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Introducing the Great Games Experiment

Introducing the Great Games Experiment
Name:Sean Sullivan
Date Posted:Nov 21, 2006
Rating:5.0 out of 5
Public:YES
Comments:YES
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Blog post
Introducing the Great Games Experiment!

It is my pleasure to introduce a project to the entire GarageGames community that we have been wrenching on internally for quite some time now. The Great Games Experiment [GGE] is our full fledged effort to provide a community platform on which gamers, developers, and publishers can unite through the games they create and/or enjoy playing. The site is specifically geared toward purposes that are truly important to gamers and game developers alike:

Promote. Our goal with GGE is to serve as the central promotional platform on the Internet for video games - a place where gamers and game-makers connect. By creating a centralized location for a large audience with a specific focus, we have provided endless opportunities for developers and gamers looking to promote themselves and their games. GGE's members have access to wide-open profile creation tools which allow you to present yourself, your games, and your cause in a creative format, all while keeping an element of officialism from one person or game to the next.

Network. Gamers. Developers. Publishers. Together, the members of GGE form a focused network around video games. Through features such as established friendships, visualized developer credits, and formation of groups, the platform of GreatGamesExperiment.com serves as a meeting place. Whether it be a developer finding a team with similar game interests or a gamer looking to find competitors playing the same game, GGE serves as a location on the Internet for gamers and game developers to network.

Discover. The Great Games Experiment gives each visitor to the site a truly unbiased way of discovering new games and related content. Through site features such as ratings, recommendations, and popularity, the best of the best rise to the top in true dynamic fashion. Through tags, friendships, and comments, the network becomes an amazing place to inventory what's hot, what your friends are playing, and what those same friends have to say about the latest games.

Download. Yes, you can in fact use GGE as a place to find new games and game demos to download. These downloads are made available by developers submitting their titles to the site. Another way I like to think of the word download in relation to the Great Games Experiment is that in the idea that each time you point your web browser to a new page, a new game, or a new user on GGE, you are downloading, before your eyes, a brand new node on the network. A new vantage point of surveying the organism that is GGE and the way in which all the content on the site relates to the very item you are at that moment viewing.

Play. This is what we're all here for. Make Great Games! Play Great Games!

The Great Games Experiment has entered Beta.

What does this mean? Well, as I'm sure is apparent to everybody reading this, the success of a site of this magnitude largely depends on the attitude and active participation of the community itself. That is why we have decided to introduce GGE to the entire GarageGames community before its impending official launch. The site is in full working order, with all features of social networking intact and ready to rock. We are working here daily in the Garage to refine any issues that may arise.

Having a large user base participating in the beta will help all of us to ensure that this investment we have made will indeed result in what we view as crucial to the direction the video game industry is headed. Jeff Tunnell's vision of GGE and the scope and expansiveness of the project will be revealed soon enough, but to iterate a point that has been an ongoing theme of GarageGames and the Great Games Experiment as a project: it is necessary for us to take control at this (the communication and distribution) juncture and push the locomotive full steam ahead. That's why we, as an established community, know that we can make this happen. We are all here together for a similar cause, and this platform, GGE, from the people at GarageGames, is something that I as a gamer have longed for since I realized the full potential of the Internet as a communication and networking medium.



Getting Started.

If you have logged into the GarageGames site in the year 2006, you have been reserved a spot on the Great Games Experiment. To get started on the site, simply head over to http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/account/create/ and use your email you have registered on GarageGames.com. Once you have chosen your unique display name, user type, and password, you will be sent an email for verification. Now the fun begins!

If you have not been active on GarageGames.com in 2006, simply enter your email in the "Request a Beta Invite" form found on the homepage.

What Next?

Now that you have an account, take advantage of the number of features throughout the site and get creative!

Deck out your Profile! Because this is a social networking site at heart, the way you present yourself on the site can have a large bearing of taking yourself to the top of the user list.

