Social games growth rate slow down

Broadcasting & Cable http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/484537-Study_Social_Network_Gaming_Growth_Slows.php
George Winslow 5/14/2012

Broadcasting and Cable reported that a new national consumer study by Frank N. Magid Associates conducted in late March 2012 showed that an increase of 38% social network users, up only 2 % from 36% in 2011. In fact the increase was the generated by the unexpected audience of 45 and older:
males age 45-54 (up 15% from 2011)
males age 55-64 (up 9% from 2011),
females 45-54 (up 9% from 2011)
females 55-64 (up 10% from 2011).

As for the traditional audience, it showed a noticeable decrease of interest:
audience age 12-17 (down 12% from 2011)
audience 25-44 (down 4% from 2011)

Notes on book Game Design and Development by Ernest Adams and Andrew Rollings

Ernst Adams, Andrew Rollings
Game Design and Development: Fundamentals of Game Design
Games have termination condition, winning condition and losing condition
(classical Facebook games where you can't win, but only lose and even
so the games continues indefinitely)

Gameplay consists of the challenges that a player must face to arrive
 at the object of the game, and the action that the player is permitted
 to take to address those challenges.

pg 23. There are various classical forms of challenges:

Physical  Ccoordination Challenge-- (speed and reaction time,

accuracy and precision, timing and rhythm) Formal
Logic Challenges --(deduction and decoding)

 Pattern Recognition Challenges --(statistic patters -

choosing optimal layout, pattern
of movement and change (Sonic the Hedgehog)
) Time pressure --(Bearing the clock or other players first) Memory
 and Knowledge Challenges --(recalling object patterns or knowledge
 quizzes)

Exploration challenges --
(identify spatial relationships (navigation in 3d) Finding keys and
 unlocking spaces or finding hidden passages))

Conflicts -(strategy, tactics, survival (Warcraft), reduction of enemy forces,
 defending vulnerable items (looking for lil girl who can't fight))

Economic Challenges (accumulation of resources and points
like in Civilization), Establishing production systems like in
The Settlers,
Achieving balance or stability like in Sim Earth and caring for living
 creatures like in Creatures) ANETA: this is the type of challenge
 chosen for social network games.

Conceptual Reasoning Challenges (understanding social
 relationships like inn Facade, using Lateral thinking (WP favorite
 puzzle-stories or visual games where you had to come up
with path way from tools for a falling ball))

Creation and Construction Challenges (aesthetic success - the Sims assembling a photo
 album) or Construction 0 Mind Rover designing
a robot/car to run around)) 

pg 26. STORYTELLING In conventional games, players find it
difficult to become immersed into story because the players
 must also implement the rules.
But stopping to implement the rules interrupts players sense
 of being in another place or being actor in a plot. Powerful games
manage to join the gameplay and storytelling seamlessly.
The storytelling is specially enphasized in adventure games -
making tehm shift from other types of games and almost becomign an interactive stories.

 pg27. Risk and Rewards.  The higher the risk the higher the
 reward should be. Also some people take a risky, aggressive
approach, while others chose a defensive approach where they
try to minimize the risk - try to balance so that neither of approaches
 has an advantage. pg 28. AVOID MONOTONOUS EXPERIENCE.
 Most games give player the theme-and-variation approaches,
where they introduce elements and give player the chance to
 explore it before introducing the new one. ANETA: how different
 and how important is the new element is - is up to you to decide.
People enjoy LEARNING PROCESS - they learn the game,
 the enemy, tricks and best moves. Once people believe they
 have learned everything they start thinking that the game is boring,
abandon it and pick up a new one (ANETA: my questionnaire
 will check that regardign Social Network Games and will conclude
 that these games need to be more variable oder was) - especially true
for one-player game. Mulit player - always have an unpredictability
 element of other person's behavior.

pg 29. To reach to wider audience, creative and self-expressive
 play becomes increasingly important - research shows that
women and girls are often more motivated by desire to express
 themselves through play than by desire to compete.
ANETA: THIS IS A KEY POINT IN SOCIAL GAMES - AS MANY
OF MEMEBRS ARE WOMEN. PG 30. Immersion can be:
TACTICAL - trance like when the action is so fast that the brain
 has no time for anything else - many many small challenges
(tetris) that are similar to each other. Abrupt changes in
 gameplay will distroy tactical immersion. strategic IMMERSION -
observing, calculating, planning , you don't think about story ,
characters or game world, but focus strictly on optimizing your
choices.
 - rules of game become most prominent - cuz knowing them well
 is the advantage. This immersion breaks down if a game offers
 situation he has not seen before, or is too erratic and makes
it impossible to plan. NARRATIVE IMMERSION - feeling of being
 inside the story - good storytelling, interesting characters,
exciting plots - BUT BEWARE player's interests are different -
know YOUR segment of players. SOCIALIZING - by offering chat
 mechanisms, bulletin boards and other community building
 facilities you cane extend the game entertainment beyond the
 game alone.
depending on the proprieties of the game designers the games
 can be market-driven, designer-driven, based on license (exploiting
 particular intellectual property), technology driven (to show off new
 features of new console game),
arti-driven - show off soem artistic or aesthetic sensibilities.

 Games fall along continuum between abstract games (represent
 no real setting or character) and highly representational (i.e. race
 simulations)
 User interface is also referred as to presentational layer - the one
 that mediates between player and the core mechanics of the game
 (something that is more specific than rules and can be turned
into specific software algorythms). Also one differentiates - visual
 perspectives - camera angle or point of view, first person, third
person in 3d, top-down view. pg. 48 When certain view or features
become available during some part of games but not the other -
 these are called Gameplay Mode (gives player certain experience
 that feels different from toher aprts of the game) - anything that affects
core mechanics. features that don't allow to change the game
world but still affect the game (change audio level, save, quit, load)
are called Shell Menu. SHELL MENUs with GAME MODES make
 up game structure,
which can be presented as FLOWBOARD During CONCEPT STAGE -
get the concept - what you will use to entertain the players and why
you believe it will be so, also Defining the audience,
determining player's role and defining which dream of players will you
 fulfill. during ELABORATION STAGE you MUST curve in stone the
questions dealt with on CONCEPT STAGE - don't be afraid
that you made bad decisions on previous stage, proceed with
confidence. on this stage you need to define the 

PRIMARY GAMEPLAY MODES, design the PROTAGONIST, thGAME WORLD,

THE CORE MECHANICS (Algorythm of actions), ADDITIONAL MODES
(BUT MINIMIZE, TRY not to complicate it) during TUNING STAGE-
 the previous stage is locked - no more bigger changes -
 but still makes difference between good and great games. ADAMS
wrote in his book pages 77 as designers we have to learn to balance
 the tension between our own desire to innovate and
publisher's need to be comfortably familiar.. A game concept is a
description of a game detailed enough, and it shouldn't include: -

 page 78 1). 2-3 sentences of what the game is about. i.e."The game
at its grittiest. no pads, no helmets, no fields. Just you and the guys,
a ball and a lot of concrete."
 2. player's role in the game and if the player has an avatar
3. primary gameplay mode,
 interaction model, challenges while in that mode
4. The game genre and why you think it belongs there
 5. description of target audience
 6. the name of the machine on which it will run or any other
 tech requirements, including equipment
7. the licenses if any
8. competition mode - single - dual, multiplayer, cooperative or competitive
 9. sumer of how the game will progress (describe levels,
missions or storyline)
10. short description of the game world Talking of game genres,
he says on page 81 strategy games as well as construction and management games rarely involve physical
action and if done so, often annoy those players.
The difference between strategy and amnagement game is that strategy
 involves physical space and tactical challenges, while management -
economic or conceptual ones. The most successful combination
was adventure + action games. But if you are coming up with a
 new concept - don't worry or try to fit it into something...
Although in general, dont mix characteristics of different genres
without good reason TARGETING AUDIENCE pg 86. The most
significant distinction among types of players is core and casual players -
 for core it is more than enjoyment - they strive on competition
and challenges, while for casual it is merely an enjoyment,
so if te game becomes frustrating they stop playing it. -
next ones are man and woman -children and adults - cuz kids
motor and cognitive skills are different from adults, different attention
 spans and linguistic skills; and boys and girls inside
 this segment cultural differences - adapt to the culture

 CHAPTER 4 GAME WORDS The dimensions of a game world -
PHYSICAL dimension - simulated physical space. This is also
characterized by several different properties: spacial dimensionality,
 scale and boundaries Spacial dimensionality is 2d, 2d and half, 3d
and 4d with 4th being often imaginary perception
of a space by a character. Scale - aspire to realistic although often
 buildings are only a bit taller than people - TEMPORAL dimension
 varialbe time - game jumps over time, and or passes
 very fast (sleeping or avatar rest time) anomalous time - when
preparing food takes as much time as crossing the room.
Environmental Dimension - cultural Context - Physical surroundings
- defining a style - creating a distinct atmosphere - imposing mood
 on the style. Be careful with overused setting - try to come up with
 the world never created before, often looking for source
of inspiration in history, architecture, fashion, product design etc, etc.
 EMOTIONS Don't disregard great emotional power of games, that
 although not used much has a huge potential.
To deal with EMOTION OF frustration - make sure you have different
level of complexity. As for whats what: Construction and management
games arouse feeling of ambition, greed,
desire for power and control, where you give players opportunity
to amass a fortune and let spend it to build things (page118).
God games - artificial life games (The Sims, Black and White)
 let the player control lives, satisfying the power to be omnipresent.
 To create feeling of suspense the player needs to be vulnerable and
 unprepared - don't arm him too heavily, darkness,
sudden noises and things that jump out at player unsuspectingly
all contribute to this. There is even a sub genre of action games
called SURVIVAL HORROR (games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil).
Interactions with players can cause love, grief, shame, jealousy,
outrage, etc. once person identifies with his character start putting
obstacles on his way - dramatic tension.
But the danger does not have to be physical, it can be emotional,
 social or even economic. 

CHAPTER 5 CREATIVE AND EXPRESSIVE PLAYS When player
should have a token that will
represent him in the game, it is nice to provide him with opportunity
 to project his personality into game by means other than game
play choices. That can include AVATAR SELECTION,
AVATAR CUSTOMIZATION, AND AVATAR CONSTRUCTION.
 These can be either functional (that includes rarely-changed
characterization attributes and oftentimes-changed status attributes)
or aesthetic attributes. While hardcore players tend to chose the
best winning functional attributes casual players don't care much
for functionality or chose the one that provides more interesting
 game play. (pg 135) People love designing in games but dont forget
 to provide oppo to save and share with others - cuz people love
 doing so - big part of fun. Most games of that kind however
are 'constrained creative plays' i .e. limitation by economic factors
 and require economic management. Or construction games
 like Mind Rover have players construct robot that will be operated
 by artificial intelligence - watch the performance and improve
robot design. Or game like Bbridge Construction Set - has
peolpe build bridges up to the standards and that considering costs
and budjets of production. SANDBOX MODE - special mode
 that removes ordinary constraints and let layer do what he wants. Bot - this word has 2 meaning - first is artificial intelligent opponent,
and second - a program that helps player to cheat a multiplayer
 network games 

CHAPTER 6 Character Development Disharmonious elements
 can be introduced for humor\s sake - foul-mouthed
squirrel. Good character should be distinctive and credible.
Character must be distinct - the simpler he is, the more
 important it is.
 Also people identify games by the key characters of it
(mindshare, consumer awareness). Sso, in short , characters
 must be appealing that people believe in and can identify with and while
so be highly memorable to the players. Women are hapy to
 play female characters, although they like them more real than men.
Also (pg 155) men don't generally identify with their characters
 as much as women do - for men thy are  more of puppets that
 they control, rather than a person. Also men are happy to grab
default avatar, without caring for look customization - therefore
 permit women to customize their avatar
to get their attention. Avatars can be nonspecific-just a control
 mechanism for player, partly-specified and or fully specified avatar -
 that has his personality, separate from player (often those
 characters talk more). Characters can be art-driven (for simpler
 cartoonish characters) and story-driven, where it is mroe of
 behavior that influences. CHARACTER PHYSICAL TYPES -
humanoids (2 legs 2 arms, head with a face) and non-humanoid
 (object-like, animals ad monsters). Cartoon like Character\s
 domineering qualities: Cool - is never upset about anything,
actions are fast and focused. Tough fast moving and aggressive
animation, have exaggerated height and look bulky (often
 hypersexualized) Cute- super Mario - proportions of human babies -
big head and eyes - usually cheerful although can have moments
of irritation, look innocent and detached. Goofy - slightly odd
proportions and funny-looking, inefficient, comedic behavior
(but careful not to affect his performance by that) pg 161 - "so
many he-men and babes (women) have been created over the years
that it is difficult to tell them apart" Chose your character's
color palette to reflect his attitudes and emotional temperament. 

