Week 1 : Day 1

Hello class,

Hope your summer is going well.
I am interested in spaces of influence where people are affected by what happens around them. I aim to explore this topic in game design and create a game structure where players are subject to the influence of their peers.

The social networking game boom has definitely made its mark, but so far its hard to say that these games encourage any unique types of interaction. It is either competition, add a friend to your team,  or add a friend and get a bonus. For example in the Facebook game Little Cave Hero, you can add your friends in order to receive a bonus daily, when you visit their town. Your friend can also give you a small gift per day. This just sort of encourages more people to play. I'm interested in creating a game that involves players with each other in a more "up-close and personal" level, where it is apparent that the way they influence each other changes the gameplay.

I did a google image search on the word "influence" to see what kinds of themes and visualizations for structures of influence might come up. Pictures of money and of cell phones and t.v. sets popped up. I did see a lot of graphs and charts. Many of them were marketing and sales-related. Influence is power, and power comes with money. 

Popular Amazon books on influence include: "How to Win Friends and Influence People." Making friends is a powerful thing, but the word "win" in the title suggests that a conquest is present.

So who or what is the most influential? The media has quite an influence, but its not quite that simple. Influence exists in a complex network of people. According to Ross Dawson's blog, Duncan Watts can be quoted as saying in his essay Influentials, Networks and Public Opinion Formation, "large cascades of influence are driven not by influentials but by a critical mass of easily influenced individuals." So could it be that the masses actually have  a lot more influence than they realize? I'm wondering how I can structure a game where each player tests out the limits of their influence and realize that they have more ability than they may originally think.

Chat would probably be mandatory in the production of this game because players could choose to collaborate or try to venture out on their own without help. More game ideas and mechanics coming soon.

Ross Dawson's Blog. http://rossdawsonblog.com/weblog/archives/2009/08/influence_resea_1.html