Social Games

Facebook-Spiele wie FarmVille und CityVille werden als Social Games bezeichnet. Wir möchten in Virulent! Elemente eines Social Game einfügen. Aber was ist genau ein Social Game?
Da sind sich die Experten auch nicht so richtig einig, eine allgemeingültige Definition fehlt noch (ganz zu schweigen von einer DIN ;-)).
Da kommt doch ein Blog-Post vom Dienstag gerade recht: Nicholas Lovell hat einige Bekannte Namen der Branche um eine Definition gebeten und sie veröffentlicht: What is a social game?. Teilweise hat die Präsentation für mich auch ein bischen von Werbung für die jeweilige Firma, ich habe aber trotzdem einige Sätze, die mir (be)merkenswert erscheinen, zusammengeschnitten:

• I think of social games as those where there is more emphasis/enjoyment playing with friends than there is playing against them
• It’s more about a shared, fun experience with bragging rights than classic ‘winning’.
• I also think it’s fair to say that games played a significant role in establishing digital social structures in the first place, in part because they were some of the earliest shared digital environments that less hardcore computer users got to hang around in and talk.
• Thereby they are changing the games industry: So far only ca. 10%-20% of the population regularly play digital games (called "gamers"). Social games are for the other 80%.
• So ‘social games’ a is meaningless phrase. Games are social by definition.
• The current: a social game is a game played with, against or alongside social-network friends, often asynchronously.
• Games are open-ended and lack win-states or fail-states: the only way to win or lose is not to play.
• To me, social game used to mean a game that takes place in the real world.
• social networks, these games tend to feel very asocial, turning people into resources rather than friends and agents you have to negotiate and communicate with.
• A social game means a game that relies on wireless or online communication with other remote players in order for one or more of the driving mechanics of that game to be fully experienced.
• social games are generally relatively simple, less directly competitive, more feminized games designed for people to play on their own and then interact with their ‘friends’ by means of keyboard and mouse, without ever leaving their own bubble.
• These games are best when they do not require players to be on line simultaneously in order to socialize but rather leave automated messages for each other in order to keep their arms length communication in contact and keep the game going.
• games played via social media like Facebook
• A ‘social game’ is any game which uses the social graph to increase and improve the gaming experience, while utilising game theory and psychology to generate revenue from the active user base from a combination of virtual goods, advertising and offers.
• It’s also become synonymous with easy-to-play games designed to sell you virtual goods.
• so where next? More complexity (in the games), more variety (amongst genres and play style), and more quality (fewer blatant copies?). Also, more mobile and more sociable: synchronous multiplayer, in other words, playing wherever you might be.
• What drives long term play is click- and task-driven activity that generates constant rewards. This kind of play is rationed using timers: Players can only play in short sessions, but the games invite repeated visits.
• The social game experience is actually more like a single-player Sim City played in parallel by millions of people. Players may harvest each others’ crops, for example, but they do so more to earn game rewards rather than a sense of community.
• Typically this would involve light weight, asynchronous interaction between the friends, which is something that is fundamentally different to the traditional core gaming multiplayer experience. That to me is the key innovation and differentiation of social games
• Attributes:
•  Asynchronous
•  Involves some for of interaction with friends (even if it’s just visiting their "game state")
•  Probably free
•  Some kind of persistent game state
• In my mind, a social game is a game where the primary interactions are with other people. Does that mean that monopoly, basketball, Farmville, and Team Fortress 2 are all social games? Yes… yes it does. I also think those games have more to do with each other than most people realize.
• Oddly enough, the games are really more about fake, asynchronous socialization than they are about anything else, but that will evolve with time and with the medium.
• games with a low barrier to entry which are deliberately designed to be poorer experiences unless you involve other people
• The social interaction between the users has to enrich gameplay, contribute significantly to the game experience and might even influence a relevant part of the game´s rules. This is independent from platform, technology or genre.
• A social game is a game where the interactions involve people I know and become more meaningful because of the additional emotional and contextual ties that exist between us in the real world. i.e. when I beat my boss at a trivia game – I have not just won the game, I am playing with status and other meaningful context.

Na, ich glaube, wir machen aus Virulent! eher ein Spiel, in dem die Spieler miteinander agieren können.