The Future of Social Games

If you frequent social networks like Facebook, you’ve probably had at least one friend or relative recently pester you to visit them. Not in their hometown, mind, but in the virtual city they’ve put together in video games like CityVille, Zynga’s latest “Ville”-type social gaming title that aims to gobble up players’ time–and (Zynga hopes) money. The premise is familiar, in more ways than one: Build a city, try not to cheese off too many citizens when you cut funding for transit, invite friends to tour your streets and help you build.

CityVille enjoyed a strong start with 290,000 players giving the game a try in its first 24 hours. Approximately 25% of those newborn mayors stuck around and played for 15 minutes or more. Zynga is already hailing CityVille as its strongest game launch.

The launch and quick success of CityVille quietly underlines a point that few console gamers want to be reminded of: Facebook games, and other social games, still have a market. And that market is alive and well. The fad won’t die tomorrow, as some of the more pessimistic among us predict.

However, it’s worth wondering where social games will end up a year or two from now. Most of them seem to follow a basic formula: CityVille features more gameplay options than FrontierVille, which has more to do in it than FarmVille. This is obviously a smart game design choice, as casual gamers are less fussy about innovation and actually prefer a sense of familiarity. The question is, how many times will social gamers uproot themselves for a new Zynga property? No players means no advertising dollars.

Zynga already knows its players might be a bit hesitant to leave the farm, which is why the company took special care in cross-promoting its properties by encouraging CityVille players to convert their friends. But as the Inside Social Games blog points out, few social game companies have Zynga’s cross-promotional abilities. There’s a towering stack of social game developers out there already, and each one is going to have to work that much harder to get noticed, or else we might end up with All Zynga All the Time.

There’s also the question of what the relationship between Zynga, Facebook, and social gaming in general will be five years down the road. Will Facebook still be the king of social networking? Or will something shiner usurp it? There’s a lot of concern over Facebook and privacy, an issue that might simply bypass people who click around Restaurant City when the boss isn’t looking–but even major news outlets have picked up on the story, which is troubling enough to make even casual users lift up their heads during the five o’clock news. Zynga can obviously set up shop outside of Facebook–and would simultaneously free itself from squabbles with Facebook over microtransactions–but would less dedicated players take the time to adjust to a new environment and a new URL, or would they just be content to let the farm slide into ruin?

Social games have rooted themselves pretty firmly into the gaming landscape, and they’ll probably stay a while. What remains to be seen is if Zynga will continue to command a strong following for all its releases.

About Nadia Oxford
Nadia is a freelance writer living in Toronto. She played her first game at four, decided games were awesome, and has maintained her position since. She writes for 1UP.com, Slide to Play, GamePro and other publications, and is About.com’s Guide to the Nintendo DS.

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