Random Culture

Friday Fun: Coke Zero Advergame

Coke Zero has launched a great advergame in Germany. It's a testament to the type of quality entertainment you can create online, leveraging a ton of video and 3D. Yes, the site's in German, but you can play the game without understanding it, and if you choose the "standard" options, you aren't required to register. Visit CokeZeroGame.de to check it out.

Link via Culture Buzz.

Case Study In Shortsightedness: Scrabulous

You may have heard by now that Hasbro and Mattel are trying to get the plug pulled on Scrabulous, the user-created Scrabble application created for Facebook. It's one of the most popular applications on the site, with nearly 600,000 daily users... myself included. There's no argument that Scrabulous is violating their copyright, but why would Hasbro and Mattel stick their head all the way up the gift horse's mouth and rip out its intestines? I'm not sure if they've been paying attention, but with all the entertainment options available today, people aren't exactly tripping over themselves to snatch up all the board games on the shelves.

Clearly, anyone can see that Scrabulous has been the best thing to happen to Scrabble in a long time. I'm a case in point for this... I own the Scrabble board game, but I've only played it twice. Once Scrabulous came along, it gave me a renewed interest in the game. I have several games running concurrently now, and yes, I've actually played the REAL board game a few more times because of it.

I can only think about the sheer amount of angst that Hasbro and Mattel are creating because of this demand to pull Scrabulous from Facebook. Think about how much more positive press and brand affinity they would have created for rewarding the ingenuity of the Scrabulous creators by purchasing it from them. This is ingenuity they obviously can only pay for...

Yes, I'm a bit sore on the subject because I love Scrabulous soo much. And the folks at Hasbro and Mattel can rest assured that if they succeed in this dim-witted legal task, there will be one less Scrabble board game in existence, because I will boycott the tiles for life.

More from the BBC here.

Join the Facebook group, Save Scrabulous!

Guitar Hero 3 On Mobile?

I was shocked to see an ad on a website today that touted a mobile version of Guitar Hero 3... Who could imagine someone plugging a giant plastic guitar directly into your phone, and then squinting as you try to make out the notes on a tiny screen you are somehow holding in front of your face while your two hands are occupied finding the right green or blue button.

Of course, that's not how the mobile version of Guitar Hero 3 works. They've re-purposed it well for the mobile platform, with different keys on your phone replacing the colored frets on the guitars. I wasn't able to download the game as it's incompatible with my phone and carrier, so if anyone tries it out, let us know!

Halo 3: Believe

A new site has been launched to promote Halo 3, which will be released later this month. It's a great interactive experience that focuses on a fictional "diorama" memorial created in the future to commemorate the war between humans and aliens. The site includes video and some interesting ways to navigate.

Visit Halo 3: Believe, here.

No word on who created the site, but I'm betting that some resourceful readers have the answer!

Axe Advergaming: Dirty Rolling

Axe has launched a great advergame at www.dirtyrolling.com. It's an extension of some of their latest TV advertising, where a couple in an embrace roll down a hill, getting dirty along the way. The object of the advergame is to get as dirty as possible. Visit the website to play the game, and check out the commercial below.

Thanks to Brian for the link!

Documentary: 8 Bit

8 Bit is an interesting new documentary about video games and their influence on art, music and more. Check out the trailer below:

Nintendo Wii PS3 Spoof

Great ad for the Nintendo Wii, spoofing the Playstation 3 commercials currently running on TV.

Must Watch: From Russia With Love

Awesome BBC documentary "From Russia With Love", about the popular video game Tetris, and its creator, Alexey Pajitnov. Definitely worth watching.

Link via Fimoculous.

Burger King Video Games

Seriously... Burger King is actually releasing three games created for the Xbox and Xbox360. You can read more about the effort in these articles at Game Informer and Gamespot. Here's a list of the three games, as well as a brief description for each:

Pocketbike Racer - Racing game pitting Burger King mascots against one another.

