Tired of Twittering and chatting with FaceBook pals? Looking for a new fatal distraction? Perhaps it’s time to check out Cisco Systems’ online game tournament — called EdgeQuest 2. The game is designed to entertain while fueling Cisco’s lead generation efforts. But are vendor-driven games worth your time — and Cisco’s marketing budget?
You’ll find complete details about the Cisco game on the company’s SP360: Service Provider blog.
Cisco isn’t the first IT company to use a game to build a customer lead generation system. Symantec in 2007 launched a Doom-styled game, but The VAR Guy hears the lead generation results weren’t all that stellar.
It begs the question: Are IT companies wise to spend their marketing and sales budgets on games that drive lead generation — especially when the registered gamers may not drive buying decisions within an organization?
Frankly, The VAR Guy doesn’t have an answer for that question. Perhaps he’s too distracted playing this classic…
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VARguy: I knew there was a reason we kept you around. I’ll get back to work sometime tomorrow.
I am using Ubuntu Linux 8.10, and that Cisco game requires some kind of plugin that I do not have. Anyone know?
Thanks,
Tristan
Tristan: Give The VAR Guy some time. He’ll track down an answer for you.
It’s Shockwave Flash… the ancient version that pre-dates Flash and has no Linux version, so it’s quite a PITA to get it to work on Linux. No idea why would someone make a brand-new app on antiquated technology.
See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Shockwave on the howto. But color me baffled.
Vadim: The VAR Guy may need to hire you for IT support someday. You seem to have all the answers when you visit his site (and his sister sites). Thanks for helping out your fellow readers.
-TVG
Sure!
Joe, First of all, thanks for enjoying the game. I’ll comment a bit about the game in a follow up post. But, first want to address the comments as to the game play and clear up some things. And, certainly, we’ll address any other questions.
Edge Quest 2 requires 2 plug-ins: Adobe Shockwave and Adobe Flash. Shockwave and Flash are separate and distinct platforms. Shockwave provides access to 3D capabilities, and Flash provides access to advanced multimedia. Both platforms are still in active development by Adobe, and EQ2 fully supports Shockwave 11 (released 3/11/08) and Flash 10 (released 10/15/08), the most current versions available. Unfortunately, Adobe has not chosen to provide a compatible player for Linux distributions. For that reason, EQ2 is only available on the PC and Mac platforms. EQ2 is a (potentially) resource-intensive game, so the virtualization of the Windows plug-in suggested above is not recommended.
We hope this helps! And, thanks to all who took the time here.
Melissa,
Thanks for feeding The VAR Guy’s gaming habits. He’ll be sure to give Edge Quest 2 a try. And thanks for the tech pointers above. Next time you visit this page let us know your high score in pacman. We know you’re playing…
Thank you, Joe. I enjoy your blog(s), twitters and am thankful for the spotlight you keep on managed services and channel issues.
Regarding Edge Quest 2, we trust you enjoyed the game and are posting some high scores. This game is but one of many efforts we have to support the ASR9000 launch. Up-and-coming technical influencers and current ones find these games different and a bit different (cut-through-the-noise, if you will) as we seek to engage our target audience(s) and show some of the various aspects to the Cisco personality (www.techedgeweekly.com). The winner of our last Edge Quest tournament was, in fact, a network administrator in Mexico. We’re learning and focused on improving the way we connect with the market. As always, we value your opinion so please continue to let us know what you think. Thank you, Joe!
Oh, Pacman. Yes, I’m an unabashed fan…sadly, the widget wasn’t jiving with my mouse…heading to the arcade now…!
Melissa: Use your keyboard’s up/down/left/right arrows rather than the mouse. You’d be aMAZED by the control. Sorry, bad pun. And yes, The VAR Guy knows Cisco has really been pushing the edge with Web 2.0 stuff.
Of all the IT companies out there, Cisco and Dell seem to understand Web 2.0 viral marketing and messaging the best.
@Melissa: Thanks for clearing that up. I didn’t realize Flash was unable to do 3D rendering, because this tech demo: http://www.adobe.com/jp/events/cs3_web_edition_tour/swfs/perform.swf runs okay on Ubuntu…