PHL2035: The Game kicked off this morning with about 300 players signed up and ready to go. Of course, we can do a lot better, and we’re looking forward to seeing those numbers swell as Mission 1 heats up.
For those just getting started, some helpful tips:
1) Filling out your profile is important! Almost everything that you can fill out in your profile is private, such as your age or your income bracket, but there are three pieces of your profile that are public, and with good reason:
Tagline, stake, affiliation: 3 important components of your profile
1a) Your tagline: This is where you get to express what brings you to the game. Are you determined to see a vacant lot on your block repurposed? Are you trying to understand how zoning changes might affect the character of your neighborhood? Are you tirelessly fighting to reuse an old building, or waiting impatiently for a waterfront trail near Bartram’s Garden? The tagline is your moment for personal expression, so make like Madonna and express yourself.
1b) Your stake: Are you playing as a resident, activist, or because your boss and/or friend who works at PCPC told you to? No matter, there’s a stake for you. This help other players understand your perspective on things.
1c) Your affiliation: This further clarifies what you bring to the planning discussion by indicating the organizations or groups you care about or belong to (sorry to end a sentence with a preposition, busy morning). You can pick as many affiliations as you like, but we hope you’ll be honest and not go overboard. The other important thing here is that some of the local causes you can support through the game may be tied to an affiliation. For example, if players determine that $500 towards a neighborhood cleanup is one of the top causes, then that award will go to the group with the most people affiliated with it in the game. The only way we know that is if you fill this out, so please do it!
It’s like duck, duck, goose, except it’s building, building, building, CRAT!
2) Navigation: This cute little landscape is actually how you know where you are in the game. Each building represents a challenge that you answer, and each of those questionable characters is a CRAT who ask you the tough questions and try to steal the coins you earn as you go. The sun actually follows you, so wherever the sun is, that’s how many questions you’ve completed (you can also tell this cause the buildings representing unanswered questions are in gray).
This question has two resources available to help you answer.
3) Resources: Crat got your tail? Many questions have resources that you can use for help. Just look for the little resources thumbnail pictures below the main picture for each question. Click on them to make them bigger and soak in the knowledge they provide.
4) Social networking: Just cause you’ve completed a question doesn’t mean you can’t return to it. Just like the Book of Faces, people in PHL2035: The Game can like what you say, leave comments under what you say, and you can do the same! In many cases, you can upload pictures and videos to get your point across. Don’t shy away from this feature. It’s a great way to flesh out different opinions on a topic, and because of the handy stakes and affiliations, you’ll be able to better understand where the person is coming from (ok, lots of preposition-ending sentences today…).
We’ll continue to post updates like these as the game progresses. In the meantime, get playin!
