IRL Web Plugin

[Peter Mosur]

As mentioned in the newest post over at Internet-Response-League.com, we are looking for some sort of way in which to simply incorporate disaster tagging work into video games. The post goes through the basic requirements which to recap are as follows:


A) Notify players when there is a disaster occurring and ask them if they would like to help out.
B) Create an ‘area’ for gamers to be able to tag disaster photos.
C) Ask players to sign-up/login in order to receive rewards.

The pictures which give visual examples of what this could possibly look like in game, but in the end that will be left to the discretion of the game developers. 

What we want to focus on now is the technical aspect of this, which can get a bit tricky (or be very simple actually). The reason why I say that it could be very simple, is because all that really needs to happen is 1) We send URL links of instagram photos to games and 2) They send us back a spreadsheet containing the links along with the associated tagging info. This however would put more work on the side of the individual game developers, having to create ui's in their games to display the instagram photos, etc. Alternatively, we could develop an IRL web-app that would encapsulate this process, which then game developers could simply port into their games.


So the purpose of this post is to find out what you guys think! Please, any ideas, thoughts, or comments are more than welcome!

[mad_cat]

My first thought is to target video games with in-game browsers, such as Eve Online.  This might help make it a little easier to implement at first, until something more substantial can be setup by CCP.

I think part of the perception is that we are looking at video games, more specifically MMO games.  It's a good idea, but we are looking at games like Rift, World of Warcraft, The Old Republic, Star Trek Online.  There are a number of browser based MMO games, and we may want to look into those as well.

Now you are right that the initial problems for major MMO's is that it is extra work for the developers to implement, and to create a section of their game to allow.  There is also the question of if they can implement it based on the way they built the game.  My overall concern with this idea, which I will say it has merit and we should move forward with it, is that I play video games to escape reality.  So to come into the game and be shown disaster photos, would bum me out.  And that is a hurdle for the long term we would need to overcome.


That's my thoughts for now.

[Peter Mosur]

Hey mad_cat,

Thanks for the input!

I didn't know Eve Online has an in-game browser. I took a look and it seems like a pretty neat feature. They say that they don't allow plugins, but what we have so far is in javascript, so it may work. We tried contacting CCP games, but to no avail. It would be great to have them work with us on this project!

Employing browser based MMOS is great idea. It will would definitely be a natural fit since the game could simply open up a new browser tab with the IRL plugin on it. Personally I never looked into browser based games, so I don't really know anything about them. Would you know which browser based MMO that is the most popular on that list? Or possible a company to contact? I'll do some research on my own as well!

Also, while you say that many people play to escape reality, there are also a good number of people who may play games to relax and be with friends. I definitely agree that looking at disaster photos would get anyone down, but I guess it comes down to the willingness of the participant to help. Volunteering in most cases isn't easy, and simply looking at depressing pictures would probably count as one of the easier ways to do so. Plus we want to reward people for doing it, so there will be a game-focused initiative. Even a small percentage of gamers helping out would be a huge help! 

[mad_cat]

I will need to speak to my business partner about this, browser based games are more his field.  I can tell you ogame is a big one, and Battlestar Galatica Online.

I can definitely agree that even a percentage of people would still be a big help, I am the sort of person that I want to make sure we are on the same page and not hide my thoughts.  So, I mention something like that because it is on my mind, and since I don't really know anyone in this group, I feel compelled to bring it up.  I do think that at first it will be difficult to get games involved into this, but starting small and building up from there is probably the best approach anyways.  Starting big and trying to get bigger would likely break us before we could do any real good.

[Peter Mosur]

Thanks, I will check out those games!

At this moment we are trying to find any game platforms to test this out. I'm not sure why you say bigger would break us; more testers would give us more results if anything! Maybe you could elaborate on why it would break us?

[mad_cat]

Pretend we get exactly what we want and we get the Major MMO's, WoW, Eve Online, Rift, SWTOR, Secret World, and whoever else we desire.  Not only did we get this, but we get this support tomorrow.  That is a lot of overhead and with the volunteers we have now, it would be a big challenge to try to get anything done.  With all that work and so few to do it, we would likely fail.  I'm not talking about testers, I am talking about doing the work to get there.  Not only would we need something to work on all the platforms, we need to be able to debug it if anything goes wrong and try to test why it is.  Anyone who has done any sort of debugging in programming understand this, it is just what needs to be done.  But doing it on a large scale when our resources so low, will hurt us.  Plus, there will be a high expectation for us to perform so we maintain all these "clients", and they will want things done their way.  And that adds a new level of stress.