Big Bumpin - Bumper car game pitting Burger King mascots against one another.

Sneak King - The most entertaining of the bunch, it's an adaptation of the stealth action genre, but instead of sneaking up and snapping someone's neck, you give them the gift of food.

I'm actually impressed that the first two games are Xbox Live enabled. They may be simple in nature, but it's often the simplest games that are the most addictive. But my favorite part about this campaign is that Burger King isn't giving the games away... According to Game Informer:

"The Xbox and Xbox 360 games will be available from November 19 through December 24 for $3.99 with the purchase of a value meal."

This is classic CP+B, making advertising so good that consumers are willing to pay for it. They've used this before for Burger King, as well as in the "Counterfeit Mini" campaign, where consumers paid for an instructional DVD... and they sold out.

Yet another home run from CP+B and BK.

Thanks to Dave for the heads up!

New Playstation 3 EU Site

Sony has launched a new site for the Playstation 3 in the European Union. Despite the horrible new tagline for the PS3, "This is Living", the site is very interactive, and features interesting navigation. Definitely worth checking out.

New Coke "GTA-Esque" Commercial

Coke has a new commercial running now in theaters throughout the US. The spot, shot in HD, is clearly an homage to Grand Theft Auto. Check it out below.

Starbucks Summer Pursuit

Starbucks has launched a summer "scavenger hunt" promotion, the Starbucks Summer Pursuit. Participants are asked trivia questions via a series of text message clues.

Here's the interesting part... they can answer the questions simply by submitting a picture taken on their camera phone. The technology that makes this possible is "intelligent image recognition", developed by a company called Mobot.

As the folks at Influx Insights point out... there are a ton of applications for this type of technology.

Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight

I found this by watching the latest episode of Channel Frederator. It's an animated short by a guy named Paul Robertson called "Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight", and it's pretty amazing. What I really like about it is the old video game influence, but with it's own unique flavor. This is the coolest thing you will see online this Friday.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Another Da Vinci Code Game: Eurostar

The DaVinci Code promotions abound... here's one of the latest, the "Eurostar Quest." It's a very well done site, with interesting games and great design from the folks at de-construct. In fact, the games have more to do with learning about London and Paris than the DaVinci Code plot.

Friday Fun: Robin Williams at E3

Check out this great 10 minute video of Robin Williams demonstrating the "creature creation" portion of the much anticipated video game "Spore."

You can watch a full 40 minute video of this at Joystiq, including exclusive interviews with the creator of Spore and Robin Williams. Just follow this link.

E3 Coverage Galore

E3 has kicked off, and the expo starts tomorrow. If you're interested in staying on top of all the E3 news and buzz, check out E3buzz.com. It's aggregated E3 news from some of the best resources out there.

Link via A Whole Lotta Nothing.

Sony Ericsson DaVinci Code Game

Google isn't the only one doing a DaVinci Code game. Sony Ericsson has launched the "DaVinci Code Trail" game. Check it out at: Sonyericsson.com/davinci. You'll have to select the UK as your country, since it doesn't appear that the game is available for the US.

I actually enjoyed these puzzles more than the pretty easy Google puzzles, which have become a little repetitive over the last few weeks. But hey, the Google prizes are much better.

Google Promoting DaVinci Code

In an unprecedented move, Google has teamed up with Sony Pictures to promote the upcoming DaVinci Code movie. The promotion involves adding a DaVinci Code widget to your personalized Google homepage, where players are prompted to solve a series of puzzles. Start playing the game here.

According to the official Google Blog, the puzzles will "be released over the next 24 days, in the form of six different challenges at four difficulty levels."

And there are some pretty good prizes as well, including a $100,000 grand prize package that includes a trip to Paris, Rome and London.

This is a really big deal... Google has traditionally shied away from giving advertisers any outlets beyond Adwords. So are we likely to see more promotions like this? I'm not sure that we will. This particular promotion seems to stem more out of a passion for the material than anything else. But who knows?

