Ode to the blogger newbie.

Back in February of 2008, the President of Playnormous, Jerald, approached me and said we were going to have a blog on the Playnormous site. And I was going to write it. I must admit, I was skeptical. All the blogs I’d ever read were basically girls ranting about guys. Not professional in my mind. But then the real conversation started.

Me: So, I’m in charge of the blog. What should I write about?

Jerald: What do you want to write about? [sits back in chair in anticipation of a long conversation]

Me: I was thinking something like…the latest nutrition research.

Jerald: Will that appeal to our audience?

Me: Well, who’s our target audience?

Jerald: Who do you want your target audience to be? [gives the Jerald-half-smile ...patent still pending]

Me: It’s a website for kids so probably kids. Well, I don’t know. Wouldn’t kids just want to play the games? I’m thinking parents. Yeah, parents probably. But kids might look at it too I guess.

Jerald: You’ll need to develop a voice that appeals to a lot of people then.

Me: What do you mean? You mean the topics I write about? What kind of voice should it be?

Jerald: Whatever you want. What kind of voice do you want it to be?

Me: Well, ok. Voice I can play around with. How about the look and feel? Do I add pictures or just text or what?

Jerald: What do you want it to look like? This is your thing, Melanie. Make it what you want it to be. [does the Jerald shrug] Just tell Ramsey what you want and he’ll do it for you.

Me: Ok…but I don’t even know what to call the blog.

Jerald: What do you want to call it? [does the Jerald half-smile/chuckle combo ...patent also pending]

Me: Ummm…I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it…. I really don’t know what I’m doing. What if I say the wrong thing? What if I make a mistake? What if I need to correct a mistake?

Jerald: I think you’re making too big of a deal out of this Melanie. It’s just a blog.

Finding bloggers that blog about blogging.

A bit exaggerated, but I was given so much freedom that I felt completely lost!  So, in true researcher form, I made myself feel better by researching blogging. I created three bookmark folders in Safari: (1) Blog Content–sites that discussed topics I wanted to write about; (2) Example Blogs–blogs that had a good look/feel, good voice, used humor well, were informative, etc; (3) Blog Tips–blogs about…blogging!

The third bookmark folder contained the most helpful information. These were the folks that taught me how to blog, and how to do it well. (1) Problogger, (2) Copyblogger, (3) Pro Blog Design, (4) Lip-Sticking, and (5) Diva Marketing Blog. Needless to say, without these individuals, Monster’s Blog probably would have never grown past a sprout.

We’ve made the list!

This month, Toby Bloomberg, author of the Diva Marketing Blog, has been running a series on blogger relations. Toby wanted to know how people really felt–bloggers, agencies, and brands–about this new form of networking / marketing called social media and blogging. Toby asked several questions, including which companies and consultants are doing it right. What companies have developed successful marketing relations via blogging and social networking?

Guess who made the list…yup, you guessed it, PLAYNORMOUS!! Considering Playnormous was listed amongst blogging experts like Darran Rouse (that’s Problogger) and Brian Clark (that’s Copyblogger) as well as hot shot companies like IBM, Microsoft, and Nokia, needless to say, I couldn’t be more thrilled. THRILLED!

Check out Diva Marketing Blog’s post “Blogger Relations Series: A Successful Blogger Relations Strategy to see Playnormous up in lights. Well, not in lights. In a very pretty pink box.

It’s not easy being fruit juice.

I was reading one of my favorite blogs today, Tara Parker-Pope on Health, and ran into her post “New Reasons to Avoid Mixing Juice and Medicine.” More juice controversy! I’ve heard many times that grapefruit juice and prescription drugs don’t mix well. Now researchers are saying that orange juice and apple juice may also block the effects of some drugs. In essence, drinking these juices may render some prescription drugs useless including: a specific anticancer drug, some high blood pressure pills, and certain antibiotics. Very interesting.

To read more about drugs that are affected by juice (grapefruit in this particular case) check out this info from the Harvard Medical School. To learn more about juice–the healthy, the unhealthy, and the sort of healthy–try playing our feature game Juice Jumble.

Why should I care about game testing?

It took me a little longer than I would have liked to finish off this series. I was encouraged to do so after one of our friends, Amy Jussel, Executive Director and Founder of Shaping Youth, said she found it useful.

Now, for the finale! So what does all this game evaluation stuff mean to you? Well, it means that we know what kids liked, what they understood, and what we can change to make Playnormous games better. After our research partner, Dr. Cynthia Phelps of The University of Texas Health Science Center Houston, finished her formative and summative evaluations, she learned several things.

