Marketers Studio - David Berkowitz's Marketing Blog

At SXSW Friday? Join My Games Panel with the IAB and Nielsen

Want to see some great ways brands are using games?

Want to dispel some myths about gaming and gamers?

Good, me too. That's why I'm showing up to the SXSW panel "Games: Anyone. Anywhere. Anytime." 

Anyway, I'd love for you to join. The SXSW panel is Friday at 3:30pm in the Palmer Events Center, just a short walk south of the river. And if you're lost, or want to stalk me in general, follow me on Foursquare as I'll be sharing my location there way too often. 

Here's more:

Raise your hand if you agree with any of these statements: 
- Gamers are primarily by young or teen boys. 
- Games are usually played alone in the home on game consoles.

You may be surprised at how many people would have their hand raised…especially brand marketers and agencies who make decisions about promoting /advertising on games as part of their digital marketing mix. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Games Committee is here to dispel the myths about gamers based on current research that shows how games truly are played by anyone, anywhere, anytime.

We'll introduce you to different gamer segments. You’ll learn about the type of games they are most likely to play, when and where they play them, what devices they play them on, how they interact with each medium and how mobile and tablets are significantly impacting today's game playing. We’ll end with some thoughts on the future of gaming.

Join us and meet today's game players.



Is Reality Broken?

Is Reality Broken?
originally published in MediaPost's Social Media Insider
- also, for more on the challenges with gamification, read the previous piece The Motivation Bubble

 

Is reality broken? I’ve been grappling with the idea ever since reading “Reality is Broken” by Jane McGonigal, who argues that games provide a better, more motivating version of life than reality. Almost inherent in her description of gameplay is the social component, as the vast majority of her examples involve games people play together -- usually virtually.

Much of the book is enlightening, such as when McGonigal discusses how some real-world movements and daily routines have become more meaningful by judiciously incorporating game mechanics. Elsewhere, however, I found myself sulking over her vision of reality. Below are ten passages from McGonigal, followed by why they are so troubling:

1) “The real world just doesn’t offer up as easily the carefully designed pleasures, the thrilling challenges, and the powerful social bonding afforded by virtual environments. Reality doesn’t motivate us as effectively. Reality isn’t engineered to maximize our potential. Reality wasn’t designed from the bottom up to make us happy. And so, there is a growing perception in the gaming community: Reality, compared to games, is broken.”

Why must we always be happy? This is part of a bigger social problem. Sprinkles Cupcakes was designed from the ground up to make us happy, but it’s a bad idea to eat there daily. Filling out timesheets isn’t fulfilling, but I can put my happiness on hold briefly to support my colleagues.

2) “We are starving, and our games are feeding us.”

Games often feed us empty calories.

3) “Games make us happy because they are hard work that we choose for ourselves, and it turns out that almost nothing makes us happier than good, hard work.”

It’s twisted logic to call gaming the opposite of depression. Gaming isn’t the same as actual work. The purpose matters. Saving a fictitious planet is different from supporting a family.

4) “We’re much happier enlivening time rather than killing time.”

Playing games doesn’t always enliven time. It’s often a drug hit or cheap thrill compared to fulfillment from doing something meaningful.

5) “Compared with games, reality is depressing. Games focus our energy, with relentless optimism, on something we’re good at and enjoy.”

This statement is depressing. How does one get out of bed in the morning thinking like this?

6) “…Beyond a certain playing threshold—for most gamers, it seems to be somewhere around twenty hours a week—they start to wonder if they’re perhaps missing out on real life.”

It’s hardly shocking, but that is a high threshold to trigger gamer’s remorse.

7) “Gamers, without a doubt, are reinventing what we think of as our daily community infrastructure. They’re experimenting with new ways to create social capital, and they’re developing habits that provide more social bonding and connectivity than any bowling league ever could.”

Bowling is a sport -- a physical activity that brings people together face to face. Similarly, my Madden NFL prowess does not give me more social capital than Eli Manning.

8) “…It’s no accident that Halo players are so inclined toward collective efforts. It’s the direct result of the game’s epic, and awe-inspiring, aesthetic. Today’s best game designers are experts at giving individuals the chance to be a part of something bigger…”

Collective efforts are not inherently positive. Nazi Germany, the Cultural Revolution, and Al Qaeda all offered ways for people to be part of a larger movement.

9) “Jean M. Twenge, a professor of psychology and the author of Generation Me, has persuasively argued that the youngest generations today—particularly anyone born after 1980—are, in her words, ‘more miserable than ever before.’”

Aren’t these the people who have grown up playing digital games?

10) “How would it feel to get constant, real-time positive feedback in our real lives, whenever we’re tackling obstacles and working hard? Would we be more motivated? Would we feel more rewarded? Would we challenge ourselves more?”

If we got a “like” or “+1” for everything we did, we’d start setting expectations too high. Did you ever post something on Facebook you were sure would be “liked” a lot but was largely ignored? It’s a brief letdown, and too many such disappointments can add up if one tries too hard to get a response.

Despite the critiques, there’s plenty to love in the book. Consider one of her conclusions: “We have to be thoughtful about where and when we apply game-like feedback systems. If everything in life becomes about tackling harder challenges, scoring more points, and reaching higher levels, we run the risk of becoming too focused on the gratifications of positive feedback. And the last thing we want is to lose our ability to enjoy an activity for its own sake.”

I could like, +1, tweet, pin, tumble and stumble that passage. I could send McGonigal a digital or physical sticker commending it. I could create a badge for her website. None of that, I hope, remotely approaches that feeling of accomplishment she must have savored when releasing her idea to the world. 

Arming My Mafia At 7-Eleven

Originally published in MediaPost

If, decades from now, I lie on my deathbed having flashbacks of some of the more humiliating moments of my life, then last week's encounter at a 7-Eleven will be one of them. It was at such an establishment on East 23rd Street in Manhattan where a young, amiable staff member saw me working the Slurpee machine and asked, "Do you need help with that?"

The fact was, I did. I didn't know how to get the Coke Slurpee to come out, nor did I know how to order an Oscar Mayer hot dog. I was juggling a handful of store-brand products as well, while surreptitiously reaching for my iPhone to document it all (see photos and screenshots on Flickr).

You might ask why I was playing the part of a convenience store anthropologist. No, I wasn't trying to be the Jane Goodall of the Slurpee kingdom. Instead, I was there, still in my sport jacket following an Internet Week event, to arm my mafia. This mafia consists of nearly 300 friends and virtual associates in Mafia Wars, one of three of Zynga's social games (along with FarmVille and YoVille) participating in a cross-promotional deal with 7-Eleven.

Through this program, 7-Eleven shoppers will find specially marked goods with codes printed on the package. During my visit, a Slurpee, Big Gulp, hot dog, brownie, and various varieties of chips all qualified. The codes can be entered on the co-branded site BuyEarnPlay.com to earn virtual rewards within the game. Participating this way then unlocks new challenges within the games. I was able to complete the Mafia Wars Corner Store Collection, where I performed tasks to earn virtual goods like a lighter and cup of coffee that I ultimately traded in for a special gun. It's hard to write this with a straight face, because either you play this game and must think I'm taking the fun out of it, or you don't play and must wonder why this would be considered fun at all.

Zynga and 7-Eleven managed to create a special kind of experience that bridged online and offline worlds. The experience, if carried through to completion, can take two paths. Zynga gamers will find 7-Eleven branding in the game that leads to instructions on what to do at the store; following a store visit, the gameplay is then enhanced by entering a code from a purchased good. Alternatively, 7-Eleven visitors will find products with codes that lead them online to try Zynga for the first time or power up their existing accounts.

Who gets the better end of the deal? Zynga reports that 240 million users play Zynga games daily, while 6 million people stop by a U.S. 7-Eleven store each day. Zynga's customers may not pay as much every day, but the margins are higher on virtual guns than on real hot dogs.

This kind of online and offline partnership that has the potential to bolster two very different businesses will likely become more common. It makes sense from the consumer's perspective. I'm a Mafia Wars player whether or not I'm playing the game at that moment, and 7-Eleven regulars will identify themselves as such even if they're not physically in the store.

There's one element missing: mobile. Zynga will soon start rolling out mobile versions of its games, and when it does, this kind of promotion could be more seamless by scanning product barcodes or customized QR codes. Other rewards could be unlocked with geolocation, allowing players to earn certain virtual goods by logging into Zynga games while at or near a 7-Eleven.

In the meantime, it's a good excuse for Zynga's gamers to pop into a 7-Eleven. With my goal of buying one of every Zynga-branded product I could find, I expected to later expense the trip. Then I discovered that an overflowing bag containing about a week's worth of calories for an average adult could be acquired for all of $11. That price was an even better deal considering the store's stellar customer service.

