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What is the possibility of having fish swim from one aquarium to another?
By this, I mean that people could register with a common server somewhere that would allow fish to swim from my aquarium in Wisconsin to someone else's aquarium in Texas.
Since everyone has the same selection of fish, this wouldn't exactly be very exciting, so it would require that some "special" fish be created, I think.
For example, if a new fish/creature were created, say a Moorish Idol or hermit crab, the new fish would only be shown to me when that fish swam into "my" aquarium.
The software would need to be able to communicate across the Internet for this to work, so dial-up users may be at a disadvantage if they're not running the aquarium in a window.
Scenario:
My screensaver kicks in and looks for a connection to the SSA server.
Server responds, software registers itself for the "Moorish Idol" queue.
Feldon's program is currently showing the Moorish Idol, and it just swam off the screen, so his program tells the server that the fish is now available.
Server randomly picks a new person (in this case, me) out of the waiting queue and waits for a request from that person (or sends a ping down a port to their IP?) to give it the fish.
Fish now appears in my aquarium until it swims off-screen, and the process is repeated.
Having a special fish (or multiple special fish) makes it an event to have that fish appear on your aquarium. This could also be a way to reward registered users, or it may be a way to generate a small bit of extra revenue for future development of the product.
A feature like this would most likely generate some buzz in the press, which would benefit the program, and likely spur purchases of the software. This fact alone may negate the need to charge extra for it.
Now comes the magic question, would I pay for this feature? Yes, I would, but a small amount, say $5 a year or something like that. I would also consider paying for it in conjunction with a creature pack or a yearly subscription of new features (a la Stardock's Object Desktop Network).
Is this just out there in left field?
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