Inside Social Games

It is a new year, and that means that everyone has a fresh start for 2009. So what do the charts look like for MySpace? Well, we’ve had our look and here are the numbers for the start of 2009!

As you can see, MySpace games continued to grow at a good pace in December, though there weren’t many changes in the overall rankings. The highest change in users out of all of the titles this month was just slightly over 300,000 (though that number can be dwarfed by the millions of users that can change in Facebook).

• No major surprise, but Mobsters and Mafia Wars continue to remain in the Top 2 positions respectively with well over 10 million users each. However, it is still Mobster’s that dominates all competition with over 2 million players more than the #2 position.
• Zynga still remains the primary developer within these charts claiming a third of the games within the Top 25. Gang Wars and Dragon Wars swapped places in popularity (at #10 and #11) with Gang Wars emerging on top.  YoVille in the meantime moved up from #17 to #16 with a gain of 206,113 users.
• Fashion Wars went up from the #20 position to the #18 spot, and Special Forces dropped a level, falling to #19.
• Also, a game that breached the Top 25 last month, My Green Garden, continues to hold on to its inclusion into the charts, by actually moving up to #24 with a gain of 117,191 players.

Overall, the Mobsters games continue to do very well on MySpace, with penetration even reaching into older demographics we hear. We’ll keep tracking the latest here on ISG.

“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”

- Goodfellas, 1990

Oh, such a great movie, and if you haven’t seen it, shame on you. There’s an attraction to being the bad guy; there always has been. Movies and games are a means to escape the every day, and being able to identify with the opposite side of the tracks is what makes media such as Goodfellas, The Godfather, Grand Theft Auto, and Saint’s Row so popular. However, none of these have ever had much of a social element to them (save for maybe the latest renditions of GTA and Saint’s Row). Social “bad guy” games are currently reserved for social networks, and with over a million monthly users, Mob Wars is a title in which you can not only rise through the ranks of the mob, but do so with plenty of friends.

The question is: How do you get up there? How do you make all that money? Well, while it may all be water under the bridge for the more veteran players, but there are some pretty good tips for players from levels 1-20 and how to get started. Alarmingly, these game tips are rather close to reality, so even if you don’t play the game, you might find some other uses.

Rule #1 of successful mobbing: Invest early and often as this will be your primary bankroll. That said, managing your finances early on is critical. While it may seem obvious you have to be very careful with what you purchase and should never buy more than what you absolutely need. Try not to be too frivolous and resist the urge to buy some of the really cool toys. You won’t need it for a long time (i.e. an armored Humvee). These items may be good, but they’re also expensive to upkeep and you can’t afford that risk yet. By the same token, however, you do want to spend a little extra on all real estate.

Never, ever buy it one item at a time. The game implements an increasing cost mechanic every time you make a purchase, so you want to buy real estate in sets of 10 so they cost less in the long run. Buying in bulk is almost always cheaper regardless of where you are in life. However, if you cannot afford a full set of 10, just be patient until you can. By no means should you sell smaller real estate in order to buy bigger ones as you will, once again, loose money. Cubicle Denizen has a pretty good spreadsheet that can help you find the best investments with the highest return if you want more details.

Okay, so now you know how to make the wisest investments, but how do you get that extra money? Well, for starters, you can hunt for what are called “pigeons” or players that don’t bank their money. Obviously, the game isn’t meant to be played constantly, so at one point or another everyone is a pigeon at some point, the trick is to find them. It may seem cruel to clean them out, but that’s one of the ways the game is played, and it’s a quick way to earn a ton of cash. However, take precautions against being one yourself. You have to boost your defensive stats early and often so you won’t have to worry about banking quite as much. If they are high enough, while you may still get beaten and killed, you won’t have to concern yourself with losing too much (if any) of your hard “earned” cash.

So what stops them from doing the same thing to you? Nothing, but that’s not the only way to get significant cash. Now it comes down to play style. There are two methods to utilize here, one is to make more friends and build your mob, but the other is to fight, fight, fight, which sounds a lot more fun. Fighting is one of the faster ways to get money, and due to the high rate of regeneration, you probably won’t need to add more than three stamina until later levels.

However, you still have to pick your targets wisely. Here’s a compound trick in finding a good target: First, look for anyone that has a casino on their property as that means they’ve got plenty of income to “share” with you. Next, find one that has lost a lot. Sound unlikely? Not really. Such a target is most likely a “clone account” on Facebook, which means they will most likely not defend their boss, and in turn, earns you around $70,000 each attack. At this point, save the link and repeat attacks until they go to the hospital (of course, make sure your weapons are enough to win first).

