My Interesting Life

On the 9th September 2009 something wonderful happened – Hasbro launched Monopoly City Streets (MCS) to a wanting audience of over 1.7m people, and the most talked about MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) of all time was born.

If you haven’t been following the events over at Monopoly HQ since, 1st of all, where have you been? And 2nd, we’re sorry to be the purveyor of bad news… but you’ve been missing out!

Monopoly City Streets is a free online multiplayer version of the popular board game Monopoly, launched to raise awareness of and promote the latest version of the game – ‘City Streets’.

Played out on Google Maps, MCS invites players to buy, trade, and build on any street in the world that hasn’t already been snapped up by another person. You earn rent based on how well you play (there are various strategies), and compete with friends and other members of the community to dominate local, national and global leader boards.

It is fun, competitive, and highly addictive. It is simply brilliant, and brilliantly simple. It is, in short, a really powerful idea. Peter Parker said that “with great power comes great responsibility”. If I were to tell you now that Monopoly City Streets has perhaps done more harm than good to the Hasbro brand image, could you fathom how, would you want to read more?

On day of launch, all expectations were exceeded when 1.7m people turned out to play MCS. Within hours, everyone was disappointed when the game server crashed under pressure. For 2 days it went offline whilst upgrades were made.

On its return, bugs in the code were quickly found and exploited, cheating became rife, and those playing fairly started to get upset with Mr Monopoly’s inability to control, moderate, and fix the problems. The game went offline again, this time for a reset – wiping everyone’s hard work. Rather than re-launch in beta mode (which would have given developers more time and scope to iron out any further problems), Mr Monopoly opted for a more heavy handed approach; writing on the official game blog – “cheaters beware; we are watching you, and you will be banned!!!” At this point, Mr Monopoly hadn’t even lain down the ground rules.

Humoured by Mr Monopoly’s tone, people started to form online alliances, Mr Monopoly quickly became ‘the game’, and even the cheaters worked together to see whether measures had been implemented to control  the cheating and fix the bugs. The top 10 Global Leaderboard at the end of day 1 consisted of ‘Cheater # 1′ – ‘Cheater # 10′… On day 2, it was used to promote websites and blogs (Best Cheater) that gave out tools and advice on how to hack the game.

From that point on, every post on the official game blog has been met with a hundred angry comments. Mr Monopoly has been deadly silent.

It has been 3 weeks since launch, and Monopoly City Streets has now pretty much ground to a halt. Daily visits to the site have fallen by almost 75%, and reading the comments on the games official blog (where angry people viciously attack its makers) has arguably become more entertaining than playing the game ever was.

Mr Monopoly has been carried to ‘jail’ by the fans he so desperately sought to please, and whilst his punishment seems severe, it serves as a warning to all of us – even great ideas fail when they aren’t implemented and moderated responsibly.

Had Mr Monopoly been honest with fans, had he had listened, responded, and invited them to get involved, to collaborate, and be a part of the project, perhaps the outcome would have been different.

Check out the game here – http://www.monopolycitystreets.com

And the official blog here - http://blog.monopolycitystreets.com Read more

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I took a bit of time today to consider how Virgin – one of the world’s most recognised brands, could use online video to spice up their website, engage a more youthful audience and drop the ‘Older Uncle’ image…

Arguably the most opportunistic company in the world, Virgin not only operate within core business areas like Travel, Leisure, Media and Health, but they also lead the way in innovative new business ventures like Space Flight Tourism.

With a brand image that is eternally recognisable and an ethos that appeals to the older, more sensible 30+ market, Virgin have dominated over the last 20 years and look likely to survive the current economic downturn. However, despite its success, a red flag has been raised at the tiny office that makes up Virgin HQ – a 2008 review has returned that ‘likability’ and ‘brand admiration’ is up amongst 25+ year olds, but down for those aged 15 -24 ‘the sweet spot’.

For Virgin (and its brand managers), 2009 is no doubt going to be about tapping into the teen and twenties market of today, a demographic that many advertising professionals believe can’t be reached using traditional media – TV spots, press and outdoor – bread and butter for the Virgin brand. Virgin must now question “How”… “When traditional is all we know, and traditional no longer works, do we start to make a difference?”… “And what is that core message that will appeal to our wayward ‘more youthful’ audience?”

