It has taken me a long time to get on the social networking bandwagon. I don't know that you could technically call me on so much as hanging off the back wheel, thumping my head as the wheel turns round... *thump* and round... *thump*. I signed up for Facebook when it first started (a friend was newly in college and thought it was cool); then neither of us really used it. Then games were added. And I well, work in the games industry. So I headed over and paid better attention to my account. I'm still not the best online social networker but if the figures presented at the LA Games Conference are an indicator, a whole heckuva lot of you have really taken to this!
Of all the subjects that were discussed – Digital Distribution, Music and Games, Online Infrastructure – at the Merging of Casual and Hardcore Genres panel, in combination with the numbers quoted at the Viral Games session made me sit up. First, I have to say I think the first panel was a misnomer. The genres aren't merging, but the players certainly are. Have you played Plants vs. Zombies or Peggle recently? They may be "casual" games but there's nothing casual about the 8-10 hours of your life they'll suck in a sitting.
On the first panel was Robert Norton, Managing Director of King.com, the creator of many of the casual games the world plays. King supplies games to 9 countries in 7 languages and boasts 400 million players a month. Michael Rosenberg, the owner of Gamevance.com, provides $100 million in prizes a month to 12 million players. Vice President of USA Network Digital, Jesse Redniss, manages perhaps the most successful stable of IP-casual games. Leveraging partnerships with Bigpoint out of Germany and the Sci-Fi network, USA Digital creates games that are strategically targeted; a prime example is the Burn Notice ARG that brought viewers back to the show after playing the game at the site. Also in attendance were Kate Connally from AddictingGames, MTV and Nickelodeon's enormous youth-oriented network; and Kyle Laughlin, Senior Director of Yahoo! Games.
The Viral Games panel consisted of the who's who of the Social Space: the Platform Manager for Facebook, Gareth Davis; Dan Yue, CEO of Playdom; Turbine's Executive Director of Marketing, Jim Drewery; the Senior Vice President of Business Development for MySpace, Jason Oberfest; and a representative from the company providing the backbone for it all – Nash Parker, Director of Emerging Technology & Media from Alcatel-Lucent.
It was a heady room of titles.
So, just how big is online social gaming? Here are some of the numbers that woke me up:
I've rattled off (or repeated) some lofty figures but my initial list of attendees are all involved in the "casual" space; the arena of simple games that are played in a decidedly non-casual manner. Sure, Valve made Peggle acceptable to the Half-Life 2 player by placing Peggle Extreme in the Orange Box and the rather hardcore writers over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun have recently admitted an affinity for hidden object titles but where's the crossover into the social gaming space?
Between January and April, Bejeweled Blitz, a cut-down version of Bejeweled had a monthly average of 2 million users.
What does this say about our gaming habits? Does it say anything about "our" habits, the aging gamer, or does it indicate that new gamers – different gamers are joining our ranks?
AddictingGames is integrating games and shows to ramp up the demand for both. This brings younger users.
Facebook's fastest growing segment is users over the age of 35. People join because their friends are there. They play because their friends play. This is true of casual games as well. An older generation not raised on long play times has joined the ranks.
As I have aged past 35, I no longer have 4-6 hours in... well any night to sit and play. My play must come in smaller chunks if I am to tend to my responsibilities and I see this with my peers. There is still a place for the long play time with Turbine's games, but there is a growing place for the small as well. Will the small be with Gamevance and the chance to win cash? Or will King continue to rule behind the scenes?
Could it be that MySpace, Facebook, or Bebo will soon be the place to get those games? PopCap has shown great cross-over in both the social and hard-core market. How long will it take before King.com looks at those 10 million Mobsters on MySpace and thinks, "I can do that."
Soon, I hope. The more choices for us all, the better games, the better play, the better fun.
I'm a mother of two boys, ages 7 and 10 and live in the chaos that ensues. I've a permanent disability that keeps me homebound, so books, kids, games and books are my constant companions. Oh, and books, too. *grins*
My children both play games so I often play them first, getting to know exactly how something may effect my sensitive and easily stimulated older child vs. my stoic and imperturbable younger.
I like games for games; for the pure enjoyment of them and believe that no game is wholly bad, though some are real stinkers.
I also have the dexterity of a camel in mittens so find playing FPSs difficult (and I also don't like the gore) and RTSs at times can stump me. I just can't seem to move quickly enough to keep up with them. Some of my favorite games are arcade games and I'll spend 3-5 years on the same 5-6 levels because I just never get any better. But, I have fun.
