Sleuth Home - Message Boards - Game Announcements

Jul-7-2010 10:23

We've decided to move Noir into 2008 and take our first tentative steps towards the social web.

You may or may not have noticed the "Recent Activity" box on the homepage. For now, that's just going to be a space for displaying Scripted Mysteries that people "Like". A loose rating mechanism that people have been asking for for awhile. Also, it's a way to give those mysteries a little more exposure to the outside world.

If this goes well, we'll add ways for people to like message board posts and agency pages as well.

Users are now given the option of liking an SM when they start it and when they end it. If you want to Like an SM that you've already completed, clicking on that mystery in the Case page now takes you to a detail page with more information about the mystery before actually starting it. Give it a try.

-Your friendly neighborhood Admins

(If you all had Like buttons on your foreheads, we'd totally click on each and every one of them.)

Jul-7-2010 10:39

LOVVVVEEEE it Ben! Thanks so much!

Jul-8-2010 06:33

Mildly confused (OK, so that's nothing new). This is just a way of getting Sleuth into the Facebook 'liking' system, right?

So if you extend it to message board posts, and someone clicks 'Like' on a post I make (unlikely as that may be), then a link to that message board post in Sleuth would get posted on their Facebook wall and be visible to their friends?

I have to say I'm getting less and less keen on this 'Facebook takes over the world' stuff... </Scrooge>

Jul-8-2010 07:01

I like it. It gives the game more exposure. If you can also expand on it to include certain activities and/or achievements. Like you would get a message (ingame or pm) about an activity such as...

Character "such and such" reached 1 Million exp points
Character "such and such" solved his/her 1000th cases
Character "such and such" bought an apartment.
Character "such and such" earned a new title.
So and so...

And underneath you have an option to click "Like" and have the message posted on your Facebook. It's just a thought.

Jul-8-2010 07:18

not so keen on the 'post' liking, more keen on the 'achievement' liking.

it's a combination Cordy of getting Sleuth some more air-time (free) out there, and also a way of people signalling they like a SM, or enjoyed a SM. People have asked for some kind of 'ranking' system for ages, this is semi-expedient way to do this.

Jul-8-2010 07:54

OK, makes sense. I'm fine about getting Sleuth out there, I'm just wary of the whole Facebook thing because I know quite a few people who use Facebook and have no idea how the privacy controls work and therefore exactly what they're doing when they 'share' things. We've had a couple of alarms recently, so I'm probably feeling a little over-sensitive.

I like C-LO's idea about achievements. I'd prefer to avoid linking Facebook to the message boards.

Jul-8-2010 12:55

Cordy, keep in mind that you never see anybody's name in those facebook widgets unless they are friends of yours in FB. So I don't think there's a real privacy concern on around this feature.

For liking SM's posts etc, the advantage for us/hypoware is bringing more visibility to sleuth and some of our content.

The main advantage y'all get out of it is a way to rate/surface stuff that you like in the game. So that the best SMs and posts get the most visibility.

I also like the idea of allowing achievements to go up on your wall, but I do want to be careful to not be too spammy about it. I don't think any of us wants the game to become Farmville: Noir.

So, yeah, we'll try out achievement wall postings, but it may take some tries before we get the right balance between allowing people to brag about Sleuth accomplishments while not bugging all your friends and family.

Jul-8-2010 22:26

"Cordy, keep in mind that you never see anybody's name in those facebook widgets unless they are friends of yours in FB."

Not strictly true - you also see the names of friends of friends in some cases. But I take your point. The problem is that Facebook has also started inviting you to share some things with your entire email address book and I have a feeling that might spread. But like I say, I'm feeling a little over-sensitive about it at the moment!

"I don't think any of us wants the game to become Farmville: Noir. "

LOL!

'Oh no! Cordy has found this poor little abandoned arch-villain. He's a long way from home and needs to get to Shangri-La so the Prince can scold him for being naughty. Will you help feed him on the journey?'

Jul-8-2010 22:35

Don't give me any ideas!

Jul-9-2010 01:09

Hey I like that. Can I get a bonus charm point if I rub your Rasputin's Egg?

Jul-9-2010 02:22

Only if it hatches...