I wonder what a society would be like run by me. Would it be complete anarchy? Or would I rule with an iron fist and cruelly punish those who don’t abide by my strict “casual Fridays” edicts?

Nations on Facebook allows you to answer this question to a certain degree. Nations is a new game developed by Barbara Surgi, Zachary Morgan and “2 other people.” You get to pick your nation’s flag, its political policies, its name, and even its allies/enemies.

Setting up your country is a breeze. Pick a name, upload a flag or choose one of the thirty or so provided, and then answer the nine political questions about your county’s policies. These will help determine how your country is structured politically and what its strengths and weaknesses will be. There are no wrong answers to these questions, for every society has its strengths and weaknesses. For example, uf you’re all about the free market, expect poverty to be a problem.

You can then choose how many issues you get asked to resolve throughout the week. This screen is essentially asking you how involved you’d like to be in the game. Your citizens can have a problem every day or once a week, depending on the level of involvement you want. Your choices on resolving issues will shape how the society progresses, but you can always choose to not answer issues if you see there are no good solutions.

The game is still in its development phase, so the lack of visual stimuli, abilities, and well-laid out guide is understandable. There are some promising elements of the game, however. You can earn points for resolving issues and inviting friends, but these won’t help you beat the game. Instead, it allows more customizations for your country. As an example, you can unlock different titles for yourself.

Room for improvement is apparent, however. The ability to change the number of issues you receive while in game needs to be added. More abilities to control your population are also a must. The stats they provide don’t mean much to the user right now, and some kind of visual representation of poverty, a weak military, etc would go a long way to create an immersive experience. It’s a solid start, but needs some meat on the solid game play skeleton. Playing dictator should be fun, and a representation in text of your cruelty doesn’t spell “excitement” to me.

Game play: 6

Development: 6

How cruel of a dictator I would be: 9

We’re here at the Social Gaming Summit at UCSF Mission Bay in San Francisco. A fantastic, big crowd is on hand for today’s event – probably close to 400 people from game and social network companies.

The first session this afternoon is “Asynchronous Games on Social Networks,” including:

» Siqi Chen – Founder, Serious Business (Friends for Sale)
» Blake Commagere – Founder and VP Engineering, Mogad
» Shervin Pishevar – CEO, Social Gaming Network
» Mike Sego – Developer, (fluff)Friends
» Andrew Chung – Principal, Lightspeed Venture Partners (moderator)

Andrew – Asynchronous gaming has been a concept for a long time, since Diplomacy in the 50′s to fantasy football and baseball via phone and now online. Ian from Persuasive Games wrote a paper in 2004 when he was at Georgia Tech describing asynchronous games, defining them as: 1) supporting multiple players playing in sequence, 2) requiring persistent state that affects all players, 3) breaks are the organizing principle, 4) asynchronous need not be the defining characteristic of the game.

Shervin – We’re building what I call social games 2.0.  The first generation of games on social networks were very simplistic. We’ve reached about 50 million installed users on Facebook and about a million daily actives, 1 billion page views a month.  We’re recruiting the best game developers.

Siqi – We’re a game studio producing social games on social platforms.  Right now we have one game, Friend For Sale.  We ask ourselves, “Can you imagine the game taking place outside a social network?” If not, those are games we’re interested in.

Blake – I cut my teeth working on the Causes application, I’m proud to be part of that. You can see influences of game mechanics there, but it may be a little more subtle. After that, I created the monsters applications, and I’ve been working on that for the last year, bringing them to other platforms as well. We’re at about 27 million installs, between 400-800,000 DAU.

Mike – I started out at EA, working on Sims Online, and then I went to Google to work on Gmail before getting lured back into games. (fluff)Friends is what would happen if you just made something cute and didn’t stop. I’ve been flushing out this virtual world around cute animals.

Andrew – How do your games fit the pattern of asynchronous games?

Shervin – We started with Warbook, which is a strategy game. All our games are asynchronous.

