My MSY MSI and my marketing moan...

 I recently decided it was time to buy a new laptop. Having the gaming rig is awesome and all, you just can't beat the portability of a laptop. While there is nothing quite like gaming in full high definition, surrounded by sound, being fully immersed within the virtual world and becoming captivated by whatever story or adventure you are on - having something that can fit into a backpack and be taken with you, wherever you want to go, can make demo/developing/gaming-on-the-go a whole lot simpler.

Having to cart around the Shinobi Stormtrooper rig is no fun either, especially as the case alone weighs in at 12.6 kilograms, which ends up being even heavier when you add the weight of all the hardware too. Having a laptop obviously reduces many of the problems/logistics faced when confronted with having to cart a full sized PC (and all the other hardware it requires) about, and while most standard gaming laptops aren't exactly lightweights compared to other laptops/tablets/etc, all gaming spec laptops/devices have dedicated GPU's and usually aren't cheap. Also, if you want to game for more than a couple of hours, you will need access to a power point as most gaming devices available have limited battery life. Having a gaming capable laptop will now allow me to demo the RIFT much easier and let me showcase/work-on my own content while I am on the road. As a bonus, it also just happens to play most modern games in high fidelity and the creative labs sound isn't bad, although it's no competition to a good set of ear-cans :)

my new MSI laptop; not all G-Series laptops come with back-lit keys. while it is often pictured with them online, this particular model (GE70 2OC-0371AU) does NOT have them - despite it having the steel series chiclet keyboard.

 While the latest and greatest gaming laptop models can cost upwards of $4,500, you can still pick a decent machine for around the $1,500 mark - anything less than that and it is unlikely that you will end up with a model that has a dedicated GPU (most likely having only the integrated graphics or a low-end GPU). Personally, while initially I didn't want to spend more than $1500 - after seeing what another $200 could get me in features (better GPU, more RAM,  SSD boot drive and a larger (17.3") screen) - I opted to spend that little bit extra. Being able to check it out at my local MSY retail outlet as opposed to online, allowed me to take it home direct from the store without having to wait for shipping and it came supplied with 16GB RAM instead of the factory standard 8Gb. The only downside was that it comes standard with windows 8, which means that if I wanted to "downgrade" to windows 7, I would need to buy a copy of it as most modern laptops come with windows 8 as standard. Although, strangely - no external product key sticker either - something I must now use other software to obtain. Guess it's finally time for me to give into Microsoft's latest OS and hope there are enough hacks to make it run like *WINDOWS* should (hint: search for "start8" in the app store). For those who want specifics, I ended up buying the MSI GE70 2OC-037AU for a total of $1,699.

I have also backed two more "VR" projects on Kickstarter.  Oculus posted information about the "vrAse" on their feed and, despite some initial reservations between this one and another similar project (see "360specs"), both are basically "just" the plastics, headband and optics, and have no actual hardware (such as a positional trackers) and both have limited software support. While there are clear differences between the two projects (vrAse uses aspheric lenses while the 360specs use fresnel), the main difference in the amount of support garnered from the Kickstarter community and VR/AR enthusiasts at this early stage, comes down to marketing. while I plan on making another post looking at both of these HMD "shells" and other similar devices in more detail soon, I must warn you that for the remainder of this post (after the pics), I will be ranting a bit about marketing a Kickstarter campaign etc.

photorealistic render of the vrAse with a white smartphone
(download and zoom in to see how a photorealistic-renders works)

Ray Latypov wearing the "360specs" prototype.
If the name sounds familiar, it is because Ray Latypov
helped co-create the Virtusphere, a VR locomotion platform

Ok, ignoring differences in the actual reward on offer, there is a significant difference in how the two campaigns have been run so far. to start with, vrAse went public a week before the KS launch, which probably led to Oculus announcing the launch within its community of developers. while this helped get the almost-critical spike in support from day one, there are many more reasons why the vrAse has reached almost half of its funding goal inside a week. While early interest isn't a guarantee of success, having that initial rush often leads to other backers pledging early and while it is inevitable that not all backers will remain backers by the time the campaign winds up, it helps bring in additional supporters. The other way that vrAse's campaign leads the 360specs is that the creators are actively answering questions and wording replies well in the comments section, despite the obvious fact that English is not their native language. This shows potential backers that the "company" has good customer services and an interest in feedback, despite being "just" a Kickstarter. Yet all of these factors aren't really what makes me moan about marketing - It is what it is and there are, of course, countless other details required for running a successful KS campaign that I will simply skip for now.

What really seperates the two projects and is the focus of this marketing moan is the campaign video that vrAse has chosen to run. Despite it being a "proven" way to entice backers, it is an easy way to scare off as many as it attracts. The vrAse campaign is all music and video with fancy graphics and well designed logos. Questions in the forums, some suspecting copyright issues with music used, and the video showing people happily using software and functionality that simply does not exist yet in the mobile space, often leads to negative adoption. While it is true that this may not be the case by the time backers get their rewards, it can be incredibly misleading to Joe or Jane public who thinks they will be able to fire up a ton of content from day one. Oculus navigated these tricky waters by making it abundantly clear that it was a developer kit, and, while some concession to the fact that the vrAse Kickstarter is purely a HMD "shell" - it could be construed as misleading. Even more so when you revise the entire campaign page that was submitted and approved and take the campaign as a whole. In contrast, the 360specs video ends up far too "plain" and this, combined with the creators lack of communication - has seen initial funding problems exacerbate. It's a shame really, because while I have my own personal doubts over whether or not the optics on the 360specs may or may not present problems, it is sad how some projects suffer from poor marketing/management rather than bad ideas. Who knows, maybe the fresnel lens used in the 360specs isn't as bad as its made out to be by the likes of Palmer and other VR enthusiasts/devs. I for one would welcome such innovations, and if it means me trying it myself for <$100, then we shall see... excuse the pun. If only because it is this sort of thing that can make VR/AR more readily accessible to the rest of the general public when us dev's and geeks start launching products/projects of our own.</rant>

if you want a perfect example on how marketing and media
influence the masses, take a look at the recent Australian election result.
sneaky tricks, media blackouts and Rupert Murdoch will cost Australia, DEARLY.

<*sniff*> goodbye NBN, it was a nice dream while it lasted :(