Discuss Gamer Discovery

[evan-scales]

Description:

As part of #4 it was found that the apps out there have many different ways to discover other gamers. Some sites show other users in a way similar to online dating and tinder, others have users create posts for the types of users they're looking for, another used a tagging system to help find similar interests. Let's discuss what we want our gamer discovery to do, and how it will do so.

Notes:

What are users actually searching for? Is it events? Players for a particular game? New Friends with similar tastes? Teams? Is this tinder, or a search engine? Are players shown potential matches based on an algorithm and choose from a list, or do they search themselves based on a large array of search options? Should we allow search for players and groups? Just players? Just groups?

[epadams]

What are users actually searching for? Is it events? Players for a particular game? New Friends with similar tastes? Teams?

What do you mean by events? Like a big get together in a game? I think most importantly is searching for players, but teams and groups are also important. New friends with similar tastes falls under players naturally due to the nature of the search.

Is this tinder, or a search engine? Are players shown potential matches based on an algorithm and choose from a list, or do they search themselves based on a large array of search options?

I think it should be more similar to a search engine, especially considering that we are allowing for searching of groups, how would this be possible to integrate into a "swipe left/right" kind of interface? I think being able to filter many different options and end up with results makes much more sense in our scenario. We are targeting players where the playerbase majority is on PC, so the interface should be designed with a PC in mind. I think we answered the question within the initial questions: "search" is reused many times, so it is apparent it definitely needs to be more like a search engine, not a matching algorithm.

Should we allow search for players and groups? Just players? Just groups?

Both players and groups. It can be kind of annoying if you are trying to play a team game to try and search for 4-5 different people and get them organized; it is much easier to search for a group that is missing 1-2 players.

[evan-scales]

What are users actually searching for? Is it events? Players for a particular game? New Friends with similar tastes? Teams?

I think users should be able to find other users, and groups/teams.

Is this tinder, or a search engine?

This will be more similar to a search engine than tinder. Users should be able to search for others, not have an algorithm show them potential matches.

When I imagine searching on this site I imagine a tab named "Gamer Discovery" From there you can use a toggle to switch between searching for other users, and groups. Users interested/favorite games should be the main filter option to narrow down users/groups. When searching for other users a user should be able to specify things about the user they are searching for. This should include age, interested/favorite games, timezone?, available play times, skill level, game roles, mic or not just to name a few. Once a user has finished putting in their filters, the grid will update showing users matching that filter. Similar to CarMax after making a search.

This will work if we have Games and GameRoles like I talked about in #6. However, @jbytes1027 brought up a good point about wanting to support small indie games. If I want to find other gamers to play Roblox: Natural Disaster Survival, there would be no way to filter users/groups associated with that game. My suggestion, allow user created tags.

Similar to how users have interested/favorited games they could also have Tag interests. Allowing user created tag interests will allow users to find other gamers for smaller indie games, and just find friends with similar tastes. Since user created tags could create tags for things that arnt small indie games.

Searching for groups should be similar to searching for users. Allow users to specify things about the group they may want to join. This should include things like interested/favorite games, tag interests, timezone?, skill level?, game roles? Im still not sure how searching for groups will work. I think having something similar to GamerLinks post system could work well for this. Where groups can make posts about the types of players they need, and users respond to that.

[AaronKeys]

I think this should be more like a search engine. It could be done in categories for players who are online and want to play now, which would show players who are logged in and interested in the game or games the individual wants to play. Then there could be another category for finding players in the future who are logged out or online; it would be a filter function for more immediate or people who could wait or go either way. I like the idea of specifying certain interests for what the player wants to play at that moment, as well. We might want to add a friends feature, which facilitates grouping with that person again, in case the game doesn't have a recent players function, or they forgot to add them in the game.

[jbytes1027]

I think something like GamerLink's Post system has potential. It allows for the flexibility of finding one or more players without designing two different features. For instance, if you wanted to play Mario Party and want to find one more player, you could "tag" the post with one player. If you wanted to find three players, you could "tag" the post with three players. Which makes the interface simpler for the user, and the developer. This kind of system may make it possible to find players as a guest as Aaron mentioned which is a bonus.

[AaronKeys]

I like the idea of the tagging post. It seems to cover concerns that many of us have voiced about finding people. One of the things that I think will be important is a filter option. I think we'll need to build the filter, so that a user's screen isn't crowded with a bunch of posts from everyone. We have to think about a way to make it broad enough to display enough choice and narrow enough not to be bombarded with an endless amount of possible groups to join or something similar we might decide to implement that requires searching.

[evan-scales]

It could be done in categories for players who are online and want to play now, which would show players who are logged in and interested in the game or games the individual wants to play. Then there could be another category for finding players in the future who are logged out or online

I thought we talked about this on Tuesday and decided the site would be for more general gaming stuff. Even the meeting notes reflect that choice.

One of the things that I think will be important is a filter option

Yes, that's been brought up already. See here below. It's also one of the most important things for us to decide on, as it affects the user registration process and general account overview information. Please voice any thoughts or concerns to help with the creation of user search.

Users interested/favorite games should be the main filter option to narrow down users/groups. When searching for other users a user should be able to specify things about the user they are searching for. This should include age, interested/favorite games, other interested tags, timezone?, available play times, skill level, game roles, mic or not just to name a few. Once a user has finished putting in their filters, the grid will update showing users matching that filter. Similar to CarMax after making a search.

I think users should just input a lot of this information upon account creation, or they can also edit it later. Then simply choose if they want to be visible to others in search.

For groups, seems like we all like the idea of posts from GamerLink. Let's figure out how we would implement this. Some things we need to consider.

1. Would users still be able to search for groups? Or are they just searching through the posts looking for users?
2. Could groups create multiple 'looking for' posts. What if my group has some users who play mostly CS:GO, and some who play mostly Insurgency. Would the group be able to have 'looking for' posts for each of those games?
3. Who makes these 'looking for' posts? Group leader? Or could regular group members do it too?

[evan-scales]

Closing for now, since we plan to meet in person and discuss design today