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One of the motifs you keep coming across when reading about Foursquare and Gowalla, the mobile location apps, is that they are games, and the games are fun. The most important thing when it comes to gaming is the most subjective, whether the players are having fun. But it's not the whole story. Were these apps structured to have gameplay, a through-line with obstacles and rewards? Are Foursquare and Gowalla, and apps like them, games by design? And if so, is the gameplay good? Sponsor If you're unfamiliar with the applications, users visit various real-world locations and check in via mobile device. On Foursquare, they score "badges" for visits and, if they've visited a given location more than any other place, they become the "Mayor" of that locale. "Parents often make chores a game to get their kids to do them," said Dylan Romero, Community Manager for The Great Game Experiment. "They hit the part of the brain dealing with achievement and reward to get more desirable results. I think Foursquare is more a game in this sense. If you want to incentivize customers, videogame or not, give them something to shoot for." "The game mechanics are designed to lead people through the experience of using the product," said Dennis Crowley, co-founder of Foursquare. In other words, gameplay is not in service to the game, but in service to the product. "The 'game' for me is to see if I can get a response or, even better, a perk out if it," Klavars, a Foursquare user, Tweeted. Although there is currently no reward, other than regard among the Foursquare community, presumably, some venues offer specials to Foursquare users. Gowalla differs in some important respects from Foursquare. Gowalla uses a series of icon-based rewards called stamps. Given that Gowalla was born from a design company, it's no surprise that the symbols are very attractive. Likewise its "items." Locations are sometimes tied to items that show up when you've checked in. You can hold the items or drop them off elsewhere, which means a given place may have more items than it had originally. The scoring of these items seems more traditionally game-oriented than Foursquare's simple badges. Gowalla also has the equivalent of badges in its pins which can be strung together into itineraries for trips.gowallaferry.png Gowalla also has the equivalent of badges in its pins which can be strung together into itineraries for trips. However, according to Gowalla's Josh Williams, the company doesn't see it as a game at all. "While there is certainly an element of entertainment and fun to be had while using Gowalla," he told us, "we view it first and foremost as a social networking service." "The iconic items are a bit of an experiment for us. Can we lay a transient piece of data across the service and allow people to interact with it by moving it from place to place, attaching meta-data to it (like a digital message in a bottle), or even attaching real world value to it, as in the case of the NBA tickets given away to a Nets basketball game last week. They're simply another way to interact with the world around you." Gowalla requires GPS and that's how a user checks in. Foursquare only requires you enter the address, which has led to cheating. However, gaming is not just in the rules but in the expectations. With Foursquare, the unwritten expectation is that if you check in at a place, you will be there for some time. Here the location app aspect of Foursquare creates an expectation in its gameplay. On Gowalla it is perfectly acceptable to check in to a place you can't really stay, like a landmark. It seems, then, that neither company has consciously designed their services to be games. But much in the same way that a kid finds a baseball diamond in a clearing in the woods, perhaps the users are the ones who've identified and acted upon, the latent gameplay. Because although Foursquare and Gowalla may not be games, there is a game that is being played with them. Gowalla, in requiring GPS and requiring no any real relationship to the place, might be less appealing on the location side of things. Playing Foursquare is also arguably simpler, and therefor more appealing to more people. I think it's fair to say that people with higher gameplay expectations will probably find Gowalla more appealing, regardless of creator intent. People who want quick fun with more of a social aspect may favor Foursquare. Discuss
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If Location Apps are Games, How's the Gameplay?
