an utter waste of time...

(note: the title refers to the app, not the presentation)

10 things I want to say about Fame League...

1) It is in no way fun at all.

2) The first time I tried to play it, I left within a minute because of the annoying music.

3) It spams your friends when you add the game WITHOUT informing you before hand.

4) Even though it runs you through a tutorial.... I have no idea how to play the game

5) Is it even really a facebook app? It uses a iFrame to a website which is independent of facebook.

6) There are too many options and functions.

7) The UI is extremely unintuitive.

8) Important information like time left before market closes is hard to see.

9) Many stock market concepts are poorly introduced, especially to first timers.

10) I've already deleted the game.

I really think fame league is a poorly executed idea, in true Singaporean fashion.  I'm wondering what their revenue model is like, and I'm actually very surprised to know that it even managed 27000+ monthly users.  It may be a GREAT game, but I'm never going to find out, because the start of the game has already turn me off.  Superficial as I am, I believe all casual gamers out there are the same.

More talk on UI.  To begin with, why make a complicated UI and have a tutorial?  The best facebook games can be played without looking at the help or tutorial, because its extremely intuitive.  To casual gamers, UI is extremely important.  I'm assuming the target is casual gamers, otherwise it really wouldn't make sense to infiltrate the facebook market with this application.  I think the irony is a lot of games is that they make it very complicated, then they try to teach you how to use it.

Look at bejeweled blitz.  In its early days, the game used a 760X600 (canvas size) screen divided into 4 to explain how to play the game, and that was ALL the help consisted of.  It was simple and it worked (damn well at that).  After 2 years of introduction, they have been careful in adding in small features which don't make your life harder.  Its still just as fun today.

FAME league really needs to change its initial learning curve to attract more people.  If it has spammed all 27000 users friends, I wouldn't be surprised that at least 20 million users has seen Fame League appear on their feeds.  However, the numbers remain low, and essentially this boils down to the fact that the game isn't really fun enough to generate enough hype.  Sure, you can have some local press coverage, but thats really not going to get you far. 

Considering that I originally disagreed with many things that Yanjie shared during his presentation, I found myself very convinced of what he said during this group's presentation.  I find it a little ironic that while they suggested focus for FAME league, the presentation itself lacked focus.  Was he trying to tell us prediction markets was an interesting concept? Was he trying to tell us that the game sucked? This was extremely surprising, considering that the presenter was one of the better speakers out there.

Takeaways from the presentation:

1) The potential for Prediction market is huge

A quick google would tell you how big the potential of this is.  Like the presentor said, its like an oracle to the future. Thanks to this presentation, I read up on prediction market.  Although I din really get a clear enough picture of a prediction market from the presentation.

2) Less is more

The makers of FAME league clearly tried to bite off more than they can chew.  Whether it is the UI design itself, or what they tried to achieve as an application.  On facebook, less really is more.

3)It is indeed a waste of potential

If they don't capitalize on this, they have essentially wasted the first-mover's opportunity they have.

I must say that Prof Ben's question at the end of the presentation nailed it for me though: "If you think this app sucks so much, why are you even looking at it?" 

I don't really think the creators intended to create a game that uses prediction markets.  Its a trading/popularity game more than anything else. The prediction aspect of it is more of a side-feature kind of thing.  I find the link between fame league and prediction markets at most trivial, even though the concept of prediction markets might have interested me.

During my googlewave meeting after the lesson, Henry said that we should support Singapore start ups.  Much as I love hungrygowhere, but I support it not because its a Singapore startup, but because its good and provides me with what I need.  Its just like how the FAS demands that Singaporeans should support the young lions instead of EPL.  Like Prof has mentioned before, there are so many terrible Singapore start ups out there...

I guess you have to give kudos to Sociolico for their adventurous step forward.  I for one will never have embarked on this project.  FAME league was a waste of my time.  I'm still darn annoyed that it spammed friends.

P.S. In other news,  I feel extremely lucky to have been the first one to go first among everyone who quoted or used Prof Ben. Dilip's drawing lot skills FTW!  I think Tomithy had a great draw to, to have gone after Pillow Fight and Causes.