The Entertainment Software Association - Home Page The Social Graph is Neither The Social Graph Is Neither I first came across the phrase social graph in 2007, in an essay by Brad Fitzpatrick, though I'd be curious to know if it goes back further. The idea of representing relationships between people as networks is old, but this was the first time I had thought about treating the connections between all living people as one big object that you could manipulate with a computer. At the time he wrote, Fitzpatrick had two points to make. The first was that it made no sense for every social website to try and recreate the same web of relationships, over and over, by making people send each other follow requests. Fitzpatrick subsequently went to work for Google, and his Utopian vision of open standards and open data became subsumed in a rivalry between Google and Facebook. This rivalry has brought the phrase 'social graph' into wider use. I think this is a fascinating metaphor. I. One way to solve this comparison problem is with standards. (subject,verb,object) II.
Who's Playing Social Games? [STATS] Casual game-maker Popcap Games (famous for Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled) commissioned Information Services Group to perform a survey of people who play social games online. It found that the average social gamer is a 43-year-old woman, despite long-standing social stereotypes about people who play games. Note that "social games" are web-based games like Mafia Wars and FarmVille that you play on social networks like Facebook, not Xbox 360 action games like Gears of War or Halo — young males still dominate that branch of the gaming hobby. The survey found that 55% of social gamers are female and 45% are male. There were more insights in the survey beyond gender. One hundred million people are playing these games and about $1 billion in revenue is expected this year.
Welcome to Zug: the sleepy Swiss town that became a global economic hub | Business Nestling beside a lake overlooked by snow-dusted mountains, Zug seems for all the world like just another cute, affluent Swiss town. You could wander its cobbled Altstadt, sample its culinary speciality, a liqueur-drenched Kirschtorte, even stay on to see one of Zug's renowned sunsets, without ever imagining you were at a cardinal point of the global economy - or in a town that, for years, was the hideout of the world's most wanted white-collar criminal. According to the government of the canton, or region, of which Zug is the capital, there are 27,000 companies on its commercial register - one for every man, woman and child in the town, leaving a few hundred to spare. A Zug-registered firm is building the strategically critical gas pipeline that will link Europe with Russia via the Baltic. Another is the luxury goods group that owns the Cartier, Piaget and Vacheron Constantin brands. In addition, Zug offered Rich a much-needed bolthole after 1983.
Video Game Sales Slump Again The video game industry continued its gloomy run after reporting a year-over-year sales decline of 6.0% for the month of September, according to a recent report from market research firm The NPD Group. According to NPD, U.S. video game retail sales declined for the fifth consecutive month to $1.16 billion (including games released for personal computers). This compares unfavorably with $1.23 billion generated by the industry in the year-ago month. However, we note that video game retail sales recovered strongly from $669.9 million reported in the month of August. The improvement was largely on account of marginal growth in new software sales, which increased 3.0% down 1.0% year over year (including PC) to $630.2 million. Electronic Arts Inc.’s (ERTS) late August release Madden NFL 12, was the top selling game in the month. Our Take Nevertheless, we think that the upcoming holiday season will look brighter given the many new games scheduled for release.
Philip Trippenbach Market Research | Consumer Market Research - NPD - The Video Game Industry Is Adding 2-17 Year-Old Gamers At A Rate Higher Than That Age Groups Population Growth PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, October 11, 2011 –According to Kids and Gaming 2011, the latest report from leading market research company, The NPD Group, since 2009, the population growth of kids ages 2-17 increased 1.54 percent in the U.S., while the gaming population of that age group has grown 12.68 percent. This growth in kids’ gaming population is far outpacing the growth experienced by the population of 2-17 year olds in the country. Today, 91 percent of kids (approximately 64 million) ages 2-17 are gaming in the U.S., an increase of 9 points when compared to 2009. While the percentage of kids gaming has grown significantly across all age groups, the fastest growth has been among kids ages 2-5, with an increase of 17 points in gaming incidence when compared to 2009. While gaming on most devices has grown for 2-17 year olds, platforms such as mobile devices and computers have experienced the most significant increases in gaming activity.