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Game developer Will Wright , best known as the man behind SimCity (and other Sim games) and Spore , has signed a deal with the Science Channel to create programming for the cable station. These are not games, they're TV shows, though they'll have interactive online components. I've always divided people into two types: visual and verbal. The first time I talked to a game developer at length, I realized there was a third type of person. Sponsor Several years ago, when I worked at a game development company, I had the opportunity to sit down and have an in-depth conversation with the company's chief game developer. What I gained from that conversation was a knowledge that deep-down gaming people see the world in terms of relational information and of decision trees. That makes it sound less magical than it is. This dev described his thought process when he entered a department store as one of finding opportunities, identifying goals, avoiding obstacles, securing rewards and understanding and relating to fellow agents. The dynamism of this view was intriguing. If Wright brings anything to TV programming - never underestimate the ability of a genius in one thing to be a boob in another - it may well be in a renewed sense of story, one that is neither the unfolding of information-loaded pictures, nor of narrative, but of the constant ebb and flow of agents interacting on a reward trajectory. It will be interesting to watch, whether or not any of it is interesting to watch. Top photo by Javier Aroche Bottom photo by Jacob Metcalf Discuss
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Sims Dev to Make TV Shows
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The popular location-based services Foursquare and Gowalla were launched at the 2009 SXSW, and one year later, many proclaimed the 2010 SXSW to be the year of "location, location, location" . With almost 350,000 Foursquare check-ins during one day of the event, and with numerous location-based services launching before, during, and after SXSW, the buzz among early adopters surrounding location-based social networking seems to show no signs of abating. Sponsor In a provocative (and NSFW) blog post this weekend, entrepreneur and developer Dave McClure takes both location-based social networks and their early adopters to task, arguing that "the current method of check-ins is a classic case of early-adopter lust for shiny objects, & has not a damn thing to do with long-term sustainable mainstream consumer behavior." Dismissing the lure of the game-mechanics that many of these platforms utilize - the idea of collecting badges, points, and/or mayorships - McClure contends that until LBS start offering some sort of simple monetary incentive, mainstream users will not be compelled to check-in. Whether or not you agree with McClure's pronouncements and predictions about location-based social networks, his comments about "early-adopter lust for shiny objects" are worth considering. Although conventional wisdom posits that early adopters provide a solid target market for startups, there are some drawbacks in responding focusing solely on those who "lust for shiny objects." Early adopters' enthusiasm may not always be a good indication of future growth and sustainability. Although early adopters are often willing to provide feedback on a product's development, that feedback might not be the information necessary to woo a larger market. Early adopters' feedback on existing features and push for new features might not necessarily be the feedback necessary for features that mainstream users would want or need. The push for special stamps and badges from Gowalla and Foursquare might excite early adopters, for example, but mainstream users may not find this a compelling reason to adopt a service. The lure of other social networks, such as Facebook, is in part that "everyone is there." The question remains how to make the move from just the early adopters to "everyone" being there. Nevertheless, early adopters can be terrific champions of a product, actively promoting it to their friends. Early adopters are a small, but vocal group. Ignore them at your peril. And focus exclusively on them at your peril. Discuss
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Startups and Early Adopters: "Checking In" on Conventional Wisdom
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Before tonight there were probably 30 to 50 teams making a serious play to build the best mobile client for Twitter. Tonight one of those teams was annointed the official selection of Twitter itself and its leader at least is now a millionaire. People are saying that the acquisition of Tweetie by Twitter is bad news for the ecosystem of 3rd party developers that made Twitter so much more useful for millions of people. In truth though, those odds were pretty good for all of them. Tonight's news demonstrates again that independent developers can code their way into cash, equity and a job at one of the hottest startups on the web. That bodes well for those of us who love to use the software built by all of them, too. Sponsor Tweetie developer Loren Brichter is just 4 years out of college. He graduated from Tufts in 2006 and got a job doing embedded graphics and iPhone development for Apple through July, 2007. That month, the iPhone 3G was released and that year Time Magazine named it the invention of the year. After more than a year of development Tweetie was launched in November, 2008. Less than 18 months later Brichter and Twitter announced tonight that Tweetie has been acquired and will become "Twitter for iPhone." Between cash and equity, Brichter must be a millionaire on paper at least. Brichter's one employee is Ash Ponders, who is in Spain and isn't saying anything on Twitter tonight. These guys built a service that won the big contest. If there were (and this is generous) 50 viable mobile Twitter clients - do you really think any of them launched this kind of business expecting better odds than that? There are a number of other companies that could have become the official mobile app for Twitter but at this stage of the game Tweetie was an obvious choice. It loads fast, is relatively feature rich, is attractively designed and has proven popular with users. Tweetie offers an attractive and simple desktop Twitter client, but was most valued for its iPhone version. Its strongest competitors were Twitterific , Tweetdeck and Seesmic . Twitterific is beautiful and perhaps a viable ad-supported small business but is too complicated to be appreciated by all but power users. (It's great on the iPad though.) Seesmic is strong on the smaller Android platform and is extending beyond Twitter alone. Tweetdeck is the most powerful 3rd party Twitter app but it has higher aspirations, is exploring development of sophisticated Artificial Intelligence , is more complex than mainstream users need and is most likely to be bought by an enterprise, media or financial services company - not Twitter itself. Tweetie is the everyperson's Twitter app. Twitter is chronically confusing for mainstream users, something the company has been trying desperately to change. If you are looking for a simple, attractive Twitter app for casual use then Tweetie on the desktop works great. When you're on a mobile phone, that's really all you ever need. In his blog post tonight Loren Brichter mentioned "simplifying the Twitter experience." That's something Twitter needs and something he's very qualified to help do. There is still a place for other, more complex, Twitter apps. Media companies around the world (including this one) are finding Tweetdeck invaluable in carefully parsing the stream of Tweets for high-value nuggets. Seesmic is believed to be working closely with Microsoft in order to bring social media stream reading to all kinds of different platforms. But tonight one of the many Twitter apps hit it big. That's good news for app developers in general and for the users who would use their software. Go ahead and build a client for a major social network. Odds are it won't prove a viable business, but if you were risk averse then building a Twitter client startup is probably the last thing on earth you'd do anyway. The fairy tale came true for one of these companies. That's reason enough for many more developers to build many more innovative apps in the future. Discuss
