Using your friends: Identifying the top interaction

mechanics in current social games & media

Mia Consalvo/MIT consalvo@mit.edu

@miaC

Talk outline

• How the study of social games was done• Major findings• Innovative social apps to consider• Wrap up/questions

The project: what’s social about social games?

The researchers

The Challenge

• Test as many social games as possible to identify major mechanics, as well as unusual/interesting additions

Timeline

• Fall 2010—ongoing

80+ games/50 FB for Charts

Sample/Sampling

Sample• Sampling from a variety of genres:– Simulators (villes; shops; islands)– RPGs– Sports– Strategy/Tower Defense– Puzzle & Word – Music– Twitter & mobile (ipod touch)

• GameZebo reviews• Word of Mouth for the quirky, unique

DAU & MAU

DAU & MAU

DAU & MAU

Looked at:

• Summarized game components• Identified key social interactions the game

allowed and/or encouraged

What do I mean by “social”?

• Opportunities for interaction(s) by players• Types of interactions• Quality (meaningfulness) of interactions• Opportunities to communicate• NPC interactions offered• Importance of interactions to overall gameplay• Cooperative/Competitive styles• Facilitated for pre-existing “friends” and/or “strangers”

Types of Interactions Found

• Friend bar lends silent presence of friends/family

• Gifting’s different roles• Visiting• Challenge & competition• Communication

The friend bar

The friend bar

Bar Auto-Populates?

Surrounded by your friends• Majority of games displayed your friends as a part of your interface,

usually at the bottom of your screen– Pictures of your friends/neighbors greet you as you start the

game– There’s always a slot to invite another friend to join you– Many games now auto-populate the interface with friends

already playing the game• Less tedious than having to invite friends, wait for them to

accept, install game, make progress

Surrounded by your friends

• Friends are ranked, and you are ranked amongst your friends– You can see how your friends are advancing (or not)– You can check your progress relative to your friends• Encourages more casual as well as intense/overt

competitiveness, particularly as friends get started, or as levels become tougher to achieve (the TL Effect)

– Streamlines how to visit friends/gift friends

Surrounded by your friends• Many games include a ‘starter friend’ that is

initially more advanced than the player– A goal for the player to aspire to– One possible way to develop in the game– In games with fewer real friends, can be a

valuable resource

Gifting

Gifts

Gifts free to give?

Gifts can come from a player’s own inventory

Gifts can be crafted

Gifts

• Gifts function in two central ways– Potlatch– Reciprocation

Gifts as Potlatch

• Impressing Your Friends– Games let players show off their status,

(large) bank accounts, advanced levels through gifting

Gifts as Potlatch

• Zoo Kingdom lets player gift some of her actual inventory (this can be dangerous if she doesn’t know she’s actually giving away her own stuff)

Gifts as Potlatch

• Mafia Wars allows higher leveled players to send more advanced/powerful gifts

Gifts as Potlatch

• Mafia Wars also lets player give gifts from their own inventory

Gifts as Potlatch• Cupcake Corner

Gifts as Potlatch

• Frontierville lets player send items she has crafted to other players who have wished for them

Gifts as Potlatch

• Frequent gifters, or those who respond immediately to requests, can become more valued friends

Gifts as reciprocation/barter

• If I send you a Ribbon, won’t you send me one back??– Zynga has automated

with their toolbar, making process more streamlined

Gifts as reciprocation/barter

– Gifts can be 1-1 (sending a coffee gets a coffee in return) or gifts-for-coins (although returns are normally not that large)

Gifts as reciprocation/barter• Cityville: Chris offered to serve as Librarian in my Library, so

I’ll be sure to return the favor the next time he builds a community structure

Gifts as attacks?

• Gifts as attacks?– None found! Problem: you must always ‘accept’

gifts, so who would accept an attack? Perhaps send a very valuable gift offer that comes with a potential downside.

– Would that still be a gift?

