Social games. What threatens the gaming industry with a new wave of casual games for Facebook and other social networks

70% of the audience of the social network lives outside the United States Facebook. 200 million people use Facebook daily, 400 million – monthly. In the growth rate of Facebook back in 2008, he overtook Bebo , Friendster , Hi5 And, of course, Myspace , The most popular social network of North America. For six years that have passed since the founding of Facebook, over 1 million developers have created more than 500 thousand applications, and the games presented on Facebook consume about 235 million users per month. Facebook games have more users than that World of Warcraft And Xbox Live , combined, and the audience is the most popular game on Facebook Farmville (82 million active users) more audience in total Twitter (75 million users).

With such a monstrous number of consumers of the game for Facebook, they cannot but affect the game industry as a whole. On the last Game Developers Conference In San Francisco, games for social networks were https://queen-vegas-casino.co.uk/ actively discussed, the first game with the possibility of publishing results on Facebook has recently appeared on the PlayStation 3, such industrial titans are concerned about sociality as Electronic Arts And Activision Blizzard. It is very simple to develop a social game, making money on it is even easier, support for the finished product does not require special costs and efforts. What are you waiting for, in fact?

Flow

Not a single real game for social networks has yet been made – this is willingly recognized by the manager of the Facebook game part Gareth Davis. According to him, social games are at an early stage of development – while there is no brilliant game that would become an analogue for Facebook Super Mario Brothers on nes, Sonic the Hedgehog on Sega and Halo On the first Xbox. There is a platform, but it is not very playing yet ..

Perhaps such a game will become Civilization Network Sid Meyer or the second or third project of the new company Richard Garriot (read on both on the inserts). Meyer and Garriot are far from the only veterans engaged in social games. Chief designer Civilization 2 , Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri And Rise of Nations Brian Reynolds heads the game development department of the most successful Facebook publisher Zynga , And the main designer Civilization 4 Soren Johnson is engaged in social browser games in EA 2D. The legendary employee Infocom Steve Meretski-Vice President of Game Design in the Company Playdom , creating one of the most popular games for Myspace ( Mobsters ). David Perry spoke about social games on the GDC, which publicly scolded the Chinese Mmorpg ZT Online for paid chests with random gaming objects, and Ray Musick from BioWare , He urged developers to think not about immediate income, but about prospects and cultivate communities of devoted fans. The first persons of the industry go to social games, and the second faces give them useful tips and tell them how to make the game better and more honestly.

By “social games” you can understand different things – a lonely user, who click on World of Warcraft, and gathered for the in the morning, consider social players in the early morning Rock Band Merry company. Social games on Facebook and other social networks currently mean a primitive type of casual games – at best, these are cut versions of existing genres (MMORPG, virtual zoo, urban planning simulators and strategies), in the worst – a spam generator, which is slightly disguised as a game, squeezing real money from gullible users.

To make an exhaustive idea of ​​these games, it is not necessary to register on a social network, just look at Facebook Game Idea Generator ( Whisperstorm.COM/Apps/FBGameideas) or Progress Wars ( Progressware.Com). On the first site, accidentally generated names like Social Saga (“Social Saga”), Pirate World (“World of Pirates”), or Vampire Rivals (“Vampire-Councils”) are no different from the names of the real Facebook products, the second is the best possible The concept of "social mmorpg" is expressed. All you need to do in Progress Wars is to press the “Mission” button and watch how the experiment scale is filled. Misses are generated randomly (“deal with drug dealers”, “destroy soybeans”, “fill the warehouse with fish”), and the gameplay begins and ends with a single button … and the game is almost no different from Mobsters , Mafia Wars , Mob Wars , Dungeons & Dragons: Tiny Adventures or any other role -playing game for a social network.

In social games, approximately the same as in ordinary ones, the same features of the human psyche are exploited there (craving for rivalry and collective interaction), players again and again repeat the same meaningless actions for the growth of the abstract scale … But this happens in grandiose scale and completely simplified form. Nothing is required of the player – you just need to regularly look at the site and press the button to find out what will happen next. Game mechanics by these games is replaced by statistics.

All products of social titans Playfish , Zynga And Social Gaming Network can be divided into games using the player's real social ties in a primitive gameplay (Mafia Wars, Farmville); games in which a primitive gameplay is built on such forms of social interaction as communication, trade or flirting ( Yoville , Pet Society ); Tables originally designed for playing with living people ( Texas Hold’em Poker , Scrabble ), and quizzes with online records ( Who has the biggest brain? , Word Challenge ).

Most social games are ports or clones of existing casual. The fastest growing demographic segment of Facebook is made up of women aged 55 years (and in general, according to recent studies, women of all ages on social networks are more than men), so everything is clear about casuality. But the games on Facebook are an integral part of the constant flow of information – updates, links, videos, photographs, statuses, reports of purchases and the results achieved, that one or another user liked or did not like … “Social games are a means of communication, – – Says the founder and executive director of SGN Shervin Pishevar. – Therefore, they need a huge social support system like Myspace or Facebook ".

