butala is a place where you can spend a quarter or a thousand dollars, and leave with a treasure. ...... Stroll down 74th Street and other shops beckon. Some brilliantly. Almost every other storefront is a jewelry shop where 22 karat gold predominates. Unlike the 14k, this rich gold is a heavy, almost dull color that makes up for its lack of shine with its beautiful dense sheen and malleability, which allows for more intricate, fantastic designs

Jackson Heights - Queens Neighborhood Profile

Jackson Heights is a bustling neighborhood, famous for its garden apartment buildings and its diversity. More than half of its residents are immigrants, particularly Colombians, other Latinos, and South Asians, with its own Little India. ..... Jackson Heights is Queens eating at its best -- varied and authentic. ..... The cheapest delights are from street vendors on Roosevelt Avenue. On a Friday night sample tacos, arepas, fresh fruit slices, and roasted corn. ..... read Jackson Heights, A Garden in the City ...... The only public park in Jackson Heights is crowded, black-top Travers Park (34th Ave between 77th and 78th Sts), also the site of summer Sunday concerts and the farmers market. ...... Many of the prewar co-ops boast shared, private gardens, each about a city-block in length. ..... Drug trafficking is no longer the major problem it was in the 1980s. .... Jackson Heights is the center of the gay Latinos in Queens. ..... Most Famous Street Sign: The 35th Avenue sign has Scrabble scoring in honor of Alfred Butts, who invented the game in Jackson Heights. ...... Jackson Heights 74th Street Merchants Association, 37-08 74th St, 718-651-6971 ..... Zip Code: 11372

Jackson Heights Life

New York Magazine: Jackson Heights

Jackson Heights offers something that most Queens neighborhoods don’t: appealing older housing stock. Many of the apartments and co-ops in its extensive historic district feature private gardens

Not For Tourists: Jackson Heights

Home to immigrants from Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and Latin America, Jackson Heights/Elmhurst is one of the most culturally diverse neighborhoods on the planet. Jackson Heights is New York City's oldest gay community dating back to vaudevillians who moved there in the '30s. These days the boys who hang out there are mostly Latino and get their groove on at local night clubs. Late nights, clubgoers of all sexual orientations grab a snack from one of many Latino street food vendors. ....... Jackson Heights is also where Alfred Mosher Butts invented Scrabble in the 1930s, at the landmark Community Methodist Church, which today conducts services in several languages, and still plays host to a Scrabble club. The Scrabble Street Sign outside the church commemorates Butts' invention with point values corresponding to the letters in 35th Avenue. ...... St. James Episcopal Church was chartered in 1734 by none other than King George III, and is its oldest building. ...... Old churches provide ties to the past and all that, but the award for the area's most intriguing house of worship goes to Wat Buddha Thai Thavorn Vanaram, a Thai temple whose ornate gilded roof stands out amidst the blocky multifamily homes surrounding it. .... 76-16 46th Ave, Elmhurst, NY 11373 (Cross street: 76th Street) ... Ornate Thai Buddhist temple sporting an Emerald Buddha on its top floor. ...... Get off at the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue subway stop and you’ll find yourself in a veritable ethnic food lover's paradise. Roosevelt Avenue and the surrounding blocks are lined with Latin-American restaurants, including numerous Ecuadorean spots, legions of taco trucks, several Argentine steak houses, and dozens of Colombian bakeries. ..... Nepalese and Tibetans who flock to the Himalayan Yak for dinner and a band that plays everything from Bollywood to The Eagles

CBS Local: City Councilman Wants To Silence Ice Cream Trucks In Jackson Heights

“The ringing of these bells over and over and over and over again is really very annoying,” City Councilman Daniel Dromm said of the aggressive ice cream trucks in Jackson Heights. “They’re ringing the bells with that jingle at later times in the evening, like close to 11 o’clock at night.” ..... Dromm said he plans to take complaints from residents directly to the commanding officer of the 115th Precinct.