Readings - Ch 3 & 4
Videos - Talbott lecture, Rosling, Gladwell, Shiv, Google Car
Article - Product Flops 2012
The Gladwell video about choice and the variability of our tastes was very interesting. When I think of recent examples of what Gladwell was talking about I think of Halo. Halo is a popular video game about space marines killing aliens. Nothing too original, but where Halo really thrives is online multiplayer. Online multiplayer can best be described as dropping a bunch of gun-toting humans into a virtual world and telling them to go shoot each other. Online multiplayer is the primary draw for any online first person shooter game, so it’s critical that these games deliver a great multiplayer experience. Halo does this in two important ways.
First, Halo gives gamers an incredible amount of choice when it comes to what type of game to play with other people. Do you feel like just using sniper rifles? There is a game mode for that. Do you want to work with a team? There’s a mode for that. Want to go it alone? Yup, there’s a mode for that? Want to be a part of a large battle with tanks and airplanes? Check. Want to play a virtual game of rugby? Check! Want to play Zombie survival mode? Yes, it has that to. Halo’s different game modes cater to the many individual tastes of their many different customers. All of their customers have the shared desire to stroll around a virtual world with a machine gun, but that are many different ways you can enjoy that experience. Some modes are serious, while others are light-hearted. Some modes stress teamwork, while others promote individual skill and the list goes on.
Second, Halo strives to put you in the perfect multiplayer game. Halo does this by calculating your individual skill. Basically, they measure how good you are. You’re assigned a skill level, and each time you play you’re placed in matches with players of similar skills. Then at the end of each game Halo gathers your new performance data and adds it to your existing data to calculate a new skill. This is a great feature that allows new gamers to learn the ropes while keeping the virtual Navy Seals at bay. It’s best for everyone when people of varying skills are kept out of the same game. When this happens the game becomes too easy for some and very demoralizing for others. Recently, Halo took this a step further and started calculating individual skills for all of their game types. So for example, players now have a respective skill level for team death match, king of the hill, and capture the flag. Halo did this because they realized that most gamers excel in a few game modes while struggling in others, so an overall skill didn’t capture this level of variability between game modes.
These two important features of Halo allow it to deliver an unparalleled gaming experience that delivers an experience individually tailored for each customer.
First, Halo gives gamers an incredible amount of choice when it comes to what type of game to play with other people. Do you feel like just using sniper rifles? There is a game mode for that. Do you want to work with a team? There’s a mode for that. Want to go it alone? Yup, there’s a mode for that? Want to be a part of a large battle with tanks and airplanes? Check. Want to play a virtual game of rugby? Check! Want to play Zombie survival mode? Yes, it has that to. Halo’s different game modes cater to the many individual tastes of their many different customers. All of their customers have the shared desire to stroll around a virtual world with a machine gun, but that are many different ways you can enjoy that experience. Some modes are serious, while others are light-hearted. Some modes stress teamwork, while others promote individual skill and the list goes on.
Second, Halo strives to put you in the perfect multiplayer game. Halo does this by calculating your individual skill. Basically, they measure how good you are. You’re assigned a skill level, and each time you play you’re placed in matches with players of similar skills. Then at the end of each game Halo gathers your new performance data and adds it to your existing data to calculate a new skill. This is a great feature that allows new gamers to learn the ropes while keeping the virtual Navy Seals at bay. It’s best for everyone when people of varying skills are kept out of the same game. When this happens the game becomes too easy for some and very demoralizing for others. Recently, Halo took this a step further and started calculating individual skills for all of their game types. So for example, players now have a respective skill level for team death match, king of the hill, and capture the flag. Halo did this because they realized that most gamers excel in a few game modes while struggling in others, so an overall skill didn’t capture this level of variability between game modes.
These two important features of Halo allow it to deliver an unparalleled gaming experience that delivers an experience individually tailored for each customer.
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