Peripheral Gifting• Many/most games offer the ability to send

decorative items that players can use, with no real bonus or advantage, or very little, built in

City of Wonder

Coffee Bar

Simply Hospital

Critical Gifting• Gifts can be essential to completing quests in games

Critical Gifting• Gifts might be the only way to acquire particular items

(useful or simply decorative)– Recipe elements in Café World

Critical Gifting: Miscrits

Critical gifting: Ravenwood Fair

Game offers timed quests?

Quests that require help or VC?

Is friendship only about trading stuff?

• The less importance the game places on acquiring gifts from friends, the more the game functions as a solo experience (apart from competitive games)

Is friendship only about trading stuff?

• Gifts function as both peripheral to gameplay as well as critical to advancement, depending on the individual game

Gifting challenges

• Facebook gift notices ridiculously slow– Zynga toolbar streamlines yet cuts out option to

add a short note to your request

• Some gift requests go to Wall Postings; others as messages direct to players. Not always consistent or obvious which way in some games

Gifting challenges

• How many gifts actually are accepted, or even helpful? Is there gifting anxiety?

• BeachTown rewards players with 100 coins for every gift a friend accepts; if gift given to new player is accepted, sender receives same gift in return• Could players be recognized in some way for useful

gifting? (Faunasphere tree raffles)– How useful/interesting are mystery gifts?– Issues of spam on walls, in message systems– The overactive gifter

Is friendship only about trading stuff?

• Is forced gifting the only way to encourage sociality?

Visiting

• Nearly as ubiquitous as gifting• More variations emerging• Balancing act of letting friends interact in

other spaces with controlling access• Most visits assume asynchronicity

Visiting

Personal game space?

Visit auto-rewards player?

Visit leaves trace effect?

Actions raise visitor reputation?

Actions yield benefits to visited?

Option to reject visitor actions?

Won’t you be my neighbor?

• Most common trope: Show up, get stuff

City of Wonder

Ravenwood Fair

Chocolatier: Sweet Society

Personalized Spaces

Taking actions is variable

• Actions leave no trace• Actions can add new existing elements• Actions can improve existing elements• Possibility to ‘interact’ with friend while

visiting

Act on existing world

• Fantasy Kingdoms asks the player to tend magical crops, clean up ruins, remove ogre footprints, etc

Act on existing world

• Pet Society lets you interact with friends’ pets

But usually leave no trace

But usually leave no trace

Actions ADD NEW existing elements

Change the existing world

• My Vineyard: taste friends’ wine, rate it to increase its value

Change the existing world

• Stores to sell creations

Cityville franchises

Fish World

Actions IMPROVE existing world

Improve on the existing world

• Cityville watering crops makes them ripen faster, or can revive withered crops

Improve on existing world

Improve on the existing world

• City of Wonder requires friends to contribute to building of ‘world wonders’

Interact w/friends’ avatars?

Interactions:

• Clean a pet• Go to friend/stranger’s FB Profile • Take pictures of avatars together• Kiss, dance with, hug (other) pet avatars• Brush their horse• YoVille used to allow dancing, joking, hugging, etc

• Interactions more likely when avatars are pets

Leave personal message?

Farmville signs

YoVille Guestbook

Won’t you be my neighbor?

• Evidence of visits past– The ghosts of your friends’ visits– Ability to accept/reject their help/alterations

• How can visiting be made even more meaningful?

Challenges & Competitions

Real time competition offered

Leaderboards• Global, Friends-only, Weekly, Over Time

Leaderboards apart from Friend Bar

Challenges & Competitions

• Tournaments & Matches– Predominant in sports games, strategy games• FIFA Superstars; PGA Golf, ESPNU

NBA Legend

Mafia Wars!

Texas HoldEm Poker

Real Time 2 player challenges

• Miscrits lets the player challenge strangers in real time

Asynchronous challenges

• Crazy Caravans, City of Wonder let players challenge strangers as they travel (stat based challenges)

Fashion & Popularity Contests

HealthSeeker

Challenge friends w/o consent

Challenge strangers w/o consent

Ability to gather friends into teams/groups/gang

Competition & Glory

• A few games give glory/fame but no actual achievements/advancements for rising to the top– Isle of Tune allows viewers to rate up/down

various island submissions (anonymously on both sides)

– ?

