Subject: ClioSoft marketing gimmick finds 8% of engineers willing to cheat

> So when I accidentally stumbled across the ClioSoft Visual DIFF Game,
> I stopped working and gave it a shot.  Here it is:
> 
>                     http://www.cliosoft.com/game/
> 
> It's obvious how the game works, so I say IGNORE the first screen that
> tells you the "instructions"; just hit PLAY!
>
>     - from http://www.deepchip.com/wiretap/111026.html


From: Srinath Anantharaman <srinath=user domain=cliosoft not mom>

Hi, John,

Glad you enjoyed our 'Spot the Diffs' game highlighting VDD - our schematic
and layout visual diff tool.  As you observed it was a fun way to show users
the ROI of a tool that can quickly identify what ECOs/changes have been made
to designs.  We had a lot of fun developing it and adding all the gaming
touches and sound effects.

(BTW, it's the Jeopardy theme music, not Beat The Clock!).

It would have been nice to have at least a few different games but it was
quite a pain just getting one right.

So far 211 people have played the game and entered for the iPad drawing.
I'm sure many others tried the game but did not register lest we spam them!

The game has taught us something about engineers.

  - Engineers like a challenge.  On average, they spent about 5 mins
    playing the game.

  - Engineers are appreciative.  Several complimented us on the game and
    our product.

  - Finding diffs in schematics is hard even for engineers; 32 failed to
    find any differences and only 15 found all 4 (without cheating).

  - The 15 who found all the differences averaged over 7 mins.  This was
    for a small schematic with just 13 transistors.  Imagine how tedious
    it can become if you had to do this for real size schematics.

  - Just like you, most engineers don't read instructions.

And the most interesting revelation of all:

  - Some engineers really like to win, and are willing to cheat.  We had
    17 players (8 percent) who identified all diffs in under 1 min -- not
    humanly possible!  One engineer took only 7 seconds to correctly
    identify all 4 diffs!

Clearly it was a drawback of us having only one game.  If only they had
read the instructions these engineers would have known that there was no
advantage to completing the game or even doing it fast.

I would like to invite your readers to TAKE THEIR TIME and take the
challenge and then to enter to win an iPad2.  We will have our drawing in
December; just in time for the holidays.

    - Srinath Anantharaman
      ClioSoft, Inc.                             Fremont, CA

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From: "Jerry Hershkowitz" <jerry.hershkowitz=user domain=analog not mom>

Hi, John,

Regarding your review of Cliosoft's game, the music in the background is the
music used on Jeopardy.  Maybe it was also the music used on Beat The Clock,
but I can't remember the last time I saw Beat The Clock.  (I remember that
as a fun TV program, but I was pretty young then.)

In any event, yes, that Cliosoft game does seem to get their Visual DIFF
marketing point across.  Clever stuff.

    - Jerry Hershkowitz
      Analog Devices, Inc.                       Norwood, MA