seminars and pitch update

Over the last two days I attended two seminars at the local technology park.  One was on product positioning and marketing and the other was on intellectual property and business structure.  Both were useful and it was good to get out and meet some local entrepreneurs.  Thanks to Gowlings and VIATec for hosting!

Here is our current positioning statement:
The QuestionCollector is a sociopolitical game of debate, for Internet users who want to create peace with words instead of weapons. It provides a fun and neutral architecture for questioning everything. Unlike current social  games the QuestionCollector is fun AND useful to your world.

Read on for the draft text of my media pitch and let me know what you think of it or my positioning statement.

My name is Scott Lewis. I am chief wizard at Golden Age Information Architects. My mission is to encourage peace and free discussion. Watching the social game market grow through it’s infancy has led me to believe the easiest way to get people talking about what really matters is to build a game for debating. Thus, I am designing a text based gaming network that will help us identify our unifying ideals and our most divisive issues.  Then, maybe we can get on with the ones that have a clear mandate and continue to slug it out with words for the remaining ones.

When I tell people I’m making an online game, people automatically assume it’s not serious and that it’s just for entertainment purposes.  While the game being fun is very important, I also think games can be very serious and powerful tools for change. You may have noticed politicians have been playing games, often with less than desirable outcomes, for centuries. Often they end up playing in ways that stop progress rather than encourage it.  If the amount of apathy in western democracies is any indication, most of us think those in power don’t represent our collective interests and . Additionally, the power games they play have long favored those who use force against others, whether it be economic, military, or religious in nature. It’s time for a new game!

This is where GAIA comes in.  The sandbox we’re creating will combine the power of social networking with a structured platform for everyone to express their philosophies, opinions, and debates. Users will create and manage content and earn experience and virtual goods to promote or oppose the positions they agree or disagree with.

The game will be free for people. In the initial stage, profitability will be driven by the sale of advertising, no-advertising subscriptions, and virtual goods. Virtual goods are items that augment players in-game abilities and can be earned through participation or paid for by those who want immediate access. At a future stage, we plan to broaden the revenue stream by opening the door to non-people players via a subscription basis, so organizations and corporations can share and promote their values and opinions too.

One key to the game will be the non-duplication of questions. The world is facing some big questions like “Why are we fighting?” and “How can we control climate change?”, amongst others.  These questions are repeated ad nausea in current media regimes. In our playground we will stop the repetition and create permanent communities around questions.  People will be able to follow the questions they identify with and add their answers, select the ones they like, oppose the ones they think are wrong, or just watch the debates rage.

A second key aspect will be a borderless, non-partisan election system with a hierarchy for each of the ten role types, such as Moderators and Questioners. This will allow leaders of all types to advance and work together in a whole new way.  Additionally, user will have the ability to compare themselves with other users and see where they agree and disagree, which will make selecting people to follow and support much easier.

Finally, beyond the core engine of the game there will be multiple themes to add flavor and hit multiple market segments.  Some people will like it straight up, some will want to be the King or Queen and will use the monarchy theme, while others will be able to write their own themes and share them with friends.  The theming system won’t affect user driven content, it will simply provide a more interesting way for people to interact depending on their personal tastes.

To wrap up I’ll touch on the revolutionary intellectual property I’m working on.   A multicolored ranking system will determine which kingdom each question, answer, tag, user and debate falls into.  An advanced privacy control system, also using the seven colors will allow users to operate on thier own terms.  Some will stay anonymous and use the system as a personal journal, others will only share with their colleagues, and as current trends indicate, many will have lots to say publicly too.  All this combines together in the seven colored kingdoms of the Question Collector. I hope you’ll come play with me when it’s ready.

Thanks for reading!

Be Sociable, Share!

•