One such game that I am absolutely addicted to is Evony: Age I.  This online game is free to use (it also offers buyable upgrades should you choose to make your adventure even more fun) and is extremely fun and addictive.  It is a passive game, meaning you can check in on it from time to time and don’t have to spend hours at a time on it to be competitive.  Just check on your cities, build upgrades, send troops, and come back later in the day to see how you’re making out and make more upgrades and adjustments.   It is just this type of game-play that appeals to todays multi-media users who want to add a little more fun to their day without having to commit the entire day to it (although its so much fun you end up wanting to play more and more).

In Evony, you create a character called a Lord, my Lord’s name is Invincador (server 41), and you create and name cities.  You are in charge of your cities’ success building resource fields such as farms and lumber mills.  The more resources you have, the more upgrades you can make and the more troops you can train.  Once you have amassed a big enough army you can attack your neighbours (either PCU players or other users), raiding them for even more resources and even conquering and taking over their cities.

To help you out, you can join an alliance.  Alliances are groups of up to one hundred players who look out for each others’ best interests.  The players can combine forces to enhance attacks on otherplayers or alliances and can reinforce each others cities to fend off enemy attacks.  Alliance members can also chat in exclusive chat rooms seperate from the main chat room common to all players and even transport resources to each other.

So far, I have played this game for a couple of weeks and have two cities, a formidable army, and tons and tons of resources.  This game truly is fun and is probably the best browser-based game I have seen out there.  It is rapidly growing and has multiple servers hosting hundreds of thousands of players from around the world.   You can check it out at http://www.evony.com  Have fun!

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Many restaurants and retailers have even taken to offering free gifts or contest entries in exchange for your input and feedback on their product or service.  I was told by my waitress at Montana’s yesterday that if I took the time to fill out an online survey I would get a free appetizer on my next visit.  Not bad.  Wendy’s offered me a free 1/4lb. Single for the same valuable input.  I like 1/4lb. Singles!  The question is do I like them enough to take the time to fill out one of their boring surveys?  I’d most certainly have to give up some of my personal data as well….hmmm…tough one.  If I fill out enough of these things, I may never have to pay for food again!

What is becoming increasingly apparent, is that retailers are no longer engaged in a race to the bottom.  It is no longer good enough to have the lowest price to attract business.  To be truly viable, a company must have competitive prices, yes, but equally important, or perhaps even more important, is a quality product and better customer service.  That is why customer feedback, YOUR feedback, provides vital insight on what businesses need to do, where they need to concentrate their efforts, to achieve success in this economy.  Consumers are becoming increasingly selective about where they throw their dollars around.  The internet, with its online shopping, forums, and blogs, make it much easier for people to draw their comparisons.

Asking customers for their opinion also gives the impression that the company cares about what you have to say, and wether or not their goods or service meet with your satisfaction or not.  Wether this is sincere or not is up to you to decide, but expect more of this from your friendly, neighbourhood retailer.

Worldwidevibes cares about what YOU think!  Please feel free to leave a comment on your reading experience.  We appreciate your input and will reward you with a 1/2 price blog on your next visit!

The positive we can take from all of this is that the story is being told, unfiltered, to the world through social media hubs like facebook, twitter, and blogs.  Normally, we would be treated to a pre-fab, over-produced, polished news story showing us a watered-down and very controlled version of the events taking place.  Particularily with a government like Iran’s, where media control is crucial to maintaining power, we would never be told the unfiltered truth.

Iranian citizens have become empowered to tell their stories to each other and to the world.  In return they are being shown support by their comrades and by global citizens of the social media world.  By recent count, a google query  for the search term ” Iran election” produced over 24million results.

This shows, that through social media, we all have a voice.  A voice that in many cases, would never have been heard.

Upon visiting the site for the first time, I was quizzed on a bunch of multiple choice questions which oddly resembled some sort of personality test.  These questions allowed for Hunch to make relevant suggestions once the user enters a search term or, as Hunch puts it, chooses to make a decision.  After completing the personality evaluation I was then prompted to sign up and create a profile, allowing Hunch to save my preferences and cater my search findings to my specifications.  After each search, I was given 3 options plus a wild-card and asked to give feedback on wether or not I liked the results given.

It would seem the more one uses this tool, the more customized the answers will become, as a sort of relationship is developed between the user and the Hunch search engine through user feedback as well as feedback from other users.

I see this one catching on, as more and more people want their search terms to be relevant to their specific needs and preferences, as opposed to whatever google’s most recent search rankings decde to spit out.  I’m not sure why I think this new tool will do well….call it a hunch.

What used to look like this…

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=517924886

will now look like this…

http://www.facebook.com/joe_blo

This is an interesting development as it would seem facebook is starting to feel a little pressure from relative newcomers to the social marketing arena, namely twitter.

This should increase facebooks overall search rankings on most search engines.  Will this make facebook more attractive to mobile users?  Facebook mobile is being pushed heavily in an effort to stem the tide of twitter use.

The website plays on the scenario by having the appearance of the MNU (Multi-National United) website with both Human and “Non-Human” interfaces.  Entering the non-human version of the site we are bombarded with rules, restrictions, no-go zones, ID tag registrations etc.  While the Human site offers job opportunity for “non-human relations” and security.  We also see live updates on crime and zone infractions.  There is also a forum where non-humans post about the terrible conditions in which they are forced to live in and work in.

This is a fascinating viral marketing campaign which is rapidly creating a buzz throughout the online world.  I find it effective and very interesting.  I am looking forward not only to the movie, but to what other marketing gimmicks we can expect from this movie’s producers.

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Phase II will include a portfolio as well as a more detailed product list.

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Worldwidevibes Web Solutions

Worldwidevibes is a web design company aimed at creating a meaningful and productive web presence for small businesses.  Services include web design and construction, hosting, domain name acquisition, search engine optimization, social marketing as well as internet branding.