View the Best! By choosing the Games, Groups, Gamers, Developers, or Publishers tabs, you can see the best of the best in each of those categories. There are three ways we determine the best on the site. Highest rated, which is a computed average comprising of all user ratings for that item. Popularity, which is a measure of how popular an item is based on metrics such as number of friends, people playing that game, etc. Most viewed, a self-explanatory way of showing those items receiving the most eyeballs.

Submit Your Game as a Developer! If you have a game that you have created (or are in the process of creating), add it to the site! Complete the form with the required information for the game and get started on decking your game out with screenshots, YouTube/Google videos, etc. Tag your game appropriately for increased exposure from related games.

Add games as fans! Just because you haven't yet created a game doesn't mean you can't be the authority on one. You can add your favorite game as a fan on the site! To do so, simply indicate that you are submitting the game as a fan. Take heed though, if the developer or publisher of Mega Man comes along and decides they are more of a Mega Man authority than you, we'll have to let them have the driver's seat for that title.


Make Friends! By adding members of the site to your friends, you help build the network of GGE. Once people are in your friends list, you can easily access their profile to keep track of the latest games they're recommending, or even the smack they may be talking about that guy who still can't beat level 5 of Marble Blast Gold.

Create groups! Join groups! If you have a common interest with other members of the community, create a group on GGE to represent those similarities. This group can serve as a central meeting point for your interest group, or your group of long-lost friends who used to Rock the Casbah in Quake 2. Discussion modules shine in these groups to help you keep in touch easily!

Rate games!


Mark games as played! If you've played it, show it! When people view your profile they'll be able to get an idea of the types of games you like to play.

Show off with Great Games Badges! Every account has an associated Great Games Badge. This badge can be placed on your blog, website, forums, etc to show off your high rating and profile!



Use Beta Invites! Every user account has been loaded of with a couple of beta invites. Head over to the "My Account" section of the site and you should see a form field to toss in a friend's email to get them invited.



Join the GreatGamesExperiment.com today!

Recent Blog Posts
List:12/20/06 - GGE Holiday Cheer = New Features!
12/06/06 - New Features on Great Games Experiment!
11/21/06 - Introducing the Great Games Experiment
05/26/06 - GarageGames or Bust!

Submit ResourceSubmit your own resources!

Pauliver   (Nov 21, 2006 at 23:36 GMT)
Is this that "you tube" of games that i keep hearing about paired up with XNA? (Except for more than just XNA)

Matt Kronyak   (Nov 22, 2006 at 00:15 GMT)
FYI I tried signing up with the email address that my GarageGames.com account is registered to and got the message:

"The submitted email is not ready for beta account creation.
Please visit greatgamesexperiment.com to request a beta invite."

What constitutes activity on garagegames.com exactly? I've made forum posts, responded to threads, made purchases from the site, made resource comments, logged in and read posts every day. Is there something else that needs to be done?

Sean Sullivan   (Nov 22, 2006 at 00:34 GMT)
Matt,

It looks like the something else that you needed to do was make sure that your private email was consistently spelled with your displayed email. We used every user's private email address associated with their GG profile to grant access. Turns out you had your email mis-spelled. Should now work for you.

Matt Kronyak   (Nov 22, 2006 at 00:39 GMT)
Ha, very strange. I checked over my email in my GG.com profile several times to make sure I wasn't going insane. Apparently I am insane afterall... In any case, it appears to be working now. Thanks!

Todd Pickens   (Nov 22, 2006 at 00:43 GMT)
woops, I just hit the "no thanks" tab for a some one who invited me to their friends list. Whoever that was, sorry.

Eric Fritz   (Nov 22, 2006 at 00:46 GMT)
By the way, Todd, I hope you don't mind my GGE avatar's striking resemblance to your Immovable Frog.

Todd Pickens   (Nov 22, 2006 at 00:53 GMT)
@Eric, I couldn't find you on GGE

Tom Spilman   (Nov 22, 2006 at 00:53 GMT)
@Sean - How about fixing banner style images and *maybe* allowing us to add images linked from external sites. The 1MB image limit is sorta low.

