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Games Magazine Best Party Game of the year 2007/2008
GiftTRAP wins GAMES Magazine’s “Best Party Game of the year 2007/2008”
What's the idea?
Click here to find out how we’ve turned gift giving into a hilarious social experience
Discover the fun!
Click to unwrap the fun.
Puts your gifts to the test!
GiftTRAP is the hilarious new game that’s taking the gaming world by storm and putting the social back into board games.
The goal is to really get to know your friends and family.
You win by knowing your friends and choosing the right gifts, but most of all it’s just fun to play and gets you talking about things that matter.
- 3-8 Players, 5+
- Playtime 45-75 mins
- Learn in 10 mins
- 1 full size game board
- 640 Gift Ideas
- Rules
- 8 Organza Gift Bags containing; scoring markers, gift & choice tokens plus advanced strategy cards
Love to play Trivial Pursuit, Cranium or Apples to Apples - You will love this family party game.
GiftTRAP is all the fun of Secret Santa without needing to shop or wrap.
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GIFTTRAP AWARDED SPIEL DES YAHRE KRITIKERPREIS - A SPECIAL PRIZE FOR PARTY GAME
Here’s a translated quote direct from the Spiel Des Jahre Judges
“The game picks up the basic idea of assessment games, but combines it with a very personal and therefore emotional theme with a positive connotation: Giving gifts!
Instead of simulating conflict and competition (as is often the case in games) players only get points when they succeed in pleasing others. How great!”
This is without question our most prestigious award. Most North Americans won’t realize just how seriously Germans take their games. The SDJ winner will sell 250k+ units in Germany alone. We haven’t won this award, but a special prize for Party Game from the same jury. The regular SDJ award goes to “strategy” type games. In the gaming world this is the equivalent of an Oscar.
We believe this is the first time a special award has ever been awarded to a party game. It truly is a great honor. (In the serious board gaming world we know us “party gamers” are second class citizens - we know our place). I’m hoping to go to Germany to accept the award in person.
Twitter Semantics: Apps, Tools, Revenue Models, Platforms and beyond
I’m funny about terms and their consistent use. I can remember so many debates during my fun times in the Business Intelligence domain working for Business Objects talking about what’s a “Tool” what is an “App” and what’s a “Platform”. I guess in many ways I have Dave Kellogg (now with Marklogic.com) to thank for my marketing schooling. Back then Tool = generalised multi-purpose thing eg a Reporting Tool and an App = function specific. You can make a tool do many things (write reports on any source of data) An Application was domain specific eg a CRM Application or an HR Application - ie preconfigured to do a specific job.
Oracle, Excel, Word, Visual Basic and Java are tools. You can use them for all sorts of things.
Oracle HR is an app built on a Tool (or series of tools). Intuit is an App.
Twitter is of course a tool - you can use it for many things - What am I doing, What am I following/thinking. It’s also possibly/probably a platform for messaging. Tools and Apps get built on platforms
It’s funny but as I read/search for classification of Twitter and others “Tools and Apps” built to leverage Twitter I’m confused. I’ve seen people term all things web based as “Apps” all all things client based as “Tools”.
For me if something is a downloadable client or a Web App is of secondary interest. It doesn’t give me any clue as to what it does.
In my few days of trying to get into Twitter I see two classes of software with respect to Twitter
Management Tools (generic tools used to help you manage your Twitter data)
Application Tools (there are fewer of these but they are beginning to emerge)
It’s funny the Management Tools only exist because Twitter is so overloaded and doesn’t seem to offer these functions themselves. I get the idea that offering the API helps build out an eco system, but these Management Tools actually take traffic away from Twitter.com (but do drive people to the platform if confusing them in the process).
If Twitter does implement an ad-centric model then it’s fraught with problems. Any ads offered up by Twitter.com will not be visible to users who access Twitter via any 3rd party Tool (web-based or downloadable client). I suspect their would be rebellion if Twitter inserted adverts into the “feed”, so I think they are stuck with choosing who to offend in terms of building a revenue model. I watched an interview that talked about them charging businesses that benefit from their use of Twitter.
