1. To help players (especially newbies) monitor the status of their games, know when it's their turn, receive chat messages from teammates, etc; how about an optional 'alert client' that runs (as a service/process) on the players PC--with optional desktop alerts, sound notification, email alerts, etc.?
2. In addition, for Google Desktop users like me, consider a Google Gadget for the sidebar that does this using RSS feeds? (Google provides a nice little SDK that makes this relatively easy) This might also increase traffic to your site from other Google Desktop users.
3. Also, I think that having more detailed information in the <description> tag of the RSS feeds would help. Things like:
* Map name
* Who's currently playing, or next up
* Who's still in the game / eliminated players
* # of Territories owned (and +/- change since last turn)
* maybe even the Game Chat messages?
I think these relatively minor improvements (in terms of work involved) would significantly improve user awareness, speed the games up a little, and give the game a more interactive, inclusive feel--because right now, it has a kind of 'distant' feel (just my honest, objective opinion as a newbie). Don't get me wrong, I love playing, and I think you guys have done a fantastic job; but there's always room for improvement, right?
Priority: 4
I think it would greatly help to attract/retain new players, and make the experience even better for the veterans.
Whaddaya think??
