Funium将推族谱元素社交游戏《Family Village》
Funium公司准备于下月推出其新款在线社交游戏,该款游戏与《Farmville》、《黑帮战争》相似,但融入了真实人物、真实历史以及真实经历,且主角均为玩家自身及其祖先。
游戏邦获悉,Funium团队把宗谱融入到在线社交游戏中,该公司首席执行官杰夫·威尔斯(Jeff Wells)及其团队希望能够通过该游戏把家庭观念传递给用户。该游戏名为《Family Village》,将于4月中旬现身Facebook平台。
威尔斯表示,“我希望这款游戏在全球拥有1亿的用户,让用户明白我们身处同一个大家庭。游戏会让玩家意识到四海之内,大家都是兄弟姐妹。”
《Family Village》由两个部分组成。玩家有自己的城市、金钱、建筑、房子、公园、工作、人物角色(虚拟头像)以及不断晋升的等级。此外,玩家还有自己的族谱树。玩家以自己为中心,构建家谱图。游戏邦认为这两种元素能够融合起来,主要是因为游戏中的人物角色实际上就是玩家的家族成员。
威尔斯表示,“村庄会不断发展,同时也会融入玩家祖先居住地的相关元素。玩家可以了解祖先的食物、房子、时尚及历史事件。例如,玩家在游戏中可以接触到祖先唱过的古老童谣。”
所以,如果玩家的亲属来自于19世纪的爱尔兰,村庄就会出现茅草屋和鹅卵石街道。村庄可能会出现1、2座城堡,玩家可以在游戏中添加巧言石(游戏邦注:Blarney Stone,爱尔兰布拉尼城堡的石头)求好运。游戏中的人物角色(祖先)可能是铁匠、修桶匠、补鞋匠或者鱼贩子,玩家甚至会发现好几代前的祖母可能也会以裁缝的身份出现在游戏中。
游戏的巧妙之处在于,玩家可以通过在线搜索服务器以及familylink.com之类的档案网站,找到祖先的相关资料,其真实文档会出现在人物头像的上方,同时弹出问题:“这是你的亲戚吗?”
该公司营销主管杰夫·劳伊德(Jeff Lloyd)认为,这就是家族乐趣的所在。如果玩家在村庄中拥有自己的藏书室,甚至可以把游戏中的真实文件、图片或者图书库的新文章搜藏起来,就和真正的宗谱搜索一样,只不过游戏是以色彩绚丽的3D画面呈现,整个体验更具挑战性,并且融入新技术。游戏综合考虑了各个年龄层的需求,为家庭成员提供全新的体验。
玩家在几个月的游戏体验之后,就可以准许朋友访问自己的村庄,并和他们分享自己的族谱名字和历史。如果他们发现彼此之间存在联系,游戏的宗谱图就会出现更多的名字和资料。
玩家可以拥有不止一座的村庄。如果玩家希望发展某一宗系,可以为其单独建造一座村庄。游戏中玩家建房屋,发展经济,并使村庄朝着社交和历史的方向发展。
《Family Village》目前处于测试阶段,仅面向有限用户开放服务,目前有7000名用户受邀玩该款游戏。威尔斯表示《Family Village》4月份就会向用户全面开放,希望到时会增加更多本土用户。对此感兴趣的玩家得拥有Facebook帐号,同时登陆familyvillagegame.com访问该游戏。
该公司发言人大卫·奥尔森(David Olsen)表示,用户不必担心如何操作,因为游戏有提供详细的操作指南,用户很容易就能上手。
奥尔森表示,“游戏会提示和指导玩家晋升不同的等级,首先会为用户提供5000个金币供其发展经济,玩家可以随时随地开始游戏进程。我曾祖父和曾祖母们住在古老的屋子里,房子就是他们那个时代的样子。我的祖先来自法国,所以我在村庄中添加了埃菲尔铁塔。”
游戏邦获悉,著名企业家Jim Sorenson对于通过DNA追溯家族史非常感兴趣,所以他对该公司及其游戏《Family Village》进行了投资。
Sorenson表示,“这款即将在犹他州问世的游戏是个全新的类型,着实令人兴奋。游戏不仅很有魅力,还十分有趣,将推动用户不断探索。”
据劳埃德表示,7%的美国公民认为自己是系谱专家或者对家族史感兴趣,这一人数比例在全世界范围内将会急速增加。这为《Family Village》的发展提供了广大的用户群。
Sorenson表示,“这款游戏已经成功帮助了一些用户了解自己的家庭史。”Funium希望玩家及其朋友在玩游戏的同时,也能够体会到构建家族史的乐趣。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)
Fun and family: New online game builds your family tree
Funium is set to release an online social game next month — similar to “Farmville” or “Mafia Wars” — that deals with real people, real history and real experiences, starring you and your ancestors.