That leads to one final tip: If you ever find yourself in the hospital, take advantage of it. You know how when you play Monopoly and everyone has hotels up? Where is the best place to be? That’s right, jail. You run no risk of losing money while in there. The same goes for the hospital. You can still do business there, and at worst, get punched in the face, but you can’t be attacked, so keep that in mind.

So there you have it. While it may not help the most advanced players, this should be enough to get you a decent start. Invest wisely, spend wisely, search for pigeons and clones, and always take advantage of the hospital. While it may not make you The Godfather, it can put you that much closer. There are also some very interesting discussions, such as this one, on the web regarding strategy and further tips for improving your mob. Good luck, and happy mobbing.

The MySpace social gaming world was a little more stable this month than with its Facebook counterpart. While none of the applications saw a decline in users, none of them broke the 1 million mark in new users like many of their Facebook brethren. Moreover, MySpace has displayed a rather different trend in the genre of games making the Top 25 - as most of them are RPGs with about a third of them belonging to Zynga.

• The top three games this month have held on pretty solidly, consisting of Mobsters, Mafia Wars, and Own Your Friends, with the #1, #2, and #3 positions. Surprisingly, the unknown developer of Mobsters, known simply as “The Godfather,” still continues to lead the competition with its Mob Wars-like title. This merely goes to show that you don’t have to be Zynga, Playfish, or SGN to make a hit game - but from what we hear, “The Godfather” is focused on what they’re doing and hiring out a team.
• Despite the fact that there are significantly more unknown developers for MySpace games than on Facebook, Zynga’s RPGs still continue to envelop the Top 25 with about eight (10 if you count the ones labeled “By Christina”) titles. Furthermore, each of these titles has grown and risen in the ranks over time - such as Street Racing that was once #17 back in September, yet is now #8 two months later with nearly 2.5 million players.
• The classic Werewolves and Zombies from Blake Commagere are no longer to be found as they continue to lose ranking, only to be replaced by some newer titles such as Prison Lockdown, Dog World, and My Green Garden.
• Also, Special Forces and Fashion Wars continue to do well since their appearance last month on the charts, and sit pretty at #18 and #20 positions respectively.

Overall, the major titles have stuck around in the Top 25 for a while and while their ranking tends to fluctuate, it is never anything too unexpected. This applies particularly to anything by Zynga, which has had several titles steadily in the top 25 for months now.

On the other hand, the lower ranks continue to shift to some degree as new apps by unknown developers surface each month. While none of these new apps have breached the Top 10 and usurped the reigning kings, the opportunity still awaits!

So you want a bigger brain, do you? With people scoring well over 5,000 or even 7,000, one has to wonder how they do it. How did they get so good? How can you get better?

As most of you know, the game is made up of various mini-games that are meant to test different aspects of your brain, and the scores from each make up your “brain size.” As such, in order to get better, you have to practice all these different games, but if you play the classic version, you get them at random, which leads to a very basic tip.

Most of the top scorers have the Pro version of Who Has The Biggest Brain?, which allows them to select the mini-games they are best at, thus automatically improving their score. Of course, it’s not quite that simple. There are, in fact specific tricks you can employ for each mini-game.

The first category is for analytical ability. One of the possible mini-games you might come across here is “scales.” In this game you have to identify which object is the heaviest in a group. It starts simple enough with only one scale, but that number begins to grow as the rounds pass. However, there are some basic rules you can follow to speed up you analysis. Spend little time in the first rounds, if the object is on the bottom of the scale or at equilibrium with multiple objects, it is heavier. That alone will get you to the later rounds in 10 or so seconds.

Once you get multiple scales, though, you have to look at the image as a whole and not each individual one. Scan over the objects on the screen using your peripheral vision and if you see two of the same one at the top, they are not the heaviest, but if you see two or more on the bottom, then they most certainly are. This should get you at least 600′ish points if you practice, but if you’re looking for 1000+, you’ll have to get faster at the end rounds, in which case you can follow one rule: While not 100% accurate, the heaviest item will either be the most common item on the bottom scales or the least common, with only one or two objects on the bottom.

