50 replies to this topic

[Jeru]

I had this idea last night that we should perhaps set up a direct link between 0 A.D. and some social media platforms.


That way a player could easily share game scores at the end of a game on Facebook/Twitter/G+, or take screenshots of in-game events and easily share them online.

[wraitii]

I've never really used those features anywhere, but I agree: it can't hurt to have those. I imagine Age of Empires Online does something similar, too

[Mythos_Ruler]

Great ideas Jeru. A button on the post-game statistics screen to post scores and results to Facebook and Twitter. In-game screenshot dialog to post screenshot to Facebook or to their image sharer of choice (Imgur, others?).

[Geek377]

Lovely idea. I can see this trend being pioneered and evolving all around us Plus its a great way to share the game.

[samgj]

Just don't make it intrusive for people who don't use social media.

[Jeru]

I'm glad you like it!

I think as long as we keep it inobtrusive (no auto-invites and other annoyances), it could be a good idea.

What does this require for implementation? Does it need Twitter/Facebook developers?

[zoot]

IMO such things would be better done server-side on a future dedicated server, in order to avoid having to hardcode the latest social media fads (sorry, no fan ) into the client. If a given social network API breaks (which remote APIs tend to do), it's much easier to update a few server installations than it is to update thousands of consumer-level client installations.

Honestly, it's a bit like getting a tattoo: it may be all the rage today, but will it still look cool 10 or 15 years down the line? (0 A.D. has the potential to be an evergreen which Twitter and Facebook IMO does not.)

[howlingflute]

I agree with zoot. I would prefer to keep social media out of this game. Or at the very least make it an option at compile time to disable. I am not enamoured with the current social media trend. It could keep on going so it might be worthwhile to add to the game, but an option to disable the social media would be appreciated.

[Loki1950]

Why not just make it post the results to a web page here on the game's site saves all the api head aches is central besides I doubt that a lot of us are social media addicts

Enjoy the Choice

[Jeru]

I am wondering if a data export button would be useful.

Perhaps the data could be exported into an external HTML file and that would include all the social media buttons, rather than the in-game interface.

[Pedro Falcão]

This forum is enough of a social media, if a tool is made to publish scores here.

[Pedro Falcão]

We do have a personal profile here, perhaps this profile may hold our statistics? And then we could publish it on Facebook or Twitter from here, and if convenient, later turn off the tool?

[Jeru]

TBH I don't understand this "anti" feeling.

People are sharing info from lots of proprietary games on social media, I don't understand why FOSS games like 0 A.D. need to be kept hidden from the public in forums for insiders only.

[Pedro Falcão]

Jeru, on 15 October 2012 - 12:19 PM, said:

People are sharing info from lots of proprietary games on social media, I don't understand why FOSS games like 0 A.D. need to be kept hidden from the public in forums for insiders only.

They are afraid of Facebook and Twitter services becoming obsolete and eventually deactivated, that would give players many errors if they try to send info to the deactivated services, and would cause only more headaches.

[Jeru]

But 0 A.D. is an open source project and we can always change it later.

I also suggested to move the social media buttons into an HTML file generated each time with the exported data, to make the buttons less conspicuous than, say, if they were in the game UI.

[Mythos_Ruler]

I don't see why we can't do a full-featured social media in-game UI, then give the player the ability to turn it off in Options if they desire.

And people have been predicting the "death" of social media since Myspace imploded. It's not going to happen any time soon. Jeru is right, 0 A.D. is open source and easily fixed if one social media site or another goes under. Though, others are right that we shouldn't hard code the options presented and instead pull from our server. I also like the idea of presenting stats and such on a WFG profile or on the 0 A.D. page.

[zoot]

Mythos_Ruler, on 15 October 2012 - 05:17 PM, said:

I don't see why we can't do a full-featured social media in-game UI, then give the player the ability to turn it off in Options if they desire.

And people have been predicting the "death" of social media since Myspace imploded. It's not going to happen any time soon. Jeru is right, 0 A.D. is open source and easily fixed if one social media site or another goes under. Though, others are right that we shouldn't hard code the options presented and instead pull from our server. I also like the idea of presenting stats and such on a WFG profile or on the 0 A.D. page.

It's not a question of whether social media dies (it won't, it has been around in various forms since the 1970s), but of whether the specific APIs into Facebook and Twitter break, which they routinely do. See for instance this article about how it has affected Zynga.

Also, you should be aware, though you may not disagree with it, that what is being suggested is essentially an ad: every time someone shares their scores this way, it's additional exposure for Facebook and their advertisers. By extension, when people are working on 0 A.D., they would also be working on boosting Facebook's revenue. I firmly believe that a lot of potential contributors would be turned off by the suggestion of them basically working for free for a corporation as crassly commercial as Facebook.

Overall, I think everyone would be much better served by this going over some kind of intermediary server.

Edited by zoot, 15 October 2012 - 06:51 PM.

[Pedro Falcão]

But, zoot, you like it or not, facebook and twitter are the most popular social media and by not using them we also lose. So i agree that it would be good for the game to be connected to those media.

[zoot]

Which is why it was suggested that it be implemented via an intermediary server.

[Yves]

I don't like social media integration.
So if anyone implements it: please add an option (or better a build-switch) to completely disable it or remove it from the build.
I'm sorry if it sounds harsh, but I don't like how social media is present everywhere.