Inside Social Games

Checking out a game in its beta phase can be dangerous, but given the iterative nature of social game design, I checked out the “newest games” tab in Facebook this week. As such, Divine Division is only a skeleton of a game for which a community and new features are planned. Whether these will actually happen, or you should be part of them, remains to be seen.

Divine Division puts you in the role of St. Peter, at the pearly gates of heaven. Your task is to sort the worthy from the wicked, the good from the evil. These are represented by little white and black souls that bounce all over the screen and you must separate by controlling the gate in the middle. As a game concept, it’s either really silly or cynical – I’m not sure which. Human souls are now bouncing around like pong pellets and the people determining our fate have a time limit and a really bland interface.

How’s the game play? You’ll get bored quickly, but that’s to be expected with a game still in the early stages. Tabs labeled “Friends top scores,” “wall of fame,” “my tournaments,” and “collection” are all pretty standard social networking elements. In order to unlock the collection element of the app, you must invite more friends. It has the pieces in place to be a social game.

The one thing the developers do well here is sell advertisements. Powered by MochiAds, an ad greets you as you start the game, shortly followed by a “yougame.com” ad from the developers, and if you beat a level, another ad between stages. In many of the tabs, the actual function of the tab is featured below an ad for other applications apparently also developed by the creators. This is not the next Peggle or Snood, but a cheap flash game that advertisers got roped into and if you’re not careful, you will too.

Gameplay: 1

Developers: 6

How big a trap: 7