Also bringing in story-like elements like making friends and rivalries,
 developing character through the game helps to the game
 immersion. It is also advisable to do a background paper and answer
 questions for your character (where was he born, what was his family
 like< What was his education, where does he live now, what is
his job and his finances, his tastes in clothes, books and movies,
foods and hobbies? Any particular personality trait, shy vs outgoing,
 greedy vs. giving? Any quirks (oddities), phobias,
traumatic moments in life? Romantic past? The best and the worst
 things that could happen to him? ) Once you answer those questions
 you can start thinking of how to manifest them in the game
story. Do so using 3 factors - appearance, language and behaviour.
What events will help him to reveal his character?
Attributes of character: STATUS ATTRIBUTES describe his location,
state of health,
emotions, etc - symbolic or numerical variables that change through
 the game. characterization ATTRIBUTES -
 dont change much - character, looks, etc. Interesting is that in the
past games only used attributes like health and inventory and only
recently they started incorporating social and emotional states (The Sims).
 and that will get even
 richer as games and stories become more complex. Characters
 can be one-dimensional (pg 170) - have only one feeling - that is 0
 have a single variable that describes emotion chart changes over time.
 (hate-love) two-dimensional - have multiple variables that express
different feeling that don't conflict - orthogonal variables - never a
moral dilemma. (honest-dishonest, offensive-polite).
 Three-dimensional - have multiple emotional states - that can
produce conflicting impulses - state of affairs that distresses and
 confuses then, and sometimes causing them to behave in
 inconsistent ways. (subconsciously taking actions that sabotages
 his own efforts, or changes his mind middle way) In really complex
story-telling games it is nice when character grows - personally,
in terms of skills and strength or intelligence Also in any storytelling
 there are character Archetypes - those who assist or impede
the protagonist. Read the Christopher Vogler's book Tthe Writer's Journey Sound design -
 is mostly about meeting psychological expectations of people,
but vocal quirks might be nice. Vocabulary, accents, grammar
and sentence length, speed of delivery all have associations
with the intelligence
of the character (whether it is always true or not is an issue though  ))) 

Narrative pg 189 - can take different forms - a pre-rendered movie, strolling
 text that introduces a mission, voice over commentary that
t explains back story or even a long monologue -
something that can't be changed by player. Narrative sides the Game play.
There must be a balance bn these two. So, the narrative\s amount
should be enough to enrich the game but not
to inhibit player's freedom to meet game challenges.. At the same time it
 should be inter weaved with the gameplay so that the whole thing
feels like continuous story. Story telling can be linear (pg 194) vs.
 nonlinear(player can change).
Although linear storytelling is simpler and less prone to errors it
takes away a dramatic freedom (that is
actions of player will not change the story part). Nonlinear storytelling
 - can be branching stories - like a tree shape but are very
expensive. Also the cheaper ones are foldback stories that are
 branching out but then getting to the same event at the end.
So, the only difference is "how" you get to a story.
Emergent narrative - modern type of storytelling (pg 202) when player
is rather a story creator,
 rather than interactor (Sims), but for now it is rather an experimental part of AI research
that is known as automated storytelling (has great potential). 

Storytelling might have large granularity - story blocks brought
sparingly or small granularity (i.e. every 5 minutes).
There are games like Facade (pg208) that consists fully of story
 or game like NightTrap where the game develops on its own
regardless of whether player acts or not, player can only
help game characters to survive with his efforts. Avatar-based
 games - if you want to affect player with a death, then instead
of killing main character, kill his ally. In games you can have
scripted conversations -
with choices that player has to chose to reply or to ask. it helps
 to build personalities TELL A SECRET TO A NPCARACTER
AND THAT WILL INFLUENCE THE OUTCOME OF THE GAME. - aneta - interesting idea Anyway,
the choice of answer or question might lead to a different
 development of a story too.\ 

Chapter 8. User Experience tips on
 228 pg.: Give players good feedback. - give immediate
acknowledgement to his actions.
(button clicks change color of button. etc). Limit the number
of steps required to take an action. Permit easy reversal of
 actions (if player made a mistake) Minimize physical stress (on thumbs, etc)
 Dont strain palyer's short-term memory - dont ask  member too
many things at once - provide a way for him to look up info in a
permanent feedback lelement on the screen Group elements on
 the screen
 (controls, feedback) so that it takes s single glance to make a
 decision Provide shortcut for experienced players (instead of
multiple layers of menu, etc). The player should feel comfortable understanding
 where he is, what he is supposed to do - that is how to act
who to kill or whatever, what challenges he faces; if his actions fail or
succeed (sounds or facial expressions to say the outcome)
and after a level - a score sheet or something like that; 

The process of design: firstly think of the gameplay modes.
once you have their list start
 thinking of visual elements and controls needed in each. Use
 Visio, make flowcharts and diagrams. Then move to general
screen layout and visual elements. page 235 has common screen layouts
 for games.
Chapter 9. Making games fun. Examine every decision form
player's point of view - don't lose sight of your player. Think
 less about graphics and story but more about game play design.
Get a feature working right or leave it out - don't include anything broken.

Social networks random article overview May 9, 2012

Mobile:

CIO Journal,  and PCMag.com reported that flurry, a provider of usage analytics for mobile application developers, announced that this month (first time in 40 months) social networking activity on mobile devices surpassed mobile gaming.

“Flurry calls the year-over-year growth in social networking “staggering,” noting that mobile time on social networks increased by 60% between Q1 2011 and Q1 2012. Phone users now spent an average of 24 minutes a day using social networking apps”, adding that this appears to be only the beginning of integration of social networks with mobile devices.

Film industry: TV promotions vs. Online Promotions

An interesting article in Orlando Senteniel  regarding what changes are happening in the marketing approach of film companies.

A big bulk of expensive TV ads for film promotion is and will continue to by replaced by relatively cheap online promotion. This already holds true today, when targeting younger generation, and as this generation ages, online promotion will continue to crunch off the revenues of TV companies.

TV conglomerates will have to adjust to that situation pretty aggressively in order to avoid disruptive surprises, as this shift might be happening quite fast.

With social network becoming an essential platform of opinion sharing, the impact of Word of Mouth today seems to be gaining power like tornado.

Gambling Industry:

An article in VentureBeat covered the topic of collision of online gambling and social networks, discussed at the Global iGaming Summit and Expo. “ The huge opportunity has stirred a lot of mergers and acquisitions between social gaming companies and online gambling companies, as both parties think about invading the other’s territory.” Chief executive of Virgin Games, addsbthat. “Social gaming meets [real gambling] is the high ground of the future.”

Malcolm Graham, chief executive of online gambling firm PKR: “We have all missed the opportunity to build tournament-style gambling games (for no real-money betting) on Facebook. But in the next 12 months to 18 months, our gambling industry will move onto Facebook.”

However, while online gambling is legal in much of Europe, it may be a few years before the regulatory picture in the USA is clear for the real-money online gambling market — and how soon it will be before casual social gamers can bet real money in Facebook games.”

InfoSolutionsGroup: Social Gaming 2011

InfoSolutions revealed the data from the Social Gaming report of 2011
It can be found at: http://www.infosolutionsgroup.com/pdfs/2011_PopCap_Social_Gaming_Research_Results.pdf

Tthe highlights include:
-Significantly more people in both the US and UK are playing social games now compared to January 2010 (41% vs. 24%).
-AND play more than 15 minutes per week compared to only 24% in January 2010.
-This equates to a 71% increase or nearly 120 million people playing social games.
-Social gaming continues to grow in terms of frequency and hours per week played.
-The number of Avid social game players (those who play at least six hours a week) more than doubled from 7% to 15%.
-Two-thirds or 81 million people play at least once a day, while 41% or49 million people play multiple times a day.
-42% said their social gameplay has increased over the past three months.
-Desktop and laptop computers continue to be the primary device used when playing social games but use of game consoles and handheld devices (mobile phones and tablets) is increasing, say shift with tablet devices from 10 to 16% and by 5% from 28% to 33% using smart phones.
-30% or 35 million people are considered new to the category, playing for the first time in the past year.
Social gaming is slower to catch on in the UK, with 38% having played for two or more years compared to 51% in the US.
-17% of current social gamers are “new game players” who have not played games on other platforms prior to trying social games.
-These new gamers, the majority of whom are 50+ year-old females, play social games less often than veteran gamers and are less likely to purchase virtual gifts. 
-The number of social gamers who purchased virtual currency with realworld money increased sharply compared to January 2010 (26% vs. 14%). 
This equates to a 86% increase and 31 million people. 
-The likelihood of social gamers to purchase virtual items in the future increased.
-Avid social game players earn/spend, purchase and give more virtual currency and are more likely to purchase virtual items in the future.
-Males are more likely to purchase virtual currency.
-More people between the ages of 18 – 29 are playing social games and, as a result, the average age of a social game player has declined from 43 to 39 years. In general there is an increase by 10% in the age category under 30 and 5% decrease in the 50 years or older category.
-Ads promoting games on social networking sites and word of mouth (recommendation from friend, relative, colleague or receipt of an alert from an online friend) continue to be primary ways Internet users hear about new social games.
-The average number of social games played increased, with current social gamers playing an average of 7.8 different social games compared to 6.1 in January 2010. Avid social gamers have played an average of 11.4 social games.
-Based upon weekly gameplay, FarmVille and Bejeweled Blitz continue to be two of the most popular social games in both the US and UK, followed by Mafia Wars.
-While the majority (82%) have never used a hack, bot or cheat to gain an advantage in a social game, 8% use them regularly or occasionally.
Also, male-female ration is pretty stable throughout a year +-45%-55%

Also, the dynamics of length of time playing social games shows that games are most likely to stay around, since the % of users who play for at least 1 year has increase by 15% (from 56% in 2010 to 69% in 2011). Not much changed though in teh frequency of social game play, but still from 35% to 45% of users play every day (UK and USA comparatively)

To be continued...

InfoSolutionsGroup: Social gaming 2010

Stefanie Hermann: Master Thesis on Gamification

Gamification.co:  presented a master thesis of Stefanie Hermann of Reutlingen University.” She explores gamification theory and gains insight on gamification’s ability to be a motivation for action. Interviewing a number of industry experts, including Gabe Zichermann, Hermann discusses what factors these industry experts believe need to be true in order to use gamification successfully”.

I liked this part the most:

Furthermore,t he post gives an access to the 6th chapter of the paper, which at the end sums up to the following:

Tom Chatfield: Short TED presentation on stimulation in games

http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_chatfield_7_ways_games_reward_the_brain.html

A TED presentation from Tom Chatfield   dated Nov 2010, that reinforces a few very good things about gaming, which I thought were noteworthy of putting out here at any point of time

Besides a couple of pretty interesting facts mentioned (i.e.  people spending 8bl dollars on buying virtual items (2010) and a few more of the same  nature, he goes further  explaining by the means of what do game creators engage people into such a degree of commitment .

First of all, he points out how game creators constantly measure players performance to fine tune the  schedule of reinforcement  that is neither too easy nor too challenging. That helps to enhance the  usage of the following tools and concepts:

1. Using experience bars and measuring one’s progress – letting people know where they are and how much more they need to hold on.

2. Setting a nice combination of long term and short term goals and tasks.

3. Constantly rewarding for efforts.

4. Giving rapid, frequent, and clear feedback . People learn from an instant feedback. In fact that is what is missing in real world – big laps of time between action and consequence don’t let us make right conclusions and learn the right lessons.

5. An element of uncertainty – unknown probability of whether one will get the reward or not.

6. Windows of enhanced attention: Memory and Confidence – give bonuses for remembering something, and making people braver to take risks.

7. Other people – doing things without being watched by others, but not only- a lot more powerful force coming from the presence of “others” is incredible cooperation and motivation that people can bring into the game by their own: he gives an example of gamers of EverQuest who intuitively collaborated with each other by paying each other for extra efforts in group quests, thus creating their own currency (Dragon Kill Points).

By the end he discusses briefly how those elements can be brought into real life (read gamification).

A bit on Co-playing and Mediated Playing…

Co-pay and Mediated play

An article of Brian Gajadhar et al. from Game Experience Lab dated 2008 (here ) shares with us that while there is a sig. difference in experience  between playing with a  colocated player or with a computer, there is still not a significant difference between iplaying  with mediated player and with co-located player. Furthermore, the article here (pg 6) from the same GE Lab  gives a resume of further studies on this subject, stating that ” player experience components were significantly influenced by the availability of social cues, especially by talking and laughing.”

In other words, it is not just the pure awareness that there is another person on the other side, but the social clues that come from that person make the difference and shift our perception of the mediated player from someone abstract into someone real.

FaberNovel consulting> Study of Facebook phenomenon

I have stumbled into a nice study on Facebook revenue model done by  FaberNovel Consulting (2007)  http://www.slideshare.net/faberNovel/facebook-study

It IS somewhat old but I liked it for the insight it gave into its financial revenue model.

    Short facts on its funding history:

• 500 000 from Peter  Thiel (co-founder of paypal) – 2004
• 13 millions from  Accel Partners – 2005
• 25 millions from Greylock Partners, Accel Partners, Meritech Capital Partners and more from  Peter Thiel – 2006
• The presentation naturally does not have numbers above 2007, while they must be proportionately impressive.

In 2006 Facebook turned down the Yahoo acquisition offer of 1 billioon.

   Revenue Model:

•  display ads with the advertising outsourcing deal with Microsoft (CPM 30 cents) for the duration of 3 years (and what is now?).   At the same time, the numbers of 2007 suggested that the click through rate was lower than that of MySpace, potentially because of low add relevance (hence the current enhancements to let users chose the domain of advertising). Also, the ads of localized and specific niche-based businesses are doing better than those of the general world brands.
•  Facebook fliers – users can make their own ads on Facebook. The price will depend on the number of users that will view the Flyer. Users can narrow down the exposure audience by age, gender, education, region and other parameters. The higher the price, the higher the chances your add will be shown. However at 2007 the lack of security control resulted in the presence of deceptive ads that were enticing users to download malicious software, etc.
•  homepage sponsored stories. Stories are  presented as a regular news feed in the user’s account  and result in higher Click through Rate (10-20 times higher than banner ads). Sponsors also have the opportunity to filter the audience to transmit their news feed message to (the deeper the filtering the higher the fee).
• sponsorship of groups (Nike, Victoria Secret) as of 2007 the cost of a sponsored group membership was 300 000 dollars for 3 months.
• virtual gifts for sale at 1 dollar value

Further on they present a study done on French students and state that while the clickthrough rate is one of the lowest (0.04%) 71% would not mind to interact with brands in creative way . Say, creating a sponsored group that seem to take care about users and their interests (i.e. Apple Student group offers their users discounts on Apple products).  Or provide a human face to the brand by launching discussions that address the core issues and try to develop real personal communication with users.

Roberto Dillon: On The Way to Fun

He proposes a framework that helps to analyze games and the process of engaging players with them.

6 Emotions and 11 Instincts

Emotions:

Fear, anger, joy, pride, sadness and excitement

Instincts:

1st party : survival, self-identification, collecting, greed.

3rd party: protection/care, aggressiveness (leads to violence when coupled with anger or greed and is exploited in countless games, revenge (often used to advance the story or justify actions), competition and communication

World: curiosity towards unknown, color appreciation

Instincts and emotions are triggered by game elements. And in their turn instincts trigger emotions, emotions trigger instincts or instincts trigger more instincts. For example, the Fear emotion triggers the Survival instinct, which in its turn triggers the Aggressiveness instinct, which under certain conditions might trigger the emotion of Excitement.

