The Forge

Silicon Alley Insider is attempting to rank the most valuable private web companies in the world. The list is of note to this blog largely because it contains a number of entries that are MMO/Virtual World-based. (of course, please note that as these are private companies and as Silicon Alley Insider has no privileged access to their financials valuing these companies is really nothing more than a somewhat educated guess).

Facebook tops the list, of course (though at $9 billion rather than the $15 billion valuation Microsoft invested in), but Webkinz is #7, Habbo is #9, Linden Lab is #11, and Stardoll is #17. Bafflingly missing is Runescape/Jagex, which it seems to me should be somewhere around where Habbo is.

Ok, maybe not  the best (I put freerice  in the top slot as it actually accomplishes something) but I think September 12th is one the best so-called ’serious’ games I’ve played, despite its claim that it’s not a game. The mechanics are dead-simple and the game doesn’t need a bunch of explanation to illustrate the point its making. Good stuff.

I’m not going to insult anyone’s intelligence by explaining any further. Just check it out! (It’ll only take a minute of your time or so.)

Looks like Three Rings’s Whirled launched very recently. Congrats to Dan and his piratey crew (including you too Par!)

We (Sparkplay Media) are looking for someone for an office manager and assistant to me, basically. What I want is someone who is really enthusiastic about games, who has general administrative experience and wants to spend a couple years working as part of the team, keeping the office functioning generally and helping to remove administrative work from my plate.

You’ll get a chance to involve yourself in game development as far as your abilities go and time allows, and if you’re relatively untrained we’ll help you learn how to help. Once we think you’re ready, you can train a replacement and move full-time into whatever aspect of game development you showed the most promise at if that’s what you’d like. No game development experience is necessary for this position (though having it is certainly not a negative).

This would, obviously, be an on-site position at our offices in North Beach, in San Francisco. Pay would depend on what experience and skills you bring to the table, but will be reasonably competitive.

The important thing to us is that whoever fills this position is just a very multi-functional person capable of being reliable and who is self-motivated. We want you to look for responsibility to take on and stretch yourself, and, of course, be a cheerleader for Sparkplay.

I’m posting it here rather than on our website first as there may be people out there who vaguely know me through the blog that are interested. Please feel free to refer anyone you think is a good fit too.

Responsibilities:

• Provide administrative support to the CEO (me) and others as needed, ranging from scheduling travel to booking meetings to light market research to putting together Powerpoint presentations.
• Keep the physical office running – order office supplies as needed, coordinate deliveries and repairmen, etc
• Handle general administrative duties – faxing, filing, organizing, and so on.
• Assist in the processing of hiring, benefits and termination packets.
• Answer the phone.
• Help out with whatever game development you can as a secondary priority.
• Just generally do what you can to help the entire team that you’re part of kick some butt.

Requirements:

• 2+ years experience administrative work (office manager, administrative assistant, etc)
• High school diploma or G.E.D.; BA degree preferred.
• Excellent skills in Word, Excel, Powerpoint. Ability and willingness to learn new software packages.
• General knowledge of office equipment.
• Record of stable employment. At least two years in your previous position.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Good judgment; ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Bonus: Better-than-novice Dreamweaver skills (so you can do some very light website updates)
• Bonus: Game development experience (either amateur or professional)

You need to be legally qualified to work in the US for this position.

If you’re interested send me an email directly to matt (-at-) sparkplaymedia (-dot-) com. To show you’re paying attention, include the word “platypus” in the subject line!

This cracks me up.

Antigua, a small Caribbean country, is threatening to make piracy of IP owned by US-based owners legal, and it apparently has WTO backing to do so. The US, in impressive hypocrisy, outlawed international online gambling, while keeping domestic online horse race betting legal. The WTO ruled that this kind of naked protectionism was illegal and Antigua claims it will make moves towards turning piracy into legal sharing in the case of US IP.

I’m not sure this sort of situation (which could lead to very accessible servers full of movies, music, etc that couldn’t be shut down by the US government without resorting to force) is inevitable but I’m a fan of the little guy telling the bully on the block to go stick it. The consequences of that situation arising really highlights the importance of providing a service (far more expensive/difficult to duplicate than IP is) rather than just a product, though of course anyone making MUDs/MMOs or any other game with a critical server component already knew that.

Update: A commenter points out that the WTO ruling caps the amount of damage Antigua can do at $21 million, which makes for a far less interesting situation.

(Via PlayNoEvil)

Sparkplay is hiring. (For Senior Designer, Senior Software Engineer, and Software Engineer. More positions coming later.)

JOKING! (and who got put on what card was mainly random)

But still, kind of funny: (bottom, second from the right is me). I guess if I had to be a card and couldn’t be the Ace of Spades or one of the Jokers, King of Hearts isn’t too bad. I feel a bit bad for those who got stuck on the threes and fours.

Woot! Just finished it, and it only took a month and a half, with a recorded play time of about 19 hours (probably 25-50% more if you consider all the dying I did in the early to mid stages of the game).

One of the best games I’ve played in a long time. Minireview: Loved the story, loved the conversation mechanic, loved the ‘world’ backstory, enjoyed the combat, hated the inventory management. 9.4/10

I don’t know him well enough to call him a friend, but Scott Jennings and I certainly share a similar enough outlook on many parts of life for me to consider him a friend-in-waiting. His blog, of course, is at www.brokentoys.org.

Scott’s got a problem currently. He lives in America, and has been operating under the understandable assumption that freedom of speech lives on, for the most part. Sadly, not everyone feels that way.

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It’s that GDC time of the year again, and for those interested, I’m running roundtables on virtual goods with Dan James again, like the last two years, and will be on a panel about raising venture financing with a bunch of good folks. You can find a link to the descriptions of the roundtables and panel here. Hope to see some familiar faces and some new faces!