Games for the Oprah crowd is how Akoha co-founder Austin Hill describes his online gaming system. The system uses “mission cards” that friends pass to each other along with a mission i.e. give someone a book or buy someone a meal. You then register that card and perform the mission. Using clever social networking tools you can see how your missions affect others, compete against friends, and generally do nice things for people.
You can add missions to your own account and pass on the cards to your friends. You can either print out cards or request a deck of mission cards from the site that can automatically update your account to reflect the contents of that deck.
The team expects to launch the game in 2009 and their general goal is, in short, a better, happier world. The founders will also be supporting non-profit organizations with the revenue for their “play it forward” web game.
Akoha presented during Session 10 of the TechCrunch50 conference. Watch its presentation above.
I wonder about the long-term interest and playability of this. The novelty might wear out pretty fast after a few cards.
If it doesn’t, the world’s Karma will have been increased a few notches.
I’m looking forward to giving this a try but not sure if my friends will actually “Play it forward”. Some might not see it as fun and accept the card to be nice and then toss the card when they get home.
Will there be ways of preventing people from just passing a card around without actually doing what the card says? Gaming the system for points and status.
This was one of the more promising games to present today. I don’t know if it will catch on but it’s definitely an interesting idea.
nice. I hope this makes it. This is the type of thing that one person to one person will be an entertaining experience. Good luck!
This is clearly not going to work on an individual basis. They need to focus on groups/organizations, particularly college students (for class projects, school projects, etc) and companies.
And online philanthopy is starting to emerge into pretty innovative new ideas / concepts … Good work … Pity we have to wait till 2009
This sucks. You should play http://www.streetwars.net/
KILL YA!
Very excited to see this one take off.
Copy editor to manager’s office, please — it’s “affect others,” not “effect.”
I’m Simon, one of the developers of Akoha. We’re really, really pleased to show Akoha to all of you and we think it’ll be a lot of fun.
This is just the start of our great experiment to change the world one good deed at a time. We have so many things planned for the near future that will raise and keep interest in the product.
Already, there’s a core group of users who love the concept and love the game. I regularly walk around with cards in my pocket, looking for an opportunity to make someone’s day. On my way to work, on my way to the store, on my way home. It takes barely any time at all, but we find that it’s already quite fun.
We’d love to hear your suggestions and feedback on how to improve Akoha. We can’t promise to answer every question, but we’ll certainly try! Send an e-mail to support@akoha.com
Are you *serious*? I think someone saw the movie Pay It Foward a few too many times.
Look, it was a great movie… but life just doesn’t work like that. People are self-interested in nature and have no time for such games. It’s a cute game, but how is it a business? This is the kind of thing that holds people for about 15 seconds before they get distracted by something else. How you got $1.9m in funding is mindboggling.
If you want to do good in the world you are going to have to do it within the confines of the system and natural, self-interested human behavior.
At the end of the movie, the kid gets stabbed in the stomach with a knife. That’s probably an appropriate metaphor for what’s going to happen to this company when the money dries up.
“If you want to do good in the world you are going to have to do it within the confines of the system and natural, self-interested human behavior.”
Who has ever changed the world by thinking within a set of confines? I think a lot of people really underestimate how great it feels to help other people out. When I use Kiva it makes me feel good, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Who cares if Akoha isn’t profitable today. It has the potential to create a lot of value and do a lot of good. I’m really excited to see the launch and to watch the team iterate on the idea.
Great job Austin! You continue to be a visionary. Way to represent Canada!
@aaron This is just a codified way to do something society has done for millenia- rewarding actions that benefit others. It looks to me like Akoha is not trying to change human nature, they’re trying to allow the best parts of it to flourish.
I’m just as pessimistic as any economist, but I’m also a realist- society is made up of people who have good and bad days, and all Akoha does is allow people to spend more time feeling gratified about (and being socially supported for) their good deeds.
As for their funding, I’ve seen more money go to dumber ideas with less of a chance to make a profit. Unless you’re one of their funders considering pulling out, don’t go second guessing their VCs’ decisions. They earned the right to make them.
The thing that I think a lot of people might lose sight of with ideas that have ambitious (and in your case, esp., worthy) goals — is that they are ever evolving.
Some products are worth iterating against more than others.
However, ideas like Akoha *needs* to iterate because *the world* needs more ideas like Akoha to be successful.
I have no idea if this iteration of the product will be successful, but we certainly need more big ideas that uses the web for good and worthy goals.
Ironically, what you have built is a SaaS version of a game I play in my own head. I motivate myself to do good by mentally rewarding myself with karama points. I don’t really keep track of the points, but I figured good things will happen, and the more good I do, the more I can “karma offset” the stupid crap that I do. Turning it into a game, and a more tangible service I think is very cool. I hope for the rest of us that this catches on.
Good Luck Austin.
A few points:
1. Ok cool idea for a web based game or rather cool idea for doing nice deeds.
2. This venture would never get VC funds were it not for the founder’s reputation. Thus giving everyone reading this a lesson in how important it is for VCs to feel comfortable about who the founder is. Austin got funding from folks who already knew him well and knew of his previous successes and failures. If this was someone new, who never worked with VCs before or never started any other company, then getting even 1.9mill would be a long shot.
3. Shame on Techcrunch!. The bar for the types of internet companies that make it on Techcrunch has certainly dropped over the years. Although Akoha is a social game focused on interactivity offline and online, it is NOT, in the essence of the definition, an internet company. TechCrunch and its many media outlets should have a stronger focus on covering companies that are truly online/tech companies and not simply companies that have online functionality. If the makers of games like trivial pursuit or Deal or No Deal or Karma Tycoon developed online social interaction for their games, would that make them worthy of being covered by Techcrunch and the SiliconValley media, I doubt it. As a faithful reader of Techcrunch and many other technology reviews, magazines, media, I and I assume many other readers want to read about Tech and online based services and companies, web based mavericks, the modernization of the web business and not just any business with web based functionality. Unfortunately, although and interesting idea, Akoha falls into the later.
I wish Austin and his team nothing but the best in moving and “paying” his venture forward.