Playing the spigit Game

The spigit game has different aspects depending on if you are a:

Founder
Participant
Believer
Expert

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Founders

The Founder is the person who starts an idea − the Founder is responsible for taking their idea through the stages of the game, generating participation, feedback, and support. The Founder also has the responsibility of gathering believers for its IPO and managing the IPO, public open and final close of its spock during the 3rd Stage of the game, to ensure maximum return on investment for all of its sponsors and investors. Through these efforts, the Founder builds the market capitalization for its idea. The idea that achieves the highest peak market capitalization over the course of the quarter wins the spigit Splash! Award.

The Founder enters the game as soon as their ideas is posted and becomes public. The spigit game consists of three distinct stages that the Founder must complete. Each of these stages has specific requirements and milestones in different areas that must be met. In Stage 1 and 2, the user must complete or achieve each of the required milestones in order to move onto the 2nd and 3rd stages.

The first two stages of the game are called Incubation and Validation. In the first two stages, reaching milestones are the driving factors for moving to the next stage, and scoring is kept hidden. In order to complete the first two stages, the Founder must achieve certain levels and milestones in each of the following categories.

Stage 1 − Incubation

Post Your Idea
Expert Approval
Vote Threshold
Page View Threshold
Approval Rating Threshold
Buzz Percentile Threshold

Stage 2 − Validation

Expert Approval
Degree of Conversation
Believers/Team Members
Review Threshold
Post Threshold
Page View Threshold
Buzz Percentile Threshold
Approval Rating Threshold
Review Rating Threshold

A unique badge is awarded for each completed milestone to show progress achieved. To view the user badges − click here.

Following completion of the 2nd Stage, the user moves on to Stage 3, called the Emergence Stage. In this stage, scoring is unhidden and becomes the driving factor for determining who wins the game. The Founder takes their idea through an IPO and through the “spock market simulation” to build their score. The spock market is the virtual market where interest in an idea is bought and sold at the current market price. The current market price, or spock price, is the calculated share value of an idea, computed using series of proprietary and configurable algorithms multiplied by a derived factor value called the Pulse Rate. The Pulse Rate is a dynamically weighted average of various factors that roll up into three key categories − these include Buzz Rating, Effort Rating, and Quality Rating.

The number of shares is only limited in pre-IPO phase. In pre-IPO, the Founder's goal is to find participants that can best help evangelize their idea to the public and get them to invest in a limited pool of shares at the initial offer price. The Founder is required to enlist a minimum number of believers as part of the Stage 2 requirements. To enlist Believers, the Founder can grant preferred stock to an unlimited number of Believers, up to the preferred share allotment. Believers must hold their preferred shares until the end of Stage 3. Once the IPO takes place, the number of spocks for sale or purchase is limited only by the number of spigits an investor has available to purchase spocks.

spocks can be bought and sold for as long as the Founder decides keep the market open. The Founder determines when to end of the game based on a number of factors; these include: 1) whether or not they believe they have reached peak market capitalization. 2) Current spock price and direction of spock price. 3) Participant and investor feedback. 4) Investor buying and selling patterns, etc. Once the market is closed, the last price is captured and all outstanding investors are awarded spigits based on the last price and number of shares the currently own. Believers also receive last price for their IPO shares, as well as a percentage of total market capitalization distributed as dividends.

The idea that achieves the highest “peak” market capitalization for the quarter wins the spigit Splash! Award. Market Capitalization is the product of spock price and outstanding shares. Only ideas that reach the Emergence Stage can compete to win this award. While the goal of the Founder is to maximize their market capitalization to win the game, it is also the Founders responsibility and obligation to close its spock price to maximize investment return for its investors and believers.

Note that an idea can compete across multiple game periods (i.e. for quarterly awards), as it is possible that they began the game or a particular Stage at a less than optimal point during the period. However, if an idea wins the spigit Splash! Award for a period, it CANNOT win the award during any subsequent period for the same idea.

Participants

Participants are the people that collaborate, share in the development, and become believers and investors in new ideas. Participants receive spigits every time they participate − through watching, posting, rating and commenting − or every time they are rated by other participants. Through contributions, participants increase the number of spigits in their spigit bank and build their reputation. The goal of the participant is to build their net worth and reputation index through contributing quality content ideas and threads, and buying and selling spocks in Stage 3 ideas. Portfolio growth and returns are calculated, and the participants that achieve the highest net worth and reputation over the course of the period win the spigit Splash! Award.

