

Ask HN: A gaming idea - ErrantX

So I've been mulling this idea for a little bit.<p>It's based on the popularity of distributed endeavours like Folding@Home and so forth.<p>Running a distributed effort to generate some data I could sell is never going to fly for volunteers :P so I was thinking of other ways to "pay" people for it.<p>The unique idea I came up with was this; produce a free MMO game (probably not a 3D game). Then instead of charging a monthly fee include our distributed system in the game. When people are playing the game it generates some data (designed not to hog the CPU ofc) and sends it back - this "pays" for their play time.<p>The extension could be to get them to generate data when not playing the game and this could add up to give them "in game" credit for items and VIP treatment.<p>If I get the balance right (i.e. just creating some data but not affecting their computer use) do you think it would go down well? (obviously the game would have to be attractive - but i have ideas :D)
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e1ven
I'd take a look at Plura- They're doing this now for webgames.
<http://www.pluraprocessing.com/games/index.html>

If I recall, they're using this to run their 80legs product, which is where
they're hoping to make their real money.

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weaksauce
Is this not like the approach of the protein folding game? Though they are
directly for science and not for profit but the data that you generate is sent
to them.

<http://fold.it/portal/>

I could see it working if you had some disclosure on how and what data you are
automatically generating and sending back.

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ErrantX
Im a big fan of disclosure so that would always be the plan (the thinking
being would I play the game if I didn't know what the data was for - answer,
nope).

Thanks for the link - that looks like along a similar line,. My initial
thought was a web game but I suspect a decently addictive MMO (esp if it is
"free") might generate a bit more :D

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lacker
It's a good idea, but I would drop the distributed system and focus on the
game. If you can get enough users to make it worthwhile, there's probably an
easier way to monetize than the whole distributed-data-processing thing.

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cjg
Sounds good. Don't forget that having the idea is the easy bit, the hard bit
is the execution.