I read a few amusing posts about Twitter becoming the next paypal, which seemed unlikely.
The Application Tools to me are the interesting piece. These are more akin to the Apps on Facebook. It’s easy to think of Twitter as a platform (with management tools) and with Applications build on the platform. This is where you can expect to see some creativity and some innovation.
I’ve noticed TwtApps but they seem very rushed and incomplete. It seems to be the bigger opportunity is in the “Apps” versus the tools. Of course the odd good “Tool” could get acquired by Twitter. It’s happened once and it could happen again.
Has anyone thought of the different Twitter solutions in this way. Has it reached a point where Twitter is simply a messaging platform on which a whole array of useful stuff can be delivered.
Twitter is still hard to get. To make the shift from “Doing” to “Attention” and from using just Twitter.com to using your own personal choice of Twitter tools to manage your twitter experience.
HARO (aka Shankman's Army) means Journalists need NEVER write ALONE
Networker Keith Ferrazzi constantly reinforces the mantra “Never Eat Alone”
Bill Shankly manager of Liverpool FC was used to hearing “You’ll never walk alone” chanted by a huge loyal fan base that became known as “Shanky’s Red Army”. Shankly’s Army was a formidable force that supported Bill in winning many soccer trophies during his leadership of the world famous club. Here’s the lyrics to the famous song
When you walk through the storm
Hold your head up high,
And don’t be afraid of the dark.
At the end of the storm is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Though your dreams be tossed and blown.
Walk on walk on, with hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone
You’ll never walk alone
Peter Shankman is as much as a networker as Keith. Keith is armed with his rolodex of of 5,000+ managed contacts, but Peter has an even larger willing army of followers - a crowd I’ve named Shankman’s Army and “crowd” is the right word. With the use of this wise crowd no journalist need ever write alone again.
Today Peter Shankman, marketing extremo and creator of the free service “HARO” or http://www.helpareporter.com has got his own army of 25,000+ PR warriors, each experts in their own fields. It’s an army that’s growing very fast and spreading by word of mouth and reputation. More and more journalists are learning to trust the service too.
Each day Peter sends out three emails including a total of around 100 requests each from folks in the media (journalists and bloggers alike) seeking sources for their forthcoming articles.
Shankman’s Army works “for free” to answer these queries and is allowing Peter to compete with the “for fee” service offered by Profnet
I got to thinking about the power of an army that can fire off hundreds of targeted responses to each media query, I was reminded of two authors/books/concepts;
1/ James Surowiecki’s book The Wisdom of Crowds
James argues that a large crowd is smarter than a small team of experts when the crowd is large, diverse and acts independently. The book does a great job of justifying this. The Wisdom of Crowds explains the power of so many Web 2.0 concepts such a Wikepedia. HARO certainly meets these criteria; 25k is large, they are by definition diverse and they have no idea how others are responding to specific media queries. Just like “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” each journalist can poll from a large independent crowd, sure each member has their own bias, but that is itself the diversity.
Compare this to Profnet which has a smaller crowd who are more elite simply by the fact they choose to pay to use this service. What seems appealing to journalists is being able to reach out to a faster, fresher and more dynamic set of opinions and experts.
2/ Eric S Raymond’s book The Cathedral and the Bazzar (CATB)
CATB is based around the experiences of open source software model (release frequently and often) which is much more free form (it’s compared to a Bazaar) , which is contrasted to The Cathedral (or more the build it and they shall come model of software development where control of a project is in the hands of the few vs the many).
Download the 96K .mp3 file 
of Eric Raymond reading The Cathedral and the Bazaar.