After you’ve gotten past the analytical game, it’s time to calculate (ugh… math…). Sorry folks, but there aren’t many “rules” here that can help you get around math. However, there are a few tricks beyond simply memorizing your multiplication tables all over again. So one of the games is “missing number” in which you do basic math: First and foremost, use the number pad, don’t use the mouse. Not only is it faster, but there’s a neat little trick for the game.

You see, if you have the right answer, it will check off instantly, but if it is wrong, you have a second or so to fix it. If you use the number pad, you can type in a number, and if the check mark doesn’t appear, you can press “delete” to change the number until you get it right. For example, if you have “12×7=” (which is 84), you can type the ‘8′ then 1, hit delete, 2, hit delete, etc. until it checks as correct. If you are quick enough you won’t get it wrong. Nevertheless, spending too much time on this trick eats up precious seconds that you will need for your score. Also, most of the answers are fairly similar, but presented in different ways (i.e. 3×5 is the same as (2+1)x5) so once you recognize those patterns, you will get even faster.

Next up is memory, and this one can be tough. One game that you might come up against is “shape order” which consists of being shown an order of shapes, and then having to emulate said order from memory. Basic memory techniques are what most use here. Consider when you would study for tests in high school (assuming you did). Was it not easier to remember things you said aloud? The same concept applies to this game.

Your brain processes audio data far faster and efficiently than the visual counterpart, and this habit alone will do wonders for your score. Also consider short one-syllable words, or familiar phrases common to you. The average human brain cannot hold many things within its short term memory for long, but by shortening the words or relating them to something familiar, the chances of retention are exponentially greater. As for the later levels, you will need to do the same thing, but apply the idea to sets of two or three. Once you get used to it, you will find it is much faster to remember three sets of two than it is recalling six individual images.

Now that you’ve made it this far, its time for some fun visual processing. “Asteroids” is one of the cooler mini-games in this section, where the game play is simply removing asteroids from play based on the numbers or letters printed on them. The object is to remove them from the least value to the greatest value. It’s pretty simple to do this one: All you need to do is create groups in your mind.

For numbers, group negatives and group positives. For letters, break the alphabet into sections (i.e. A - L). This creates a hierarchy in your brain and gives your thoughts a clear path to follow automatically rather than you having to think about it. Remove the asteroids that fall into the lesser sections, then move to the next section. Also, a number of players on this Facebook discussion thread found it useful to zoom out while in this game, making it easier to see everything on the screen and allowing for less mouse movement and greater accuracy.

That should give you at least a little bit of ammunition for you next crack at Who Has The Biggest Brain? There are a total of 12 different mini-games, so there are a lot more tricks to be learned. Nevertheless, these tips won’t get you that high score right away. Those people that have the 7000cm brains have put in a lot of time and practice, but most of them have probably used methods like these to get better. Of course, is you want to learn a little more, you can always check out the WHTBB Discussion Board or this handy site and mingle amongst your fellow brains. Good luck.

The space of social gaming is constantly changing and evolving. New games come, old games go, and a few remain at the top. However, as social games reach new players on new platforms, the numbers for these games changes rather frequently.

Below are the Top 10 MySpace games by players gained over the last month for November 2, 2008.

10. YoVille - Gained 415,271 Players
This Sims style game made quite a leap this month. The game puts you in a virtual town called YoVille in which the player uses their custom made avatar to interact, live, and play with different players from all over the country.

Like in The Sims, players can collect and earn various items to decorate their house, their avatar, and overall digitally represent who they really are. With such a wide variety of things to do, and game play that is saturated with social interactivity, it is no surprise that the player base is still growing.

9. Special Forces - Gained 424,694 Players
Previously not even in the Top 25, Special Forces came by surprise. This Zynga app may be your typical social network RPG, but the premise definitely has players interested. In this game, players get to “sneak” around fighting other spy operations around the world by completing missions given to them, thus giving this genre a flavor of modern espionage warfare.

8. SuperPoke Pets - Gained 550,693 Players
Never underestimate the power of “cuteness.” SuperPoke Pets takes the prospect of caring for pets and raising them to a whole new level. By creating characters this cute, the developers definitely focused on those protective instincts everyone has deep down inside them.

These virtual pets are truly your own, as you care for them and watch them grow. Of course, no matter how big they get, they still remain just as cute, and apparently this cuteness earns SuperPoke Pets the spot at #8.

7. Vampires - Gained 557,036 Players
The dark side is gaining strength as well over 500,000 players drank the blood of their enemies this month. Yet another RPG style game set in another premise. The difference with this game of the night, is that it really encourages the formation of vampire clans, and rather than giving players items to buy, they let them earn supernatural abilities to hunt down their pray, thus deepening the suspension of disbelief (or at least as much as can be done in this style game).

