Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Adventure/ProjectPlan

Requirements

 * Platform independent
 * Browser based
 * Simple English
 * Uses the actual Vector interface
 * Real tasks that would be encountered during the first 2 weeks or 100 edits of new users
 * Mock-ups of realistic articles
 * Use of actual policy text and help documentation
 * Increasing inter-relation and density of real tasks
 * Choice-based, limited open world environment, increasing in openness as the game progresses

Goals

 * Users should become comfortable navigating back to their userpage as a home base, their usertalk as a personal meeting place, and around the interface generally
 * Encourage realization that help pages and helpful people exist
 * Introduce best practices of editing as such
 * Ideally, the game should be modular and expandable to include scenarios for advanced users or admins
 * Environment should not be game-able or defaceable
 * Present an encouraging but not unrealistic amount of editor interaction and praise
 * Offer a preparatory but not discouraging or BEANSy amount of editor disruption and incivility
 * The game should be useful, simple, realistic, and function as a teaching tool.

Ideas

 * Talk page options should be pre-selected (multiple choice).
 * Center the game around improving/creating an actual (fake) article
 * Bring an article up to FA status?
 * Help desk or IRC provides hints
 * Fake 'other editors' provide realistic positive and negative contributions
 * Create advanced modules for experienced editors or even admins
 * In addition to missions, intersperse brief exercises or quizzes, for topics like the CC/GNU license, or the founding principles
 * Provide help and policy links or help documentation in the game itself
 * Integrate tutorials, tutorial videos, videos from editors and WMF staff
 * Ability to replay lessons once they start editing for real, as an alternative/supplement/integration of help documentation
 * Ability for other editors/groups to adapt this model to create their own modules for specific tasks
 * Build the game on a shareable platform which could be used to create realistic, interactive non-game help tutorials
 * Allow free-text editing in limited fields but run a badwords regex filter over it to prompt a warning note

Real-world overlap possibilities

 * Actual in-game account registration
 * Actual barnstars for level/skill completion
 * Real 'I completed The Wikipedia Game' userboxes
 * Autoconfirmation upon completion of the game
 * WikiProject sign-up and userpage boxes

Questions
Development Coding Implementation
 * Should it be more tutorial-like or more game-like? Or mixed?  What's the game:learning vibe like?
 * How open should the game get? How dynamic should the paths to completion be?
 * Should skills repeat for practice, or should length be minimized, or should it sequentially fuse old skills with new ones?
 * Should the game guide/narrator be informative but one-dimensional or have its own quirks and personality? Give it a name?
 * Should the trouble scenarios be compound-scripted for realistic frustration i.e. after vandalism you're falsely accused of it, or just piecemeal
 * How to build realistic missions that are dynamic enough to be interesting but not too complicated for children or technological natives?
 * Can the game be lightweight enough to run quickly and error free without coding an entire gaming plaform?
 * Can we use a real(istic) Wikipedia interface? Built on Firefox and Mediawiki?
 * Can the browser itself be part of the game (i.e. back buttons, mock google search, address bar, multiple pages/windows/tabs)
 * Will the browser too be simulated 'inside the browser', with the wikipedia interface simulated inside that?
 * How to present the game while making clear Wikipedia is not a game but an encyclopedia with real people and real impact?
 * Real-encyclopedia overlap? (actually registering an account, actually getting barnstars, etc)
 * How to get people to play it? (Trial with new accounts, offer autoconfirmation on completion)
 * How can users keep the game experience as a reference when they start editing (I forget how I did that..., build a supporting help page with links to the levels/skills/links/steps)
 * How to prevent participants from confusing real wiki pages with the game pages.

Cooperation
Single player with mock interactions from others.
 * Welcome messages
 * Pre-programmed talk page messages
 * Collaborative edits
 * Populated search pages (Wikipedia and Google)

'Real-time' components
Iterative, step-based events that happen as users make changes and progress through a scenario.
 * Welcome message
 * Talk page messages, integrated in the narrative (maybe some peripheral, not essential to missions)
 * Help page hints
 * Watchlists
 * Other user edits
 * Other user vandalism

Vandals and frustrated users
''Present realistic encounters with unconstructive or unhelpful editors. Not so vile, disruptive or angry as to be discouraging. The balance should be 10:1 positive.''
 * Vandal
 * Accusatory editor
 * Editor who doesn't know the answer to a question
 * Section deleting editor
 * Preemptive consensus claims
 * Wiki-lawyer

Incentives

 * Welcome note as a new user
 * Friendly note (thank you?) from another editor
 * Receive a barnstar
 * Receive a note on a mock article that someone appreciates the recent improvements
 * Receive a cookie
 * Interview in the Signpost
 * Interview by the New York Times
 * Receive an FA sticker
 * Note from Jimbo!
 * Receive a REAL userbox or barnstar for completing the course

Disincentives

 * Users may be informed in the game but not mock-warned or mock-blocked. The Goal is to remind them of policy and practices, not give much room for trying out vandalism or poor editing, or seeing themselves in that role.  Show 5-10% of the dark side, and give clear explanations about policy and purposes for avoiding the negative aspects.

Limited open environment

 * Use actual pages, or realistic mock-pages.
 * Prevent second-degree linking from these pages; they can be landed on but not traveled through.
 * Realistic interface
 * Text on each page
 * Some links blocked or leading to a message about the limited environment
 * Highlighted or arrow-designated links, especially for newer situations
 * Going to the help desk can highlight necessary links or give tips


 * Environments
 * Userpage
 * Usertalk page
 * 3-5 other user's pages
 * 3-5 articles with talk pages and histories
 * help desk
 * irc?
 * watchlist
 * about Wikipedia page
 * main page
 * signpost
 * community portal
 * Jimbo's page

Production
will ask once first draft is complete
 * Projects
 * WikiProject Computing
 * WikiProject Help
 * WikiProject Games
 * WikProject Internet
 * Wikipedia:Welcoming committee
 * Wikipedia:WikiGuide
 * WikiProject Graphic design
 * http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/
 * http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Account_Creation_Improvement_Project


 * Online resources
 * http://www.gameful.com Gameful
 * http://www.iftf.com Institute for the future (IFTF.com)
 * http://www.Zooniverse.com Zooniverse

Development

 * Flesh out this draft page
 * Recruit some wicked smart editors, helpers, and coders
 * Clarify the best educational model
 * Choose a coding approach
 * Build the necessary site/code platform
 * Write levels
 * Mock-up levels
 * Build levels
 * Test levels
 * Get feedback from Village Pump, Outreach, and WMF
 * Present version alpha/beta of the game

Coding and specs

 * Browser based
 * IE, FF compatible (6-9, 3-4 respectively), Safari if possible
 * PHP for a Mediawiki extension, Mediawiki API for parsing, Javascript for interactive elements (or AJAX/HTML5)

Name ideas

 * The Wikipedia Game
 * Be Bold!
 * Neutral Point of View