In the first model many people contribute, there is duplication, but this is managed and controlled by an approval process. There is wasted effort, but the end result is impressive, it’s been proven you can build big things fast and keep the development moving. It lives and dies for approval and reputation. Contrast this to Cathedral model where a single design is followed and dictated. The reason I mention this is there is a lot of wasted effort in the Shankman/HARO Model, but participation is optional. People only contribute because they can see the value of the reward. The cost to the contributor is time. With the Cathedral model you get less contributors/waste, but you get a more rigid and predictable response. This means you also get a less well-informed media. A “for fee” model limits the contributors, but divides the media attention pie in a more controlled manor. To me the “Wisdom of Crowds-ness” of HARO and its “Bazaar” like contribution model are part if its intrigue and part of what will keep propelling it forward.
What I really like about HARO is the diversity with sources coming from small and large media sources. It’s more accessible, but the competition is also much more fierce. It’s another example of how the internet can drive cost down to zero.
Keep up the good work
When is your accident waiting to happen?
It’s only been a couple of weeks since I watched The Bucket List and the thing that struck me - Bucket Lists arent just for the nearly dead.
I’m 44 years old and just yesterday I had an accident while at home alone. I fell from 6 feet landing on my back and my elbow. I was winded, my neck was hurt and today my ribs are aching. I was lucky. It could easily have been serious even fatal.
This evening I learned of the death of Dave Freeman, co-author of 100 Things to Do Before You Die aged 47. It makes you think. Get on with your list before you find its too late.
Dave died at home after hitting his head in a fall. A simple innocent accident. Plans can so easily be interrupted.
I’ve become much more conscious of my Bucket List. Last week I went Kite Surfing for the first time, which has been on my list for a long time. Today the wind was blowing, but I was in no state to get on my board and go. How telling is that.
In Game Advertising - Not just the domain of Video/Console Games
I’ve been thinking this for a while, but it’s so funny how word association plays on people’s minds.
The common meaning of the term “Game” used to refer to “Board Games” and over the last 20 years has changed. It’s funny I used to write “Computer Games” and now I publish “Board Games”. No longer is the prefix “Computer” needed. Today “Games” means computer game and “Board Games” need the prefix. That took a long time to change and talks to the power of association.
Most times people’s word associations are correct, eg Coffee = Hot (it’s funny to note here that despite this lawyers would have us write this on our coffee cup. God bless America)
Here’s a couple of association that I know to be wrong;
- Canada = Cold (Wrong I live in Kelowna where we grow grapes and make great wine - it’s very hot here in the summer. The lake is warm. I wear no wet-suit!)
- In Game Advertising = Video/Console Games (Wrong - don’t forget about board games
I’ve always thought of GiftTRAP as an advertising medium (we can feature real branded items in the game), this was very much something we designed into the game. I’ve been reading a little around the subject and it seems people’s common perception is set that they think this “In Game Advertising” refers to Video/Console Games. This just isn’t true.
I can also site other examples such a “Destination” games who I know charge for tourist based ad-placement in their board games.
Many games are walking adverts if you follow the trend for licensed content with games such as CSI Miami game, which is in effect an advert for the TV show. Games of all types are almost by definition social and conversational - this probably applies more to party games than console games which are less about conversation.
For me the difference is in an online game you can charge per click. People can make a small investment and walk away. You can easily place adverts across a number of titles and consume your ad spend based on the games people play.
With physical board games that’s not so easy. There’s also a cat and mouse game of wait and see how many games you sell before any board game becomes an advertising medium.
i’ve heard from a couple of sources that the tipping point is somewhere around the 75-100k mark.
If a game can demonstrate this kind of sales then you can easily charge for placing content in the game.
Conversely prior to any games being sold their is a reluctance to any kind of association - even if the game is free.
I can personally attest to that and know that now it’s actually quite easy to get people’s agreement to have their IP featured in the game as we approach the 50k unit mark.
I look forward to experiencing the upside of possibilities as we approach the 100k mark in future print runs and editions of the game.
One of the most innovative suggestions for GiftTRAP was for actually give it away simply by funding the game totally through in game advertising and produce placement. This seems like a fun option, but we’d have to be careful not to mess with the dynamics of the game. For now it’s back to work selling games for cash!
Gone Boarding : Blogzone