The Greatest Advergame... Ever

As a promotion for the anime show Samurai 7, IFC has created one of the greatest advergames I've ever seen, Samurai Kittens: www.samuraikittens.com.

Link via Adverblog.

Red Bull: Flugtag Game

Flugtag is defined as "an event in which competitors attempt to fly in homemade flying machines." And oh yeah, it's usually off a pier into the water. This is a real event that Red Bull puts on in various cities.

To promote the event, you can try your luck at Flugtag in a simple but well done flash game created by The Barbarian Group.

Link via Adverblog.

Oxfam Viral: Bit Unfair

Bit Unfair is a great new site built for Oxfam. It's a fictional gameshow where luck is always on the side of the rich, and never on the side of the poor. The site is very well built, with particularly good interactive use of video. Visit the Bit Unfair site at www.bitunfair.com, and try your luck!

NBC & Visa Olympic Advergames

NBC has their Olympic efforts fully underway. Last night while watching TV, I saw an NBC commercial promoting some online Olympic sports games that looked fun. So I headed over to NBCOlympics.com to check it out. Of course, the homepage is crowded with so much stuff that I had to dig a little to find them.

The games are really sponsored by Visa. I didn't see much NBC branding when I got into the game. There are 3 games: bobsled, snowboard cross and giant slalom. The games look great, but you'd better have some serious bandwidth to load them. You should have IE as well, because these games don't work in Firefox. Argh.

I'm not even going to talk about the blog effort I saw on the NBC Olympics site, because I'm trying to stay positive. Double Argh.

The "Anti-Advergame"

Normally, people just create websites about companies that did them wrong. But this is the first time I've seen a video game created entirely to show disdain for a brand.

Check out "Disaffected", a video game dedicated to showcasing the shortcomings of FedEx Kinkos. Here's the description from the site:

"Disaffected! puts the player in the role employees forced to service customers under the particular incompetences common to a Kinko’s store."

Link via BoingBoing.

Lufthansa "Swinging Santa"

It may not be the greatest name... Lufthansa's "Swinging Santa" is a holiday flash game that lets users build a movie of Santa dancing, with a customized series of dance moves and music. Because when I think Lufthansa, I think disco Santa.

Sony Viral Marketing

Sony is promoting the Playstation 2 game "Shadow of the Colossus" with a series of fake archaeological findings. There's a fake blog of someone tracking these strange discoveries. In addition, there are a number of videos you can view here, here and here. There are also diagrams, photos, other websites and much more.

Link via Adrants.

Sega Labs

Sega has launched a great viral site to promote their upcoming video game "Full Auto", a racing game featuring some serious destruction. "Sega Labs" has some funny videos of scientists blowing stuff up. The site also has some great interactivity, including the unique use of video for a site "host." This is a must see...

EA Viral Marketing

I just stumbled across a great viral site from Electronic Arts (EA) for the latest Bond game, "From Russia With Love." The site has some fun flash games themed around the new game...

What interested me as well is the domain name that the site is hosted on, EAViral.com. You can find a number of different viral sites for games by doing a simple Google search.

Holiday Site for Coke Poland

Coca-Cola has launched a nice little holiday microsite in Poland. It features a number of interesting advergames... and you don't have to be fluent in Polish to figure them out.

Link via Adverblog.

Nothing Stays Lost Forever

Nothing Stays Lost Forever is a sweepstakes with an interesting advergame for the new Sci-Fi Channel show, The Triangle. It's an interesting game worth checking out, particularly for something that's not your average advergame.

Thanks to Luba from Firstborn Multimedia for the link.

Honda Element & Friends

The Honda Element and Friends website is a fun interactive experience. Drive a 2006 Honda Element around a map, meeting animals and playing short games. Not sure when this was made, but this is the first time I've seen it, and it's worth a look.