Now, if tomorrow, we only get WoW, which would be ideal; it would be a lot of work, but we can do it even with a handful of volunteers.  Plus, this will help us fine tune the product and it will be easier to work with a single client and their demands, and by showing the success of that product for WoW, we can get more volunteers and get other games interested.  Now these are just rough examples, and you need to look at the spirit of what I'm saying.  Giving a person or a group more work they can handle, will be stressful, and this being volunteer work, may cause us to lose numbers.  Starting off small, such as a single client, may help us evolve at a steady rate rather than taking on a multitude of clients and increasing our chances of failure.

Certainly the adage can be true, the more the merrier, but also the adage, bite off more than you can chew.

[Peter Mosur]

I definitely agree that there is a breaking point. However, considering how something like had never been tried before, who knows where it is. Additionally, we hope that prospective game developers would offer up a bit of their own resources to help implement IRL. I know it's assuming, but this would allow them to control it so  that it fits the most naturally into their games. Also do you think they would really just allow us to mess around in their games engines unsupervised?

Either way though, if get bombarded with even a few requests, the pressure would most definitely be on. Patrick and I have talked about this idea before and one solution we came up with is to start a kickstarter campaign. Suppose we get three game developers on board tomorrow and we need programmers ASAP. We would start a kickstarter that would aim to fund programers to work for us in implementing IRL with these game developers. We would need to find programmers, which hopefully won't be difficult (A few have already emailed us offering services). Additionally we would quickly need to advertise this kickstarter campaign. We believe that we will be able to find backers since people have already offered to donate money (thinking up rewards would may be challenge though).

This idea we actually thought of originally to fund graphic artists in creating IRL-themed armor in the future. However if the need to implement our plugin come quickly and overwhelmingly, this I feel is a solid option. Now don't get me wrong, I realize that this would be way more difficult than I seem to make it sound, kickstarter can yield very mixed results. What do you think about the idea?

The only other option would be to put together a team on-call volunteer programmers, which while it is possible, would take much longer I believe, the problem being three major companies contacting us overnight.

One other solution is to simply be upfront about our situation with game developers. No need to sign everyone on-board when we clearly don't have the capacity. We could let them know that this is still in beta and that as soon as we get a working final version ready that we will be able to work with them in implementing this into their games.

[Patrick Meier (iRevolution)]

Hi All,

Just to add my two cents: we need to walk before we can run. I'd be perfectly happy with just having one gaming partner to begin with and going through the process with them. Even with just one partner company, the result would be significant with respect to leverage additional "surge capacity" to tag disaster-related images when compared to the current capacity of humanitarian organizations like the American Red Cross. Lastly, we only need one partner for demonstration-effect purposes--the latter makes it easier to gain credibility when approaching other potential partners. In short, I'm fan of prototyping and iterating at a small scale first.

Thanks,

Patrick

----
Patrick P. Meier (PhD)
http://www.iRevolution.net

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[mad_cat]

I didn't take reality into consideration when I made my post clarifying my original statement, and this is why I ask that you look at the spirit of what I was saying.  An no, Developers would not give us access to their programs for us to edit.  We would give them the program/script and they would insert it in, and that will be a hurdle we will need to overcome because I'm sure we don't want to give them access to our code, or do we?

Kickstarter is hit or miss.  There has been great success with crowd funding (w00t to Star Citizen), but what makes a campaign successful with Kickstarter is incentive purchases.  Spend more money and get this special item.  Not to say that we couldn't be successful without that, but it would be harder to be successful.  Then the question would be, what can we give away at the different tiers and what will that cost us.  I would agree that it is better if we had a client, like Blizzard first before doing kickstarter, but we would need videos, we would need press coverage, and likely go to cons to advertise what we are doing.  There would be a lot of work to do.  But if we can figure out the logistics of it, then I'm all for it.

Please note that often times I will sound negative or disapproving of an idea, but often times I am simply pointing out the flaws with an idea that in order to do the idea, we have to address these issues.  It is by no means that I think something is a bad idea.

[Patrick Meier (iRevolution)]

Thanks mad_cat and no apologies necessary at all, I totally didn't interpret your comments as negative and very much value your expertise and experience. I appreciate your candor and getting straight to the point.

The plugin that my developer coded is to be free and open source--this is key to our social innovation program at QCRI. If this is not the right model, we can revisit the approach as we move forward. Ultimately, the current plugin is first and foremost for demonstration purposes, to catalyze conversation, to strike up partnerships, explore synergies.

Thanks again for all your input, really appreciate it.

----
Patrick P. Meier (PhD)
http://www.iRevolution.net

[mad_cat]

It's weird for me to think I have expertise, I just do a lot of studying in preparation to do my own business and look at many different things to be fully aware of everything that I need to know to be successful.  I am just glad that much of it can be applied here.

It's probably best that it is open source and I don't see any reason why that should change.  It's good you take the approach of it being a prototype now, and something that will likely need to be changed or improved later.  I've met many "coders" who want to think their product is good right from start and they are only asking for trouble.

[mad_cat]

You mentioned kickstarter.  Below is an article I found in research of doing Kickstarter for my game company.  Now it is more geared to game development, but I think you can agree that there is still information to gain from this.  In my other research, I had found that the majority of the people who donate, tend to do so in low amounts.  Generally $1 - $10.  That seems little, but like the goal of this project, everyone doing a little equals a lot in the grand scheme of things.  However, we generally meet our goals with the big spenders, who donate a lot.  Many feel that focusing on incentive purchase on the big spenders in the way to go, as we want to have more big spenders, but the best approach is to focus on the small spenders, and given them incentive to buy more.  Big spenders tend to donate because they want to donate, not because they want some prize.  HumbleBundle.com knows this technique well.

Now, we don't really have a physical product to offer, except maybe stickers and tshirts, but there are digital content we can offer.  The question is, what can we offer?  In video games, we can offer people to be in our games or to use their name in some way.  Offer them photos and artwork, or even a soundtrack to our music.  Lacking all of that, it will be harder to do kickstarter, so we will need to be very creative.  Now we can offer products that are more novelty that can have the logo on it.  We discussed buying a flashlight that has a hand crank on it with a USB port that costs $20.  Since we were doing phone apps, it seemed like a good fit, and we just put our logo on it.  We offer it for $25 or $30 a piece and still make a profit.  It is best we buy the product before we offer it, rather than do so afterwards, as it might not be fully available, or there could be delays, and it is not good business to have donators be upset.  It's a good way to get a bad reputation fast.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/176839/gamasutras_kickstarter_survey_.php

[Peter Mosur]

The Kickstarter idea is definitely viable, but as you said we need a reward. The way I see it, we would need to separate it by the goal. For example, if we do the Kickstarter for the emergency programming needs, we can give one thing. Alternatively if we do it for the graphic art work (which is more likely), the reward should be completely different. 

For the former I say an in-game reward, working with the game developers who have signed on. Something as simple as an emblem, title, or badge that would signify that you donated to IRL in its early days. I think that this would be feasible, because the only reason that this kickstarter would even be needed is if we get overwhelmed by game developers and they cannot wait (thus they will need to suply reward material).

The latter and far more likely scenario (we plan on doing this), would be the graphic design/art work kickstarter. For this we would hire artists to basically design armor and other in-game IRL themed items, and then work with respective game developers to make sure that it all fits into the games. A cool reward we could use for this kickstarter would be prints of the concept designs that the artists come up with. The only problem would be that we would need some of the work done before we start the kickstarter, so we need to already begin looking for artists. 

I plan on announcing our search for artists at the next NYC Indie game demo night (Which is on Tuesday), so hopefully I can find some interested folks there. Additionally we plan to make a new blog post announcing this.

