It was a sunny day in San Francisco (are there any other kind?) as I headed down to meet one of the most publicly visible members of the N-Gage team. You know him as Ikona, the name behind Nokia's N-Gage blog. But there's more to him than the occasional link of interest and article. I wanted to find out more, beyond the teasing comment of "I've played White Rock, and it was... awesome!" as we sat down over lunch.

When did this all start? "Back in late 2003", replies Ikona. Along with many others, there were a number of layoffs in gaming journalism. Having spent close to seven years, he wasn't quite ready to leave the industry, and so a slight change of direction was needed. Fortuitously, Nokia were looking to hire for their then brand new 'N-Gage' gaming system, and the rest is history.

"Essentially I've had three major periods at Nokia," he explains. The first mirrored the life cycle of the N-Gage Classic and N-Gage QD, where I was providing support and content for the community; the second is coming to a close now, and that's prepping for the public launch of the next generation N-Gage Platform, so areas like First Access and the Blog; and in the very near future, the third period will continue through the launch and the establishment of the N-Gage platform, again with content and support for the community."

It's the second period that catches my eye. The time where the N-Gage dropped out of the public eye. "We never stopped working on the N-Gage internally, there was a huge amount of internal documentation and communication going on." And from a technology point of view, all the software and services that we are seeing now via First Access (and a few more) all had to be developed, tested and documented before they were seen by the public. Essentially Ikona was working as part of a huge Research and Development team for a year, pushing the future of gaming technology.

So what's been the most useful internal tool to Nokia? After a few moments thinking about it, "probably the wiki is the easiest to set up and maintain." The speed and ease of use to allow people to comment internally has helped development, testing, and worked incredibly well during the design discussions.

"Oh and I worked on a game." Really? Hold on a minute... doing what? "I'm going to be credited for 'Story and Dialogue'. I worked on most of the script and the dialogue for an as yet un-announced N-Gage title", and no, he's not saying which one.

Ikona deals with the blog and the main consumer-facing web site that we're all familiar with at www.n-gage.com (but it's not all from his keyboard; marketing, game designers and other departments contribute to their specific section), but how much of his work are we seeing at the moment? "I probably spend 10% of my day working on the public facing elements, such as the blog", he lets me know, proudly. "I try to post once a day there, but that all depends on the news and content that's around."

I wonder how personally attached is he to the blog, "how would you feel if you were shuffled around and someone else was to take over?"

"I would.... not like that." The blog is one of the most efficient and effective tools that we have, and is better at getting over information than the 'news' articles we relied on with the old N-Gage.com site. "And once we go fully live to the public, I'll be spending more time on the web site and blog, at least 50% of my time is going to be there."

The closing of the First Access program is a good illustration of how vital the blog is as a tool for Nokia. With the offer of 'Mile High Pinball' to all the N81 users of the service, those who had hacked the client to run on other devices appeared to be left out in the cold. In short order their voice was heard via the blog, and a decision was made that anyone, no matter the device, doing the closing survey would be eligible.

Not only had the blog made a difference, but the timescale showed a company reacting at the speed the blogosphere expects to react to itself - seeing a company the size of Nokia do this is impressive. Does that mean you have a lot of latitude in answering comments and issues on the blog, or is there a legal process that has to be gone through for each post?

"A lot depends on the article", he explains. Comments and links to reviews and articles on other web sites can go straight on to the blog, but anything with a more strategic eye, such as closing First Access, does need to be reviewed by the relevant department.

What's been the main achievement of the blog? "I think it's proved that it is, hands down, the absolute most effective way to address our dedicated N-Gage fans quickly, and keep them in the know of what's going on with our titles." In the old days, after a game or project was announced, that was the last you would hear of it until release day. Then work in progress articles started to appear, developer's diaries became regular features, and the internet gaming sites started to seed a change of information flow. The aim now is to keep people involved and interested.

The N-Gage Platform as a whole is a vision of gaming that is very much evolved from the console giants of the past, and that affects all areas, including communication. I already knew there was a human behind the words on the web site, but to find such enthusiasm and dedication was a bonus; Ikona's love of communicating the potential of the platform is clear, and I look forward to reading his words and thoughts throughout the (re)launch of N-Gage and beyond.

-- Ewan Spence, April 2008