Beyond the meal, I gained a virtual gun to better protect my mafia. Real goods earned me virtual goods, and perhaps if this works, the cycle will continue where amassing more virtual goods will allow me to redeem them for real goods. If the experience is seamless enough, in time I may even be able to find my way around a 7-Eleven without any assistance at all.

 

What the iPad Means for Social Media

Image by josh.liba via Flickr

My poor editors. I don't get to thank them enough (that means you, Phyllis), but when writing a column about the iPad while using an iPad, I'm out of my element. Without multitasking, I can't readily fact-check. I'm less prone to make major revisions. And I may miss a few autocorrections that guess the wrong spelling.

Then again, do you know how many times I am checking Facebook, Twitter, and Digg while writing this? Zero. Score one for the iPad, at the expense of social media.

It's a fitting segue, as social media isn't one of the best-use cases for the iPad. In the few days since I got it, I've come to pick up the iPad for quick email checks early and late in the day, and while my PC boots up at work. I loved watching "Lost" and "Flash Forward" with ABC's media player. Reading news has been great, and reading books has been enjoyable, though I still prefer the glare-free Kindle for the latter. Gaming has proved especially fun, ever since I downloaded Real Racing HD (though I had to exit this document app, Apple's Pages, to look up the name).

Real Racing wound up being a very social game, and it started to make me aware of the social possibilities for the iPad. Anyone who has come by my office over the past week has had to take a turn playing Real Racing, with my COO so far the only one to place first. I also joined racing leagues to compete against others, and I can compete with anyone live when we're on the same Wi-Fi network.

Another new favorite is the game We Rule, which isn't too far from Farmville in principle, though it's more about growing your medieval turf, and farming is just a part of it. We Rule can search your iPad contacts and find friends, and you can interact with their feudal territories. I can blame my colleague Matt Wurst for introducing me to that one; if there's ever a way to pillage someone's castle, please pillage his first and tell him I sent you.

Scrabble is another social favorite, thanks to one innovation. You download the $10 game on the iPad and then get the free Tile Rack app for your iPhone or iPod Touch. When turning on Bluetooth, up to four people with Tile Rack can compete in the same iPad game. Each can keep their tiles on their smaller devices, shuffling tiles and even looking up words. Then, when a player is ready, he just flicks the tiles from his own rack on to the "board." Cool? Hell yes. Better than the board game? It's far more portable, and you'll never lose your tiles -- unless you lose your device.

That's a taste of how social gaming works today on the iPad. It's going to get far more interesting when Apple debuts its Operating System 4.0 this summer. It will include Game Center, which will have built-in features such as friend lists, leaderboards, and a matchmaking engine to pair similar gamers with each other. This could transform social gaming on the iPad and iPhone from games with a few social features to games that are inherently social.

It's not just gaming that's social on the iPad, but it does have the most potential. Most mobile social media as we tend to think of it (mobile social networks, photo sharing, check-in services, etc., etc.) will still happen on pocket-sized devices, not tablets. Yes, you can check in to Foursquare on the iPad, but why, especially if you're mostly using the iPad at home? Loopt has an iPad app, but it looks more like a city guide and less like a mobile social tool.

It has only been days since the iPad has been out. By the time it stars in a "South Park" episode we'll have a better sense of what it can do, socially and otherwise. Don't expect it to transform social media, but it will transform your office if you get a few people to download the Tile Rack.

Geeking Out with Parrot.com’s Quadricopter and Robert Scoble at CES

A now annual tradition at the Consumer Electronics Show is the It Won’t Stay in Vegas party for bloggers – it’s a total geekfest within a geekfest, and more or less what you’d expect. This year the scene stealer (besides LeVar Burton and Brent Spiner) was the Quadricopter from Parrot.com.

I’ll admit I couldn’t remember the name of this thing when I first tweeted about it and even when I posted the video. It was just kind of there. It’s controlled by an iPhone (an iPod Touch will work too). This model was the AR.Drone, and what wasn’t readily visible was the augmented reality component, which includes “detecting other AR.Drone in flight, and detecting and positioning markers on the ground.”

