GLOBAL – Back in July we talked about the birth of the N-Gage Feedback Forum, a fresh approach that encourages anyone to make suggestions and vote on ways to make N-Gage better. It was a little sink or swim back then, but this next-gen suggestion box has turned out to be a great tool that the mobile gaming community has keenly adopted, and most importantly is actually affecting real changes and developments.
Read on to find out what’s happening as a result…
What’s instantly clear when you visit the site is that the suggestions are being monitored and acted upon by the N-Gage teams, with many suggestions badged boldly with statements such as ‘Completed’, ‘Started’, ‘Planned’ and ‘Under review’. Proving to the community that they are being listened to, they are influencing the future, and that getting involved does have a pay-off.
I’m fascinated with this entire concept, because it genuinely feels like a positive and creative environment for co-creation and kicking around ideas, and a place that in the often cynical realm of cyberspace, isn’t being abused.
It also opens the question, should this service be encouraged and implemented across other services, such as Comes With Music and Ovi, and applications (not early stuff that’s in the pipeline and dealt with via the Beta Labs channel, but apps that are already officially launched)? What do you think?
On the N-Gage Feedback Forum there are some great examples of how it is affecting new developments. For example, three suggestions have already been ‘Completed’ – “Release new updates of N-Gage more often”, “to make games with real time multiplayer via Arena or BT”, “To use 3D accelerator chip for N-gage Games “. And as for upcoming developments the current top suggestion with 1080 votes is, “Include Russian language in new N-Gage games”, and work has started on this as a result. Similarly, as you may know “Don’t lock N-Gage games to IMEI, so users can buy new phones” is also underway.
Similarly, other suggestions, such as “Alert users when newer game versions are available”, and “Insist developers make useful demos” are planned. With heaps of other suggestions both ‘Started’, ‘Planned’ and ‘Under review’.
This genuinely feels progressive in terms of narrowing the gap between developers and users. It’s the only example I’m aware of in gaming – mobile or console – where this sort of feedback system is being used and embraced (let us know if you know of any others), and it could almost certainly benefit other areas in mobile development.
Do you believe this sort of approach could really work elsewhere? Do you trust it? Let us know below.