Month: March 2023

Five things on Friday #343

Things of note for the week ending Friday March 24th, 2023

INTRO

Two editions in January. Two editions in March. If I keep this up, we may get into some kind of regular pattern for this thing y’know? Amazing.

(No promises though babe)

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks. The San Francisco Game Developers Conference (GDC) has been in full swing and I’m fascinated by the news and announcements that have been flowing out – more of that later in Thing 3. And I’ve also had a bunch of stuff go out all at the same time that was made all at different times over the past few months (Adweek commentary, podcast stuff, a speaker announcement) – and they’re linked in their proper places in this week’s edition.

Thank you, by the way, for the nice notes and comments from the last edition in regards to the words I wrote about taking on my first CSO role. You’ve all been super lovely and, well, I’m pleased. I wrote it to offer insight and to help 🙂

In a similar vein, the week after next I’ve got my first hire starting at Diva (WEEEEEEEE!!!). So here’s a little Twitter thread about that process – and ultimately why feedback is so important.

Finally, for the newbies – and strangely there are quite a few of you this week (hello!), this newsletter is a mixture of culture, news, advertising, video games, and just occasional random things I enjoy. Sometimes there are typos – but they’re there to test you. So if you spot one, let me know!

Right then.

Shall we?

1. SEE YOU AT WASD?

‘WASD’, Noun. Event.
/W.A.S.D./Wazz-da/Was-duh/Woz-dee/

Later this month see the return of London-based consumer and trade games show, WASD. We were there last year (I hosted a terrific panel of industry veterans talking about the future of the industry and played some fantastic games – see Thing 3, in, FTOF #328). This year, it’s back and bigger than ever – this time moving from Tobacco Dock to the Truman Brewery – and hosting so many more devs and publishers and their games. From Street Fighter 6 to VR2 and every indie inbetween, there will be a LOT to see.

Also, if you’re going to pop along to the London Developer Conference on March 30th (running in parallel and on the ground floor to WASD), I’ll be giving a talk about how devs can ready themselves for working with brands – in a refreshed update to the talk ‘Metaverse, what metaverse?’ – this new version be less provocative and more constructive. Promise. Ish. …we’ll see. 😁

Anyway, I’ll be there Thursday in a work capacity and Saturday as a punter with the fam. Hopefully see you there?

Tickets are available now.

PS. Work in the industry and don’t have a ticket to the industry after show party? Get in touch.

2. LAUGHTER & THE MAGUS

This week on Twitter someone shared the lede from the this 1993 excellent long read profile of the incredible Ricky Jay.

You should click through and read the opener (and then see if you stick around for the whole thing – it’s a great read). I’ve known and read loads of stuff about Ricky Jay before. The man is a master. Magic was a thing I used to do for a while (not like ‘I know a couple of card tricks’ magic, more… I was a magician’s assistant one summer in my teens and I did a couple of kids’ parties) and, well, when my friends and I used to trade tricks the ambition was never shock, or surprise – it was always laughter. If you could bring about laughter in another magician, then the job was done.

I’ve seen Ricky Jay do a lot of stuff. On YouTube videos on TV shows – and I’ve read about him a ton. The point is, after finding the article above and from the same Twitter thread, I found and watched this incredible film of a trick I’d not seen Ricky do before. I laughed. I laughed and laughed and laughed.

In awe.

3. THIS WEEK IN GAMING

Hopefully not that much this week given all the WASD stuff above but let’s see how we go…

There’s only one major thing to talk about this week and it’s this:

GDC 2023 | Epic Games - Unreal Engine

Epic’s ‘State of Unreal’ presentation at GDC 2023. If you are so inclined, you can go ahead and watch the full one hour twelve minute presentation over on YouTube right now – and honestly, if you have the time, I really recommend you do. The technology on display is truly game-changing. Literally.

This v short clip for Hellblade II for example, is just one clip of just how amazing the new standards of this tech truly this.

I can’t wait for Hellblade II. But also: Metahumans are insane.

So yeah, there’s that.

Then there’s the update to Fortnite. With Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) and Creator Economy 2.0. I’ve been saying to anyone that will listen that ‘You should keep an eye on what Epic are building’ – because frankly, Roblox stole their breakfast lunch and dinner and, well, GDC was a proper flex.

FORTNITE ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • 500M players.

  • Islands built using Fortnite’s creator tools take up 40% of the playtime on the platform.

  • A new creator portal enabling IP ownership for development on platform.

  • UEFN means you can make a ton of new games, and *while you are building them* your friends on your team can drop in – from any platform that runs Fortnite – and run around. WHILE YOU ARE BUILDING IT.

  • From this week, 40% of Fortnite’s net revenue (billions of dollars every year) is going to be open and shared with the people developing and publishing games on the Fortnite platform.

