Social games are on the path to becoming the “next big thing” on the Internet as traditional gaming Web sites and platform users appear to be drifting away. This new trend is being boosted by the emergence of social-networking sites such as Facebook, which incorporates computer games with their Web site and allow users to play free games online, with friends.
With several hundred million registered users on social-networking sites, it is perhaps no surprise that traditional game users are being lured away from console games to play with acquaintances on these sites. Game titles such as Farmville, Mafia War and Cafe World, on Facebook, now boast of several million players everyday. This trend points to the emergence of social and online gaming as an area that can be further developed by experts in the games and entertainment industry.
Game sites such as Mytopia Online and Playfish are already taking advantage of the development by combining the idea of gaming and social networks. Gamers on this sites can now play games such as puzzle, board, card and casino games with friends from social-networks such as Facebook and MySpace.
Talking Point
As gamers move from fee-paying game sites to free-to-play social-game sites, do you see the gradual and eventual annihilation of traditional game sites like Yahoo Games, Pogo and AOL Games?
From what I see, it’s a real possibility. giving the ability to make humans interact with each other is the factor why it gained so much popularity. You’re competing against people all over the world.
I don’t know, I think there will always be a market for “hardcore” gamers on console and PC. While social games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars have their share of fans, they represent the more casual gamers, those who play games in the few minutes of downtime they have while they’re at work, in class, or trying to kill some time. You don’t see people playing FarmVille for five hours a day, while 5 hours of, say, World of Warcraft is all in a day’s grinding.
i do not think social games will ever beat consoles, now each console has its own network an a huge list of online games available, online gaming is taking over.
yea u r rite dude
The transitional will take time as consumers again adjust to the new technology and or user platform. Face book and other social network sites need to consider the presentation and organizational aspects of consumers pages as part of the change management.
As with everything it will hit the road running, then taper off to allow developers time to adjust and make some improvements. Consumers and gamers will then manage between the old the new and the newer. To provide some indication of the success of social networking, and this is similar, believe it or not online bingo continue to grow.
In my opinion social games are not a treat to traditional games but are an evolution. Not many people wanted to pay for games. I think that people will want to stay play games, but with the internet preferably for free on social networks like facebook. The second positive thing of social games are the community. You play not alone, but against or with your friends.
Nothing will ever kill the console gaming. Facebook games might be free…but they get boring pretty quick.
I agree with you. There’s a lot of facebook users in the world. and if they have nothing to do on their facebbok, they just play games.
I agree to… Facebook is the new internet for gaming
Social gaming and tradition gaming, in my opinion, go hand in hand. Families that are keen to embrace a balanced approach to lifestyle will ensure that their children are exposed to all types of opportunities and experiences. The risk at the moment is that children are only exposed to the current trend, whereas traditional gaming and activities are very important as touch, smell, and emotions are experienced and cannot be avoided as with the online gaming.
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The social games are on the increase side, with lots of online games and website coming up now.
I never found myself playing yahoo games or any of the others mentioned – I just never saw the appeal… but I think games of all sort will always have their place, it’s just going to be a matter of whether developers produce games for the niche… if so, they will have their loyal followers… if not, that type of gaming will continue to decrease in it’s market share.
Thanks for the thought provoking article though!
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Every developer create a game with the first aim – to get money from the users. And if you choose to play on facebook with flash-games, you will have to pay for some advantage functions or you will lose the game or it will be hard to play (and it will be boring as consequence). Those free games also have poor flash technology that’s why console games always be the winners. Until better future will come… 🙂
Thanks for the thought provoking article though!
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I don’t think these types of games mentioned on Facebook will ever replace Yahoo Games. One reason is that Yahoo games is in itself socially based already. And one thing that many Yahoo games has that Facebook games don’t have is that on Yahoo games, people actually play the games together at the same time in a chat-like fashion. Facebook games are not like that. With the “social” Facebook games, each player either plays by him or herself or alone on their own time. The facebook games actually require very little social interaction at all.
Very nice site, your theme is awesome, I love the design!
Very simple games can become very addictive, very quickly.
You have a great theme, is it custom made?
Well as for me and my friends we don’t spend all day playing social games but a lot of people do it. For example Farmville and Mafia Wars are huge right now. And this is great for advertisers!
Social games are the future! The succes of this game proves it!
It is no doubt very obvious that these days, almost everything runs with computers. The great thing about traditional games is it makes you exert appropriate thinking as it is usually mind games. With social games, it is more with interaction. Both, especially SOCIAL GAMES are now very famous in the internet and it’s funny how many people are very good friends online when in reality they are not. These social games can help you make more friends too and interact with many people. -SamE.
