Social Gaming: Are you Game ?

Candy Crush. Mafia wars. Farmville. If these names sound familiar to you, and irritation sweeps across your brain, than believe me you have a sizeable company of people, including me, who would be willing to sympathize with you. And of course, a sizeable one which would still continue to press the invite button on one of these apps, for you to donate a “life”, some points, or some crap which baffles our mind.

And hey, welcome to the world of Social Network Gaming.

It is not a new trend, but is sure has re-invented itself over time, by fitting itself into the smart-phone dominated social networking phase quite comfortably and happens to be a considerable growth model when viewed with a combination of Mobile+Social Network+Game angle.

There are numerous companies that have utilized the opportunity of Social gaming with applications developed on the platform of many of these socially notably networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. Zynga for instance was one of the early pioneers of “Social Gaming” with games like Poker and Mafia Wars designed to woo the traffic on these websites, stay on for more than Social networking. it did worked and now Zynga is a multi-billion Dollar company.

Moving away from the economic angle, and replacing it with the present day scenario, where Mobile has spruced up the growth of Social network, and with it the Social games as well. The virality of the Social Gaming scenario doesn’t seem to be ending. Games designed are not complex, rather are easy but are fuelled by the networking concept of including more and more people into the fold. Requests, ranging from points for referrals to even Virtual life when accepting those requests, are the driving force. The more you make others accept your request, the more levels you clear.

The level hierarchy and the competition involved make it highly addictive. More so, because the scores and rankings are there for the world to see. (At least, the Virtual world in our friend list), this concept has sure caught on.

The advent of these games are a new dimension to the whole Social network craze and has benefitted not just the online gaming industry, where numerous developers have modified their gaming applications to be suited to these platforms, and as well as the Social networking sites, which have given one more reason for the users to stay on.