The most significant change in knowledge involved foods in the “slow” category, i.e. foods that are kind of healthy and have some fat and sugar. After playing Food Fury, a scientifically significant number of kids learned the correct category for these foods:

• bacon (slow to whoa)
• peanut butter (go to slow)
• 2% milk (go to slow)
• pancakes (whoa to slow)
• yogurt (go to slow)

Changing a game after results obtained from an evaluation.

The goal of our game testing is to be able to answer three questions:

1. Is the game usable?
2. Is the game fun to play?
3. Is the game teaching what we want to teach?

After the evaluation process, if the researcher can say “yes” to all of these evaluation questions, then we stick with the current game design. If not, we make changes to the game.

1. Not Usable
   1. Were kids getting stuck and unable to play the game?
   2. For example, testing of Food Fury revealed that kids did not understand how to submit chains of foods, either by double clicking on the last tile selected or pressing the enter button.
   3. The solution: make instructions interactive and show specifically how to submit chains in a step-by-step fashion.
2. Not Fun
   1. Did the kids enjoy what they were doing? Would they play the game outside of school?
   2. For example, testing of Food Fury revealed that some of the kids found the game too slow when they played it.
   3. The solution: internal programming tweaks to make the game faster and levels that require more chains in less time.
3. Not Teaching
   1. Were the kids actually mastering the learning objectives?
   2. For example, testing of Food Fury revealed that initially kids didn’t understand that “Whoa” foods are foods that are not very healthy and should only be eaten once in a while. They were thinking “whoa” as in “whoa…cool!” and that “whoa” foods were the “awesome and fun” foods.
   3. The solution: add an introductory reel that described “whoa.”

The future.

Evaluation doesn’t stop there. Dr. Phelps hopes to continue testing Food Fury and discover even more about how it benefits kids.

• Does knowledge transfer from icon-to-icon. Can kids use the information they learned about foods in the Food Fury game and apply it to other foods? For example, kids learn in Food Fury that broccoli is a “go” food and broccoli with a topping like cheese is a “slow” food. Does this mean that kids would understand that another vegetable, like cauliflower is a “go” food and cauliflower with cheese is a “slow” food?
• How about gameplay strategy? Dr. Phelps also hopes to look at what strategies the kids were using to categorize the foods. Did kids just assume that all green foods were in the “go” category? What happens if we were to add something like a green jello with fruit icon?
• Does knowledge transfer to the real world? Can playing Food Fury help kids pick out 10 go, slow, and whoa foods at the grocery store?

Well, that concludes my series on how game evaluations work from a research perspective. Any questions?

Arcades can be healthy too.

Back in May of this year, I posted a bit about the Games for Health Conference in Baltimore, MD. We met a lot of people there, including the folks at iConecto. We met them over some good ‘ole New England crabcakes and discussed their idea for Gaming4Health.com, the first online social network for healthy games. A few months later, and we’re a part of their new Healthy Online Arcade!

Check out Gaming4Health.com which features Playnormous games Food Fury and Bubble Trouble as well as many other health games about nutrition, obesity, diabetes, physical fitness, and brain fitness.

They also have a section of health game reviews which I think is a great idea. I’d planned on doing this on Monster’s Blog, but it just hasn’t happened. I’m glad they decided to do it. Unfortunately, Gaming4Health.com’s taste is completely different from mine, and the games they rate as high quality games (fun, educational, good graphics, good health content) are not what I would pick. To each his own, though. I think I’ve been playing too many health games…well, health games, commercial games, advergames, social games, educational games, virtual world mini games… At any rate, an interesting section to visit.

Gaming4Health.com also has a section on gaming conferences. A marketing cheat sheet for me! Haha! I’m looking forward to seeing what other games pop up on this site.

Promoting Playnormous promotional items.

I had a guy from a print shop call me today that spent several minutes telling me about all the products they can print…door hangers, menus, you name it. Well, we don’t need any door hangers around here, but he did inspire this particular blog post. I’ve been wanting to get some Playnormous promotional stuff out but have too many ideas. So, I thought I’d ask what YOU would like to see. Feel free to suggest something brilliant that I haven’t thought of.

Leave a comment and let me know what your top choices are for Playnormous gear!

• Playnormous Stress Ball Monster
• Playnormous Lunch Box
• Playnormous Paper Lunch Sacks
• Playnormous Stuffed Toy - Big Purple Monster
• Playnormous Stuffed Toys - Monster Minis
• Playnormous Stickers
• Playnormous T-shirt (adult)
• Playnormous T-shirt (child)
• Playnormous Mouse Pad
• Playnormous Refrigerator Magnets
• Playnormous Magnetic Grocery List with Pen
• Playormous BMI Monitor or Pedometer