Social games are big these days, with the primary platform being Facebook. Social gaming start-ups seem to be cropping up so often, and a good deal of them get a decent first round of funding from the venture capitalists.
I found it hard to accept social games in the beginning (towards the end of 2008), but then got pretty addicted to Mafia Wars. I still can't believe I played that game for over a month, when all it involved was clicking buttons. Then, there were those classic game clones of pacman, finding words on a grid, typing maniac which were fun purely because you were competing with your friends for the higher score.
That phase ended and I haven't touched a social game for a long time. I'm utterly disgusted by a lot of the *ville games, and the now cliche concept of a persistent world. The persistent world concept that originated in MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games) made perfect sense in a social setting and is part and parcel of every big social game out there. Its the same shit, you click some buttons, gain experience points, level up, unlock more stuff with bonuses for a bigger social gaming circle.
I asked myself what kind of social game would I wanna play. Definitely not the current crop of games being churned out (with a lot of them focusing on the female market). I don't want to spend more than 5-10 minute bursts on these games, and I really want to play them with my close friends/family only, not random people on my friend list or the net. I'd think there are a huge number of Facebook users who wouldn't mind trying out these kinda games.
The only games that match my interests are poker and card games. There really should be something more.
I look at these category of games as stress busters, serving to lighten up your mood.
Crazy, wacky concepts in a multiplayer setting. I don't really see how monetization via microtransactions/virtual goods fits in for this category - so it seems like it'd mainly have to be advertising which kinda sucks. But then, the simplicity of making these games, and not having big databases holding the state of the entire world seems worth it from a developer perspective.
Also, I love games that let the player generate content. Social games till now have completely neglected fan generated content! Simple and intuitive user interfaces that let you build something and share it with your friends.. a simple example would be a racing game that lets you build the race track. And may be, instead of just chatting with your friends, you invite them to race on your track.
If they like it, they rate it, and other players can check it out.. there are so many cool "social" game mechanics that have been neglected purely because of monetization interests.
What do you think?
I found it hard to accept social games in the beginning (towards the end of 2008), but then got pretty addicted to Mafia Wars. I still can't believe I played that game for over a month, when all it involved was clicking buttons. Then, there were those classic game clones of pacman, finding words on a grid, typing maniac which were fun purely because you were competing with your friends for the higher score.
That phase ended and I haven't touched a social game for a long time. I'm utterly disgusted by a lot of the *ville games, and the now cliche concept of a persistent world. The persistent world concept that originated in MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games) made perfect sense in a social setting and is part and parcel of every big social game out there. Its the same shit, you click some buttons, gain experience points, level up, unlock more stuff with bonuses for a bigger social gaming circle.
I asked myself what kind of social game would I wanna play. Definitely not the current crop of games being churned out (with a lot of them focusing on the female market). I don't want to spend more than 5-10 minute bursts on these games, and I really want to play them with my close friends/family only, not random people on my friend list or the net. I'd think there are a huge number of Facebook users who wouldn't mind trying out these kinda games.
The only games that match my interests are poker and card games. There really should be something more.
I look at these category of games as stress busters, serving to lighten up your mood.
Crazy, wacky concepts in a multiplayer setting. I don't really see how monetization via microtransactions/virtual goods fits in for this category - so it seems like it'd mainly have to be advertising which kinda sucks. But then, the simplicity of making these games, and not having big databases holding the state of the entire world seems worth it from a developer perspective.
Also, I love games that let the player generate content. Social games till now have completely neglected fan generated content! Simple and intuitive user interfaces that let you build something and share it with your friends.. a simple example would be a racing game that lets you build the race track. And may be, instead of just chatting with your friends, you invite them to race on your track.
If they like it, they rate it, and other players can check it out.. there are so many cool "social" game mechanics that have been neglected purely because of monetization interests.
What do you think?