  • And so much more…

In short: Fortnite is getting bigger. Better. And for Unreal Engine, it is an incredible Trojan Horse.

But that’s not what I want to talk about (!) – what I want to talk about is, Epic’s CEO, Tim Sweeney’s closing remarks about Epic’s future vision.

Aka, what Epic is calling: ‘The open metaverse of the future’ (it’s a ten minute talk, and this link should take you right to it).

And I really like it.

In the talk, Sweeney ‘Metaverse inspired games’ such as Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft, etc – collectively cover an identifiable audience of 600m active users – on a trajectory that will be in its billions by the end of the decade.

Tim says:

‘We can set aside the crazy hype cycle around NFTs and VR goggles… …and the core of it is something that every gamer understands: it’s you, and your friends, getting together online and going around as a group – on voice chat, having a fun time in social entertainment experiences. Some of these experiences are serious games like battle royale, some of them are going to a concert and dancing or chatting with friends and just having a good time’

Social entertainment experiences, something I’ve been calling metaversal activities sounds exactly like what so many other badly made platforms (Horizon Worlds, Sandbox, Decentraland) and terrible brand executions (like, I don’t know – just close your eyes and throw a dart) have been trying to do over the past 12 mths or so but doing it without any real idea of audience size or segmentation, creative nous, or understanding of what it is they’re trying to do and therefore achieving little to nothing aside from a few trade PR headlines.

But with the tools and platforms Epic is publishing I can genuinely see the path towards what they are calling the ‘open metaverse of the future’. And, in attempt to tick the ‘interoperable’ part of the metaverse definition, Epic also believes it should all be open and connected – ‘turning today’s game engines into tomorrow’s metaverse browser engines’.

Like I said: I really like it. It talks about social entertainment experiences and does so from the point of view of the player.

I do think the ‘m’ word is unhelpful (the definition is loose, at best) but generally, when people like Epic stand up and talk about this, it’s useful to sit up and listen.

A metaverse of games – connected via a backbone of Unreal tools and services – feels like something that will happen.

And I’m interested.

This is a very good follow up piece (with additional commentary and interview notes).

Other gaming-themed links of note:

And finally, towards the end of last year (November to be exact) I was asked on to be a guest on a new audio series from Kaspersky, called ‘Insight Story’.

Episode 1 was, of course, ‘What should you be doing about the metaverse?’

Apple links also available.

A good conversation that lays out what is and what isn’t worth worrying about if you’re a brand or an SME thinking about getting involved with ‘the metaverse’. I’m also quite happy that five months ago I was talking about the activities outlined by Epic above (in a similar context).

Would love to know what you think.

What am I playing?

  • Diablo IV beta (phenomenal).

  • Back into Destiny 2 (which is great – beat the raid! Earned a raid jacket!)

  • Finally had enough tokens to get Knull in Marvel Snap and now I can’t put it down again.

  • I’ve got Tchia downloaded and ready to go but haven’t had a chance to try it yet.

What are you playing?

4. ‘PROPER WHOPPERS’

Sharing this again because it’s just so good.

We used to do these for Kronenbourg 1664 at Ogilvy, years ago (and it might’ve got us in trouble once too) and so I know the effort that goes into these things.

The ‘Proper Whopper’ line was on the cover the Metro the day before and so less than 24hrs later, to have the ad space bought, the brief in, copy approved, and then lined up and published…? That is some herculean effort.

Well done to all involved.

Ps. For the non-Brits reading this. Our ex-Prime Minister is a proven pathological liar. And has been pulled over the coals for misleading parliament (about his lies when he was partying his way through covid lockdowns – fun!)

5. NYC CABBIE AND HIS AMAZING PHOTOS

Ryan Weideman nyc cab driver street photography

Ryan Weideman is an NYC cab driver that has spent the last 30 years taking photos of his passengers.

This is his story. And there are many photos.

BONUS SECTION

THIS IS THE BONUS SECTION. BONUS LINKS THAT BUMP US OVER FIVE THINGS AND THIS WEEK CONSIDERABLY SHORTER GIVEN HOW MANY OF YOU COMPLAINED ABOUT BROKEN TAB

ENJOY.

YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.

This week I’m signing off with a photo.

My good friend and old Ogilvy pal Larry was in town this week – extremely short notice and so, because the bugger lives in Amsterdam, I dropped everything and high-tailed it into Soho to see him.

We drank Guinness, traded stories, and took photos of each other because that’s what you do when you’re in your 40s reminiscing. Anyway, Lazzle Bazzle Pazzle (that’s his real name), took a photo of me that I quite liked and, because I’m never going to reboot my instagram, you can have it as well.

So here’s me, at 9pm on Wednesday night. Literally, happy as Larry.

Image

Until next time,

Whatley out x

Five things on Friday #342

Things of note for the week ending Friday March 17th, 2023

INTRO

Hello friend. It’s been a while.

