Social media is becoming part of play time
Posted in Social media, games on September 10th, 2009 by Glenn WhiteA game built for social networks is very different to a game with added social features.
The “traditional” games are starting to incorporate more social features outside of simply allowing them to be multi-player. There are now games that incentivise through your friends high-scores (Burnout Paradise) allow you to share you creations (LittleBigPlanet, Spore) or incorporate them into your social spaces with Youtube (Noby Noby Boy) and Twitter support (Blur).
The majority of these are designed as games first, with social features playing a supporting but not necessarily crucial role. One of the core reasons for that is there are still a high number of people who do not have their games machine hooked up to the Internet. Their machines are used for single player or local experiences with friends.
As we move forward the gap between offline and online users will fall, but one place where this issue has already been removed is in the social networks we use. When a game exists on a social network you know that the user is always going to be online when playing and have a rich amount of information to be able to tap into such as who their friends are or what pictures they are in. I am looking directly at you here Facebook. This neatly brings me on to a company that has fascinated me for a while, Playfish.
Playfish was founded in 2007 and is now a multi million pound company with millions of customers. Not bad for a couple of years work!
All of Playfish’s games are free to play on Facebook and all of them incorporate elements of your profile. Rather than go really in depth as to why Playfish have been so successful or how they make money (save those for another blog post!) I thought I would just pull in some examples of how Playfish use the benifits of being on a social network to the fullest advantage.
Crazy Planets
In Crazy Planets your character’s head is made from your profile picture, new units are given faces from the friends of your choosing. Making me feel that much more guilty when I accidently walk my girlfriend into a pit of lava! Sorry hunny…
The game also gives you higher in game rewards based on how many of your friends play, incentivising the player to encourage his or her friends to join in.
Mini Golf Party
In mini golf party players will see their friends watching them on the course and have a constant reminder of their friends scores (see above picture). Not only does this increase the social feeling of the game it encourages players to try and compete with their friends and continue to play.
Pet Society
In Pet Society players are surrounded by a village that is unique to them. It is made up of houses designed and decorated by their other friends playing the game. Even when their friends are offline they can visit the other pets, share items, play or just see what they have been up to. This is a game all about social interaction and personal expression and is now 14m users strong!
Overall the best thing about these games is always feeling connected to your friends whether they are online or not. The social experiment is just beginning and as more games move towards our social networks the more connected they will become to our lives even when we are not playing!
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