Social Media and Games

Thinking about the final project, I recall that for my project my group created a tool meant to be used by people who were interested in doing environmental work. I remember someone in the class asking what was the incentive for using the program, and I told them that if someone is using something like [...]

Before reading Clay Shirky and taking this class (still taking the class), I never really thought much about the impact and power of social media. I too have not been a huge fan of social media games like Farmville and have yet to utilize Facebook everyday (check my status, updates, profile, etc.) or make a [...]

@ Actually, I’m a number   large social sites can certainly help give new up-and-coming sites the "bump", but on the other hand, a site like 4Chan has ruined just as many sites, and lives as it has…well…they rarely help anyone so yeah. Even when they make another site or event more popular they are usually the [...]

That is a good point everyone is making about the predictability of a games success verse new social tools.  The fact games have a similar history or pattern allows us to look at what is working and use the things in them to create new variations of success from them.  In most cases games are [...]

reigun – I agree about the YouTube community and the comments that are left behind by the participants of the site. Although many comments are simply bashing other people's comments, there are actually some comments that are worth noting and appreciating. I guess it depends on what kind of video you are delivering to the public, [...]

@phermeus, I have to agree with you that before this class and reading Cognitive Surplus I did not think very highly of social media and like you when I thought of social media Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter were what I thought of. I avoided joining any of those sites for the longest time and even after [...]

This is in regards to Clay Shirky and the example given in the book about intrinsic and extrinsic rewards and how they change motivation so dramatically. I never really thought about the idea much until I read about this experiment (placing people inside a room to solve a puzzle that they have to figure out). [...]

@Actually, I’m a number I wouldn't be so quick to discount Yotube comments. Pointless as most may be (why do so many descend into political debates?), I believe that the critque on youtube comes in a manner of quantity rather that quality. I know from my own experience that having lots of people view your [...]

@Luna, @ endorox, I agree with Endorox that we started designing My Avatar with Cognitive Surplus in mind. I also agree with Luna that after reading the rest of the book that there is definately room for improvement. Im up for working on My Avatar as well for the final as well.

In terms of a final project, I was considering fleshing out the idea of Elysium, where players can create their own characters, battle eachother, and go through unlockable missions that stimulate a learning experience. The character creation will involve players thinking of unique avatar names for themselves, creating a background story, figuring out what predetermined [...]

And now the thing I came here for… Paper with interesting implication for success or failure of social sites. "Estimating the Helpfulness and Economic Impact of Product Reviews: Mining Text and Reviewer Characteristics" http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1261751 The paper shows that the quality of writing in reviews affects the success of the products being reviewed more than the [...]

@captainbob I agree with the other 2 reactions…(@ endorox and @ reigun Predictability gets much less reliable when you move to something truly "new" as opposed to a variation on existing themes. I was working at EA when the fist Sims was under production. I and everyone else thought "who the hell is going to pay for [...]

More about tools and Clat Shirky. I believe that the Feed can be used as a great example of why it is hard to predict the uses of a tool. The feed may have started out as an educationa device but the uses for a tool must be very limited to be predictable. Since the [...]

@elbowz  I thin k is basically what we did for the midterm but it could be the game we already made just less of a prototype and more of a real functioning game. Correct me if im wrong but i beleive that that is what @Anastasia said was ok to do.

@ draenix389 I beleive that people are not paradoxes. Emotions dont always conflict with rationality. Human are predictable because how how they act in groups. Some people like to think their is an element of suprize in people but most predictions acount for the "5%" theory most used in physics and DnD. No matter how certian you [...]

@captainbob I believe it is a little of both. Technology is wildly unpredictible because humans are wildly unpredictible. You can never truly guess what uses people will come up with for something you create. To use a common example, I'm sure that when Mark Zukerburg decided to create a website to allow college students to talk [...]

In responce to @ captainbob s comment about the humor in determining how successful a game will be vs a tool. Tools need to usually serve a NEW specific purpose while a game does not. This does not mean that games do not serve a purpose persay but just not in the sense that a tool does. [...]