I am building an online game much like Mafia Wars. I was thinking of displaying
ID: 650967 • Letter: I
Question
I am building an online game much like Mafia Wars. I was thinking of displaying the number of registered users on the home page, but then I thought:
"What if a new user sees that the total number of registered users is 5?!" :D
That would be too embarrassing to my still growing game. Then another thought came by:
"Why don't I display 500 instead?!" ;)
Nobody would know if there is actually 500 users registered to my website unless of course they start actually playing and interacting with other players.
However, I just have a feeling that this isn't ethical. What if this generates a negative publicity to my website?!!
What's your opinion should I fake the number? or should I honestly display it? or should I wait till I have 1000 real account then start displaying the number?
And most importantly is this legal?! :D
Explanation / Answer
The legality or otherwise of this will depend on where you are and where your customers are.
However, it is misleading, unethical and misrepresentation - any of which might get you in trouble with someone.
In the initial stages of the life of the game simply don't show the number. Wait until you have a real number to show.
An alternative might be to show the number of new registrations per week or day (assuming that this is a reasonably large number). This way you could still advertise the game as being popular and also encourage users by advertising the number of new people they can play with/against.
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