Rewards Push Online Games in Social Networks
© sabrina.dent
National Public Radio had an interesting story this week about the direction of online games.
Hot flash number one… Gaming is still growing – all platforms, all genres. Americans spent $20 billion on video game equipment last year. That's twice what they spent five years ago. And that's in a market where many of the most popular games today (Farmville, Second Life, etc.) don't require the purchase of any equipment.
Hot flash number two… There's a new demographic: middle aged women. They are the biggest demographic playing Facebook's online games – Farmville, Mafia Wars, Willy's Sweet Shop, Bejewelled, an so on.
Hot flash number three… Rewards: Advertising behavior is becoming a key to playing time. Most games start out free to play. But you can play only so long. Want more time online for your favorite game? Open a NetFlix account or apply for one on the online credit card Facebook is advertising and you may get that time (depending on which game you're playing).
If the rewards thing works out, the author foresees a brave new world where kids could get game playing time based on stimulating sensors in their electric tooth brush, or tied with doing their online homework from school. Behavior modification… I'm not convinced Farmville can turn us into Skinner's rates…
~admin
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thought on
That’s a very good article, Greg.It’s interesting to hear that the video game companies are going to take advantage of the addictive nature of their games and how far people will go in order to play them.
It’s not surprising that they will combine this with positive re-inforcement incentives, like doing homework, or marketing products that include these incentives to play more.But will the resulting pay-off lead to more people becoming hopelessly addicted to the games?I certainly think so, and in this respect I don’t think that’s a particularly positive thing!
social games will grow more and more. and mid aged woman pay the most not only for social games but for virtual goods, too. high payouts possible!
We are beginning to see less and less of a line that the divides games from social networks. In time there won’t even be a line anymore. With games like Farmville and World of Warcraft having a currency that’s valued higher than many countries we can only imagine the way that they will change in the future.
Here are few ways that I imagine the difference will be.
-Easy ways to turn in game monies into real currency.
-More integration between different networks, less isolation.
-Less focus on subscriptions, more on micropayments.