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GAMEFUL CHALLENGE #6: Strangers No More

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What we don’t know scares us — and causes us to stereotype it. Communities full of strangers are less safe and democratic than those where everyone knows each other (See [...]

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What we don’t know scares us — and causes us to stereotype it.

Communities full of strangers are less safe and democratic than those where everyone knows each other (See Bowling Alone for more details: http://bowlingalone.com/).

Your gameful challenge: Design a game to take place in a common space (like a coffee shop, park or other public place where people hang out) and turn it into a space where strangers interact with each other.

The goal of the game should be two-fold:
• Make the gameplay intriguing so that people can see the game and join it
• Create enough trust between strangers that they’d coordinate to grab coffee or do something together again

Bonus points if:
• The game can be started by 1 person
• The game is simple enough that it can remain visible or discoverable in the common space without a game master present, and requires no moderator to get the game going

Rules:
• ALL genres are eligible. High tech, low tech, and no tech games are welcome.
• Original games only, please. (Please don’t submit a game you made last year. Make a new one!)
• You must prototype and play your game in your chosen shared space at least once. Please provide a playtesting report (photos and videos for bonus points!) describing what worked well, what didn’t, and any ideas you have for future versions of your game.
• All games MUST be playable by others. Give us a way to learn the complete rules, or to download it or play it online.
* All team members must be Gameful members!

Rewards:
• $1000 prize for the favorite game chosen by this challenge’s Gameful Fairy, Nathan Maton
• Membership to the Awesome Board for up to 3 runners-up
• Up to 10 top entries will be tweeted by all four Gameful founders (reaching more than 25,000 people) to help your game go viral!

To Play:
1. Join the STRANGERS NO MORE Group.
2. Discuss what you’re up to.
3. When you’re ready, but BEFORE September 23, 2011, start a new forum topic for YOUR entry. (The forum topic is the easiest way for judges and contestants to see all entries in one place.) Describe what you’ve created. Include a link to your game, or a way to download it, so we can play it.
4. When you’re ready to officially submit your game, fill out this form.
5. Await game-tastic feedback from your fellow Gameful monsters.
6. Winners will be announced by October 23, 2011.

Tags: challenge
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Curse of the Lost Doll (was Love Doll) (14 posts)

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  • Avatar Image Jacob Corvidae, a level 7 monster with 81 posts — 9 months, 2 weeks ago:

    The Curse of the Lost Doll

    Requirements:
    1) A public space with multiple people in it.
    2) a stuffed animal, doll, action figure, celebrity cut-out or something similar
    3) Paper, pen and tape, or a ribbon and pen.

    You’re walking in a park, or by the riverfront, or on a sidewalk, or even the cafeteria, bookstore or coffee shop. On the ground in front of you is a small teddy bear with a ribbon and a large tag, just lying on it’s side by the grass (or dock or condiment bar or…). Do you pick it up or walk on? You look around to see various people going about there day, but no obvious sign of a child who’s lost their toy. You’re curious, so you pick it up. The tag says:

    ………………………………………………….
    Help me!

    I’ve gotten separated from my owner and really want to get back home. I’m hoping you can help me. But it’s going to be challenging. You see, an evil wizard put a spell on my owner and I so that we won’t recognize each other. I know we’re not too far from each other — I can sense it — but if my owner sees me or you directly ask about me, then the curse gets worse and we won’t ever find each other. Instead, you have to keep me hidden and ask each person you find “What do you deeply love?” Let them answer and you’ll know if you’ve found my owner. If not, then move on or enlist their help. Or just keep talking about what they deeply love, which is bound to be interesting. If you can’t find my owner, please leave me here.
    ……………………………………………………

    and the game begins….

