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I have to wonder when this whole trend is going to come crashing to a halt. When, if ever, the social-gaming population will wake up one day and think, perhaps

I have to wonder when this whole trend is going to come crashing to a halt. When, if ever, the social-gaming population will wake up one day and think, perhaps aloud, and perhaps at great volume, "What the fuck am I doing with my life? Why do I need more virtual corn patches?" And, perhaps, "You know what? I'm not accepting the Facebook invitation into little Mikey's mafia family. Fuck that noise. I'm out." By this, what I really mean is: when someone finally gets sick of Farmville, is he going to move on to the next Farmville, or is he burned out on the genre for good? Seems like there should be a "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" dynamic at work with players of these games. Which would mean that the genre is destined for oversaturation and burnout, and that there will be diminishing returns awaiting any marginal entrants into the field. I'm sure the genre, as a whole, is still growing by leaps and bounds. But do we have any leading indicators about the playerbase? Such as their likelihood to be investing in more than one time-sinkey social game at a time? Or their likelihood to pick up another after quitting the first? I'm not wishing for the demise of the genre, but rather, am hoping that it'll hit a plateau from which it will be forced to innovate, experiment, and evolve. Seems to me that the cold, reductionist design philosophy of addiction-by-the-numbers should eventually dig its own grave in the form of mass player burnout on games produced as such. Then again, that's never happened with casinos. So this may be woefully naive thinking on my part.

benologist 15y ago
I think they're going to pick up another one, and another one, and another one, and another one. Many of us have been playing games for 20+ years, just because they're not social doesn't mean the story isn't the same: spend $x, then a buttload of time playing it. I probably spent as much time playing the Ultimas, King's Quests etc as any hardcore addict spent on whatevervilles. Probably not as much money on a single game but certainly 1000s over the years.
- jonnathanson 15y ago
  "I probably spent as much time playing the Ultimas, King's Quests etc as any hardcore addict spent on whatevervilles. Probably not as much money on a single game but certainly 1000s over the years." As have I, though certainly without the rote compulsion of a ____ville player. (Granted, I have watched friends and relatives zombified by World of Warcraft, and despite the surface layer of complexity separating it from ____ville, it's got the same dynamics at play). Call me nuts, but whenever I play a game, I'm at least having fun playing it. There may be timesinky aspects to it, and I may play more than a healthy amount, but it's not a morphine drip into a virtual IV hooked through my controller and into my arm. I believe there's a difference between most games and ____ville-type games, and that the difference is felt, at least subconsciously, by the player of the latter. He knows he's getting conned, but he doesn't care. My question is whether or not that dynamic can last indefinitely.
  - ido 15y ago
    Funny that you mentioned WoW, was just thinking that myself. IMO farmville is its (and its unofficial predecessor, Diablo) direct evolutionary successor - the same stuff, refined to its essence. Surprising that the next evolutionary step in that dynasty (the slot machine) came first!
  - benologist 15y ago
    "Call me nuts, but whenever I play a game, I'm at least having fun playing it. " It's not that you're nuts, it's that you're mistakenly assuming the other people don't enjoy these games. It's us who don't like the games they play, not them.
frou_dh 15y ago
There's a never-ending supply of young people ready to play their first game. They don't know what they're missing because they weren't around.
zipdog 15y ago
If you look backwards, people have always been quite happy to enjoy fairly simple games with a mild social component. I`m thinking of card games, boules/boche, dominoes. Everywhere I`ve been I`ve seen people spending an afternoon playing these games with a few other people. So as long as onlne addictive games come close to that experience (which doesn`t really offer more than a pleasant time passing and a few jokes with others), they are not going to crash.
lucasjung 15y ago
I had an experience similar to what you describe (waking up and thinking "What the fuck am I doing with my life?"), but it predates these games. I was in college (can't remember which year, probably my junior year) and my roommates and I were all hooked on Diablo II. So were our friends across the hall. We'd often play together as a group on the LAN, but we also enjoyed playing independently. We all played on headphones so as to not have the sounds of several simultaneous games clashing. One afternoon, we were all playing simultaneously but independently. I decided to take a break, paused my game, removed my headphones, and stood up. Then I heard it: the sounds of rapid clicking coming from my roommates' mouses (and the mouses of the guys across the hall--we usually kept our doors open). I had decided to take a break right then because I had just leveled up, and that fact combined with the sound of the clicking gave me a moment of clarity: the whole game consisted of me clicking a mouse as fast as I could in order to make an arbitrary number (experience points) go up. Everything else is just embellishment. The fundamentals are: you click the mouse, the number goes up. I felt like one of those lab rats or monkeys that has two buttons: one that delivers a serving of food, and another that stimulates its pleasure centers. They starve to death because they neglect the food button in favor of the pleasure button. Except I was worse, in a way: I wasn't getting a jolt to my pleasure centers, I was just watching a meaningless number get higher. Of course, I wasn't completely neglecting my well-being, either, but I was wasting a lot of time that could have been spent on more rewarding pursuits. I uninstalled the game immediately and gave it away as fast as I could. I didn't give up video games, because not all games are such complete wastes of time, but ever since then I have set the bar very high for any game I play (similar to the post by snprbob86 about strict selection criteria). I'm especially watchful for signs that a game is just an exercise in "repeat simple task, increment arbitrary number."
- deski 15y ago
  So what games do you play now? Just wondering, not only because I've come to a similar realization, but because I'd like to know what passes the test for you now. I think I'd trust your judgement.
  - lucasjung 15y ago
extension 15y ago
The casino industry has proven that wasting one's life on stupid parasitic games can be an enduring pastime.
pnathan 15y ago
I came to that realization regarding WoW. It had been a fairly comprehensive waste of my health and free time. Not entirely, but far, far too much.