Siqi – FFS is a game where you buy and sell people as pets, we designed it as a way to meet cute people. It’s very asynchronous, which is a byproduct of going after social interactions where you interact with your friends. Rarely are more than a few of your friends online at the same time, at least within Facebook.

Blake – My games weren’t designed to be asynchronous, they were designed to be as viral as possible. It was later that I shifted my focus to add more game play elements.

Mike – With FF, it’s much more the consequence that Facebook is an asynch communication platform, and FF is just a cute version of Facebook. Just as when people set up their Facebook profile and later other people come and check it out, it’s the same way with FF – setting your fluff status, writing on your fluff wall.

Andrew – How important is the presence of the social graph for asynch gameplay? Often when I started playing Scrabulous, I had to play with strangers because my friends weren’t there that much.

Shervin – We started working with auto-matching engines.  Two chess players have a more enjoyable experience if they have a similar skill level, even if they’re not friends. We have to do both. Another example is Zynga’s Scramble, which has both synch and asynch modes. So I think some games can be either.

Siqi – There are some games that simply can’t exist without the social graph, like Parking Wars or Pack Rat. These almost have to be asynchronous. Previously, I made a game called Mafia, but because you had to play with 10 people at the same time, it was impossible to play with your friends.

Blake – Younger users seem more comfortable interacting with strangers, older people tend to want to play with their friends. This makes sense, the best parties you go to when you’re in your 20′s are interesting because people are there that you don’t know that you may want to interact with, but that changes when you’re in your 40′s.

Mike – Being able to meet new people with similar interests is really important for FF, because it’s tons more fun to talk with people who share the same degree of passion.  I got invited to a Fluff wedding the other day.  That part is less dependent on the social graph. Ultimately, the people who love the application the most are important.

Andrew – How do you move people down the spectrum to make them more engaged and hard core?

Mike – I think of my users in 3 different groups. There are the people creating the experience with me, creating the art, etc. There are people who are sharing the experience with others, petting etc. And there are the trial users. I try to consistently release something new and different that may appeal to users that haven’t been more engaged before. I have used contests and events to do this, like the Easter Egg hunt. Some people who hadn’t taken the time to get stuff to decorate with before, enjoyed hunting for easter eggs.

Blake – There is always going to be some subset of your userbase that’s never going to play more than their 30 minute lunch break, because that’s all the time they have. Don’t inundate users with too much experience at the beginning, gamers hate to read, I’ve never read a game manual in my life.

Siqi – I think there’s a lot to learn from traditional MMO design, things like levels.  If you get to the next level, you get this new shiny thing. It makes the game more complicated, but it works. Our hardest core users use more synchronous features.

Shervin – The first generation of social games were incredibly simplistic, and the platform was so viral, that it was a lot easier for apps to grow. But it behooves all of us to invest in content. I’m staying up late at night building social games 2.0, games with richer content, deeper stories, much better user experiences. It’s going to become harder for independent developers. I can’t talk about the games we’re working on, but you can look at Playfish.  Their engagement levels are high and they’re growing faster than those that have come before.

Blake – There will always be room for the asynchronous experience that users will enjoy, some are just not going to play synchronously. A Zynga game Ghost Racer is interesting, it records your race and allows your friends to race the “ghost” of your car, making the asynchronous experience feel quite synchronous. I haven’t seen anyone else push down that path, I think it’s quite interesting. I was swearing at my friend who was beating me in this game, but he wasn’t even playing.

Andrew – What are ways that you’ve thought about expanding your games beyond Facebook?

Shervin – With Warbook, we did text messaging based moves. I actually think mobile is the perfect platform for asynchronous games.

Blake – I get discouraged every time I look at mobile.  The carriers have really killed innovation.

The first Social Gaming Summit is this Friday in San Francisco, and a fantastic group of folks have been lined up by conference organizers Charles Hudson of Gaia and Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Venture Partners. Look forward to seeing you there!

