4 Keys to a Successful Social Game

[Burn]

Stumbled across this online, thought it made for interesting reading.

4 Keys to a Successful Social Game That Every Developer Should Know

Basically it is a chat between Sana Choudray of Traffichoney, Dan Fiden of Playfish, David Stewart of Playdom, Gavin Barrett of Crowdstar and Mark Skaggs of Zynga - these are the guys that are shaping the future of online P2W gaming. It's from 2010, but interesting all the same.

Click click... http://freetoplay.biz/2010/03/08/4-keys-to-a-successful-social-game-that-every-developer-should-know/

I particularly liked this from Gavin Barrett of Crowdstar "Support of your community and the interaction with them is the most important thing you can do. They need to feel that you're there and listening. You need to find a way to feed what you're getting from your community back into the game."

There are some other articles on that site that are interesting, well, interesting if you are into the 'business' side of gaming.

[Dr BoneCrusher]

Thanks Burn great read nice to know some people get it

[Dravak]

That is the issue , currently the game social aspect , isn't represented any other way then forums and message post.
The message post , taken over the greater amount of people , is nothing but AD me posts.

That is acceptable but nothing social about it , so aside from the minority of players that communicate in game with one and other trough the message board system .
The social interaction is quite small , now do they value the forums ? even if it is represented by a small demography.
Yes and No , yes cause it is a form of entertainement ... yes it is a form of advangetage gain in the old saying knowledge is power , right amount of feedback from the right amount of people can make a game changer .

now the No , why is it a No , first off all you need to seperate the users who think forum contribution equels cash or value , forum contribution is simply that voluntary , does not hold monetary value .
A free player moaning all day about ruining the game for free players , who cares ?
There feedback can be tossed into the dustbin , they either convert or go to hell .. if convert it is fine they won't leave. so unless those feedback can cause you to gain more $$$ i
if not who cares they are not giving you profit anyway .

Cheaters , honestly this is one of the most touch issue , they will always excist , no matter what you do .
But a whole forum representing , how to exploit hack cheat glitch ....means simply put less income .

Now we are getting back to the yes .. who are important that needs to be verified with data ingame .
Those money spenders who are the average , those money spenders who do not come to the forums .
The top end users or VIP clients are important , but less important when radical changes are set afoot .
But if VIP clients are unsatisfied , unless it is boredom , what does that say over the average users who in time will match 20% of a VIP client income .
This is called longterm investment , keeping ignoring clients feedback .
Cause they are part of passionate minority , isn't always smart thing to do , when forums and in game reflects the same atmosfeer , I guess in the end the data will show .

But the total neglect of communication is at this moment unacceptable , it is not fault of Fizzle or CCM mark or even Boomer , but other side , they are forgetting they have to represent our interest as well as funzio .
So far it isn't hapening . other then siege mode (silence)

[Burn]

Another snippet... it is estimated that active Forum Users for any P2W game spend on average 20 x more real money than regular users.

That figure came from an EA Games presentation on one of their P2W products.

[Plux]

Bloomberg on the current decline in the industry.
Hopefully it will improve.

[wupuck]

Bloomberg on the current decline in the industry.
Hopefully it will improve.

$1,469,969/hr??? I've been playing since last Aug! Probably missed less then 50 hrs total in upgrade time (I.e. I've been consistantly upgrading buildings), still only have $~225K/hr. U have the high income gold buildings?