benologist 15y ago

I think they're going to pick up another one, and another one, and another one, and another one. Many of us have been playing games for 20+ years, just because they're not social doesn't mean the story isn't the same: spend $x, then a buttload of time playing it. I probably spent as much time playing the Ultimas, King's Quests etc as any hardcore addict spent on whatevervilles. Probably not as much money on a single game but certainly 1000s over the years.

jonnathanson 15y ago
"I probably spent as much time playing the Ultimas, King's Quests etc as any hardcore addict spent on whatevervilles. Probably not as much money on a single game but certainly 1000s over the years." As have I, though certainly without the rote compulsion of a ____ville player. (Granted, I have watched friends and relatives zombified by World of Warcraft, and despite the surface layer of complexity separating it from ____ville, it's got the same dynamics at play). Call me nuts, but whenever I play a game, I'm at least having fun playing it. There may be timesinky aspects to it, and I may play more than a healthy amount, but it's not a morphine drip into a virtual IV hooked through my controller and into my arm. I believe there's a difference between most games and ____ville-type games, and that the difference is felt, at least subconsciously, by the player of the latter. He knows he's getting conned, but he doesn't care. My question is whether or not that dynamic can last indefinitely.
- ido 15y ago
  Funny that you mentioned WoW, was just thinking that myself. IMO farmville is its (and its unofficial predecessor, Diablo) direct evolutionary successor - the same stuff, refined to its essence. Surprising that the next evolutionary step in that dynasty (the slot machine) came first!
- benologist 15y ago
  "Call me nuts, but whenever I play a game, I'm at least having fun playing it. " It's not that you're nuts, it's that you're mistakenly assuming the other people don't enjoy these games. It's us who don't like the games they play, not them.

frou_dh 15y ago

There's a never-ending supply of young people ready to play their first game. They don't know what they're missing because they weren't around.

zipdog 15y ago

If you look backwards, people have always been quite happy to enjoy fairly simple games with a mild social component. I`m thinking of card games, boules/boche, dominoes. Everywhere I`ve been I`ve seen people spending an afternoon playing these games with a few other people. So as long as onlne addictive games come close to that experience (which doesn`t really offer more than a pleasant time passing and a few jokes with others), they are not going to crash.

lucasjung 15y ago

I had an experience similar to what you describe (waking up and thinking "What the fuck am I doing with my life?"), but it predates these games. I was in college (can't remember which year, probably my junior year) and my roommates and I were all hooked on Diablo II. So were our friends across the hall. We'd often play together as a group on the LAN, but we also enjoyed playing independently. We all played on headphones so as to not have the sounds of several simultaneous games clashing. One afternoon, we were all playing simultaneously but independently. I decided to take a break, paused my game, removed my headphones, and stood up. Then I heard it: the sounds of rapid clicking coming from my roommates' mouses (and the mouses of the guys across the hall--we usually kept our doors open). I had decided to take a break right then because I had just leveled up, and that fact combined with the sound of the clicking gave me a moment of clarity: the whole game consisted of me clicking a mouse as fast as I could in order to make an arbitrary number (experience points) go up. Everything else is just embellishment. The fundamentals are: you click the mouse, the number goes up. I felt like one of those lab rats or monkeys that has two buttons: one that delivers a serving of food, and another that stimulates its pleasure centers. They starve to death because they neglect the food button in favor of the pleasure button. Except I was worse, in a way: I wasn't getting a jolt to my pleasure centers, I was just watching a meaningless number get higher. Of course, I wasn't completely neglecting my well-being, either, but I was wasting a lot of time that could have been spent on more rewarding pursuits. I uninstalled the game immediately and gave it away as fast as I could. I didn't give up video games, because not all games are such complete wastes of time, but ever since then I have set the bar very high for any game I play (similar to the post by snprbob86 about strict selection criteria). I'm especially watchful for signs that a game is just an exercise in "repeat simple task, increment arbitrary number."

deski 15y ago
So what games do you play now? Just wondering, not only because I've come to a similar realization, but because I'd like to know what passes the test for you now. I think I'd trust your judgement.
- lucasjung 15y ago

extension 15y ago

The casino industry has proven that wasting one's life on stupid parasitic games can be an enduring pastime.

pnathan 15y ago

I came to that realization regarding WoW. It had been a fairly comprehensive waste of my health and free time. Not entirely, but far, far too much.