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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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What kind of Gift Giver are you?

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Thought of the day.

Does it really all come down to lists?

A “Bucket List” for the long term to make sure you don’t forget about the stuff you really want to achieve.

And a “Gratitude List” for the short term to remind you where you are, who you are and all that surrounds you and all that you have already achieved.

It seems like a happy balance. Be happy in the moment - Happy to look back and happy to look forward. Happy to be.

Yes, you can change the name.  I guess there is a risk people will wonder what the apps is if you change the name too much.

I must confess, I’ve changed the name of our GiftTRAP app several times just to see if I can improve visibility in the Apps Directory. Do people really search the apps directory apart from people in the Facebook apps business. Probably not!

Our current name is GiftTRAP’s “Can you guess my ‘Bucket List’ game"

There are many reasons, but mainly were late to market. People are jaded on Facebook in so many ways. Here’s a few of the issues;

• Too Many invites
• Too Many Apps (30k)
• Apps usage has hit a plateau
• Too many copy cat apps
• Too many apps that do nothing of value

The name “giftTRAP” is well known in online board game community, but that’s a small sub segment of the global population of party game, so first I think we need to try and hook people into using our app and then teach them a little more about a real world cardboard board game. If you already have a crowd on Facebook (with an existing app) then it’s easy to get users for your new app, but building from zero is simply a hard slog.

Simply put we missed the whole early adoption Facebook wave. I wrote our app myself using Ruby on Rails (I had to learn it) and I’m no coding superstar, but I can get by. I had to switch from rFacebook to Facebooker (which delayed us further) and we’d began with a standalone all.

What’s interesting is that depite all the issues I still think a Facebook is proably better than having a standalone app. Whilst people are jaded on Facebook to more apps, they are even more jaded to registering for yet another service. It’s the better of all evils. With our original standalone app we found a lot of people would register with one of their email addresses and then send themselves a gift to another of their email addresses. I guess we are all so SPAM paranoid. What happened to the trust in this world? At least that doesn’t happen with a Facebook app.

Our app been through several iterations to figure how to translate an award winning game into an online game. Perhaps we’re not there yet, but to my mind our apps is unique, it actually does something and we have clusters of users who get it and play it a lot. I think we’ve got some cool stuff in the analytics especially when you play amongst a group of friends and compete to see who knows your mutual friends best.

Being a “Virtual Gifting” app is both a plus and a minus. On the positive side I’ve estimated that half a billion virtual gifts have been send across all the Social Networking platforms, ie people have heard of the concept. The downside is it’s easy to get lost in the noise. People who have a virtual gifting app of choice aren’t really looking for a replacement and perhaps were making it harder by doing something more. Our is actually a game and not just the idea of sending a virtual gift.

So i’ve always wanted to find a way to differentiate ourselves. Secret Santa is one way - it’s a quick connection. GiftTRAP is the “Santa” of board games. It’s funny but there are probably 20 or so Secret Santa app. Again were slightly different here. Our game is about giving virtual gifts and not about organizing the postage of physical items. That said it’s a bait and switch game - we’ve seen people opt to play GiftTRAP instead of Secret Santa - it’s just so much greener. Who needs some $5 gag gift to put out in the trash anyway.

So along comes The Bucket List. It’s an amazing coincidence but nearly all the things featured in the movie are in the game plus a whole lot more besides.

I’ve estimated 20 million people have seen The Bucket List. There are many people that get the idea of Secret Santa, but The Bucket List is so much more current and probably a better connection - as the focus is really about thinking about what you want in life and that’s really the focus of GiftTRAP.

It’s actually very hard to get your app out into the right social group (whoever they maybe). I must confess to not really feeling that I’m part of the FB generation, but I’m trying to learn, I guess it’s like trying to teach my old dad how to use a computer. This old dog hasn’t given up yet. I keep tweaking and fiddling and will continue to do so and it’s a lot of fun learning what works and what doesn’t

If I ever write a book on “The Story behind giftTRAP” it will be an interesting read. I’ll need a better title.

So back to the renaming, why?

1. Too many “Gift Apps” - it’s impossible to standout when there are 500+ apps themed around gifts. Amazingly there’s even an app to make Gift Apps which kind of explains point 1
2. GiftTRAP and “Bucket Lists” are a good fit. It kind of overcomes some of the materialism thoughts that GiftTRAP can communicate to those who haven’t played the board game
3. OK, so the Bucket List is a hot topic (although I’m late again)
4. It’s all about the Application Search Engine. Both the name and the 250 character description matter here. The sequence of words matter and it gives different weighting to the title vs the description. I’m shooting blind here as to my knowledge there’s no public data on what people search for on Facebook. So I don’t know what is key. There’s no public data on daily visits to specific groups. So I’ve tried to make my app name and my 250 character description work as hard as possible

Will it be the right thing? Time will tell. Perhaps there’s a few more tweaks along the way.

