What is social gaming
Geopositioning tools and social networks try to hook users through prizes, such as Foursquare (accumulating different types of badges, for being the most traveler, the one who visits a type of place the most or to get discounts on local).
This possibility of competing against acquaintances or not
acquaintances (in the end, social networks are not limited to the realm of
people we know personally, but rather friends of friends intervene, or in the
case of geopositioning networks, people who are close ours for one reason or
another), endows social networks with a point of addiction and a taste for
being the leader of the group, the first to get one or another reward, with the
addition b2c that it should not be something material but something digital or a
recognition in the rankings and tables.
We can distinguish those that are themselves social
networks, with their users who play with each other, and those that live within
social networks. As an example of those that live within social networks, we
will analyze FarmVille and the entire Zynga universe , a game on a social
network that allows you to generate profits.
As an example of a life environment outside of social
networks , we will look at the case of Origin , Electronic Arts' gaming
platform , focusing on one of the company's flagship games, The Sims, and how
it generates a social environment based on this game. and through the Origin
platform.
Farmville
Zynga is a company founded in 2007 in California, it is
dedicated to the development of games, with the particularity that, instead of
doing as the largest traditional video game companies , developments for PC or
game consoles , Zynga focused its objective on developing games for Facebook
and mobile platforms.
One of its best known games, although not the only one for
Facebook , is Farmville , which consisted of maintaining a farm that the user
must take care of and maintain, generating products that can be sold, getting
money (in Facebook credits) that we can use to buy components.
One of the advantages of this type of application , from the
point of view of Zynga and Facebook , is that, although its use will generate
enough to keep us playing, if we want extras, these are paid, that is, users
should not to pay nothing to be on Facebook or in the games, yes they will if
they want any of the extra benefits that can be derived from the game.
You can buy upgrades, buy components that make the farm more
efficient and personalized, to differentiate yourself more from your friends,
etc. You can get credits for improvements when you reach goals , which make you
improve little by little or you can give your farm a boost by investing money.
This purchase can be made through credit card , even Zynga reached agreements
with distribution companies such as 7-eleven to be able to buy gift cards in their
stores and then use them within the farm.
The farms of Farmville have millions of users worldwide,
also spend every day for application to plant, harvest and care for their
properties. This causes them to spend time inside the application, which makes
it an ideal environment for advertising.
With the development of the world of smartphones and more
and more users hooked on these types of devices, Zynga also began to develop
for these devices. Zynga has also made developments for other social networks such
as MySpace or Google+ , although in 2010 it signed an exclusive agreement with
Facebook, giving preference to the company. The relationship between Zynga and
Facebook is so close that, in 2011, 12% of Facebook's revenue came from Zynga
and its applications.
The sims
Another concept of games that is totally different from the
one that is born and grows within social networks is the traditional video game
environment, where Electronic Arts is located , a company with more than 30
years of experience (one of the market leaders with more than 4,000 million
dollars of turnover from the sale of their video games).
The Sims is one of the company's flagship games (the green
diamond symbol on the heads is emblematic), in which the player develops one or
more characters (even defining the personality of each character), in order to
travel the world . In principle, he lived within the city and the player had to
achieve daily life objectives, cover all his basic needs (food, bathroom, work,
etc.) and evolve.
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