Jeremy Soule: "Pac-Man will eat Mark Zuckerberg's lunch"

Via Eurogamer.net:

 Elder Scrolls composer says "video gaming is the future of social media".

 

By John Bedford Published Tuesday, 6 August 2013

Jeremy Soule, the celebrated Elder Scrolls composer and now music director for Sony Online Entertainment's upcoming EverQuest Next, believes video games have the potential to overtake the likes of Facebook and become the dominant medium for online social interaction.
"I don't even like the word MMO," he says. "I like virtual world, because to me I want to rethink how we use music in a game setting. This is bigger than a game though, because you have so many social dynamics and things going on. I think video gaming is the future of social media. Pac-Man will eat Mark Zuckerberg's lunch."
Soule explained his position: "Just as you can learn something from reading Dickens, you can learn things from interacting with people around the world amongst high concept or high-minded ideas such as saving people, such as defending or building something together.
"To me, this is where the lines of social media and the lines of gaming are going to get really blurred. I remember talking to Dave [Georgeson, producer of EverQuest Next] and saying, 'Do you realise what's happening here? It's not Facebook that's the future, I feel like this is the future.'
"Anything done on the back-end of Facebook is being done in an MMO right now, just way cooler," Soule continued.
"We're actually reaching people of all ages, so this is a dynamic I have to think about when I make music for millions of people. How do we reach the individual and not just the masses? If the world is dynamic, the music has to be just as dynamic."

Soule was speaking during an interview with Eurogamer at this year's SOE Live event in Las Vegas, where the first fully fleshed-out details of EverQuest Next were presented to a largely enthusiastic gathering of fans.
The composer has been involved in the development of the game to a greater degree than past projects.
"As music director of this project, I have the freedom to succeed or fail. It's a nice place to be," he said.
"I can say on past projects that I may not have had too much creative reign. Now I can say the music has a cabinet level seat at the roundtable of design. I'm able to represent things, concerns and development issues to the rest of the team. And that's what important, and I think what really sets EverQuest Next apart is the quality of the team behind this project.
"When I first came in for my interview, I was expecting a couple of people to talk a little bit about the game. Instead, all the principals of the team came in and we spoke for hours about music, and so the cross-pollination and the precision I saw in the team Dave put together, it really gave me the sense that this group could go all the way, that they could have a number one. Because of that it's invigorating and it's exciting, and it tells me I have to work hard to keep up with this group."

As well as the main reboot of the EverQuest franchise, SOE is also hard at work on EverQuest Next Landmark, a title due out later this year in advance of the MMO's launch. As a creative tool, Landmark will not only allow players to craft objects which might end up appearing in EverQuest Next itself at launch, but also build their own settlements. What prospects are there for budding musicians to contribute to the cause?
"As music director, I want to find ways to do that with music as well," Soule teased. "We're working out some ideas. It's very early right now, but I want to be able to say there is a way for you as a musical person to be creative with this project.
"We're engaging the player, we're bringing the creativity. I've worked on some of the biggest franchises and I think that all the ideas that we saw today, they really shook me when I saw them.
"This was a bolt of lightning and when the rest of the industry catches onto this...To know that you got a sneak peek of what I believe personally, as a developer of 60 million games [sales] later, I think is the most exciting thing I've ever worked on in my career."

This article was based on a press trip to Las Vegas. SOE paid for travel and accommodation.

DMCA Notices to Search Engines Won’t Mitigate Piracy, Tech Giants Say

Via TorrentFreak:

• Andy
• August 6, 2013

A new research paper seriously downplays the importance of search engine traffic on sites that offer unauthorized downloads. The CCIA, which counts Google, Yahoo and Microsoft among its members, says that making items disappear from search results via DMCA notices is not the key to substantially reducing piracy. General purpose search engines are not part of the average infringer’s toolbox, the companies note, adding that entertainment companies should focus on their own SEO.

 

One of the hottest piracy-related topics in recent times is the role search engines play in the discovery of unauthorized copyrighted material.
Rightsholders in their thousands have already sent Google more than 100 million DMCA takedown notices this year in the belief that removing search engine listings will go a long way towards making illicit content harder to find. But is that really the case?
According to a new research paper titled ‘The Search Fixation: Infringement, Search Results, and Online Content’, the emphasis rightsholders are placing on censoring search engine results is actually achieving very little and those valuable resources might be better off spent elsewhere.
The paper, published by the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) which counts Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook among its members, says that entertainment industry companies have become “fixated” on the role search engines play in unearthing illicit content. The focus is so great there was even an attempt to legislate site censorship via the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act.
“This might lead to the conclusion that search engines are a prominent tool in the infringers’ tool box. In fact, available evidence suggests that search is not a particularly relevant tool for infringers seeking to find sites (such as The Pirate Bay) or for sites to find users,” the report states.
The CCIA cites research from BAE Systems Detica which found that users are far more likely to return to infringing sites via a direct browser entry or via social networks. Furthermore, it appears that users looking for illicit material already know where they want to obtain it from even before they start searching.
“As of August 2013, over 20% of queries that result in traffic being directed to the Pirate Bay consist of words compromising the Pirate Bay’s domain name. This suggests that users are quite aware of their intended destination before they arrive at a search engine, and that any facilitation was minimal,” CCIA explain.
When criticizing Google over its search results the RIAA has previously noted that searches including the terms “download,” “mp3,” or “torrent” often turn up links to infringing content.
However, in their report the CCIA says that such searches are infrequent when compared to straightforward lookups on artist names, which are actually more likely to turn up links to authorized content. So why not improve the usefulness of those?
“The fixation on demoting responsive but undesirable search results overlooks a more viable strategy: promoting desirable search results,” the paper notes.
CCIA suggests that if the entertainment industry wants their content to appear in search results when users type in “objectionable” terms such as those listed above, then they will have to start using them on pages offering legal content. Noting that legitimate sites aren’t currently employing such a strategy, the CCIA comes to two conclusions.
“This suggests either (a) a deficiency in otherwise robust online marketing strategies, or (b) that these terms are judged to be unworthy of optimizing because they will drive a trivial amount of commercial traffic.
“Stated otherwise: if search terms such as ‘mp3′ and ‘download’ were likely to lead to sales or subscriptions, a rational, profit-minded online platform engaging in basic search engine optimization (SEO) would attempt to incorporate those terms in site content.”
The CCIA concludes by noting that while DMCA notices might be a useful tool, they are unlikely to achieve the desired result of substantially reducing piracy. Concentrating on improving the visibility of legitimate content, even if that means utilizing “objectionable” terms, would be a more robust strategy.