New Contributor - Taylan Kadayifcioglu (mini-interview inside)

by Alex Eprejessy on 30 April, 2009 - 17:03

After a short B&G break, we're back with a brand new contributor. Taylan Kadayifcioglu is young, is keen and writes mind-blowingly sharp posts on branding in video games. His posts are now available on business&games and his own blog  The Selling Game: A Quest to Innovate. Mini-interview with Taylan and article links after the jump.

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH TAYLAN KADAYIFCIOGLU

Who's Taylan Kadayifcioglu?

Let's see. Formal answer is: a freelance business consultant and journalist specializing in video games industry. Currently I reside in Vancouver, British Columbia, the home of many video game studios and talents; taking full advantage of my location within this digital media hub to observe how the business is evolving.

Personal answer would be: A passionate thinker, a strategist, and a bit of a self-proclaimed philosopher (is there any other kind, really). I am an introvert who keeps a keen eye on things happening around him on many levels. As opposed to a here-and-now mentality, you might say mine is more like there-and-tomorrow, with a healthy dose of yonder-and-yesterday for good perspective, so that I can draw the map of from-here-to-there.

I love imagination, creativity, using both sides of my brain, and walks of negotiable duration on the beach.

Why the passion for branding in video games?

Because my goal is finding out how a developer of quality games can be rewarded, and kept making more quality games. Branding is a neglected lifeline of quality in that regard. What we see, particularly in the triple A game market, is that developers and designers are pushed to the background in promotion of a game, while publishers and franchises dominate the limelight. This strategy actually cripples the functionality of the brand.

As consumers we need brands, to "pull" the kind of products we need. We need a name for, say, safety in cars so we can demand it. The name Volvo in that regard means more than just a brand. It tells all the other manufacturers what safety should be like. If enough people buy it, it tells that we care for safety. Similarly, we need names for quality, creativity and originality in video games, so we may nurture them with our choices as buyers. Neglecting designer and developer branding effectively prevents the market from exercising its fundamental function: the natural selection of the best.

Hollywood is well ahead of video games in that respect, as they do not shy away from letting the actors, actresses, directors and producers shine at the forefront of a movie promotion. What's the new Terminator movie without Christian Bale? Who cares who the publisher of the movie is? We know it is talent that makes or breaks an entertainment experience, so let us know if your title is produced by the right talent. I think video games industry needs more of this kind of branding in order to grow up and refine itself.

What's one opportunity that marketers are missing right now, in regards to video games?

I was reading Dominic Basulto's blog post on Strategy and Innovation Blog, regarding the evolution of advertising. One thing really caught my eye, a quote from Ajaz Ahmed: "The agency of the future will be half a software company and half an entertainment company because that's the new landscape." I was thinking to myself: what do you get if you put those two halves together? Voi la, it's a video game development company!

I think marketers are a bit slow in understanding what a culture shift we are having right now, in terms of the market penetration of gaming. Sure there are countless presentations showing how the demographics are now almost all-encompassing, and executives of prominent agencies seem to be aware of the phenomena; but at the client side of the agency world, marketing professionals are not fully understanding what can be achieved, who can be reached, how they can be engaged, how this all can be measured, and what the costs are.

I was doing a coverage of in-game advertising a while ago on my blog, and all the awe and discussion seemed to be about how dynamic in game ads could get eyeballs from gamers. Sure it is a remarkable thing to be able to publish your ads on a billboard within a game, but is this really the best use of the medium? I usually liken this to peeling potatoes with a lighsaber. Sure you can peel them very nicely (and even fry them in the process!) and it's very novel, but perhaps there are other things you could do with that thing in your hand. Just maybe it was meant for greater things, than being just another venue to force your message on people. Probably a message that noone believes anymore anyhow.

So the missed opportunity is making full use of the interactivity and immersion potential of the medium. There are examples that do capture that potential, Like Ben Sherman's in-game store in Test Drive, but most people are still thinking in terms of how to keep delivering the same old ads. It is the same difference between annoying pop-up banner ads and effective use of social networking, in internet marketing. For the longest time, people were locked on (some still are) to thinking in terms of how to push the message. Finally now they are thinking how they can engage the audience in meaningful ways, and what they can learn from that communication.