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Why Twitter Buying Tweetie is Great News
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During a presentation on Apple's Cupertino campus this morning, the company's CEO, Steve Jobs, announced the next version of the iPhone operating system: iPhone OS 4. Apple will release a preview version to developers today and plans to release the OS to consumers in the summer. Among the new features in the OS are multitasking with the help of a new set of APIs. Developers will get access to over 1,500 new APIs, and users will see over 100 new features. Jobs also announced that Apple has already sold 450,000 iPads. Sponsor Note : This is a breaking news story. We will update this story throughout the morning as more news becomes available from the iPhone OS 4 event. Just reload this page to see the updates. iPhone OS 4 New in iPhone OS 4 Fast task switching Multitasking Folders Enhanced mail app Local push notifications Background location services Task completion in the background iBooks for iPhone Enterprise enhancement Game Center social gaming network iAd advertising network In total, Apple has now sold close to 85 million devices that run the iPhone OS. Developers, who will get access to the new OS today, will be able to access over 1,500 new APIs , including better APIs for in-app SMS, smarter ways to access the accelerometer and access to new users features like 5x digital zoom, home screen wallpapers, and access to Bluetooth keyboards. iPhone OS 4 will also finally include support for multitasking. Jobs noted that Apple isn't the first company to bring this feature to the market, but wants "to be the best." A simple double-click on the home button will bring up a task menu at the bottom of the screen. This, however, is just a way to quickly switch between apps. No Multitasking for iPhone 3G Most of these newly announced features will run on the iPhone 3GS and third generation iPod touch, but users with an iPhone 3G or second generation iPod touch will not get access to the new multitasking features. Apple plans to release iPhone OS 4 for the iPad in the fall. Background Apps To run services in the background, as Apple's SVP of iPhone software Scott Forstall noted, apps will have to access a new set of APIs. Music apps like Pandora will be able to stream their music in the background and use the iPod controls in the lock screen to control the playback. Until now, exiting an app like Pandora would stop the music playback. According to Pandora's developers, making the app background aware only took one day. VoIP services like Skype will now also be able to run in the background. Apple will now allow location services to run in the background. This will be a major boon for turn-by-turn direction services like Tom Tom and location-based social networks like Loopt, which Apple specifically mentioned during the event. In addition, apps will also be able to send local push notifications and apps will be able to complete tasks like photo uploads in the background. Folders With iPhone OS 4, Apple is also introducing a new way to organize applications - something that those of us who have installed way too many apps on our phones will appreciate. Now, users will be able to organize apps into folders. To do this, you simply drag and drop apps on top of each other. The OS automatically creates a name for these folders (presumably based on the apps' categories in the App Store), but you can also edit the name yourself. Folders can also live in the dock. This will come in handy if you want to have all your games or news apps available at a moment's notice. Enhanced Mail App iPhone OS 4 will also bring an enhanced mail app with a unified inbox and the ability to organize emails by thread. In addition, users will finally be able to open attachments with apps. Game Center For gamers, Apple is introducing the Game Center, which is basically a social gaming network that will feature automatic matchmaking for multiplayer games, leaderboards and achievements. iBooks Comes to the iPhone After Apple introduced iBooks for the iPad, it was only a matter of time before the company would introduce iBooks for the iPhone. Just like the Kindle app, iBooks will sync pages and bookmarks between the iPad and iPhone. iPhone users will also be able to access the iBookstore right from their device. iPhone in the Enterprise For enterprise users, Apple is introducing a number of new features, including improved security courtesy of support for SLL VPN. Enterprises will now also be able to distribute apps wirelessly. iAd Unsurprisngly, Apple also announced its new iAd mobile advertising platform . According to Jobs, "most of this mobile advertising really sucks." According to Jobs, the best way to deliver mobile ads in not through search ads but inside mobile apps. Jobs noted that Apple wants ads in apps to be even more interactive than on the Web. Currently, according to Jobs, people don't click on ads because it takes them out of the app. Given that iAd is a built-in OS-wide feature, however, Apple thinks that it can deliver a better experience for users. Jobs also took a swipe at Adobe and noted that these interactive ads will be developed in HTML5. Judging from Apple's demos during the event, these ads can be highly interactive and many of them resembled mini-games more than traditional display ads. Apple will sell, host and deliver the ads and share 60% of the revenue with developers. Update on the iPad: 450,000 Sold At the beginning of his presentation, Jobs also recapped last week's launch of the iPad. According to Jobs, the company managed to sell 450,000 iPads since the device went on sale on Saturday. iPad users have downloaded over 600,000 books from the iBookstore and 3.5 million iPad apps from the App Store. It's not clear how many of these books were free books, however. Jobs also announced that the App Store has now delivered over 4 billion apps to iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users, and that there are close to 3,500 iPad apps in the store already. Thanks to our friends at Gizmodo and gdgt for providing excellent live coverage of the event today. Discuss
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Apple Announces iPhone OS 4 with Support for Multitasking
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