This proposal covers a method for representing gaming-related activities in Activity Streams.  The goal was to capture important activities related to gaming, in general, whether the games are played on a computer, TV/Console, or mobile device.  The proposal is meant to encompass all categories of games, from casual games to more serious games.

Potential verbs

• win
• earn 
• tie
• lose
• save (already in Atom Activity Streams Base Schema) 
• play (already in Atom Activity Streams Base Schema) 

Potential objects

• achievement (or badge/level/reward)
• game
• high-score
• person (already in Atom Activity Streams Base Schema) 

Use Cases

Achievement/Badge/Level/Reward

• <activity:verb> = save
• <activity:object-type> = achievement
• <activity:context> = game

Example: Anna Apple achieved Underboss in Mafia Wars

High Score

• <activity:verb> = save
• <activity:object-type> = high-score
• <activity:context> = game

Example: Bob Bacon set a new personal record of 3:22 in Minesweeper

Two player competitive game result

• <activity:verb> = win (or tie or lose)
• <activity:object-type> = person
• <activity:context> = game

Example: Anna Apple beat Bob Bacon in Mario Kart

Multi-player game result

• <activity:verb> = win (or tie or lose)
• <activity:object-type> = person (potentially multiple)
• <activity:context> = game

Example: Anna Apple beat Chris Cobb and Deepak Davis in Halo

Winning a game

• <activity:verb> = win
• <activity:object-type> = game

Example: Anna Apple beat Halo 3

Potential Object Representations

Achievement/Badge/Level/Reward

Below are potential child elements of an <activity:object> representing an achievement/badge/level/reward (a/b/l/r):

• <id> = Unique ID for that a/b/l/r
• <title> = Name of a/b/l/r
• <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="/<URL_to_page_for_a/b/l/r>" ... />
• <link rel="preview" type="image/jpg" href="/<URL_to_thumb-sized_a/b/l/r_image>" ... />
• (optional) <link rel="enclosure" type="image/jpg" href="/<URL_to_full-sized_a/b/l/r_image>" .../>
• (optional) <summary> = Brief or truncated description of what the user did to earn the a/b/l/r
• (optional) <content> = Full description of what the user did to earn the a/b/l/r

Game

Below are potential child elements of an <activity:object> representing a game:

• <id> = Unique ID for that game
• <title> = Name of Game
• <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="/<URL_to_page_for_game>" ... />
• (optional) <link rel="preview" type="image/jpg" href="/<URL_to_thumb-sized_game_image>" ... />
• (optional) <link rel="enclosure" type="image/jpg" href="/<URL_to_full-sized_game_image>" .../>
• (optional) <summary> = Brief or truncated description of the game
• (optional) <content> = Full description of the game

 High Score

Below are potential child elements of an <activity:object> representing a high score:

• <id> = Unique ID for that score
• <title> = value of score or time achieved
• (optional)<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="/<URL_to_page_for_game_session>" ... />
• (optional) <summary> = Brief or truncated description of the score/time or game session
• (optional) <content> = Full description of the score/time or game session

Examples

Personal record

<entry>

 <id>, <link>, <title>. <summary>, <content>, <published>, <author>, etc.

<activity:verb>http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/achieve</activity:verb>

<activity:object>

<activity:object-type>http://activitystrea.ms/.../high-score</activity:object-type>

<title>{Record value}</title>

</activity:object>

<activity:context>

<activity:object>

<activity:object-type>http://activitystrea.ms/.../game</activity:object-type>

<title>{Game Title}</title>

<link rel="preview" type="image/jpeg" href="/{URL to thumbnail image}" />

<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="/{URL to self page for game}" />

...

</activity:object>

...

</activity:context>

...

</entry>

Achievement/Badge

<entry>

<id>, <link>, <title>. <summary>, <content>, <published>, <author>, etc.

<activity:verb>http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/achieve</activity:verb>

<activity:object>

<activity:object-type>http://activitystrea.ms/.../achievement</activity:object-type>

<title>{Achievement title}</title>

<link rel="preview" type="image/jpeg" href="/{URL to Achievement thumb}"/>

<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="/{URL to achievement page}"/>

<summary type="text">{Description of achievement}</summary>

</activity:object>

<activity:context>

<activity:object>

<activity:object-type>http://activitystrea.ms/.../game</activity:object-type>

<title>{Game Title}</title>

<link rel="preview" type="image/jpeg" href="/{URL to thumbnail image}" />

<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="/{URL to self page for game}" />

...

</activity:object>

...

</activity:context>

...

</entry>

Two-player competitive result

<entry>

<id>, <link>, <title>. <summary>, <content>, <published>, <author>, etc.

<activity:verb>http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/win</activity:verb>

<activity:object>

<activity:object-type>http://activitystrea.ms/.../person</activity:object-type>

<title>{Other player’s name}</title>

<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="/{URL to achievement page}"/>

</activity:object>

<activity:context>

<activity:object>

<activity:object-type>http://activitystrea.ms/.../game</activity:object-type>

<title>{Game Title}</title>

<link rel="preview" type="image/jpeg" href="/{URL to thumbnail image}" />

<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="/{URL to self page for game}" />

...

</activity:object>

...

</activity:context>

...

</entry>

Multiplayer competitive result

<entry>

<id>, <link>, <title>. <summary>, <content>, <published>, <author>, etc.

<activity:verb>http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/win</activity:verb>

<activity:object>

<activity:object-type>http://activitystrea.ms/.../person</activity:object-type>

<title>{Other player’s name}</title>

<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="/{URL to profile page}"/>

</activity:object>

<activity:object>

<activity:object-type>http://activitystrea.ms/.../person</activity:object-type>

<title>{Other player’s name}</title>

<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="/{URL to profile page}"/>

</activity:object>

<activity:context>

<activity:object>

<activity:object-type>http://activitystrea.ms/.../game</activity:object-type>

<title>{Game Title}</title>

<link rel="preview" type="image/jpeg" href="/{URL to thumbnail image}" />

<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="/{URL to self page for game}" />

...

</activity:object>

...

</activity:context>

...

</entry>

Notes

On context

There are three potentially interesting aspects of gaming context:

• Game - Ex: Mafia Wars, Farmville, Halo, etc.
• Platform - Ex: MySpace, Facebook, Xbox 360, etc.
• Mode - Ex: Beginner, Legendary, etc.

The overwhelming most important of these three is the Game and thus it seems appropriate if we currently have one primary context element to map this to the Game.

On players and teams

Especially as online and social gaming becomes more prevalent, variations in the number of players and teams/clans are becoming more prevalent, ex: 2 vs. 2, 8 vs. 8, Clan vs. Clan, multiplayer Cutthroat, etc.  Two-player competitive seemed like a good place to start.

On category importance

"The [online gaming] category attracted 87 million U.S. visitors in May 2009, up 22 percent versus year ago." - comScore