Disqus - Latest Comments for ndintenfass

Re: foursquare is a game, not a location app – and that’s why it works

ndintenfass — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:00:02 -0000

The risk of such overt game mechanics is they get old -- if you look at your typical casual game life-cycle it doesn't last (though who am I to tell YOU about casual games ;). That's one reason the successful casual game companies keep pumping out new games in a "Studio" model rather than banking on any one property. Will people still want to be the mayor of a location a year into using foursquare? Can foursquare continue to introduce new game elements to keep it fresh?

The other issue with a "game" is it creates a fairly specific audience -- those who want to "play a game". When I first started using foursquare that seemed immediately limiting to me - I knew large portions of my friends/network would not want to engage given the explicit gaming nature of it. I suppose, though, that makes for a more passionate user base which could compensate for the smaller overall footprint.

Based on the rankings I see in the app it seems there is a small, though dedicated, group using it in San Francisco (measured in 4 figures near as I can discern). Will be interesting to see if it can break out to the mainstream.

Do you think it has both staying power and broad appeal?

Re: Aswan

ndintenfass — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 12:10:53 -0000

You know you've made it to the big time when you have hecklers in the comments

Re: It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

ndintenfass — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:01:09 -0000

Amen, brotha.

Re: My Aching Ass (or, the Cambodian Motorcycle Diaries)

ndintenfass — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 05:07:16 -0000

Man, between the vomiting, the flesh-eating bacteria, and rashy ass cheeks, we could almost believe traveling around the world for a couple years isn't all fun and games....

Re: Daily Travel Photo - Appleton, Wisconsin

ndintenfass — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 21:38:09 -0000

ATW, represent!

Re: Final Thoughts on Singapore

ndintenfass — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:24:53 -0000

Perhaps they can follow the "fast follower" strategy in business and not need to be a source of true innovation -- but can just out-execute.

Re: Three Blog Posts In Progres

ndintenfass — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:22:06 -0000

I'm still trying to figure out the answer to #1 ;)

Online video is still very much in the "one of these days" mode -- people draw the curve of online attention vs. online spend and feel there is inevitable massive growth. At the same time we see consumers increasingly willing to pay money in various ways for premium content. The monetization channels for video are just now starting to feel like they have a path to "maturity" -- and many of them are just getting started (even Google's efforts are fairly new), and the media buyers are notoriously slow to adopt. In short, it simply takes time to get the buyers comfortable with any new format, and the confounding influences of all the talk of new ways to measure engagement and rapid pace of change relative to the previous several decades create a lot of friction to rapid growth, but much of that could credibly be said to be "almost over" in terms of making the transition. If you buy that, online video is poised to be a substantially bigger market in just a handful of years.

"Marketplace" seems to be defined very broadly here -- look forward to hearing where you draw the distinctions.

Re: Solving the Twitter Business Model Problem - Your Guess is Probably Better than Mine

ndintenfass — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:12:42 -0000

And yet conventional wisdom seems to persist that consumer Internet companies shouldn't bother to worry about a business model in the early days...