#idm729

In determining the details and policies for an IOS based application and corresponding web blog it is imperative that no small detail is overlooked or under considered.  In researching what specific blogs like ‘The Torontonist’ and blogTO’ highlighted and addressed in their comment moderation, privacy and correction policies, I found many attention-grabbing areas pertaining to legal documentation that I had never considered before.

Firstly, after reviewing blogTO’s comment policy and the ways in which they monitor their user based content, I have found that including a comment section within my own project would be a useful way to connect with users. During my user testing, many of the people whom I interviewed were adamant concerning the value of restaurant, bar and event recommendations and reviews. I have found that while online shopping, reviews are one of the first areas that I visit to gain a better understanding of a products usefulness and durability. User’s value honesty, and opinions play a major role in individuals thought process to make an informed and smart decision. As well, I found that blogTO’s stance on comment moderation very useful, as flagging posts that contain harmful or hurtful words as a very smart way to maintain control of the value of the writer’s opinion and that of the blog/application as a whole.

Concerning comment policies, on my final prototype I would like to include a comment section, to which users will be able to either comment anonymously or using a random or real name. Although Facebook is a great social media tool that can achieve a lot of attention and following for a brand, I decided to not include a ‘Sign In’ Facebook affiliated page as through my user testing I found that it would not be utilized as often by my target market.

As well, I really liked how blogTO made their privacy content easily accessible and straightforward so that users are able to inform themselves of their policies without having to sift through a large amount of fairly dry content. They include a section in their Privacy Policy page entitled, “If You Only Have 5 Seconds”, to which a simple sentence is presented to the user that states that they will not give out personal information to third party sites. This particular Toronto lifestyle source also garners a really friendly, open and honest tone whose explanation of their policies is easy for any user to comprehend.  I will definitely include a similar straightforward section at the beginning of my privacy policy!

Concerning ‘The Torontonist’ ‘s delivery of their policies, I found it very interesting that this particular lifestyle blog included a section that discusses publication and source errors or mistakes. I didn’t even know that this was an important area of content creation to address. I will definitely include this section in my final prototype of my project, if only to help inform the users of where they can report or flag discrepancies in a timely matter. 

During my second semester in the Interactive Digital Media program, I have been exposed to some interesting topics of legal policies and I have become more aware of how websites on the Internet collect and use our personal information. Nowadays, websites ranging from large companies (such Google, Facebook and Amazon) to small businesses and websites collect and use our personal details and can track all the online data and browsing history. It’s hard to know what they actually do with this information and if they stored it, share it or sell it.

  The Terms of Services, Privacy Policy and Community Guidelines are important things that we as users need to consider to protect our information when we sign up on a website or service. When we create an account we need to be aware about our personal details and third party services as well as information related to our web browser, current location, cookies and web tags. There is particular information that will be shared with the public through the website and third party services. For that reason is important to read this terms before sign up in a website or service to keep our personal information secure online.

  Recently most of the important websites, like Google, Microsoft, Tumblr and so on have changed their privacy policies and terms of service. Usually we say that we have read, understand, and agree to those terms without take the time to actually read it (well, probably you will say that nobody got time for that) but what is behind all this? The true is that most of the websites are using and collecting our data to improve their products, provide anonymous statistics, or make enhanced features that may (or may not) provide a better and greater experience for us.

  On the other hand, as a business owner on a website or app, when we required collect personal information from our user (including result of searches, signing up to an email newsletter, or online ordering and payment processing) is really important to review the privacy laws and best practices to make sure that we comply with the privacy requirements within the service that we provide in our website or app. This way we protect our backs if we are committing an infringement without really knowing. It’s important to follow the laws that operate under our jurisdiction, province or country when it comes to personal information protection.

Regarding the game is currently a student project, it is absolutely a smart choice to sale the idea to the game industry and our peers in order to gain an ample budget and recruit more talents to join our team. The most obvious way to sale our game is to attend all kinds of industry meetings where we have the opportunities to get in touch with leaders and talents in digital space. Of course considering it costs a lot of the attendance fee, we had better participate these industry events as a volunteer. Thus we have more chance to talk with the guest speakers and other important people. Otherwise, we are also seeking for sponsorship and funding to support our project.

For business to consumer promotion, our market strategy starts with the question of how to make new audience know the game, in other words, how to have their attention? Because it is a Facebook game, thus our promotion will place the most concern on Facebook to catch the eyes of Facebook users. To achieve the goal, we will set up a Facebook page for the detective game, the purpose of the Facebook page is to get more people sign up and play the game. First of all, we need to improve our SEO performance, so the game can rank at top by search engine on Facebook.

To do this, we need to provide our audiences really fresh and tasty content and something that audience can truly integrate and participate with. For example, detective stories have an enduring popularity, and the detective game is based on a compelling and creative story, so why not asking our audiences to contribute their talents to develop the game story into a whole novel? Since it is an open-ending story, the audiences are free to use their imaginations to tell their unique stories. Another thing we could do is to speak our voice out on more social medias, as a result, we will have more followers who are hopefully to become future potential users and by this way we also enable to connect ourselves closely with our game community and relate ourselves to the changing game industry.

Mission Statement

The project mission is to create a fun and smart social game of detective theme using an interactive multiplayer mode and reaching entirely new audience on Facebook.

Vision Statement

The vision of the project is to attract those who aren’t frequent game players and to engage them into a virtual role-playing social game. The project objectives are to have one million monthly active users and to build a long-lasting detective game community on Facebook.

SWOT-SC/PEST

The strengths of the game will be distinct characters and compelling narrative skills, as well as creating an interactive multi-player platform where users can show their negotiating and reasoning skills. The biggest risk: a new multi-player model needs to be created to get players to play together in a manner that fits their schedules, which hasn’t been done before for detective game and we have no experience at all. Another risk is considering the game has an open-ended story, we need to give players enough freedoms while still telling a fantastic story. For some player the more freedom the better, but for some other players too much freedom could be a nightmare, instead they want more guiding and control in the game. Regarding of social and moral issues, there won’t be any violent content in the game, and there will be no bloody scenes showing committing crimes and killing people. Otherwise, the game is based on fictional characters and story which won’t provide a criminal scenario for real-life scenes such as school or hospital. For technological analysis, we are a small team and none of us can do programming or coding. What I plan is we will find a proper prototype to help displaying our ideas and work. And the project will rely heavily on the work of graphic designer and content writer.

Target Market and Positioning