You don’t need to know all of the technical details, and there are far more than I’ll relay here. On its surface, it’s just a cooler, more stable version of remote control vehicles. I recently played around with some cheap RC helicopter from a toy store and there was really no way to prevent it from crashing; some of the controls didn’t even work. So this already is better – check the video to see how ridiculously stable it is.

When you start digging deeper though, seeing how augmented reality plays a role, and how mobile devices like the iPhone can interact more with physical devices, it becomes much more of a marvel as a sign of where technology, gaming, and mobile media are heading.

 

Technorati Tags: ces2010,ces,consumerelectronicsshow,iwsiv,itwontstayinvegas,consumer electronics,robert scoble,scobleizer

12 Dimensions of Gaming Advertisement – Closing Keynote from Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell at iMedia Breakthrough

Nolan and me (okay, me and Nolan, or is it I and Nolan, or… umm?)

This was the closing keynote at iMedia Breakthrough:

The best ad vehicle for Chuck E. Cheese was one 11 year old boy. “The viral nature of an elementary school – you can’t believe that it can be as good as it is.”

(Note his presentation actually said 11 Dimensions, if you read that somewhere else, but it was numbered wrong and there are really 12).

PUBLIC SPACE

1. uWink (his company)

2. Coin operated games – massive in late 70s, early 80s, fell off cliff. They didn’t understand their marketplace. They wanted to have one on one relationships with players, but that relationship was better at home. The only things left are things you can’t get at home. See: Dave & Busters, Chuck E Cheese. “You can win hundreds of thousands of tickets, you can turn them in, and you can get a whistle.”

Dance Dance Revolution: massively successful. Progenitor to Wii. Interfaces between 1-2 million US kids every week.

3. Mobile Mashups: used at uWink – you have big video display in a mall, and anyone who walks by can play trivia game with mobile phone. Underutilized, cheap, easy, fun. You’ll see a lot in the future.

4. Augmented Reality – in next 10 years, major area of experiential advertising. With your mobile phone, as you move around, it tells you what’s in the store, what’s on sale, “the fact that there’s a bad guy in there you can shoot.”

These will all bring new sets of gameplay and ad opportunities. “We don’t have to shoot people. It just happens to be fun.” For people who are against violence: “When you have bad guys from another planet, you have to shoot ‘em.” “I don’t get the objection to shooting people who are already dead.”

INTERNET CENTRIC

5. Casual Game Wrappers (Neoedge) (his company) (and yes he has 2 #4s):- most efficient ad opportunity you can have (admits his own bias)

6. Game Widgets – more and more important

7. Social Media Widgets

8. In Game Placements

9. Advergames – underutilized game system going forward.

MOBILE GAMES

10. Smart Phones

11. Proximity Games – games that become aware of each other. Masses of people in malls can run around having a good time. “Burning Man for everybody in a mall.”

12. Premum Marketing – can buy stuff in games. Would love to buy with points. Having points provided by advertiser is cool.

Rest of his talk:

“There’s such a thing as too much innovation.” Showed prototypical arcade game in 1970 - “shifting synchronous digital counters technology”

1970: Atari Started (Syzygy)

1972: Pong Coin op introduced

1975: Consumer Pong ships

1977: Atari 2600 VCS

on Chuck E Cheese:

The animals are a fraud. They’re there for the parents. Kids can say they’re there for the animals, subtle way for parents not to think they’re spending tons of money on game tokens. The ads were secondary about the games. The name came about because you have to smile three times when you say Chuck E. Cheese.

Another fun fact: Chuck E. wears shin guards. Kids think it’s fun to beat the heck out of him. “The job of being Chuck E. in that costume is not a good job.” “If you find a male employee who wants to be in the Chuck E. Cheese costume too often you have a problem.”

On his gaming startups

uWink: it’s about social gaming – Chuck E. Cheese for adults, but more so a part around the table. Touchscreen on every table, automated food ordering too. Game bar turned into automated restaurant. Food delivered by “entertainment directors.” Most of time when you want something different, it’s not the kitchen that messes up, it’s the waiter, so this removes that friction. Has ads on the touch screens.

NeoEdge Networks (he’s chairman of the board): big gap between amount of time spent on casual games and advertising in it. Pre-roll, interstitials make sense for games.

MetaTix: another gaming company where he’s on the board.

[He kind of lost his fire at this point… he had this amazing spark the entire time and then started going through the motions.]

