...Chapter 1 Case Study: Harmonix Embrace Your Inner Rock Star Little more than three years ago, you had probably never heard of Harmonix. In 2005, the video game design studio released Guitar Hero, which subsequently became the fastest video game in history to top $1 billion in North American sales. The game concept focuses around a plastic guitar-shaped controller. Players press colored buttons along the guitar neck to match a series of dots that scroll down the TV in time with music from a famous rock tune, such as the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” and Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water.” Players score points based on their accuracy. In November 2007, Harmonix released Rock Band, adding drums, vocals, and bass guitar options to the game. Rock Band has sold over 3.5 million units with a $169 price tag (most video games retail at $50 to $60). In 2006, Harmonix’s founders sold the company to Viacom for $175 million, maintaining their operational autonomy while providing them greater budgets for product development and licensing music for their games. Harmonix’s success, however, did not come overnight. The company was originally founded by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy in 1995, focused around some demo software they had created in grad school and a company vision of providing a way for people without much musical training or talent to experience the joy of playing and creating music. The founders believed that if people had the opportunity to create their own music, they would jump...
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...Chapter 1 Case Study: Harmonix Embrace Your Inner Rock Star Little more than three years ago, you had probably never heard of Harmonix. In 2005, the video game design studio released Guitar Hero, which subsequently became the fastest video game in history to top $1 billion in North American sales. The game concept focuses around a plastic guitar-shaped controller. Players press colored buttons along the guitar neck to match a series of dots that scroll down the TV in time with music from a famous rock tune, such as the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” and Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water.” Players score points based on their accuracy. In November 2007, Harmonix released Rock Band, adding drums, vocals, and bass guitar options to the game. Rock Band has sold over 3.5 million units with a $169 price tag (most video games retail at $50 to $60). In 2006, Harmonix’s founders sold the company to Viacom for $175 million, maintaining their operational autonomy while providing them greater budgets for product development and licensing music for their games. Harmonix’s success, however, did not come overnight. The company was originally founded by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy in 1995, focused around some demo software they had created in grad school and a company vision of providing a way for people without much musical training or talent to experience the joy of playing and creating music. The founders believed that if people had the opportunity to create their own music, they would jump...
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...Advertising, Promotion, and other aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications Terence A. Shimp University of South Carolina Australia • Brazil • Japan • Korea • Mexico • Singapore • Spain • United Kingdom • United States Advertising, Promotion, & Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications, 8e Terence A. Shimp Vice President of Editorial, Business: Jack W. Calhoun Vice President/Editor-in-Chief: Melissa S. Acuna Acquisitions Editor: Mike Roche Sr. Developmental Editor: Susanna C. Smart Marketing Manager: Mike Aliscad Content Project Manager: Corey Geissler Media Editor: John Rich Production Technology Analyst: Emily Gross Frontlist Buyer, Manufacturing: Diane Gibbons Production Service: PrePressPMG Sr. Art Director: Stacy Shirley Internal Designer: Chris Miller/cmiller design Cover Designer: Chris Miller/cmiller design Cover Image: Getty Images/The Image Bank Permission Aquistion Manager/Photo: Deanna Ettinger Permission Aquistion Manager/Text: Mardell Glinski Schultz © 2010, 2007 South-Western, Cengage Learning ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, Web distribution, information storage and retrieval systems, or in any other manner—except as may be permitted by the license terms herein. For product information and technology assistance, contact us at Cengage Learning Customer &...
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...CHAPTER 1 | Economics: Foundations and Models Chapter Summary and Learning Objectives 1.1 Three Key Economic Ideas (pages 4–8) Explain these three key economic ideas: People are rational; people respond to economic incentives; and optimal decisions are made at the margin. Economics is the study of the choices consumers, business managers, and government officials make to attain their goals, given their scarce resources. We must make choices because of scarcity, which means that although our wants are unlimited, the resources available to fulfill those wants are limited. Economists assume that people are rational in the sense that consumers and firms use all available information as they take actions intended to achieve their goals. Rational individuals weigh the benefits and costs of each action and choose an action only if the benefits outweigh the costs. Although people act from a variety of motives, ample evidence indicates that they respond to economic incentives. Economists use the word marginal to mean extra or additional. The optimal decision is to continue any activity up to the point where the marginal benefit equals the marginal cost. 1.2 The Economic Problem That Every Society Must Solve (pages 8–11) Discuss how an economy answers these questions: What goods and services will be produced? How will the goods and services be produced? Who will receive the goods and services produced? Society faces trade-offs: Producing more of one good...
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...Getting the Love You Want By: Harville Hendrix ISBN: 0805068953 A Guide for Couples See detail of this book on Amazon.com Book served by AMAZON NOIR (www.amazon-noir.com) project by: PAOLO CIRIO UBERMORGEN.COM ALESSANDRO LUDOVICO paolocirio.net ubermorgen.com neural.it Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 I THE MYSTERY OF ATTRACTION The type of human being we prefer reveals the contours of our heart. -ORTEGA Y GASSET WHEN C o u P L E S COME to me for marital therapy, I usually ask them how they met. Maggie and Victor, a couple in their mid-fifties who were contemplating divorce after twenty-nine years of marriage, told me this story: "We met in graduate school," Maggie recalled. "We were renting rooms in a big house with a shared kitchen. I was cooking breakfast when I looked up and saw this man-Victor- walk into the room. I had the strangest reaction. My legs wanted to carry me to him, but my head was telling me to stay away. The feelings were so strong that I felt faint and had to sit down." Once Maggie recovered from shock, she introduced herself to Victor, and the two of them spent half the morning talking. "That was it," said Victor. "We were together every possible moment for the next two months, and then we eloped." Page 4 q Getting the Love You Want "If those had been more sexually liberated times," added Maggie, "I'm sure we would have been lovers from that very first week. I've never felt so intensely about anyone in my entire life." Not all first encounters...
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