Social Software 4 x 4 : 3.9.08

1. What I did last week:

I formatted the screen layout (what info goes where), which in turn helped to clarify some aspects of the user interaction process.  Figured out some of the remaining gameplay (high scores displayed by username, not on rap-by-rap basis).  Thought about how to get people to use it.  Set up a test server space to begin programming.

2. What I intend to do this week:

Organize a group to paper prototype the gameplay – free beer?  The goal is to figure out what will make people want to participate, which right now seems to be the big question.  Make changes to the design based on the observations.

3.  Concerns or unexpected obstacles:

Obviously, I am concerned about solving the motivation question.  My other serious concern is whether I can complete this assignment and my thesis at the same time.

4.  Recent insights or surprises:

Getting people excited about a game on the internet is hard.   Surprisingly hard.

The Gestalt for the upcoming RH games page

For the RapHappy.com games page:

1. create handle

2. play a game

3. receive feedback (message, score, etc.)

If course, within the actual games the gestalt might be much more complex and varied, depending upon the game. But I think for any of the games to be meaningful, there must be persistence of identity (high scores become hard to track otherwise…), some sotr of actual gameplay interaction, and some sort of feedback to keep the user interested (scores, messages, whatever the gameplay imples).

Social Software Week 1

Short Description: To add a gaming page to RapHappy.com, using the social aspects of the site to enhance the gaming experience.

1. Three Sites or services that have something in common with RapHappy:

Dopetracks.com – Another social networking site which allows users to record audio from their computers over music.

kSolo.com – A karaoke site which encourages social interaction by voting/rating, duets, and inviting friends.

myspace music – Allows users to host a profile and put original songs up for others to listen and respond to.

2. Three things that I hope users do with my project:

Use it. If no one uses it, does it really exist?

Have fun – RapHappy is irreverant and funny, (at least it’s supposed to be) and games are supposed to be fun, so if users do not have fun with the games, they are most likely a failure.

Be creative – One of the wonderful things about social games is that people may use them in unexpected ways. I hope to see some ingenuity from the community in their usage of the games.

3. Three things that could go wrong:

The interaction is unappealing, boring, repetitive, etc.

The concept itself of having games on a sites such as RapHappy is misguided and is not something that users will respond to.

The games page does not make good usage of the social aspects of the site, or of the information we have about the user.