Mobile Game Personas

Social Butterfly

Karen Buchanan

Karen is a 24 years old. She graduated from the University of Indiana two years ago in English. She has recently relocated to New York to pursue her dream as a writer and has just begun working for The New York Times as a content writer for their internal site.

Today, as is usual, she wakes up, puts on her new pointed Kenneth Cole boots, Seven jeans, and wraps her Burberry scarf loosely around her neck. She enjoys high fashion and is always dressed to the nines when she enters the door at work. Her motto, though classic and clichéd, is to “Dress for success.” She wants to one day have her own column. Her voice is loud, her charisma boisterous, and her enthusiasm exuberant. She wants people to notice her and they do. She is ready to take New York and more importantly the New York Times by storm.

In her spare time, she likes to go out to clubs and bars and go dancing with friends. She has just signed up for a yoga class on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, and has begun wandering about the city looking for inspiration for her writing.

She smiles from ear to ear every time she thinks of her new life, but is sad because she has left many of her friends, including her best friends, sorority sisters, and family behind. She is a bit worried about not having any close friends nearby, but knows that she has never really had a problem meeting new people -- she just has to get out there and do it.

Since her move she has been trying feverishly to become close to people through both Friendster and Tribe. She figures what a better way to meet people then those that already know someone that she knows or who are interested in similar activities. She has even met a guy who knows her best friend and sorority sister Jen, he was the one who recommended that she take her yoga class.

The problem she has, however, with both Friendster and Tribe is that there are just too many individuals and after she initial meets one of them online, the only next step is to either continue writing to them online or set up a meeting in person. She is often hesitant to meet complete strangers in person and since she writes online for a living, she is often too tired at the end of the day to continually author epic emails to her new friends, which will describe her interests and personality. She would love it if there were a tool that would allow her a new fun way to meet new people. That would also be easier and take less time than composing emails.

She often has the hottest technologies and has just received a camera phone. A friend on Friendster invited her to play in a picture taking mobile game. He has told her that it is fun and you get to meet a lot of cool people very easy, plus you get see a lot of funny odd things. He told her that you can also play in your down time, or on the train on the way to work. She figures why not, it wont take up much time, and sounds like fun – maybe it could even spark some inspiration in her for work. She figures she has nothing to lose and signs up.

Goals:

• Meet new individuals with similar interests as her and integrate the real world into meeting them, before she meets them in person.

• Having fun.

• Using her new gadget, camera phone.

• Taking up dead time and enjoying herself -- possibly replacing it with some gain of inspiration or at least a good laugh.