JOSH LOVISON

Articles by Josh All articles by Josh

• The Future Of Social VR Is NOT Facebook in VR/AR Insider on 05/24/2017
  

  Facebook recently found itself in a bit of hot water regarding allegations that it was targeting sad teens at their most vulnerable for advertisers. And ever since the acquisition of Oculus by Facebook, there's been a general sense of concern that social VR, being dictated by Facebook, would necessarily end up dystopian. Fear not, because Facebook is utterly incapable of leading the charge in social VR.

• AR Has More Potential Than VR -- But Where Is It? in VR/AR Insider on 04/05/2017
  

  Nary a week goes by without new content being uploaded on social media regarding virtual reality. The same cannot be said about augmented reality, which has a an exponentially greater number of potential applications compared to its virtual cousin, but rarely steps in the limelight.

• VR Gets Bloodied By The Law in VR/AR Insider on 02/10/2017
  

  In the modern age, each new disruptive technology inevitably has a watershed moment: its first, incomprehensibly massive, lawsuit decision. Much as Android was dogged for years with decisions and appeals regarding the Oracle vs. Google lawsuit, VR firm and Facebook-owned Oculus was just handed down a judgement in the Zenimax lawsuit against it.

• Cutting Through The CES VR/AR Fluff in VR/AR Insider on 01/12/2017
  

  CES has taken place once again, and this time the two huge trends were voice integration (not our cup of tea for this column), and virtual reality. However, many CES promises in the latter category lack the substance for actual market impact, while others paint a clearer picture of where this industry is heading. Let's cut through the fluff.

• Get a Feel For Oculus Touch in VR/AR Insider on 12/09/2016
  

  Oculus, Facebook's virtual reality acquisition, just released its new Oculus Touch peripheral, more closely aligning itself with HTC's Vive from a control standpoint.I've previously lamented the lack of standards and unification in control formats for VR, and while there still is no formal standard, the similarity of the Vive's hand controls and the new Oculus Touch seems to be an informal parity developers can depend on.

• Let's Talk About VR Porn in VR/AR Insider on 11/08/2016
  

  It's hard to talk about the emergence of VR without talking about VR porn. So let's talk.

• Who's Winning The VR Standards War? Nobody in VR/AR Insider on 11/04/2016
  

  VR is on the precipice of changing media as we know it. It also stands on the precipice of a format war that makes Betamax vs VHS and Blu-ray vs HD-DVD look like minor skirmishes. In fact, this pending standards conflict is probably the biggest threat to VR's growth and adoption today.

• Will Bad VR Ads Make People Vomit? in VR/AR Insider on 09/01/2016
  

  Virtual reality (VR) is unlike any other media in a number of ways. After spending a lot more time with VR myself the past few weeks, I've been reminded of one of the key differentiations: comfort is paramount. It's certainly nice to have decent back support or a plush pillow when reading in bed, to have a great couch when watching Netflix on TV, or to be seated anywhere but the front row when watching a movie in the theatre. But these comforts are somewhat ancillary to a particular medium: nice to have, but we aren't severely impacted by lack of comfort if consuming the same media on a subway or in a plane. For VR, comfort comes into play in numerous ways, some of which can have severe negative effects.

• Pokemon Go Kicks Off AR in VR/AR Insider on 08/09/2016
  

  By now everyone has probably heard of Pokemon GO. The game, a partnership between Nintendo and Niantic (creators of Ingress), is Nintendo's first foray of itsIP into the mobile game space, and it has been a resounding success. It's also going to be kicking off a major investment into augmented reality content.

• Who's Winning The VR Standards War? Nobody in VR/AR Insider on 06/03/2016
  

  VR is on the precipice of changing media as we know it. It also stands on the precipice of a format war that makes Betamax vs VHS and Blu-ray vs HD-DVD look like minor skirmishes. In fact, this pending standards conflict is probably the biggest threat to VR's growth and adoption today.

Comments by Josh All comments by Josh

• Should Adobe Build An Ad Network? by Josh Lovison (Gaming Insider on 02/19/2010)
  

  Michael, I mean an ad network for display ads, not for distributing applications. A la Mochi, AdMob, Quattro, etc. Distribution Manager seems dedicated to driving application distribution, but not something that CPG, Auto, etc brands would use unless promoting an app. It also looks to be acting almost as a frontend for Gigya.

• Is 'World of Warcraft' A Loyalty Program? by Josh Lovison (Gaming Insider on 10/16/2009)
  

  Kate, As for how a program like this could work for the competitive set - look at what Foursquare is doing with it's mayorship programs. Ken, Haha...I used to be in the top 3 DPS on any melee mob raid boss for our guild. Enhancement shamans are great if you know how to gear them. There's some very comprehensive info on Elitist Jerks if you were interested.

