Update for March 6

Okay folks!

Welcome to new people who found us through the Zune Insider blog and the March Zune News newsletter, and for those who have been with me since the beginning, thanks for hanging on!

So here's where we are: we have a few ideas for The Social (our web site). Let's continue to discuss them and play "what if" until Monday. On Monday, I'm going to choose the concept that we're going to go with. (As in real software development, it's not quite a democracy; everyone has input, but ultimately one person - the PM - is where the proverbial buck stops.)

Honestly, the idea I'm leaning towards most is the one where we create a music trivia game that's about me - a "get-to-know-me" thing for each person's profile page. Here's a quote from the other thread where we first discussed it:

Something you said triggered a thought for me - I'm totally with you on the "focus on friends" thing and I liked your idea of the "mystery friend." Let me take that a step further: what if we allowed users to create a quiz about themselves and their musical taste, experiences, etc - then people could take your quiz and learn more about you?

So, we'd build an interface that let users create multiple-choice questions and note which is the correct answer. So I could create something like this:

1. Once upon a time, the theme song I had for my boyfriend was:

a - "My Favorite Mistake" by Sheryl Crow

b - "Nothing But You" by Paul van Dyk

c - "Hard to Handle" by the Black Crowes

And you all know it would be "a" based on my babble above. :-)

Would that be fun? It would definitely be unique and totally socially-oriented, two goals of the game...

But, let's discuss until Monday. So if you have new ideas, post 'em here, and other folks, comment on them, please!

Just remember a few things:

-- This is for The Social - not the device. Your suggestions for the device (and for other Social features) should be posted in the wishlist forums. We're listening to those, too - it's just that THIS feature is about a community-co-developed web site activity. Let's keep ourselves on track.

-- You must abide by our Code of Conduct.

-- Any ideas you submit are fair game for Zune to use, per our Terms of Use.

So, keep those ideas and comments coming!

--Jessica

Jessica Zahn, Zune Social Program Manager ~ This posting is provided as-is with no warranties, and confers no rights.

What about a musical taste match maker? It would be similar in underlying concept to what Pandora or Last.fm do, but instead of suggesting songs or artists that you might be interested in, suggesting other community users who share similar tastes?  This way, you can go see what they are listening to, and perhaps make a new community friend, talk shop, find out when so and so is touring, what bootlegs are out there, etc.

There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we'd all love one another. Frank Zappa

A game would be hard to do if you only known the person from either the website or maybe xbox live.

How about more options to posting messages such as pictures or a diffrent type of mini game maybe a musical hang man?

i think that this game could be a little hard because alot of these people i dont know and it will be hard to know them you know

 lukey03 wrote:

i think that this game could be a little hard because alot of these people i dont know and it will be hard to know them you know

Yeah, the idea is that it's hard at first, and it's a way to get to know people. I think of it the way I think of those bulletins that go around on MySpace (50 things about me, etc) or blog posts - where you wouldn't naturally know the answer when you're getting to know someone, but you learn about them and discover music in the meantime.

Jessica Zahn, Zune Social Program Manager ~ This posting is provided as-is with no warranties, and confers no rights.

One other thing - a number of your ideas for The Social that aren't about games or activities specifically are great, and I promise you there's a team of people thinking about those things. What we're working on here is an activity or game, so please try to scope your suggestions to that. :-)

You are, of course, welcome to give your other feedback and suggestions to us via the wishlist forums!

Jessica Zahn, Zune Social Program Manager ~ This posting is provided as-is with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Hey boys and girls, I know I just posted this one on the original forum but I just noticed this one. So I apologize in advance to those who have already seen this one. But here goes again....

Something i'd really love to see would be Xbox Live Gamercard and Zune Card blended into one. For example, putting the 360 logo on there along with the reputation stars and gamerscore. This one would probably be 360 staff, but when people play their music on 360 through their Zune why doesn't it automatically show on the Zune Card what I listened to? And finally, a universal status that works with both cards. Someone listening to a song or playing a game on their 360? Have it show up just like someone's status on Xbox 360. "Playing Mass Effect", or "Getting new music in Zune Marketplace", maybe even "Zune: 'Pain' Three Days Grace". Something that shows up on both cards. I know this is hardware related, but this would be pretty nice also. Since the Zune first launched, the only way you could check for nearby Zune owners is to manually poll the area using the scan feature. This one is borrowed off of the scanner from Metriod Prime DS...how about a Zune Social Scanner?! You go to a busy place like the mall and set it to scanner, and it not only alerts you when you have someone in range with a Zune that has their scanner activated, but you can choose to send your card to them manually or possibly automatically. Then later, you can see who's cards you got and send them a message. Or even add them to your friends list. Finally, and i'll quit my rambling, someone mentioned checking their friends through Live with the Zune. Why not have a Wi-Fi detector in the Zune that alerts you when you're at a wi-fi hotspot and can connect your Zune to the internet. From there, upload the songs you recently listened to and have it added to your card, check to see who's on Xbox Live, even recieve game invites and have personalized pre-selected messages for when you're not at home. Okay, i'm getting off my soapbox now.

We live on an island surrounded by a sea of ignorance. As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance