A social network game is a type of
online game that is played through
social networks, and typically features
multiplayer and asynchronous gameplay
mechanics. Social network games are most
often implemented as browser games, but
can also be implemented on other
platforms such as mobile devices. The
first cross-platform
"Facebook-to-Mobile" social network game
was developed in 2011 by a Finnish
company Star Arcade. Social network
games are amongst the most popular games
played in the world, with several
products with tens of millions of
players. Green Patch, Happy Farm, Farm
Town, YoVille and Mob Wars were some of
the first successful games of this
genre. FarmVille, Mafia Wars,
FrontierVille, CityVille, Gardens of
Time, Kantai Collection and The Sims
Social are more recent examples of
popular social network games.
While they share many aspects of
traditional video games, social network
games often employ additional ones that
make them distinct. Traditionally they
are oriented to be casual games.
Major companies that make or publish
social network games include Zynga,
Wooga, Bigpoint Games, Gameforge,
Goodgame Studios, MegaZebra, 5 Minutes,
Playfish, Plinga, Playdom, Kabam,
Crowdstar, RockYou and Booyah.
Demographics 
As of 2010, it was reported that 55
percent of the social network gaming
demographic in the United States
consisted of women while in the United
Kingdom, women made up nearly 60 percent
of the demographic. In addition, most
social gamers were around the 30 to 59
age range, with the average social gamer
being 43 years old. It has been
suggested that the reason why social
games may appeal more to the older
demographic is because it is free,
easier to grasp and advance through in a
short period of time, and does not
involve as much violence as traditional
video games.
Technology & platforms 
A social network video game can be
created with any number of traditional
video game technologies, however the
majority are implemented in Adobe Flash,
PHP or JavaScript. Some games may use a
combination of these technologies. In
some instances a Gamification aspect has
been conjoined to a social networking
video game to make technology more
engaging by encouraging users to engage
in desired behaviors and to solve
problems by taking advantage of human's
psychological predisposition to engage
in gaming.
A social network game is often played
via a web browser, though they are
distinct from browser based games in the
way they leverage the player's social
graph and individual user data that is
hosted on the social network. With the
invention of smartphone devices, social
games have now also seen widespread
adoption on mobile platforms such as iOS
and Android devices. This is enabled
through mobile social networks such as
OpenFeint and through Oauth
implementations by social networking
sites like Facebook which allow
applications on mobile devices to access
a limited amount of protected user data
on those sites. Through an in-app
connection to these networks, users can
be provided with an experience very
similar to that of a web based social
game. It's been predicted that social
gaming will bring over 6 billion dollars
in revenue, by 2013.
Distinct features 
A social video game may employ any of
the following features: 
Asynchronous gameplay which allows rules
to be resolved without needing players
to play at the same time.
Community: One of the most distinct
features of social video games is in
leveraging the player's social network.
Quests or game goals may only be
possible if a player "shares" his game
with friends or gets them to play as
well as "neighbors" or "allies".
No victory conditions: Since most
developers count on users playing their
games often, there are generally no
victory conditions. That is, the game
never ends and no one is ever declared
"winner". Instead, many casual games
have "quests" or "missions" for players
to complete. This is not true for board
game-like social games, such as
Scrabble.
Virtual currency: Social network games
use "virtual currency", which players
usually must purchase with real-world
money. With the in-game currency,
players can buy upgrades that would
otherwise take much longer to earn
through in-game achievements. In many
cases, some upgrades are only available
via the virtual currency.
The following table outlines common
characteristics of social games,
mentioned by Björk at the 2010 GCO Games
Convention Online:
Engagement strategies 
Since social network games are often
less challenging than console games and
they have relatively shorter game play,
they use different techniques to stretch
game play and tools to retain users.
Continuous goals: The games assign
specific goals for users to achieve. As
they advance in the game, the goals
become more challenging and time
consuming. They also provide frequent
feedback with their performance. Every
action will translate towards a certain
goal that will be used to attain higher
gaming capitals.
Gaming capitals: Players are encouraged
to earn different badges, trophies, and
accolades that indicate their progress
and accomplishments. Some achievements
are unlocked just by advancing in the
game while others may significantly
alter the rationale behind the game and
require extensive investment from
players. The ways of gaining gaming
capital are not limited to playing games
but the games-related productive
activities that are appreciated in the
player’s social circle too. By
accumulating gaming capitals, they
provide an intrinsic benefit to gamers
as there is an avenue to boost their
accomplishment and showcase their
expertise of the game. The achievements
are visible to their network of friends.
