2008-12-12

New Game!

最近迷上的棒球遊戲...
プロ野球チームをつくろう!ONLINE 2

記得3年前來日本的時候
在arcade看到了這個遊戲:
Baseball Heroes

馬上就迷上了... 瘋狂的玩
去年在日本intern的時候也是一直玩
回去甚至有用這個idea做了一個feasibility study.
(結果是可以做, 可是我沒人沒錢...)
不過Baseball Heroes麻煩的是卡會一直累積,處理上很麻煩
而且只能上arcade玩, 今年有了家室之後就很難自己在arcade混個一天

這次發現了野球つく。 其實去年我就有看過了, 可是那時候只會日本版, 又是會員制
一時裝不起來就沒興趣再研究
這次在銀狐家發現野球つく已經變成freemium. 就決定抓下來玩玩
一玩不得了, 已經掉入錢坑了。。。

不過現在的工作多少也跟web services有關
就把他當作是research吧

野球つく的freemium model我覺得做的不錯
在某個地方看過, freemium 的priciple是 not pay for access, but for service.
Free user基本上可以access所有的球員,
而paid user可以購買一些特別的功能, 重要的是這些功能不會upset the game balance too much. 所以free user不會感到太挫折而不玩
Payment Methods 也很容易(以日本玩家而言), 金額也不高。
應該是可以吸引到很多Players
能不能賺錢的重點應該是"顧客群"
日本用PC上網的人跟其他先進國家比起來是(比率)低的, 那是因為日本手機上網太發達, 日本人反而沒有incentive待在家裡上網。 可是日本broadband的品質是一級的(BT隨便跑就是1.5MB/sec)
所以對野球つく來講,PC的顧客群到底夠嗎, 還是需要go mobile?
如果有mobile版的話, 我只能確定我會花更多錢 XD

2008-12-02

Christmas is almost here

Time for some reflections...

During the 2 months of inactivity, lots have happened around the world. Stock markets free-fall, companies bankrupt, my laptop broke 2 times, governments screw-up and many more. Good thing is that I am still fully employed.

Work keeps moving at its own pace. I am slowly discovering the bureaucracies of a multi-national corporations, and it's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just that in the time of change, how quick can it change?

Personal-wise, I am realizing my limitations as well. Everything boils down to communication: I need to improve my Japanese to a level that I feel comfortable enough to engage in internal discussions. Though English-speaking colleagues say whenever they speak in English, they win the argument, and whenever they speak in Japanese, they lose the argument, to me, I don't mind winning or losing, the important thing is that I can get some new perspectives, no matter how right or wrong they are. This will probably be my most important thing to work on in the coming year.

The apartment is filling up with craps nicely. Recently I have had the nagging feeling that our apartment is too big and rent is too high. but we are still hitting our monthly savings target (or maybe it's set too low?), and I keep rationalizing, telling myself that smaller living quarters = more stress = more arguments, but seriously, I need a second tv... there are too many funny shows on TV to catch, even with a TV recorder. The bottleneck then becomes the TV because it can only be on 24 hours a day, and 2 people need to compete for TV time. That leaves little time for my PS3 and Wii...

2008-09-30

Replying someone's MBA questions

你好,

也許你可以先解釋一下你自己的想法。 我問你一些問題看你可不可以試著回答

1. 為什麼你覺得你現在的工作不能做一輩子?
2. 你認為的MBA是什麼?
3. 如果你拿到了MBA, 你要怎麼選擇你畢業後的第一份工作?
4. 你認為MBA可以給你一個一輩子的工作嗎?

關於你的問題

1.回來台灣的薪水會比我現在的工作要賺的多嗎?
2.轉換跑道真的能越換越好嗎?


很不幸的, 這兩個的答案都是"看情形"
我可能要知道你現在的薪水才能給你一點更明確的建議
不過最後的答案應該還是一樣

MBA的特性是師父(學校)領進門, 修行在個人。
所以師父有高低, 自己的修行也有高低
跟其他的碩士比起來, MBA自己的修行重要很多
如果你不喜歡這種不確定性, 還是建議你再多想想
不過如果你是一個有計劃/目標的人(計劃跟目標不是不能改), 你會念的比較快樂

2008-09-26

Keeping up the pace (1 post per month)

Another month flew by... It's not that there is nothing to write, but too many things happened that I don't know where to start.

Work-wise, things are falling into a pattern, but it looks like there will be change soon. Aside from the organizational change, I am starting to think about what is the essence of my job function:

Before MBA, I was just an engineer. Taking orders from the boss/customer, and making something out of it. Being specialized in database helped somewhat on the autonomy issue, because I was the only one who understood the methodology, so I was pretty much free to design the structure as I wish. What was the reason I decided to leave? It seemed so long ago, but I remembered that I didn't dislike what I was doing,but I wanted to do something different, and 'bigger.' Didn't have a concrete idea, but thought MBA was a good way to try, so I did.


Then, life took me for a spin. First 2/3 of my first year in MBA, I had no idea what I wanted to do. Consulting was my short term goal in my application letter, but I found out quickly that I wouldn't like the style (and they wouldn't want me. ha). Then just before my first finance class started, I flirted with the idea of making corporate finance as my primary plan... I quickly scrapped that idea too... next I thought about the gaming industry, but the jobs are too few in between (in terms of MBA hires). Struggling for a long time, I finally set my career plan as: Business Planning/Development in Hi-Tech (Primary), and whatever I can find (Secondary). Realistically, I knew that my chance at a BD job was slim. My school didn't even have a BD-specific career lead, but Hi-Tech industries in general fit my background well. I was also prepared for worst case scenario where I wouldn't find an intern. Luckily, the opportunity came knocking and I was prepared for it. That's how I ended up here.

So what is business development? For the past 2 months, I think I am doing more planning than developing. Basically, it's doing a feasibility study. You look at the industry (ecosystem), need of customer, and propose a business model. The difficult part is not coming up with these models, but standing behind them. Not every assumption/business model will be true, but you need to have an explanation (not answer) to these and be able to change it when it actually comes to implementation. Looking at it, I still have a lot to learn.

2008-08-08

obon holiday

Tokyo summer feels much hotter this time around. But I guess it's probably the same as last summer. Only the mindset is different...


The apartment is slowly turning into home. By the time I got back today, we should have sofa, curtain, and fridge ready to go. The TV is not in time for the Olympic opening ceremony, but it should be ready by the closing ceremony.

Things are falling into a rhythm work-wise too. Everyday is a combination of meeting, planning and researching. Most people are taking days off starting from this week. Don't really need to take days off, but since everyone else is, I just figured to use some of my holidays just so I won't have too many unused days by the end of year (muahaha)

So I have 9 consecutive days off. what to do.....
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