Social network game
Encyclopedia
A social network game is a type of online game
that is played through social networks, and typically features multiplayer and asynchronous gameplay mechanics. Social network games are most often implemented as browser game
s, but can also be implemented on other platforms such as mobile devices. They are amongst the most popular games played in the world, with several products with tens of millions of players. Happy Farm
, Farm Town
, YoVille and Mob Wars
were some of the first successful games of this genre. FrontierVille
, CityVille
, Gardens of Time
and The Sims Social
are more recent examples of very popular social network games.
While they share many aspects of traditional video games, social network games often employ additional ones that make them distinct.
Companies that make social network games include market leader Zynga
, 5 Minutes
, Playfish
, Playdom
, Kabam
, Crowdstar
, RockYou
, Booyah
, etc.
, PHP
or JavaScript
. Some games may use a combination of these technologies.
A social network game is often played via a web browser
, though they are distinct from browser based games
in the way they leverage the player's social graph and individual user data that is hosted on the social network. With the invention of smartphone
devices, social games have now also seen widespread adoption on mobile platforms such as iOS
and Android devices. This is enabled through mobile social networks such as OpenFeint
and through Oauth
implementations by social networking sites like Facebook which allow applications on mobile devices to access a limited amount of protected user data on those sites. Through an in-app connection to these networks, users can be provided with an experience very similar to that of a web based social game. It's been predicted that social gaming will bring over 6 billion dollars in revenue, by 2013.
through either:
Examples of the former approach include FarmVille, FrontierVille and Mafia Wars. In these games a player's social network is exploited to recruit additional players and allies.
, a virtual stock exchange
where players buy and sell shares of each other's social network worth. In Empire Avenue, a player's worth is linked to his or her social media influence and activity, as well as that of the other players he or she has invested virtual currency
in. This game design promotes social media interaction as a means to attaining higher value in Empire Avenue market rankings.
Online game
An online game is a game played over some form of computer network. This almost always means the Internet or equivalent technology, but games have always used whatever technology was current: modems before the Internet, and hard wired terminals before modems...
that is played through social networks, and typically features multiplayer and asynchronous gameplay mechanics. Social network games are most often implemented as browser game
Browser game
A browser game is a computer game that is played over the Internet using a web browser. Browser games can be created and run using standard web technologies or browser plug-ins. Browser games include all video game genres and can be single-player or multiplayer...
s, but can also be implemented on other platforms such as mobile devices. They are amongst the most popular games played in the world, with several products with tens of millions of players. Happy Farm
Happy Farm
Happy Farm is a social network game, or massively multiplayer online game, based on farm management simulation. It is played predominantly by users in Mainland China and Taiwan, and is the most popular MMOG in terms of players...
, Farm Town
Farm Town
Farm Town is a free, Flash-based browser multiplayer simulation game for the social network platforms Facebook and Myspace. It is social media developed by software company Slashkey in early 2009...
, YoVille and Mob Wars
Mob Wars
Mob Wars is a multiplayer role-playing game hosted on the social networking site Facebook. It allows players to engage in Mafia-style wars with one another and has become one of the most lucrative Facebook applications and the first to net USD 1M per month in revenue.However, this number has never...
were some of the first successful games of this genre. FrontierVille
FrontierVille
The Pioneer Trail, formerly known as FrontierVille is a simulation, role-playing video game available for play on social networking sites such as Facebook. It is developed by Zynga and was launched on June 9, 2010...
, CityVille
CityVille
CityVille is a casual social city-building simulation game developed by Zynga, and released in December 2010.The game is very similar to SimCity and Farmville,. The goal is to develop a city by farming, constructing buildings, and collecting rent...
, Gardens of Time
Playdom
Playdom is an online social network game developer popular on Facebook and on MySpace; it is currently the largest social game developer on MySpace and one of the larger ones on Facebook. The company was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area by University of California, Berkeley graduates Ling Xiao...
and The Sims Social
The Sims Social
The Sims Social is a Facebook addition to the Sims series of videogames. It was announced during EA's 2011 E3 press conference. As with the original Sims games, this addition lets users create their own customizable characters. In this version, though, players use their characters to interact...
are more recent examples of very popular social network games.
While they share many aspects of traditional video games, social network games often employ additional ones that make them distinct.
Companies that make social network games include market leader Zynga
Zynga
Zynga is a social network game developer located in San Francisco, United States. The company develops browser-based games that work both stand-alone and as application widgets on social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace....
, 5 Minutes
Happy Farm
Happy Farm is a social network game, or massively multiplayer online game, based on farm management simulation. It is played predominantly by users in Mainland China and Taiwan, and is the most popular MMOG in terms of players...
, Playfish
Playfish
Playfish, currently a property of Electronic Arts, is a developer of free-to-play social network games. Playfish was founded in 2007 by Kristian Segerstråle, Sebastien de Halleux, Sami Lababidi and Shukri Shammas. In October 2008, they secured USD$17 million in venture capital funding from Accel...
, Playdom
Playdom
Playdom is an online social network game developer popular on Facebook and on MySpace; it is currently the largest social game developer on MySpace and one of the larger ones on Facebook. The company was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area by University of California, Berkeley graduates Ling Xiao...
