Much of what I have to say below applies equally to xanga minis as it does to facebook gifts.
Three
friends of mine and I were discussing the other day the phenomenon of
facebook gifts and all similar facebook applications over dinner. We
talked about how impressive it was that facebook is able to make so
much profit from selling tiny little images to people. It’s
counterintuitive at first. You wouldn’t think this kinda thing would
really work. But it does. It works very well.
In the words of
one of my friends (paraphrasing) “So many facebook applications just
provide people with ways to say ‘Hi’ to each other over and over again.”
And
he’s right of course. That’s what the gifts are too. But when you think
about it that way it isn’t really surprising at all that gifting
applications are so popular. In a way a gift is just a mechanism to
convey a symbolic message to someone. It’s that way in the real world
as well as in the virtual world. And that message might well be and
usually is just something like “Hi!”. And it could also be something
different like “I like you” or “I want to be closer to you” or “I
appreciate you” or “I love you” or “I miss you” or “Thanks”.
Really,
most gifts in the real world are as much or more about the symbolic
message they convey than their functional value. I mean what functional
value do cut flowers really have? They look nice, but they die almost
immediately. So if it were all about the functionality what would the
point be? Similarly for stuffed animals. And jewelry. And even
clothing, although it has a very basic function, the value of it does
not depend on the functionality. Often the uglier clothes that nobody
wants may be more functionally effective at providing comfort or
warding off cold than the nicest of clothes. And don’t get me started
on the greeting card industry.
No. A pixilated gift is pretty
much the same as a real life gift only it’s just a heck of a lot
cheaper to send. But you can convey the exact same messages through
such a gift. “I like you”. “I appreciate you.”, “Hi!” etc. And since
it’s easier you are more likely to do it.
But what’s hard to
do in the online world is send different kinds of messages. You can’t
say “I hate your guts!” or “I really don’t want to know you” or “I
wish you were dead!”. Well you can do that last by sending someone a
poisoned apple but generally it’s more difficult to send more
interesting or unique messages through the existing facebook gifting
applications. And very difficult to send a more diabolical message.
Set that aside for a moment.
In
the gifting applications you try to mimic the real world. Facebook
tries to make the application’s objects as similar to real life objects
as possible. They try to make it as similar in style and feel as buying
someone a real life gift. Even the gift scarcity is a mechanism to make
it feel more like the gifts are something real and tangible that you
are giving away. So in a sense people are bringing their real lives
into facebook and putting it online for everybody to see. But there’s
another thing you can do in virtual worlds. Rather than mimicking the
real world you can go beyond it. You can do things online that you
can’t do in real life or that are too dangerous or disruptive to do.
Anyone who has ever played a video game where they can go around
beating up on the cops or shoot down aliens using super powered laser
rifles knows this. You can role play online. You can be more or less
than you are in the real world or just different than you are in the
real world. You can break the rules. You can be… dare I say it…
EVIL?
One of my friends gave me this idea during that
conversation so all credit goes to him, I just developed it some more.
He mentioned in passing that you should totally be able to Re-Gift in
facebook. And I agreed. That’s be cool. It’d be a little evil though.
And from that seed was this idea born.
There should be an EVIL GIFTING application on facebook.
Here’s how it would work.
The basic mechanics would be the same as a normal gifting application.
It
would be like free gifts in that the gifts are free. That’s just my
personal preference really since I don’t believe in paying for this
stuff. The application would work just the same if you made people pay
$1.00 for each gift. But the latter is a lot harder to implement, plus
it would impede early adoption of the application I think. So better at
first at least to make the gifts free. Another alternative would be to
give each user an allowance of sorts of virtual money every day or
every week that they can use to buy gifts or save up in order to buy
more expensive gifts.
Each gift would be a tiny image like
usual. And like facebook gifts each gift has a limited supply and can
‘run out’. You buy a gift. You give it to one of your friends. You can
add a caption if you want. All like normal. Except no private gifts.
Well at least not at first. Private gifts add problems to this system
that I’d rather not deal with at first.
It’s very important that
the gifts themselves be well drawn and interesting just like a normal
gifting application. In fact this application should be able to
potentially replace your existing gifting applications if you want it
to. It should be functionally as effective as any other gifting
application for the simple purpose of giving pleasant messages like
“Hi”.
