Farmville pwned World of Warcraft’s 12 odd million users with a staggering 88 million MAUs at its peak. It did this in 6 months -WoW took five years or so.
Cityville went ahead broke the 100 million MAU mark.
The top five apps on “The Social Network aka Facebook” are games. Yada yada yada.
But did the social in gaming only begin with what we now call Social Gaming?
Any console gamer will tell you it is mandatory to go visit the forums that abound around every major game title release. Cheats (every gamer cheats!), Mods, fixes for those pesky game crashes – the forum is the catalyst for the game’s spread and depth.
Forums for TV shows exist as well but they are not a patch (pun intended!) on the vibrant self generating content that is out there on game forums.
And Multiplayer by definition is the social Kool Aid for the anti-social Counter Strikers out there. Ever heard of a Multiplayer FM channel or a TV show?
Let’s go even deeper and examine what is unique in the way games get socialized and how they build a fan following.
I call this phenomenon the 3Cs of Gaming – Comparison, Competition, and Collaboration.
It’s to do with basic human psychology and this manifests every game. It is the manna for marketers!
Did you ever do this with your favorite TV show – speak to others and get a deeper and different outcome on the next rerun?
You cannot. Games are structurally superior to other forms of entertainment.
What do you think? What has been your experience in the community formation and the socialization that games bring in?
So I’ve posted about consumers being the network and about games having a natural network tendency.
Next post I’ll return to social networks and how Facebook is passé. Incredibly provocative statement – eh?
I know, I’m all about the cheap tricks!
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