gaming > tech stuff > and baseball

A bit of background regarding PCI compliance - as credit card use has become more widespread both offline and online, and as consumer concern about security has understandably grown, the credit card industries have made an effort to ensure that sensitive information is protected. To that end, in September 2006, the major credit card companies (American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa International) formed the PCI Security Standards Council (SSC) and established a set of rules for what they called PCI compliance. These rules have to be followed depending on the size of a business and the number of credit card transactions handled, and if done properly will help protect consumers’ data from theft. The Rules in a Nutshell There are six major categories within the standards established by the PCI SSC, which are as follows: –Build and maintain a secure network –Protect cardholder data –Maintain a vulnerability management program –Implement strong ...

A prospect came up with some interesting promotion code expiration uses the other day, so I figured I’d jot down how many ways you would want to be able to expire codes. Here’s the list as of this posting date: - Date (”expire on 12/31/2010″) - Number of Uses (”expire after 200 signups”) - Activity (”When an in game event happens, send an API call to expire the code”) - Combination of ways (”Expire a promotion code on 12/31/2010 OR when X people use it”) A general recap of what codes can do in addition to the above expiration stuff: - Change plan pricing - Change plan naming conventions - Mark a reseller or channel partner - Display multiple plans (not just a 1/1 ratio.. one promo yields multiple plan displays)

What products did we quickly grow to love and why? Southwest Airlines (online transparency and logic). They made their pricing transparent and easy to understand. If a round trip flight was $200, then the one way flight was…drum roll please…$100. That was the beginning of being transparent. Anyone could see and understand the pricing, and because it made sense it also built TRUST. As the online Guest became increasingly savvy they understood the necessity of charging more at different times of the day. So Southwest showed us the price ‘per flight / leg’ and we were able to satisfy all the questions swirling in our heads…what if I leave earlier or later…what is the price difference? With this transparent information, I could decide. What does this have to do with pricing streaming assets? Streaming video is usually offered in 24 hour increments. Why? I sleep some portion of my day, so why not offer it in 8 hour increments? I can enjoy it at work…at home and not feel like I am wasting...

Only 30% of Europeans pay with credit / debit cards! You can quickly do some online research and you’ll find that between 29-31% of EU citizens use credit / debit cards and instead prefer ‘localized payment methods. ‘ Localized payment methods drive international eCommerce! By enabling the online Guest to pay with their payment mechanism…online conversion is improved and site retention benefits. The Guest is less likely to commoditize your product due to their ability to pay how they want for what they want. Alternative or localized payments are common worldwide, and drive 10-30% improvement in incremental revenue from non-cannibalized sources. PAYMENT TYPES - GLOSSARY Credit Card - A card that allows a retail or business consumer to make purchases using a card and account where there is a predetermined borrowing arrangement up to a fixed monthly level. A plastic card bearing a number, the name of the cardholder, an expiration date and a Verification Code/Value. Used for purcha...

I always say to my friends that the minute I sound like I am making sense or know what I am saying, please hit the pause button cuz I’m not the sharpest guy you’ll meet. Having said that…let’s look at the trend in US gaming that seems to be trailing and copying Asia, EU and Eastern EU. Fully 80%+ of game publishers are exploring monetizing their games via in game currencies and commerce. A couple of quick definitions to help make sure we are singing the same song, including the monetization strategy; 1. subscription based games - monthly recurring subscriptions provide enhanced levels/attributes/game play in exchange for paying a monthly subscription. These have been common in the US and are not popular in Asia or EU (more on that later). Recently, US companies are combining free2play models as the lure to get gamers into subscription services. When we think of subscription models we invariably thing of World of Warcraft ( WOW) and the like. 2. Free2play - exactly as it sou...