New gifts come out periodically. You have gifts that have
some correspondence to the events of the day, such as holiday gifts
that are released around the holidays or gifts pertaining to current
events in the news and so on. And you can have sponsored gifts too that
are advertisements for particular companies if they so choose.
So
basically all that’s normal. Here’s where it starts getting fun. Rather
than just being a gifting application it will also be a kind of game. A
game in which gift ownership is not static, and gifter behavior is not
always benevolent. You can be nice as normal sure. But you can also
be… EVIL!
RARITY - Each gift will have a rarity value. Right
now I’m thinking 5 levels but maybe more or less would be appropriate.
The levels would be: common, uncommon, rare, legendary, and unique.
Rarity obviously determines how many of the gift are out there for you
to get and give but also tells you how much of an impact it will have
on your score. The more rare a gift the cooler it will be too. What do
I mean by cool? Read on.
STATS - Every player who plays this
game has certain stats that they can display on their profile. These
are kinda like their score. Again just brainstorming now, but I’m
thinking the stats would be these: Stealth, Reputation, Benevolence,
and Notoriety
You can choose to try and get high numbers in any or
all of these stats though some like Benevolence and Notoriety are hard
to increase at the same time. There will a kind of ranking page where
you can see how you stand in these stats compared to your friends, your
networks, and all of facebook.
ACTIONS - The following are all
of the actions you can do in this game/application. At least all that
I have come up with right now.
Buy and Give - You can buy and
give a gift as normal. Increases your benevolence rating and
reputation depending on gift rarity.
Buy and Horde – You can buy a gift for yourself. Does not increase any stat.
Regift
- You can take a gift in your possession and give it to someone else.
If that gift was given to you by someone other than yourself then your
notoriety increases. Your benevolence increases in either case but less
than if you give a new gift to someone.
Personalize - As a part
of the gift buying process you can personalize certain gifts. That is,
you can put a special message on the gift, like for example having
someone’s name appear within the gif image of a bracelet gift. This way
it will be all the more deliciously evil when someone re-gifts such
personal gifts =D.
Steal – You can attempt to steal a gift in
someone’s possession. Your stealth rating determines your percentage
chance of succeeding and/or getting caught. There are four outcomes:
1. You fail to steal and are not seen. No effect on your attributes
2. You fail to steal and are seen. Your benevolence deceases. Your notoriety increases slightly.
3. You succeed and are seen. Your benevolence decreases. Your notoriety increases greatly. Your reputation increases.
4. You succeed and are not seen. Your notoriety increases greatly.
Counterfeit
- You can attempt to create a cheap ripoff of any gift and hoist it
off on your unsuspecting friends. Again like stealing. You have a
percentage chance to succeed. And each person who receives a
counterfeit gift has a chance to detect that it is a fake. Most
counterfeit gifts also deteriorate over time. Meaning the longer they
are in circulation the more likely they are to be noticed as fakes and
eventually they break down and become destroyed.
Lock Up - You
can lock up your gift within special gift items called lock boxes.
These reduce the likelihood of anyone getting at your gift to do
nefarious things to it. Also this can send a sort of signal to your
friends who gave you the gift about how important the gift is to you.
You have several levels of locks to choose from. Basic Lock, Strong
Lock, and Impenetrable Lock. Rarity is uncommon, rare, and legendary.
(It might be a good idea to let every player start off with at least
one of each lock and be able to acquire more, that way when players do
get an important sentimental gift they don’t feel as if it is
hopelessly doomed to be stolen from them)
Destroy! - This is my
favorite. You can smash somebody’s gift and send its tattered remains
back to that person! Each gift would have one or more associated
destruction image that it becomes when you destroy it. So like a gift
that is an image of a book would when destroyed turn into a pile of
ashes. Again you only have a percentage chance to succeed in destroying
gifts though certain gifts could make it easier to destroy other
gifts. You can also break into someone’s gift store and rather than
steal, destroy THEIR gifts.
GIFT HISTORY – Every gift has a
history associated with it of where it has been and who has owned it
and what has happened to it. So you can amuse yourself by looking
through your gifts and seeing how many times they ‘ve been regifted,
counterfeited, attempted to be destroyed, or stolen.
ATTRIBUTES
- Many gifts have certain attributes that effect how they interact in
the gift world. For example lock boxes can be associated with a single
gift and decrease the probability of someone being able to steal it.
