#idm729

[beccamilz-blog]

"If You Only Have Five Seconds", A Consideration of Concise Digital Legal Policies

In determining the details and policies for an IOS based application and corresponding web blog it is imperative that no small detail is overlooked or under considered.  In researching what specific blogs like ‘The Torontonist’ and blogTO’ highlighted and addressed in their comment moderation, privacy and correction policies, I found many attention-grabbing areas pertaining to legal documentation that I had never considered before.

Firstly, after reviewing blogTO’s comment policy and the ways in which they monitor their user based content, I have found that including a comment section within my own project would be a useful way to connect with users. During my user testing, many of the people whom I interviewed were adamant concerning the value of restaurant, bar and event recommendations and reviews. I have found that while online shopping, reviews are one of the first areas that I visit to gain a better understanding of a products usefulness and durability. User’s value honesty, and opinions play a major role in individuals thought process to make an informed and smart decision. As well, I found that blogTO’s stance on comment moderation very useful, as flagging posts that contain harmful or hurtful words as a very smart way to maintain control of the value of the writer’s opinion and that of the blog/application as a whole.

Concerning comment policies, on my final prototype I would like to include a comment section, to which users will be able to either comment anonymously or using a random or real name. Although Facebook is a great social media tool that can achieve a lot of attention and following for a brand, I decided to not include a ‘Sign In’ Facebook affiliated page as through my user testing I found that it would not be utilized as often by my target market.

As well, I really liked how blogTO made their privacy content easily accessible and straightforward so that users are able to inform themselves of their policies without having to sift through a large amount of fairly dry content. They include a section in their Privacy Policy page entitled, “If You Only Have 5 Seconds”, to which a simple sentence is presented to the user that states that they will not give out personal information to third party sites. This particular Toronto lifestyle source also garners a really friendly, open and honest tone whose explanation of their policies is easy for any user to comprehend.  I will definitely include a similar straightforward section at the beginning of my privacy policy!

Concerning ‘The Torontonist’ ‘s delivery of their policies, I found it very interesting that this particular lifestyle blog included a section that discusses publication and source errors or mistakes. I didn’t even know that this was an important area of content creation to address. I will definitely include this section in my final prototype of my project, if only to help inform the users of where they can report or flag discrepancies in a timely matter. 

In summary, researching competitor’s policies was extremely helpful, as being knowledgeable about the finer details of a project is imperative in achieving a sound and balanced voice.

[angelarraiz]

Privacy Policy & Personal Information

During my second semester in the Interactive Digital Media program, I have been exposed to some interesting topics of legal policies and I have become more aware of how websites on the Internet collect and use our personal information. Nowadays, websites ranging from large companies (such Google, Facebook and Amazon) to small businesses and websites collect and use our personal details and can track all the online data and browsing history. It’s hard to know what they actually do with this information and if they stored it, share it or sell it.

  The Terms of Services, Privacy Policy and Community Guidelines are important things that we as users need to consider to protect our information when we sign up on a website or service. When we create an account we need to be aware about our personal details and third party services as well as information related to our web browser, current location, cookies and web tags. There is particular information that will be shared with the public through the website and third party services. For that reason is important to read this terms before sign up in a website or service to keep our personal information secure online.

  Recently most of the important websites, like Google, Microsoft, Tumblr and so on have changed their privacy policies and terms of service. Usually we say that we have read, understand, and agree to those terms without take the time to actually read it (well, probably you will say that nobody got time for that) but what is behind all this? The true is that most of the websites are using and collecting our data to improve their products, provide anonymous statistics, or make enhanced features that may (or may not) provide a better and greater experience for us.

  On the other hand, as a business owner on a website or app, when we required collect personal information from our user (including result of searches, signing up to an email newsletter, or online ordering and payment processing) is really important to review the privacy laws and best practices to make sure that we comply with the privacy requirements within the service that we provide in our website or app. This way we protect our backs if we are committing an infringement without really knowing. It’s important to follow the laws that operate under our jurisdiction, province or country when it comes to personal information protection.

  Whether is you are regular user or a owner of a website or app, keep in mind the importance of legal policies to keep your personal information secure online and comply the privacy requirements for the protection of personal information.

[shaofh]

Who owns the word “candy”?

