Are You a Social Media Gamer?
I’m guilty…!
Social media gaming has become a huge success – at barely 3 years old, it has skyrocketed to the top of the online entertainment list! So, what is social gaming, and how does it differ from traditional gaming?
Social games are distributed via social networking sites. If you’re a Facebook user, you have probably heard of a few (FarmVille, Mafia Wars and Café World, just to name a couple). Social games are shared through invitations, news feed postings, and notifications between users.
They can be lumped into four different categories:
- Resource management systems
- Online gambling
- Care-taking
- Casual/arcade
Resource management games, like FarmVille, allow players to be responsible for managing their resources to achieve a specific goal. I (embarrassingly) admit to walking away from a conversation or two to harvest my strawberries before they had a chance to wilt.
Online gambling games allow players to bet digital dollars rather than hard currency. Players can accumulate points in hopes of winning prizes.
Care-taking games, like Tamagotchi, allow you to care for a virtual animal by feeding it, playing with it, and tending to its “emotional needs.”
Arcade games are simply updated versions of traditional games (Tetris, Scrabble, Bejeweled, etc.) that are played on social networking sites.
Don’t think that social gaming is solely for recreation. It has been said that social gaming can affect a company’s success. Zynga, the creator of FarmVille, has concluded that success is derived from three factors: ability to drive new users, the ability to construct an engagement loop, and a channel to access open communication. Considering that FarmVille has an estimated 82.4 million users and Zynga is making close to $500,000 a day, it seems as though they may be on to something…