Last December, I blogged about my experiences running my own virtual cafe’ in Cafe’ World via Facebook. Since then, I spent a lot of time in Cafe’ Frazier, sending gifts of food and stove parts to friends, cooking up a storm to keep my level higher than those of my neighbors, and trying out new decor items. There are times when I am too busy to play online, so I go dark for a period of time, but something always seems to reignite my interest, and I get sucked in again.
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Last week, when The NPD Group posted video game industry sales results for March, one could almost hear the collective sigh of relief among stakeholders; that after a fairly long drought, there was some good news to report. The industry recorded a gain of 6 percent in total revenues generated, and along with that top line gain, several records were noted as well. For me, it’s always more fun to report good news than bad, so here are just a few of the stories pulled from analysis of the data:
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When I was 16, I got my first non-babysitting job and spent four months toiling at the drive-through window of my local Carl’s Jr. restaurant. Being a quick study, “Want some fries with that shake?” or “Can I interest you in a hot apple pie this evening?” soon rolled off my tongue at the end of every order as I eagerly attempted to up sell customers.
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During some of my “kid-oriented” presentations, I will often talk about some of the things that we adults can still remember, but that kids of today have never been exposed to - like rotary-dialed phones or 8-track tapes. I was reminded of this recently when I had my car in for service and was given a loaner for the day, and the car actually had manual roll-down windows. My kids had no clue how to operate them, and a verbal explanation wouldn’t do - I had to visually demonstrate the hand-cranking method for them as they stared on in disbelief.
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Like many of you, I spent a good portion of my Thanksgiving weekend cooking. In addition to the traditional turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie, my weekend menu included hundreds of portions of Triple Berry Cheesecake, French Onion Soup, chips and guacamole, home-style pot roast and Tikka Masala Kabobs. Now, mind you, not all of this was real food. Much was conjured up in Cafe’ Frazier compliments of Cafe’ World, one of the most popular social networking games on Facebook. As my kids observed me running to the computer to serve up my fruit salad before it rotted on the stove (who makes fruit salad on the stove anyway?), they soon became curious and interested themselves, and before I knew it, I had created a Facebook account for my 7 year-old twins so they could run a cafe’ of their very own. And my kids have a lot of company when it comes to gaming.
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The highly anticipated video game industry sales results for September have now been delivered, and many who were expecting a bigger increase over last year’s results, were underwhelmed by the numbers. The industry did return to positive territory after six consecutive months of posting declines, but the increase was a modest 1 percent.
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We frequently meet with clients to take a look at changes in the industry and consumer behavior, and provide analysis and insights into how the changes will impact things to come. This spring, it was clear that last year was one of the most transformative years in the video games industry: audience expansion, the accelerating adoption of digital distribution, increases in mobile and social gaming, and the influence of the Wii were all topics on the minds of industry followers. But I get a little uneasy when I see how all these factors are influencing the plethora of free game options available, and while it’s great to have more ways to expose gaming to a broader audience, the industry struggles with how to best monetize that gaming activity.
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Many of us in the video games industry eagerly await E3 next week in Los Angeles. As we’ve been busily working on our meeting schedules, invariably the conversation turns to, “What do you think will be the big announcements coming out of E3?”
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When I least expected it, BAM! Something hit me over the head like the proverbial ton of bricks. I was sitting at a conference in January listening to a panel discussion on kids and their use of the Internet. As usual, Internet safety concerns came up time and time again. Amongst the largely PC panelists, one more outspoken gentleman was talking about what kids were really doing on the Internet, and the pains they take to hide these things from their parents, especially their mothers. While moms rule the household and largely set the rules and cultural agendas, dads will tell great stories about the things they got away with when THEY were kids, and most likely rebel against mom’s household rules themselves. And that’s when it hit me - I am totally un-cool.
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Video Games | Anita Frazier, Entertainment Industry Analyst Toys & Video Games | 
August 24, 2010 12:12 pm | 
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