Below is the summarized version of the concept presented in the book.

Furthermore, you can involve players into action by 3 phases:

1st phase: attract player’s attention and stimulate curiosity. Important factors here are Familiarity (the theme lets the user be at ease with the game set up) and Immediateness – when player can instinctively find his way while clearly understanding the goal without reading lengthy instructions (in complex games this is solved by smart tutorials that gradually teach skills)

2nd phase:  the 6/11 framework itself

3rd phase – to improve results (competition and rewards)

Looping through these may cause addiction

——————————–

Finally the author gives a short overview of existing frameworks on game emotions.

Namely:

Mechanics – Dynamics – Aesthetics/instincts/emotions offered by Hunicke, et. i.e:

chase,destroy – aggressiveness and revenge

escape – survival

trade – greed

match objects – collect

race- compete

explore – curiosity.

So, one triggers the other and vice verse. Consequently, different actions appeal to different instincts.

The next framework is concentrating mostly on emotions: called Emotioneering (freemanGames.com) – describes techniques to create bonds and in general variety of emotions between players and their games.

Finally, he suggests to check Isbister’s work on character design.

Shircky:Here Comes Everybody

Book Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky is about the power of crowds.

I am not trying to give a full book overview but a few interesting excerpts from the book deserve due attention ))).

pg 24-27: ”Imagine you are standing in line with thirty-five other  people, and to pass the time, the guy in front of you proposes a wager. He’s willing to bet fifty dollars that no two people in line share a birthday. Would you take that bet?
If you’re like most people, you wouldn’t.

In fact, you should take the bet, since you would have better than an 80 percent chance of winning fifty dollars.

Most people get the odds of a birthday match wrong for  two reasons. First, in situations involving many people, they think about themselves rather than the group.

Say, if you’re comparing birthdays in a group with two other people-you, Alice, and Bob, say-you might think you’d have two chances in 365, but you’d be wrong. There are three comparisons: your birthday with Alice’s, yours with Bob’s, and Alice’s and Bob’s with each other and it increases with each new person.

In other words, what you miss is that a count of “any two people” rises much faster  than the number of people themselves. This is the engine of the Birthday Paradox.”

“If you want to organize the work of even dozens of individuals, you have to manage them. As organizations grow into the hundreds or thousands, you also have to manage the managers, and even tually to manage the managers’ managers. Simply to exist at that size, an organization has to take on the costs of all that management. Organizations have many ways to offset those costs-Microsoft uses revenues,
the army uses taxes, the church uses donations-but they cannot avoid them. In a way, every institution lives in a kind of contradiction: it exists to take advantage of group effort, but some of its resources are drained away by directing that effort.”

“Call this the institutional dilemma-because an institution expends resources to manage resources, there is a gap between what those institutions are capable of in theory and in practice, and the larger the institution, the greater those costs.”

“Yet  now we have communications tools that are flexible enough to match our social capabilities, and we are witnessing the rise of new
ways of coordinating action that take advantage of that change. These communications tools have been given many names, all variations on a theme: “social software,” “social media,” “social computing,” and so on.”

By making it easier for groups to self-assemble and for individuals to contribute to group effort without requiring formal
management (and its attendant overhead), these tools have radically altered the old limits on the size, sophistication,
and scope of unsupervised effort (the limits that created the institutional dilemma in the first place).

“New social tools are altering this equation by lowering the costs of coordinating group action”.

Examples that the author gives are Mermaid Festival pictures from numerous users and connecting them in Flickr that would have never be generated by an organized effort,  News coverage in the areas where Journalists have limited access (Terrorist attacks, coups d’etat).These tools also decrease the transaction costs of certain processes (in organizations of any kind). Moreover they create a chain: sharing- > conversation – > group action :

” One simple form of cooperation, almost universal with social  tools, is conversation; when people are in one anther’s company,
even virtually, they like to talk. Sometimes the conversation is with words, as with e-mail, 1M, or text messaging, and sometimes it is with other media: YouTube, the video sharing site, allows users to post new videos in response to videos they’ve seen on the site. Conversation creates more of a sense of community than sharing does, but it also introduces new problems. It is famously difficult to keep online conversations from devolving into either name-calling or blather, much less to keep them on topic.” Mind you that “collaborative production can be valuable, but it is harder to get right than sharing, because anything that has to be negotiated about takes more energy than things that can just be accreted, like a group of Flickr photos.”

Now “collective action is the hardest kind of group effort. Indeed, ” Information sharing produces shared awareness
among the participants, and collaborative production relies on shared creation, but collective action creates shared responsibility,
by tying the user’s identity to the identity of the group.” – He explain the connection with classic  Game theory dilamma (your effort makes sense only if others make the same effort). Therefore “collective action involves challenges of governance or, put another way, rules for losing.” He suggests teh emphasis on the propagation of common values: “For a group to take collective action, it must have some shared vision strong enough to bind the group together, despite periodic decisions that will inevitably displease at least some members.” But that “In the current spread of social tools, real examples of collective action-where a group acts on behalf of, and with shared consequences for, all of its members-are still relatively rare.”

“Wikis avoid the institutional dilemma. Because contributors aren’t employees, a wiki can take a staggering amount of input with a minimum of overhead. This is key to its success: it does not need to make sure its contributors are competent, or producing steadily, or even showing up.”

Yet “Fewer than two percent of Wikipedia users ever contribute, yet that is enough to create profound value for millions of users.”

On Blogs: As media companies  surveyed the growing amount of self-published content on the internet, many media companies correctly understood that the trustworthiness of each outlet was lower than that of established outlets like The New York Times. But what they failed to understand was that the effortlessness of publishing means that there are many more outlets. The same  idea, published in dozens or hundreds of places, can have an amplifying effect that outweighs the verdict from the smaller  number of professional outlets.

Mass Amateurization Breaks Professional Categories. We could regard journalists  as  professional (and therefore belonging to a minority) category. Now that scarcity is gone as we are facing the new abundance of publishing options.

The only real arbiter of professionalism in photography today is the taxman; in the United States, the IRS defines a professional photographer as someone who makes more than $5,000 a year selling his or her photos.

Most user-generated content is created as communication in small groups, but since we’re so unused to communications media and broadcast media being mixed together, we think that everyone is now broadcasting. This is a mistake. WE KNOW when it is addressed to us. Direct mail sprang up exactly on making the effort to make us believe that the message is addressed  DIRECTLY to us….” The fact that people are all talking to one another in these small clusters also explains why bloggers with a dozen readers dont have a small audience: they dont have an  audience at all, they just have friends.” “Writing things for your friends to read and reading what your friends write creates a different kind of
pleasure than writing for an audience.” “posted on any given day is in public but not for the public.”

The power-law distribution of weblogs ranked by audience size image is on the page 129. Weblogs at the left-hand side of the graph have
so many readers that they are limited to the broadcast pattern, because you can’t interact with millions of readers. As size of readership falls,
loose conversation becomes possible, because the audiences are smaller. The long tail of weblogs, with just a few readers each, can support tight conversation, where every reader is also a writer and vice versa.

So, why bother with contributions to Wiki: 1st - chance to exercise some unused mental capacities 2nd – vanity, 3 – doing a good thing

…

Various: Linguistics / ontologies / word disambiguation

http://www.aclweb.org/anthology/P/P91/P91-1034.pdf

WORD-SENSE DISAMBIGUATION USING STATISTICAL METHODS Peter F. Brown, etc
Explains more about sense disambiguation
They use a stat technique for assigning senses to words. This is done when an instance of a word is assigned a sense by assigning a question about the context in which the word appears. This helped them to reduce the error rate of the system by 13 percent. In Viterbi alignment that they sed it is said that if a French word is connected by a line to English – then it is aligned with that word, So a pair of aligned words is a connection. They came up with a method to label a word with a sense that depends on the contest in which it appears in such a way as to increase the mutual information between the two. i.e. “Je vais prender ma propre decision” – PRENDRE translated as MAKE. But “je vais prendre mas voiture” – PRENDRE – TAKE. One need to first ask if the NOUN before Prendre is  DECISION and then make a  decision, in this case this NOUN is the INFORMANT for Prendre.
Or another example – “Il doute que les notres gagnent” and “Il faut que les notres gagnent.” How do you translate “IL”. In once case it is “it” and in the other – it is “he”. Here one need to ask about the identity of the verb next to IL. Then it is less likely that Il will be translated incorrectly. Same with  “I think there is a problem” and “I think it is a problem”. You need to ask if THERE is present next to IS to more likely translate it correctly. THE PROBLEM is however that the system does not know beforehand WHICH question to ask (a noun to the right, a verb to the right, etc), however, one can construct a question for each of candidates for INFORMANT position and then chose the most informative one. The questions are constructed using the FLIP-FLOP method (devised by …) according TO IT, IT MAKES INITIAL ASSIGNMENT OF THE ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS Into 2 classes and then uses the SPLITTING THEOREM to find the best question about possible BEST INFORMANT. This question divides the french vocabulary into 2 sets. Then using the splitting theorem again to split the English translations into 2 sets, which has maxim mutual information with french sets. So, in other words, the flip-flop algorithm alternatives between splitting french vocabulary into 2 sets and English translations into 2 sets so that french words appear in 1st or 2nd set depending on which English words appeared in 1st or 2nd set. I.e. thus the probability of “Prendre” as “Take” in column 1 is very high if the word “Decision” is also in column 1. Or “Depuis” is translated as “since” or “for” depending on the answer on the question “what follows it”. The probability of being translated as “since” in set 1 is very high if the works like “les”, “ce” are also in the column 1 and the probability to be translated as “FOR” and to be in column 2 is very high if the English column 2 contains wordsike “longtemps, deaux etc”.  The only limitation of this method is that ut can extract no more than 1 bit of info at a time. and assign only 2 senses to a word where us as many as 5 senses are possible – therefore the authors are thinking of improving to include more senses uses which will improve the system. Also to ask questions in layers, rather than just one.

———————————

http://wordnet.cs.princeton.edu/papers/wordnetplusintro.pdf

Adding Dense, Weighted Connections to WORDNET Jordan Boyd-Graber
Word meaning disambiguation is a very big issue especially in polysemous (get and take) cases. I.e. THE noun CLUB can be disambiguated by an automatic system that considers the superordinate of the different synsets in which this word can occur (association place and playing card).
The primary problem for info retrieval , machine translation and other things is Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD). wITH pOLYSEMOUS WORDS disambiguation i possible if looking at words they are linked to.

———-

Zipf law  – according to it -  the most frequent word will occur approximately twice as often as the second most frequent word, which occurs twice as often as the fourth most frequent word, etc.  in other words, the second most common frequency will occur ½ as often as the first. The third most common frequency will occur 1/3 as often as the first.

—————-

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/scrapbook/robomatic.aspxThe guy here gives a review on how to create a Chatter bots .
Selling chatbots: These help people to know item prices and offers.
Supporting chatbots: You may find this kind of chatbot on websites that offer products and services.
Help desk (information desk) chatbots: You may find these in large libraries, websites or programs.
Entertaining chatbots: These are made for fun and chatting.

He proposes to use 2 engines – the Special Search  and Matrix one  The Special Engine compares between sentences stored in the database and user inputs, while the Matrix Engine compares between words stored in the database and user inputs. First one searches for an identical phrase and its corresponding answer in the database (I am fired instead of also I got fired and I will be fired). The second one searches for words – i.e. “I” got “fired” or  “I” am “fired”. So they both are inter replacing. If engine does not ind in the first one, then it moves to the second one to search there.
He also adds “You can increase the accuracy of your chatbot’s response by increasing the records of Matrix and Special Databases for each file and One Word Database.”
Also, there is a possibility to merge related records into one record. This also leads to merging responses into one record, which makes your chatbot respond in different ways.

——————————–

http://www.personalityforge.com/book.php#SK

This guy develops his bots using ColdFusion and called it AI Engine. It is based on Natural Language processing and Case Based Reasoning. In NLP sentences are broken down to reveal their structure and inform about indivisual workds and their relations among each other. In case-based reasoning one is searching for keywords in sentences that trigger pre-programmed responces.
“AI Engine does both- it first breaks down the sentences using NLP into their most basic elements, finds relationships between those elements, finds the meaning of individual words, and then passes all this information forward to CBR section”. ” Responses are matched against both specific and broad categories of statements, and then the response is constructed using both the bot’s own original words and a wealth of information available from the other chatter’s message and memories of the other chatter.”
See more on http://www.personalityforge.com/book-history.php where benefits of PersonalityForge are described (Transcripts, Long-Term Memory and gossips, Emotions, Sentence Fragments & Spell-Correcting, AIScript( that allows responses based on memories, time, emotion, and sex.), etc.

He defined next elements for his system:  KEYPHRASES – a series of words that the Bot will recognize after scanning the text of the user’s message. Then he got the idea of a RANK assigned to each KeyPhrase, that can help to tweak which phrase response Bot selects if he has a few to chose from. You can assign a higher ranking to the passive response so that Pot chooses it too. Then there is an EMOTIONAL Rank – again you can tweak that manually if you see that the Bot has a particular dislike or like to adjust the emotional reaction. Then there are RESPONSES selected corresponding to the identified KEYPHRASE. It is good when there are a few responses, and a random element – that prevents repetition and increases the unpredictability of the Bot’s personality. FINALLY there are PLUG-INS and WILDCARDS – wild cards are increasing the reach of Keyphrase (in case when “I really like flying” will not be recognized because of “Really” – wildcard can help. Plug-ins are used to enter specific or random info in Responces (persons, animals, enemies, feelings, time/year/ both user-generated and inbuilt. (http://www.personalityforge.com/book-advanced.php). NewBorn Bots dont login, they only talk to the Master. But as you add keyphrases, Responces na d he gains development levels – he will log more and more often. Also these bots have voices. (http://www.personalityforge.com/faq.php)

The PersonalityForge 2 was rewritten in PHP and MySql.

