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.