How to fix the world with single mobile game? (I am serious)

[Michał Kucharczyk]

Hello,

        I'm sorry for my English - it's not my native langue. 

Anyway I would like to give away this idea. I hope that  someone more skilled and experienced will find it interesting and consider developing it. If You like it, please take it! Or at least share it. Thank you for your time. It means a lot. 

So:

 

How to fix any and all problems of the world using a single mobile game.

Introduction:

 There is so many people who know how to fix a particular problem.

There is so many people who want to help but don’t know what they should actually do.

 All you need to do is connect all the “hands ready to work” with all the “minds ready to guide”.

 Simple as it sounds. Here comes…

 

Big Plan:

1)      You create a mobile game let’s call it Real Life Superhero (if you don’t like comic books just replace every “hero” with “knight”), and promote it with the help of Superhero Associations, and Grateful Word Representatives

2)      Players create their Avatar – a superhero with customizable name, gender, look etc. You can choose their outfit and equipment, but on start you only have aces to very limited (and not very impressive) items – like an old towel instead of a cape, or a broken sun glasses instead of a mask.

3)      Players click the “Mission” button and receive the task they have to do. They have to do it in real life. Few examples:

• Spend some time with a war veteran;
• Read a book to a child in a hospital;
• Help to collect data about homelessness;
• Sing the approval letter for a good case;
• Help cleaning a forest;
• Write a letter in defense of a political prisoner;
• Bring some food to an animal shelter;
• Give away some clothes you do not use;
• Make a small donation to nonprofit organization;
• Singh up to newsletter of nonprofit organization;

 

Mission come up with briefing which contains:

• Information:
  • why this task is important
  • what kind of “bigger problem” is it helping solve
  • Winning Condition
  • Rewards
    • Stats improvement (virtual)
    • Super Hero Title (virtual)
    • Worlds Gratitude Symbol (real)

4)      Players could either accept mission or choose other task.

 

II  Partners in crime

There is countless numbers of non-profit organization in the world (over 1 500 000 in US only). Solving worlds problems is literary reason of their existence. So we make the game open to them by letting them become…

 

Superhero Associations:

The Superhero Associations are basically Game Masters known from RPG. They have to “design” new missions, “provide” game environment and define condition of winning

 

Example: “Go to Saints John’s Hospital and read a book to a sick child” – players have to came to the hospital and report to a social worker  (let’s call him a Sidekick) who will give them necessary instructions and introduce them to the child who needs help.

When the player completes the task he will receive a unique code from the Sidekick. Player will have to enter the code in an application to prove he finished the mission so he can receives the prices.

Important note: Thanks to geolocalization we can assure that every player will only receive task he actually can do.

Important note II: Superhero Associations will also actively apply for help of Grateful Word Representatives designed for their missions.

 

b)

So you have people ready to help, and leaders ready to guide. Now we need to motivate them (with real life benefits) – so you need a partnership of big and small corporations and government organizations (or anyone else ready to help). We let them become…

 

Grateful Word Representatives

Grateful World Representatives chose Super Hero Associations (or, more specific, concrete Mission) they will support by providing World Gratitude Symbol price.

 

World Gratitude Symbol is some small real life benefit like:

• Discount for Representatives product;
• ticket for an event or to a cinema (“Buy one, get two” is good enough);
• some simple items like a key chain with Representatives logo;
• Extra points in Representatives affiliations programs;
• Better offers (like extra minutes or sms package if Representatives is a phone operator);
• Free games or wallpapers for mobile phones;
• Free First Aid courses for people favoring health-care based missions.

 

Things that Representatives are often ready to give away just for advertising purposes can now build their CSR image as well.

Prize could be also something symbolic (no-costs at all). Like privileges. Who wouldn't like buying coffee in Starbucks without the line? Or having an individual advisor in bank?

 

The more companions, the more interesting rewards. Maybe, if the game grows big enough, some university will award some extra points on their exams (like for healthcare involving missions on paramedics curses)? There are no limitation here.

 

And since Missions are local the Rewards can also be. It is an excellent opportunity for small business like coffee shops, restaurants or hairdressers to promote themselves.

 

Rewards

Besides Worlds Gratitude Symbol there are also Titles, and Stats.

Representatives and Superhero Associations can come up together with Titles – unique, subsidiary name that the player can add to his avatars secret identity.