Richard Van Stone   (Nov 22, 2006 at 06:50 GMT)
I tried to sign up too and got the same error Matt did.

Gustavo Munoz   (Nov 22, 2006 at 07:35 GMT)
Yes, same error here too...

Tom Spilman   (Nov 22, 2006 at 08:16 GMT)
@Sean - What is the site markup for adding a GGE badge in a post on the GG site? I tried variations of [iframe] and couldn't get it working.

Clint S. Brewer   (Nov 22, 2006 at 10:55 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5
this is really slick, nice work on it. One thing I was wishing for was the ability to unmark a game as being played by me.

since the game pages say "I've played this game", and the game badge says Games I play.

I'm sure some people will mark games that they've played but not want those games on their badge as games that they play. different connotations

but again really slick work, I used it for a while tonight and things just seemed to work.

Edward Gardner   (Nov 22, 2006 at 13:02 GMT)
What's going to be done to drive traffic to the site? GG has always seemed a great destination site for developers, but gamers themselves less so, what's planned to make GGE different, and more appealing than GG's main website has seemed to be in the past?

It let me register, but never sent me an activation email.

-edit-
nm, it got spam killed, found it.
Edited on Nov 22, 2006 13:21 GMT

David \"Fulcrum\" Wyand   (Nov 22, 2006 at 15:45 GMT)
Greetings!

Some suggestions:

- Allowing paragraphs in group discussions would be wonderful.

- The ability to put a watch on a group discussion to send me an email when a message has been added.

- The ability to see and manage my Groups while using My Account. To even see my groups I have to go to the public version by clicking on the 'See this in Action' link.

- LightWave Dave

Sean Sullivan   (Nov 22, 2006 at 17:44 GMT)


You mean like this Tom?

Lee-Orr Orbach   (Nov 22, 2006 at 18:58 GMT)
I got the "The submitted email is not ready for beta account creation" error, and I don't understand the problem. I checked for spelling, and it seems fine to me....
whats wrong?

Sean Sullivan   (Nov 22, 2006 at 19:06 GMT)
@Lee-Orr

Please be sure that you are indeed using your Private Email for sign up. I took a look at your GarageGames account and you have two emails, one a private and one a public. I also double checked the GGE accepted list and your account is ready to be set up with that email.

Tom Spilman   (Nov 22, 2006 at 19:12 GMT)
@Sean - Divulge the info! :P

Sean Sullivan   (Nov 22, 2006 at 19:18 GMT)
Because I can't put the code in here (it'll just get rendered), I have decided to add a module to my profile on GGE entitled "GGE Tip of the Day!"

Check it out:
www.greatgamesexperiment.com/user/seansullivan/



Lee-Orr Orbach   (Nov 22, 2006 at 19:45 GMT)
I don't know about having two E-Mails... I tried using my Gmail account, my public E-Mail, but I don't have any private E-Mail. Could you enable my public e-mail, since I don't know what other E-Mail I ought to have?
Edit: I figured what E-Mail you spoke about, I I hope I get the E-Mail, since I didn't use that mail for some time...
Edit 2: I saw you sent me an E-Mail with the E-Mail you spoke of, thanks!!!
Edited on Nov 22, 2006 20:06 GMT

Weston   (Nov 22, 2006 at 22:23 GMT)
This seems like it was the original goal of the GG site. Why separate them? Why not just make GG a little more robust?

Looks cool though

Richard Van Stone   (Nov 23, 2006 at 03:44 GMT)
How do you edit your private email? I don't have that email account any longer.

Dan MacDonald   (Nov 23, 2006 at 08:48 GMT)
Weee, this is fun
Edited on Nov 23, 2006 08:48 GMT

Dan MacDonald   (Nov 23, 2006 at 08:49 GMT)
Weee fun



Gary Preston   (Nov 23, 2006 at 11:47 GMT)
Quote:

I'm sure some people will mark games that they've played but not want those games on their badge as games that they play. different connotations


Guess I'm in the "some people" camp :) I noticed someone had added F.E.A.R which I played earlier this year so I clicked "I have played this game" only now it also appears in the "games I play" list, which isn't really true, I no longer play it.

