Shouldn't games be games first and social second? Multiplayer merges gaming/social already. Or is that too much orientated towards actual fun?
I'm wondering just how bad games will get when the focus is social first and gameplay second. Usually the actual fun element starts to fade and they just become clicky/time grinders.
I've seen plenty of games on facebook and their core mechanic seems to be: spread amongst all your friends, punish single players, microtransact as much as possible, collect as much personal data as possible, apply psychological manipulations, profit!
One of my earlier hobbies was automating various facebook games. This meta-gaming was definitely more fun than the actual games themselves. A few of us even set up competitions on the least amount of actual game time spent.
I'm wondering just how bad games will get when the focus is social first and gameplay second. Usually the actual fun element starts to fade and they just become clicky/time grinders.
I've seen plenty of games on facebook and their core mechanic seems to be: spread amongst all your friends, punish single players, microtransact as much as possible, collect as much personal data as possible, apply psychological manipulations, profit!
One of my earlier hobbies was automating various facebook games. This meta-gaming was definitely more fun than the actual games themselves. A few of us even set up competitions on the least amount of actual game time spent.