• Is 'World of Warcraft' A Loyalty Program? by Josh Lovison (Gaming Insider on 10/16/2009)
  

  Actually Kenneth, my Gaming Insiders are written keeping in mind an audience who might not be as familiar with Azeroth as you might be personally. And if you note, the article specifically calls out a focus on loyalty, and does not promise a tactical investigation of Blizzard's CRM for WoW (which is an interesting topic, but not one I'm sure appropriate for this broad an audience). The core question was "Is the underlying format of WoW that of a successful loyalty program?" You're correct that the basic elements exist in Mafia Wars as well. But the core elements are true to both. WoW just has better graphics/actual gameplay and a more time intensive progression table, which (a) doesn't translate well to casual audiences, hence Mafia Wars, and (b) won't work as effectively for our made-up loyalty program. But adopting the core concepts worked great for Mafia Wars, and worked for this exercise. And there's a level 80 Enhancement Shaman (second spec Resto) decked out in Tier 7.5 that disagrees with your "knows very little" comment. (Albeit, he's now resting in "non-active" account status....but still...)

• EA: A Market Trend? by Josh Lovison (Gaming Insider on 08/07/2009)
  

  David, It's considerably less than 14% of the phone market. Try 1% of the global market (over 4 billion mobile subscribers). I'd estimate it's around 7% of the domestic market when the iPod Touch is included. But in terms of gaming systems - at over 45 million units, that's just 7 million shy of the total number of Wiis worldwide, with one less year on the market. It's all a matter of perspective.

• EA Bombs With 'Lust'-Driven Promo by Shankar Gupta (Gaming Insider on 07/31/2009)
  

  EA's efforts pale to the legacy of Acclaim. The two I remember best were the promotion for gravestone billboards: http://bit.ly/Wbj6y And the promotion to name your baby "Turok": http://bit.ly/20aGaY Best line from the latter article: "'We're giving birth to our biggest game, so it's a natural tie-in,' Lewis said."

• Report: Casual Gaming Audience Growing by Gavin O'Malley (Online Media Daily on 07/13/2009)
  

  Unfortunately that only tracks gaming happening on an online web page. Several Facebook games claim to have several million users, and many games such as Popcap's are distributed as stand-alone software. So I think the numbers are even greater than comScore's stats indicate.

• Getting To The Gray In Gameplay by Shankar Gupta (Gaming Insider on 07/10/2009)
  

  I think it really depends on the game and studio. InFAMOUS had a pretty poor system, where it was black or white, and the black seemed pretty contrary to the character's initial arc. BioWare tends to do a great job with this, and I recall in KOTOR there being moral decisions which even when going down the "dark side" path I felt were too evil to choose. Fallout 3 had achievements and gameplay mechanics tied to riding the middle ground between good and evil. Generally when the "good or evil" is thrown in as a gimmick or an afterthought (I think BioShock falls into this category too), it's just a black or white scenario. But when it's focused on as an integral element of the game, the developers usually do their due diligence and build a framework that has multiple layers. Consider the *spoiler* decision in Mass Effect to kill off the bug queen or set her free --- that was a really complex moral decision, which could have subsequent impact in the future games, and didn't have a clear "good" or "evil" choice. *end spoiler*

• What Social Can Do For Gaming by Shankar Gupta (Gaming Insider on 06/22/2009)
  

  In addition to the utility relating to match-ups, there's a ton of use for this feature well beyond "typing messages to friends," which isn't even how people necessarily use Facebook.com. There's a game on the iPhone I've written about before that uses Facebook Connect to populate quiz trivia. Status updates are one of the most popular activities on Facebook, and I'm sure you can bet there will be an option to have your achievements pop up on Facebook as you get them on Xbox. There are also HUGE opportunities for marketers in this move, but from a consumer perspective, it's going to primarily be expanding the Xbox LIVE friend networks and pushing content back from the console to Facebook/Twitter.

• Why Facebook Won't Fail by Ben Daniels (Online Media Daily on 06/17/2009)
  

  Khalid, I think you miss the bigger picture. Facebook is transforming from a site to a platform. Who cares about the ads on Facebook? If Facebook Connect is integrated on most other sites online, what if Facebook provided those sites an ad solution like AdSense, but which could target based on their social network information? That'd be pretty interesting. I've never bought anything from AdSense either, and yet it's done pretty well for Google. Thinking farther ahead - when they roll out Pay with Facebook, that may very well transform person to person eCommerce, as well as gain traction as a general purpose alternative payment system. The question won't be "how often are you bying a product advertised on Facebook" but instead "how often are you buying a product WITH Facebook?" Facebook offers too much utility currently to see the user hemorrhaging MySpace is seeing, and as they build out their platform properties, I think they'll have much more intelligent revenue potentials than innocuous display ads.

• Why Facebook Will Fail by Jim Banister (Online Media Daily on 06/16/2009)
  

  Stop looking at Facebook as a social network. Even Facebook is over Facebook.com. Facebook is moving steadily toward becoming a platform - a layer to the web much as AdSense, site-powered search, and browser integration cemented Google's presence. I use Facebook constantly, but visit Facebook.com only once a week max. Much like Twitter, the touchpoints for the site's services are third party solutions, not the website. Facebook Connect changes the game as well. On a number of the "niche" sites I visit, I just use my Facebook credentials. Similar story happening with iPhone apps as well. Other initiatives, such as Pay with Facebook or their upcoming efforts in the app marketplace again point toward a "platform approach." I'd say of any internet property today, Facebook seems to be taking the most intelligent approach to remain relevant as the web evolves away from single-site models. So no, I don't think they will fail.

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