Inside Social Games

Social network Bebo has launched a new gaming section of the site yesterday, called the Social Games Experience. It includes both in depth developer tools and games developed by existing social gaming companies including Playfish (Pet Society) and MindJolt (MindJolt Games). The announcement punctuates the end of a 19 day long beta period that Bebo claims helped spur 45% growth in canvas page views and 54% increase in game installs since its start on October 15th.

Beyond the currently existing games, however, the announcement also includes the launch of the new games platform’s main page, called Games Homepage. The page includes games, high scores, recommendations, and a display of the “Most Addictive Games on Bebo.”

Though it may seem commonplace from a Facebook perspective, each feature is a key part of what makes up of social gaming. The first is challenges, allowing users to issue game challenges via Bebo Messenger from within the game itself, or through the home page. Regardless of method, those challenged will receive an instant message directing them to the game should they be online, or discover a challenge announcement within the Challenge and Standing module the next time they log on.

As one may have guessed, the second pillar is leaderboards (which display either your top ranked friends or all Bebo users), creating an overall competitive feel and purpose to playing. This is followed by the simple ability to see just who is online, active, or idle (a feature powered by AOL Instant Messenger) coupled with game updates that show just who is adding and playing what games, as well as when they receive, what is called, Bebo Luv.

The profile module for a game can also be added directly to a user profile. In turn, this creates a feed that will also add greater social depth by allowing them to show off scores and achievements. As with Facebook feeds, this feature also includes inline commenting, as well as direct challenges, and a nifty little one called “talk smack.”

All other benefits associated with Bebo’s new Social Games Experience are listed below:

• Visibility in the Games Module on the User Profile Page
• Access to post to the Games feed on the Games Homepage
• Access to post to the global leaderboard on the Games Homepage
• Ability to send real-time challenges to users via Bebo Messenger
• Ability to send user-initiated challenge requests to online users via Bebo IM
• Set/get scores & ranks from Bebo’s global leaderboard, visible on the games homepage
• Get scores/ranks of similar users to help in challenge pairing and to render within applications
• Send user-initiated smack talk
• Show a users online presence in the Multi-friend selector & Multi-challenge selector
• See updated libraries for Java and PHP
• The ability to benefit from the popular Bebo ‘luv’ as means of reward