Some gifts would have other attributes like INDESTRUCTIBLE or CANNOT BE
COUNTERFEITED. Other gifts give you bonus points to your stats. And
still others can be used to help you with your actions. Here are some
random brainstorming about certain kinds of gifts:
Steath/Ninja Suit - Uncommon – increases your stealth
Lock Picks – Rare - can unlock any non impenetrable lock without being seen and without damaging the lock
Hammer
- Common – can break basic locks but you will always be seen when you
do this. The lock is destroyed and cannot be reused.
Flint and Steal – Uncommon – you can use this to burn gifts
Knife – Common – increases your chance to destroy gifts, especially live gifts
Crown – Rare – increases your reputation
Appriaser’s Lense – Rare – guaranteed chance to spot any counterfeit gifts in your possession
Counterfeit Tools – Uncommon – increases your chance of counterfeiting a gift
And so on and so forth…
LEGENDARY and UNIQUE GIFTS -
The
legendary and unique gifts are sort of like facebook-wide gifting
events that all players can follow. These gifts have a lot of
attributes and do a lot of stuff and are very desirable as a result.
You usually get these through unusual ways. Here are some examples I
came up with.
OLYMPIC TORCH - Legendary -
Olympic torches
spawn periodically. (Every four years? Every four months maybe?). The
goal of this gift is to touch as many facebook users as possible in as
short a time as possible. They appear in the store for free and anyone
can pick it up. Once you pick it up though you should regift it as
soon as possible. The sooner you regift it the more your reputation
increases. If you hold onto it for longer than your notoriety starts to
increase. If a torch is held for four hours by the same person than it
returns to the store to be picked up again and that user loses their
opportunity for the massive reputation boost they would have had and
gets a big notoriety increase. Note if you give the gift to someone
who has already held the torch you get less reputation points.
Facebook wide messages are sent out periodically telling you the status
of the olympic torch.
If you destroy the olmypic torch breaking
the chain than your notoriety will skyrocket to maximum value and a
notification will go out to all of facebook so that everybody knows you
did it. Then you have to face the vengeance of the facebook community.
The olympic torch would be pretty hard to destroy though.
THE ONE RING – Unique -
Radically
increases your stealth rating. The longer you hold the one ring the
more more your notoriety increases and the more your benevolence
decreases. The one ring is indestructible. The one ring cannot be
regifted. The one ring is extremely difficult to counterfeit.
The
one ring spawns in a random users possession. The higher your notoriety
the more likely you are to get the one ring. A message will appear in
your news feed that says something like “The One Ring has fallen to
you.” When a user in your circle of friends receives the one ring all
of your friends get a notification in their news feed saying that they
feel the presence of the one ring. You aren’t told exactly which of
your friends has the one ring. You just know it is nearby.
If
your benevolence increases too high or you fail to do things that
increase your notoriety the one ring will abandon you and jump to
another user. In addition if long periods of time go by without the one
ring changing hands it will nevertheless jump to a different user.
If
you successfully steal the one ring you get a nice boost to your
reputation and notoriety. Of course stealing the one ring is very
difficult to do. Both because users have a strong incentive to lock up
the one ring and because it makes the user invisible. Of course the one
ring does not like to be locked up so the stronger the lock in which
you store it the more likely it is to jump to a different master.
EXCALIBUR – Unique -
Indestructible. Difficult to Counterfeit.
Excalibur
is the only item that can cut through an impenetrable lock, destroying
it. It can also destroy any gift that is not unique. Holding excalibur
radically increases your reputation. You can only hold excalibur if
you have a sufficiently high benevolence score and sufficiently low
notoriety score. If your notoriety increases too much or your
benevolence decreases too much a message will appear in your profile
saying something like “You have been found unworthy. The Lady of the
Lake has taken back Excalibur from you. “
Similarly you get
Excalibur when it is randomly bestowed upon a user with high enough
benevolence rating. As you might expect a message appears saying “The
Lady of The Lake has bestowed upon you the great sword Excalibur. Guard
it well.”
If Excalibur is stolen from you. Your reputation will suffer greatly.
***********
You
get the idea. The thing that would make this application the most fun
would be coming up with new and unique ways to have the items interact
with each other and with the community. So that the game becomes sort
of an exploration of the gift world. The key is that there has to be a
LOT of weird stuff that happens. Unexpected stuff. So that it’s like
finding easter eggs in the application every day. And you can also send
unique messages through this application. Messages you can’t send using
a normal gifting app. More evil messages to be sure, but also just more
interesting messages.
