Mobile Game Personas

Everyday User

James Graham

James is an administrative assistant at a local advertising agency in downtown Chicago. He is 33 years old and content living in his apartment north of the city, next to the lake. James has grown up and lived in Chicago for his whole life. He attended a small community college in the city for two years and then decided to pursue his dream as a stand up comedian ever since. He auditioned for a few shows in the first few years after he left school, but since has done very little, except watching a lot of comedy films and TV shows.

James lives with his friend and roommate Sergio. Sergio is a waiter at a local 4 star restaurant. James met Sergio 8 years ago, when Sergio had just moved to Chicago from Colorado. During the day Sergio has decided to return to school to take a course in Web programming. Seeing as they are both bachelors, he and James hang out a lot together and enjoy watching movies and making their own commentaries on political shows. They often put their own words to muted television interviews. James makes Sergio laugh a lot.

James is content with his position as an administrative assistant. In his opinion, he makes good money and is able to go out and spend time with his friends, as well as explore his comedy aspirations. James has a very close group of friends, many of whom he as grown up with or known for years. They all have good jobs and make good money, but after their 8 hour days, they go home and spend time with one another. They very seldom work overtime.

While at work, James has a lot of extra time on his hands. This is one aspect of the job that he really enjoys. He is able to browse the web and join in online communities. He likes to blog, especially about political affairs in a satirical way. He loves to play SIMS. He used to play at work, but noticed that he would get involved for hours at a time and would get behind in his work. He now plays when he gets home from work. He usually plays for a few hours, and when Sergio returns home around 10 o’clock, James is excited to show Sergio the new and interesting happenings of the day.

He takes the L (elevated subway) to work everyday and passes the time by reading. On occasion he has forgotten his book, so instead of reading he played Snake on his mobile phone. He thought it was really fun at first, but quickly got bored with it. The next time he left his book, he tried downloading bowling. He liked it more, but always wished there was a game that he could play that involved another player and was a little more exciting.

James’ contract for his cell phone has recently expired, so he went to the AT&T store to renew the contract. In the process the salesman asked if he would like to try a new camera phone. He likes new toys to play with, so he thought….”why not”, additionally he seems to have remembered one of his friends mentioning a new cell phone game that involved pictures. He is excited as he realizes that he may no longer have to play bowling when he doesn’t bring his book and that he may be able to enhance his blog entries with photos. It’s a clincher, he’ll pay the extra $50.

Next weekend James sees his friend at a party. James is snapping pictures with his phone. His friend notices that he’s got a new phone and approaches James.

“Hey do you want to play that new game I was telling you about?”

“Sure.” James, says “That was totally part of the reason I got this thing… it rocks.”

“Wait till you play the game!”

On Monday, James’ friend sends him an invitation to play in the new game. James receives it and excited to begin to play.

Goals:

• To play another game with his friends and where he can interact with people socially.

• To take up the downtime.

• To become more aware of strange things around him.

• To have fun.