To be honest, I'm writing this because prof ben emailed us saying we owe him blog entries.
Well.. To be very honest, I didn't really have a very strong impression on the external pitching session.
There are some lessons that I've learnt though.
First off, you don't always need to know what you want, but you should have at least a rough idea. There was some guy that wanted us to build a sims cities app, with no details and too much room for things to go wrong.
Next up, the idea is awesome, but its only occasionally useful. Jace(beleren, hohoho) has an awesome idea. I loved it. I mean, 1 week every semester I have to go through tons of stats to find out when I should bid for what modules, who are the lecturers, then I would have to research on the lecturers and the past lesson plans. It would be wonderful to have a site that did all this for me. However, the site would be only useful once every semester, which was a HUGE problem since most websites thrive on ads, and ads will only come if you have hits.
Personally, I feel that this is an idea with massive potential, just off the top of my head, I will setup the site so that it is endorsed by the school itself. Secondly, I will want it to review not only modules, but also lecturers, since I feel the content doesnt really matter, but the approach to which it was taught does(I have AlOT to say about a certain OS lecturer). To make users come back more often, schools that are affiliated to the site will automatically update the system with their lecturers and modules, students(who sign in with matric no) should be able to give feedback(read: whine) at any time without retribution. Lecturers should also be able to sign in with their accounts, but they will not be able to see any reviews that users set to private.
Lesson 3, always show people the good side of the picture. 6 waves claim they have 11 million monthly users, that is however, spread between a dozen games of 300-600k users each. Exactly how many of these are repeat users are not known, so the exact numbers should actually be far less impressive. But obviously whoever you're selling it to doesnt need to know the details :p
Thats all for now.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
GetHelp?
Its been a week or two since I last blogged, being bogged down by the final project(YES, the final project), NM3216, and various other modules I lagging behind in(read: all other modules).
So then only an hour ago when yecheng asked me if I've written my case study on gethelp, did I realize I actually have more work from cs3216 than I could imagine.
So onto getHelp, my first impression after reading through the case study is that its really similar to spreadem, the facebook app I built for the the first assignment. The first thing that comes to mind is the profile page. The aim of the app is for the user to come back as often as possible, and placing the "new projects" page at the start of the page will encourage users to only come whenever they have a need, and not to come on every now and then to view new 'gethelp' requests.
The next issue I see is in overviews page, like I said, this should be the first page users see each time they log on. Also, by placing award receivers on the overviews page, there's a risk that it gets clogged up by receivers, thereby masking out the help requests.
When creating a new project, the "call for help" button is situated in the top right hand side, by the form. In this case, it is not intuitive to have the textbox there because in most cases users will want to add more details with regards to what they need. This page should be modified so that the "call for help" button is after all the options, so that the user can at least make sure he didn't miss out anything.
In the individual needs page, the layout makes it rather casual, most users who are looking for help should be rather urgent or serious, yet the layout doesn't reflect how desperate they are, nor are there enough space for users to give more details, suppose I need to learn how to build a server that supports 200 people for a multiplayer game(I actually do), I will need to give way more information than the space actually allows.
Next, the referral system, this, I'm guessing, will allow users that can see the project and send referrals to others. However, this is limiting the possibilities for collaboration, suppose I get a request for help, one that I cannot assist with. Now it should be obvious that I will want to refer someone else. But with 4-500 friends it can be REALLY hard to know what EVERYONE is good with. It will be much much more efficient so send that request to everyone, and even if they don't know how to help, they can FURTHER pass down the request to all their friends.
UI wise, at the bottom of the new projects page, there's a list of SQL code which really isn't supposed to be there, should be some weird bug or just for testing purposes. Also, the slanted icons look nice, but the texts should be horizontal at least, increase with the readability.The helpers and probables should be collapsable, since the list might be very long if the project is rather popular.
Lastly, to really maximize facebook, users should have the opportunity to view all the (unresolved)requests and help people that he didn't in the first place. Hence, in the overviews page, there should be a "view latest" which shows all the new requests provided by ALL the users, instead just that of his friends. By association there should also be a search so users can look for similar help requests or just to look for something within his expertise so he can continue gaining badges.
So then only an hour ago when yecheng asked me if I've written my case study on gethelp, did I realize I actually have more work from cs3216 than I could imagine.