On Education

Game players score 7-15 points on IQ tests than non-game players. Beneficial effects of game play for kids under 20 stop at 2 hours a day. Don’t let kids play more. More than 4 hours: people get dumber than non-gamers.

Next project: a high school using games/tech that eliminates the classroom and teaches kids how they want to be taught, using technology.

Also, physical movement enhances the brain’s ability to learn. Forcing kids to sit still hurts kids.

On Emerging Technologies

Four different technologies can separate foreground, background images –

3 years from now you won’t have a remote control on high end TV sets. It’ll be gesture.

Conductive tattoos: electronic circuit put into your body – can text message just by moving fingers.

 

Technorati Tags: nolan bushnell,atari,video games,gaming,games,imediasummit,imedia

Wii Waiting

Yesterday a.m., I took the plunge of waiting for a Wii. Ever since I played Wii Sports at my friend Michael Eisenstein's place, I knew I'd have to go for it. I didn't expect to still need to wait for hours so many months after it came out.

Most of this chronicle was written while I was sitting outside the Nintendo World Store, with some details added later. The Nintendo store gets new Wiis in daily, but the number is limited, generally 50 or less, and they recommend arriving two hours in advance.

Here's the play by play, with a few photos at the end>

6:35: The taxi drops me off at 48^th and 5^th. I walk along, waiting for the line. And then I see a crowd of people, perhaps 15 of them, all clustered and turning the corner into Rockefeller Plaza. This is the crowd? I look at where they’re going – there’s a hundred people there already. And then I realize it’s for the Today Show. A cop points me to a smaller line – a ragtag bunch of 8 people, almost all male, ages 10 to 50-something, sitting on the 48^th St sidewalk. Two have chairs. I confirm with the 12 year old who’s here with his brother a few years his senior that he’s the last on line. I unpack my GoToMyPC folding chair out of its back I had slung over my back, and the kid’s impressed. I even have a cup holder. It’s a souvenir from a Showstoppers event several years back from my eMarketer days.

6:41: A woman stands on line behind me, in her late 30s or so. She’s in from Long Island, buying it for her son’s 7^th birthday. “You did good,” I told her. She hopes so. We all hope so. She has more information than me – she says, and the 40-ish Japanese man who gets in line behind her confirms – that the first 20 are basically guaranteed a Wii. I tell her it makes more sense for her to be here for her 7 year old, rather than me getting it for myself. She tells me she’ll be playing it more than her son; she can’t wait to get Mario Party 8. Me, I’m thinking Paper Mario, but what do I know? She tells the Japanese guy, who has tried to get a Wii three times already and now wants to do it right, that with the gas, parking, and everything else, she could have gotten a Wii on eBay. She won’t get one on eBay out of principal. What principal is that? Not sure. When I tried a few days ago, they were going for around $350-$370 plus shipping for the basic set, over $100 above the list price. Gamestop.com had packages with the Wii plus two extra games beyond the sports disc that comes with it, but the games were pre-selected and none of the packages had two games I wanted; that went for around $450. Walmart.com had packages of the Wii with four games of your choice from a sizable selection for around $550, but I wasn’t up for getting a whole library so quickly.

6:55: The woman doesn’t know the difference between Paper Mario and Mario Party. Damn.

6:59: Around the corner tones chime for the start of The Today Show. We love you Katie!

7:07: I’m online. Connections are available for $2.95 for two hours. They get you any way they can here – though it’s better than airport pricing, so I’ll take it.

8:00: Haven’t moved my butt. Caught up on the morning newsletters. Talking to Zac Pullen from New Zealand on Google Talk. Time to eat my sandwich – white bread with honey spread. I also have some 100-calorie snack packs, and a bottle of water.

8:10: A mounted policeman just yelled at someone – I think a parked car. I could do without the horse smell.

8:25: I educate the woman behind me and a middle aged man who’s #12 about what you really want to get, based on my research so far: a second controller with an extra nunchuck as they’re sold separately, and a charger for two holsters rather than just using Double-A batteries that come with the controllers (as I suspected, the controller charger is manufactured by another company and not sold at the Nintendo store). The middle aged man actually took notes.

8:30: The woman behind me is yelling at girl scouts to back off from the Nintendo World store, pointing to the line. She strikes me as a very sweet woman and a loving mom, but I could also see her ripping into those little green-vested pony-tailed girls like a lion on a zebra in one of those National Geographic Channel specials.

