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Summer Game 2011: Game Over!

by eli

GAME OVER PLAYERS! Final points have been tallied, code changes rolled out, and all 3 Grand Prizes have found their way to their happy homes, and that means the books have officially closed on Summer Game 2011! The Summer Game Shop will stay open for your orders until Sunday 9/18 at Midnight, and you can still enter codes that come with shop items until the end of September, but other than that, Summer Game 2011 has come to a close, and the daily delight of earning points by using and helping your library has vanished from our lives.

UNTIL NOW! Introducing the POINTS-O-MATIC CLICK-O-TRON, and the amazing and baffling TREASURE QUEST! Two new ways to earn points, with more on the way!

So, you'll notice on your player page after you try the POINTS-O-MATIC CLICK-O-TRON a new section below your Summer Game points. Each game will have its own section on your scorecard. Your summer game point balance will transfer to next year's summer game, but Points-o-matic or Treasure Quest points aren't shop points. There may be ways to exchange them or spend them somehow at some point down the road, but not on the horizon!

So, with these new games dawning, with Summer Game 2011 fresh in our minds, what should be new in Summer Game 2012? What do you want more of, and what do you want less of? What badges would you like to see? What types of items would you like to see in the shop? And what new features of the game might you like to see built in to Summer Game 2012? Let us know your ideas, play the new games, and keep having fun with YOUR library!

THANKS FOR PLAYING!

Comments

Submitted by tree64 on Fri, 09/02/2011 - 7:54pm

I think that there should be a like or dislike button, because it is a lot easier to tell how good the book is than with the star ratings. In my opinion, star ratings are not very accurate, because it depends on how "strict" the person is about picking good books. Therefore, a like or dislike button would be a good idea.

I definitely agree with tree64. I myself am relatively strict about books, but I enjoy a variety of books.

Another possible addition is if there was a feature that allowed users to say if a review was helpful in choosing to read the book or item or not, sort of like if they thought it was a good review or not.

A like/dislike button is definitely a good idea. I certainly agree with ompopp and tree64. Besides, star ratings are hard to assign(I rated a lot, like I mean a lot, during the summer game).

Submitted by KathyD on Sun, 09/04/2011 - 7:04pm

I liked having all the new badges every week, but it would be nice to arrange things in two levels. The first level might describe the badges by theme (branches, catalog entries, catalog searches, archive searchers, etc.), and then clicking the theme shows the badges in that category. Also have a "newest badges" category for the first week they come out. It would also be fun to see how many points you earned for each category (perhaps even arrange the scorelist in two levels by type of points earned). I'm happy to see your solution to weed out the less helpful reviews, and the badges to encourage longer reviews and comments are also welcome.

Submitted by adimarzo on Fri, 09/09/2011 - 10:07am

I like the suggestion of grouping the badges by type. Also the listing of points by type.

When you awarded the extra badges after the end of the game, I was hoping there would be some recognition of folks who participated in the broadest range of activities and received the most diverse range of badges. For example, a high number of points could be achieved just by tagging, rating, reviewing and commenting on tons of things online, but there is also merit (even if maybe not as high a point total) in reading, listening and watching items, visiting branches, attending events, participating in gaming tournaments, searching out codes in the streets, visiting other locations (such as the computer game archive library), etc. In other words, recognition of a renaissance approach to the game. :-)

Also, it would be helpful when looking at the list of all available badges to be able to see which ones you've already received. There could be some kind of notation next the ones you have, so you know which ones to continue to work on.

Great job all around! You should license your summer game design to other libraries across the country. I bet there aren't many out there as good as the AADL summer game!

I agree with you, Zhengyang1022.
There are a lot of libraries going a paper reading game, but Ann Arbor is one of the few doing an online game.

I looked on kindle reviews, it did not get good reviews. Move to Saline more probable now. Yikes. If what you say is true... Is it too much to hope that they will mail the prizes to your door?

I know! I really want to read the Goddess Hunt but even Borders only has that on eBook and I would feel bad to have them special order it, read it at the store, then end up not buying it.

It's book 1.5 (something that happens over the summer). Once you read it you'll understand why it's book 1.5 and sadly, book 3 comes out in like April or March, or maybe it was May.

Submitted by Smiles on Thu, 07/12/2012 - 4:21pm

It's really sad that I have to wait. BUT, on the bright side, there is a book coming out this summer (Aimee Carter calls it book -1 or something like that since it just tells you about the characters).

Ah... I understand eli's question now (I think). Smiles said that Borders only had it on ebook, but Borders is closed down, right? Even their website changed, to Barnes and Nobles.
Smiles, did you mean Barnes and Nobles?

Oh. Sorry, I meant Barnes and Nobles. I am really sad that Borders closed down since they used to have a store right next to Kohls and I could read books there while my mom spends hours looking for clothing.

Submitted by Smiles on Wed, 08/29/2012 - 2:07pm

The library is literally my second home. I go there all the time :D which is why I have slightly bad eyesight.

Submitted by camelsamba on Fri, 09/09/2011 - 11:11am

I don't have trouble with star ratings, but I think that's because I already have a calibrated scale for them in my head, based on experience with the goodreads web site. For example, 2 is "it was okay", 3 is "i liked it", 4 is "i liked it a lot", 5 is "I loved it." But on the other hand, i know my 8 year old has a hard time distinguishing between shades of liking - either he liked it or he didn't, so he'd probably rate pretty much everything he enjoyed as a 5.

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