We had a lesson that briefly looked at was is expected of us during this unit as well as a brief look into social games. My first aim was to look at educational games but because of this talk i'm more interested to look at social gaming. I am not the biggest player of social games but what i have played and the news i have heard it appears we are looking at a new era of gaming.
I expand on that last statement to refere to a video of a talk held by Jesse Schell. FIlmed in feb 2010 at the DICE summit, Jesse Schell displayed his thoughts on the current social games industry and displayed his comedic but possible view of the future thanks to social gaming.
Video Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/jesse_schell_when_games_invade_real_life.html
I liked Jesses view on social gaming and seeing that even games designers didn't see how social networking could of produced such a opening for social games. Even he says that he didn't see it coming and it shows how quickly social gaming has as emerged on us. Now most people already think of social gaming as Facebook games but social games can be any game that runs based on a social line or network and as more technology is available the more gadgets can run social games. Facebook on the other hand created a mass following with small games that hit big around the world. Farmville was one of them with the power to play with your friends over the website and not having to worry about spending to much time as when you sign in you can check you game and shown you sign out you stop playing so you are killing two birds with one stone. Schell during the talk brought up a very interesting point "FV > T" this is his term to show that Farmville has more players than Twitter accounts. This is a scary thing to think about, now Twitter has millions of accounts but this one game as more active players. This is every games companies dream to have that many players. But what does it say about us, well it shows us how most people are willing to play games that are easy and not out the way. It also shows how people are more willing when they can achieve better than friends.
Money wise Schell brings up the clever new way of Lead Generation and Direct payment. "Lead Generation can generate more money than Direct payment ... " Now this payment system is brilliant because either way money is made but it is also addictive, when you play a game and see that you have to pay most people just stop playing as they don't want to invest money into a game that they might stop playing. But get free in-game stuff for just visiting another game or signing up to different things then why not. It also means that when you keep playing and getting invested there will be a point that you will run out of things to sign up to or you get fed up of doing it. At this point Direct Payment is a good choice as means less hassle and dedication. Schell talks about the effect on kids as they moan about more in games stuff when they play and it will come to a point that parents will cave in because of there easy diction to simple social games. Instandly social games have made a way to get money into there business and as they are free to begin with open for everyone to play. Club Pengin a game created by 'New Horizon Interactive' was bought by Disney for 350 million "That was unexpected"
Already these games have had an impact on our lives because of there easy to play and free to play style but also they can become so immersive we pay monthly to play them. Now looking at Schells idea of the future its easy to see what kind of world we might live in one day dispite the over comedic his view is. With social games today being competitive against one and other across networks its easy to get carried away and his view of everything giving away points and everything containing computer chips is almost possible. Now his view with everything popping up and awarding points is a scary thought, I mean today we are already overloaded with pop ups, adverts and more but with that happening with everything we touch, now what is the effect on us? Social games take time and commitment to play so what are the effects of this? lately i have read about how social games have lead people to do crazy things and some people have even died because of addiction. This is my next area that i want to study as its interesting to see the effects of games specially when you are the one designing them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_Penguin
http://www.schellgames.com/
http://www.ted.com/talks/jesse_schell_when_games_invade_real_life.html
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