——————–

http://www.pandorabots.com/pandora/pics/wallaceaimltutorial.html

Pandora bots is developed using AIML- Artificial Intelligence Markup Language. It is simple to learn and allows to create your ownBot from the scartch. What it does is:
(1). Symbolic Reduction: Reduce complex grammatical forms to simpler ones.
(2). Divide and Conquer: Split an input into two or more subparts, and combine the responses to each.
(3). Synonyms: Map different ways of saying the same thing to the same reply.
(4). Spelling or grammar corrections.
(5). Detecting keywords anywhere in the input.
(6). Conditionals: Certain forms of branching may be implemented with <srai>.
(7). Any combination of (1)-(6).
And the documentation on AIML Bot development on http://alicebot.org/documentation/

————————-

http://wordnet.cs.princeton.edu/papers/jbg-EMNLP07.pdf

this paper studies the probabilities of how one can reach to a desired word through the corpora paths.
Here they discuss the Topic Models and the WordNet Walk – a probabilistic process of word generation that is based on the hyponomy relationshop (Color and Red, Red and Crimson) in WordNet. WNW is a lexical resource designed by psychologists and lexocographers to mimic the semantic organization in the human mind. Hyponomy s a relationship from general concept to more specific one. One can use various paths (links) to reach a certain word from Entity to Revolver(synset i to synset y) or Meronymy (part-whole or has-a relationship). At the same time there are probabilities measured of moving from one synset to another.
That semantically similar words are likely to occur together is a byproduct of how language is actually used. They developed a probabilistic model LDAWN according to which the generation of corpus happens following this process: 1. In each topic a synset is selected where transition probabilities are randomly chosen. 2. In each document a topic distribution is selected inside of which for each word there is a topic selected  and a path is chosen from the root to the child, namely a next link in the walk is chosen and if it is a leaf node then the associated word is generated. Otherwise the process of link selection is repeated.
Every element of this process is hidden (the number of topics, the topic assignment of each word,  the synset path to each word). The authors propose to do the so called POSTERIOR INFERENCE which is some sort of reverse process of described above in order to determined the conditional distribution of the hidden variables. This LDAWN with its POSTERIOR INFERENCE will allow to decompose a corpus into topics and its words into their synsets based on the notion  that the words in a topic have similar meanings and thus share same Paths. (Firearm > piece > small arm > six shooter and revolver.

LDAWN is based on the idea that each variable has a prior distribution and that enables us to encode any information regarding how we imagine the transition from mother to children nodes will be distributed.
Posterior Inference – once more – determining the probability distribution of the hidden variables given observer words and thn selecting the synsets of the most likely paths as the correct ones. Separately, one might need to evaluate the probability  of transitioning from synset i to y withing certain path.
…
As a conclusion and summary The LDAWN model presented here  is a good method for automatically partitioning a document into topics that includes explicit semantic information. Second, we show that, at least for one simple model of WSD, embedding a document in topic, can improve WSD.

——————

http://www.fi.muni.cz/gwc2004/proc/86.pdf  Extending and Enriching WordNet with OntoLearn

Amanda Lenhart:2010 Report SOCIAL Media & Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults

http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2010/PIP_Social_Media_and_Young_Adults_Report.pdf

By Amanda Lenhart, Kristen Purcell, Aaron Smith and Kathryn Zickuhr, 2010. SOCIAL Media & Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults , Pew Internet & American Life Project

Young adults act much like teens in their tendency to use these sites. Fully 72% of online 18‐29 year old use social networking websites, nearly identical to the rate among teens, and significantly higher than the 40% of internet users ages 30 and up who use these sites.
47% of online adults use social networking sites, up from 37% in November 2008 and 73% of wired American teens now use social networking websites, a significant increase from previous surveys. Just over half of online teens (55%) used social networking sites in November 2006 and 65% did so in February 2008.
A sharp decline in blogging by young adults has been tempered by a corresponding increase in blogging among older adults is noticed.
Also-Adults are increasingly fragmenting their social networking experience as a majority of those who use social networking sites – 52% – say they have two or more different profiles. That is up from 42% who had multiple profiles in May 2008.
Facebook is currently the most commonly‐used online social network among adults. Among adult profile owners 73% have a profile on Facebook, 48% have a profile on MySpace and 14% have a LinkedIn profile.1

The specific sites on which young adults maintain their profiles are different from those used by older adults: Young profile owners are much more likely to maintain a profile on MySpace (66% of young profile owners do so, compared with just 36% of those thirty and older) but less likely to have a profile on the professionally‐oriented LinkedIn (7% vs. 19%). In contrast, adult profile owners under thirty and those thirty and older are equally likely to maintain a profile on Facebook (71% of young profile owners do so, compared with 75% of older profile owners).

High school age girls are particularly likely to use Twitter. Thirteen percent of online girls ages 14‐17 use Twitter, compared with 7% of boys that age.

Young adults lead the way when it comes to using Twitter or status updating. Onethird of online 18-29 year olds post or read status updates

81% of adults between the ages of 18 and 29 are wireless internet users. By comparison, 63% of 30‐49 year olds and 34% of those ages 50 and up access the internet wirelessly.

Roughly half of 18‐29 year olds have accessed the internet wirelessly on a laptop (55%) or on a cell phone (55%), and about one quarter of 18‐29 year‐olds (28%) have accessed the internet wirelessly on another device such as an e‐book reader or gaming device.

The impact of the mobile web can be seen in young adults’ computer choices. Two‐thirds of 18‐29 year olds (66%) own a laptop or netbook, while 53% own a desktop computer. Young adults are the only age cohort for which laptop computers are more popular than desktops.
93% of teens ages 12‐17 go online, as do 93% of young adults ages 18‐29. One quarter (74%) of all adults ages 18 and older go online.

Over the past ten years, teens and young adults have been consistently the two groups most likely to go online, even as the internet population has grown and even with documented larger increases in certain age cohorts (e.g. adults 65 and older).

Also 93% of people from age 12 to 29 are online, 81 % from 30-50 , 70% from 50 to 65 and 38% from 65 and on.online

Aof September 2009, 47% of online adults used a social networking website, compared with the 73% of teen, but still much more compared with 37% in November 2008 and 8% in February 2005.

Gwertzman Social Gaming in China

http://www.slideshare.net/gwertzman/social-games-in-china-the-new-importexport-business

A few interesting things – monetization was around long before it became big in the west. Buying cloths for the avatar has the biggest monetization share?

Biggest soc network QQ Alumni (50%) actually owns the games having them as a part of their business model. BUT there is on 1 dominating network. at least 4 networks that have 30 or more share of users.

Funny: some soc networks have F9 “boss key” enabled during gaming – pressing it hides the screen )))

Some games allow to “give vent to your anger and stress” – beating the boss games, yet most games are copies of facebook games

Some soc networks have applications bar right at the left part (most read).

Others allow to customize your page with different modules – allowing to make each page very individual and even pay for different template styles, or item ( clock). I.E QQ Alumni allows using your cellphone balance to charge your socnet account, or buy QQ card at any retail spot./

General gaming: Many people play in internet cafes, vs. home environment. Also, they use prepaid gaming cards instead of buying dvds with games.

With all that, gov regulations are a big issue and one must have a list of different licenses and permits, but for now SNS are in the  gray area . As a sigh of a Regulation coming is chronically appearing bad press.

Because statistics indicate that users dont buy much for soci net games, chinese developers are very eager to tap into western  and japanese markets.

The Usability of Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games : Designing for New Users

the paper conducted a study of 19 participants, observed their first experience with a few MMORP games and described the challenges of players:

- all games had issues with features to buy/sell, equip avatars – users wanted to drag and drop.

- all games had problems where users had to interact with computer-controlled characters – suggestion – use conversation text with hyperlinks rather than expect users to type commands (multiple choice??)

- in-game help is not offered, rarely useful or difficult to find – suggestion – include ingame tutorial and smaller help for objects. Also manuals are bad – instead use ingame tutorials. Also, game terminology often not explained.

- modes of combat vs. no combat state are hard to control – suggestion – prevent players from disengaging with an enemy once the combat starts.

- changes in game go unnoticed (chat messages, progress updates, instructions), – suggest – use audio and visual feedback to alert players to changes.

- little feedback on user’s actions – use audio visual feedback to notify of the results of their action.
- typed input as interface option is hard to deal with – instead use shortcut keys and menu options.

- text often hard to read – colorsss!!!!!

- trouble shifting between mouse and keyboard for actions – suggestion – eliminate typed commands and include most actions into onscreen interface

- when targeting objects or creatures – make sure the targetable radius is large enough

- users tended to skim or not read at all large blocks of text

Karen O’Brien: CrimsonConsulting on Gaming and Social Media

http://www.slideshare.net/KarenOBrien/gamer-20-exploring-the-use-of-gaming-community-and-social-media

Exploring the use of Gaming, Community and Social Media 2009

Some interesting facts from her presentation:

37% of gamers play on small wireless devices – source: Essential Factors about Computer and Video Game industry from Entertainment Software Association 2009

Another source  – US Packaged Facts 2009 in the Adult Video Game Market part reveal that online gamers are more educated and earn higher annual income: 1.4 trillions of aggregate income compared with 766 billions of avid players. Also while women are only 34% of avid players they are 57% and 53% correspondingly of Moderate and Occasional players. In addition more than 50% of players in the age group 30< are women, especially started from 45 + age old. In general the number of video gamers among 55< is expected to grow.

She talks about revenue models: Virtual goods getting big, product positioning (Ford let Sims2 players to download form models and with 3 million downloads made the Sims the most successful Ford dealership in the world. More and more games will be coming out in various versions (online, mobile, TV). Also, social gaming creates communities around mobile gaming.

interesting – Sims Fashion show award – users submitted, Yahoo hosted, Winning outfit produced.

Video gamers are social media participators – more likely to view , download, watch, share contents including blogging.

She includes some statistics that shows the importance of Word of the Mouth and trust to the recommendations being more important than ever.

Brings Wiki’s description of hardcore and casual gamers adn then brings a description of one \(typical?) hard core player and one casual player profile (soemone who feels that games fill in the time gaps and serve as stress relievers, more puzzle and card game oriented, would playw tih friends on facebook).

It is interesting that they observed that hardcore players tend to leave more time consuming content online (reviews, blog articles) and deal with social networks and its content, while casual do more of fast content: rating, comments to blogs. They give some statistics on that on slide 43. In general hardcore players tend to be slightly more active online (joining, viewing, collecting).

They believe that the future of gaming+social media that users will be increasingly important contributors to the content of games and even be rewarded for it… Secondly – go mobile with it! Thirdly – product positioning, microtasking.

Microtask blog: tagging in Facebook

Microtask Blog
Facing the future: Will we all work for Mark one day?Ville Miettinen, September 16th, 2010 11:25

http://www.microtask.fi/blog/

this is the part about facebook potential opportunity to microtask and pay with virtual goods.

“…Tag – you’re it.
One way this could eventuate is through using its hundreds of millions of users, like you and me, to work for it. Of course I don’t mean that Mark Zuckerberg is going to offer us all jobs, but that Facebook may well look to monetize its membership using crowdsourcing. Facebook has already used crowdsourced labor when it translated its webpages into other languages (as discussed in an earlier posting Who will Police the Police?. This process was so successful, that Facebook has now tried to patent it.

In the future Facebook could extend this by offering members the opportunity to complete basic microtasks such as asking users to decipher a hand written word or tag a photograph that a computer reading system is having trouble with. For such microtasks it could get away with paying the crowdsource labor with online goods, such as game tokens or apps. With a growing demand for such goods, and a user base of half a billion, the potential value is enormous.

Just imagine: A few years in the future, instead of just updating her status, the Canadian girl in my friend’s hostel could earn a virtual dolphin to send to her friends before going back to sleep. What a wonderful world it would be…”

Salen and Zimmerman Book Rules of Play

Book Rules of Play  by Salen and Zimmerman

page 238 discusses Game theory and its appreciation in games. Game theory employs the concept of utility (acceptable combination of cost, size,and location is an example), and it would be nice to map decision on the grid – payoff matrix. And that Saddle point should never be only one. Uncertainty of saddle point is what makes a real game.

page 257 talks about “New Games Movement” that challenges traditional ways to look at games, competition and cooperation. One of the games is Catch the Dragon’s Tail where last person in line should be caught by first person (8-10) people – “blurs the lines between competition and cooperation”.

LOOP game is about catching butterflies http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/loop.jsp by looping them with a pencil.

Victory conditions are 3:
1. player must catch certain number of butterflies
2. Player must clear out screen from all butterflies to finish the level
3. There are no levels – one can catch butterflies forever.

Sub chapter Breaking the Rules
It discusses player categories (typical player, dedicated player, unsportsmanlike  behavior, cheats etc).
It also discusses legal cheating techniques page 279  (Easter Eggs – hidden messages, images, also Cheat Codes – are bigger than Easter eggs and can impact the strategic play often published online or elsewhere officially – key combination that give access to something,  also Game Guides and WalkThroughs – all kinds of from official sources to fans, also Workarounds

Page 290 discusses   IRONCLAD – a game that involves checkers, stones and dice. What is interesting about it is the strategy-game element when these stones once creating unbroken line (can be with curves) gives a winning position.

Page 327 summarizes games as play experience.  “Play is experienced through participation. When player plays the formal form of game is manifested through experiential effects. (page 321 says – new variations of core mechanic add a new degree of experiential pleasure to the game). Sutton-Smiths created model of psychological processes by which the game is experienced:
-Concentration
-Visual Scanning
-Auditory discriminations
-Motor responses
-Perceptual patterns of learning.

Also System of experience is constituted from 3 components: – input by which a player takes action, output of the system, and internal processes by which a player makes decisions.

Page 334. In a typology of LeBlanc there are 8 types of pleasure from a game:
1. sensation – game as a sense-pleasure
2. Fantasy – game as make-believe
3. Narrative – game as drama
4. Challenge – game as obstacle course
5. Fellowship – game as social framework
6. Discovery – game as uncharted territory
7. Expression – game as self-discovery
8. Submission – game as masochism

Game might be easy to learn but hard to master.

Page 345 – Behavior theory distinguishes between positive reinforcement (positive reward), negative reinforcement (removal of smth unpleasant) and punishment (addition of smth unpleasant).