Facebook and Sid Meyer

Meyer is developing the most expected game in the history of social platforms

Sid Meyer returned with Civilization Network – And, as he usually happens, he acts not only a designer, but also a programmer. On the GDC 2010, Meyer spoke about the new project only in passing: they say, they wanted to allow the players to give each other gold through Facebook, but during the testing it was found that no one was going to share gold. The game is “in the midst of testing”, it will have a cooperative regime, defmatcha, singlePleer … And personally, Sidu is very interesting whether players will play “little by little” or drunken sessions.

Most of all, of course, is intriguing the cooperative – it is more interesting to win the battles and spy on enemies, build cities and miracles of the world, organize governments with friends and family members and grind the results of the election. Meyer promises all these opportunities (as well as the launch of the game in 2010) on the site www.Facebook.COM/Civnetwork.

One -armed bandits

According to Brian Reynolds, social games on Facebook should be primarily social, and only in the second – games. Farmville, for example, play for only one reason: if everything is wound on your farm, it will be a shame for friends who know you in real life.

This turned out to be enough for the developed (more precisely, copied from the Chinese game) in five weeks, the farmer’s almost single -user simulator has become the most popular game in the largest social network. Only 5% of Facebook users agree to pay real money for virtual goods (like all free games, Facebook products are flourishing due to advertising and microtransactions), but this is enough for Zynga to be estimated at $ 3 billion (Facebook itself is estimated at $ 5 billion), could easily get $ 180 million additional funding and open new offices in Los Angeles and Bangalore. “Your game is entirely on the servers in the same room,” says Reynolds, “you are fully controlled. All statistics are updated in real time ".

Zynga spends from $ 100,000 to $ 300,000 on the average game and develops it for 4-12 weeks with a team of 10 people. A high-quality game for consoles, for comparison, costs $ 10-40 million and has been developed for more than two years with teams of 100 or more people. You can launch a game and get a feedback from players on Facebook cheaper and faster than in the case of the budget mmorpg. In addition, the marketing department receives detailed information about the age, field, geographical position, tastes and interests of users and draws conclusions – so, Zynga knows exactly that it is best to use pink color on banners for advertising new products.

Elements of traditional gaming design are used only when they encourage social forms of behavior or motivate the user to buy virtual goods. Otherwise, the very fact of the existence of the game on the social network is enough. Mafia Wars is played not because it is so interesting for players to press the “Mission” button, but because your successes depend on the number of invited friends. When you click on a single button in Progress Wars, this is a parody and idiocy; When you do this in the company of hundreds and even thousands of comrades, you feel like a part of the powerful mafia (in Vampire Wars – Vampire) clan.

Any change in the design of the social game entails instant money consequences – income falls when free virtual goods arrange users more than those that are sold for real money, grow when it is possible to force the player to buy an external booster, and fall again when without paid Boasters are too difficult and the game is reduced by the audience. This is all not new and not exclusive for social networks, but in online shooters and mmorpg with microtranszulations, there are still traditions, the accumulated experience of the user and developer interaction. In the first (at best – the second) generation of social games there is no tradition, the bets are huge, and a rare giant corporation or a small independent developer will resist the temptation – the majority tries to bring the user as soon as possible to the moment when it is no longer a normally developing, without spending real money. In their worst manifestations, social games have more in common with online casinos than with casual games – this is a new generation of one -armed bandits configured to receive maximum income in the minimum time. In addition, the term “game design” is applicable to Farmville no more than a roulette or a poker machine. In other cases, Zynga is not even masked – Texas Hold’em Poker on Facebook is very popular, but the usual Texas Holdem seems too complicated (!) the vast majority of users, and recently, a simplified multiplier version was launched Poker Blitz , where 933,400 active players per month have already gained.

Until February 2008, the Facebook game used a system of forced invites: in order to develop in the game, it was necessary not only to pay money, but also to invite friends without fail, as a result of which a phenomenal amount of gaming spam was poured out of you. Now forced invites are prohibited, but there are notification, banners, links, videos, images on virtual goods and voluntary subscription – if you subscribe to a bunch of spam, you will be given more acres of a virtual garden in (Lil) Green Patch. In the simulators of virtual favorites like Pet Society, virtual essential items are sold for real money, in quizzes like Word Challenge, you can subscribe to additional services for a monthly fee – include exclusive game modes or remove all advertising.

Four -millions of Facebook users are ready to take anything for the game, if only there was a strip of growth of experience or the opportunity to establish themselves at the expense of a virtual neighbor. Here are just a few fresh Zynga projects: Bola – Football manager (916 500 users), Nanotowns – primitive urban planning simulator (295 450), Poxnora – cut version of the online step -by -step strategy (411 400), Aquarium Life And Little Rock Pool – virtual aquariums (537 800 and 723 100 users), Island Life – Farmer simulator on the island (494 150). Some projects like MMA Pro Fighter With his 1,046,400 users at first glance they intrigue, but the same MMORPG form is waiting for you inside you, the “Perform Mission” button and the health with energy, which are offered to replenish in the shortest possible time for the real money transferred via PayPal or VISA card.

