[Study]Why does the Japanese play a social game?

Japanese publishing company Enterbrain released a social game user action psychology report [PDF]. This had various interesting data. This investigation was carried out for 1,600 15-59-year-old social game users.

Q. Why do you play a social game?
(Answers of 5 high ranks)
1.I want to collect something(30.8%)
2.I want to be connected to somebody(20.3%)
3.I want to beat somebody(18.9%)
4.I want to be healed(15.6%)
5.I want to become free(12.9%)

Q.What are the first virtual goods for you to buy? 
(Answers of 3 high ranks of men)
1.Status up item(The item which can stimulate a game more profitably)(29.8%)
2.Time shortening item(25.2%)
3.Gacha(virtual capsule vending machine)(21.4%)

(Answers of 3 high ranks of men)
1.Avatar item(27.3%)
2.Time shortening item(25.9%)
3.Gacha(virtual capsule vending machine)(19.8%)

Grave in the Internet "Web Nehan"

Japanese funeral and grave are very expensive. Both cost millions of yen. There is not the memorial service of the parent now because Japanese youths are poor. Then, Japanese Buddhist temple Choukeiji started interesting service "Web Nehan(Web涅槃)". "Nehan" means Nirvana in Japanese.

http://choukeiji-nehan.com/

Web Nehan is an online grave. Users can place the full name of the deceased, an address, photos, anniversary of a death, sound, video, motto, family precepts in the page in the Internet and can customize it freely. ID and a password are published in a user and can make a visit to a grave from anywhere if there is Internet environment. The cost is 200,000 yen in 33 years. It is cheaper than a real grave.

A point of this service is that a temple runs it. In Japan, family, grave, monk and temple are tied closely. Individual can develop similar system. However, the value of Web Nehan is to run it a temple.

By the way, the chief monk of Choukeiji is a former newspaper reporter and former TV director. He left them and became a monk. Therefore he seems to do a new challenge without being seized with old convention.

[Experiment] Does the bond exist on the Internet?

Omocomo is the most playful joke column site in Japan(And it is one of my favorite sites). However, they sometimes show interesting experiment articles.

Sebuyama who is one of Omocoro writers did an experiment used Twitter, mixi and Facebook.

Source:
http://picup.omocoro.jp/?eid=1365

First, he did tweet in this way in Twitter.

After having eaten lunch, I dropped a wallet and became penniless. Therefore I cannot eat dinner. Will you treat to dinner? Please!

Then Twitter users did reply in this way "Eat wild grass!". However, the tender-hearted university student appeared after this, and invited him to the tavern.

Then, he called for help with a diary of mixi. GREE and Mobage are topics, but mixi is still social networking service of the biggest in Japan.

However, there were not the reaction at all. Probably mixi has decreased number of the active users.

Finally, he called for help in Facebook.

Then, Facebook users became kind and were anxious about him in this way. "Is it true? regrettably" "I treat you to a favorite dish if you can come to Ueno" "Because I have rice and a rice cooker, I can treat you" "If you can come to Osaka, I welcome you warmly". Meanwhile, his friend Ryunosuke wrote comment earliest "What do we eat? ". And Ryunosuke took him to the cool restaurant.

This is an interesting experiment to know the tendency of Japanese Internet users. Sebuyama writes various experimental articles as well as this. The part was reported for foreign countries.

See Also:
Experiment: Can You Identify Twitter Users In Tokyo? (Asiajin)
Stalker's delight? Experiment reveals how your Twitter feed makes you easy prey (ZDNet)
The Twitter Experiment: Japanese Man Forbidden From Leaving Work Until He Gets 1000 Retweets (Rocket News24)
Death By A Thousand Tweets (Ubergizmo)
This Japanese marketer used a painful but unique approach to go viral on Twitter (The Next Web)

Today's Announcement of DeNA

Today, DeNA holds "Mobage open platform Forum" in Tokyo. They announced the lot there. I enumerate the things which thought important.

• DeNA and Disney Japan released 2 mobile social game this month, and develop a mobile social game of Marvel Comics now.
• Cygames’ social game apps "Rage of Bahamut" tops U.S. top-grossing Android apps on the Google Play.
• GRASSHOPPER MANUFACTURE's popular game "No more heroes" become the social game in Mobage in July.
• DeNA China concluded a business alliance with China's RenRen.
• Kabam and NIMBLEBIT concluded a alliance with DeNA.

The archive of Ustream is here. Most are Japanese, but ngmoco CEO Neil Young gives a speech in English last.

Funny micro work request

Japanese microwork platform Crowdworks had a funny work request.

"Buy Anpan for me
Budget:10,000 yen
Delivery day: April 21
Please buy Anpan and send to my home. I show the concrete delivery place at the time of item establishment. The purchase price for Anpan, transportation expenses and a fee are included in a budget. I welcome the optional suggestion including milk matching Anpan. The number and the brand choice of Anpan entrust you. Please adhere rigidly to 12:00 from 11:00 a.m. at delivery time."

Anpan is a Japanese sweet bun most commonly filled with red beans(Azuki beans) jam.

via Wiki

The budget for such work contents is 10,000 yen?(about 123USD) It's good work! :) By the way, this item was concluded.