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Not long time ago we saw an interesting thing happened on the famous cloud file hosting service Dropbox: they launched they own online quest, that allows users to increase the storage space of their boxes. You might be thinking, why Playcer  is writing about dropbox’s quest and why do they think that is interesting. Moreover, Dropbox’s quest is online event, and Playcer focuses on offline. The point why we’re doing it is that this quest is a good example of how you can achieve several goals at once with just one quest, making it interesting to user. In order to do so they combine puzzles, attention based steps, logic, and even offline activity. Let’s see what company can achieve by using such tools (Yes, quest is a tool, very useful one):

1) Users loyalty – such quests shows users that company cares about them and not only about the winners but also those who decided to complete it and didn’t succeed. It’s not even necessary to finish the quest to get a prize. At each stage, you get a reward. And this is really cool.

2) Familiarize user with service and company’s culture - Most of the time I (and i think i’m not alone) use only certain features of services. I’m too lazy (or have no time) to find out about other features even if they are useful one. So, the quest is a great opportunity to show the user all that cool stuff that he normally doesn’t use (or what he doesn’t know about). For example, during the quest, I passed through dropbox’s forum, blog and saw it’s list of employees, which i wouldn’t probably find without “help”.

Many companies would give a lot for such results.

But you still have a question “Why he writes this in Playcer’s blog?” The fact is that Playcer adds this advantages of online to real life. Each of us knows interesting facts about things around us. Why not acquaint others with them in an interesting way? Why not tell the story of your city or your favorite book by driving others through real places and not only drive, but also make them think? Imagine a quest based on one of the Agatha Christie’s novel. Tempting isn’t it?

This also applies to companies, as an opportunity to introduce the client with their history, culture, goals which is often as important as selling the product.

Alexey

Sorry, we didn’t write anything so long but we have launched registration and work hard to launch demo quest release. More updates are coming soon. And now we share our vision about new sale model which is called Location based sales.

As I promised in my previous post, today i’m going to write about Apple and its Mac App Store. But first of all, on behalf of our Playcer team, i’m wishing Steve Jobs all the best for a quick recovery.

After being announced on Apple Special Event on October 20, 2010, Mac App Store has been released on January 6, 2011. And just over 24 hours since the Store’d been launched they hit one million downloads. Incredible. This stunning number (as well as recent 10th billion download from App Store) is established by two facts:

1. Buying have never been easier. The procedure of buying is simple, convenient and quick (all you need to do is tap Buy App, and the app immediately downloads on your iPhone/iPod or iPad).

2. Price. The average price in Business category is about $14. Most popular apps start with $0.99 (Penultimate, Weather HD), with $9.99 for Pages, Keynote, Numbers. You spend $13 if you have a lunch in Five Guys.

Considering that, I assume decreasing prices for Apple software along with increasing of volume of sales.

Then I thought: why don’t we add some game dynamics to that? Why don’t we make a game out of process of buying? Buy it! Play it! What we have now is a once set, static price for an app. What if we could dynamically change it? The price can depend on anything:

- popularity. The more the app is downloaded the cheaper it costs;

- It could change randomly (with a determined max price);

- It could depend on place where you’re buying it. There could be places in the city where you can buy the app with a discount, or specific places, like shops or coffee shops, which sell exclusive apps that can be bought only here.

Here is where Vitaly said: “Hey, that’s a great idea. Let’s call this LBS: Location Based Sales”.

The conception is pretty simple. For instance, purchases made in shopping mall (online) or any other locations (say, park or coffee shop), would cost less than if they were made at home. Image, you go grocery shopping and whatever you can’t find in the real shop you can buy in a virtual, location-based one. This LB merchant places can complete the real shops, make the big supermarkets, such as Walmart and Kmart irrelevant.

But as of today, there is no existing infrastructure where this ideas can be deployed on. That is one of the features that we’re planning to implement on our platform.

We’d really like to hear your opinion on this. Also you can tell what would you like to see on Playcer, what do you think can make it more interesting and bring more fun for you?

Please write it in comments.

Mike

Today i’m going to talk about what is Playcer, why we decided to create it and why we’re doing it now.

But first let’s take a quick back in time tour. In 1990 Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau proposed to use “HyperText … to link and access information of various kinds as a web of nodes in which the user can browse at will”. On 25 December 1990 they implemented the first successful communication between an HTTP client and server via the Internet. That’s how the World Wide Web was created. In 2000 we saw how “dot-com bubble” burst . The era of Web 2.0, which started in 2004. Then Facebook and Twitter. And location-based services, which started emerging couple of years ago.

As for today, I can surely say that the base of social web is built. You can create new services, which will improve user experience, add new cool features, but the social web platform is built, and I think we all know the name of it.