Page 346 – reward types:
Rewards of glory, rewards of sustenance (players can keep things that they have gained in game so far), rewards of Access (access to new locatinos or resources, i.e. Keys), rewards of Facility i,.e. items that allow to do things that gamer could not do before).
Ppleasure is difficult to design (page 355) because it is an ooen-ended, multifaceted and exceedingly complex concept. plus there are a multitude of game pleasures to create.

page 361 says Games possess a quality called same-but-different. Every time one plays it the formal structure stays the same but the ways the rules play out are different. The quality of games makes it pleasurable to explore the space of possibility.”

Reinforcement schedules – are rates at which player received awards or punishments – they can be fixed or variable (interval or the ratio of action to outcome ) usually, variable are more powerful in shaping behavior.

page 410
Cut scenes and in-game cinematics are important to show feedback of the result that the player achieved. Page 411 discusses the fact that many hardcore gamers prefer to pass up the cut scenes and just dive into the games. This does not meant hat the info and setting provided by cut scenes are superfluous – it simply means that the hardcore players are so experienced with these story-making mechanisms that they know them internally, while new players can definitely benefit a lot from cut scenes and alike game elements.

[page 419
A narrative descriptor  is anything that is part of system of prepresentation in the game|: instructional text, in-game cinematics, interface elements, game objects, audio elements are all narrative descriptors.
Page 457 – Games typical represent two or all three of the categories of conflicts: territorial, economic and conflict over knowledge.
Simulations can be constructed according to two different types of logic: case-based logic – relationships between elements of the system are specified in advance, and General logic 0 where elements simply share a set of general attributes which leads to more emergent games where players have greater option for action, But usually a balance between the two is necessary.

page 439
the game BLOB is an example where the character is represented procedurally (as the game goes the character does things that actually qualify his personality) while there are many other games where characters are prepresented visually (witch – her looks, her visual attributes, etc).

page 534.
Games are social context for cultural learning. They have ideological dimension: they are context through which society passes on its values.

Chris Crawford On Interactive Storytelling

Chris Crawford On Interactive Storytelling

Bubble intellectualism – arises when a group has become so ingrown i that it loses all contacts with the rest of the intellectual universe and drifts off into its own self-reinforcing universe… Despite my substantial credentials as a designer and theoretician, i cant understand what these people are talking about… Because even the most exotic Scientific theories ultimately relate back to the real word in some useful way.  Yet the geniuses of the artsy side of interactive storytelling don’t seem to have produced anything that could be boiled down to practice… The works of media theorists impress me with their erudition and cleverness, but they never leave me with anything to grab hold of… And it is not just one of them – it is the whole kit of those people.

on pages 124-127 he argues that  the scenario of Branching Trees or Foldbacks don\t work well with interactive storytelling.
Ther Lego game that I plaed is called Constipated Story – fragmenting story and earning access to proceeding fragents by completing game segments. Although not interactive, the change from one to another mood gives players impression that it is. (AND IT IS VERY CLOSE TO WATCHING A dvd).
on page 136 – Also needless to say that the bits and pieces of storytelling in games are not real interactive storytelling.
He calles the approach of gamers as Environmental approach.+

Page 137
Emergennt Story – refers to the notion that complex systems can produce behaviours that surprise us with its irganization. – i.e. Game – The Game of life produced the cocept of cellular automata – a map of array of intelligent cells, each of which followed some simple set of rules for its behaviour. (from which Sim City came into life).

on Page 174-175 hey says that while audiotory expressions are one-dimentional visuals have  multiple dimentions (horizontal, vertical, color texture and animation and he discusses  attempts to creAte visual languages (pictorial languages) or else a sublanguages -  Bliss – for handicapped chilren and The elephant Memory. All of them are however limited to the number of words

Nicole Lazarro: 4 keys to Fun, emotion and user engagmt Flip’s adventures

http://www.slideshare.net/NicoleLazzaro/ux-week-the-future-of-ux-is-play and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ytNSKPvnRw

Nicole Lazarro: is a Player Experience Designer / Researcher, Consultant, Speaker at XEODesign, Inc.,

In her presentation above she concentrates on what it is that makes games important for players. Tilt Flip’s adventure (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK27BAt2aRU) is one of her projects.

Games are motivating systems (rather than point or score systems). Motivation achieved through emotions.

Emotions help people to focus, remember, decide, perform and learn. She categorizes FUN into 4 types:

Interaction design model:

She believes that best games maange to engage emotions from all 4 types of FUN: hard fun, easy fun, serious fun and people fun.

Hard fun – provides opportunity for challenge, mastery and feeling of accomplishment. It focuses on goals and strategy. Its ok if occasionally people fail. But balance feeling of frustration and fun not to discourage the player before time. The higher the frustration the higher is the rewarding feeling

Easy fun – is a bubble wrap of a game design. It is inspiring interaction, fantasy type of fun. Pure interaction is nice – feeding fish for the sake of doing it, watering virtual plant, etc. Refreshing, creative. Joy of control (flipping and tilting ipad to interact.

Serious fun – relates to how people act and behave in the real world: repetition, collection, rhythm, obtaining and expressing their own value. It enlivens otherwise boring tasks through gaming – let people feel see the outcomes (seeing vacuum cleaner cleaning real mess is satisfactory). Bejeweled – collecting things… People are happier when they engage in meaningful result-oriented activities. (floflo’s finance pour tous game). Games can be social tokens that are symbolic for something between people.

People fun – provides excuse to hang out with people pets, tamagochis , which is addictive (feed, take care – emotional attachment). Cute characters change how it feels to play.  Game are just more fun when you play with those you know. They create some social bonding. In fact one creates shared experience – game is the message that passes between friends.

Her advise is: Simplify world, provide clear goals , suspend the consequences, and amplify feedback (looking at what mint.com did – personal budgeting). Also, it is interesting that she advises not to SPAM friends. She believes one can increase the number of players by keeping game mechanics simple, mobile and frictionless. Also, she suggest fighting off the temptation to add features and take advantage of friends because the number of installs may create illusion but not the action play.

Alson interesting notes:

- social gestures used in games influence what people feel toward teh device (patting my ipad)

- if it is role playing – give people things to enhance the feel and connection with that particular form.

in her other presentation -  The 4 Most Important Emotions for Social Games, she mentions a lot from above and here are a few more interesting notes:

- teasing friends increases social bonds

- metions tattleTalz.com – tell which is a lie and gain points

Amitt Mahajan: Building Big Social Games

Amitt Mmahajan is a lead developer of farmville.  In his presentation http://www.slideshare.net/amittmahajan/building-big-social-games presentation for GDC 2011 he explains that they wanted to design games that have wide appeal and good retention. To do so they did the following things:

Thematic Appeal

- Picked themes and concepts that people can relate to\

- Used the Metaphor of Plant life cycle that was known to everyone

- Tried to avoid any offending themes

Also built social value :

- Every time user plays he needs to build up relationship

- Favor for a favor – (Xx fertilized your crops, do the same for him).

Visual Appeal:

- Bright Graphics

Routine Updates and  Events:

- keeping game updated is key to retaining users

- Use metrics and feedback to see how updates perform (criteria are reach and retention) + use power of Marketing

Back Architecture

- Data driven design and localization systems are sued for games

- Abstract away the platform calls

- Make it dead simple to use Facebook communication channels

- Route traffic between your frontend and backend using a single point

On the client side we have Flash that  generates “actions” to send back to server and onbackend – PHP server that has authority on all game actions and handles all FB communication.

Client side performance:

- Long load time and sluggish framerate kill retention,

- get something visible as soon as possible

- stream in the contents and load ONLY whats needed

- Adapt rendering to Framerate

Server side:

- The cloud – Autoscale

- Everything is async and cached

- Parallelise all parts of architecture

-  Database is redundant datastore only

So, games should be able to run without FB API or Database available. Also one trick: IFrame that precaches FQL calls as game canvas page loads.

Also on his http://www.slideshare.net/amittmahajan/social-gold-the-design-of-farmville-and-other-social-games-web2expo-2010 Web2Expo presentation he tells more, and namely:

People do play to : alleviate boredom, to connect with friends and to compete,

Theme:

- When choosing theme make sure that you keep the core gameplay simple;

- consider international players.

- in general – the broader is the theme – the better

- increase decision points on one hand

- reduce User interface complexity

- use hidden but effective tutorials

- gradually introduce complexity (collecting stuff in inventories)

- cater to different play styles cuz people find different types of fun in the game (nice looking virtual space with useless but pretty items and houses or just money earning field)

- provide several ways to win

- get them to interact with each other

Product clarity

- single strong voice,

- have a long-term vision for gameplay

- consistent art direction

- use humor that often adds character

- avoid excessive detail

- appeal to fantasy (treasure world, etc)

Sound:

- it adds atmosphere but should be non intrusive

Grow through social elements:

- forcing social causes negative reactions, therefore:

- integrate those social elements into core gameplay and show the actions of friends on the surface

Leave your audience wanting more and let their friends help

Play sessions!!!:

- keep them short,

- provide a goal for the player

- link sessions together (planting session, collecting session are connected)

Moments of Joy:

- make the player feel good

- leverage art to create these (fancy items – Christmas trees, snowman)

So:

How do I get people play my game? – Have a simple design and a theme that they relate to.

How do I get people to tell their friends?  – Make social part of your core gameplay and not forced one.

How do I get people to stick around?  Give them reason to come back and to aspire to.

How do I get people to invest? Engage them and provide an easy way to express themselves with money

More slides available on http://www.amitt.com/

Mendelev: Analytics in Social Games: Casual Connect Kiev 2010

Alex Mendelev, general Manager & Head of Stuidos of Backstage / GameHouse (Canada) gave presentation on Casual Connect 2010 in Kiev on the topic of  Analytics in Social Games: The real secret to success in Social Games.\

Below are some highlights from his presentation:

Major statistic values:

Ssocial network game construction with SOPLAY Heuristics – Slides Paavilainen

http://www.slideshare.net/Rojola/designing-social-network-games-with-soplay-heuristics

This is a proposed model as to how to build social network games. It poses questions that one need to answer going from the design of a game, giving  necessary social network game elements, and getting players.

Paavilainen, J. 2010a. SoPlay Heuristics.Critical Review on Video Game Evaluation Heuristics: Social Games Perspective. In Proceedings of the FuturePlay’10 Conference, Vancouver, Canada. New York: ACM Press):

GAME FUNDAMENTALS First – bring game theme and core – wehre you give short description of what the game is about

Then Give a gameplay description – what are the various actions of the player, what are main features of the game. Then describe basic interaction loop patterns (plow, feed, action, next, click). Then explain how asynchronously can the gameplay be. And explain the resources that the player uses in the game.

SOPLAY HEURISTICS

“SG1 – Accessibility – Making the game easy to approach, understand and play. Good tutorials? Loading time? Is interaction loop fun?
SG2 – Interruptability – Taking advantage of asynchronous, spontaneous, and irregular game sessions. Can it ebe stopped at any moments? Are gameplay tasks short? Does the game support breaks? Is return to game rewarded?
SG3 – Continuity – Providing asynchronous and permanent game world, which attracts players to come back. Does it foster coming back – continuous play? Hhow does game advances when player is offline? Any multi-layered reward mechanisms? Are long and short term goals clear? Is progress available at every click?  Are badges, levels, experience indocators clear and present?
SG4 – Discovery – Creating an interesting setting with new content to discover. How can the game plesantly surprise the player? What new components can be developed with game play? Any unlockable components available?  Do the items range in terms of common, rare, unique. Any advanced techniques to discover with a game play experience?
SG5 – Virality – Promoting various means for viral growth. Note that the power of viral chanelling dicreased a lot since the first social network games. Before the private policy change of the Facebook, viral marketing provided 1/3 of players and classical marketing and promotion – 2/3.
SG6 – Narrativity – Using vivid in-game and off-game narratives for eliciting curiosity. Any in-game narratives to the player and off-game narratives to his feed? Are small wins presented as BIG wins? How are CALL TO ACTION principles used?
SG7 – Expression – Supporting player’s self-discovery and ability to customize. – How do you let player feel unique in the game? Can he brag about his achievements? Can he cheer for other performances? Can he show off his virtual space?
SG8 – Sharing – Allowing players to share in-game resources easily. – Any items? Can those items boost friends? What are rewards for gifting and boosting?
SG9 – Sociability – Using social network as a game mechanic. – Can SN be used as an asset in the game? Can player gain new friends through game? Any tasks that require collboration? Any conflict mechanics present? Can one interact with others than friends?
SG10 – Competition – Promoting playful social competition in the game. – What ranking does the game support? How is one rewarded for climbing the ladder.

The model below presents  basic building blocks for the social game concept:

BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES
It answers the questions of Acquisition (how wasthe player invited/attracted to the game)? Retention – how is the player hooked to the game? Referral – Wht are the forces that bring player to invite others? Monetization – what is sold to the player and why would he pay and how? Following – how to build sustainable customership with teh player?

Social Studies Workshop 2011 report CONTINUE

Jesper Juul: Casual Revolution Book chapter 1 Remarks

This chapter is a great ground to show that casual social games are not so “casual”.  And that while you need only  short time to get a meaninful play, that does nto prevent you from spending LOTS of time on it. The quotation from player also explains why people who play social network games also play adventure games (hard core games). Also my research that says – lots of parents play it shows that parents can or have been hard core players but as their lives get busier they dont have time for hours of play but for a few minutes – why not.

“There is a new wave of video games that seem to solve the problem of the missing pull; games that are easy to learn to play, fit well with a large
number of players and work in many different situations. I will refer to these new games using the common industry term casual games”. Those include WII and downloadable games like CakeMania.

“the rise of casual games has industry-wide implications and changes the conditions for game developers, pushing developers to make games for a broader audience.”  Looking at statistics of playing in the US households, the author concludes that “to play video games has become the norm; to not play video games has become the exception.”

There is an identifiable stereotype of a hardcore player who has a preference for science fiction, zombies, and fantasy fictions, has played a large
number of video games, will invest large amounts of time and resources toward playing video games, and enjoys difficult games.
The stereotype of a casual player is the inverted image of the hardcore player: this player has a preference for positive and pleasant fictions, has
played few video games, is willing to commit little time and few resources toward playing video games, and dislikes difficult games.
To what extent do these stereotypes map to actual players? (could not find reference)

Surprisingly,when studies were carried out, they showed that more than a third of the players of downloadable casual games played nine two-hour game sessions a week.  (dont have access to that very references page)

it seemed that casual players were not playing in casual ways at all. This raised a question: do casual players even exist? Indeed, if you look at casual games, these games allow us to have a meaningful play experience within a short time frame, but do not prevent us from spending more time on a game. Au contrare, hardcore games do not allow a meaningful experience with a shorter commitment.

