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Internal Facebook note reveals clever ‘psychological trick’ to attract teenage users

Aug09
by on August 9, 2018 at 1:01 am
Posted In: Around the Web


Always on the lookout for novel ways to attract teens, Facebook purchased viral polling app TBH last October. The app fell well short of anything innovative but did manage to snag an estimated 2.5 million users, mostly teens, just a few months after its launch. While it’s easy to point to as a failure — Facebook shuttered the app last month due to “low usage” — the purchase price of the app (less than $30 million) may end up paying dividends down the road. Facebook, as has been well-documented in recent years, is losing boatloads of teens to competitors. While…

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Astrophysicist says aliens could be hiding behind repositioned stars

Aug08
by on August 8, 2018 at 11:16 pm
Posted In: Around the Web


Astrophysicist Dan Hooper thinks we’ll eventually have to wrangle the stars in our night sky, like wayward cattle straying from the herd, in order to keep the lights on. This is because the universe is constantly expanding and pulling stars with it. If he’s right, his logic would apply to all intelligent life in the universe — and could help us find aliens. Ask anyone who believes in extra-terrestrial intelligent life why, after thousands of years, we haven’t located aliens and they’ll tell you that we’re just not looking in the right places (or that we have, and the government…

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How game trailers are inspired by the world of film

Aug08
by on August 8, 2018 at 11:11 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, gaming


Games and movies, despite being two separate kinds of media, have a lot in common, and the point where they intersect the most is in their trailers. Recently I wrote an article about the trend of dark, confusing cinematic trailers, and where they sit in the hype cycle that constitutes a game’s pre-release marketing campaign. But cinematic trailers themselves are a conundrum. They’re both filmed and edited to resemble mini-movies, and frequently can be short films themselves. Why do game trailers and movie trailers look so similar? Surprisingly, it’s because it’s the point where people from both industries seem to…

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a couple of laughzillas on a blue diamond background

How game trailers are inspired by the world of film

Aug08
by on August 8, 2018 at 11:11 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, gaming


Games and movies, despite being two separate kinds of media, have a lot in common, and the point where they intersect the most is in their trailers. Recently I wrote an article about the trend of dark, confusing cinematic trailers, and where they sit in the hype cycle that constitutes a game’s pre-release marketing campaign. But cinematic trailers themselves are a conundrum. They’re both filmed and edited to resemble mini-movies, and frequently can be short films themselves. Why do game trailers and movie trailers look so similar? Surprisingly, it’s because it’s the point where people from both industries seem to…

This story continues at The Next Web

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