How you and I are going to change the world

A tutorial on how to give great comments

and feedback 

that send out big, world-changing waves

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by Stan Faryna

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New Featured Item: The Galactic Herald Iso-8 Jewel (Fan-made)

Marvel Avengers Alliance: Galactic Herald Iso-8 Jewel

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How to save the world

This is a demonstration of how social media has changed how business is done.

It may also be a demonstration of how people can make change in the world through online community and action. The latter depends entirely on you and, yes, everyone else within the online reach and attention of these words. If you want to change the world for the better, you have to collaborate with others to make it happen.

You have to take personal responsibility and ownership of the desired change. You can’t just sit it out and hope for the best. And if you don’t have a pressing cause that you are personally motivated to see happen today, you can help someone else who has a cause that needs your support.

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Michael Jackson, They Don’t Really Care About Us

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Who knew that Seth Godin was a prophet of doom!

Who knew that Seth Godin was a prophet of doom!
by Stan Faryna

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Judy Garland, Over The Rainbow

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Facebook Games, The Grapes of Wrath, And a World of We

Oh – The Grapes of Wrath are spreading across Facebook Games like Kudzu

Social Games

Wildly embraced initially, Facebook games have become a huge disappointment to players. Hundreds of millions of farms have been abandoned, crops have withered, propeller capped sheep are on the verge of extinction, and farmers aren’t talking to their friends. The good news is that the flood of game-related wall spam has passed. But it didn’t just happen to Farmville. It happened across the board; Facebook games are failing to retain and entertain a restless market of 500+ Million Facebook gamers.

Game industry experts like Playdom Creative Director David Rohrl somehow got it wrong about what casual game play should be in a social game. As Rohrl himself noted, the social gaming space is not straightforward. One of the obvious fails was that social game companies fell into trap of thinking that graphics can substitute for game play. If only that were true, the economics would be unreal! On the other hand, players wanted more cuteness. They demanded it in the forums. Clicks confirmed it.

Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, however, cautioned against falling into the rut of crowd sourcing. “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse,’” observed the American industrialist. According to Jay Elliot, Ford’s caution is often quoted by Steve Jobs, founder of Apple.

Zynga blocks Farmer Andrew Trader from selling pig slop

Some farms are not for sale

Alpha Investment LLC, an Abu Dhabi company, is suing Zynga, a Facebook Game company, for Zynga’s attempt to block it’s purchase of shares from Zynga co-founder Andrew Trader.

Zynga, known for popular Facebook games such as Farmville, Cityville, Mafia Wars, etc. isn’t talking about why they’ve given Trader the boot. But it’s obvious that the parting was not friendly considering Zynga didn’t offer to buy Farmer Trader’s shares. Nor is Zynga allowing him to sell his shares to the Abu Dhabi company.

Alpha Investment is understandably upset, but this may be a boon in disguise. Zynga has some significant challenges to overcome before they can round third base and come home for a Billion dollar valuation. The Facebook game honeymoon is over, player defection exceeds registrations, and, frankly, Facebookers are getting tired of the pathetic, poor game play.

What about Playdom?

Playdom isn’t doing any better – regardless of the wildly inflated price paid by Disney.

The Next Web Milestone: Social Web 3.0 (P1)

Social Web 3.0

I have a vision of the next milestone for the web. It may or may not be original, insightful, feasible, useful or amazing. I call it Social Web 3.0. It’s emerging in attitudes, ambitions and technologies. My new friend, Ben Barden, a blogger, thinks I’m mistaken. But also old friends like Mihai Fanache, Yahoo!’s ad man in Romania, believe I’m mistaken.

Triberr, a blog promotion Twitter app, may (or may not) become an app that helps us move forward to a more social web. Unlike those quick to ignore it’s potential, I’m willing to give Triberr the benefit of the doubt – until it’s shortcomings overcome it’s potential. But it doesn’t have to go down like that. JackB and I seem to agree that it’s worthwhile to see where Triberr goes. But that’s another blog post.

Before we can get into what signals Social Web 3.0 as the next milestone in the evolution of the web, let’s review Web 2.0.

Web 2.0

Try to imagine this with me: the sound of an angry (blue) bird being launched.

Wah-heee…

Social City: Cheats, Bugs or Bust 1.1

Below, Paul Simon performing Graceland at a South African concert in Zimbabwe:

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Looking for CastleVille cheats, a Castleville guide, Car Town cheats, Go Fishing cheats or Marvel Avengers Alliance walk throughs? Click the orange text links.

 

Saving Graceland

Graceland is in trouble!

Stan’s town needs your help.

Oh Noes!

The game they got going in Social City is as deep as a puddle. Nevermind the toxic, oily (but pretty) rainbow shimmer of the new Tudor Mayoral Estate. I think Billy got knocked around there once. Or twice. Billy who? Billy Shakespeare, of course. But that’s just a rumor – mind you.

The Mayor of Graceland is considering resignation. And Graceland will be no more. It will fall apart. Factories will grind to a halt and the people of Graceland will get laid off. Public services will stop. People will move out. There will be rioting mimes. Killer robots. Cute kittens left in trees. Fires in the historic downtown. Potholes that swallow whole cars.

Organize a rescue mission!

Your reward should be something like 100 Gazillion City Bucks.

Maybe, it should be a lot more. But heck, they only offered 100 City Bucks to the contest winner who came up with the most popular building to add to the “store”. That’s comes out to about 5 bucks for which you may or may not be taxed. Brian Drake, Playdom’s Social City Community Manager, must think we all live in a low population, under-developed village in India or South America- if they can imagine that we could appreciate the symbolic value of that prize.

A truly symbolic reward would be 1000 City Bucks and it would include credit to the lucky guy or girl in the object information. That credit would include their F/B pic and a working link to their F/B account. Better still, there should be 20 winners – not just one. Because, most likely, they will eventually use more than 20 object suggestions – if not hundreds.

Anyway, what’s up with the five bucks?

Is that what they are paying to sweat shops in India, South America or China for all those Social City goodies they want to raffle off and sell to us? <grin> It’s not unheard of!