That’s right, the Funium folks mashed social online gaming with genealogy and came out with a product that CEO Jeff Wells and others hope will bring to the masses the concept of family and lots of it. “Family Village” is set for release mid-April and will be played through Facebook.
“My dream is to have 100 million people playing this game worldwide,” Wells said. “My aspiration is to help people understand we’re all one big family. It would help the world see we are all brothers and sisters.”
“Family Village” has two components that blend together. You have your city, your money, buildings, homes, parks, jobs, little people (avatars) and levels that never end. On the other side you have your family tree. Beginning with yourself, you begin building the family tree. The two components join because those avatars in your village are actually your family.
“These villages can grow and incorporate where your ancestors live. You can learn about their food, homes, fashions and historical events. For instance, we are connected to archives that have old nursery rhymes that kids could sing, the same rhyme that their ancestor would have sung,” Wells said.
So, if you have relatives from 1800s Ireland, your village could feature thatched roofs and cobblestone streets. You might have a castle or two, or perhaps you would like to add the Blarney Stone for good luck. Then your avatars (ancestors) might be blacksmiths, coopers, cobblers or fish mongers. Your fourth-great-grandmother might make lace or spin.
To kick it up another notch, and through the help of several online research and archival services such as familylink.com, you start finding out about those ancestors through real documents that appear above an avatar’s head while the game asks, “Is this your relative?”
According to Jeff Lloyd, director of sales and marketing, this is where the family fun begins. If you have a library in your village you can even store those real documents, pictures or news articles in library files in the game — just like real genealogical research but with colorful 3-D images, challenging game experiences and lots of technology. There’s something for every age, and the game could make family time a whole new kind of experience.
In the next few months as users come online they will be able to grant permission for their friends to visit their village and start sharing their family names and histories with them. If they find a connection, then their family tree grows with more names and documents.
You can have more than one village, too. If you want to follow a certain family line, you can give that family line its own village. You build the buildings, grow the economy and develop it socially and historically.
“Family Village” is currently in an alpha testing mode and is limiting who will be accepted. Currently there are 7,000 users who have been invited to play the game. Wells said he wants to increase that group with local players and by April they will open it to the general public. For those interested, you must have a Facebook account and then you can go online to familyvillagegame.com.
David Olsen, a company spokesman, said people shouldn’t worry how to start, they are guided along the way.
“The game prompts and teaches you to pass different levels. You start with 5,000 in coins to grow your economy. You can start in any time period, any place,” Olsen said. “I have my great-grandparents in an old world home, the kind they would have lived in. We have ancestors from France, so we added the Eiffel Tower.”
Jim Sorenson, a noted businessman, who has great interest in tracing family history through DNA, is helping fund the startup company and “Family Village”.
“It’s an exciting new game category you’d think would come out of Utah. It’s engaging, fun and an ongoing discovery,” Sorenson said.
According to Lloyd, 7 percent of U.S. citizens consider themselves to be genealogists or have a hobby in family history. Worldwide that number goes up significantly. This makes for a great pool to draw from as the game expands.
“There are ample successes out there of people finding out about their family history,” Sorenson said.
What Funium, a local company, is hoping is that some of those people, and their friends, will take a look and see what fun there could be in building family history while playing a game.(Source:Heraldextra)