Thursday, December 06, 2007

World of...MiniGolf?

Last week's news of Vivendi and ActiVision doing the corporate version of a mash-up, signifies the beginning of a new video game era.

I think it's all because of the Wii platform bringing the social aspect into the game, and thanks to creative uses of plug-ins..here's what I see:

ActiVision...with its strong Guitar Hero franchise, has taken the reins and solidified the Wii platform as the real social platform.

Enter World of Warcraft (WoW)...Vivendi's blockbuster game in a virtual world...they have the subscription model figured out as to how to make money with the social Internet.

Now...let's mash the social platform with Internet 2.0, and add a golf club...

...actually...a putter...

Back in the pages of the Vivendi games website there is an online game called 3D Ultra Mini-Golf

This game is in its infancy...but with the Vivendi/ActiVision mash-up (to be called ActiVision/Blizzard) I see this being developed for the Wii platform, and used as an online social/virtual site the way WoW is currently played. I see the (virtual) putter being the Wii stick, and a multitude of players competing for local-state-national mini-golf championships. The possibilities (as with WoW and Guitar Hero) are endless...but in golf video games I see less of someone trying to be Tiger Woods...and more like trying to be "personified" with their own qualities...or lack there of.

Of course, that's just one 45 year olds point of view....my 4 year old and his/her peers will someday undoubtedly push the video game envelope to area I cannot even dream of.

...not even Lasik-vision will be able to see it.

Thanks for reading. Keep it in the short-grass,

JFB


Finding good baseball bats and basketball shoes is almost as hard as looking for the perfect golf shoes or golf clubs. There is no such thing as perfect golf equipment. Your golf vacations can be fun without the perfect equipment too.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yeah.. I love the wii games. I haven't played the tiger woods one yet, but i have played the normal one.

-hien
www.caddiehub.com