Therefore,  It then follows that the distinction between hardcore and casual should not be treated as an either/or question or even as a sliding scale, but rather as a number of parameters that can change over time because players change over time. Oone player can slide into another type of player.

One self-termed ‘‘ex-hardcore-now-parent’’ player describes
the situation like this:
That pretty much sums up my situation these days. Snatched moments are far
more child friendly than hour-long Mass Effect sessions. That doesn’t mean I
don’t like sneaking off upstairs to have a bit of [Xbox] 360 time but I can have a
game of Mario Kart or Smash Bros and it’s literally five minutes while my daughter
entertains herself. Maybe that is the market that the Wii has tapped into. Not the
non-gamer; more the ex-hardcore-now-parent gamer.

In middle 2000 investment of Sony (XBox 360) and Microsoft (Playstation 3) into better graphics and heavier HD technology while Nintendo WII stayed the weakest did not prove right. WII has still outsold other two by two. Why? Because WII fits better in the busy life of wider audiences, however bad or good its graphics is compared to other hard-core games.

It is important that early arcade games had to punish players harshly for not reaching the game goal, thereby narrowing the range of
available playing styles. Newer large-scale games are meaningful with both small and large time investments because the player is free to not
follow the game goals.

Aneta: Human Computation – my take on it

This is personal musing NOT really intended for others, and is  in the constant state of  update…

Crowdsourcing is  a part of greater human computation paradigm.
Human computation outsources to humans those tasks that can’t be accomplished by computers.
Usually these tasks were very contradictive in nature – while requiring high intelligence (not reached by computer so far) they also needed massive input  that a decade ago could have been generated only by impressive computational power of computers.
High rate of internet connectivity today made this tasks possible through human computation: reaching for human intelligence on a massive level. Crowdsourcing – is a classical example of this process.
However, while crowdsourcing appeals mostly to businesses that outsource tasks specific to their own needs (i.e. search, database fill) that pay to their crowdworkers, there are also tasks that are generic in nature and may bring value to science or common knowledge. While there are no specific requesters of these data, there are also no specifically channeled financial resources to pay for it.
How does human computation goes about these tasks?

There are many things that motivate people for action. Money – is the flashing one one. However, there are also feeling of accomplishment, feeling of self-importance (Wikipedia – contributors are volunteers), desire of excitement and or relaxation (games), research and exploration (inborn curiosity and self-assertion), altruism (forums, feedback, including social media contribution like rating). All of them are united under one flag - satisfaction, achieved with unmeasurable incentives.

While overwhelming majority of online users are motivated by at least one of them, it is hard to grasp their moods and match to the right intensive.
To apply a marketing formula – the goal is to find ways to appeal to right people with right intensives at a right moment in a right space and time.

Right incentives
So far, one of the most successful non-feasible incentives used is FUN, employed by games like games with purpose and

As for tasks that can’t be fit in the game category and are therefore left to altruists. Good news is that even person has at least some amount of altruism, similar to sparing a seat for an older person or helping to find a street to a tourist. So by making the task as short and easy as possible we can match the laziest altruist, which are the majority. Therefore, one can divide larger tasks into microtasks. Also, one should bring the tasks to people instead of expecting users to seek them.
For example, one can introduce a social network plugin which will feed short human-computation questions. The users will be earning titles of Netizens  – people who make web space a better place similar to environmentalists while dealing with boredom (which, according to my research is one of the biggest reasons why users play social network games).

IMPORTANT: connect on a visual map perspectives on the same subject or neighboring subjects - i.e. link collective intelligence articles with crowdsourcing and games with purpose. show how those are related. It is important especially for interdisciplinary fields – where different fields are working on same concept but from different perspective and often completely unaware of each other.

….

Aneta: Left-out Potential of CrowdWorkers (Sept 2010)

With crowdsourcing becoming a mass concept – theresult-oriented pay changes the whole concept of workstyle, time-management and responsibility.
While the ability and willingness of business sector to readapt their certain processes  in the ways never done before (which is to crowdsource them), is already a huge topic of discussion that requires out-of-the-box thinking, we should also look at the potential of a crowdworker to meet the potential of crowdsourcing needs.
Who is a crowdworker today?
Give a glimpse at the studies of Panos Ipeirotison Amazon Turkersand you will see that an average crowdworker (be it India or USA) is a young adults with higher education (some college and above) and full-time employment who cares for an extra cash (ranging from as little as 5 dollars to 200 dollars or even more per week).

This study makes you muse over the fact that crowdworkers are in fact well more qualified than most of the current crowdsourcing tasks require them to be, which automatically leads us to the idea that crowdworkers might be of a bigger value than whatthey currently are. The reason for this neglect is a well-known lack of knowledge over WHO exactly is behind the screen. And yet, this very barrier shuts companies away from enormous potential of intelligent crowdworking.

Let’s not forget the foremost  advantage of crowdsourcing, which is the access to IMPRESSIVE number of workers who can PROMPTLY fulfill any number of tasks. To give it a metaphorical comparison, current crowdsourcing market is similar to that of thousands of ants moving their miniscule loads led by their own agenda.
But what happens if you give these ants heavier loads? To rephrase, what happens when one crowdsources a more complex tasks that requirescoordinated action of a crowdand qualified knowledge to solve it?

So, while we keep in mind the open-ended question of which traditional tasks can be retransformed around crowdsourcing in the business world,  the crowdsourcing side itself faces its own challenges that are:
- What are the ways to consistently motivate honest contribution when there are no clear “good” answers.
- Whether more complex task can promptly and yet absolutely reliably attract necessary number of professionals with desired qualification.
- Whether crowdworkers can self-regulate their own working schedule once the tasks becomes more complex and consequently moretime-consuming. The issue is complicated by the fact that now an average crowdworker (again Amazon Turker) keeps a a fixed job and may respond differently to the grown pressure and responsibility.
Sounds like lots of unknown parameters.
And yet, lets not be pessimistic. Crowdsourcing is undoubdetly a responce to Internet globalization. Moreover, crowdsourcing is also a responce to the pressure of the lean economy and necessity to cut costs of whenever possible as well as utilizing new opportunities made possible by the nature of crowdsourcing. So, while generic common sense tasks will always have their niche, many virtual workers and employers will be willing to take their cooperation a few steps further.

Jumping  from Now to the Future
Currently, domineering method of crowdsourcing is very primitive – employers access crowdworkers directly and the tasks can’tbe of the complex nature where one person can’t easily replace another. The limitationof more complex tasks comes from facelessness of the workers , from lack of tools  to reliably and promptly find numerousvirtual workers with the desired skill level, and from the task complexity itself that requires some study time. This is where a crowdsourcing company comes into play in the role of intermediator and compensates for the risk of the employer. Crowdsourcer (crowdsourcing platform provider) will have to keep an iron grip over the project, which means having full awareness of subtasks structure, content and correlation, and create detailed job guidline where a worker can’t damage the project by unexpectedly terminating the task in an unknown state.  ClickWorker http://www.clickworker.com/ , CloudCrowd http://www.cloudcrowd.com/index  and MicroTask  are from the group of crowdsourcing platforms that deal with complex crowdsourcing projects, while platforms like UTest http://www.utest.com/ crowdsource to a specific industry need.
Also, since qualified subtasks will pay more than generic tasks, many crowdworkers will be willing to undergo segmentation based on their skill and knowledge level. This will possibly happen through platforms that will specialize mainly on filtering and segmentation processes. The presence of platform like SamaSource http://www.samasource.org  that provides better control over crowdworkers, Marketocracy (http://www.marketocracy.com) and NotchUp (http://www.notchup.com),  ClearVoiceSurvey  (http://www.clearvoicesurveys.com )that invests into profiling of the crowd indicates the development in this direction.
In other words, for crowdsourcing to evolve into a more complex model where greater variety of tasks can be fulfilled (and thus appeal to GREATER variety of organizations), crowdsourcing providers will  need a productional and business models that will do both -  segment their crowdworkers and allow to dissasamble, coordinate, process, and reassamble complex projects – that contain but are not limited to crowdsourcing tasks only – at their own expense, minimizing the responsibility of a crowdworker and the risk of a client.

Aneta: What’s interesting in Crowdsourcing (Sept 2010)

Beside widely developed idea or design contests that are more of an online bidding nature …
List of crowdsourcing Initiatives
http://mashable.com/2010/05/26/creative-crowdsourcing/
http://www.cambrianhouse.com/blog/
http://www.chaordix.com/crowdsourcing-in-action
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crowdsourcing_projects

My favorites somehow. Very subjective, mais quand-meme:

Sales
When it comes to SIMPLE products companies are moving away from assserting a pocession of a specific  knowhow. Instead, today they simply provide a platform where knowledge providers meet knowledge requesters. [http://www.nakedandangry.com/design/showme,intherunning,completed,printed/thati,both/|http://www.nakedandangry.com/] and http://www.jujups.com/ that sells small customizable items are a good example of it, where the retailers don’t limit users to predefined designs and instead give them opportunity to use patterns created by other users or even use one’s own.

Marketing
Groupon is a back-end marketing agency that make the word “wholesale” ring at the the cashier desk of retailers. How so?They turn regular buyers into wholesale ones by arranging those by bulks. To increase the size of that “bulk” they also employ the potential of each and every buyer in brining more people since the promised discount deal will not happen unless required number of customers sigh-up. The retailers, in their turn are motivated to participate because they cut costs on promotion and shelf space.  http://www.groupon.com/learn

Loans
Mircroloansare  brought online through http://www.kiva.org/. Today, you dont have to be a bank to make microloans that once maid lots of noise. You can be a simple you. There is something fascinating and uplifting in the idea of investing (although investment is largely symbolic) into someone who is on the right track, someone who sees the light in the tunnel and iis very specific of the tools he needs. I truly believe you can’t help a person who does not see himself in a better place. This kind of help goes down the drain. Kiva gives a different feeling and hopefully the donation you make (for consider it a donation rather than investment) might at best teach a positive lesson even if it does not bring to a success.

Social Studies Workshop 2011 report

“http://www.scribd.com/doc/40055484/Social-Game-Studies-A-Workshop-Report” http://www.scribd.com/doc/40055484/Social-Game-Studies-A-Workshop-Report

Paavilainen (2010) outlined several core design features at his talk that provided the springboard for this discussion. They have now become elaborated into ten design heuristics for social games (Paavilainen, J. 2010a. SoPlay Heuristics.Critical Review on Video Game Evaluation Heuristics: Social Games Perspective. In Proceedings of the FuturePlay’10 Conference, Vancouver, Canada. New York: ACM Press):

SOPLAY HEURISTICS

“SG1 – Accessibility – Making the game easy to approach, understand and play. Good tutorials? Loading time? Is interaction loop fun?
SG2 – Interruptability – Taking advantage of asynchronous, spontaneous, and irregular game sessions. Can it ebe stopped at any moments? Are gameplay tasks short? Does the game support breaks? Is return to game rewarded?
SG3 – Continuity – Providing asynchronous and permanent game world, which attracts players to come back. Does it foster coming back – continuous play? Hhow does game advances when player is offline? Any multi-layered reward mechanisms? Are long and short term goals clear? Is progress available at every click?  Are badges, levels, experience indocators clear and present?
SG4 – Discovery – Creating an interesting setting with new content to discover. How can the game plesantly surprise the player? What new components can be developed with game play? Any unlockable components available?  Do the items range in terms of common, rare, unique. Any advanced techniques to discover with a game play experience?
SG5 – Virality – Promoting various means for viral growth. Note that the power of viral chanelling dicreased a lot since the first social network games. Before the private policy change of the Facebook, viral marketing provided 1/3 of players and classical marketing and promotion – 2/3.
SG6 – Narrativity – Using vivid in-game and off-game narratives for eliciting curiosity. Any in-game narratives to the player and off-game narratives to his feed? Are small wins presented as BIG wins? How are CALL TO ACTION principles used?
SG7 – Expression – Supporting player’s self-discovery and ability to customize. – How do you let player feel unique in the game? Can he brag about his achievements? Can he cheer for other performances? Can he show off his virtual space?
SG8 – Sharing – Allowing players to share in-game resources easily. – Any items? Can those items boost friends? What are rewards for gifting and boosting?
SG9 – Sociability – Using social network as a game mechanic. – Can SN be used as an asset in the game? Can player gain new friends through game? Any tasks that require collboration? Any conflict mechanics present? Can one interact with others than friends?
SG10 – Competition – Promoting playful social competition in the game. – What ranking does the game support? How is one rewarded for climbing the ladder.

The model below presents  basic building blocks for the social game concept:

GAME FUNDAMENTALS First – bring game theme and core – wehre you give short description of what the game is about

Then Give a gameplay description – what are the various actions of the player, what are main features of the game. Then describe basic interaction loop patterns (plow, feed, action, next, click). Then explain how asynchronously can the gameplay be. And explain the resources that the player uses in the game.

BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES
It answers the questions of Acquisition (how wasthe player invited/attracted to the game)? Retention – how is the player hooked to the game? Referral – Wht are the forces that bring player to invite others? Monetization – what is sold to the player and why would he pay and how? Following – how to build sustainable customership with teh player?

It is widely believed in the gaming communities that social games are degraded versions of games. being “more business-driven”, “less complex” or “not real” games in comparison to traditional commercial off-the-shelf games . At the same time they noted that social games are in their early stage of development. And a lto more can come or is already experimented with in academic or otherwise communities.
General observations:
In most current social games, there is no synchronous interaction between players and/or their co-present avatars (such as in e.g. traditional multiplayer games). Rather, players have “private game spaces” (farms, cafés, real estate) (Björk 2010) that they affect, and players note the presence of other players via static representations (avatars and/or game objects)

There is only (a) asynchronous interaction via objects both players interact with (e.g. I harvest your crop field, I gift you an item)

Few social game mechanics: It is seldom that social games make use of the many game mechanics known to necessitate or facilitate social interactions among players, e.g. cooperative play (Björk & Holopainen 2005: 237-276; Seif El-Nasr et al. 2010). This was seen  as a design opportunity.