Facebook and Richard Garriot

The new Garriot company will engage in exclusively social games

Creator of the series Ultima And the deadly dead mmorpg Tabula rasa He founded the company Portlarium – And he believes that games for Facebook and other social networks will move the game industry forward. “With Ultima Online, we invented and built online games that have developed the industry for the past 10 years. But now they have finally found their niche in the market on social networks and casual games, and I believe that this sector will grow by a frantic pace for the next 10 years ”.

Leaving NCSOFT In 2008, Garriot devoted two years to space travel, lectures and work on a documentary. The new company is located in Austin and will engage in not only games, but also "training, scientific, environmental and political social projects". Portalarium first game product – Texas Holdem Sweet @$! Poker , Working on a special Portalarium Player plugin on PC and Facebook. You can admire the personal profile of Garriot at the address www.Facebook.COM/Rgarriott.

Without loneliness

Seven hundred thousand users are enough for an independent existence of an independent developer company … That's why the founder and former Myspace director Chris de Wolf, together with partners, bought a portal of social games Mindjolt.Com -Independent developers send games there, they appear on Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, Hi5 and Orkut through the MindJolt applications, advertising revenues are divided 50 to 50. “Let us take on all the difficulties of integration, and you will calmly develop games!" – offers de Wolf.

Chapter EA Sports Peter Moore says that “we must make Madden more affordable,” as a result of Electronic Arts, is going to run the Madden NFL Facebook version. In addition, EA acquired for $ 275 million the Playfish specializing in social games (150 million users on Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, creators of such superchites as Crazy Planets and Pet Society). Blizzard intends to Starcraft 2 Add to Battle.Net functions of the social network – profiles with entries about victories and defeats, achievements and personal information of users.

Meanwhile, the first mmorpg in the world Ultima Online It was launched in 1997 in general without any business model, which is not tired of reminding its chief designer Raf Koster in her blog. Serious gaming designers, who are not yet ready to go by the dear Garriot and Meyer, are trying to remind the world that people once received pleasure from the games, and not only affirmed their social status by choosing virtual cows. But even the veterans of the industry see on Facebook games that it will be positive that it will be possible to put the game industry in the future … Unless, of course, it survives this invasion of millions of clones of Mafia Wars and Farmville.

Facebook has four huge advantages.

Firstly, the player is not virtual, but very real friends and acquaintances (classmates, former and current work colleagues). There are no loners on social networks, newcomers do not need to look for partners for multiplayer – the average Facebook user has 120 friends. The integration of real human relationships into the virtual world occurs – so far in MMORPG everything has been exactly the contrary. Only those games are popular on Facebook, which are more interesting to play with friends than with strangers.

Secondly, all games are free-do not wait until all friends and friends buy a new hit.

Thirdly, all multi-user games on Facebook are step-by-step (marketers call it “asynchronous game model”) so that adult working people do not have to look for time to go to the raid with friends. You can play games with asynchronous mechanics (for example, in Mob Wars or chess) at any time – and with friends and friends, and not with the first nursing people.

Fourth, the design can be changed at least every day based on a user feedback and statistics. Ordinary games are developed in a vacuum, all changes are made intuitively based on the reviews of the small group of beta testers. Facebook beta testers are all 400 million users who are ready to leave the review immediately.

These characteristics can also be found in other free online games, but only on Facebook a stomillion audience is attached to the games. Facebook for an independent developer is the same obvious choice among social networks as App Store – among virtual stores.

In 2010, not only a device or operating system, but also a social network can be meant by a gaming platform. Using the interface Facebook Connect Even such isolated consoles as PS3 and Nintendo DS began to communicate with Facebook, and it is quite possible that in the future traditional console and mobiles will be understood as social games. If Facebook is available on all devices without exception, then it can be used to link different aspects of the game into a single virtual whole: on the Xbox 360 with a TV, columns and a gamepad they play in a three -dimensional action, on PC or Macintosh with a mouse and keyboard – in a global – in a global The strategy, on the touch screen of the iPhone or iPad, tactical management of detachments is going on … And all this is within the same game.

But so far, investing millions into the most primitive social entertainment, investors intensively inflate the next economic soap bubble. How quickly players get tired of grinding without any gaming design? How quickly you are tired of Progress Wars? You still click the button?

* * *

When it comes to microtransactions and the purchase of virtual objects for real money, the border between the game and outright inflation can be vanishingly thin … But it is, and with each past year and the project that has fallen from the top will become more and more noticeable. First you need to get rid of Farmville and develop the first normal game for Facebook. Then you can begin to wash the boundaries between different game platforms, individual games and types of social activity. The potential of social games is huge, and even if the solemn fusion of the platforms does not occur, there is not only a place on the market, but also the need for easy social entertainment. But the games should still be entertained first of all, and only in the second-to bring money to the developers.