MEETING NOTES, September 4, 2001

Pre-meeting themes:
--underwater laptops
--carnivorous appetites and mindsets

Design .002

-begin again with high-level diagram; looking at Nathan's Visio screens

REGISTRATION

white boxes = screen

yellow boxes = what do we need to know

At top level, have general info about game--goals, creators, sponsors, etc--with link to "initiate game". So user could read about the game--maybe an "About Ivanhoe" section--before actually entering the game space.

What types of games will we have?
--class game: specific list of players; administrator (teacher)
--maybe 4 types of games--elementary, intermediate, advanced, pataphysical; the level chosen may enable or disable different functionalities
--class game would be of the elementary type

B: when should we declare game level? player registration or game creation? If player registration, then this could limit the games viewable. How do you move up the scale. This should probably happen at the game creation level.

General agreement.

B: Do we want games to be public, both at the level of joining and of just viewing. Should anyone be able to join a game? Should anyone be able to view a game? -example: classroom game. private for joining; public for viewing. first day of class, instructor give class a "key" and this key needs to be entered when joining game, this gives player permission to join

JD: Invisibility cloak that can be applied at any time.

Fields for registration:
    user id
    password
profile (optional:
    last name
    first name
    description
    email address
    url
    image)

JD: What if someone enters a pornographic image?

What's the difference between registration and login? Registration you do once; login you do many times. The first is where you might enter personal information; the second is what you do each time you enter the game space.

Registration -- new player info; fields listed above
Login -- just userid and password

Goals of registration:

Do we want to require email addresses?
--why would we? track players. way to contact people who have hacked the system, someone who has harassed others, notify players of outages, etc.
--why not? privacy issues, people enter fake addresses anyway

Finished diagram for registration, see fields above and Nathan's diagram.

**finished screen map

GAME CREATION (screen map 002)

Possible modes of participation:
    -start
    -join
    -lurk

Lurk might give a player, particularly a new player, a chance to observe. The opportunity to figure out what's going on.

Back to creating a game.

JM: How much does the player know when she arrives at this screen? How to play Ivahoe? What texts are available?

A: Can players see games without joining a game?

JM: Archive of played games for people to look through?

B: Login as guest.

JD: Space that lets potential users get a taste of the game--instructions, articles, descriptions, archives, etc.

GR: A newbie game--everyone log in as guest and play. Bots that guide people.

JM: Login as guest, read about Ivanhoe

B: Play as guest--actually make moves; lurk as guest--view moves but not make any.

GR: Players gain points by teaching people in the learners game.

New Procedure:
When we begin a new box we discuss exactly what it is we want to accomplish in that box. For example, in the "Making Moves" box, we decide to discuss the simple version of the game and keep a list of annotations--of complicating feature and functions. Let's remind ourselves that we're working towards our minimal model here.

Johanna wants to note that we want future version of the game to allow players to generate types of moves, new moves.

NOTE: for making moves we need to decide on turns or no turns

INITIAL GAMESPACE

-Initial Screen
    continue
    join
    create
    visit

-Game List Views
    My Games
    All Games

CREATE NEW GAME (screen map 003)

Initial Screen:
    name
    source text
    level (elementary/intermediate/advanced/pataphysical)
    settings
        open (joined by anybody; viewed by anybody)
        closed (joined by password; viewed by anybody)
    time to join
    accept petitions
    accept petitions outside window
    play window (time frame)

     move time frame
    round time frame

-What's in a game label?
    name
    level
    source text and author
    number of players
    date started
    settings
    last update

[back]