The gestalt for my game is:
1. Join the game
2. Create missions for other users
3. Receive missions from other users
4. Manage relationships with other users

While the content of these “missions,” as I’ve been calling them, is still in flux, there will undoubtedly be something that users are doing besides managing their relationships. It would be possible to reduce the gestalt by one if the user generation of missions was removed, which may happen as I work out the details of how they will work. I used the term “manage relationships” because, while I expect most of them to be group memberships, pairings will occur and need managing, too.

On the scale of group participation, I think the game itself will walk players down the line from “me first,” (ie, they get their first mission, which will come from the system itself), quickly through “sharing” to “conversation,” when users are creating, completing, and evaluating missions for each other. As the groups grow and compete, they will eventually become collaborative, in designing challenges for the other teams, and, if galvanized enough by the competition, may resort to collective action. Perhaps it’s too ambitious to cover the whole scale? I’d say that, at the very least, most of hte game will happen in the conversation to collaboration realm.