Comments on: Social Games Plant the Seeds for Growing Online Communities

By: Barnaleikir

Barnaleikir — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:28:45 +0000

hey u really changed my mind :) im gonna save this and i like this one, thanks so much,,,

By: Christer

Christer — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:00:29 +0000

Hey There! I really liked the farmville article :) thanks for sharing it, and hope you continue to do so ! Here is my Farmville secrets article.

By: This Week’s Headlines on Inside Social Games

This Week’s Headlines on Inside Social Games — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:00:38 +0000

[...] Social Games Plant the Seeds for Growing Online Communities [...]

By: Chris Morrison

Chris Morrison — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:48:03 +0000

David: I did notice the various ebooks, but wanted to concentrate on the blog trend. The ebook sites, as you point out, tend to be one-shot sales pitches that are fairly static.

Raph: You’re right! I’d edited out a couple sentences where I talked about the success of some big gaming sites, like IGN, with covering the MMORPGs. The point of the Curse anecdote was that some sites have been surprised by their sudden success.

As Hai Wen points out, there’s a bit of apples and oranges to the comparison of social games to MMORPGs, but it’s the only one I have to make. I think it’s somewhat valid at the moment as Facebook games continue to gain traction. In the future, we’ll see; a few social games will probably take on some of the complexities of MMORPGs, in both gameplay and social interaction. That would naturally tend to foster large communities.

By: Hoi Wan

Hoi Wan — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:24:06 +0000

Are we comparing Apples to Oranges when comparing immersive MMORPGs vs Casual Social Games? Are social games supposed to be pick up and play with simple mechanics, whereas MMORPGs are generally immersive and require a focused length of attention to gain reward (whther that be entertainment or ‘virtual currency’.
Secondly, the location of play will vary; playing a social game on facebook,myspace during your lunch break whilst in the office is much more viable than playing WoW in the office.
Due to the complexities of relationships built within MMORPG’s (grouping, completing group quests, story lines, quests), it makes the creation of blogs, discussion groups, clans a much more compelling proposition.

By: Raph

Raph — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:44:46 +0000

Yes, it WAS assumed that huge fan communities would spin out from WoW, because they had from all preceding MMORPGs. WoW’s are simply proportional to its size.

By: FarmVille Freak gets love on InsideSocialGames.com! | FarmVille Freak - #1 Official Fan Page

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:23:28 +0000

[...] “Social Games Plant the Seeds for Growing Online Communities” by Chris Morrison [...]

By: John Mazo

John Mazo — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:09:50 +0000

First at all, you are totally right, Compete isn`t always accurate, I can tell that for sure.

Second, it is in deep a complex matter, it is not the same thing to compare a WOW fan more willing the search the web in order to find information about the game, since this game has demanded a lot of investement (time and money) with a casual social gamer, whose only purpose is to hang out for while. But that`s the nature of Web 2.0 and Internet social dynamics.

As Google says: “If you build it, they will come”

By: David Barnes

David Barnes — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:08:24 +0000

This is an interesting trend, but compared to direct-sales ebook sites, these blogs get small fry traffic.

According to Compete, http://www.farmvillesecrets.com got 800,000 Unique Visitors in January. The site is one long page that tries to convince readers to buy a $27 ebook of Farmville strategies.

I doubt its conversion rate is very high — but it doesn’t need to be if it gets this many visitors per month. Even at a 0.01% conversion rate the creator would still be grossing a couple of thousand bucks per month.

Bear in mind that the page never changes, so this isn’t even loyal repeat traffic.