What we should do now is to use this platform as a tool. Thanks to social networks and services we have people connected with each other through specific relationship model. But it’s static. The concept of social networks consists in moving and implementing social relationship model in the Internet. But can you imagine the society where people only talk about what they’re doing without actually doing it? That society would become Russia in a couple of days. Doings, actions moving us forward. That is what most important. That is the basis, the foundation of Playcer. We want that usage of our service will be able to help people make changes in their lives and the society, whether it’s a one person or a group of people. That is the reason why we called people whom you add on Playcer team, not friends. You can use those people, your team, to help you complete challenges.

By bringing the action, we build the bridge between virtual life and the real world. And not only that. The second fundamental principal of Playcer is using different game dynamics in everyday life. I guess you all familiar with them : it’s Happy Hours in restaurants, different miles bonuses, discounts, and of course collect-fifty-Coca-Cola-lids-and-get-a-free-bottle-opener sales promotions. These game dynamics are very powerful, and can be used in a right, problem-solving way.

All that, all the things that i’ve just said, are reflected in our slogan : Play it! . Playcer helps you make changes using game dynamics as a tool.

In the next post i’ll write about recent opening of Mac App Store, and how that led me to some interesting thoughts.

Mike

Good news: as TechCrunch wrote our big brother SCVNGR has recently rised $15M. That means total funding now is about $20M (like Foursquare) and evaluation of company is $100M (similar to Foursquare). But there is a big difference between Foursquare and SCVNGR. Foursquare has more then 3-5 M users (while SCVNGR has less then 800K). Foursquare has active users (SCVNGR’s more like passive observers). All these mean that investors believe in SCVNGR and SCVNGR might have more profitable business model than Foursquare. We’d like to congrulate Seth Priebatsch and his team with this new round!

In the beginning of each year everyone is trying to make their predictions (so are we). Here you can find 50 predictions for 2011. These guy collected predictions from different sources and included gaming as one of the trends. They expect that games will play a more important role in new, surprising areas: energy efficiency, car fuel efficiency, dieting, exercise, nutrition. Also I want to add innovation in city services. We have already thought about how we can use Playcer platform for creating non-game, socially responsible quests and will go downwind!

Recently I have organized CityCamp in Russia and we (concurrent with guys from CityCamp London) invented such idea:

Its impossible to know how much your neighbour is doing for your street. Or how much effort you have put in in the last year compared to the this year. By turning chores into challenges, effort into visible statistics we can create a platform that celebrates achievement and makes it clear for all to see.

It brings transparency and fun back into the community efforts and makes for a system that rewards the inidividual and celebrates their input in a tangable, visible way. This idea is brand new! So new infact that TED only featured it this year.

During discussing project Clean city someone suggest adding game dynamics to the service to engage people share information about problems: give them points, or rewards and build rating most active users.

Clean city is the Ushahidi-based project (like Russian-fires) that collect information about problems in a city (where to need scavenge or repair or someting other).

On Nachinai event we met similar project but with more clear business model: Scavenge it immediately! Main idea: some people publish information where the trash is and how much money they can pay. Someone gives $1 or more. Who make this job (scavange) will get all the money. This idea can be implemented on Playcer. Imagine - you will have an ability to put money on your virtual account and then create a challenge (task) and an executor will earn some money granted by creator(s). Afterwards the executor can get real money!

Maybe it will be on Playcer maybe not - this is not our main feature but I am sure LBS games can be not only fun and amusing but also useful.

Vitaly

Hi guys!

We want to share with you some of our plans for the nearest time! Also we’ve got a short story for you, our thoughts about LSD LBS, our first release is coming soon and about pink elephants and how it could be connected with Playcer.

© wikimedia

Our project was thought out summer of 2010. In fact, at that time it was nothing but the idea. Later we understood how to create it and what we should do.

I love use Gowalla. It’s really cool and a lot of fun. You can find items, collect them or put in another places where another people can disclose them. Also Gowalla has trips. You can create own trip from several places. But looks like this tool is not really popular in Gowalla. I am using Foursquare as well. It’s more serious service. People can add tips. I think it’s the most important feature which give people value to know what is useful around them. Also you can open badges and earn points. It’s a shame that each week points are resetted! Another remarkable feature of Foursquare is mayorship. It looks like you can host a place for some time.

As you can see both of these services implement some aspects of game dynamics: find items, earn point, receive badges. But no one puts into action game mechanics which are usual in games (like MMORPG, video games and etc.). You might think that foursquare is as useful as it’s boring. Why should I add places? Why should I check in. What’s the real value? Can I can a discount? It’s an interesting advantage but it doesn’t have proper implementation in these services.

So, we wanted to create some tool that would allow you to create your own routes (trips, quests –as you prefer). Our first simple application allows you create trip from existing spots. Each spot has QR-code. You can check-in by scanning QR-code. After spot’s being scanned, it’s marked as completed. Creators of trips can invent story and use it to create games like Dozor, encounter. It’s an Interesting audience, but small.

Of course we knew about SCVNGR. It’s very interesting and powerful service. But users are not active, service looks sad and so much business component that doesn’t allow to attract a lot of people. Also one of my friends from Boston (now in Krasnodar) Timothy Post said the other day that SCVNGR is the next Groupon. So we decide to take some features from this one and go further!

