Inside Social Games

Social developer Challenge Games is known for producing relatively deep yet uncomplicated games. Ranging from medieval politics sto satirical corporations, it has been able to make something interesting out of genres one might otherwise see as oversaturated. The same is true for an older Facebook game of the company’s, GridIron Live. This football game is one not akin to sports titles like Madden Football, but instead puts the player on the sidelines as the head coach.

As more big gaming companies look to make existing titles social, here’s our review of what this game does well — and not so well — in trying to pair social gaming with a more traditional genre.

Players start out by creating their own unique team, its home town, logo, and colors. Immediately after, the user is able to jump in and start playing a game against the computer (with the option to play live opponents afterwards). Surprisingly, the game turned out easy to pick up on. Once it’s time for kickoff, players will be presented with a screen displaying the current formations their team can make and the subsequent plays that may follow. After selecting a play, its just a matter of observation, as your team executes the play until the down is complete. This process repeats itself until the game is finished.

Thankfully, if you do have to go, or get bored, you can always automatically simulate the remainder of the game. Moreover, the success of your team is directly dependant on the strategies being used (though this is lost if you simulate the whole game) as well as the skills of the virtual athletes involved.

To be clear, the game does not always take place on the field. Once out of the stadium, users can view stats, complete challenges (specific games), or visit the marketplace. Using the tokens they earn with each game, players can then purchase new plays, more energy, or new players. Of course, if they don’t have enough tokens, they can always opt to buy more using real cash.

Suffice to say, GridIron Live is a most interesting premise, but has not exactly been growing very quickly over the past 30 days. Currently, it is reported at having, just shy, of 150,000 monthly active users. There are a number of reasons that could attribute to the slow growth, but there three in particular that come to mind.

The fact that the game is 3D within Flash is a good idea, but the visuals are reminiscent of the original PlayStation. Quite frankly, it doesn’t look too good. Another notable issue is that the difference between plays didn’t feel very noticeable. Perhaps it was just a lack of playbook knowledge, but often times random selection of plays would work just as well as intelligible choices. It felt like the players’ individual skill sets played more of a role than anything else.

Another reason that the growth could be low ties in slightly with the visuals as well as the app’s concept as well. GridIron Live looks and feels like a real game. A PlayStation game, yes, but a game all the same, which is often intimidating to a large portion of social players because they do not see themselves as “gamers.” By that same token, what portion of social players are avid football fans? Traditionally, there have not been very many social football games that have done very well in the past, or at least no where near the degree of the Top 25 Facebook Games. Honestly, that leads to a conclusion that users that would play such a game are either (a) an extreme minority or (b) just not interested.