It'd be nice for the "games I play" list to just contain games you've marked as been played at this time. With a separate "games I've played" list containing as many as you've bought/played and clicked on.

In addition to the "Highest Rated", "Most Popular", "Viewed"... how about a "Random" selection too? Have it change the 5 random games, gamers, developers daily. Maybe have it ignore any 0.0-1.0 rated games/devs/gamers though.

Looking good so far though :)

David Dougher   (Nov 23, 2006 at 20:22 GMT)
Filled out the request but never got the confirmation request via e-mail. (Checked the spam/trash folder too.) Looks interesting.

Ken Finney   (Nov 23, 2006 at 22:40 GMT)
73570rz


H4!
Edited on Nov 23, 2006 22:42 GMT

Ken Finney   (Nov 23, 2006 at 22:45 GMT)
Oh yeah, the "Remember Me" function doesn't.

Gary Preston   (Nov 24, 2006 at 00:58 GMT)
Ken: I thought the same as you, but, when you next get the main "home" page showing with the login box, before you login again look in the top right. If you see "Welcome Ken Finney" and a my account drop down, then you're still logged in.

It would appear that the "login" box and "register for beta" box on the home page still show even when you're logged in. Probably a bug, if not it looks weird and makes people think they're logged out when they're not :)

bank   (Nov 26, 2006 at 21:05 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5
hey GG, is it possible to rename or delete group on GGE?
I've created group "AfterWorld" and now can't create a game with the same name. I would like to have "AfterWorld" as a game, and the group... rename it to something like AW Dev Group or even delete it.

thanks

Brendan Rogers   (Nov 27, 2006 at 03:33 GMT)
Nice work guys, I had an idea for something like this a while back. I really hope this takes off.

Ben R Vesco   (Nov 28, 2006 at 06:59 GMT)

Edited on Nov 28, 2006 06:59 GMT

Keith Johnston   (Nov 29, 2006 at 08:18 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5
This is awesome. What did you use for the site? Is it php-based?

Jeff Faust   (Nov 30, 2006 at 02:53 GMT)
Is anyone monitoring the support email over at GGE? I've sent a couple messages via the Contact & Support system with no response, so I'll try here.

When I enabled images on my blog module it seemed to break something and my page is now made with errors. A side-effect of this is that the "edit" links that would normally allow me to fix or delete any bad modules are gone. So I guess I'm stuck until someone can delete any offending modules on my page. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Edited on Nov 30, 2006 02:53 GMT

Alienforce   (Nov 30, 2006 at 08:33 GMT)
I dont recive any activation mail :(
Have done the account setup four times now.
Please advise.

Sean Sullivan   (Nov 30, 2006 at 18:00 GMT)
@Alienforce

Have you checked your spam filters, etc? We are seeing some issues with activation emails getting marked as spam by some email hosts. It is possible that your ISP automatically deletes your spam so you are never seeing it.

Richard Van Stone   (Dec 01, 2006 at 17:33 GMT)
I still can't get access to the site...it's using an older email account I don't have anymore so I can't activate it. HELP :D

Benjamin L. Grauer   (Dec 11, 2006 at 12:38 GMT)
Really great stuff ^^
It helps me waiting until the Torque X to release xD
Edited on Dec 11, 2006 12:39 GMT

Cornell Cook   (Dec 16, 2006 at 15:55 GMT)
Hope this isnt a bad spot to post this. But I can't gain access to the GGE site keeps giving me invalid password no matter how simple or complicated it is. Could someone help me out please. Thanks!

Justin DuJardin   (Jan 11, 2007 at 06:26 GMT)
garrrr!

Like this?
Edited on Jan 11, 2007 06:27 GMT

David Cummins   (Jan 25, 2007 at 02:38 GMT)
Speaking of blogs, how do I add a blog module to my GGE profile? I see you can add galleries and favourite games and all of that, but where do you add a blog? I see no option...

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