Participants contribute content and expertise as a way to build their personal brand and professional network. Participants start with 25,000 spigits when they sign-up. Each time a participant contributes content or ratings to an idea, they receive spigits based on a weighted factor of their approval rating. Approval rating is determined by feedback from other participants who view, review, and rate contributions of their peers. Approval ratings and scores are factored into the reputation index and are segmented in the engine all the way down to the idea and thread.

In order to win the game and awards, participants must achieve the highest net worth in terms of spigits earned. Hence, it is not enough for a participant to simply contribute content. As part of the process of contributing content, participants in the game seek to identify the best new ideas and companies so they can invest their spigits when those companies reach the 3rd stage of the simulation. The spock market is a virtual stock market for ideas, where price is determined by a dynamic weighting of multitude of factors measuring quality, effort and buzz. Participants that forge relationships with founders early on can become a believer in an idea, which awards them preferred spocks from a limited pool of preferred spocks prior to an idea going public. Preferred shares are awarded by founders (who required believers to help evangelize and idea), and entitle the participant to dividends at the end of the game. This is an opportunity for participants to maximize the return on their investment.

Participants can buy and sell spocks in Stage 3 companies at any time, up to the total amount of spigits in their bank. This is the best way for participants to achieve high growth in total net-worth. Furthermore, successful investing is reflecting in the participant's reputation index as an indicator of ability to identify good ideas. Participants who reach the top levels in net-worth and reputation are publicly recognized for their accomplishments and success is tracked back and captured in their professional profile.

Quarterly spigit Splash! Awards are awarded to the top every quarter based on top growth in net-worth over a season. Participants and Experts are eligible to receive top honors on our leader-board and are granted based total portfolio growth and Expert Reputation totals.

Believers

Believers are participants that follow ideas from Incubation and Validation and agree to sponsor and invest in an idea as part of an initial IPO. Believers provide Founders with the support they need to take their idea public and help evangelize the idea to the crowd in effort grow the amount of investors and participation from the crowd. For their support and effort, Believers awarded preferred spocks from a limited pool of IPO shares at the initial IPO price, as well as share in any bonus spigit dividends granted when the Founder closes the idea. As a result, Believers have the ability to attain significant gains through early contribution and support, and can grow there bank significantly faster than if they participate as a traditional investor.

Experts

Experts are participants in the game that have achieved status based on spigits, rank, professional accomplishments or expertise. Experts provide credibility to the game and are instrumental in influencing and assisting Founders and participants in the development of new ideas, companies, and sectors. Participation is captured just as it is for Participants with additional contribution measures. Through participation and guidance, experts can build their bank, buy ideas for their portfolio, and win the spigit Splash! Award for their classification. The most exciting benefit of achieving expert status is earning the right to vote for the all-time best ideas and participants to be inducted into the spigit Hall of Fame. To learn more about the spigit Hall of Fame, click here.

Quarterly spigit Splash! Awards are awarded to the top every quarter based on top growth in net-worth over a season. Participants and Experts are eligible to receive top honors on our leader-board and are granted based total portfolio growth and Expert Reputation totals.

The Hall of Fame

The top ideas of all-time, in time can be elected by our community experts and moderators to be inducted into the spigit Hall of Fame. This is the most prestigious honor an idea can achieve and leaves a lasting legacy.

There are no minimum requirements for being elected to Hall of Fame, and is simply a matter of achieving a minimum threshold vote from our panel of experts and moderators. An idea becomes eligible for voting one season (quarter) removed from its idea closing quarter.

In order to be elected, an idea must receive 70% approval from our panel of Experts and Moderators. An idea that does not make it into the Hall of Fame on its first vote is eligible for up to 5 seasons, as long as it maintains a minimum of 25% approval from the Expert and Moderator Panel.

Upon gaining election into the Hall of Fame, an idea will have a custom badge created in its honor. The idea owner will have the opportunity to record a speech that will be broadcast to the entire community during the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, where the idea will be permanently enshrined in the Hall of Fame and its legacy will be forever solidified.