Facebook: How Will It Justify Its $15 Billion Worth?

Author: Ben Parr | Internet & Gaming | January 8 | No Comments

 Note: This post was written as a response and commentary to Mazyar’s post on minds1anda.com. Since then his post and opinions have been modified. I will not be re-modifying this article to reflect those changes. I might make another response post, though.

Facebook had a very good 2007. It closed a 240 million dollar equity deal to boost its value to $15 Billion, it had perhaps the greatest innovation of the year with Facebook applications (more on that in a bit), and it even nearly became the word of the year (w00t? Come on). This hasn’t quieted the critics, however. It came under assault for Beacon, its advertising program that places what you do on outside websites onto news feed (for example, I have one friend who keeps adding recipes to epicurious.com and it keeps showing up on my news feed). It has also been criticized by some experts who believe that Facebook is overvalued. Even Bruce Jaffe, Microsoft’s VP of Corporate Development, said that it “paid a premium” with its investment in Facebook.

Let’s get to the meat of the issue, shall we? Is Facebook worth $15 billion now and what should Facebook do to validate that valuation? My dear friend Mazyar Kazerooni, Mind 1 of minds1anda.com wrote about this very subject in a recent post. For those of you who have not already basked in the glow of his post, here’s a summary of his recommendations:

• They need to loosen their ad policies.
• They need to allow social ads to be placed on third party sites
• They need to build a system for third party sites to collect deep demographic information on their users
• They need to build a system for companies to easily find potential employees

Right now, Facebook earns between $100 million and $250 million, nearly all of it on advertising revenue. They are a private company, so we can only speculate. Peter Thiel, Paypal co-founder, venture capitalist and Facebook’s most prominent investor, stated that Facebook’s internal financial models predict a $1 Billion revenue stream by 2015.

I believe that projection is too low. It has more potential than that by 2015. Perhaps they’re trying to be conservative to shatter expectations. In any case, Mazy’s two recommendations on advertising are, in my opinion, steps in that direction. Facebook has two important pieces in the financial puzzle: information and eyeballs. But they cannot rely on advertising on the Facebook platform alone to act as the revenue stream of the company. And I doubt that it will stay that way for very long.

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A Kabuki Warrior that WON’T kidnap and kill you.

Author: Phoenix | Internet & Gaming | December 1 | No Comments

Unsatisfied with traditional reviews, normally uninformative hype or bash pieces followed by a number, I am attempting a truly informative game review. My goal is to cut through the hype and tell you exactly what to expect from a game. If I’ve done my job, you can even talk about a game as if you played it yourself! This gives you a strong impression of how much you would enjoy it. Without further explanation, let’s get on to the review!

The story of Kabuki Quantum Fighter is not important. This HAL-published, late era NES game’s main appeal is its gameplay. Like many games of the 8-bit era, Kabuki gives you barely enough skills to fend off enemies without being underpowered. You won’t get to the end of it on your first playthrough, but after a few times in each section, you will be able to get through levels without dying. In this way, the game is a little harder than a Super Mario game, yet much shorter.

The main character, Scott, has a standing attack, a ducking attack, and a few projectiles. Using these weapons, you must go through side-scrolling levels beating up dogs, ninjas, and various types of monsters. Early on, timing poses a problem against fast enemies, especially those you can only hit with your ducking attack. However, you can launch repeated attacks without much lag, so timing only continues to be a problem if you rush headlong into many enemies at once. A turbo controller helps if you don’t have the patience to learn the correct timing.

Due to your fast attacks, you can play slowly and carefully and survive. But that changes when you fight a boss. These guys are flamboyant, off-the-wall damage machines. You can attack whenever you want, but the time given for safe attacks is small and gets smaller as you progress through the game. Fights are made more difficult because the bosses attack from every direction. The last boss is especially hard to avoid before you learn its attack patterns. Even after that, and like with the other bosses, you still have to contend with a small and unforgiving attack window.

In summary, responsive controls and unique, flashy bosses that do lots of damage make this game deserving of at least one playthrough. And I can’t end the review without talking about the music. This is some of the best the NES has to offer. I would even put it above most SNES games in spite of the obvious sound disparity between the NES and SNES hardware. There is a great remix on OCRemix if you want to get a taste.

Recommendations:

Hardcore Gamers - Speedrunning is possible, but most will take it as a notch on their gaming belt and move on.
Casual Gamers - It’s just too hard for a casual player.
Knowing Your Roots - Not a pioneering game, but it was published by HAL, famed Nintendo second-party developer.
Replay Value - One playthrough will be enough for most.
Intangibles - It’s a charming game with fantastic music. A must-play for every Nintendo and HAL fan. Scott might make a good Smash Bros. character.

Keep an eye out for my reviews of newer games, coming soon! Please give your opinion if anything stands out (in a good or bad way). Thank you! [For your education; This review’s title is a reference to Kabuki Warriors (link) and the Arrested Development episode “Making a Stand” =P]

Super Mario Galaxy: Meteoric Impact On the Industry

Author: Jon T. (Janked) | Internet & Gaming | November 26 | 1 Comment

Now that Super Mario Galaxy has achieved the title of the second best reviewed game of all time according to GameRankings.com, just 0.2% behind The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which has held the spot for ten years, it’s clear that Galaxy is going to have a lasting effect on the gaming industry.Nintendo has been absolutely unstoppable in this next generation console war, with the Wii and DS consistently dominating the monthly NPD numbers, which measure the amount of hardware and software sales each month. The Wii sold 501,000 units, and the DS sold 495,800 units in September alone. Nintendo’s foray into the casual market on both console and handheld has clearly paid off. From Brain Age and Nintendogs to Wii Play Nintendo seems to have the casual market covered.

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