So onto getHelp, my first impression after reading through the case study is that its really similar to spreadem, the facebook app I built for the the first assignment. The first thing that comes to mind is the profile page. The aim of the app is for the user to come back as often as possible, and placing the "new projects" page at the start of the page will encourage users to only come whenever they have a need, and not to come on every now and then to view new 'gethelp' requests.
The next issue I see is in overviews page, like I said, this should be the first page users see each time they log on. Also, by placing award receivers on the overviews page, there's a risk that it gets clogged up by receivers, thereby masking out the help requests.
When creating a new project, the "call for help" button is situated in the top right hand side, by the form. In this case, it is not intuitive to have the textbox there because in most cases users will want to add more details with regards to what they need. This page should be modified so that the "call for help" button is after all the options, so that the user can at least make sure he didn't miss out anything.
In the individual needs page, the layout makes it rather casual, most users who are looking for help should be rather urgent or serious, yet the layout doesn't reflect how desperate they are, nor are there enough space for users to give more details, suppose I need to learn how to build a server that supports 200 people for a multiplayer game(I actually do), I will need to give way more information than the space actually allows.
Next, the referral system, this, I'm guessing, will allow users that can see the project and send referrals to others. However, this is limiting the possibilities for collaboration, suppose I get a request for help, one that I cannot assist with. Now it should be obvious that I will want to refer someone else. But with 4-500 friends it can be REALLY hard to know what EVERYONE is good with. It will be much much more efficient so send that request to everyone, and even if they don't know how to help, they can FURTHER pass down the request to all their friends.
UI wise, at the bottom of the new projects page, there's a list of SQL code which really isn't supposed to be there, should be some weird bug or just for testing purposes. Also, the slanted icons look nice, but the texts should be horizontal at least, increase with the readability.The helpers and probables should be collapsable, since the list might be very long if the project is rather popular.
Lastly, to really maximize facebook, users should have the opportunity to view all the (unresolved)requests and help people that he didn't in the first place. Hence, in the overviews page, there should be a "view latest" which shows all the new requests provided by ALL the users, instead just that of his friends. By association there should also be a search so users can look for similar help requests or just to look for something within his expertise so he can continue gaining badges.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Mafia Warz
I had a strange feeling I'll be doing critique on mafia wars while Jiwei's video was running, I guess thats +1 for prediction markets working.
On to the app, from someone that aims to design games, this thing is crap.
No, seriously, it really really sucks.
It's mechanics are almost non-existent, there is little-to-no strategizing involved, everything is just point and click.
The game dynamics are worse, its just do this, invite friends, do that, level up. There's little variation from level 1 to level (Arbitrary Large Number) except the number of friends that one needs. I remember when I wrote my application for 3216, I said most apps on facebook have minimum user interaction, both between the game and between players, meaning all you need to do is repeat very similar tasks day-in day-out in order to progress. Mafia wars is the very representation of that.
But why is it still attracting 24 million users monthly?
First, most people use facebook when they're bored or tired of work, they need something to take their minds off whatever they were doing, mafia wars lets them do that. Its simple(really simple), its instant gratification and it doesn't require a huge amount of time commitment(per use). Players can log on, do a few things, level up and go back to whatever they were doing. And most importantly, it never ends.
Secondly, the idea of being a mafia lord is very enticing to most people. For adults, these fantasies were planted by movies like Godfather and 上海滩(coast of shanghai, mob movie by Chao Yun Fat) since young. For youngsters, its games like GTA and serials like The Sopranos. Mafia wars provides it users an illusion of being a mafia lord, it gives them an avenue to imagine. By having no graphics, no effects etc. users have to rely on their imagination to 'fill in' what they did. This is the same as other 'imagine games' like farming and opening a cafe, prying on the busy daily lives of people nowadays and giving them an escape.
Thirdly, peer pressure, when 10-15 friends throw mafia wars invite on you, its hard NOT to join, and once you join, you are again given the illusion of socializing, of playing the game together with your friends. When in actual fact there is minimal socializing going on. This pyramid scheme style of recruiting new players is downright dirty, since it 'forces' players to recruit new players in order to advance, and the sad thing is that players just do so in order to play the game.
On a side note to the lead generation fiasco. While Zynga is very very dirty and full of fertilizers, you have ONLY yourself to blame if you get scammed.