Here’s the full agenda:

10:00am – What Makes Games Fun?

We all like to have fun, right? What is it about games that makes them so fun? Is it gameplay? Social interaction? Achievements and accomplishments? Our panel of thought leaders will share their perspectives on what it takes to build a fun game and why building fun into games is more difficult than it looks.

» Erik Bethke – CEO, GoPets
» Dr. Ian Bogost – Founding Partner, Persuasive Games
» Nicole Lazzaro – President, XEODesign, Inc.
» John Welch – Co-Founder, President & CEO, PlayFirst
» Jeremy Liew – Managing Director, Lightspeed Venture Partners (moderator)

11:00am – Casual MMOs and Immersive Worlds

Many so-called “casual MMOs” and immersive worlds are casual only in the sense that the point of the game is not to bash gruesome looking monsters or the game isn’t set in a sci-fi fantasy world. The engagement story around existing and upcoming casual MMOs is real and very compelling. This panel will discuss what it takes to build a successful casual MMO that users love to play.

» Min Kim – Vice President of Marketing, Nexon America
» Patrick Ford, VP Marketing and Community Development, K2 Networks
» Kyra Reppen – SVP and GM, NeoPets
» Craig Sherman – CEO, Gaia Online
» Joey Seiler – Editor, Virtual Worlds News (moderator)

1:30pm – Asynchronous Games on Social Networks

There are a lot of interesting asynchronous activities happening on social networks. Some of them are traditional games, others are games in disguise. Join us and hear from some of the leading voices in this space share their views on how to build great gameplay characteristics into social networking applications and what opportunities exist for gameplay to take advantage of the social graph.

» Siqi Chen – Founder, Serious Business (Friends for Sale)
» Blake Commagere – Founder and VP Engineering, Mogad
» Shervin Pishevar – CEO, Social Gaming Network
» Mike Sego – Developer, (fluff)Friends
» Andrew Chung – Principal, Lightspeed Venture Partners (moderator)

2:30pm – User Generated Games in Social Networks and Virtual Worlds

Games are one of the most popular activities on social networks and virtual worlds. Increasingly, users are taking it upon themselves to create games and entertainment of their own within the context of existing online environments. Curious as to what’s driving this behavior? This is the panel for you.

» Daniel James – CEO, Three Rings
» Jeremy Monroe – Director of Business Development, Sports & Entertainment, North America, Sulake Inc.
» Ted Rheingold – Founder, Dogster and Catster
» Cary Rosenzweig – President and CEO, IMVU
» Dean Takahashi – Writer, Venture Beat (moderator)

4:00pm – Building Communities and Social Interaction In and Around Games

Social networking and games go hand in hand. Whether it’s taking advantage of the relationship data in social networks to build novel gameplay or building community among people who play games, game developers are discovering clever ways to build real communities around the games they’re developing. Hear from our panel of thought leaders about what it takes to successfully integrate community and social interaction into the next generation of games.

» Jim Greer – CEO, Kongregate
» Amy Jo Kim – CEO, Shufflebrain
» Mark Pincus – Founder and CEO, Zynga Game Network
» Dave Williams – SVP, Shockwave, AddictingGames
» Brandon Sheffield – Gamasutra (moderator)

5:00pm – Monetization and Business Models for Social Games

There are a handful of viable (proven) business models for social games. How should game developers go about choosing the best business model for their games? Our panel of experts will share their thoughts on the various business models and how to think through the right one for a given game.

» Jameson Hsu – Co-Founder and CEO, Mochi Media
» Matt Mihaly – CEO and Creative Director, Sparkplay Media
» Mattias Miksche – CEO, Stardoll
» David Perry – CCO, Acclaim
» Ravi Mhatre – Managing Director, Lightspeed Venture Partners (moderator)

Kick Ups is an action arcade Flash game on Facebook developed by David Livingston Kirby, Davy Campano and Robby Campano. The game essentially calls for you to juggle a soccer ball with your mouse before it drops to the ground. For anyone who has ever played soccer/football/futbol in their lives, they know the concept of the game and how freaking hard it is. This game is equally challenging, which is a good step to making the game memorable and addictive.