In-game advertising needs to get there too. So brands need to be integrated more closely with the entertainment experience. They need to be part of the story. Because there is no other medium out there that can achieve what video games can do: it is the cutting edge of interactivity and engagement.

Let's talk indie, since it seems like a good time for indie developers right now (see: Mount&Blade, World of Goo, Braid, etc). What can big devs learn from them?

Lots of things. Mount&Blade is a lesson in effective use of online social media (simple forums are social media too, believe it or not - doesn't have to be all glitter and glamour), not only to the big devs but all companies out there trying to figure out how to best use the online space. Their business model is also noteworthy, for having financed the whole development process without publisher money.

It is also a lesson that a deeply engaging game does not necessarily need cutting edge graphics, nor does it have to sell to North American tweens in order to be a hit. You could say M&B is the product of a great market differentiation strategy, selling to an increasingly under-served audience of hardcore gamers who would rather have innovative gameplay than photorealistic environments. So a game lacking in graphics is perhaps not necessarily lacking anything. If M&B tried to be a game with great graphics and tried to compete in that space, we probably wouldn't be talking about them right now. But I understand it is very hard for big devs to disengage themselves from that mindset of "great graphics make great games." They seem to think that's the only way to be on the "biggies stage." 

World of Goo and Braid are good examples of how originality pays off. Braid also shows us the importance of having a good story, a message behind the gameplay. One cannot help being impressed with the narrative and style while playing the game. It is a priceless lesson in how to have a mature theme in your game, without exposing your audience to naked female anatomy or 30 cusswords per minute.

In short, I see the indies as the future of gaming. They may get bought out by this publisher or that studio, but the things they do, the possibilities they reveal to us will surely be shaping the future of gaming, both in design and business models.

And finally, just for the fun of it, tell me if there's any virtual world out there going in a direction that really makes you jump with excitement.

Uhm... none? I know, I must be ashamed for this answer. I was excited when I had heard of Google Lively being considered as an indie game publishing platform, but that hope went down a while ago. Right now most virtual world pitches I'm hearing don't go any further than "Come chat in 3D!" This might be my own ignorance for finer examples of the genre of course. Maybe Second Life is an example of how to go beyond that, but even there I think they have some issues, particularly with the user interface. In general I think virtual worlds need to better define their identities and what they add to our lives. At the moment it looks like they are mostly just saying: "people love chatting in 3D! We are not exactly sure why, but let's keep throwing more avatar choices at them." The primary motivators of engagement (exploration, socializing, building/creating) need to be better understood and utilized.

As I come to think of it now from that angle, I would say World of Warcraft is probably the best virtual world out there, for its utilization of all those motivators and even more, almost to perfection. While some people might want to leave WoW out of the virtual world genre for its focus on core gaming (as opposed to "3D CHAT!!!"), I think the underlying consumer psychology is the same. A place to explore, a place to connect, a place to express self and have fun. If you could make a WoW for the casual audience, then you would get me excited. Think Puzzle Pirates on steroids.  

So I will probably be excited when I find a virtual world that allows me to integrate my experience with external online networks like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Flickr, e-mails, and so on, while also providing me with user friendly tools of self publishing. I'm thinking a hybrid of: Second Life for customizability and self-publishing, Puzzle Pirates for entertainment, and World of Warcraft for elegance of user interface.  If there's anything like that out there, then I'll admit I'm missing out.

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So that's Taylan, ladies and gentlemen. Selected articles below, for your convenience:

Why Game Devs Should Rethink Marketing: The Need for B2C Branding within B2B

Branding in Video Games Compilation

The Role (and Myths) of Storytelling in Video Games

Co-production, Digital Distribution, and the Future of Video Game Publishing

The Currency of Online Social Networks, and the New Evolutionary Paradigm

What Social Media Marketing Can Do for You

The full list of Taylan articles can be found by clicking on this link or by going to his blog.