 

Example: Let’s say I started the game and named my avatar Rigante. I completed 4 missions. It’s up to me now if I want to be known as:

 

• Rigante The Rainforest Defender
• Rigante The Protector of Helpless
• Rigante The Life Bringer (missions: sign up as an organ donors)

Or maybe something like:

• Rigante The Knight of Coca-Cola (or Minnesota State, depending who was Mission Representative)

 

 

(sorry if the above titles they sound ridiculous. I really can't tell due to my poor English)

 

I imagine that in time titles themselves could develop some benefits “spontaneously”. For example if some celebrity would declare that he always give super-top-priority to e-mails from people with “The Life Bringer ” title people would definitely get one.

 

Last reward would be improving your Stats.

 

Stats                                                                                                  

Completing missions result in gaining more:

 

• Super Strength – improved by missions involve physical work (like cleaning forest)
• Superhuman endurance – for patience requiring missions  
• Durability – for time consuming missions
• Healing Factor – for missions involving healthcare
• Psychic Powers  – for missions involving human interactions
• Energy Constructs – (imagination based super power) for missions requiring intelligence, or creativity (like writing letters in defense of political prisoners)

Etc. but also

• Leadership – for actions promoting the game itself, like inviting new players or sharing progress on Facebook.

(This are only examples. Feel free, to rename each of them or write new one)

 

Achieving certain threshold of Stats level is required to get access to better equipment and items for players avatar and for harder mission to player.

 

Other thoughts

 

It would be great to think of some “multiplayer missions”, adding some kind of teams competition and expanding social interactions. I was thinking of something like “We need a 50 heroes to start this mission. Join us!” (Mission in concrete place and time).

 

 

There is also one serious problem: How to make people visit the application every day? If they enter it only to find new missions or to prove finishing of a previous one, they wouldn't do it very often. Eventually they wouldn't do it at all. So I'm thinking that the game should contains as many mini games inside as possible. Multiplayer especially. Players should have an opportunity to see their avatar “in actions”. Level of stats and items should have impact on this game as well. Any form of interaction between players will only help the build up the community.

 

Maybe it’s good idea to show this project to Marvel Comics or DC Comics? They could use it to promote the idea of reading comic books and provide great mini games (Marvel’s Avengers Alliance have 1000000 players already)

 

Or Maybe you should find other “Main Representative” who is ready to finance game developing?

 

You could run this in just one city for a test and let the game grow.

 

Summary:

 

Game in essence is  just “ultimate volunteers provider”. But it fits well to the needs of:

• Nonprofit organizations – by offering “hands ready to work”;
• Small and big companies – by offering good promotion opportunities;
• Players – by giving them real life profits, sense of fulfillment, and entertainment;

And last but not lest

• World – by creating functional community of people willing, equipped, and ready to change the world.

 

I know it is only the tip of an iceberg. There are still, so many things remaining to be figured out (like: how to adjust “difficulty level”) and that developing this game will be a tremendous effort… but it is possible. We could run this in just one city for a test and see how it comes?

 

 

 

 

[Benny Faibish]

Great Idea,

I personally know 2 startups that tried to do similar things, but not as a game, but as a platform that connects between people that want to do small tasks, and people that need help.

It takes a lot of resources to build something like that - both in software and in human resources, but for big organizations it's not a problem.

Hopw something will come out of this in the future - and well done Michal!

Benny

[Michał Kucharczyk]

Thank you - it means a lot.

Personally I think that "3th party" (Grateful Word Representatives)- commercial companies are crucial, to make this idea working. It's easier to do anything if someone is making profit out of it. 

[Stefano F.]

This is amazing idea! I like it but i think is possibile to make this idea working using open source community

[Michał Kucharczyk]

Thank you!

Do you have something specific in mind? 

[Stefano F.]

I'm inspired by this http://opensource.com/business/14/9/open-source-business-models-part-2 and you can start to put the project on github, find developers and think how to get money-value from the project 

[Sergio Luciano]

 Michał Kucharczyk , hello

I'm creating a platform based in many things that you said in the post. I already have the concept writed, creating stories and starting to think about the wireframe behind the game. We expect finish the prototype in the middle of this semester.

Right now we need a back end programmer to join the team and embrace the cause and the idea. That buy the idea and start to develop with us. Otherwise, we are going to get some funds to create it.

If you want to talk more about such kind of games, i would love to keep in touch and share some experiences.

Brgds

[Michał Kucharczyk]

That's great news. Let me know if I can do anything to help.

[Bryan Graham]

I don't personally have a ton of experience to lend towards your idea. However, I do think that you have a very cool idea. How could you get businesses to buy into supporting this idea?

[Michał Kucharczyk]

Thank you.

Hmm, I was hopping that It could be just part of their CSR strategy. Or you could design some ways to pay for making some "prizes" more visible than other.