Albert Ransom, the developer of CandySwipe, wrote an open letter on his website to King.com accusing them of stealing his ideas and attempting to cancel his trademark. Having read the original letter I was shocked and searched a certain number of articles about this argument, hoping to find out why this ridiculous conflict had happened. Ransom filed his trademark for CandySwipe in 2010, two years before King launched Candy Crush. In the open letter he claimed he created CandySwipe in memory of his mother who passed away and accused King of “taking the food out of his family’s mouth”. I downloaded both the games, I don’t think they look confusingly similar and the gameplay is very different between them. However, I can see they share similar three march template. King polished the graphics from CandySwipe and the “Sweet” is very identical. King purchased a trademark predating CandySwipe's filing date, thus they could register a trademark on the word "candy" and move to cancel the trademark of CandySwipe. Now the trademark application gives King exclusive rights to use the word “candy” in video games and other related merchandising. It seems ridiculous because King doesn’t invent the word “candy” literally and for what reasons can they stop other game developers from using it. Their demand is understandable considering Candy Crush is a huge success making millions of dollars and they don’t want other competitors to confuse the customers by copying essentially the same elements in game, fooling customers it is the same game by putting similar titles and making money off it. Trademarking the word “candy” seems to be King’s first step to protest their profitable property in the chaotic game market. But it is still absurd that King can claim their ownership over a common word, and it is even unfair for independent developers such as Mr Ransom who owns his original idea at the first place and now has to give up his title because a big rich company buys its “parent”. The instance of Apple well explains the commercial use of common word as a registered trademark. Apple usually refers to a fruit but nobody eles is allowed use the word “apple” as a brand in market. However, this is only acceptable because Apple is one of the most well-known brands and the public identifies the trademark exclusively with Apple. That explains why it becomes controversial when King trademarks the word “candy”. Even though Candy Crush is suh a success, its brand is still not distinct enough from other casual games. In other words, King don’t have adequate reasons to claim themselves own the word.

[shaofh]

Thoughts about developing a business model

Regarding the game is currently a student project, it is absolutely a smart choice to sale the idea to the game industry and our peers in order to gain an ample budget and recruit more talents to join our team. The most obvious way to sale our game is to attend all kinds of industry meetings where we have the opportunities to get in touch with leaders and talents in digital space. Of course considering it costs a lot of the attendance fee, we had better participate these industry events as a volunteer. Thus we have more chance to talk with the guest speakers and other important people. Otherwise, we are also seeking for sponsorship and funding to support our project.

For business to consumer promotion, our market strategy starts with the question of how to make new audience know the game, in other words, how to have their attention? Because it is a Facebook game, thus our promotion will place the most concern on Facebook to catch the eyes of Facebook users. To achieve the goal, we will set up a Facebook page for the detective game, the purpose of the Facebook page is to get more people sign up and play the game. First of all, we need to improve our SEO performance, so the game can rank at top by search engine on Facebook.

To do this, we need to provide our audiences really fresh and tasty content and something that audience can truly integrate and participate with. For example, detective stories have an enduring popularity, and the detective game is based on a compelling and creative story, so why not asking our audiences to contribute their talents to develop the game story into a whole novel? Since it is an open-ending story, the audiences are free to use their imaginations to tell their unique stories. Another thing we could do is to speak our voice out on more social medias, as a result, we will have more followers who are hopefully to become future potential users and by this way we also enable to connect ourselves closely with our game community and relate ourselves to the changing game industry.

However, those efforts are not enough, we have to do more to sell the game to totally new audiences according to audience appeal. For those who may seldom play games and have never finish reading a detective novel, we have to convince them why the game is special and appealing to them. A conventional way is putting advertisement on Facebook which is effective to attract new audiences but will definitely increase our budget. Instead, we plan to put on some shareable content that will invoke hot topics on popular website platforms such as Buzzfeed, Reddit, Mashable and Youtube.

[shaofh]

Business plan for my senior project of a detective game

Mission Statement

The project mission is to create a fun and smart social game of detective theme using an interactive multiplayer mode and reaching entirely new audience on Facebook.

Vision Statement

The vision of the project is to attract those who aren’t frequent game players and to engage them into a virtual role-playing social game. The project objectives are to have one million monthly active users and to build a long-lasting detective game community on Facebook.

SWOT-SC/PEST

The strengths of the game will be distinct characters and compelling narrative skills, as well as creating an interactive multi-player platform where users can show their negotiating and reasoning skills. The biggest risk: a new multi-player model needs to be created to get players to play together in a manner that fits their schedules, which hasn’t been done before for detective game and we have no experience at all. Another risk is considering the game has an open-ended story, we need to give players enough freedoms while still telling a fantastic story. For some player the more freedom the better, but for some other players too much freedom could be a nightmare, instead they want more guiding and control in the game. Regarding of social and moral issues, there won’t be any violent content in the game, and there will be no bloody scenes showing committing crimes and killing people. Otherwise, the game is based on fictional characters and story which won’t provide a criminal scenario for real-life scenes such as school or hospital. For technological analysis, we are a small team and none of us can do programming or coding. What I plan is we will find a proper prototype to help displaying our ideas and work. And the project will rely heavily on the work of graphic designer and content writer.

Target Market and Positioning

The target market of the game is not for advanced players who expect spectacular effects but casual players who wants a bit of light entertainment in the spare time. There is a big demanding market for casual games and the ambition of this game project is to catch Facebook's nigh-billion eyeballs. The game is for those who are tired of dumb games simply playing with objects and want something more sociable and smart. I chose detective game because it emphasizes more about story-telling and logical thinking. The main joy of playing the game will come from the use of analysis and communication skills. And the motivation of playing the game is obvious, because people always want to be smarter than others and the ability to solve unsolved mysteries will certainly satisfy their vanity.