It’s all about timing and aiming to peak in time for The Holidays. There are many things that need to align to make this happen, but this seemed like a smart timely move to make.

I’ve also written some new copy for use on online sites to describe GiftTRAP in the context of Secret Santa and The Bucket List.

I’ll also be working on a few more posts around the Bucket List theme. I’m amazed just how many posting there are on the web about The Bucket List.

The good news is there’s 8000+ monthly active users on other “Bucket List” app ( I guess I could call it the official one). And there’s a similar number for the Movie page of the same name.

GiftTRAP is now on the first page for “Secret Santa” “Gift Exchange” and “Bucket List”

With 500 Gift Apps on Facebook I really struggle to get how this can be the case. Who are these people? Who does they perpetuate to use these apps? I’d love to know, to learn the bit I’m missing.

There are over 70 gift apps with 10,000 Monthly Active Users or more. What are these apps. There’s such specialization it’s amazing. There’s even a “Rotherham” gifts app which is small soccer team in northern England (no offense - I’m from Southport originally who’s club even smaller). I must confess to not having examined every single gift-app but I guess the economics must stack up.

What’s frustrating, but I can’t see a route through it is non of these apps have any reason to be in the “Gift Exchange” business for any other reason that ad revenue. We may have a legitimate product, but that’s kind of irrelevant. If you can’t beat it join them.

There I said it. That feels better.

GiftTRAP is The Bucket List as a board game.

I’m so excited to have finally watched this movie, but it’s funny its taken a few days for it to really sink in.

As I watched it and the plot unfolded I got drawn into the characters the movie flew by. I really enjoyed it. It was only afterwards that I tried to check of the list of items on their list and cross check them to GiftTRAP. Well they are pretty much all there. We’ve got The Great Wall of China (but not on a bike - not any easy photo to find), but we do have Cross the USA on your Dream Bike. It’s not that this is significant it’s just that thinking about things to do before you die is a new way to look at the game and it’s purpose.

We’d gone down the “Gift” path simply as the game was inspired by the question “How does Santa Pick gifts for Children”. Quickly the gifts expanded to include charitable acts, gifts of time and aspirational items, even fantasy skills and experiences.

Many people’s instant reaction to GiftTRAP had been “Oh how materialistic”, which is just so sad and completely wrong. Those who have looked closer confirm this is not true. We even have a quote about this on the box. In this world you always struggle to go against people’s first impressions. So I’m delighted to have a hit movie like the bucket list bring this type of “What shall I do with my Life” into the public discussion.

As I read some of the blog posts about the movie. It was a surprise box office hit and a bunch of the reviews where mediocre. I’d have to say I don’t agree.

I’d estimated something like 20 million people have seen the movie already and in the few test conversations I’ve had this association can only be a positive thing for GiftTRAP,

I thought Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman were amazing together. The main criticism seemed to be that the movie glorified Cancer. There were multiple sarcastic comments about being lucky enough to find yourself sharing a room with a billionaire. Did it glorify Cancer?

To me that just want not the point of the movie it became clear to me - “Bucket Lists aren’t for the nearly dead”

Life is prescious. Time ticks by. We all die one day. It’s good for the soul to set yourself goals. Put a timeline to it. Check things off early and don’t leave it to a last minue rush where you need to meet a billionaire in the next bed.

Go build your bucket list today. Then share it and compare it with your friends an their lists.

I’m having a bunch of thoughts and ideas about this. What to do? How, when who?

• I know I normally hate licensed games, but Warner Brothers - perhaps GiftTRAP is your Bucket List game. It’ more likely some suckey game will come out and that would be fun and make it easy to make the connection.
• Which movie reviewers would review GiftTRAP and discuss the connection?
• Can I get cross selling both in-store and online. The Bucket List is a top selling DVD right now.
• Join in the discussion about the movie
• Create a Bucket List Poll
• Are we missing any bucket list style items from the game? (there’s an expansion pack theme)
• How about a Bucket List Party? - What would that look like
• In a world with too many press releases what kind of release can we make that will get noticed

I’m sure this won’t the the last post in this subject.

I do wonder about the negative connotations of “death”. Is the movie good for kids? It may be a PG 13 movie, but it’s almost not the watching that’s important. It’s good to go through the exercise thinking.

For me these are all positive. For me it’s not about death and it’s about teaching your kids to learn to dream and to live every day as your last (it’s about doing it yourself, but then it’s not what I think that matters here - it’s what’s the mass “popular” reaction to the association.

I’ve picked up on this theme a couple of times when surfing the net. It’s begun to niggle in my mind. In fact i posted a suggestion on a website that in my humble opinion should have had a “Games” section to match their “Books” and “Movies” sections.

