Scrobble Exchange: A massively multiplayer game

Sunil Shah, Last.fm - sunil(at)last.fm

Scrobble Exchange - A Massively Multiplayer Game

Last.fm is the world's most popular music recommendations website with tens of millions of users. We've recently built a prototype service (not available to the public yet) that shows in real time the number of people scrobbling<http://www.last.fm/help/faq?category=Scrobbling> (or listening to) a certain artist. This feed can be filtered by a number of variables such as geography and genre.

Using this service and our extensive API<http://www.last.fm/api>, this project's goal is to create an online multiplayer game where users can invest in a portfolio of artists and gain returns based on the performance of their portfolio. The mechanics of the game are up to you but you should take steps to prevent cheating, and implement market dynamics so users' behaviour has a visible effect on the market price of an artist.

Python or PHP against a Postgres database is preferred but you are free to use most popular open source tools and projects that have packages available for Debian Linux. A successful project would likely see implementation on Last.fm and be made available to our large userbase so you should consider scability a key design goal.

Optional extras for bonus points include: a mobile application (you may even choose to make this primarily a mobile game), insightful charting of data (our most prolific users are hardcore data junkies), tight integration with a user's history on Last.fm (perhaps seeding their cash pile based on their scrobbling history).