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Games People Play (Mediaweek - 1,198 words - May 20, 1996)
New Media/By Cathy Taylor
Games People Play
Does Riddler Have All the Answers?
Mediaweek took a spin last week on the gaming site riddler.com. We tried out the multiuser
crossword puzzles that are incorporated into Riddler's new 3.0 version, which was launched
two weeks ago on the World Wide Web. Crossword puzzles, created by world-renowned
puzzle-creator Stanley Newman, and trivia games, composed by former writers for Jeopardy,
are created for different levels of expertise (90 percent of Riddler users so far say they
have at least some college education, but that doesn't mean they are equally
trivia-savvy).
Every game is played in hot pursuit of 'caps,' the currency the site uses to tally up
points toward prizes. By way of Java, the multiuser versions of the games are able to be
played in real time (if you're using Windows 95) against one or two other competitors from
somewhere Out There. In the Riddler crossword section called 'Checkered Flag,'
head-to-head competition meant scrambling to solve clues on the same crossword puzzle as
someone with the illusive log on, 'Sahara.' After a hard-fought match in which the lead
changed hands several times, the final score was Sahara, 181, Your Reporter, 172.
Even through the disappointment of losing a heartbreaker like that, we could see why so
many Internet savants have whispered that Riddler-- in addition to being lots of fun--may
be one of the few sites that has closed the loop, so to speak, on a workable advertising
model.
Greg Stuart apparently thinks so. The former new media chief at direct marketers
Wunderman, Cato, Johnson recently left the agency to become executive vp/marketing at
Riddler's parent, Interactive Imaginations, trading in the security of parent company
Young & Rubicam for funkier office space at 21st and Broadway in Manhattan's Flatiron
district. 'I felt like I was driving on the access road to a superhighway,' said Stuart of
working on new media in the advertising business. Interactive Imaginations, owned partly
by General Electric and Random House, hopes to double in size over the next several months
and is close to signing a third major investor.
Now about that advertising model: First-time players at Riddler register, handing over
some demographic information and general descriptions of their tastes in music, travel and
other areas. But with prizes as a lure, Stuart says it cuts down on the number of people
who use on-line registering to take on an alias. Under the Riddler system, registering
allows advertisers to target Riddler users and build a workable database. Riddler has also
dispensed with the just-maybe-you'll-click-on-this-banner-ad model, by putting up a full
ad page before the start of each game that tells players details of the prize they're
playing for. And, as for the prizes, they're better than what you'll find at the bottom of
a cereal box--software, Apple Powerbooks, trips and even a $20,000 Toyota RAV4. Let the
games begin.
Copyright ASM Communications, Inc. (1996) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Copyright © 1997 ASM Communications. All rights reserved.
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