I can't think of any other rewards to offer people. Novelty items with the IRL logo doesn't seem like a good idea to me just yet. Definitely this is something that could be done once we are established, but I could be wrong. Or possibly instead of a $20 flashlight USB with the logo, why not just a USB with the logo? I found these, which would really cool with the IRL logo: 

https://www.customusb.com/template-product.html?stype=flashdrive&title=flashbands

Actually the more I think about it the cooler this idea sounds. I think I will request a quote just to see. These could also be a reward for the proposed artist work kickstarter.

[mad_cat]

So, I looked at a successful kickstarter campaign of Anita Sarkeesian, which my political viewpoints of her I won't discuss here, but managed to ask for $6k and got over $150k.  Using this, we can generate some ideas.  I think your USB idea is a fantastic idea, however, we should be sure to pack as much stuff on it as we can, make it very unique.  BTW, I put the USB flashlight as an example, not a recommendation.  But we would need a lot of pictures and videos about what we are doing and the people behind it (mostly the two of you as you are the brains behind this), perhaps a letter from each of you thanking the people and maybe Jane McGonigal writes a thank you letter (if we can swing it).  Perhaps even a small java game to run off the platform, and even the Android app itself.

What else can we give though lacking the resources to get people items.  I mean, we all like swag, part of the fun of conventions.  Gaining recognition.  I will be making a post on this for the volunteer recognition program we can have in a different post, but appearing on websites and videos can be a way to drive sales and all we are doing is putting their name somewhere.  People can feel connected to a project if they feel they can show others their name on something.  Anita offered 3 different tiers of offering recognition to donators.  Over 4000 people got their names posted somewhere or were personally contacted by her.  Powerful incentive.

So my idea for prizes

$1 - Basically it is just a heart warming thanking like Anita did, probably use the line of "The knowledge that your money is going to help a noble cause".

This might seem a little cheap, but often times people will donate a dollar to a project anyways that they believe in.

$5 - Donor credit on our website

Basically they get mentioned as being a donor on our website.

$10 - USB Thumb drive

The challenge with Thumb drives is finding something cheap for a bulk amount.  If we can do less than 1GB, that might help us, but we need to be frugal and buy in bulk.  Some quotes I saw for 100 is about $5 - $6 per unit, which only gives us about $3 - $4 per item (when we take shipping to them into account).

$10 - Get ranked up on the volunteer page

Refer to my post about the Volunteer Rank system for the IRL website.  Basically this offers more recognition for people on the website, they stand out more

$15 - Help with Beta testing on our project (on an as needed basis)

$25 - Get an IRL T-Shirt

People love T-Shirts.  Buying in bulk, we should get a profit if offered at this rate.

$40 - Get an IRL T-Shirt, USB drive, and 2 Ranks

Combo Buy

$50 - Get credited as a donor in our website video

More credit given, but now in a video than just a website.  They will have course get the Website credit and the rank up, plus more experience points.

$100 - Get a personal thank you video sent to you from the two of you (and anyone else behind the scenes)

Anyone we can get, we can make about 5 minutes for each person and release as one video

$250 - Get a personal thank you at any events we speak at for your contribution

When one of speaks at a con or news media, we can mention someones name as a contributor.

$500 - Get a personal phone call from the creators

Perhaps one of us have a skill in our profession that would be of interest to people.  Like a free consultation or advice giving on that profession or skill.


Now if we know anyone in the gaming community that can help with this project, offering their time as volunteering, then that might help pad the list, especially if they are well known.  Like if we could get Chris Taylor, perhaps he could offer his knowledge of Game Design as a free hour phone call or something, or even a personal thank you note for him.  This is an example, I only wish I knew Chris Taylor.

The ideas above are just ideas and not what I think we should do or be the prices they are.  The point of the list above is that we can offer a lot with little to start with. 

[Peter Mosur]

Hey mad_cat,

I just got a chance to reply. This is an amazing list that you have compiled here!

I don't believe that we are going to pursue this kickstarter at this very moment, as we are still focusing on finishing the plugin, but this is great info to have!

Thanks a bunch!

Peter

[mad_cat]

I figured you were not doing kickstarter now, but I got the inspiration to make that list, so I did it.  I've learned that when I'm in the mood to do something, that is exactly the best time to do it.  When we do the kickstarter in the future, I do hope that list will help you generate ideas on what we can offer.

[Peter Mosur]

We definitely appreciate it! :D