To quote my guild leader "No amount of internet security will solve the gaping security breach sitting in front of the monitor"
And guess what, that is one thing that ISNT taught in school. We're taught to never take candy from a stranger, but we're not taught to NOT click on the link that says "CONGRATS!! YOU ARE OUR 999999th VISITOR".
Lastly, there still doest seem to be a defining authority on internet scamming, if I rob some Scottish in Scotland, chances are good I'll be sentenced by Scotland local court. But if I scam a Scot? Too bad, you stupid Scottish!(I sincerely hope no one here has an affiliation with any Scots). Now we have to trust the facebook authorities to take care of what are scams and what are not, but who is facebook to decide when they have their own apps, their own adds, who do we complain to when we get scammed by facebook??
p.s. To answer prof Ben's statement of "Flixster not exactly a facebook app". I think, its rather much more than a normal facebook app. Compare it to marketplace, one lists items people want to sell, the other lists movies. Not too different right?
Also, lets just consider that flixster.com did not exist before facebook, the current flixster app would've been great right, you can connect with friends, organize outings, write reviews, create quizzes etc. Which is what most other non-game apps do as well.
On to the app, from someone that aims to design games, this thing is crap.
No, seriously, it really really sucks.
It's mechanics are almost non-existent, there is little-to-no strategizing involved, everything is just point and click.
The game dynamics are worse, its just do this, invite friends, do that, level up. There's little variation from level 1 to level (Arbitrary Large Number) except the number of friends that one needs. I remember when I wrote my application for 3216, I said most apps on facebook have minimum user interaction, both between the game and between players, meaning all you need to do is repeat very similar tasks day-in day-out in order to progress. Mafia wars is the very representation of that.
But why is it still attracting 24 million users monthly?
First, most people use facebook when they're bored or tired of work, they need something to take their minds off whatever they were doing, mafia wars lets them do that. Its simple(really simple), its instant gratification and it doesn't require a huge amount of time commitment(per use). Players can log on, do a few things, level up and go back to whatever they were doing. And most importantly, it never ends.
Secondly, the idea of being a mafia lord is very enticing to most people. For adults, these fantasies were planted by movies like Godfather and 上海滩(coast of shanghai, mob movie by Chao Yun Fat) since young. For youngsters, its games like GTA and serials like The Sopranos. Mafia wars provides it users an illusion of being a mafia lord, it gives them an avenue to imagine. By having no graphics, no effects etc. users have to rely on their imagination to 'fill in' what they did. This is the same as other 'imagine games' like farming and opening a cafe, prying on the busy daily lives of people nowadays and giving them an escape.
Thirdly, peer pressure, when 10-15 friends throw mafia wars invite on you, its hard NOT to join, and once you join, you are again given the illusion of socializing, of playing the game together with your friends. When in actual fact there is minimal socializing going on. This pyramid scheme style of recruiting new players is downright dirty, since it 'forces' players to recruit new players in order to advance, and the sad thing is that players just do so in order to play the game.
On a side note to the lead generation fiasco. While Zynga is very very dirty and full of fertilizers, you have ONLY yourself to blame if you get scammed.
To quote my guild leader "No amount of internet security will solve the gaping security breach sitting in front of the monitor"
And guess what, that is one thing that ISNT taught in school. We're taught to never take candy from a stranger, but we're not taught to NOT click on the link that says "CONGRATS!! YOU ARE OUR 999999th VISITOR".
Lastly, there still doest seem to be a defining authority on internet scamming, if I rob some Scottish in Scotland, chances are good I'll be sentenced by Scotland local court. But if I scam a Scot? Too bad, you stupid Scottish!(I sincerely hope no one here has an affiliation with any Scots). Now we have to trust the facebook authorities to take care of what are scams and what are not, but who is facebook to decide when they have their own apps, their own adds, who do we complain to when we get scammed by facebook??
p.s. To answer prof Ben's statement of "Flixster not exactly a facebook app". I think, its rather much more than a normal facebook app. Compare it to marketplace, one lists items people want to sell, the other lists movies. Not too different right?
Also, lets just consider that flixster.com did not exist before facebook, the current flixster app would've been great right, you can connect with friends, organize outings, write reviews, create quizzes etc. Which is what most other non-game apps do as well.
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