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Could this facebook game thing be a fad? I remember back in high school when web games like Earth 2025 (games.swirve.com/earth/) were quite the rage and everyb

by biznerd 17y ago

Could this facebook game thing be a fad? I remember back in high school when web games like Earth 2025 (games.swirve.com/earth/) were quite the rage and everybody was playing them. This lasted for a year or so until the novelty wore off. Some still play but the casual players are gone and the audience is a tiny fraction of what it once was. I've noticed that my FB friends that play FB games tend to stop playing after a couple months. The games are mindless, cookie-cutter and repetitive for the most part. <EDIT>I don't think WoW is a good comparison as there is clearly a huge depth between it and Zynga games. The experience is entirely different. "Easy come, easy go" could apply to this market. I mean these games come out of no where to millions of players. These are not hardcore gamers that develop strong loyalty and build communities, but "casual" players that probably started playing because their friends are. "Casual" gamers are notoriously fickle. Look at the Nintendo Wii, which is the most popular console but has the least average amount of titles bought per owner (which is where the real money is.) In 2-3 years I would not be surprised that after all this over-exposure these x-ville games will be significantly less popular. These "games" have more in common with Tamagotchi and Beanie Babies than Wow or Call of Duty... </edit>

petercooper 17y ago
Hasn't stopped World of Warcraft players..
igorgue 17y ago
No way, my younger brother has been playing an MMORPG for like 3 years and he's not bored at all, he spends like 30USD a month on that game. Games entertain a long time (years) that's a fact.
ibsulon 17y ago
Some of us played for years, long after the fad wore off. The difference between the swirve games and facebook is that a community grew up around the game. From what I've seen of the facebook games, it's mostly your existing friends. I haven't heard of Mafia Wars meetups like E2025 or Utopia had, for example. (And yes, there were ways to get extra turns via various offers. I remember having to research something on goto.com every day, as one.) What swirve did well is create a community. That's what an online game should aspire to, and I have only seem glimpses of that with the facebook games, even with the obnoxious updates.
- teej 17y ago
  There were Facebook clones of Swirve games that had similarly rich communities around them, but those games don't make as much money as the X Wars or the X Ville games.
mattmcknight 17y ago
Maybe they are faddish, but it doesn't matter, as long as your payback period is short. No one is putting millions into developing rendered polygon worlds for these games. The challenge is to keep it fresh and come up with new ones that will get people on board.

by biznerd 17y ago

petercooper 17y ago

Hasn't stopped World of Warcraft players..

igorgue 17y ago

No way, my younger brother has been playing an MMORPG for like 3 years and he's not bored at all, he spends like 30USD a month on that game. Games entertain a long time (years) that's a fact.

ibsulon 17y ago

Some of us played for years, long after the fad wore off. The difference between the swirve games and facebook is that a community grew up around the game. From what I've seen of the facebook games, it's mostly your existing friends. I haven't heard of Mafia Wars meetups like E2025 or Utopia had, for example. (And yes, there were ways to get extra turns via various offers. I remember having to research something on goto.com every day, as one.) What swirve did well is create a community. That's what an online game should aspire to, and I have only seem glimpses of that with the facebook games, even with the obnoxious updates.

teej 17y ago
There were Facebook clones of Swirve games that had similarly rich communities around them, but those games don't make as much money as the X Wars or the X Ville games.

mattmcknight 17y ago

Maybe they are faddish, but it doesn't matter, as long as your payback period is short. No one is putting millions into developing rendered polygon worlds for these games. The challenge is to keep it fresh and come up with new ones that will get people on board.