    This game is simple to prepare, can start with a single person and can get lots of people talking to each other. It’s designed to get strangers in public places to talk to each other as a starting point for building community connections, while also having fun. It’s a sure conversation starter and may even get strangers to work together on a common goal. For explaining things, I’ll just say “the doll”, but know that this could refer to any inanimate creature or person. The “owner”, the person who started the game, should follow these basic guidelines to run the game:

    1) Get the doll — The doll may just get taken, so be willing to part with it. Of course, if it does, well, you’ve just made someone very happy and probably still given them an interesting conversation piece. Or maybe they’re off asking everyone they meet for the next 5 years “What do you deeply love?” – so the game’s still a success!

    2) Prepare the doll — obviously there’s lots of flexibility here – as long as the doll and the note are both obvious to a passerby and they’re not likely to get separated easily.

    3) Choose a location for the game — I recommend a place where line of sight will enable the seeker to see between 5 and 15 people or small groups of people. Any fewer and the game’s likely to be over too fast. Any more and the task is likely to seem too daunting. Not having line of sight is only likely to work if the game’s being played in a confined area (think a bookstore with its various shelves, or an office with various cubicles.)

    4) Placing the doll — This is tricky in a public area. If people are already there, they may well see you place the doll and then point the future seeker right to you, or just bring you the doll themselves. Either be first to a location, wait until it’s cleared up some, or find a sneaky way to drop/place the doll where you want it without people noticing. Note that depending on your location, this may effect your choice of doll. That 4 foot stuffed dog is going to be hard to anonymously place at your work cafeteria.

    5) Choose a location for yourself — It’s recommended that you stay in line of sight for the game. Partly so that you sneak an occasional peak in that direction (though see the instructions in 6 below), possibly overhear other conversations (fun!), and also remain aware if something unexpected goes wrong.

    6) Act casual! — Once the doll is place, you have to act like you aren’t aware of it. This may be the hardest part of the game! If you watch it constantly, you’re likely to give yourself away and end the game quicker than desirable. If you’re just looking in someone’s general direction, they’re more likely to come talk to you than to someone who’s looking another direction or in the middle of an activity.
    It’s more complicated, but you could set up a secret video camera somewhere to try to capture more of what’s going on while you’re not watching, but this faces the same problems (but much more so) mentioned in 4 above.

    7) Be ready to answer — Make sure you’ve planned what you’ll do when the seeker asks you “What do you deeply love?”. Your answer just has to let the person know that they’ve reached their goal. Here are three possible responses:
    a) “I deeply love that you’re playing this game! You won!”
    b) “I really love a dear friend of mine that I haven’t seen for a long time. He has beautiful blue eyes, a lovely smile, and a great fashion sense. He’s also about 8″ tall and covered in red fur.”
    c) “Nothing.Not since I lost my favorite doll.”

    8) They’ve won! — If the person has found you, hey’ve won! If you’re using an answer like b) or c) above, just be aware that the seeker might know they’ve found you, but be confused about whether they can tell you or show you at that point. You might let them squirm or improvise, but don’t push it. Really – they’ve found you at this point and are supposed to have won.
    You may want to consider giving them a prize. Winning may be enough. One nice idea is to then give them the doll as a memento.

    9) Record — you may want to ask the person some questions and capture what they learned. Asking what people deeply love is kind of fascinating. You can write it down. You can even keep a little notebook for all of your Curse of the Love Doll games — it’d be a great way to keep the conversation going to show the person the results from previous games.
    Also, this is a great way to meet someone right there. They’re likely to wonder about why you’re doing this. Tell them about Gameful and the Gameful Challenge “Strangers No More” and why this is good for the world. Face it, this is someone who stopped their day to take care of a doll and then went around asking strangers about what they deeply loved — this likely to be a great person to meet!
    And if you record results, let me know! Send me details at lovedollcurse -at- gmail.com.