However, game play isn’t varied (just click the ball before it hits the ground) and staring at a ball bouncing around your screen isn’t the best way to pass your time. That is to say, unless you’re a huge soccer nerd, I’m not sure how much “fun” this game can be. Sure, you can upgrade the ball to a football, a banana, or your friend’s picture (a nice touch), but its essentially the same point-and-click game forever. Put the body of a Mercedes on a donkey, and its still a donkey. And probably a horribly uncomfortable one at that.

On the viral side, they do an admirable job of marketing their product and helping it grow. You can challenge your friends, and you can view both your friends’ scores and worldwide leaders (and grow frustrated as you realize you can barely juggle in the single digits while the pros seemingly can juggle for hours).

Inviting friends will get you new ball types, but you aren’t inviting them to play this great game you’ve found; instead, you’re inviting them with the slim hopes that a better ball will make this game more enjoyable. The animations are solid, the four ball types are fine, and the developers know the social network game enough to insist on friend invitations and cross-promotions with other games.

That said, this is one of those ideas that doesn’t translate to a long-lasting and addictive gaming experience. I’m reminded of the old “Ren and Stimpy” fake commercial “It’s log!” The entire commercial is about a new toy which is literally just a log of wood. The kids seem engrossed, however, in this very simple object. It’s a poignant satire on kids’ imaginations and the ability for adults to try to cash in on that creativity. Similarly, this is a simple idea that people enjoy and take for granted but is being used to make adults money. Kicking a little soccer ball round the screen is like doing the digital dishes. Yes its well animated, but really, what’s the point?

Gameplay: 3

Developers: 5

How much of my childhood died while playing: 6

These notes were taken by Adam Lovallo, contributor at Inside Facebook. For more notes from GSP East, click here.

We’re here at the 1:50pm session and this panel is covering the growing social gaming space. The panel:

• Justin Smith, InsideFacebook.com & Watercooler
• Siqi Chen, CEO of Serious Business
• Andrew Trader, Co-founder, Zynga Game Networks
• Robert Balahura, President at J2Play Ltd.
• TJ Murphy, Co-founder, SGN

Justin: A lot of the conversations around social games have come from Facebook developers that are tracking the charts and seeing how games are engaging a lot of users. What is your definition of a social game?

Siqi: A social game is something that leverages traditional game play dynamics. A social game is one in which interacting with your friends is a core piece of the game itself.

Justin: How do you see social games as being different from web games?

TJ: One difference we see is that having users’ friends on hand adds a lot more to your application than we thought at first. Traditional web games have been very single player or anonymous oriented. What the social element adds is a context and incentive to really move on in the game.

Andrew: For us, social gaming is about connection. Its about offering users a way to connect with their friends in ways in which users don’t regularly make time to do. People are on social networks and are spending time on these networks and our games allow those users to use that time to connect with their friends.

Justin: Do you see potential for social games to reach individuals that wouldn’t otherwise play web games?

Andrew: A lot of the social networks haven’t had a way for users to interact adequately. In some of our apps we’ve borrowed some great examples of turn based elements from Scrabulous that often appeal to the more casual player.

Justin: On your poker application, what proportion of users are playing with friends versus playing with random users?

Andrew: We’ve found that users make poker buddies, but we also make it easy for users to play with their friends. The actual proportions are very app specific though.

Robert: The interesting thing about what makes a game social is that users’ social identities are a core part of the gaming experience. Additionally, if you don’ have to sign up for a site you might just load up a game and have a try. The key piece of the entire environment is that all your friends will travel with you.

Justin: There are game destinations that already have social elements built in. What value do you see long term in social networks as game platforms?

