Think Big. Move Fast.

PlentyOfFish claims that MySpace is suspending all dating and diet campaigns:

Apparently they got an email saying:

I have a bit of news about your campaign. Rupert Murdoch has decided to put all dating & dieting campaigns on MySpace on hold for a few days. They are discussing about dating creatives currently and planning to come up with a set of standards for them. I wanted to notify you and let you know that the campaign will be halted today and I will keep you updated as soon as I hear some news. I apologize for the inconvenience

Dating, Diet and Mobile comprise the three biggest categories of performance based advertising on social networks, so two of the big three are affected. If this suspension continues it will likely have a measurable impact on MySpace’s revenues.

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Interesting quote from Massively‘s GDC coverage about how to design for Real Money Trading:

Bethke imparts some advice on how the common mistakes can be fixed in terms of balancing. You can charge for things that are defensive in nature and the less skilled players with more money can buy them, while offensive items remain free of charge. The more skillful, more time-rich players won’t resent the advantages the other type of players has, as it won’t really stop them from doing what they want. Some companies have buyback programs for overpowered items, but this can set a bad precedent.

Lots of other interesting perspectives came from the panel – worth reading the whole thing.

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Numerous reports last night that Jon Miller is going to be taking over as digital head at Newscorp:

Once he does sign, which seems likely, Miller will become News Corp.’s chief digital officer, reporting directly to the media giant’s head, Rupert Murdoch. Based in New York, he will also be chairman and CEO of the newly created News Digital Media group.

Sources noted that this is a a different and larger platform for Miller, bigger than just the Fox Interactive Media job that Levinsohn held. It will go across all properties held by News Corp. across the globe.

“The idea is to mainstream the digital initiatives, which have been all over the company,” said one source close to the situation.

I worked for and with Jon for seven years, both at IAC and at AOL. He is terrific; a premier strategist and thinker about the online world. AOL did terrifically well under his leadership, and took a marked and immediate turn for the worse when he left. He has a huge palette to paint with with the Newscorp digital assets.

Congrats to both Jon and Newscorp.

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Mary Meeker’s latest omnibus research report goes deep on the economy and it’s implications for the internet. Some interesting tidbits:

1. Only 5 of “top 20″ US Advertisers spent more than the industry average of 8% of their ad budgets …

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Jussi Laakkonen live blogged the panel and has his mindmap here.…

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I’ve been blogging a lot about social games over the past couple of years and have been a big proponent of the space. However, over the last few months I’ve started to question whether social gaming is a separate category …

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Raph Koster has some useful tips on laying out maps; some of these are probably not too different from urban design planning best practices in the real world. I’m repeating them here (aggregating and paraphrasing some of his points)…

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Two interesting announcments on prepaid cards this week.

Venturebeat reports:

Game currency cards — gift cards players can use to pay for subscriptions or virtual goods in online games — are getting traction. Coming on the heels of a similar

…

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The Economist has another fascinating article about face. Specifically, about physiognomy – the idea that the way you look is a reflection of your character.

In particular, it describes research done by at Rice University to see if people …

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GDC is next week, and still focused on console and AAA PC games. I’m speaking at a couple of satellite gaming conferences that are more focused on online gaming, my area of investment interest.

On Sunday March 22nd I’m moderating …

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