    8) Final note — lots of variations are possible here. I’ve listed a few, but if you like these, or make up others, please let me know at lovedollcurse -at- gmail.com.
    a) Make a different story – the evil curse was just an easy one to fit on a small card without having to explain much.
    b) Make the seeker ask a different question.
    c) Get others in on the game – You could plant a few friends in the area to provide part of a clue, which the person has to puzzle together to find you. This might work well if you’re out of the line of sight, but your friends aren’t. Obviously, the story will probably need to give them some clue that there’s more going on.
    d) Bigger location – You could try this on a larger scale in several ways. One is to play the game in a bigger location. The person finding the doll has to walk (or even bike?) over a wider area to find you. This might solve the issue of how to place the doll without being seen, but it raises a host of other issues. Obviously the note needs to be tailored to the challenge. How do they travel farther, but still have enough focus to realistically find you? In a small town downtown, you could give instructions to step into each storefront on the street. Perhaps in that case, they have to walk in and say “I’m feeling lucky! Is anyone in here feeling lucky?” or something… Just remember that the point is to actually meet people and make connections.
    e) More people, more dolls – This could be fun at an outdoor festival, concert or streetshow. This variation obviously ignores the 5-15 people in sight range rule. To make up for that, plan to drop a bunch of dolls around the area. Doing this anonymously is, even more than before, a challenge, but I’m sure you’re up for it! Remove the instruction about not being able to show the doll to you. In this case, the seekers might have a hard time finding you — but they’re very likely to find other people who’ve found other dolls and then some interesting conversations’ll start. Perhaps in this setting folks are really likely to enlist a large body of others to join in and ask the question. If the festival’s really big enough, maybe you can have some kind of visual clue that you wear to help. For example, if the dolls all have a bright red ribbon around their necks that link to the tag, then maybe you wear a bright red ribbon around your neck too.

    That’s all. Have fun! And let me know how it went at: lovedollcurse -at- gmail.com

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  • Avatar Image Drew Crow, a level 7 monster with 46 posts — 9 months, 2 weeks ago:

    I have to admit that when I first read the title of this thread, I thought the game was going to involve Japanese inflatables, but fortunately that wasn’t the case ;) I love this game, but I think you would need to think really carefully about where it is played. You need to have the best chance possible of people with time on their hands encountering your toy otherwise they simply won’t play the game. I think the idea of doing it at a festival is beautiful – you have just the right mix of people with time to spare, a relaxed atmosphere and frame of mind and the willingness to step outside thier comfort zone more than usual. I would so play this at a festival!! :)

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      Dan · 9 months ago

      Haha I also thought of sometihng similar, drew

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        Dan · 9 months ago

        Just testing comments

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  • Avatar Image Jacob Corvidae, a level 7 monster with 81 posts — 9 months, 2 weeks ago:

    Hey Drew (nice last name – said Mr. Corvidae),

    I agree that choosing a location is key. However, I think this is part of the fun — even in places with people who are busy, how many might arrest their schedule and be pulled in? In any case, a park, library, cafe — even an office lobby or transit station could all be good candidates. The person starting the game should, probably, be ready and willing to read a book or something to keep them busy regardless.

    I plan to play-test soon. Then we should have a better idea, yes?

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      Drew Crow · 9 months, 2 weeks ago

      Absolutely! I shall look forward to hearing how the playtesting goes ;)

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  • Avatar Image Nathan Maton, a level 7 monster with 148 posts — 9 months ago:

    Can’t wait to hear about the playtest either. I think it will be interesting to see how you can mobilize groups (right now I’m imagining playing it and just looking for someone alone vs. in a pair), so having friends along seems important. It also seems like anyone who finds you is ready for more, so rather than end it perhaps asking them to now to sit and replace the doll could be interesting. Also, how long do you imagine it would take someone to pick this up in a crowded area? I bet it might still take a while but only through playtesting will you know. Perhaps considering how to lengthen/shorten the gameplay by choosing objects someone will pick up quickly (e.g. a wallet vs. a doll) and having obvious signs of who it is attached to could help. More food for thought, great idea!

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  • Avatar Image Jacob Corvidae, a level 7 monster with 81 posts — 7 months, 3 weeks ago:

    FIRST – Name Change — due to the unfortunate connotations of the first name (and some design change considerations), I’m renaming this….

    Curse of the Lost Doll.

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  • Avatar Image Jacob Corvidae, a level 7 monster with 81 posts — 7 months, 3 weeks ago:

    SECOND – PLAYTESTING!

