Brainstorming: Successfully Recurring Threads and Games

I was thinking about the threads that see the most traffic on here. General expression is by far the most popular. I would say our second most popular is games.

Expression:
Expression is fairly simple to analyze. For a successfully recurring thread, find a topic that is universally relevant and also subject to change, then make a thread about it.


Games:



There seem to be two major aspects to the games I have analyzed so far:

• Categories - What do do with interactions and responses, interesting categories are imperative.
  • Suggestions - Suggest what another member should do
  • Expressions - Express something about a member or yourself.
  • Actions - Take a metaphorical action on another member.
  • Logic - Interact with members through a set of pre-defined logic.
• Interactions
  • Previous poster
  • Next poster
  • Random member
  • Determined by Logic
• Reward - What's in it for 'me?'
  • Strengthening social relationships
  • Learning
  • Becoming more expressive (negative or positive)
  • Strengthening Imagination

Let's analyze a few!

I want to see a picture of:

One member posts a picture and then requests a topic for a new picture. The interaction is focused on the next poster, and there is also an interaction to the previous poster. This one could be categorized as expression. There are actually two forms of expression in this, the picture itself is an expression of interpretation and the request of a new picture is also an expression.

Kudos to April!

Word association thread:

This one has a simple elegance. The interaction is based on the previous poster. I am not sure if this should be classified as expressive or logical, I think the response can be either.



What else am I missing?

 

Another major aspect:

• Motivation - What's in it for 'me?'
  • Strengthening social relationships
  • Learning
  • Becoming more expressive (negative or positive)
  • Strengthening Imagination

 

[MENTION=1926]April[/MENTION], yea that is a good point. Perhaps I need a better replacement for that word. In the terms of this analysis, I think of expression as an unveiling of thoughts or feelings. It is probably a suitcase term I am using. Would expression of thought and expression of emotions be too generic still?

 

Perhaps expression is better defined as revealing details about yourself.

I am going to start using this framework to see what kind of neat games can be made.