Robert: We look as social networks themselves not as individual platforms but rather the social web in total is the platform. Our mandate is to help the existing game industry move their business to the social web. When you use our technology your game is immediately available across multiple social sites. We see this space as one of the platforms that we will take advantage of to help move the entire industry over.

TJ: As you connect the platforms together it is interesting to see that people create social structures once they are in the game already, something we call the gaming graph.

Justin: How do you evaluate the success of your social games?

Siqi: There is not a single metric. We don’t yet have a value for the lifetime of a user. The number we really care about is engagement which can ultimately inform you of the life span of your app. Average page views per visit is increasingly an important metric as well.

TJ: Some games lend themselves to players that will come in every day briefly that will have a long lifetime as a user, and in other cases there are shorter life time users that spend on average much more time on site.

Andrew: In the short term we are going to feel some pain from the upcoming Facebook profile changes. We do believe in the long run the changes will be great for the app economy. We measure engagement by time on site. For poker we average about 16-17 minutes on site. That is much more of our emphasis these days than on simply user acquisition.

Justin: Where do you see the space going in terms of revenue, as different strategies focus on virtual goods, sponsorships, or banner ads?

Siqi: I had this theory a year ago that display ad revenues were going to go up. Its obvious to me now that intent is everything. Making money through display ads is probably not going to be a good long term solution. One way we are monetizing is through virtual gift sponsorships.

TJ: In the games context virtual goods is the up and coming business model that shows the most promise. We will be careful to adapt as the space changes and we are definitely not putting our eggs all in one basket.

Justin: What percentage of your revenues are from virtual goods?

Andrew: Every app is different, and we break them down by heavy, medium, and light engagement. There is no virtual bullet. We’ve built a sustainable monetization model with the poker app around CPI because we can incentive it. My advice is to test everything because one app may work differently than another

Robert: We are testing more of a developer for developer model. We are more business to business in this regard with licensing etc.

Justin: How much are you guys investing in tweaking the different variables within your game economies?

Siqi: Virtual economies are a very complicated topic. We spend a lot of time looking at tax rates, velocity of money etc. The price of goods tends to never go down so what happens is that we have to regularly inflate our currency.

Andrew: Linden Labs is a great example as on on Second Life you see a positive correlation between how much users spend and engagement.

TJ: Its a very complicated topic. Even people in the traditional games world are trying to solve this problem. There is no overhead with selling virtual goods but I recommend you tread lightly.

Justin: A lot of Facebook app developers attempt to create virtual currency economies, but this is one area where the social networking community has a lot to learn from the gaming community.

TJ: there are a lot of big players out there that have a lot of money. The worry is that they will come in with multi million dollar budgets and try to put it on Facebok. We as developers and business people have found out through experience the things that have worked on Facebook. It will be interesting to see as we move forward what happens when the traditional games guys move into the social networks.

Siqi: Overall the body of knowledge that traditional game developers have far exceeds our own experience.

Andrew: I hope the traditional game developers enter the space as that will help drive growth, awareness and usage for social games which I think will translate to a larger mass market. This boils down to a traditional mass market opportunity for the traditional game industry.

Justin: How would you characterize the different social networks and distribution networks that you’ve built for individual developers?

TJ: Given the way Facebook has been changing things and the way we’ve seen Myspace restrict the viral channels it is a different environment for for new developers coming into the space. You can create a good game but success is not going to happen over night. Focus on gameplay and make games that are really fun and engaging. On the back end you are going to need some help to get the process jump started.

Andrew: It depends. For example, if you have a great idea for a profile to profile game: launch it on Myspace. Although Fb has restricted a lot of its viral channels there are ways to gain distribution and explore your content to the Facebook user base without having to pay for installs.

Q: Do you think that as the social gaming industry matures that derivative products will help engagement?

TJ: I think the social gaming market lends itself really well to that. Having a game context and a social context as well really enables the virtual goods stuff to really take off.

Ever wanted to have a vassal? Perhaps some squires to do your bidding? How about the ability to raid other people’s castles? With Knighthood, you can do all of these things, and more.