    First, here’s a picture of my first doll. I bought it for $3 at the local Salvation Army figuring it was colorful, playful, hard to miss and cute. Hmm… can’t paste jpg in here for some reason…. I’ve got it — I’ll have to figure this out later. To describe, it’s a bright orange and red lion beanie baby, with a red ribbon around it’s neck which attaches to a grey board with the message.

    Anyway, I’ve run this twice now, and definitely learned some ways for improvement:

    FIRST TEST:

    Left it at the entryway of a local coffeehouse in Detroit. Place was packed and crowded, which made dropping it in location a challenge. I just had to be discrete. However, it was near closing time, so more people moved by the door leaving than coming in and I don’t think as many saw it that way. The doll and I sat there for 35 minutes with no specific activity. I couldn’t see the doll from where I was sitting (very limited seating choices open) but while people may have picked it up, it didn’t seem to gather much attention. Attempt one: fail. Plan for improvement: choose a better time when people are more leisurely and coming in (not going out) — also consider better location where the doll can stand out more.

    SECOND TEST:

    A different cafe, in Ann Arbor, on a leisurely Sunday morning. Tried a very different setting and location, with doll on the floor, and a good viewing point for me while I read my book. Several people looked at it, but only one stopped to read it, then moved on. I eventually snuck over and put it up on a banister where it was more obvious. This helped, as it got two people reading it over in 10 minutes. The first chuckled and moved on (so okay result, but no game). The second was a store employee who was really intrigued and called over several other employees. One of the other employees was a manager however who decided this was a problem and took it away. Rats. I finished up my tea and reading and finally went up and asked why they’d taken it away. The baristas were fascinated by the whole thing, but said their manager was freaked out and thought is might be laced with drugs or something. The one who first found it went back and retrieved it for me and I left. Overcoming fear of strangers: zero (or maybe 0.5); fear of strangers among managers: 1.

    Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten out for a third try yet — it’s been a busy summer. For future play, I’d like to run try a few things differently:

    A) I want to try it in some different cafes;
    B) I’d like to try it at some outdoor festivals;
    C) I think the message needs to be more accessible. Specifically – it should be designed for a faster read and emotional tug. But I think the “magic question” that will break the spell should be less intimidating. It’s an intense question to get strangers to ask each other. It could even just be toned down a bit to “What is something that you love?” It could also go in several easier directions such as: “Do you have a nickname?” or “What’s the most delicious meal you can remember?”

    I still think this game has a lot of potential, but clearly the setting and patience are really really key. I’ll keep playtesting it regardless….

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  • Avatar Image Jacob Corvidae, a level 7 monster with 81 posts — 7 months, 3 weeks ago:

    Picture of prototype:

    http://jacobcorvidae.deviantart.com/art/Curse-of-the-Lost-Doll-proto-259899108

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  • Avatar Image Drew Crow, a level 7 monster with 46 posts — 7 months, 2 weeks ago:

    Jacob, I had a thought about your game today – do you think it would work to do away with the question entirely and instead use an object which is intrinsically intriguing? So instead of a doll, use some kind of wierd device the use of which is not at all obvious but it looks really interesting OR *BRAINWAVE* – use a locked box which people have to find the owner of in order to open it and find out what’s inside. Nothing is more tantalising than a locked box! The contents of the box could be something which initiates conversation so you get your ice breaker that way. Once someone has found you and discovered what’s inside the box, they become the ‘Guardian of the Box’ and get the key so that they can deposit the box somewhere else and wait for someone to bring it back to them. How does that sound? Feel free to say it sucks big time, I won’t be offended ;)

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  • Avatar Image Jacob Corvidae, a level 7 monster with 81 posts — 7 months, 2 weeks ago:

    Love it! Lots of ways to build the mystery. Love the locked box idea.

    Te question was to try to get people to actually interact with each other in a meaningfu way, but it may be too contrived for many settings. I think it’ll work great for some folks but not others. I’m reminded of the writing adage “show don’t tell”. It strikes me that this game design tells the person what to do to interact with others. You’re suggesting an approach which is more intuitive. I think that’s a great direction to take it.