Granted, if you break it down, the game is still the same as other RPGs. Blood is just money, and fangs are just guns, but 557, 036 new people seem to prefer it and have joined the ranks of those who go bump in the night.

6. Super Pets - Gained 737,558 Players
Yet another example of the power of “cute.” Like SuperPoke Pets, players can adopt themselves a pet to watch it grow. Okay, so their not quite as cute (for the record, the jury is still out on this one) as SuperPoke, but with so many various accessories in which to spoil your pet rotten with, and (dare it be said) make it cuter…. Well, as you can see it’s working.

5. Gang Wars - Gained 785,703 Players
This month’s #16 game has certainly gained some recognition with the fifth largest gain in popularity. Another RPG by Zynga; only now you find yourself fighting on the streets in, well, gang wars. Like the others, this title lets you form up a gang with your friends and take the streets by storm. Loot, pillage, and fight in this modern style RPG.

4. Street Racing - Gained 1,061,218 Players
It was a huge surprise to see Street Racing hit the #4 spot with over a million new players added this month. It’s another Zynga RPG, but it is amazing how it could gain so many new people. The game definitely appeals to the male audience with the beautiful and fast cars, but that’s not the only possible reason for improvement.

There’s also a lot more to this game than some of the previous titles. Unlike the others that were generally limited to buying new stuff, doing missions, forming groups, and battle, this game actually includes all of this plus other features such as bounty hunting, direct challenges, a banking system, and even more ways to determine winning a race (not just the car, but you have to improve driving skills as well).

3. Mafia Wars - Gained 1,163,160 Players
People do like to be bad. Mafia Wars is very similar to Gang Wars in most respects, so it is difficult to really derive major reasons for greater growth. What it really probably comes down to is that this game has been in the top two on MySpace for a while now, while Gang Wars has been more “under the radar.” The increased “visibility,” as it were, is most likely the major cause of its increased growth.

2. Mobsters - Gained 1,311,083 Players
The #1 game on MySpace this month, comes in at #2 for the largest player gain. Again, this game most likely beats out the similar titles do to its all ready existing popularity as the game play is very similar. Of course, with phenomenal movies such as The Godfather and Goodfellas, people do tend to see the “Mob” as more sophisticated than your every day crime. This perception is probably a big factor in the immersive appeal of this game.

1. Texas HoldEm Poker - Gained 1,875,619 Players
With a staggering 1, 875, 619 new players, Texas HoldEm takes this simple game to new heights. Okay, so they don’t have fancy graphics, tons of rules, or anything really different from the actual game of poker. But maybe that’s the catch? Poker is about playing the game with other people, and as one of the few games that lets people play simultaneously in real-time, that is easily the biggest contributor to why this game is so popular.

In tandem with the release earlier today of the Top 25 Facebook Games, we have just run the numbers and compiled the MySpace platform gaming charts for September 24, 2008.

Leading the charts are Mobsters (by an unknown developer) and Mafia Wars (by Zynga), light social RPGs that are relatively similar to Mob Wars, one of the leading games on Facebook. Also on top with over 8 million users is Own Your Friends (also by an unknown developer named “Peter”) which follows similar game dynamics as Serious Business’s Friends For Sale and Coolapps.com’s Owned! on Facebook.

What’s notable about the MySpace Top 25 Games chart is the developers you’ll find sitting atop the MySpace social gaming world. While many of the apps are produced by independent (or stealth) developers, large social game developer Zynga is dominating the charts with 7 of the top 25 games on MySpace - many of which (like Texas HoldEm and Street Racing) have similar counterparts on Facebook, but some of which (like Dragon Wars) were originally released on MySpace.

Leading social network application developer RockYou also has a strong presence with 2 titles in the top 12, and original viral game developer Blake Commagere is still sitting pretty with Vampires, Zombies, and Werewolves all hanging in the top 25. Large Facebook social game developers Playfish and SGN do not have any titles in the top of the MySpace gaming charts.

An important difference in the MySpace Top 25 is that MySpace only publishes total user counts - NOT active users. So while many of these games may have achieved significant distribution, there’s no guarantee that users are actually engaged. It’s impossible to know exactly which games are indeed keeping the most players engaged.

(If any readers know the identity of any of the unknown developers above, please let others know in the comments!)