So after several weeks of reflection we decide to create something that can create World of Warcratf in real life – by using real places, people and items. This idea has a big potential! If we mix it with social game experience, multi-player games, Second Life, SCVNGR, foursquare – we will take something like Molotov cocktail!

We started to implement my idea only in November during russian startupweekend (called Nachinai). It was really big step for us: we found people who were interested in Playcer, we had finally moulded. We choose name for the project – PLAYCER. This is combination of two words: place and play. In November 11, 2010 we have registered domains thePlaycer.com, thePlaycer.ru, playcer.ru and proceeded working on project. Also we participated in another russian startup events (Startup Crash Test and Harvest). We promised on Harvest that would release close beta version on January 1, but decided to postpone it later a bit. This will happen in the next few days. Our close beta 0.1 will include an ability to create own demoquest. And we give it to try our friends only.

Our great adventure is about to begin. We invite you to join us: http://www.theplaycer.com/.

PS: How about finding Pink elephant Dumbo on parade blotter LSD (see image above)? We’ve started )) Also crazy pink elephants will be in Playcer. We promise!

Vitaly

Hi, everyone!

First of all we’d like to wish you happy holidays. Let the new year  bring you luck and fulfilling all your dreams.

Wish you next Year find more treasures, friends, visit interesting places, level up and have great success!

The past year brought a lot of interesting: Apple’s tablet computer, expanding of LB services, strong growth of cloud computing and iTunes Ping (not really).

What will the new year bring us? Will Facebook and Twitter finally go public? Or will it be an Ipad 2 or Iphone 5? Or flying cars? Here is what we think:

1. Google vs FaceBook: we will see the crucial, final battle between those two Titans. It’s going to be a hot time as for creating new startups as  well as for already existing, early stage ones. Who will make first move of the knight?
2. LBS and collective buying: Another big trend that we think will be one of the central is that collective buying companies (like Groupon) and location-based services (Foursquare) will be able to go to Plateau of Productivity in Hype cycle. Integration of real life and virtual world now is obvious. If the last decade we saw the business going global (eBay, Amazon), now thanks to companies such as Groupon and Foursquare business again becomes local. People are using their mobile devices much more than they do desktops and laptops, which affects their lives,making it more mobile and active. People want to buy things right here(in the place where they are), right now(and they wouldn’t mind a discount). RFID and Augmented reality will also add the value.
3. Game dynamics. This is our field. As we wrote before game is a very important in real life. Such companies like SCVNGR which put games into action for business will go to “slope of Enlightenment”. We hope that Playcer will occupy a fitting place as well.
4. Openness. New stage of openness and growth companies like Wikileaks. Open Government (Government 2.0) and new non-profit projects will grow (as well as in Russia). Internet will suggest new space and new innovations in such area like medicine, school, smart houses and city planning. And at the same time new ways to protect personal data will be contrive. It’ll become  important as never before.
5. Appnomics. Like wikinomics changed the way how to innovate such a small pieces of code, mpbile apps  can change the way how to earn. Mobile devices and applications could replace desktop software and notebook. We also have some idea how this area will look like and will  share our ideas of sale model for App Store in the future.

That is not all we’ve got. In the following posts we’ll cover the rest.

Well for now that must be it.

Happy new year, folks! And don’t drink too much vodka ))

© Okinawa Soba

We’re happy to welcome you to an official Playcer blog. This blog isn’t only about the project itself and news related to it, here we’re going to share our thoughts and  vision of how global web industry is growing and being developed, how reality interacts with the Internet, how technology and new media affect people’s behavior and how game dynamic can be used in business, education and real life. We believe that the game, the same as sex, have the greatest impact on everything we do.

Since the beginning of the growth of LBS, particularly such projects  as Foursquare and Gowalla, we’ve been thinking about creating something interesting exactly on this field. Here in Russia Web 2.0, Real-time web and LBS doesn’t have such an impact on people’s everyday life, as it does in the U.S., Japan or Europe.

There isn’t any original Web projects/products that have been created in Russia, and mainly it became known for its copies of successful Internet companies – Vkontake copied famous social network Facebook, MoiKrug – LinkedIn, Yandex is constantly in the role of catching Google, although they’re leading company in the russian internet search market. Attempts to copy almost all of the well-known projects - have become the norm in Russia. In the last 20 years we have formed our own internet – which we proudly call Runet. But there is nothing good about that. Well yes, unlike other countries we can build strong local businesses - if you look at Runet, you’ll see  we have almost all the basic services that are used around the world - but our own services. That means we can build technologically strong companies. But due to our nature, apparently, we are locking inside of our market. And that hinders the development of the web industry.

Russia can and should create  companies that would be interesting to people worldwide. Russians has always been famous for their innovative approach to solve various problems, their persistence and perseverance to difficulties. Russia - is not just vodka, bears and borscht, It’s also  a lot of intelligent and rational people.

In the next post i’ll write more about Playcer, and less about everything else))

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