It’s like blood in the water. People with initials after their name like CFO and CEO can hone in on it across vast expanses of space and time like a great white shark senses a dying fish. What is it? Some call it things like “net profit before depreciation”. Whatever you call it, the people who invest in games call it…
The bottom line
Unlike sharks, investors don’t like dying fish. No, they like that bright shining fish that can be spotted before anyone else does. But once the fish is spotted the sharks start circling – and the particular bright shining fish that game developers and publishers alike seem to be circling these days are “social games”. Scott Hartsman talked about them on on shows 41 and 42 but he called them “accessible games.” No one would be foolish enough to try and take on companies with names like Activision or Blizzard and expect to come out on top. Oh a few have tried it…tried and where unsuccessful . This is not the case, however, with some of the biggest names in social game development. Zynga may indeed be the next 800 pound gorilla of social gaming, but they are certainly not unassailable. In fact they were sued for copyright violation just recently as well as advertising practices. Still, they are even big enough to catch the attention of Time Magazine . And the bigger they get, the more they grab the attention of other developers.
Social games where one of the trends discussed at this year’s Game developers Conference, and the subject of Gareth Davis’ (Facebook’s Platform manager) key note speech. There is no denying that games with names like Farmville, Mob Wars, and Mafia Wars (all of which I have played) can turn a profit, but there are still no indications whether or not that will be a fast buck or something with staying power. No matter how it turns out, there are always those who look at any social trend from the outside and shake their heads with dismay. Back in the 1960s people with names like “Buddy Holly” and “Elvis Presley” where people that then conservative elements of society would consider “radical”; now they are the kind of guys you would take home to mom and dad. While those of us who owe our gaming allegiance to console games or online games may consider social games as little more than mindless button pushing, there is no doubt that such games attract a massive audience.
Bad RPG?
As we always do, this last Easter we had some friends over for dinner, and with them came a one year old child. As soon as our Boston Terrier took note of the youngster she started her ear shattering “get out of my territory” bark. Our guard dog, on the other hand, could care less about the child. We had welcomed all the visitors into the house, and as far as he was concerned they all belonged there. We pondered the situation for awhile then it dawned on us that out faithful terrier had never seen a baby before, and considered the child to be competition – another dog. After all, she had seen the little tyke crawl around on all fours. In our dog’s mind, apparently, even if someone had shaved all the fur off this strange dog, with the exception of a small spot on top of his head, he was still a dog – albeit a bit of a funny looking one. Upon closer inspection our small Boston examined this new dog in her territory and noted that it had the flattest muzzle she had ever seen. Yes, she seemed to decide, this house guest made a lousy dog. It took awhile before our terrier realized that while the one year old newcomer made a lousy dog he made a fantastic one year old little boy.
And so it is with social games – while they make lousy role playing games (that may change but more on that later) but they are great at being what they are…
Whatever that is
See you online,
The No Prisoners, No Mercy Team