It looks like Sports Illustrated isn't the only company integrating Facebook functionality into its fantasy football product this season. CNet reports that Yahoo's popular fantasy football program is set to follow suit, adding some basic Facebook features into the social game.
Unlike SI's relatively full-featured Facebook fantasy game, though, Yahoo's integration is actually pretty shallow. While Yahoo users will be able to push updates about their team to their Facebook wall and "like" specific teams with the click of a button, they won't be able to control their team from their Facebook page, or find potential opponents through their Facebook network of friends. In short, this is about sharing your Yahoo Sports activity with Facebook, rather than conducting your Yahoo Sports activity through Facebook.
Even though Yahoo doesn't yet seem ready to fully merge its proprietary fantasy football program with Facebook, it obviously sees the network's potential as a way to spread the word about the game. And when even outside social games are using your network to market their own efforts, you know you're in a dominant position.
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn facebook. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn facebook. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Thứ Hai, 6 tháng 2, 2012
Thứ Sáu, 3 tháng 2, 2012
Social games are not social enough, Playdom Design VP says
During a recent interview with Gamasutra, Design VP of Playdom Steve Meretzky (pictured) claimed that social games have come a long way since three years ago, but social games aren't social enough. He believes that social games will only get more sophisticated as the years pass on, but not until the games' social elements are more deeply integrated.
"We've certainly gotten better at raising the production values of the games, but where we, as an industry, fall short is not moving the ball forward in terms of really making these games more social and taking advantage of the viral channels that Facebook allows," Meretzky said.
That's going to be a tough sell considering Facebook just made game discovery even more difficult for new players. Not to mention Facebook Groups could potentially fragment social gaming audiences through players communicating solely through Groups. While the platform itself presents an interesting dilemma for the growth of social games, perhaps perception poses even more of a challenge to the genre's success.
"I don't want to hear that Facebook games are Skinner boxes," he adds. "You know, when you come down to it, basically all games are Skinner boxes -- meaningless activities where you're not getting anything out of it other than enjoyment. But in traditional or more complex video games, the Skinner box core is more buried under a lot of sizzle. In Facebook games, just because they are so stripped down to their simplest, barest elements, the Skinner Box skeleton is just more visible."
While it might be deeper, more sophisticated social integration that brings social games out of the light illuminating them as meaningless task-and-reward games, there will always be dissenters. (Just look at Nintendo Wii.) In other words, haters gonna' hate.
"We've certainly gotten better at raising the production values of the games, but where we, as an industry, fall short is not moving the ball forward in terms of really making these games more social and taking advantage of the viral channels that Facebook allows," Meretzky said.
That's going to be a tough sell considering Facebook just made game discovery even more difficult for new players. Not to mention Facebook Groups could potentially fragment social gaming audiences through players communicating solely through Groups. While the platform itself presents an interesting dilemma for the growth of social games, perhaps perception poses even more of a challenge to the genre's success.
"I don't want to hear that Facebook games are Skinner boxes," he adds. "You know, when you come down to it, basically all games are Skinner boxes -- meaningless activities where you're not getting anything out of it other than enjoyment. But in traditional or more complex video games, the Skinner box core is more buried under a lot of sizzle. In Facebook games, just because they are so stripped down to their simplest, barest elements, the Skinner Box skeleton is just more visible."
While it might be deeper, more sophisticated social integration that brings social games out of the light illuminating them as meaningless task-and-reward games, there will always be dissenters. (Just look at Nintendo Wii.) In other words, haters gonna' hate.
Thứ Năm, 29 tháng 12, 2011
Zynga fans make up 40 percent of all Facebook users
Even if you're that guy to your friends--you know, who spammed his friends with FarmVille updates all last year--you're apparently far from alone. Social Times has done a little math work based on a Jan. 2011 estimate by Business Insider claiming that there are 600 million Facebook users to find that 40 percent of those 600 million are not just Facebook gamers, but Zynga gamers. The fact that Zynga has the minds of almost 300 million Facebook users puts the company in a great position of power.
If Zynga doesn't like something that Facebook does or says, the company could simply take those paying customers away. Customers who, as of July, will account for a huge portion of Facebook's revenue through the mandatory Facebook Credits change.
In other words, because the social network wants to make a few bucks from the lucrative gaming companies that have arrived on their stoop, the ball is now in their court, namely Zynga's. That is, if players would actually follow Zynga out the door.
In fact, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus has made it clear before that a platform agnostic Zynga is something he is not only considering, but working toward. A large portion of Facebook users likely only log into Facebook to play on their dedicated Zynga accounts, so for Facebook to lose Zynga would be to lose millions if not billions of dollars down the line.
In short, it would be wise for Facebook to play nice with Zynga if it wants the developer to endure the 30 percent cut Facebook takes on its virtual goods. This much bargaining power over one of the globe's most popular and profitable corporations should be alarming. Zynga could change the very face of Facebook if it wanted to, holding the power of nearly 300 million potential customers in one hand and the doorknob in the other.
[Image Credit: One Hit Point]
Do you think Zynga would ever consider leaving if Facebook made a disagreeable decision? Does Zynga really have the power to effect Facebook's profitability? Better yet, would you follow if Zynga left?
If Zynga doesn't like something that Facebook does or says, the company could simply take those paying customers away. Customers who, as of July, will account for a huge portion of Facebook's revenue through the mandatory Facebook Credits change.
In other words, because the social network wants to make a few bucks from the lucrative gaming companies that have arrived on their stoop, the ball is now in their court, namely Zynga's. That is, if players would actually follow Zynga out the door.
In fact, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus has made it clear before that a platform agnostic Zynga is something he is not only considering, but working toward. A large portion of Facebook users likely only log into Facebook to play on their dedicated Zynga accounts, so for Facebook to lose Zynga would be to lose millions if not billions of dollars down the line.
In short, it would be wise for Facebook to play nice with Zynga if it wants the developer to endure the 30 percent cut Facebook takes on its virtual goods. This much bargaining power over one of the globe's most popular and profitable corporations should be alarming. Zynga could change the very face of Facebook if it wanted to, holding the power of nearly 300 million potential customers in one hand and the doorknob in the other.
[Image Credit: One Hit Point]
Do you think Zynga would ever consider leaving if Facebook made a disagreeable decision? Does Zynga really have the power to effect Facebook's profitability? Better yet, would you follow if Zynga left?
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