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Technology really is growing fast.When you compare traditional games and new innovations like social networking games, it is like light years away. I do recommend trying out both traditional and social games.
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Thanks for the comment arris.
Gaming depends on the person’s interest, social gaming requires huge amount of patience and you don’t know where you are going, your main goal depends on YOU not the game itself. Traditional games declare the path you SHOULD take. There is a huge difference though they both help to relieve stress, with the emergence of social games, casual people found themselves a new way to communicate with people.
Agreed. Social games do require a lot of patience. But they are fun to play to say the least!
I love social games, they are relaxing and lets me converse with people, there is a catch and it’s what I call the challenge. If you don’t want to spend a single penny then you have to ask your friends to give you gifts to push through every stage.
Very true indeed.
I haven’t been sucked into the online gaming such as WOW or Call of Duty, but I am addicted to Facebook games. Since the internet is easily accessible and sites are offering almost anything in this world, the traditional ways are slowly filtering out. I love to have family game nights at my house every week so I wonder if board games will get more or less expensive as they’re no longer in high demand. What do you think?
The free to play game are becoming very popular now with lots of social networking site, developing free to play social games today.
MMORPG in facebook is not so good because it is so lag. I had tried their Godswar online and it’s not so good. It is better to play it in real client rather than playing it through facebook.
Yes, Internet connectivity is usually a major concern for social games.
I doubt that social games will replace traditional games any time soon. Each type of game has different type of players and I prefer the traditional console games, are much more fun and more complex than the new social games.
Maria
I haven’t been sucked too into the online gaming such as WOW or Call of Duty, but I am addicted to Facebook games. I like it too!
I agree. Some Facebook games are actually quite addictive.
We all have personal choices and I prefer more the traditional games. Social gaming may be fun but I feel it suits better the younger people who are interested to know more people. I see myself playing games like World of Warcraft and Call of Duty and I’m very sociable but I don’t see myself anywhere near social gaming.
Very interesting comment but what do you reckon will happen when the younger ones get older?
In my opinion that Social gaming generally refers to the game as a means of social interaction, as opposed to playing alone, as some card games, and single-player game, many games.
i definitely doubt that these social games would turn out to be the downfall of traditional games lo.. it’s impossible for standards of the gamers to go down just because of a free game..
I think this issue will involve the age level of the person. For the young ones, surely they will choose the social games which gives attraction and enjoyment to them. Whereas for old ones who feel comfortable for what is traditional, I guess they prefer to play that one.
I don’t think these traditional game sites, AOL Games, Yahoo Games, Pogo, will die out. I think they will simply be swept away into the social internet movement. I think there will be choices as to just how social a gamer would want to be with their online activity. These sites will morph and become traditional gaming social sites, or tradition gaming sites with more of a social element.
Marketers and developers will surely follow the social trend, and more and more social gaming sites will pop up.
It’s funny how this has been happening for quite a while now but I only realized just how much after reading this post. I think many more companies will be focusing on this trend especially as social marketing continues to grow. It will be interesting to see how this develops and how many spins there will be.
Social games are just more fun because there is the challenge of interacting with another unpredictable human.
Love social games. It is fun posting up your results for your friends to see and comparing your scores.
You know I like social games on my phone…I haven’t been able to get interested in them other than that though. I like going to Adult Swim and playing weird games, or doing crosswords on Yahoo, and I am constantly bombarded with invites to games through Facebook- Farmville, Mafia Wars, all that jazz, for some reason I have no interest in them. I have many, many friends who like them (hence the bombardment of invites!), but I have yet to get hooked on them. Hope I never do!
very nice post! I like social games a lot
Same here! What games do your prefer?
The social games are on the increase side, with lots of online games and websites coming up for 2012!
I still think it depends on the games. some people will always play on the game sites and others will play on social sites. the one question i have is the more social sites try to make more money how many people will try other sites that are still free.
I try to keep my children as far as possible away from internet en social stuff. Leek keep them kids as long as possible.
Great article. I love social games. It is fun posting up your results for your friends to see and comparing your scores.
Frank Incassobureau
I don’t think non-social games are at risk of going away but I personally think social games are more fun (I’m not a very serious gamer) and might be more widely used by casual gamers who are just hanging out online.
If Face Book introduces games on their website, then everybody will be hooked to it. No matter where your friends are, you can play games with them online. No doubt it will be great success.
Many companies are beginning to realize the potential of social games and starting to adapt their games for social platforms. One such example are companies that used to offer free online slots on their websites, and integrating their games into social platforms have allowed them to gain greater exposure.
I think who ever has the next new game will do well. Gamers move to the latest game sites so you never know who will be the next one to have all gamers on it.
Social games can really grab a much larger audience.
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