VisitorVille: game tech applied to web stats

I expect we’ll see more and more of this sort fo thing over time: uses of game technology to help visualize complex data sets. After all, games are models of complex systems. So it stands to reason that some of the techniques that have been developed for conveying complex information will work well in other domains.

Enter VisitorVille, which can only be described as converting your real time web stats into a Sims-like display, with each visitor shown as a little person arriving by bus (search engine) or on their own, and entering buildings (pages) that develop and light up depending on traffic. You can even pull up a passport (unique visitor history) for each little guy you see on the screen. It’s available in 2d or 3d versions, even.

Alas, for a site my size, it looks like it would cost maybe $90 a month. I have a firm rule that the website has to pay for itself (if only in Amazon gift certificates) and I’m not willing to spend that much on stats. Which is a pity, given how interesting the tool looks.