¿Una mirada al futuro viral de Empire Avenue?

Duleepa is originally from Sri Lanka :) If the name is long, its either Greek or Sri Lankan, so in this case its Sri Lankan. Look out for an interview I had with him. It will be out on the July issue of diGIT (out tomorrow at http://digit.lk)

I'm from Chile. I hear about Empire Avenue from a friend in a soccer game. He sent me an invitation, and I started a few hours ago. I'ts interesting seeing how the social networks works. Now I'm trying to convince my friends to join and be a part of this new social game, I hope that the developers realize that the latinamerican players deserve a translated version. If they do that, the explossion of new gamers will be outstanding.

My rather pessimistic prediction is that when EA is opened to the masses, the whole thing will have the fun forcibly ripped from it. With the comparatively small userbase we've currently got, you start to put faces to names, and remember key players. If the whole world was involved, it'd lose all sense of personal connection.

I guess what I'm really trying to say is; if it was a global thing, it'd just be a numbers game. You wouldn't care about who you were investing in, you wouldn't take the time to read blogs and check out websites, you'd just look at plus signs and neg signs, press buy, press sell, and go to sleep.

I think Luke's predictions are pretty realistic, especially about EA becoming a numbers game, especially if someone is playing "to win" or get on a particular leaderboard. And the abilty to put faces with names and start to build relationships is definitely one of the better parts of EA and it's small userbase.

I am a "glass half full" kinda guy though, so I'm excited by the prospect of global viral-ness for a couple of reasons.

For starters, I and my colleagues work at Pinnacle Signs & Graphics (SIGNS) a small, but well known sign shop in Little Rock. We have larger aspirations than simply the greater Little Rock area, and see the Little Rock Arkansas EA city community as a way we can expand our brand, services, and client base even more. We want to be THE sign company in that community, and see a viral EA as something that could definitely be a boon to our business. Pinnacle Signs is just one of the organizations I am involved with, and if EA takes off, I could see it as a great resource that benefits these others as well.

On the personal side, I enjoy meeting new, interesting, colorful folks. A global community offers up so many new possibilities for exploring for those folks. If EA hits critical mass, sure, there will be countless faceless nameless folks, but with some good use of the search tool, interests and communities, I think I'd be taking even more time to read blogs and check websites, not less, to selectively find those people who I want to connect with.

Lastly, I'm optimistic cause I look at facebook and twitter with their gazillions of users, and recognize that they're still fun and valuable, despite their size. I don't follow or friend everyone, nor do I seek out or even try to, but of those who I do, I do so for specific reasons, and I think the same concept will transfer nicely to EA as a social platform. The game aspect, for me at least, is a nice diversion (and an addictive little piece of online crack), but secondary.

Luke, very good point. However, we're looking to mitigate those issues through an improved signup process and especially through Communities. That's why we limit the number of Communities you can join -- it means you're likely more invested (no pun intended) in those Communities, and you're more likely/able to interact. One of the key elements to the site in the future will be relevance; we want to make it easy for you to connect with and find people and businesses that are actually relevant to you. That starts to reduce the feeling of being stuck in a massive pool where you couldn't possibly hope to have meaningful relationships with individuals.

Tom, can you say if there are their going to any future plans to improve the "primitive" community forums and message system interfaces? As is, I find it very difficult to keep up with the notices posted in community areas that now display intermixed with trading information. Thanks!

This is exactly what they are trying to do with the new Digg.com -- make it more relevant to you. They do have developed a new sign-up (they call it onboarding) system to seek more information from you.