Here are just some random examples of weird stuff that could happen.
Let’s
say yesterday a set of PET gifts are released. So you have stylized
images of cats and dogs that people can give to one another.
Scenario
1. Matt gives Mindy a pet dog gift. He personalizes it so that the
dog’s name Fido appears on the collar of the image. Mindy absolutely
loves the gift. So she locks it in a Strong Lock Box and displays it
prominently on her profile.
Then every day for the next few
days, on Mindy’s profile she gets a message that says “Fido whines
pathetically.” She doesn’t know what is wrong so she gives Fido a dog
treat gift she received earlier from a friend. The message appears
“Fido cheerfully eats the treat and licks Mindy appreciatively.” Mindy
thinks the problem is solved. But the next day the whining and barking
continues.
Little does Mindy know at the same time all of her
friends who have the application are getting a message on their news
feed too. It says something like “You hear the whining of a poor
trapped animal? Will you save it?”
Eventually Mindy’s friend
John can’t take it any more. He uses his Ninja suit and uses his thief
picks to steal Fido from Mindy secretly. John gets a boost to his
reputation and benevolence and with no increase to his notoriety. A
message appears on his profile. “Fido wags his tail and barks
appreciatively! You rescued him!”
John quickly regifts Fido to
another friend who he knows doesn’t know Mindy in order to ensure that
she doesn’t find out about his theft.
Scenario 2. Beth
gives Linda a stylized cat gift that she thinks is cute. She names it
Tom. Linda can’t believe that Beth would do such a thing! She’s
allergic to cats and absolutely *hates* cats. So she takes her knife
and chooses to destroy the cat gift. The message appears “Linda cuts
open Tom with her knife, spilling its entrails upon the ground.” The
image changes to cat lying dead on the ground with a knife sticking out
of it. Still not satisfied. Linda decides to use her flint and steal
on Tom too. The message appears: “Linda cooks up Tom’s remains over a
fire creating a delicious cat treat.” The image changes to something
like an image of something resembling cooked meat.
Beth receives
a notification that she has received a new gift. She checks her profile
and is horrified to find a image of cooked meat with a collar showing
the name of Tom.The unique caption Linda sent reads “I hate cats. But
they sure taste delicious!”
It’s possible Linda has other issues with Beth than just her dislike of cats. =)
Scenario
3. Jenny gives Michael a gift of a little pet dog image that she
thinks really suits him. She even names it Michael. Michael just thinks
Jenny is annoying and really doesn’t like the dog very much at all and
absolutely hates that it was named after him. His friends make fun of
him as a result. And he wants to get rid ofthe pet. So first he
secretly tries to regift the dog Michael to one of his other friends.
He’s shocked when the next day he gets a message. “Michael was lonely and returned to his true master.” WTF!
Michael
tries a couple more times but the dog Michael keeps coming back.
Michael has some sort of affinity for Michael. Michael, the person,
starts to get frustrated. Finally he decides the only option is to take
Michael out.
Only Michael doesn’t have a knife or any gift
that is useful for killing a pet Dog. He first tries the only gift he
has. A bouquet of flowers!
“Michael hits his pet Michael over the head with a bouquet of flowers! Michael barks playfully and licks Michael cheerfully.”
Oops.
That didn’t work! OK. No other option. Michael chooses to destroy his
gift Michael with his bare hands and dispose of it quietly. Only he
fails!
“Michael lunges at his pet and tries to strangle it! Michael dodges and runs away in terror back to Jenny’s arms.”
Uhoh! Now not only does Jenny know that Michael didn’t like her gift but also she knows that Michael tried to kill it!
Hehe.
See? It can be all kinds of crazy stuff like this. It would be so much
fun just trying different things and seeing what happens. And just as
much fun inventing different crazy scenarios to throw wrenches into
people’s expectations of how a gifting application should work. Anyway,
I’m sure you can all think of clever new gift ideas that would make
this application a lot of fun. The key would be putting in so much that
people are kept perpetually entertained to the point that they look
forward to each new set of gift releases.
I really think
something like this could end up being a really popular facebook
application. And it would be big fun both to make and use. Do you
agree? Would you use an application like this?
A better and more catchy name might be a better choice. Any ideas?
Anyway, that’s that.
Your general opinions are much appreciated. Feel free to pass this idea along.
