What are we building again?

So, let’s talk about what we want to accomplish next.

I have to do it??!

I have run the contest for two days, and wow is it a lot of work.  Well, not really, but it’s not something that anyone should have to do for very long by hand.  Isn’t that really why we made computers?

The way I see it, there are 6 message types that should go out to the twitterverse about the game and let’s explore them.

Warning!  Questions ahead!

The game is going to run once a day (at least while I have to do it by hand) and the first correct answer to the question is the winner.  That means the speed that the players respond is important.  I think we should give them some warning that the question is getting ready to go and what better way then with the sponsor message that will carry the “hey, a twitivia round is queuing up”.   So message type one is a sponsor message, something like;

“Today's twitivia sponsor is AWH (www.awh.net) "Make IT work for your business".  Prepare for the question!“

So when we want to have more sponsors then AWH we would likely fill the message in with data and it would look like something like

“Today's twitivia sponsor is <sponsorName> (<sponsorUrl>) "<sponsorTagline>".  Prepare for the question!”

(I’m using the <> to wrap the section we will put data into in the future.)

Next, the inquisition begins!

Twitiva wants to know, With separate divisions for righties and lefites, what sport requires its players to keep their elbows at the table?

We have to keep the questions (and answers for that matter) under 140 characters… so the wording is important.  Why 140 characters?  That is a twitter message limit. 

A simple substitution like;

Twitiva wants to know, <question>?

would work for this.

Pavlovian response anyone?

I noticed today, when I posted the questions, the people that played that I was in the room with were chomping at the bit to see if they won.  I think that the lag in announcing a winner for several hours is a good thing for the games and it allows me to space the posts out over a longer period of time so they are not as annoying to everyone, and they show up spaced out in the global timeline to attract more players.  That is one of the goals (so if you’re reading this… sign up!)

And the winner is: @joshuainboden for the correct answer, Arm Wrestling!

Which again is a simple substitution for something like;

And the winner is: @<userName> for the correct answer, <correctAnswer>!

By tracking the username, we can then keep track of leader boards and individual player stats which we will added into the twitivia.com website (when we get there)

Gimme gimme gimme

Since everyone I know likes instant gratification, once the winner is announced, we should provide the daily stats so people can see how well they did and how many other players are playing.  We all want to feel part of something big (and of course, since you’re reading this, not only are you a part, you on the inside, like in the inner circle of trust).  Don’t violate the circle of trust…

Daily stats from twitivia: 8 total answers, 7 correct answers, first answer 1 minute from question post.

Would be something like;

Daily stats from twitivia: <totalAnswers> total answers, <totalCorrectAnswers> correct answers, first answer <firstAnswerDelay> from question post.

I figure at some point we can also do prizes (once we have real sponsorship), until then… “Yea!  You won! My, look at the big brain on that player” is all we are getting.

But Chris, that is only 4, what about the other two??  The other two!!

The other two will be simple “reminder” type message and a “call to action” type message that will broadcast out until we have enough players playing and the game is rolling on its own.  Something along the lines of;

• Tune in tomorrow for the next question and follow the twitiva project at www.chrisslee.com

• To win at twitivia, you have to follow twitivia!

Wow

That was a lot of dense narrative.  If you read this much, cool.  I figured we had to get this part done so we all understood what the goal was.  Next post, we start to look at solving the problem, until then I’ll slave over a hot laptop to get the questions out.  So play, for the love of all that is Holy, play!