Knighthood is a strategy/social game with a medieval theme. Currently in beta, the game promises to be a deep and challenging experience for both casual and experienced gamers. The object of Knighthood is to expand your territory and your wealth. If you added the application due to a friend’s invite, you become their vassal (unless you become more powerful than them, in which case, you can rebel). You have a set amount of money, skills, and land. In order to gain more buildings for your land and expand your other abilities, you need to invite friends.

The initial approach to the game can be daunting, and that’s why there is a very in-depth wiki page detailing how to approach the first stages. The confusion over how to get started may turn off some of the more casual gamers. But once you get beyond this initial threshold, there lies a lot to do and a pretty rich environment.

You need to make your friends your vassals so you can use them to build your buildings and expand your power. Once established and having built a decent little kingdom, you can try your hand at warfare. But beware! You can end up losing your vassals to other barons and lords. There is a great deal of strategy to when it’s politically astute to swear allegiance to a bigger lord, when it’s a good time to rebel, and when you should employ your vassals to build that barracks.

This is the first game to have incorporated the resource management features of RTS games into a social/texting game, and for that the developers deserve credit. That said, a better interface that would allow you to see a visual representation of your kingdom, vassals, and their work would be appreciated. Waiting several hours until you can do battle properly will also deter many casual gamers.

The developers do a good job of creating a deep gaming experience and integrating it beautifully with the social networking capabilities of Facebook. The pieces are all in place and it is clear they’ve put a lot of time into this application.

If I had to knock the developers on something, I’d say the art is rather rudimentary and could be more uniform and professional. Combat could be rendered in Flash, and the interface could be sleeker. These are common problems to social games like Armies and Vampires, but Knighthood makes up for the name recognition of these larger games by depth of gameplay and strategy.

Simply, despite the popularity of these other games, this is a much richer experience. The real challenge for this game will be making the sell to casual gamers.

Gameplay: 8

Developers: 7

Depth: 10

This is a guest post by Bret Terrill.  See more at www.bretterrill.com.

Warren Buffett says that the economy in a recession. When it comes to the economy, I believe Warren Buffet. Recession is a scary word. But if you’re a social games company (or thinking about starting one), a recession may actually be a good thing.

Obviously macroeconomic factors affect tech startups, and the big and the wise are raising enough money to weather a 2-3 year drought. Most small startups are not in the position to raise 2-3 years of runway money. Instead, we have to tighten our belts or become profitable. Startups in most fields have a very low likelihood of becoming profitable, check out Jeremy Liew’s fantastic analysis on profitability in the consumer interest space.

However, profitability is not a problem in social games. Most, if not all of the top social games companies are already profitable (or would be if not for their rapid expansion plans). Many smaller, quieter players are also seeing excellent revenues, but you’ll have to take my word for it, since no one seems eager to advertise their success.

When it comes to a recession, the common wisdom is that home entertainment surges, because people feeling the pinch opt for staying home rather then the more expensive option of going out.  If that holds true during this recession, then online games are certain to benefit.  After all, no one is giving up their Internet connection.  And if you’re a free online game, then…well, I mean is there any better entertainment deal for a consumer then a free game?  

Of course, the problem as always with free services on the internet, is that we rely on advertisers for our revenue stream. Fortunately, the digital goods model removes that dependency, making it even more attractive in the face of an advertising downturn. It’s still an open question whether people will buy virtual goods with a thinner wallet.

This is an aside, but I’d suggest that virtual goods can offer an excellent substitute for purchasing more expensive real goods. The desire to shop does not go away just because a consumer has less money. That desire to buy real items, such as clothes, shoes, and accessories is easily transferred to vanity virtual goods. Goods that come at a fraction of the cost of a real item, and therefore attractive even when you have a thinner wallet.