Communication

• The majority of games presume an asynchronous experience– Leaving messages in the game world for friends to

find– Posting on wall with standardized messages and

possibly personalizing them– Dragon Age Legends lets players personalize ‘kill

phrase’ which friends will see when they recruit you– Friends’ interactions are mainly through gameplay

itself, rather than communication about gameplay

Real time chat?

Synchronous Communication

• A few games offer real time chat:• With friends & strangers (Yoville)

Synchronous Communication

• My Vineyard

Synchronous Communication

• Kingdoms of Camelot

How social are social games?

• Friends are a presence in games, but mostly silent– Replicating the ‘bowling alone’ experience of

many MMOG players• Friends’ help is mostly transaction based. Very

few games utilized friends’ skills in helping players with gameplay

• Skill is mostly evidenced in competitions and the building of stats

The illusion of sociality?• The more friends you have, the more status you

have in a game• More friends let you advance, unlock areas, gain

access to particular shiny objects• Friends can inspire competition, whether

reciprocated or not• Lapsed friends can be a resource, can signify

which of your friends are ‘socially absent’• Friends add content to games through the

designed system

Sociality

• More friends = better• Communication = limited• Interactions = largely scripted, innovating

somewhat

• Use of sound for interaction?• More creative use of communication?

Data DumpGame DAU/MAU Visiting benefits the space

Dungeon Overlord 36.2 No

Bejeweled Blitz 36 n/a

Farmville 29.5 Yes

Frontierville 28.6 Yes

Treasure Isle 21.5 Yes

Café World 20.9 Yes

Texas HoldEm Poker 19.4 n/a

CSI: Crime City 17.2 No

Mafia Wars 17 n/a

Warstorm 16.4 n/a

Data Dump2Game by DAU Interact w/Avatars visited

CityVille No

Farmville No

Texas HoldEm Poker No

FrontierVille No

Bejeweled Blitz n/a

Data Dump3Game by DAU Quests Req Friend help/VC Grouping Mechanic

CityVille Yes No

Farmville Yes Yes

Texas HoldEm Poker Yes Yes

Frontierville Yes No

Bejeweled Blitz No No

Café World Yes No (?)

Treasure Isle No No

Mafia Wars Yes Yes

Pet Society Yes No

It Girl Yes Yes

Part Two: Social Apps

• Non-game apps with intriguing social components

• Harder to find than you might think

Voice Fantasy

Nike +

• Start a run, notification sent to Facebook– Friends ‘like’ or comment on notification, runner

hears cheering during the run

Word Lens

• Real time OCR used with camera on iPhone to translate English/Spanish and vice versa, facilitating communication– How could a game incorporate real time source of

information or communication, or cross a language barrier (in a basic way)?

House MD

• Appisodes bring additional content– How could a game add interest with peripheral

items that aren’t leaderboards or forums?

Social Books

• Turns books into e-documents which can be annotated and shared– How could a game allow for annotation beyond

visiting/gifting mechanics? Could players comment on the game itself? Make a significant change to the game world if a friend trusts them to do so?

Hey Tell

• Push to talk from Voxilate for iphone, android– Most games employing synchronicity rely on text

chat. Could a game use voice more effectively, particularly in small bursts?

Picnik

• Facebook app that lets you copy friends’ pictures, edit and alter them, and publish to your own profile.– Could a game allow friends to customize/arrange

the experience or design for one another? In some small or interesting way?

Quora

• Allows users to ask questions, follow questions, provide answers.– Could players take a more substantive role in

helping one another out in games, in a specific way? Could questioning be a part of a game?

Summing Up

• Social mechanics in games are largely what you would expect

• Opportunities to utilize voice, meaningful communication, skill-based help

• Social media provide a few examples of how to do so, yet I’d love to know about more

THANKS!

Mia Consalvo

For more information about the games analyzed, and to receive a link to the google document with data from 50 social games, please email me at consalvo @ mit . edu