The Game of Life: Making Social Networks Fun
Over the course of a long career in and around videogames, one of my deepest passions has been to engender an ‘interactive experience’ that would engage not just the geeky types that have made World of Warcraft a billion dollar business but everyone- both gamers and non-gamers alike.
At EA, we referred to this effort as the Holy Grail of gaming… [John Riccitiello’s recent pronouncements at EA that their games are too complicated and difficult to play are an example of both the hope and challenge of attaining this elusive milestone.]
The game-inspired aspect of Fuego Nation online showcases a highly engaging and interactive experience with a core play dynamic, ubiquitous reward/feedback system and utility that were universally intuited (both by region and age). The seeds of addiction sown by the control mechanics would be founded on the premise of status (one of the key motivators in all off our lives everywhere in the world).
In other words, in Fuego Nation, while members ‘apply’ to get in and whereas admission is based on a democratic vote of one’s peers (similar to the Digg model) through a combination of viral participation in the community and profile voting/enhancement members can elevate their status to VIP levels and beyond. ‘Leveling up’ results in not only unlocked core functionality but better product opportunities from our luxury/lifestyle ad sponsors.
The utility would be grounded in core communication functionality that would be more advanced than any other social network and eventually would be used by Members as a hub for all of their contact-based communication (web and mobile). So, as their status leveled, Members would be motivated to sustain participation via the quality of communication technology and the promise of high ’signal to noise’ connections (be they personal or professional in nature).
If successful here, then users would not have to scurry to multiple sites to manage multiple contact types (as is the protocol now). Furthermore, we refer to our ‘Face the Nation’ interface as ‘The Game of Life.’ Just as in real life, when we interact with anyone new, we begin to make judgments based on a very limited set of information. This is reflected in the Passion Cards in our interface (which are abstracts of a full profile and look like baseball trading cards). In other words, the ‘game’ one must play to get into the exclusive community is a direct reflection of real life (only set in a digital universe). And while our target audience may be Gen X adults, the core principals of ‘a community of human excellence and endeavor’ works well reset for other age groups, etc. (e.g. Fuego Nation Kids).
I’ve always struggled with the concept of avatars in online gaming because the nature of the ‘avatar’ conceptually and psychologically is inherently niche oriented (e.g. not mass market). In Fuego Nation, we create the capability, using RIA tech from Adobe and Microsoft to create ‘real-life avatars’- that is photo/video-realistic representations of our core with graphical depictions set in our virtual environment. For example, on the Leaderboard section (which will evolve into FN search over time), depicted members might have floating icons above their heads (photos) indicating their primary passion. They can then change these passion icons as their mood, focus, and intensity changes (on whatever time basis). They will also be able to change those ’status indicators’ remotely via their mobile phones. So while I may have a skiing icon during the winter months, I might change that to a climbing graphic which is my preferred activity in the spring. Then a user can initiate a search based on primary motivator/passion by simply clicking on that icon. The Leaderboard then resets with only those Members that share the same passion at that specific time.
The end result is a dynamic, addictive and compelling social experience that simulates the richness of more traditionally geeky fantasy role playing environments in a way that is accessible and meaningful to a mass audience.