How the hell are you? Been up to much? Me? Yeah, I’m alright. Head down, cracking on – last quarter of the FY kind of madness. You know how it is. Plus, for those of you reading this in the UK, any idea when Spring is coming? Enquiring minds want to know. Thanks.

Where we we? Ah yes, that’s right. Welcome. Welcome to #342 of Five things on Friday – a semi-occasional/weekly newsletter of no real description other than ‘it covers stuff that James Whatley finds interesting’ – people seem to like it. Yourself included. So thank you for that.

I must confess, I think I’ve sat down to write this newsletter on three separate occasions this month (he says, changing the date on the header – again), which goes to show how non-stop it’s been of late. Be that as it may, the THINGS that have been wibbling away in the inbox since… January? are all still pretty fresh.

So let’s stop the waffle and get right on that, shall we?

LET’S.

1. A YEAR IN THE JOB

It’s crazy to me that just over a year ago I arrived into Bristol to start my new job as Chief Strategy Officer for the gaming native integrated creative agency known as Diva (see Thing 1, #324).

And yet here we are, one year later…

Madness.

The reason I’m telling you is from the moment I accepted the job – my first ever position as CSO – I got super introspective. I wanted to make sure I had done the prep work for the responsibility. It’s a big deal! I asked a few people for advice. And tried not to overthink it too much (narrator: he failed).

However, one thing I definitely did do at the time was try to capture how I was feeling about it. Like, what does a CSO say think and do in 2022? I never got around to editing it down to publishable length (although I did pitch it to some very patient editors).

A year on, and a new pal said I should revisit it and maybe publish it as is/was. So I booted up the old Google Doc, copied and pasted it over into Linkedin, and hit publish.

So here it is ‘LEADERS ARE WHAT YOU MAKE THEM’.

I’d love to know what you think.

x

PS. Thanks for the nudge, EML.

2. IT’S THE PHONES, STUPID

This, via the John Burn-Murdoch at the FT, is compelling reading.

“Something is going very wrong for teenagers. Between 1994 and 2010, the share of British teens who do not consider themselves likeable fell slightly from 6 per cent to 4 per cent; since 2010 it has more than doubled. The share who think of themselves as a failure, who worry a lot and who are dissatisfied with their lives also kicked up sharply. The same trends are visible across the Atlantic.

The number of US high school students who say their life often feels meaningless has rocketed in the past 12 years. And it’s not just the anglosphere. In France, rates of depression among 15- to 24-year-olds have quadrupled in the past decade. Wherever you look, youth mental health is collapsing, and the inflection point is ominously consistent: 2010 give or take a year or two — when smartphones went from luxury to ubiquity.”

It’s the phones, stupid.

The full article – along with more charts and analysis – is available here, Smartphones and social media are destroying children’s mental health.

Important reading.

And if you recognise the name, John Burn-Murdoch was the data scientist who led the work around the FT’s best in class covid-19 reporting.

Related reading:

3. THIS WEEK IN GAMING

Last time we spoke, we were getting very excited about the imminent arrival of PlayStation VR2. Well, since we last spoke, VR2 has arrived! And while I may have done a mini-review thread over on Twitter, I can safely say it is a considerable improvement over the original.

The highlight is, of course, Horizon Call of the Mountain.

It’s insanely good. As any first party launch title should be. But, truth be told I’ve not had that much time to play it (work/life being what it is at the moment). But the games I have played have been superb.

  • No Man’s Sky (free VR2 update), is outstanding.

  • Zombieland Headshot Fever Reloaded is super fun (disclosure: we made the trailer).

  • Tentacular – cute as hell and it just works.

And while these games are excellent (and there’s more – I’ve not even booted up the likes of Rez, Tetris, or Gran Turismo 7 – and the other games announced for the ‘launch window’ also look great (The Last Worker is top of that list)), to my mind I think it’s still missing a few things. A few more updates would be good – speaking for my kids specifically, they’re missing VR painting games (like Tilt Brush) and the connection and carry over from older PSVR1 games – such as Minecraft.

(Seriously, Minecraft on VR2 would be amazing)

Beat Saber is expected to arrive soon but not here yet, Half-Life Alyx is highly rumoured (but nothing solid) and then maybe possibly a 3D interface for when you turn it on might be quite fun…

Point is: it’s great. Is it perfect? No. Will it get better? Definitely. One notable thing that does stand out mind is that VR2 is the first VR headset I think ever, that I’ve been comfortable wearing for a lengthy amount of time. Spending a few hours climbing around in Horizon or exploring in NMS is breeeeeezy. And quietly surprising with it.

OK, so what else can I tell you?

First off, I don’t know how many of you this is relevant for but in light of Google Stadia going bye bye back in January (BARELY A DENT WAS MADETH), the AAA games streaming options are now Xbox Cloud Gaming – via Game Pass Ultimate or GeForce Now (GFN), from Nvidia.

