I'm a big fan of the print magazine because they provide great stories on interesting technical topics. Now I'm an even bigger fan of the online publication. Why? They have a blog called "The Sandbox" dedicated to "the latest in gaming". And it's not just about the latest whiz-bang creation. They actually take a big picture approach.

One one recent post they bring up a sort of hypocrasy in mental health. There's discussion in the mential health professions of considering video gaming as an addiction, you know, like alcholism. But is gaming anti-social like alchoholism, or more anti-social like avid book reading?

What a lot of people outside the gaming world don't realize is that online gaming is becoming a very cool place to interact. If you've heard about social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, or Friendster then you have seen the future of online social gaming networks.

Currently one of the more popular immersive environments is World of Warcraft. In this online game, you show up on your computer (and to anyone else who is playing) as an "avatar" or a cartoonish representation of your game character. What makes this social friendly, is that you are able to talk to other players either just for fun or for collabortion to reach certain goals within the game.

As is true for "offline" friendships, the more times you see and interact with familiar characters, you get to know a bit about thier personalities and get an idea of how you get along with them. There are some you like playing along with better than others, and so you may get to a point where you coordinate playing time so that you can work together more often.

Now it is true that people can take gaming a bit too far and lose touch with reality. That is, they take the game too seriously. YouTube is full of videos showing examples of this. This kind of behavior has more to do with the personality of the individual as opposed to the outlet for their obsession. If it was not online gameing, then perhaps it would be alcohol, other drugs, or smoking.

At least when gaming in social networks, there is some interaction with other people. As the phenomena grows, more people will understand it this may even become as mainstream as the local neighborhood get together.

But does that really happen anymore?

So whether or not you participate, you will get to see how to reach new markets, spread the word, and use some of the very specific online techniques to find the right audience for your business. You're also going to see how not everything goes 100% the way it's projected.

Being network marketers, we're used to getting passionate about our products and business opportunity. We're also used to hearing how passionate other people are about their product or business opportunity. Which is why I think it's really funny (as in "laugh out loud" funny) when we're surprised that everyone we tell about it doesn't get as excited as we do. Ah, but there's magic in that realization.

And it's liberating, really.

If you know ahead of time that most people will not have your level of enthusiasm for what you are offering, then it makes prospecting for the right ones so much easier and more enjoyable. For example, with the online games business that I have gotten so jazzed up about I have told several friends about it and asked if I could send them email about it. They said "sure" so I sent a link to site where they could download the report on the business concept.

It's only been a day or two, but so far none have downloaded the report. Does that bother me? Well, maybe a little. But the important thing is that I don't take it personally! Making money for yourself doing your own thing is not for everyone. I think this is a cool business model, so that's why I mention it to my friends first. In the meantime, I'm getting my marketing channels ready to bring in the kind of people that are actually looking for this.

Now I mentioned in the title that marketing and gaming are a great combo. Why is that? Because if you like marketing, it's fun! And games, by their definition, are fun!

Sorry if that's a bit too simple.

But it's the simplicity that makes this so darn attractive! For gamers, it's great because they will have access to new online games that will be rolling out and they will be able to win cash if they're any good at it.

For marketers who like to game (or vice versa) it's a great fit because you get the chance to be a master of your product, and nobody expects you to have a "degree" in gaming when you recommend one. That can happen quite a bit with something like nutrition products.

I'll cut this not short for now, but tomorrow I'm going to work on bringing you a bit more depth with how I'm developing marketing channels for this project. Until then, enjoy this video: