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 IPHONE FEATURE
iPhone social games: everything you need to know
And why you should be playing them now
Ever heard of social games? You might not know the term, but there's a good chance you've played them. Social games is how the industry describes the games people play on Facebook and other social networks.

Famous examples are Scrabulous, Pet Society, Mob Wars, (fluff)Friends, Texas HoldEm Poker, Who Has the Biggest Brain and Friends for Sale, but there are many more. During 2008, the best social games became hugely popular.

The key thing to understand about them is that the actual game is only half the story. The social part is equally important: you play these games against your real-life friends, and in fact the games mainly exist to stimulate the social interaction around them - chatting, challenging and bragging.

As a result, many people in the games industry took a while to get the appeal of social games - especially when they didn't really look like traditional 'games' at all. It's true that many of these games seem to have low production values, but it's become clear that graphics have very little to do with what makes these games addictive.

And now they're coming to iPhone and iPod touch.

Social explosion

Amid all the talk about Apple's devices taking on DS and PSP with accelerometer-powered 3D console-quality games, it's actually just as interesting that the big social games firms like SGN and Zynga are training their sights on iPhone too.

SGN announced today that its stable of iPhone games is close to racking up eight million downloads, with one - iBowl - notching up four million alone. The company just added an online multiplayer mode to that title, and has also launched an iPhone version of (fluff)Friends called i(fluff).

Meanwhile, Zynga has been focusing on the iPhone version of its Live Poker game, which is available in several different editions on the App Store, both free and premium. The company said this week that it thinks iPhone could be the biggest social gaming platform of all, ultimately.

Live Poker is interesting because it's the first iPhone game to use the Facebook Connect technology, allowing players to sign in with their Facebook logins and see which of their friends are playing. More games will use this - and the equivalent tech for MySpace - in 2009.

Pay to play

Social games are also fascinating because they're going to stretch the pricing model of iPhone games in a way that traditional games publishers haven't (so far) been able to.

By default, these games tend to be free: you can play all of SGN and Zynga's games for nothing on your iPhone. However, these companies are already exploring the idea of charging more for premium versions that give you a head-start in the games.

For example, pay £1.19 for Live Poker Deluxe, and you get double the poker chips a day to play with - 2,000. Pay £5.99 for Live Poker 40K, and you start with 40,000 chips. There's also an £11.99 version (start with 100,000 chips) and even a £29.99 version (400,000 chips) for high-rollers.

iMob Online, which we reported on earlier today, is another social iPhone game trying this model. Heavily inspired by Facebook's Mob Wars, it's a criminal strategy game that's free to play, or available in £0.59, £2.99, £5.99 or £11.99 versions if you want to start with a certain number of 'respect points' for your character.

Leading the way

These are early days for social gaming on the iPhone, and to an extent these companies are feeling their way to see what works and doesn't work on the platform.

Meanwhile, we're still waiting to see if Playfish - the third member of the 'big three' of social gaming alongside Zynga and SGN - brings any of its games to iPhone this year, as it hinted last time we talked to them.

Even so, the social iPhone games that have been released are providing valuable lessons for publishers focused on more traditional kinds of games, which could be ripe for a few social aspects.

Wouldn't it be great if Facebook Connect was incorporated into SimCity, Rolando or Asphalt 4: Elite Racing, so you could see which of your friends were playing and compare scores, for example?

By all means, get excited about the graphical and control capabilities of iPhone in 2009, but it's also worth keeping a close eye on social games - not least because many of them will be free to try out.
Reviewer photo
Stuart Dredge 15/1/2009
Have your say!  
Joined:
Jan 2009
Post count:
2
tadhgk | 19 January 2009
"Social games is how the industry describes the games people play on Facebook and other social networks."

Mmm, sort of. At Simple Lifeforms, our new social game company that launched a few months ago, we maintain that just making a game and placing it on a social network does not really qualify as a 'social game' as such.

Social games are a type of game, not a distribution venue. They're driven by social gameplay and social interaction. A lot of the games that you see on iPhone or Facebook at the moment are great games but they are actually just regular casual games that are simply appearing in these venues. It's important to make the distinction.

Anyway, I have recently written an article that discusses what social games really are all about, and you can fine it here:

http://www.simplelifeforms.com/2009/01/15/what-is-a-social-game/

It's the first in a series that really explores the area. I hope you'll find it valuable. Take care,

Tadhg Kelly,
CCO Simple Lifeforms.
Joined:
May 2007
Post count:
387
MattyLion | 19 January 2009
Hmmm not sure I agree with the above, 'multiplayer' is a 'type' of game, 'social gaming' is almost an amalgamation of content and distribution. If I play a multiplayer game on my PS3 and don't interact with other competitors I'm simply engaging in multiplayer, if I play with a group of friends (virtual or real-world) then I am engaging in social gaming.
Facebook/Myspace etc provide by far the best distribution platforms for social gaming as they already have huge subscriber numbers.
While I agree not every game on facebook is an example of social gaming I think that any game with high-score functionality amongst friends can be labelled this way.
Of course there are no rights or wrongs and I'm guessing 'social gaming' as a concept will crop up at MGF this week!
Maybe we'll have some more industry agreeable answers by Friday!
Joined:
Jan 2009
Post count:
2
tadhgk | 19 January 2009
An example: If you're playing Left 4 Dead on Xbox Live with some gamers around the world and chatting with them, it is a social game? What if you're playing with your friends on Live, same scenario? Is it social now?

The platform that you're playing on is just where the game happens. Facebook in that sense is just another 'where'. But a game of Scrabulous is still just a game of Scrabble no matter where you're playing.

There are some games that are social games, without doubt, and I'll be going into them in further articles. But that's different from 'happens to be on Facebook'

Tadhg
PS: The link above may be broken. If so, try this link instead:
http://www.simplelifeforms.com/2009/01/19/what-is-a-social-game/
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