Facebook lures 200m with poker and pets
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Eric
Apr 13, 2009, 2:45:21 AM4/13/09
to Poker daily news
Spectacular growth in online social gaming is prompting companies such
as Google to enter the market and developers to rethink how they
design video games.
The trend is seeing the social network Facebook emerge as the world's
biggest gaming platform. It is close to having 200m active members and
its most popular application installed by users is a game - Texas Hold
'em Poker - played by 11m people.
Pet Society , where players create pets and their homes and exercise
and care for them with friends, is even more popular in terms of daily
players. It has 9m players, with more than 60 per cent of them
returning every day to look after their creatures.
The leading publishers on Facebook are San Francisco's Zynga and
London-based Playfish, which developed Pet Society and has attracted
60m players to its games in 18 months.
Kristian Segerstr Playfish, says social gaming is more like the social
interactions around kicking a ball in a park than the experience of a
traditional console video game.
"The emotional driver for you to play is not the kind of fight or
flight emotions which tend to happen between you and the screen on
consoles, but the much more powerful emotions of you and your real
world friends," Mr Segerstr
"It can be competition, co-operation, expression, communication, just
like in real world games."
Social gaming was a hot topic at last month's Game Developers
Conference in San Francisco.
"The biggest shift is that, in the past, most of the social gaming has
been with people that you don't know. With Facebook that's completely
changed," says Brian Fargo, a game developer.
He describes a bowling game on Facebook where he can see his friends
and their high scores.
"I want to play now because I want to beat them. The social dynamic of
knowing the people out there really changes things for me," Mr Fargo
says.
Online gaming on services such as Microsoft 's Xbox Live, which has
17m members worldwide, or PC casual gaming destinations such as Pogo
or Big Fish generally takes place between strangers.
Facebook is not charging developers for games, mainly because they are
initially free and the service is focused on expanding its user base.
as Google to enter the market and developers to rethink how they
design video games.
The trend is seeing the social network Facebook emerge as the world's
biggest gaming platform. It is close to having 200m active members and
its most popular application installed by users is a game - Texas Hold
'em Poker - played by 11m people.
Pet Society , where players create pets and their homes and exercise
and care for them with friends, is even more popular in terms of daily
players. It has 9m players, with more than 60 per cent of them
returning every day to look after their creatures.
The leading publishers on Facebook are San Francisco's Zynga and
London-based Playfish, which developed Pet Society and has attracted
60m players to its games in 18 months.
Kristian Segerstr Playfish, says social gaming is more like the social
interactions around kicking a ball in a park than the experience of a
traditional console video game.
"The emotional driver for you to play is not the kind of fight or
flight emotions which tend to happen between you and the screen on
consoles, but the much more powerful emotions of you and your real
world friends," Mr Segerstr
"It can be competition, co-operation, expression, communication, just
like in real world games."
Social gaming was a hot topic at last month's Game Developers
Conference in San Francisco.
"The biggest shift is that, in the past, most of the social gaming has
been with people that you don't know. With Facebook that's completely
changed," says Brian Fargo, a game developer.
He describes a bowling game on Facebook where he can see his friends
and their high scores.
"I want to play now because I want to beat them. The social dynamic of
knowing the people out there really changes things for me," Mr Fargo
says.
Online gaming on services such as Microsoft 's Xbox Live, which has
17m members worldwide, or PC casual gaming destinations such as Pogo
or Big Fish generally takes place between strangers.
Facebook is not charging developers for games, mainly because they are
initially free and the service is focused on expanding its user base.
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