8:40: My laptop battery dies. I take out a book (The Social Life of Information), but I’m too distracted to read. I have some Cheez-Its.

8:46: A security guard mans the main entrance of the Nintendo store. A woman walks by and approaches him, then approaches someone online. I said to the mother behind me, “I bet he gets a lot of bribes offered to him.” The mother said, “If that woman bribed him, everyone on this line would rip her and the guard to shreds.” Ahh, capitalism brings out the best in all of us.

8:50: The flat-screen TVs in the store window start playing Wii commercials. They’re brilliant, not requiring any sound – just people hamming it up having a great time playing the Wii. How can Wii players ever want to rip anyone to shreds? Ahh, right, the happiness doesn’t sink in until you get one.

8:54: A Nintendo employee asks the woman behind me when she got there as he does his research so he knows what to tell others who call. I called the store twice and got two different answers, so I’m not sure if this is a new idea for them.

8:57: The anticipation hits. No one knew how it would work – would there be tickets? How do you keep your place in line? How would you get anything else you wanted there?

9:00: The store opens, right on the dot. I follow the eight people ahead of me right to the cashier, as the line behind me loops around the store. Several dozen Wiis are behind the counter, with controllers and a couple accessories close by. Games are in drawers behind the counter. It takes all of about two minutes for each transaction to happen, and three registers are open. Up to around 50 people were probably able to walk out with a Wii today. I got the Wii, a spare controller and nunchuck, and Paper Mario, one of the latest Super Mario Bros offerings.

I left the store and hailed a cab to head home. Between the Wii, the chair, and my laptop, it was too heavy a load to bring to work. As a bonus, it was easier getting work done afterwards with the Wii out of my sight.

When I left my apartment for the second time that day – albeit earlier than I sometimes leave for the first time during the week – I was absolutely giddy, and I hadn’t even taken the Wii out of the box yet. Finally, I was able to appreciate why people would take part in the madness of waiting for hours and planning for weeks just to own a game console. I wasn’t in the market for a game console; I wouldn’t have bought another. I was only in the market for a Wii.

And now, months after I first played one and resolved that I should get it, I bought my first game console in nearly 20 years, since I bought the Nintendo Entertainment System. I still have that NES working in my apartment; Cara and I unwind with Dr. Mario any chance we get. I’m not putting that away though. The NES will go in the bedroom where it will get even more use, and the Wii will go in the living room where there’s more space to play.

We’ll see if the fun lasts for the next two decades.

Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.

Consumer Generated Gaming

This is clearly where gaming is going - you take an active role in creating it. That's what worked so well for The Sims.

Link: PlayMyGame

Up Up and a Wii

Finally, I had a chance to play the Wii at a friend's place this week. Wow. And I only played the sports games that came with the system.

I started off playing boxing, which was alright, but then it got really involved. Batting practice blew me away; I had to bend my knees and step into the swing. When I practiced hitting to a certain location, it was a drill I never once did in years of sleepaway camp or gym class.

Sony and Microsoft were focusing on building the next best game systems, and they probably have (I've played Xbox 360 but not PS3). Yet with the Wii, Nintendo did something else entirely. They created an interactive experience, something you'd wait on line to try at a World's Fair.

I know I'm slow in saying it, yet with game systems, I'm hardly an early adopter; at home I have the original Nintendo Entertainment System from the 80s, still working (Dr. Mario's the current favorite). Despite many thoughts of upgrading over the past two decades, this is the first time I've ever really thought it's worth it.

All I'm left wondering now is how the heck Nintendo did it.

JuryDuty.com and Reconquering Zelda

I'm managing to blog from jury duty - at least, from the room where you wait around until you're called before you go before a judge. In this room, there are a half-dozen hardwired Internet connections, a relief for this online marketer and blogger.

The downside: some of the links I'm finding in Google are blocked. These so far pertain to hints to help Cara and I beat The Legend of Zelda on NES (yes, the original Nintendo, hooked up in our new pad).

Meanwhile, even a search for Zelda gets the refined results treatment in Google, as mentioned previously for other gaming searches. Note that these gaming refinements are limited to the digital world; you don't see them when searching for monopoly or ping pong, but you do see it for Pong.

And, in case you were wondering, Zelda beats Super Mario in Google Trends (Zelda's undoubtedly helped by Wii; I called my friend - since nursery school - David Hirschl to ask him for Zelda tips, and he thought I got a Wii).