Games start-up 2PaperDolls creates Twitter social game Mind of Man

13 Jun 2012

US President Barack Obama's MindPrint on Mind of Man

2PaperDolls, the gaming studio that relocated to Dublin from the US last year, has just released a new Twitter discovery game called Mind of Man for iOS devices. The aim is for players of the game to learn about their digital persona, and how others perceive them online, as well as allowing them to snoop in on people they follow or celebrities to find out more about how they project themselves online.

Users will also be able to MindPrint themselves and get a graphical QR code.

The game is now available for both iPhone and iPad as a free app and a premium subscription app on the iTunes App Store. 2PaperDolls does not have a release date yet for Android.

The Enterprise Ireland-supported start-up 2PaperDolls is this evening hosting a launch event at The George Bernard Shaw in Dublin City to give app developers a glimpse of how Mind of Man, or MOM, will work using Twitter as its playground initially.

The start-up’s founding partners built the first online SaaS CRM, which was later acquired by Microsoft in 2001.

Andrea Ravenet, one of 2PaperDolls’ team, said that the company is also on the lookout for talented iOS developers and will be hiring. Video game designer Paddy Murphy recently joined the company.

Artificial intelligence and Big Brother theme

Ravenet described the game as having a type of ‘Big brother is watching you’ theme, which will allow both organisations and individuals to tackle the problem of big data and learn more about themselves using crowd-sourced recommendations.

“We’ve written psycholinguistic AI using various machine training technologies, including an object classification system, so that when people vote on Tweets, they’re training MOM.”

Ravenet said the game will also allow people to compete with others on Twitter to win free stuff at retailers, restaurants, pubs, bars and cafes.

“It’s a game with a purpose, a sentiment analysis game. It will be as good for individuals as it is for organisations to understand how the world perceives your online voice. It’s getting to know your digital persona.”

Ravenet also said that businesses will also be able to use the game as a social media tool.

“Specifically, it will be a tool for using Twitter to develop a closer relationship with others, with your community and with your brand,” she said.

So I got a chance to try the game yesterday on the iPad. You just log in via your Twitter account. On first impression, the game is very swish, highly interactive and very visual. I am not a big gamer, but I was hooked. My editor almost had to take the iPad off of me after a while.

Initially I was a bit sceptical about the game, as I was worried about snooping in on people and almost mind-mapping them. But I soon shook that off, and delved straight in to see what type of MindPrint US President Barack Obama would have. He came up as ‘Audacious’. Interesting. And then you can slide over and find out who his Celebrity Twin is. US politician and author Newt Gingrich apparently!

Each time you answer a question on the game you earn points. But I still didn’t have enough to find out who President Obama’s nemesis was on the game!

MindPrint on Mind of Man

Then, I moved on to myself, naturally enough. I waited in nervous trepidation to see what type of MindPrint I would get, but was able to breathe a sigh of relief when it came up as ‘Giver’. And my Celebrity Twin? The US actor and comedian Rainn Wilson, best known for his role in the TV comedy The Office.

I then decided to snoop in on one of my followers. They came up as having a ‘Disturbed’ MindPrint, so they shall remain nameless!

The way the game works is it trawls through everything you post up, and analyses things like over-use of exclamation marks and aggressive language.

Paris Hilton Mind of Man

Finally, I decided to check out what type of MindPrint the US heiress and socialite Paris Hilton. Why? I’d just heard earlier this week that businesswoman Hilton is bringing out yet-another perfume. Her MindPrint came up as ‘Jezebel’.

Oh I also checked out the Dalai Lama before I had to tear myself away from the game and get back to work.

The final word on Mind of Man: fun and engaging and a new way of looking at how games are veering towards becoming more purposeful, so users, businesses and individuals alike, can make more sense of the data explosion. I’ll definitely be checking it out.

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com