Asocial relations are very flat and primitive, where  friends are mere game tokens.

Economywise Social games proved to be very successful – letting investors shift from high scale invests of a few people  into micro-investing from many people
And “and a shift from long-term, ‘genius’, ‘intuitive’ development models to the agile, iterative, pivoting, usage- and metrics-driven development model of web startups”

 INCLUDEPICTURE “http://htmlimg4.scribdassets.com/77qn3zwnlsperi9/images/11-1c0dfac016/000.jpg” \* MERGEFORMATINET 

11
4. Design and content
Thed e s i g n of social games was broadly characterized as appealing to the “widest possible audience” (Paavilainen 2010) through e a s i n e s s, that is, easy, casual play with low barriers of entry, positive, everyday themes and “easy fun” (Lazzaro 2008) through high “juiciness” (Juul 2010: 45-9) or “clickability” (Järvinen 2010); optimized for demonetization, virality, and retention. interaptability of games is great advantage allowing real-life but asynchronous play |(in terms of friends) and allow for high rates of returning and retainability.

Also they offer the model where grinding , boring, repetitive tasks can eb replaced by paid service. (buy with real money and avoid long way to buy a house)
As Järvinen (2010) states: In a freemium business model, all ‘game mechanics’ are retention mechanics that gear towards monetization, by imposing in-game goals that become The Wall” – meaning an obstacle to be overcome by paying money or something similar.

On a more critical note, many workshop participants observed that social games e x p l o i t
(social) psychological principles, most notably, attachment, social proof, and reciprocity.
With mechanics of mutual gifting and help among players, social proof make the usually
implicit maintenance of social ties through r e c i p r o c i t y explicit and utilize the resulting sense of mutual guilt and obligation among players for retention to the game (Björk 2010). Social games utilize the psychological principle of social proof with the ‘viral’ sending of invitations via the social network, and the continued feedback that other friends are playing (and hence, approving of playing) the game. The public display of player statistics via leaderboards etc. affords dynamics of c o m p e t i t i o n among friends. Finally, with the long-term, often-repeated interaction with and sunk time and money costs in the players’ virtual items, players potentially develop an emotional a t t a c h m e n t to their items that likewise increases retention.

Users and Usage of Social network games:\
The first relevant observation on the users of social games was that the equation ‘social games are for casual gamers, commercial off-the-shelf games are for hardcore gamers’ does not hold up. Just like casual games (Juul 2010: 50-55), social games appeal to casual as well as hardcore audiences, and as Kirman (2010) outlined, within the usage group of any given social game, one finds a stable power distribution between a broad base of casual players and a small group of devoted hardcore players. Also, people change over time in the degree of play activity and their playing style preference. From network analyses, Kirman (2010) identified four ‘archetypes’ of social game play as regards social interaction with others:
• Usually hardcore “Evangelists” who start social relations, reach out to other (non-)players,
nearly always reciprocate.
• More casual “Socialites” whose interactions are usually bound to a small, existing cluster of  contacts
. • “Reluctants” who rarely initiate, but always reciprocate interactions.
• “Antisocials” who neither initiate nor reciprocate interactions.
More characteristic for social games is a peculiar pattern of usage motivations. In an
exploratory survey among social gamers (n=253), Wohn, Lee, Sung et al. (2010) found four
clusters of self-reported uses and gratifications of social games:
• “Common ground”, i.e. using social games to build common topics and experiences that
would service as a basis for out-of-game interactions with acquaintances;
• “Reciprocity”, i.e. helping and being helped;

“Coping”, i.e. using social games to cope with out-of-game situations and states (stress
reduction, distraction from problems); and
•
“Passing Time”.

From Paavilainen (2010) qualitative interviews of socnet game players they found out:

They are played to kill time, fill time gaps and relax (microbreaks during the work day)
Simplicity is accessibility although simple becomes eventually boring
The audience has matured for more complex soc games
Two main motivators are novel game mechanics or good social aspect
When game expands too much grinding becomes boring and accelerators come into game
When friends are quitting the game the players will soon follow
Enthusiastic players care for exclusive content
Reciprocity is a two way sword because it comes as a  massive spamming
Quality of games is not high enough to pay for them
Usability and east of access is the key factor for impulsive buying.

Reported sources of frustration were the spammy notifications, requirements in terms of connected
friends, scarce in-game resources or obligation to spend money, the repetitive nature nature of
gameplay, technical bugs, and the shifts between the in-game interface and out-of-game
newsfeeds and notifications often required

He concludes that the game qualities of casual games help to explain players’
preference for social games, whereas the playfulness observed on SNS help to describe players’
typical behavior in and around social games. The second part of his presentation gives a
detailed overview of 23 game design patterns characteristic for social games, loosely clustering
around time mechanics and mechanics tapping into social psychological principles. L i n k :
http://bit.ly/chZdiJ

Valentina Rao, “Casual Social Games for Serious Social Purposes”
Productive gameplay”: Tying a real-world outcome to in-game-activities. This can be
crowdsourcing some useful activity (like image tagging) into a game, or the game provider
promising players to act in the real world based on their in-game success.

Inserting elements of real life into a game. In-game-advertising or prosocial funding
campaigns tied to micro-transactions in social games are examples for this.

Conclusion
Lots of those is long.

but I liked the following:
USER:

The advantage of belonging to a network that will always create potential of viral distribution
At the same time, the users are beginning to drop since
2010 – while social network user numbers still continue to grow.
that they are still evolving rapidly, looking for their form. There is a lot of trial and error
going at the moment
– games are understudied
the homogenization of design aesthetics and mechanics
social games’ huge potential for opinion-making can be used to any
purpose, under the dubious regulations of social networks that mirror the mainstream
ideology rather than offering a neutral space
that their micro-monetization-driven design might spill over into the whole game design
practice, crowding out non-micro-monetizable/grind mechanics and cultures of play and
games unpervaded by economics

Possibly in the future they might be more mobile than computer and be part of OS system rather than browser based. Also more segmented and cross-platformed. And will go through a cycle of hype and then fatigue will find their niche.

Flow theory suggests that games should continually raise difficulty with increasing player
skill; However there is no empirical evidence to support this in games – in fact, what research exists (e.g. Klimmt et al, 2009) shows that player preference is for lower difficulty regardless of skills. Social games, either intentionally or not, take advantage of this apparent preference for simplicity.

Social games exploit the innate social psychological principle of gifting and reciprocity; the
make the usually implicit social maintenance and reciprocity explicit in game tokens,
capitalize upon the sense of mutual obligation and guilt for retention and repeat play

Social games potentially create a tamagotchi-like attachment to core game items (your
character, farm, creatures on farm, …).

Social games are evolving in terms of content and features – they are not static like traditional computer games

Ben Kirman, Playful Clusters in Social Games – How do people play social games?

ALSO IN MY MENDELEY under SocGamesIinterviewGinland.pdf Notes

——————————————–
another presentatio Ben Kirman,
Playful Clusters in Social Games – How do people play social games?

http://socialgamestudies.org/post/810735012/playful-clusters-motivations-and-social-structures-in

slide 16 shows a graph with power distribution of social gamers - few pips – lot of activities, lots of pips with few actibities. Same pattern is with their reach – all of those hard core plaeyrs try to reach to casual players (ask for reciprocity to a lot more pips than casual players themselves)

Cluster players as:
- The Evangelists – heavy socializers, start more soc interactions than they receive, including game requests
- the Socialites – lots of interaction with small set of pips, dont interact outside much and eyt real world relationships are not necessary. Also they ahve casual approach to the game
- The Reluctant – rarely initialtes interactions, but tries to reciprocate. Can become hard core player if has enough reasons
- The Antisocial, neither start nor respond to interactions, or at best simply respond but never initiate.

IMPORTANT CONCLUSION – GAMES SHOULD BE DESIGNED AROUND BEHAVIORS AND NOT AROUND PEOPLE (demographics)

Janne Paavilainen the SoPlay Project /Users and their Experiences in Social Games (Slides)

ALSO IN MY MENDELEY

http://socialgamestudies.org/post/810065299/users-and-their-experiences-in-social-games-slides

and

http://www.slideshare.net/Rojola/user-experiences-in-social-games-4743176

interviews with 14 Finnish people ranging from hard core to non gamers and average age 31.

divided players on

casual – who play games with short goal-oriented traditional game sessions like Bejewelled and Brain Quiz

core – classic farmville player = not much commitment to the games but plays it from time to time and wont pay

hardcore – fans might consider paying

- simple to integrate to switch – is good – faster and easier to join but create a non-real-game effect. Little of traditional immersion, allow parallel activities, something that pups do on the way to work, to fill time gaps, fight boredom.
- It is still a single player game although there are other players
- news feeds are lame and pips dont want to be spammers
- assigning roles to people is nice (my boss is my waiter)
- self-expression and pixel art is nice\
- helping strangers is captivating (neighbors)
- yet others find sociability irritating (can be easily single play)
- and yet – huge ADD ME request numbers on fan pages
- also receiving gifts is nice, better than sending. Wish Lists???? Possible/??

- fanatics take game and content seriously (worry about plants and animals, feel guilty) and make more effort (spreadsheets).
- fans value special items (Christmas or st Patrick, etc)

- gamers considered spontaneous and unplanned activity. Not all call it gaming, just an entertaining activity
- games are thematically appealing to wide audiences
- obligations to friends (they depend on you)
- make connections with friends that one does not communicate too often
- competition sucks you in
- but necessity to add friends suck – spamming, unfair
- annoying energy-based games where you need to do spamming or money loss to gain energy – quit game
- but friends is a reason to stay around

- clicking becomes boring, people want something to happen, even newcomers, but aside traditional players
- updating content does not help – change mechanics!!
- when playing is getting automatic – quitting is clear
- waste of time is felt by many and they through it away because of guilt

- tech problems include bugging, using lots of CPU, , white screens effect, but tolerance is high
- but if you payed – tolerance is very low
- often pips get useless crap of items

- paying considered as cheating
- if obliged to pay 0 just switch to free games
- if paying is made easier, perhaps I pay. Example of easy pay is apple store
-peer pressure can bring to paying
- needless to say games are designed so that paying saves time and avoid grinding

- as newcomers get tired of their first gaming experiences traditional core gamers are waiting for more complex Facebook games
- ineed games are getting more complex
= traditional game players want to see facebook as a platform for real games like world of warcraft, etc
- soc aspects will become more important, plus twitter -facebook connections will be in
- impulsive shopping is yet not there

Staffan Björk – Principles and Patterns of Social Games (Slides)

He is from Göteborg University

A definition of Play by Huizinga Homo mentions that PLAY promotes the formation for social groupings.

Also defined the GAME – by Jesper Juul – game is a rule based formal system with a variable and quantifiable outcome, where different outcomes are assigned different values and the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player feels attached to the outcome, and the consequences of the activity and optional and negotiable

Also according to Jesper Juul  – Casual games – have 5 aspects of Game desgin:

- fiction, usability, interruptibility, difficulty and punishment, Juiciness.

But know that gamers are rarely just hardcore or just casual.

At the same time stereotypical  casual players  haev low time investment,, dislikes too difficult tasks, has a low game knowledge and is positive on Fiction preference. WHILE Interviewed casual players indicated that they have high game knowledge and invest high time and consequently prefers difficulty.

Stereotyped hardcore players have high game knowledge, prefer diffecult tasks and invest lots of time. While itnerviews ones indicated that game knowledge is although high but not as high as expected, time investment is pretty low and prefers lower difficulty. Fiction Preferance is Negative (while for casual it was found positive)

Also check Jesper Juul  casual revolution book  – materials seem to be interrelated

Playfulness in Facebook applications:

- Symboluc physicality – poke, highfive
- Social spontaneity – easy to sue
- inherent sociability – motivates collaboration
- Narrativity – tells user’s stories
-Asynchronicity – no need for planned game sessions

The presentation became too hard to udnerstand – disconencted keywords – need explanation

Ami Jo Kim Presentation material Putting the Fun in Functional

http://www.slideshare.net/amyjokim/fun-in-functional-2009-presentation

What is Social Media?

- Player created content

- Social infrustructure

-Has tTools for sharing

What is game?

Formal: A system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules that results in a quantifiable outcome (from book rules of Play by Eric Zimmerman)

Iinformal: A structured experiemce with rules and goals that is fun.

Then she talks about the patterns of reinforcement covered by Rajat Talk (notes from 25 May 2011) that are variable and fixed ratios, variable and fixed intervals.

The she talks about the fact that Games engage us in the FLOW (covered by SebastianDeterding onGamification notes from 25 May) which is the proportionate balance between Skills and Challenge ( which should start from low skill and loww challenge and progress higher to high skill and high challenge).

The she talks about what is Game mechanics – the system and features that make games fun, compelling and addictive

Then she combines both and talks about GAME MECHANICS for Social Media:

COLLECTING

- collecting (impress others and brag about it) and also power of completing a set (also Rajat talks about it) “Only x more to go”

Aneta – also collecting instinct – when people like to collect and dont like to lose

POINTS

- points  by the system granted for doing something (often shared with and between friends)

- points are redeemable and therefore drive loyalty

- social points – given by other users – often create leaderboards (most viewed or highest ranked videos)

- levels like in all games – unlock new powers and mroe

FEEDBACK

- Feedback accelerates mastery and brings fun in games

- in social environments it also drives engagement (Ffacebook comments bring more comments,” likes” attract attention)

EXCHANGES

- explicit like add friend

- implicit – send a virtual gift or making a comment on something

CUSTOMIZATION

- of your avatar, or space, or interface

How is social media influencing Games?

1. Games become a lot more accessible

2. Makes services syndicated (youtube on mobile phones) or twitter and any website

Jane McGonigal’s How to Invent the Future by Playing Online Games: SuperStruct

Jane McGonigal, Director of Game Research and Development at the Institute for the Future, explores the theory behind massively multiplayer forecasting games and the design principles of her project, Superstruct. He reveals the most interesting insights from the first 10 days of live gameplay on the site.

her statistics  fo 2009  on minute 18:35 says that 65% of US households play computer and video games, 88% of youth under 18 play and 70% or large US corporations and non-profit currently train their employees with interactive games and simulations. As for teh smaller ones – 78% say that they will start within the nest five years.

