

4Food: Restaurant adds game mechanics to lunch - jmtame
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/making-lunch-a-social-networking-game/?ref=technology

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bradly
There is a bar by my office that has something similar to this. The drink
prices scroll across a ticker and go up or down based on whether people are
ordering them or not. It is interesting to watch and see how high certain
drinks will go, as well as how low some drinks must drop before people start
buying them.

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mikedmiked
I love these. Nothing beats having 100 strangers in a bar work together
shouting "Don't buy sambuca shots til they drop to 70p!!" and then just as it
does everyone screams "BUY! BUY! BUY!" and chaos ensues...

There is a prisoners dilemma type problem where people don't want to wait in a
100 person queue so they will go to the bar and order at 80p, but thankfully
the lag on the pricing is enough to mean this isn't an issue and it still
drops to 70p. I would love to remove the lag and see if people notice and
react much differently...

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bluemetal
this is kinda interesting stuff.

"...Here’s how it works: I create a burger, call it “The Bits Burger” and
broadcast it to Twitter or Facebook. Each time someone orders my special
creation, I get 25 cents credit in the restaurant and my burger rises up the
leaderboard. The more customers order my burger, the higher it goes and the
more credits I get, until I’m eating free..."

Now, how to game the system...

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NathanKP
You couldn't really game the system without ordering your own burger, which
would cost money.

In reality I expect that the leaderboard will probably see large turnover
anyway, because most people will be interested in designing their own burger
to try to get on the top rather than buying something from the leaderboard
themselves.

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PidGin128
I believe "Wendy's" has a poster in some of their establishments explicitly
mentioning that their burgers have 256 permutations.

How free form are the possibilities in ordering? (also naming...)

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helveticaman
256? As permutations go, that's nothing.

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startuprules
This is why America's doomed.

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bluemetal
Could you explain your position a little more?

This place doesn't seem so bad. In fact, some aspects of it are downright
clever. A quick browse of the 4foods website gives a picture of a fast food
company that might actually be able to serve healthy food, unlike most of the
competition.

Because you can plan your food online beforehand, you can 'design' food which
is more healthy than anything mcdonalds would be willing to give menu space
for. Not to mention you don't have to rely on their people to come up with
healthy options.

Always take what these companies say with a grain of salt, but here are a few
quotes from their site.

"Fresh, local produce is transformed into our menu offerings in the Community
Kitchen Commissary-a vocational training center."

"We upgrade food that people already eat-burgers, nuggets, fries, salads and
teas - transforming them into new menu items that are convenient, and almost
infinitely customizable to our guests' lifestyles and cultural preferences.
Our food is measurably healthier than existing products."

"Our restaurants are designed to function as community hubs, as they satisfy
local appetites in healthy, customizable ways."

It uses social networking to spread, crowd-sources the meals, has a new take
on transparency as far as ingredients are concerned and - very importantly for
something you are going to spend money on - sounds like fun.