, Kabam
Kabam
Kabam is an interactive entertainment company that develops and publishes massively multiplayer social games , including the popular and critically praised Kingdoms of Camelot...
, Crowdstar
CrowdStar
CrowdStar is a developer of Facebook & mobile games, based in Burlingame, California, United States. One of its most popular titles is "Happy Aquarium" and "Happy Pets". Founded by Suren Markosian and Jeff Tseng, it is ranked 4th among developers with the most monthly active users for Facebook...
, RockYou
RockYou
RockYou is a developer of social games and advertising solutions for social media. RockYou is focused on the development of social game titles, including Gourmet Ranch and the Zoo World franchise...
, Booyah
Booyah
Booyah is a social web and mobile entertainment company. The development team draws its experience from the consumer web and social gaming space and entertainment studios such as Blizzard Entertainment, Activision, EA, and Insomniac Games...
, etc.
Technology & Platforms
A social network video game can be created with any number of traditional video game technologies, however the majority are implemented in Adobe FlashAdobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
, PHP
PHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
or JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
. Some games may use a combination of these technologies.
A social network game is often played via a web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
, though they are distinct from browser based games
Browser game
A browser game is a computer game that is played over the Internet using a web browser. Browser games can be created and run using standard web technologies or browser plug-ins. Browser games include all video game genres and can be single-player or multiplayer...
in the way they leverage the player's social graph and individual user data that is hosted on the social network. With the invention of smartphone
Smartphone
A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
devices, social games have now also seen widespread adoption on mobile platforms such as iOS
IOS
iOS is an operating system for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, and Apple TV.IOS may also refer to:-Companies and organisations:* Illinois Ornithological Society, American state-based bird club...
and Android devices. This is enabled through mobile social networks such as OpenFeint
OpenFeint
OpenFeint is a social platform and application for the iOS and recently also available for Android. It was developed by Aurora Feint, a company named after the video game of the same name, by the same developers. It is used by multiple iPhone applications...
and through Oauth
OAuth
OAuth is an open standard for authorization. It allows users to share their private resources stored on one site with another site without having to hand out their credentials, typically username and password.OAuth allows users to hand out tokens instead of credentials to their data hosted by a...
implementations by social networking sites like Facebook which allow applications on mobile devices to access a limited amount of protected user data on those sites. Through an in-app connection to these networks, users can be provided with an experience very similar to that of a web based social game. It's been predicted that social gaming will bring over 6 billion dollars in revenue, by 2013.
Distinct features
A social video game may employ any of the following features:- Asynchronous gameplay which allows rules to be resolved without needing players to play at the same time.
- Community: One of the most distinct features of social video games is in leveraging the player's social network. Quests or game goals may only be possible if a player "shares" his game with friends (connected via the social network hosting the game) or gets them to play as well as "neighbors" or "allies".
- No victory conditions: Since most developers count on users playing their games often, there are generally no victory conditions. That is, the game never ends and no one is ever declared "winner". Instead, many casual games have "quests" or "missions" for players to complete. This is not true for board gameBoard gameA board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
-like social games, such as ScrabbleScrabbleScrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works provide a list...
. - Virtual currency: Social network games use "virtual currency", which players usually must purchase with real-world money. With the in-game currency players can buy upgrades that would otherwise take much longer to earn through in-game achievements. In many cases, some upgrades are only available via the virtual currency.
Social media optimization
Social network games often leverage or promote social media optimizationSocial Media Optimization
Social media optimization is the methodization of social media activity with the intent of attracting unique visitors to website content. SMO is one of many online methods of website optimization...
through either:
- The use of social networks to recruit game allies, or
- Game designGame designGame design, a subset of game development, is the process of designing the content and rules of a game in the pre-production stage and design of gameplay, environment, storyline, and characters during production stage. The term is also used to describe both the game design embodied in a game as...
, linking social media activity and influence to game rewards.
Examples of the former approach include FarmVille, FrontierVille and Mafia Wars. In these games a player's social network is exploited to recruit additional players and allies.
Monetization
Social network games frequently monetize based on virtual good transactions, but other games are emerging that utilize newer economic models. An example of is Empire AvenueEmpire Avenue
Empire Avenue is a stock market simulation social network game that allows users to buy and sell shares of people and websites. It started in February 2010 as an invitation-only closed beta before launching to the public in July 2010. Registration and game play is free.- Gameplay :Players have...
, a virtual stock exchange
Virtual Stock Exchange
A virtual stock exchange is a stock market that is used to trade stocks in a virtual or practice environment. A virtual stock exchange may use real time equity data, historical data, or data that’s been prepared for demonstrational purposes...
where players buy and sell shares of each other's social network worth. In Empire Avenue, a player's worth is linked to his or her social media influence and activity, as well as that of the other players he or she has invested virtual currency
Virtual currency
Virtual currency is used to purchase virtual goods within a variety of online communities; which include social networking websites, virtual worlds and online gaming sites....
in. This game design promotes social media interaction as a means to attaining higher value in Empire Avenue market rankings.