Being in an interview

How does it feel to be in an interview? The heart pounding hard in anticipation of another brainstorming query. Would I be able to answer it? What does the interviewer think of me? Does he think I am good enough? What should I do to impress him more? Well..well..well..This is only when you are being interviewed. Its so much fun to be at the other end of this process. Being an interviewer. Today I laid my first hands on this exhilarating task. The guy was from Michigan, Ann Arbor.

This process is not that easy as it seems. Evaluating a person based on an interview is tough. Answers might be known before-hand due to intensive preparations. I asked some uncanny and unconventional questions. I tried to make the process much friendlier, smoother, open to ideas and basically easy. His problem solving skills really impressed me, although his knowledge about the gaming project he mentioned was shallow. Overall I did not grill him too much. I think I would have, if i was better prepared. I was just informed 40 mins before the interview that I was supposed to take it. Anyways. A nice experience. Why not? You are the BOSS.

I went ice skating during work hours today. It was just me and Russ. This place is 10 mins from our office. There was some lunch time special so it was dirt cheap. I kept clinging to the wall while skating for the first 10-15 minutes. After that I got the hang of it. Best part. Did not fall once. This is just my second time on ice. Will definitely try to get better at it. Won the poker tourney after a long time yesterday. It increased my credibility as a better player. I am a regular winner in limit-poker, but tourneys have been really bleak for me. Finally I beat Thomas yesterday to get the prize money. Niceeeeeee

Road trip

This was my first road trip. a forced one rather due to circumstances. sumera had to move out of boise since she got a job here in san jose. so we had to bring some of her remaining stuff and the car. the road trip was through four states. we started moving west from IDAHO till we reached OREGON. We kept moving west for some more time and then moved southwest to reach NEVADA. We touched California after passing Reno. It was supposed to be a 12 hr 17 min drive. But we zipped our way past oregon and nevada with constant speeds of 85-100. The freeways that went through oregon and especially nevada were so empty that I could see everything a mile ahead. And once you can see where the cops are, you can make sure that they do not catch you speeding. Anyways we stopped at some places we liked. I hate driving, but this road trip was goooddddd.

Met Vivek yesterday). He has been here in Folsom for the past two months. We met at Srinu's place and then did the regular bowling and mini-golf shit. Then he and Sowmya had to leave. Me and Sumera had to go to Walmart for some last minute shopping for her India trip. I was looking through the DVD stock in Walmart when this Indian guy comes besides me and looks at me and says Hiiiii. Right when he made this move I could make out that he is one of those wannabe millionaires who visits walmart to get hold of some scapegoats for some dumb scheme of theirs. I just said hi and moved out of there and went to the XBox section. But the f***** could not hold back his urge to get another chump. He came besides me again and started his conversation with guess what....Areee youuuu from Stanfaooord. He started asking me all sorts of questions and then asked for my business card. I told him I dont have it. He then removed his set of business cards, gave me one, and then told me to write my number on one. I wrote a phone number. God knows whose. 857-------some shit. These guys get on my nerves. Anyways.

Came back, packed her bags, and left to drop sumera off at the airport. She is a getting a good break for a month and half in India. I am off to India on 19th for my wedding. DAMN the indian constraints where you can't live together without gettin married. Anyways. This weekend was one of the most hectic weekends I have had. And before I sign off. I got my much awaited salaray hike. But it SUCKSSSSS big time. Not even half of wat I expected.

Guitar Hero

Mike's farewell party on Friday was all about booze and this console music game called Guitar Hero. In my view it is a silly game for wannabe guitarists. But then hey. There are hardcore fans of this game. It ain't that costly too. Just 100 bucks could get you the single player stuff. The worst part of this game is that you have no other option but a singleton consisting of around 20-25 soundtracks including the likes of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and AC/DC. Having some more options (probably more music genres in different CDs) would be better. I somehow liked the Chinese drum game better. In this you have a mini drum that is connected to the console. You start the game. There are red and blue circles coming off the right end of the screen, and when it reaches the stationary circle at the left you have to beat the drum. Not as easy as it sounds. The circles travel at a pace determined by your difficulty level. Moreover if a red circle comes up you have to beat the center of the drum and if a blue cricle comes up you beat the corner of the drum at a certain angle.

Talking about games. I bought Fight Night Round 3 recently for my XBox. I swear I would trade the game for 15 bucks. I was so excited about the game, but then after playing it..........What kills the excitement is the response time of the punches and jabs. The SUPER KO swings (special punches) take around 2 seconds, which is really slow for a boxing game. Also got a complimentary "Marc Ecko Getting Up" for my XBox from the company. It is exciting, but am dying of shame to announce that I still can't pass the third level. It's similar to GTA, though GTA is much much better. My next game could be Football Madden.

CHUCK de fatte

Another desi hub. The neighborhood is called Little India and is situated in Vancouver, Canada. But unlike one of those Gujju dominated areas, this one is for Punjabis. "Roopam Fashions" and "Sadhna Saree" are the kind of stores you would find here. More Indianized than the bay area huh.

Future of Glu

EA bought Jamdat for $684 million a few months ago consolidating my belief that the mobile industry has a lot more potential for growth. It might have been a good deal for EA, which is now the number one publisher and developer of mobile entertainment in USA and Europe, but there was a lot of speculation about the move. EA, being a powerhouse of entertaining games, could jump into the mobile market by themselves. Why did they need Jamdat as an accessory to do that? My guess is that EA must have figured out that this particular industry is far from being similar to the console gaming indsutry.
One positive aspect of the deal is that it got a ready-to-use mobile infrastructure, and most importantly avoided the resources needed to devise new processes from developing to porting games. But what does this deal mean to the flock of small companies striving in the market. What about the fate of Glu Mobile? EA has exposed its huge repository of console games to the mobile market. This could be a negative influence for the companies that are barely surviving. But for companies in a not-so-bad shape like Glu Mobile, this could mean enhancing the quality of their games. Just getting better would not be enough because of the mechanics of this industry. A potential customer (in this industry carriers are customers) would rely more on brand and why not if its EA supplemented by the fact that Jamdat was already numero uno in terms of revenue in US. Moreover EA is not restricted by cash flow. It could streamline a minor chunk of it into R&D for burgeoning prospects like mobile 3D. These things cumulatively could significantly hinder the prospects of other companies in the market. The deal has separated the best from the extant by a large margin.
This might result in a trend of M&A's (mergers and acquisitions) in the mobile industry so as to consolidate their position in the industry. Glu Mobile recently announced that they bought IFone, a UK based publishing house. Roughly around this time last year, Glu had bought Macrospace another developer and publisher in UK. But the stimulating factors for both acquisitons were different. Before the Macrospace takeover, Glu did not have a significant presence in Europe. Macrospace would augment Glu's existence in the European market. Furthermore, Macrospace would also add value in terms of its spectrum of games and engineering force. IFone is a totally different story. It is bought not to intensify Glu's presence in Europe. It is bought to get hold of the promising Atari licenses that it holds. Getting access to these licenses might prove pathbreaking for the company. But with all M&A's come the cost of integration. Though it might have been hard in case of Macrospace, IFone is more of a publisher which outsources its development. Moreover being geographically closer to Macrospace which is Glu UK now, the integration process would be much smoother in my view. The future of Glu depends largely on enhancing the quality, better marketing and distribution, and stategic alliances.

Disclaimer- This blog is a casual analysis of Glu and the mobile market in general. Some statements might be erroneus, untrue or analytically incorrect. The facts stated are true to the best of my knowledge.

To learn more about Glu Mobile go to www.glu.com