Black & White 2 Site

Black & White 2 was released at the beginning of October, and somehow I missed this site. It's a great site that reflects the game play by using a hand instead of a mouse arrow. For those of you unfamiliar with the Black & White series of games, dig into the the site to find out more.

Link via AdJab.

Magazines For Your PSP

LOAD Magazine is one of a rising number of magazines being created specifically for the PSP. The first issue clocks in at a huge 120 pages of content, filled with reviews, game guides and more. It could be a great advertising opportunity, and it certainly looks like this format is starting to grow.

Link via MIT Advertising Lab.

Mortal Combat Viral

Check out this viral campaign for the newly released video game "Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks." The viral was created by Maverick Media... and for some reason, the viral is being hosted on a page that seems to be promoting them as much as the game. They're even prompting viewers of the game to visit the Maverick Media site and check out their other work...

Link via AdLand.

Doom and Duck Hunt

Duck Doom Deluxe is a mash-up of two classics, Duck Hunt and Doom, created by "Noproblo Games." You can download the game here. It's so nice to see people giving new life to old things through sheer imagination and a little bit of coding.

Link via BoingBoing.

easyCruise Advergame

Adverblog points to an advergame for easyCruise. It's a pretty basic flash game where users are challenged to dock an easyCruise ship in different ports. Mildly entertaining... but not as bad as some of the advergames I've seen.

PC Gamer Podcast

PC Gamer magazine has launched an official podcast with a blog... This is a really great podcast for any gamers out there. The most recent episode features an interview with Sid Meier, referred to as one of the "original game gods." They've also got a ton of current gaming news in each episode of this weekly podcast. This is definitely worth checking out...

Saab Race Against Time

Check out the Saab - Race Against Time site. It's a great video based "choose your own adventure" game for the new 9-3 SportWagon. You can even invite a friend to race against you.

Wikis for Gamers

Gamerhelp.com, an IDG gaming site geared towards strategy and walkthroughs, has launched a wiki section of the site, for some of the most popular games out there. This seems like the perfect application for wikis, since you often have to wait until the most experienced, passionate players out there create strategy guides on their own. This new step, however, allows collaborative editing of the document, and I'd imagine as new games come out, you'll see the wikis for them develop as gamers play through... so everyone's working at the same pace.

Great idea for the use of a wiki.

Cry Wolf Game

A coworker, Brian, pointed me to a great site that's been launched to support the upcoming horror movie, "Cry Wolf." I'm sure you've seen the previews with a killer talking to people on AOL Instant Messenger. They've launched a site at www.crywolfgame.com. It's got a great game where you get a group of 15 people and try to figure out which ones are the killers through chatting with one another. You need a free AOL account to play the game, but it's well worth it.

Kiss your productivity goodbye.

Xbox 360 Viral Marketing

Microsoft has launched a cryptic site for the upcoming Xbox 360 console: www.origenxbox360.com

It appears that this effort is some variation of an alternate reality game. At the very least, an alternate reality episode or puzzle. The site contains only the following items: a tree, a rabbit sign and a countdown clock. You may remember a countdown being used on the recent OurColony site. No one seems to be sure what the significance of the countdown date of September 27th means. There's speculation that it may be an exclusive preview of the Xbox 360 for those lucky enough to decipher the clues on this site.

You can read more about the effort, and some of the speculation here and here.

Link via AdFreak.

Kabuki Battle

Adverblog posts about Kabuki Battle... a turn-based fighting game that's apparently an MTV effort in the Netherlands and Belgium. Although, I don't see any MTV branding on it anywhere. The site's in English, and worth taking a look at. There's more content than just the game, in particular, the mobile downloads.

Link via Adverblog.

Machinima Film Festival

I recently posted about "machinima", a new genre of video that uses video games to create original content... Well, the 2005 Machinima Film Festival has been announced.

If you're interested in creating your own machinima, you can find a good list of resources here. The deadline to submit your own film is October 6th.

Link via BoingBoing.

