Alex Hardy

My girlfriend and I thought about booking tickets to see Michael Jackson at the O2 arena, but decided against it. We were unsure that he would be well enough to perform in concert, let alone for such a long run of appearances. This morning we heard on the radio that he had died aged 50.

I don’t have anything special to add to the media and public discussion of the man, his life and his contribution to music. I’d just like to mark this sad day by linking to his legendary appearance at the Motown 25, where he performed Billie Jean and showed off his iconic dance moves for the first time.

This Michael, an artist in his prime, is something I would have paid a great deal to see. Sadly it wasn’t to be. I’m sure his music will live on for many years to come.

I consider myself a gamer. I’ve had a multitude of computers and consoles dating back to the Commodore 64 (aging myself I know!). From Boulderdash to Bioshock I’ve loved playing games and I would defend the validity of the medium to anyone. There is however a peculiar trait of many so-called “hardcore” gamers that I’ve noticed before and recently I’m seeing again.

I’m not talking about the kind of platform fanboy-ism that’s been going on in the playground since the C64 and Spectrum (probably before that). I don’t mean the contempt some people have for the “casual” gamer (as if enjoying a bit of Wii Sports was a badge of shame). Nope - I’m talking about the resistance (borderline hostility) towards industry newcomers, or platforms that aren’t exactly the same as everything else, but with x% better graphics.

History repeating

Sony announces the Playstation. They make TVs, not consoles! Ridiculous!

Microsoft announces the Xbox. They make Office, not consoles! How dare they!

Nintendo announces the DS and Wii. Control Zelda or an FPS with a stylus? It’ll never work! Wave a wand around to control Mario? Who’d buy that?

And yet, Microsoft and Sony are now major players. You might even say the hardcore gamer’s choice. The DS has confounded its skeptics by being a smash hit.

Now I see it with the Apple iPhone. Apple have created a games console. I’d argue that they didn’t fully recognise that at first - it took the development community to persuade them. The clear message of the hardware upgrade in the iPhone 3GS is that they understand it now. With 40 million units shipped (the DS recently broke the 100m barrier), it has a significant installed base who clearly want to be entertained.

A wide spectrum of games, from Peggle to Real Racing are proving that non-traditional interfaces (which admittedly don’t apply easily to certain genres) aren’t preventing some excellent games being released for it. Watch this trailer video if you’re unconvinced. Then watch it again.

I’m not going to rant like one of the fanboys I referred to, listing games and the virtues of the device until I fall asleep at the keyboard, but I will say this:

I’ve been playing games for a long time. Frankly, I’m bored with many of them. Playing “Generic Space Soldier in Grey Future War 3″ doesn’t appeal to me like it used to. I’ll commit my time to a game if it enthralls me, and precious few games do that these days. Can someone explain to me how an intriguing new platform that demands innovation is a bad thing?

These “catch-up” posts have become too frequent and regular posts too infrequent for my liking. I’m in a transitional period at the moment after which I’ll re-evaluate this website’s content and direction. I’ve not decided yet, but I may retire this blog, or “reboot” it.

Obviously, I’ve not posted here in a while. That’s not because I’ve been idle - quite the opposite. The energy that I would have invested in writing this blog has been spent on the simpleContact support forum. There are refinements to be made (search is a particularly glaring omission) but there is now a substantial amount of content there.

Forums have an in-built Catch-22. As an administrator, you want people to use a forum. You want it to become the front-line of your support offering. You want to be able to receive and answer questions in one place, so common questions can be answered quickly without duplication of effort.

The problem is that unless people can see that other people have posted, they won’t post themselves. It takes time and dedication to build a forum to the point where enough dialogues have occurred that newcomers feel inclined to post.

I’m happy that the forums have now reached that point of sustainability and value.

In the months since I released simpleContact Pro 2.0 I have used this period to provide support. As 37signals put it in their post why it’s wise to launch softly:

Soft launching lets you tweak and revise. You get the word out there and you gauge interest. You know what works and what doesn’t. Plus, you get to make mistakes while you’re still in the shadows. Messing up in front of a smaller crowd means you’ll be better off when the bright lights eventually do shine upon you.

You can find any bugs in the initial release. Answer early-adopter questions. Discover where the immediate friction is between what the application can do and what users need. Sometimes you learn surprising things about your own product and how people use it.

Migration to the new, dedicated website simplecontactform.com is in progress. Support materials have moved. This weekend I plan to move purchase and delivery mechanisms to their permanent home. After that, I start building web pages based on the new design. I hope to have the new website live in a month or two.