The former is handy if you want to go all in on the Xbox ecosystem (and want to play anywhere) but the latter, I’ve only really dabble with here and there. We’re not a gaming PC house so getting access to Steam stuff is… difficult. To get around this in the short term we’ve basically been using an Apple Magic Keybord, an Nvidia Shield, and an Xbox controller to play via GFN.

A bit of a faff.

But the kids liked it and it was a chance to experiment with some different games. HOWEVER. A couple of weeks ago I spotted, purely by chance really, that Nvidia had gone and released the GFN streaming app for my TV (the 2020 LG CX).

Image

It’s nothing short of revelatory. App-based instant games streaming. We’ve got an old PS4 controller bluetoothed to the TV and we’re off to the races.

Downsides: you’ve got to buy the games via Steam first (this is where Game Pass has the advantage).

Upsides: all those PC games you’ve missed? Right here, right now. Can’t afford a AAA console or a (ridiculously priced) gaming PC? Sorted.

Among everything else going on in games at the moment, this continual lowering of the barrier to entry to AAA gaming is the one that’s most exciting to me.

A few of gaming articles of note:

Finally… what am I playing?

  • Midnight Suns (Xbox). I can’t put this down.

  • Destiny 2: Lightfall (PS5). I’ve sworn to my fireteam I will be raid ready by the weekend 😬

  • Wario Ware on the GBA via the Switch. Why? Here’s why.

  • Pedestrian (PS5) – really quite charming.

  • And eventually… all the VR2 games mentioned above.

What are you playing?

4. THAT’S NO MOON!

This is kind of mental.

Reddit user ibreakphotos had a hunch that maybe Samsung might be doing something extra with its “space zoom” moon photos and, after digging a bit deeper and running a few tests, has declared that they are basically all fake.

“Many of us have witnessed the breathtaking moon photos taken with the latest zoom lenses, starting with the S20 Ultra. Nevertheless, I’ve always had doubts about their authenticity, as they appear almost too perfect. While these images are not necessarily outright fabrications, neither are they entirely genuine…”

tldr; ibreakphotes downloaded a high-res image of the moon, downsized it 170×170, applied a blur, then put the image on a monitor before turning the lights off and taking a photo from the other side of the room.

This is what happened:

Now look, there’s probably some VERY SMART AI/ML stuff going on in the background here but it’s not just scaling up, it’s seemingly adding detail as well.

Nuts.

Read the full thesis over on Reddit.

5. THE MATERNITY PLEDGE

Here’s a thing. It’s not often one of your best mates says something like ‘Yeah, so the wife has launched a new venture that I think is really bloody brilliant and you should look at it’

But when your best mate DOES say that, you should pay attention.

That’s why I’m sharing this with you today.

The Maternity Pledge is a free to join workplace pledge that supports employees who are pregnant, on maternity leave and returning to work. It also includes perinatal mental health support packs for employees when they confirm their pregnancy at work. 

Retention of working mothers remains a big issue – 60% change jobs after maternity leave. The pledge puts five simple pillars in place that start from pregnancy right through until the return to work. It comes with a handbook and tools to help implement the pillars really easily and a digital badge to indicate to current employees and new talent that you are supportive of working mothers. It’s great for smaller businesses who need some help with their maternity policy, and equally good for larger companies who may already be meeting the pillars of the pledge as the badge provides visual recognition of what they’re doing well.

The pledge also focuses on wellbeing. You can purchase perinatal mental health support packs for your staff. These expert-led unique packs focus on the emotional transition to motherhood. They’re inclusive (mother being an inclusive term as per 2019 UK law), can be given to expectant mothers or fathers, and include a free subscription to The Maternity Pledge members club which runs during maternity leave and includes coaching and guidance on returning to the workplace.

If you’d like to know more or join the pledge you can register at https://www.maternitypledge.com/join-the-pledge or email susannah at maternitypledge dot com for a chat.

So do that, yeah?

BONUS SECTION

THIS IS THE BONUS SECTION. A SECTION THAT THIS WEEK I MAKE NO APOLOGIES FOR BECAUSE HONESTLY I THINK IT MIGHT BE LONGER THAN THE REST OF THE SODDING NEWSLETTER. SORRY NOT SORRY.

ENJOY.

YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.

OK so hot damn, I thought this one would be a lengthy edition. If I lost you in the bonuses there for a bit, I’m sorry (I’m not sorry).

As is the norm at this stage of proceedings, I tend to say thank you. Maybe recommend a thing or two (new Mando is quite good; I’m slowly catching up with TLOU).

I’ve got some Destiny to play and a Raid to get ready for.

Until next time.

Whatley out x

PS. Hit that reply button – tell me your favourite thing this week 🙂

PPS. Here, have some potatoes.