Introducing the Great Games Experiment

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!