However, some people believe that that online advertising will actually increase during the downturn, as ad agencies turn their budgets toward the measurable world of online v.s that vast unmeasurable wasteland that is TV and print.   If you look at data aggregated by Pubmatic, smaller publishers (around the scale of most social games companies) have seen rising ad rates, even as the rates of larger publishers have fallen.

So to summarize:

Free online games using a virtual goods model with an advertising kicker are one of the safest bets you can make in a recession.  So come join the party.

And if you need further convincing, the biggest games company in the world, EA, started in a recession.

Viral sports games are hard to come by, and Hot Shots Basketball by Unit 501 makes a valiant effort.

The game looks simple, you control a Flash-animated hoopster who must shoot as many baskets as possible before time runs out. It actually isn’t so simple, however. The hoop keeps moving back and forth and there is considerable lag between when you throw the ball and when it arcs to its target. You have to lead your shots a bit. To make matters worse, every round the hoop moves faster, increasing the difficulty.

In the first round, your character looks like he got out of shop class with his welding goggles and work pants. During the second round, you play as Ron Howard’s character from Happy Days. Finally, you play as a Michael Jordan clone, if Michael Jordan ever wore Macho Man Randy Savage’s glasses.

There’s an annoying soundtrack that you can’t turn off that plays on loop, but the commentators and unseen audience reacting to how you play via shouts and boos is a nice thouch.

The development is still in its toddler phase, however. The global leaderboard and friend invites are in place, but you can’t challenge your friends yet or see their scores. The developers have a partnership with Crazy Taxi, so the two cross-promote each other. Both games are crude Flash games that hope to keep you clicking away because of their difficulty.

This one is plenty challenging and the best basketball-arcade game I’ve seen yet on Facebook. It’s not NBA Jam, but it’ll do for now.

Gameplay: 6

Developers: 3

Soundtrack: 1

I’m headed over to Washington, DC this week for Graphing Social Patterns East, which is stacking up to be one of the best GSP’s yet! Monday is the workshop today, with Tuesday focusing on business and marketing issues  and Wednesday focused on technical and developer questions.

I’ll be moderating the Social Games for Social Platforms: Unleashing Viral Fun panel on Wednesday afternoon, looking at the development and business of social games on social networking platforms. A fantastic panel is lined up, including:

• Siqi Chen, Co-Founder of Serious Business
• Andrew Trader, Co-Founder of Zynga
• TJ Murphy, Co-Foudner of SGN
• Robert Balahura, Founder of J2Play

Look forward to seeing you there!

This is one of those times, as a reviewer, where I wonder if the developer thought his/her Facebook application would be seriously reviewed as something worthy of critical analysis. While many social games have a long way to transcend their mere utility to become something like “art,” there are definitely some games out there that can be considered sublime. This application has some of those games within it, although the application’s name is anything but sublime.

Old School Retro Games, despite its overly casual title, is a solid little Facebook application. Essentially, it packages many old early 90s and late 80s arcade games like Contro, Mario, and Pac Man, into a single Facebook app. It gives some basic directions on how to play and has links to other applications, but that’s essentially it. I don’t even know if I can give the developers credit for converting most of these games to their current medium, as a number of programmers likely contributed to the sum total.

So this is a tough review – I want to applaud the meal that’s been presented for me but I have to question the means by which it has been prepared. That is to say, most of this is stuff taken out of the freezer and the developer is getting credit for creating it. Kung Fu, Bobble Bobble, Donkey Kong- all of the old classics are here. Any serious gamer would love this application and this is probably my favorite Facebook application, easily. That said, there may be some legal issues.

Without taking into account how the material got here, the gameplay is what you’d expect from such varied and classic titles. Some of the games take a while to load and some of the controls are sluggish, but that’s probably pretty true to the source. On the developer side, the presentation of the games menu could be better and they need to better take advantage of the social platform. Why not add a score feature, or a chat feature, or unlockable elements? Overall, while its content is excellent, Old School Retro Games’ presentation is lacking.

Gameplay: 9

Developers Score: 4

How much fun this really is: 11