First published October 2009
What if it stopped working? What if, one day, FaceBook suddenly and irrevocably ceased to exist?
Every morning now, when I boot up my computer and begin my ritual of Facebook, email and game culture news blogs, I ask myself that question. And, if it did die, how many people in my office would be immediately overwhelmed by a giant sense of loss and confusion?
Furthermore, how many people on my Friends List would I no longer have contact details for? How many would I continue to see 'outside of the computer'? Or, would I hope to catch them again on Xbox Live, or meet up with them in SecondLife, World of Warcraft, or in PlayStation's virtual construct, Home?
Just how many of my day's meaningful interactions would I lose?
I blame the Digital Distribution Summit: Small Games, Big Market for my recent musings. Held in Melbourne over three days last week, the event brought together game studios, developers and business investors to discuss the big business opportunities presented by the rapidly growing digital game distribution market.
The summit examined recently released statistics that indicate that the Australian game industry will increase from $1.5 billion to $2.2 billion over the next five years, and that online and wireless games will constitute 60 per cent of the market by 2013.
The numbers aren't surprising, particularly for avid gamers and music lovers. For years, companies have been training us to accept and embrace digital goods over physical ones. Most notably, Apple turned the music world on its head when downloadable iTunes became the desirable alternative to shop-bought CDs and DVDs.
Then Microsoft unveiled the Xbox 360 and introduced gamers to the notion of 'microtransactions': small online purchases of game content, bought directly from Microsoft. At first it was just avatar pics, dashboard themes and additional DLC (downloadable content) for the game you'd just bought from EB Games. Now, however, all of the major devices and companies are cashing in, selling everything from Tokidoki-branded avatar clothing to video and TV content, experimental apps, premium DLC and entire games.
Of more interest to the Facebook addict is the integration of social networks. Photos taken with a Nintendo DSi can be directly uploaded to Facebook from any wireless hotspot. Xbox Live is soon to include Twitter, Facebook and Last.FM. Soon-to-be-released PS3 game Uncharted 2 will have options that allow the game to automatically