It was at MindfulMom.com where I posted a comment and a minor rant. Funny but a day later as I went back to find my comment to link to it I notice I was listened to! Way to go. The power of free speech. Susan Kaiser-Greenland responded to my comment and has agreed to add a “Games“ section. I hope this is the beginning of a movement

A few things have made me think that whilst it’s perhaps not perceived to be the case that there is a strong argument that board games (in fact I’m talking about “games” regardless of medium) should fight for an equal standing in the world along with other commonly understood pillars of the “Arts & Culture Club”

• Authors/Books
• Music/Bands
• Plays/Theatre
• Actors/Producers/Movies/Videos

What causes me to comment on this is that as I cruise sites on the web like Entertainment Weekly or LA Times I notice they have review sections for all of the above categories but nothing for Games.

I pick on these sites randomly. There’s no doubt an exhaustive list of sites which consistently fail to recognise the social significance of gaming.

According to Wikipedia Art is defined as;

“Art refers to a diverse range of human activities, creations, and expressions that are appealing or attractive to the senses or have some significance to the mind of an individual.”

and Culture is defined as;

“Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called ‘the way of life for an entire society.’ As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, norms of behavior such as law and morality, and systems of belief as well as the art.”

In my mind games fit into both definitions, perhaps not all games, but them I’m sure not all books/movies/plays qualify too. Every sector has it’s own diverse offerings.

I’ve got some theories why this is the case, but it’s an issue that’s been bugging me and I thought I’d air it and work on beginning to develop a strategy to try to take “Gaming” back having a level footing with all these other forms of Arts & Culture

My first observation is that the games industry has done little to promote itself and position itself to have a rightful place in the minds of the consumer alongside books, movies, music etc. Now the unnatural dominance of the sector by giants Hasbro and Mattel does not help this cause. Monopoly, Scrabble, Candyland are all deeply embedded in our culture, but I’m not sure they are “art”. They vary in great degrees to which they might be considered “Art” - Scrabble I’d vote as art for sure

Many mass-produced games are designed to meet the demands of a throwaway audience, a trend that does little for developing the category. Buyers at the likes of Walmart and Toys ‘R Us are looking for highly advertised of highly branded games. Their focus is on sales and the exploitation of fads for the latest TV show or movie and not for the development of the category and the popularization of board games.

There is an emerging sector of games called “Designer” games (so named because the name of the designer is on the box). This trend began in Germany where games are a much deeper part of the social fabric than there are in North America. There are also design differences in the way the game plays and how it’s made and how it’s usually closely and meaningfully themed. These games are all about fun choices, about keeping all players involved to the end of the game and they are all about high re-playability.

Today there are a number of “Designer” games that are crossing into mainstream culture (and even stores like Walmart and Toys ‘R Us) They are typically games that have sold in excess of a million copies. Great examples of such games are Carcasonne by Klaus J켼rgen Wrede published by Rio Grande and Settlers of Catan by Klaus Teuber published by Mayfair Games.

Notice the parallel to books where a title has both an author and a publisher. Both these games won the highly coveted “Spiel Des Yahre” Award and many other awards besides.

Interestingly Barnes and Noble is probably the leader in taking these “Designer” games to the market place. They have a game section featuring many “Designer” games alongside some of the familiar classics and sales growth is strong. They have been rewarded for supporting this category. There’s also a whole series of independent board game stores out there who need your support, these stores, usually run by enthusiasts know the games they sell, they know how to play them and how to help match you to the right game. Many have demo copies and can show you what’s in a specific game.

For me a great game store, just like a great book store places staff reviews on their favorite games.

There’s something like 1,000 new games launched each year - not quite as many as books, but its still significant. There are something like 30,000 games logged on boardgamegeek.com.

I’m certainly not trying to answer all the issues right here and now.  i’m simply seeking to put a stake in the ground and to think a little more about these issues and then try to catalog a more complete response over time.

I’m also curious if I can seek to drum up support to make sure I’m not the only person in the industry who’s banging this drum.

Scrabulous finally dropped from Facebook Apps directory

Within 48 hours of the launch of Wordscaper the Scabulous app has finally been removed from the Application Directory

It now says the following if you try to go directly to the Scrabulous page.

“Application “Scrabulous” has been restricted

We’re sorry but you’re unable to access this application due to restrictions put in place by either the developer of the application or by Facebook. Please visit the Application Directory for other applications.”

I’m assuming this is global.

So the current Hasbro vs Wordscaper score is 67k vs 85k

That’s not bad in 48 hours, but Hasbro is still climbing too.

I’d expected that Wordscraper might do better. And now they are on their own if searching for “Scrabble” doesnt get you to find “Wordscaper”

My sense is when the dust settles we’ll see that the Agarwalla brothers do a better job of continuing to innovate and to listen to their users.

Will Wordscraper pass Hasbro by tomorrow?

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