MMObile: extensions of our social and gaming networks
by James Egan 
Jun 8th 2008 at 10:00AM
Filed under: Business models, MMO industry, Opinion, Mobile, Virtual worlds
How many times have you wanted to check on your game stats, switch skill training, or buy something at an auction house while you were nowhere near your computer? We have a host of mobile devices and services available to us with speed increases every year, but still connections to our online social networks are quite limited when we're not in front of our computers. Shouldn't more companies focus on allowing our mobile devices to act as extensions of our computers and consoles? That's what Tom Sperry, CEO and President of Exit Games Inc. thinks. He lays out his vision for how things can improve, in this scenario:
- Your guild schedules a raid to occur at 10:00pm tonight; you receive an alert on your mobile as soon as it's scheduled;
- You're curious if Quizzard from your guild will be there to help out and offer some crowd control, so you launch the mobile app, notice that Quizzard is logged in either in-game or on his mobile, text him, and receive confirmation that he will be participating in the raid;
- To increase your chances for success in the raid, you decide to upgrade your weapon. Launching the Auction House feature within the mobile app, you purchase gloves with fire resistance, as the raid is full of fire elementals.