    I’m reminded of the simple and curiosity inducing ‘lost object’ instructions in Alice in wonderland: drink me.

    What if there was just a cool, ornate box that said: find my key. Prhaps that’s too brief. Maybe ‘find the person with the key and you get to keep the treasure.’. Then they want to know what the treasure is and have a built in incentive in the game. Of course then to play the game you have to get a box with key (a little more challenging) and a treasure to give away every time, but that’s all do-able.

    Off to find a lock!

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  • Avatar Image Drew Crow, a level 7 monster with 46 posts — 7 months, 2 weeks ago:

    I’ll keep my eyes open the next time I go to a car boot sale and send it your way if I find one ;) WIth regards to the treasure – rather than treasure that needs to be replenished whenever somebody finds the key, you could always make it the answer to a question or statement which is posed on the box and make the question/statement so intriguing that the player just *has* to know what it is. Obviously it’s no mean feat coming up with a question/statement that does this, might need a few iterations to find one that works…. As a really crude example – statement on box: THIS BOX CONTAINS THE SECRET TO ETERNAL YOUTH. FIND THE GUARDIAN OF THE KEY TO UNLOCK IT. And inside it says something like “Age is an illusion caused by a belief that you are material. Free yourself from this illusion and you shall be eternally youthful.” oooooh Zen… I know *cringe* but anyway – you get my drift :D

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  • Avatar Image Guilherme Duarte Rodrigues, a level 3 monster with 4 posts — 6 months ago:

    I loved it! Shame the play-tests didn´t go as planned. I have a similar idea for a game, so really looking forward the development of this one.

    I think the box idea is great, but quite limiting. Almost everybody has a doll of sorts that they can spare to do the game, but a nice locked box is much harder to find.

    I agree the first message should be shorter. “Find me an owner” or just a plain “Help Me” maybe? I love the background you created for it tough, so I ask you to try again the same way you did the playtests, but :

    1 – Warn the owners of the place.
    2- Don´t leave it on the floor, leave it on a very visible place, maybe holding a huge “Help me” sign. After someone picks the doll, then they find the actual message. Remember this video clip :

    Overall, loved the concept, good luck!

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  • Avatar Image Jacob Corvidae, a level 7 monster with 81 posts — 5 months, 4 weeks ago:

    Thanks! I’m glad you liked it. And your suggestedd additional steps are totally solid. I like the idea of a bigger sign, with the story on back. I think a thousand different stories could be used here — and I’m intrigued by no story at all — but I also feel like the story helps firmly set it up as a playful thing, and most people respond to narrative really well. Pinball Wizard probably wouldn’t have gone as far without a Rock Opera concept to back it…

    And thanks for the video clip. I love the song and had never seen the video – hilarious and surprisingly relevant!

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  • Avatar Image Jacob Corvidae, a level 7 monster with 81 posts — 5 months, 4 weeks ago:

    Also, just read this article on creating gaming niches: http://www.google.com/search?q=niches%20in%20game%20design

    And it makes me wonder about the challenges of a game like this — where it’s pretty much introduced to unsuspecting players. Granted the self-select, which fits the niche idea fine, but there’s not necessarilly an easy way for them to spread the game….

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  • Avatar Image Guilherme Duarte Rodrigues, a level 3 monster with 4 posts — 5 months, 4 weeks ago:

    I think I will try this game sometime this week, with any luck :) I have to beta mines, so could do both.

    I have some suggestions about how to spread it, long and short term:

    Long term : Have a website, with the rules of the game on it, and a feedback receiver of sorts so people can share how their games went and etc. Add it as a card or something in a hidden place of the doll.

    Short term: Make the question simpler, and if possible funny. Even better, make the doll carry a bag with questions, and the final instruction to the new owner should be to draw a card from the bag where it could be written something like “Ops, you are not really my owner. :( Please, help me, read the sign :) ”. Maybe write the website address on the cards as well.

    G luck

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