Positive psychology: what humans crave:

1. Satisfying work to do
2. the experience of being good at something
3. times spent with people that we like
4. the chance to be part of something big

wiki: Dr. Elizabeth Hurlock in 1925, who designed a study where fourth, fifth and sixth graders were either praised, criticized or ignored based on their work on math problems. The study found that students who had been praised improved by 71%, those who were criticized improved only by 19%, and those who had been given no feedback improved only by 5%. This early study illustrates that praise is the most effective method of fostering improvement. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_psychology

http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2000-13324-001

So, games are better at giving those things that people require to be happy:

1. better instructions
2. better feedback
3. better community
4. better emotions

At the same time, in the age of connectivity (ubiquitous web)when everyone is exited about harnessing social surplus and getting people engaged online with useful activities (crowdsourcing Wiki, all kinds of collaboration of masses, social media and social networks). But in this new economy of engagement, the participation bandwidth is scarce commodity that we all compete for.

Say 100 million of Wikipedia creation = 5 days of World of War craft collective play.

Rajat Paharia’s Driving UserBehavior with Game Dynamics – Stanford talk

Driving User Behavior with Game Dynamics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCfUFpZUk6s&feature=related    a talk from  Stanford University

(February 19, 2010) Rajat Paharia, founder and Chief Production Officer of Bunchball, discusses participation engines and the use of game dynamics and behavioral economics to incentivize and motivate user participation on the web.

He says that in games designers leverage human desires: Rewards, Status, Competition, Self expression, Altruism. So far, many websites are not addressing those, while games do so through giving points, assigning levels, creating challrnges, giving Virtual goods, showing leader boards, giving opportunity for gifting and charity.

——————–

Section 1 Game Mechanics

He talks about the website of a TV show Dunder Mafflin  that users were motivated to create content and given some shrutbucks (points) and those arise to Levels in the community. The points can be used to buy stuff and placed on virtual display in virtual office (or other place that you chose).

The scoreboard is complicated and gives the score on many angles (including group or region, not just individual)

Espin.com – real time feedback that reinforces actions so that people do it again and again

Self-expression – is also playing part in the motivation process – pips like to customize their avatar – the customizations of items can also be earned)

Xbox – young males

Pogos – females

once you hook people to collecting – they will try, because they hate holes in their collection – in pogo – people collect badges. (check more on this)

Vista – Microsoft testing internally in game way worked really well.

Learning MS Office  with game mechanics – learn power point  features and get a ribbon (it is right on the  right top button) when you click on it you can see leader boards and get missions.

Mint.com – turning personal finance into games by giving points when one manages to save and cut on expenditure.

Nike+ – is a social challenging  experience when you see yourself compared with your friends (running real life) and also see your avatar changing.

Peer pressure is powerful – team vs team, or head vs head within teams (dont let your team down).

The Clock ticking is powerful – “this Week only!” “Finish in this amount of time...”

—————————-

Section 2 Frequency of Reinforcement

Use reinforcement schedules – how often means for people more than how much. Some reward schedule are

- fixed time intervals – just for being there

- variable interval – randomness – when we dont know when exactly it wil happen -  “should I come in 15 min or in 12?”

- fixed ratio schedules – deliver reinforcement after every Xth response

-continuous fixed ratio – reinforcement follows after EVERY response (points for each posting in forums)

- variable ratio – reinforcement after a random number of responses  – like in slot machines

———————

Section 3 Behavioral Economics

He talks about 7 dollars discount – when it is for a pen, we are willing to drive 15 minutes away to get teh discounted one, but when it is for a business suit – we will say – forget it, we are not going to drive all the way 15 minutes to get 7 dollars off.

Sso the question is – is 7 dollars worth 15 minutes drive or not? The answer is “it depends”.

Then he brought the DECOY EFFECT:

When online magazine Economist subscription advertised:

- web subscription (65$)
- paper (125$) and
- web+paper ($125).

80 people selected web+paper and 18 – web subscription.

When the option was only
-web + print
- web
68 people chose web, and only 32 – the paper one.

In other words – conclusion is – whenever you can give options that are a bit worse, at the same price, then the better option will look even better:

- “pay for Spain trip” / “pay for Spain trip but not for your coffee” /” pay for Italy trip”——  people will chose” pay for Spain trip” more often.

ANCHORING effect

Anchoring people to numbers – credit card companies put minimum pay amount so that people actually dont pay more and stay owning something. While if you remove that min pay – people will pay more.

Or effect of Free!!! see the difference in people’s behavior:

versus

And so, while most items have good and bad sides, when it is Free we forget about the downside. And Humans are afraid of Loss and when it is free – there is no loss=> there is no risk of making the wrong decision. And I, Aneta also think about cut of physical  and time efforts ( getting the purse, looking for money, paying) is replaced by 1 grabbing action.

Here is an experiment that shows the power of fear of loss: 

this is true even with Monkeys. This is also what is behind the Farmville fear of loss of investment.

Reciprocity

There is a a strong social disapproval when you don’t show reciprocity.

When someone owns us something – he often hates this feeling and feels obligated to compromise something for you. (return gifts to your friends on Farmville)

Also, once we make a commitment (Can you watch my stuff? Yes), we really follow up.

Example: A toy company made limited number of Zuzu birds, and when parents promised those to their kids and the toys were not available they got kids soemthing else. A few months later those Zuzu birds became widely available and kids got those too.

Agreeing to one thing increases chance that you will agree to more.- Put I am supporting Environment sign might actually get you to donate money to the cause later on.

Hooking people up and letting them build plans around the items that you sell them is great because even if later you say you cant sell it for the older price, they will still buy it for the new higher price because they have already planned the item in their existence(car deal is off but after you have made a decision that you buy it, so you buy it anyway for higher price).

Social proof and social norms – if others did it then I should do it too.

i.e. Tip Jar – if it has money people are more motivated to give too.

A tricky example – old lady who got sick on the street and noone did anything.  But that is not because they are cruel, it is just that they did not have examples of other’s . So, the old lady simply had to call for specific action (call 911!) or whatever else.

Experiment in a Hotel – when there was a message “75% of people in this room REUSED their towels” – the reuse of towels increased dramatically in that room (building a community across time ))) )

Electricity usage – when people were given opportunity to see how their neighbors are doing (similar house size and household) – they actually felt like in a game and were reducing their energy use.

Scarcity of resources – people hate not having choices, therefore announced scarcity drives sales (buy Cinderella film now, cuz it will be locked for next 7 years).

Recommended reading:

Influence by Robert Caldini / Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely / Freakonomics  – Steven Levitt / Cognitive Biases – Wikipedia / Total Engagement – Byron Reeves / Changing the Game – David Edery

Chapter on Instincts

From http://www.psyplexus.com/betts/14.htm

Instincts Are Racial Habits.—Instincts are the habits of the race which it bequeaths to the individual; the individual takes these for his start, and then modifies them through education, and thus adapts himself to his environment.

Instincts to Be Utilized When They Appear.
The child whom the pressure of circumstances or unwise authority of parents keeps from mingling with playmates and participating in their plays and games when the social instinct is strong upon him, will in later life find himself a hopeless recluse to whom social duties are a bore.

Instincts as Starting Points.—Most of our habits have their rise in instincts, and all desirable instincts should be seized upon and transformed into habits before they fade away.
here is a happy moment for fixing skill in drawing, for making boys collectors in natural history, and presently dissectors and botanists;

The More Important Human Instincts:
ucking, biting, chewing, clasping objects with the fingers, carrying to the mouth, crying, smiling, sitting up, standing, locomotion, vocalization, imitation, emulation, pugnacity, resentment, anger, sympathy, hunting and fighting, fear, acquisitiveness, play, curiosity, sociability, modesty, secretiveness, shame, love, and jealousy.

The keynote of play is freedom, freedom of physical activity, and mental initiative. In play the child makes his own plans, his imagination has free rein, originality is in demand, and constructive ability is placed under tribute. Here are developed a thousand tendencies which would never find expression in the narrow treadmill of labor alone. The child needs to learn to work; but along with his work must be the opportunity for free and unrestricted activity, which can come only through play.

Work and Play Are Complements.—Work cannot take the place of play, neither can play be substituted for work.it is not the name or character of an activity which determines whether it is play for the participant, but his attitude toward the activity. if it is his, and not someone’s else—then the activity possesses the chief characteristics of play. Lacking these, it cannot be play, whatever else it may be.

Curiosity.—It is inherent in every normal person to want to investigate and know. Imagine the impossible task of teaching children what they had no desire or inclination to know! ndeed one of the greatest problems of education is to keep curiosity alive and fresh so that its compelling influence may promote effort and action.

Manipulation.—This is the rather unsatisfactory name for the universal tendency to handle, do or make something. Even as adults we are moved by a desire to express ourselves through making or creating that which will represent our ingenuity and skill.

The Collecting Instinct.—The words my and mine enter the child’s vocabulary at a very early age. The sense of property ownership and the impulse to make collections of various kinds go hand in hand. The collecting instinct and the impulse to ownership can be made important agents in the school.

The Dramatic Instinct.—Every person is, at one stage of his development, something of an actor. All children like to “dress up” and impersonate someone else—in proof of which, witness the many play scenes in which the character of nurse, doctor, pirate, teacher, merchant or explorer …

The Impulse to Form Gangs and Clubs.—Few boys and girls grow up without belonging at some time to a secret gang, club or society. Usually this impulse grows out of two different instincts, the social and the adventurous. It is fundamental in our natures to wish to be with our kind—not only our human kind, but those of the same age, interests and ambitions.

Fear Heredity.—The fears of childhood “are remembered at every
step,” and so are the fears through which the race has passed.
Fear of the Dark.
Fear of Being Left Alone.
Selfishness.—All children, and perhaps all adults, are selfish.
he problem in education is so to balance selfishness and greed with unselfishness and generosity that each serves as a check and a balance to the other. Not elimination but equilibrium is to be our watchword.

Pugnacity, or the Fighting Impulse.—Almost every normal child is a natural fighter, just as every adult should possess the spirit of conquest.

Sebastian Deterding on Gamification and Mihály Csíkszentmihályi’s flow theory

you have to wrap the activities around personal goals of people (their interests and goals and passions) so that it connects in meaninful way to their everyday life.. in a community where one cares about those things.

ALSO he gave reference to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_%28psychology%29 psychology of optimal exprience flow by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, where they define  a good positive experience:

Components of flow

1. Clear goals (expectations and rules are discernible and goals are attainable and align appropriately with one’s skill set and abilities). Moreover, the challenge level and skill level should both be high.^[5]
2. Concentrating, a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention (a person engaged in the activity will have the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it).
3. A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness.
4. Distorted sense of time, one’s subjective experience of time is altered.
5. Direct and immediate feedback (successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed).
6. Balance between ability level and challenge (the activity is neither too easy nor too difficult).
7. A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.
8. The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action.
9. A lack of awareness of bodily needs (to the extent that one can reach a point of great hunger or fatigue without realizing it)
10. Absorption into the activity, narrowing of the focus of awareness down to the activity itself, action awareness merging.

[edit] Conditions for flow

1. One must be involved in an activity with a clear set of goals. This adds direction and structure to the task.^[9]
2. One must have a good balance between the perceived challenges of the task at hand and his or her own perceived skills. One must have confidence that he or she is capable to do the task at hand.^[9]
3. The task at hand must have clear and immediate feedback. This helps the person negotiate any changing demands and allows him or her to adjust his or her performance to maintain the flow state.^[9]

In 1997, Csíkszentmihályi published the graph to the right http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_%28psychology%29 where on Y axis there is  challenge level and on x axis there is skill level and the FLOW happens when both are high. And when both are low there is Apathy, Other variations bring to Bboredon, relaxation, control, etc etc ANYWAY CHECK AND TRY TO PLACE GAMES ACCORDING TO THIS TABLE.
where we are not udner or over challenged  – that is the perfect state of FLOW.

- This guy says that the difficuly should be rising but in fluctuating thing, so that once you reached certain difficulty then you can harvest on the feeling of it as they give you easier thing that you manage but you feel like you manage because you have learned. Then they bring a difficulty again.

- But try to give juicy feedback – so that they person feels very proud of his achievement (like that game that i played with music and flowing objects – they gave very positive juicy feedback)

But beware of emergent behavior – exploiting the system if you create anything that is worthwhile – (cheating and tricks that people find) so make sure that you encuorage only the right behavior and not the wrong one. And test as if you are the person who wants to reach teh goal no matter what.

- Try ti variate badges or rather what people have to do to gain them… the difference in badges should be not just the number of tasks that they did but the variety and complexity of those (jump, shoot while jump)

- Clearly present goals and chunk them in smaller goals (clear flow of tasks) so that people had clear idea (of where they are and what it is for)

- Another important thing is about making things voluntary (dont send a message please do it because otherwise you wont do it – TomSowyer and White Fence effect). This way you might also devalue your product (especially if you promise to pay money).
Then also, beware of Curbing  Autonomy through control – don’t attach if-then rewards – cuz this also demotivates them – they feel you control them.
It migth help in promo but not in gamification of the thing. Although rewards can work or at least – not damage if users percieve them as optional and feel freedom to or not to use them.
So, you can give informational feedback – if you dont do it then your next best step is this and that (Mint.com on financial planning). And rewards if any should rather be unexpected so that people could not track cause-andoutcome relation.

So, to make advantage of above advices:
- Getting things right is – design process not a list of features. He advices to look at board games – cuz those are close at gamificatinos.
- Know your users. He gave example of fanlib.com who had ads involving males and encouraging competition through sweepstakes and the website went down because they found out that major users were females and they cared about sharing and mutual support, collaboration.
- play paper prototype -  and do quantitive feedback to see how easy are levels or if they are exploits…

Hello world!

Welcome to Blog.com.

This is your first post, produced automatically by Blog.com. You should edit or delete it, and then start blogging!