Challenges project managers face

In September, the world learned that former Blizzard Chief Creative Officer Rob Pardo launched a new video game studio called Bonfire Studios. Pardo’s biggest claim to fame which earned him a spot-on TIME Magazine’s 100 influential people of 2006 was that he was the prime architect of the record shattering MMORPG: World of Warcraft. Pardo’s success with WoW granted him luminary status in the video game industry. As a frequent speaker in the video game conference circuit, people listen to what he has to say, even the BBC. Recently he told them that he believes that e-sports should be an Olympic sport. It’s now clear that Rob was one of the prime proponents of Blizzard’s initiative in e-sports. It’s hard not to be impressed by Rob’s journey from mere game designer on Starcraft to entertainment visionary. But this journey is far from over. Rob left Blizzard in 2014. When people leave a video game studio the real reasons for their … [Read more...] about Rob Pardo’s Journey of Redemption Begins with Bonfire Studios

The Final Fantasy XIV development team recently participated in a round of in-house interviews. One of them featured Soken-San, the composer of the game's soundtrack. In this interview, he speaks to creating the perfect mood for the game as well as the challenges he has faced over the years.  advertisement  Question: How did it feel to be part of a project where the initial product was totally destroyed and then rebuilt from scratch? Was it liberating, stressful etc.?Soken: We had some very tough times back then, but it was all very exciting and we had fun every day. I don't think I will ever get another opportunity like that again, so looking back I feel it really was a hugely valuable experience.Question: What was the biggest challenge for your work during this period of transition?Soken: The big challenge was making a new game from scratch while simultaneously continuing to run the original FFXIV game. This was the same on the sound design side, with us having to update … [Read more...] about Final Fantasy XIV Composer On Creating a Mood

2016 was one eventful year for ad tech industry. Client side Header Bidding went mainstream. Publishers got heavy-handed with anti-ad block measures with varying successes and failures. Fake news registered on the radar of mainstream media and ad tech took the flack for it. Ad viewability adoption increased, creating panic among publishers. Then, the year wrapped up with a bang as WhiteOps uncovered a ubiquitous, million-dollar ad fraud ring called Methbot. That was the abridged version; barely enough information to start a workplace debate. This post gives a more holistic view of the developments in ad tech in 2016, focussed on subjects and perspectives that you, the enterprising publisher, ought to care about, or find interesting. 1. Header Bidding adoption continues to rise despite publisher skepticism about higher latency Header bidding is all the rage these days. A complete chronology of industry developments can even be found in a post on AdExchanger. Here’s a brief … [Read more...] about State of Ad Tech: 2016, Year In Review

Books are an amazing source of inspiration. Offering some insights into practical real-world survival tips, non-fiction books have always been at the helm as the source of inspiration for entrepreneurs. Even the busiest of the successful entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates make sure that they cater some time daily for reading books. These non-fiction books make it easy to draw inspiration from some of the most experienced and insightful in the industry. While entrepreneurship is not just about doing one specific task perfectly, it is a combination of a multitude of skills, knowledge and domain understanding. Since the required domain knowledge is hard to gain without gaining some entrepreneurial experience in your niche, that void is filled by non-fiction books. Non-fiction books are often read by some of the top entrepreneurs like Warren Buffett, Richard Branson, and many more! While there are hundreds of non-fiction books, which of these would help you get the most out … [Read more...] about 21 Books to Read Before Starting Your Online Business

So you want to make money online, right? What’s your method? Blogging? Affiliate marketing? Selling your own products? How about doing some freelance writing? Writing for money (or freelance writing) is surely an interesting idea, although not the most obvious one. However, since you have a blog then you apparently know how to write things. And since you know how to write things, you might as well make some money doing it… The funny thing is that you don’t even need to be a freelancer for a long time to encounter some of the common challenges that most freelancers have to face on a daily or monthly basis (even people who have been doing this for years). On the flip side, you also get the chance to solve those problems in whatever manner you wish (there’s no telling what you should or shouldn’t do when it comes to implementing certain methods). If I were to point out just one main success factor in freelance writing, it would have to be good cooperation … [Read more...] about 6 Crucial Components for Effective Freelance Writing