Chemical Bros Flash Game

Check out this crazy flash game on the Chemical Brothers site. It's for the single Galvanize, which was released a while back. What could be better than breakdance fighting?

Machinima Fun

Are you familiar with machinima? It's basically a word that means "machine cinema", and typically uses video game engines to create original video. Gamers familiar with the video game franchises will find these hilarious. I'm surprised this hasn't been used for marketing purposes yet. They're definitely huge branding vehicles for the games that are used. I happened to have run across two really good ones today, and thought they were worth sharing.

Machinima #1: A Few Good G-Men
The famous courtroom scene from A Few Good Men, rendered using the Half-Life 2 engine.

Machinima #2: This Spartan Life
A talk show set in the Halo video game universe. There's a great post on the if:book blog about this particular machinima. Link via Fimoculous.

Perplex City Update

Perplex City, the Alternate Reality Game we've talked about here before, is set to kick off tomorrow, July 13th. Wired has a great article about this most recent ARG, and talks about some of the pressures of following some the latest and greatest ARGs, like I Love Bees and the Art of the H3ist.

Perplex City is doing things differently, however. First off, they're giving away $200,000. But they're also recouping some costs by having game players buy a pack of cards at $5 each (currently out of stock, but it looks like they're getting more in). As the Wired article notes, the cards are "the key to Perplex City's fortunes."

While you're at it, you can learn more about the company behind Perplex City, Mind Candy Design. I can't wait to figure out what product it is they're promoting.

Video Game Sweatshops

The Guardian Unlimited has an interesting story about a Romanian company, Gamersloot.net. The company operates what amounts to a video game "sweatshop," with workers spending countless hours for little money to build strong in-game characters for the company. These characters are sold to newcomers who don't want to put in all that initial legwork. But According to the Guardian Unlimited article, that's not the only service:

"Getting to the highest level in some games takes months and for players working alone is almost impossible to achieve. Gamersloot.net offers to promote your character in a matter of days for a fee of around £250."

This is an interesting new business... Although you have to wonder about how impatient these gamers must be to pay for something like this.

Link via IFTF's Future Now.

Victoria's Secret Viral

Crispin Porter + Bogusky has launched a strip poker advergame for Victoria's Secret. While the game won't appeal to poker players, it will appeal to people who want to see PG-13 pictures of supermodels in underwear. Why bother? You can find much better photos on the American Apparel website.

Link via AdLand.

Live Action Monopoly

To promote the updated version of the Monopoly board game, Hasbro has launched a "live" version of the game, played via online and SMS on the streets of London. Learn more about how the game is played by visiting the official game site at: www.monopolylive.com. The grand prize winner gets their mortgage or rent paid for a year. Unfortunately, only UK residents are eligible.

Link via Netimperative.

Applebee's Viral

Applebee's has created a great personalized viral site, the Applebee's Dunktank. Users can customize the face of the "dunkee" from uploaded photos. You can find the site at: www.thedunktank.com.

CP+B does Earthlink

Crispin Porter + Bogusky has launched a new promotional site for Earthlink, at earthlinkcyberheroes.com. The site is focused on Earthlink's anit-virus, spyware and scam capabilities, and centers around a flash game that pits office "superheroes" against the aforementioned dangers.

Axe Mojo Master

Axe has launched a site for the "Mojo Master", an online game starting on June 20th. The Mojo Master game is  a "game of seduction", intended for mature audiences. Players try to "win over" 5 virtual female characters based on their different personality types. You can check out screenshots and teaser videos here.

Link via Adverblog.

Civilization 4 Viral

For the latest in this popular game franchise, a website has been created for "Civilization Anonymous", a support group dedicated to "addicts" of the Civilization games. The site has a good amount of interesting content, and it's worth looking around. Make sure you check out the "Truth about Civilization" video.

Link via Screenhead.

