I have never played Farmville on Facebook – I don’t have the time and frankly the uber geek in me says it is just a lesser Harvest Moon. But then again: Farmville has about 80 million active users and 31 million daily users; a kid just racked up 4-digit debt on Facebook to play the game; and companies are paying to have branded crops on Farmville. Social games have become mass market and with their relatively short development cycle and smaller investment in comparison to box games, brands need to start taking notice to capitalize on this in new creative ways.
Successful social games often exhibit the following properties:
- user messaging that allows people playing the games to alert their friends of what they are doing in the game
- sharing and gifting of items in the game space
- the need to nurture the game by returning frequently to complete game tasks
- and of course some form of monetization, whether it be through micro-payments or lead generation
Fun, viral games are not new, but the Facebook platform has added a new dimension to the possibilities of social gaming. The large user base and the amount of time spent on Facebook.com worldwide makes it a great platform for launching games that include a social element. After all, these games are played by groups of friends and the interaction between friends is the added value in these online games.
Marketers should care about social gaming because this is a new way for consumers to interact with products and brands – marketers who want to showcase products are trying to do so to people who just want to have fun. Brands and products can be manipulated in social game interface giving consumers what they want all the while ensuring objects are manipulated to convert to sales.
Do you think social games are a waste of time? Do you know of any interesting branded social games that we should keep an eye out for?
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