For me, small steps can make big changes, and whilst I’m sure there are a wealth of agencies screaming “Social Media Strategies”, “Partnerships and Endorsements”, and “Events”, I’d simply say start with where the heart is – home – and by that I mean virgin.com… something perhaps like an interactive ‘film and game’ experience that can sit alongside the slightly boring, text heavy ‘About Us’ section on the site. Forgive me if this appears hypocritical.

Now prior to Virgins arrival in the Travel, Leisure, Media and Health industries, people forget (and our 15-24 demographic perhaps don’t know) that we (the consumer), were being underserved and overcharged by companies like British Airways, National Express Rail and Sky TV for services that today we take for granted. Before Virgin it cost anyone looking to fly out of the UK, travel “up north”, visit the gym, or have digital TV a fortune, the service was poor and alternatives were few. Virgin’s arrival into the market forced change – and in order to compete, companies like BA had to get better, which they did.

Consider for a moment that Virgin ‘Made the world a better place’ (because of this ‘forced change’), and I think we have the start of a good idea. I would argue that the difference between the -25+ audience is knowledge, and that maybe the 15-24 year old demographic don’t consider that a world without Virgin would be incredibly bleak… a no doubt be a lesser world.

If anyone fancies having a go at working with this as an idea feel free – Virgin ‘Made the world a better place’.

Please post your thoughts and enjoy my slightly erratic ‘account person’s ad’ below!

Lee

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What is it: An interactive ‘film and game’ experience that sits on the ‘About Us’ section of the virgin.com

Title – Virgin World

Start (Film Mode): We see a boy playing on a computer in a bedroom. The camera pans around him and then zooms into the game screen. We see that he is controlling a fantasy world similar to the popular RPG games of the 90′s – Sim City and Roller Coaster Tycoon. The boy is struggling – his Sims are throwing up outside travel terminals, moaning about the price of a coke, upset at the lack of entertainment, angry that their TV service has gone down, getting fatter due to lack of exercise, etc, etc and so on.

Explore (Game Mode): The visitor then takes control of the world (as if through the eyes of the boy playing the game). They interact with the different elements for a while before getting a message from the City Mayor explaining that a celebratory entrepreneur is about to visit the game world.

Cue Richard Branson (Film Mode): The game camera pans to the edge of the map and in to the city walks Richard Branson. The camera zooms in on him greeting Sims who instantly become overjoyed. He gives us a cheeky smile, fluffs his magic beard and starts waving it at various city elements as he navigates the game map, suddenly:

• An angry shopkeeper who previously sold overpriced Soda which no Sim could afford starts selling Virgin Cola… His business is transformed into a thriving enterprise

• The city rail network starts to run more efficiently – its faster, on time, it’s cheaper, Its Virgin Trains

• A forgotten plot of wasteland, is converted into the V festival… music starts to bang out of the city and artists, hipsters and the rich flood in

Experience (Game Mode): After watching Branson transform the fortunes of the city, the visitor is then warped into the body of one of the Sims… From a ‘first person’ perspective the experience continues, the game goes into ‘free roam’  and visitors are able to browse the map, and interact with various Virgin companies, events and experiences in their own time, they may for example choose to:

• Go to the Virgin Brides shop to book an appointment with a Virgin Brides personal assistant. Perhaps they can interact and chat with other ‘brides to be’ in a live virtual chat room

• Visit an in game representation of the V festival, where they can watch clips from last year’s event, buy tickets for V Festival 2009 and enter into live chat with music lovers from around the world

• Go to a Virgin Entrepreneurs area, where they can get inspiration from Branson and other likeminded business people, as well as upload and share any innovative Virgin business ideas they may have themselves (this could form the basis of competition that would secure marketing and promotion across partner sites)

Clicking on some elements of the map may launch new and partner websites, or open up Virgin brand films which can be developed over time and worked into the experience.

Virgin ‘Made the world a better place’.

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