Playstation Video Blogging

Playstation has released their new summer marketing campaign in the UK. The new campaign, called "Summer of Freedom", will entail 4 selected people experiencing "free" events such as music festivals, lessons with skateboard pros, and more... and then creating video blogs. People will then vote on their favorite of the 4.

Link via Jupiter Research Analyst Julian Smith's blog. Make sure you check out his post, as he's got some great thoughts on the campaign.

E3 Goodness

E3 is officially underway, and as you can see from today's quick links, there's plenty going on in the war between Sony and Microsoft. But there's a ton of other stuff going on as well, including some new announcements from Nintendo that are getting talked about. So in addition to the E3 Insider site, which includes on the floor video, here are some other game sites offering good coverage of the expo:

Shacknews has a great Moblog from E3
Gamespot's E3 coverage
IGN is defaulting to E3 coverage

Circuit City Blog: E3

Circuit City has set up a blog to cover the events at E3... Well, sort of... They're calling it a blog, but as Steve Rubel points out, it "lacks certain structures."

Here are a couple hints for Circuit City:

1.) Set up an ACTUAL blog, complete with structures and all...
2.) How about a unique URL?
3.) Actually PROMOTE the blog on the main video games page on your site!
4.) RSS feeds, maybe?
5.) The scrolling frame thing is awful...

Link via Micro Persuasion.

More Xbox 360

More details about the Xbox 360 are coming out, including a great overview at Gamespot. In addition, the official Xbox 360 site has launched, and is worth a look, although it basically just contains a better look at the hardware.

OurColony: Update 5

Well, the countdown on the OurColony clock has ended, and on the homepage, you can now download a video that releases more details about Xbox 360. It looks to be a pretty interesting game console, and surely there will be even more details coming out at E3.

But it felt like an odd way to end the OurColony experience, with really no mention of anything about OurColony itself... One of the interesting things about using an alternate reality game to market a product is that you have two distinct audiences... the ARG fanatics, and the product fanatics. Was this conclusion to OurColony disappointing to all the ARG fanatics out there?

E3 2005 Coming Soon

E3 is just around the corner, starting next week. The E3 Insider site is a must visit as the event is going on, offering a "from the floor" look at E3. Although they won't start posting content for the 2005 show until Monday, right now you can check out news and info from E3 2004.

Speaking of game announcements... the OurColony countdown is almost over. New Xbox 360 details will be announced to build anticipation.

OurColony Update 4

The OurColony clock is ticking down to the release of more details about the new Xbox 360 (only 3 days left). We've seen some images leaked, but one of the latest photos alludes to some type of "skin-ability" of the new hardware.You can see it pictured here. Link via Game-Hawg.

In addition, there's been some speculation that the folks behind the Ilovebees promotion for Halo 2, 4orty 2wo Entertainment, might be behind OurColony as well. There's a great interview with members of 4orty 2wo in the latest Game Developer Magazine... well worth the read (sorry, not online). Thanks to Dave for giving me his copy of the mag to read.

Guess the Google

Remember Google Montage? Well the creator of that recent goodness, Grant Robinson, has created a highly addictive game using Google search results, called Guess-the-Google. It shows you results from Google Image searches, and you have to guess the keyword used for the search.

Burger King Game

Need For Feed is the latest from Crispin Porter & Bogusky for Burger King. It's a flash game where you feed people in an office breakfast food from Burger King. They also allow you to customize the game by uploading photos of your actual coworkers, or whomever else you'd like.

Link via Agenda Inc.

Our Colony: Update 3

A couple updates for all those interested in Our Colony... I finally got 5 people signed up for the network I created. In addition, there are some sites popping up from participants eager to talk about cracking the challenges, etc... One of those sites is a great blog that posted the answer to today's challenge... challenge #4.

In other news... the counter on the homepage of the OurColony site is a countdown to the announcement of the new Xbox. They did this to trump the PS3 announcement. It's happening 4 days before that, on May 12. You can see that the counter coincides with this date. Link via All Games, Gadgets and Gear.