> "Social games" are the least social variety of game There was an interesting paper on that last year, which systematically catalogued the mechanics used by p

> "Social games" are the least social variety of game There was an interesting paper on that last year, which systematically catalogued the mechanics used by popular Facebook games. It found more or less what you claim: "no mechanics were found to offer very deep or sustained social interactions between players." The paper is "Using your friends: social mechanics in social games" by Mia Consalvo (Foundations of Digital Games 2011). Unfortunately paywalled (http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2159391 http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2159391), but there are some slides here: http://www.slideshare.net/miaconsalvo/using-your-friends-top-interaction-mechanics-in-social-games http://www.slideshare.net/miaconsalvo/using-your-friends-top...