LOOT EOD to Begin Offering Rewards
Information courtesy of Sara Stephens, LOOT Production Coordinator; commentary by NorseGamer
So I received an interesting note in my inbox this morning:
With this week’s update the LOOT EOD in the Public space and Private Spaces will start awarding rewards to viewers.
Upon entering the public space the users will be given the Crackle Hoodie. Certain users might not get this item upon entering (this is an issue we’re aware of and the fix will be LIVE in a few weeks.) But this doesn’t mean the users have to wait! They can simply go to the EOD > What’s New > Latest Loot Items. Playing the Latest Loot Items video will award the Crackle Hoodie. Selecting the Crackle menu will award users with the Popcorn hand.
In Private Spaces, when users select the Crackle Icon in the EOD they will be awarded the Remote Control hand and the Crackle Popcorn object for their personal spaces.
We’ve also hidden dozens of rewards in Crackle Movies! Can you find them?
This ties in beautifully with some of the recent discussions we’ve had here at HomeStation.
First off, the debate over whether or not various games and high-profile activities in Home need rewards to draw audience numbers. I personally don’t think it’s an absolute necessity — a hot attraction in Home is going to pull numbers no matter what — but it may be an effective means of advertising a new space or event to drive numbers even higher. So there’s no reason to not build it into the budget if it’s a demonstrable method to drive sales and visitor traffic.
Another benefit to these various rewards is that they can provide a boost in residual traffic numbers. Burbie’s recent article, outlining how an unfortunate number of public spaces in Home are all but derelict, is a good example here. Home is populated by gamers, and the gamer mentality is one of rapid consumption followed by abandonment. This is presently compounded by a Navigator interface which makes it very cumbersome to find public spaces and games that aren’t presently being featured. Thus, the absolute necessity to periodically update public spaces and games in Home, in order to maintain decent residual traffic numbers.
But let’s talk for a moment about Crackle itself. LOOT’s EOD technology is a “statement” piece of entertainment for Home. What I mean by that is simple: if you’re trying to summarize the high points of Home in order to paint a picture of the immersive virtual reality experience, EOD is one of the key pieces of that now. It’s not just a game, a cool space, or something along those lines; it’s one of the social elements of Home that “breaks the fourth wall” — that is to say, it makes Home feel more like real life.
HSM has, for the last year, clamored at length for improvements to the social aspects of Home; that even though such improvements would almost certainly require expensive core client updates, they would go a long, long way towards user retention. LOOT, however, has taken this one step further: the development of virtual commodities which enhance the social aspects of Home and whose monetization can be easily measured. This makes LOOT one of the most important developers in Home to watch.
(In the interests of full disclosure: I have no particular gift for prognostication. But I do have the advantage of having seen some upcoming LOOT products during my recent visit to their offices in Culver City, and what I saw is not only tremendously exciting, but really does show that LOOT cracked the code of how to offer commodities which show a measurable ROIC and deepen the social experience of Home.)
HSM's Editor, Terra_Cide, watching STS-135 from a Sunset Yacht EOD inside Home
This is why Crackle is such a step forward. The ability to sit in one’s private estate — or public space, for that matter — and call up a variety of various entertainment programs is a huge, huge step forward for turning Home into more than just a sideshow promotional tool for the gaming industry. It really does clearly justify, to a wide group of people, the financial investment required to own a private estate.
Think about it for a moment. Why do private estates exist? What function do they serve to justify their acquisition? Unless the space has something aesthetically pleasing to you, or it offers a unique gaming experience, there’s not much reason to own one (and I say this as someone who owns several, most of which sit in my account and go unused). EOD, on the other hand, creates a very clear reason to own a private estate. And let’s face it: personal estates are expensive to put together, and I think there’s no question that there will be upward pressure on pricing strategies coupled with different innovations and services offered to try to justify the price.
I’m curious about your own experiences with Crackle. How have you used it so far? Has it deepened your experience with Home?
November 23rd, 2011 by NorseGamer | 7 comments
NorseGamer is the product manager for LOOT Entertainment at Sony Pictures, as well as the founder and publisher of HomeStation Magazine. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, he holds a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and presently lives in Los Angeles. All opinions expressed in HSM are solely his and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sony DADC.
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One of the reasons that I bought Loot’s Sunset Yacht was because of the EOD screen. I also figured that content would be forthcoming at a later date. With Crackle we are now seeing some of that content. The selection is not that wide and most of the movies that I would watch in their list, I have seen. Last weekend I did watch a program “The Nines,” which played smoothly. The interruption for ads is abrupt but short and soon you are back to the program. I haven’t played around with the controls, so I don’t know how easy it is to pause or rewind.
This is cool and all but I really don’t need rewards to watch movies in Home.
I just need access to kickass movies.
I LOVE LOOT and the new Crackle movie deal!! I’ve already watched 4 movies (some I’ve seen, some I haven’t)and even though there are interruptions, as someone else stated, they are very brief. I was hoping there would be a larger selection…and I’m hoping in the near future there will be more newer releases, but it is just amazing that we can now share this experience with our HOME friends and it is FREE!! I’m also looking forward to the new radio/music that is coming out from LOOT. I KNOW this will be a HUGE hit in HOME as that is the biggest driver of most people in HOME…music!! Being able to have a choice of genre is going to be the biggest draw for the music lovers. Keep it up LOOT!!! We LOVE you!
LOOT IS JUST THE GREATEST COMPANY EVER!!!!! I have yet to even watch a movie but I think I will tonight…VIVA LA LOOT!!!!
i think the whole crackle setup is EXCELLENT!!! when they first put out the system in private spaces, i thought wow, imagine if we could watch with a freind! my problem seems to be that though in canada, same continent, next door neighbour…im excluded. i can watch odd ads and such, but no movies or tv series. it seems that its u.s. exclusive. which saddens me, considering ive followed the rules, canadian email as well as account, buy ps cards (canadian FOR my canadian account) but there IS no canadian server. so my canadian account is directed to the u.s. one. now this is no problem at all, except things like this. i spend my money on the home stuff available, but parts are excluded, like most of the crackle. ugh. anyone know of any solutions? my american friends can all see the same movie playing, but when im there its the standard run of commercials. pffft. argh.
GlassWalls has stated, quote, “This first phase is US only for now.” Which one can be led to believe that they do plan on expanding the service.
As it stands, the service, while quite enjoyable, does have a few bugs from time to time. Us silly ‘mericuns can iron out some of the bugs and freezing issues before it gets turned loose on the rest of the world.
lool, thank you, hun. i shall patiently wait. WOO HOO!!