Gaia Positioning and overview (V2)

= Current overview of the game =

Message
TBD

Experience
I am contacted, on the web, by a representant of an pro-environment NGO.

He offers me to participate in their activity - propaganda &amp; lobbying, information gathering, field ops, computer security, etc. I contribute by accomplishing missions on the real web that relate to these various activities.

As I accumulate missions for the NGO, I will start gaining their trust and learning more about their their official but also underground activities, the power struggle between the departments of the NGO, the secret organizations that this NGO is fighting...

Context

 * Who: An Internet user, stumbling upon the right website at the right time


 * Where: the world wide web


 * When: the present
 * Initial situation : One day, while I'm browsing the web, I am contacted by a stranger who offers me to start a carreer as a web activist dedicated to the protection of environment.

Main features that support the experience

 * Earn and maintain the trust that the NGO has in you, by performing missions on the web.
 * We are looking at developments towards multiplayer for future developments.

= Genre =


 * The game can pose as a serious game dedicated to ecology and protection of environment. This said, given the political ramifications that we plan to include and the choices that we want to offer the player, we expect that the experience can diverge from a traditional serious game; then our game could be better defined, though more generically, as an 'adventure that occurs in the real web'.
 * It takes place in a realistic/fantastic context - the universe is the web as we know it, but there is an ongoing war where mysterious forces, possibly fantastic, are involved.
 * Within this genre, the game can involve various gameplays - strategy in improving the trust of the organization, reflex or brain teasers that can be involved in mini-games, treasure quest on the web, etc. But all of these gameplay should be adapted to a casual gamer target - accessible, not involving prior knowledge in video games, not in a too techie context.

= Target =

Target :

 * 50% male / 50% female (data from other games seem to indicate that male audience pays more, while the female audience drives virality)


 * Adult audience, core at 30-35
 * Volume TBD
 * Existing communities :
 * TBD (look at communities around references, or communities that share the same demography)
 * Volume TBD

Notes &amp; assumptions :

 * players 1) who are interested by what is happening around us and major trends such as environmental concerns 2) with a taste for innovations brought by the web and 3) who want an 'intelligent' (in the sense that the game must imply a bit of thinking, though not necessarily strategic) game that revolves around that

= References =

Games :

 * In Memoriam (casual ARG)


 * Facebook games (social interaction with existing friends, accessibility)


 * GTA (sandbox universe with underlying storyline)
 * Eve Online, Second Life (Large scale universe and economy)
 * Sims (building and maintaining the trust of the organization, through a traditional life sim gameplay)

Others :

 * Princess Mononoke
 * Matrix
 * A.I.
 * Ghost in the Shell
 * Gibson - Neuromancer

= Market research =

Need to contact existing communities to discuss the game concept, and ask for input:


 * Age, gender, geography, revenue, education (core and secondary targets)


 * Lifestyle and other interests


 * Gaming habits (frequency of play, preferred genres, plateforms, online/offline)


 * Preferred gameplay &amp; wanted features


 * Research existing games, competition (present &amp; expected)


 * Browsers used
 * Values