Gaming capitals are a way for developers
to increase replay value provides
extended play time, and players get more
value from the game.
Motivation for collecting gaming
capitals:
1. Legitimization: refers to society’s
willingness to approve or condone
certain behavior. Collecting is about
channeling one’s materialistic desires
into more meaningful pursuits. Game
achievements serve a similar purpose,
allowing players to justify the hours
spent playing the game.
2. Self-extension: Gathering and
controlling meaningful objects or
experiences can work to gain one an
improved sense of self. The collector’s
goal to complete a collection is
symbolically about completing the self
too.
Events timed to real world: Popular
games such as Dragon City and Wild Ones
require users to wait a certain time
period before their "energy bars"
replenish. Without energy, they are
unable to conduct any form of action.
Gamers are forced to wait and return
after their energy replenishes to
continue playing.
Monetization 
Social network games frequently monetize
based on virtual good transactions, but
other games are emerging that utilize
newer economic models. An example of is
Empire Avenue, a virtual stock exchange
where players buy and sell shares of
each other's social network worth. In
Empire Avenue, a player's worth is
linked to his or her social media
influence and activity, as well as that
of the other players he or she has
invested virtual currency in. This game
design promotes social media interaction
as a means to attaining higher value in
Empire Avenue market rankings.
= Virtual goods =
Gamers will be able to purchase in game
items like power-ups, avatar
accessories, or decorative items users
purchase within the game itself. This is
realized by monetize products that don’t
technically exist. Virtual goods account
for over 90% of all revenue generated by
the world’s top social game developers.
Designers optimize user experience
through additional gameplay, missions,
and quests, without having to worry
about overhead or unused stock.
= Advertising =
The following are common ways of
advertising in social network games:
Banner advertisements
As banner ads within social networks
tend to be where ad response is low,
they tend to be priced at
bottom-of-the-barrel CPMs of around $2.
However, because social games generate
so many page views, they are the biggest
part of advertising revenue for the
social gaming industry.
Video ads
Videos are the ad format with the most
revenue per view. They tend to be
higher-priced, either by CPMs or
cost-per-completed-view. According to
studies, video ads result in highest
brand recall thus a good return on
investment for advertisers. Video ads
are shown either in in-game
interstitials or through incentive-based
advertising, i.e. you will get either an
in-game reward or Facebook credits for
watching an advertisement.
Product placement
A brand or product will be injected in a
game in some way. Due to the variety of
ways in which product placement can be
accomplished in any media, and because
the category is nascent, this category
is not standardized at all, but some
examples include branded in-game goods
or even in-game quests. For example, in
a game where you run a restaurant, you
might be asked to collect ingredients to
make a Starbucks Frappuccino, and
receive in-game rewards for doing so. As
these product placement deals are
non-standard, they are largely charged
with a production fee, which can be
$350,000 to $750,000 depending on the
type of placement and the popularity of
the game.
Lead generation offers
Another form of advertising that is
prevalent in many social games are lead
generation offers. In this form of
advertising, companies, usually from
different industries, aim to convince
players to sign up for their goods or
services and in exchange, players will
receive virtual gifts or advance forward
in the game as a reward.
= Sponsorship =
White label games
Applications that are built once, then
individualized and licensed again and
again. Developer can create a quality
app focused on fun while leaving the
edges of the game open for branding.
This allows developers to market their
game to companies that can find new and
interesting ways to bond with, expand,
or sell to their audience.
Social gaming as corporate promotion 
Large established corporations are using
social gaming to build brand awareness
and engagement. The Walt Disney
Company’s Disney Animal Kingdom
Explorers was developed to create
awareness of Disney’s theme parks and
also promote conservation. The gameplay
is divided evenly between two main
elements, finding hidden object and
large assortment of animals, and also
includes simulation for players to build
their own nature preserve. Players are
expected to work with friends to collect
the necessary materials to grow their
habitat, while the hidden object element
set players to compete for the highest
score in their social setting.
Some large established video games
developers are acquiring small operators
to capitalize on the social gaming
industry. The Walt Disney Company
purchased social game developer Playdom
for $763.0 million, and Electronic Arts
purchased PopCap Games for $750.0
million in July 2011.
Criticism 
Cow Clicker, created by Ian Bogost, was
developed to highlight social games’
most exploitative and abusive aspects.
The game requires users to click on a
picture of a cow every 6 hours to earn
points. It also prompts users to
encourage friends to join in to help
their gain more points. Cow Clicker was
clearly designed to ridicule other
social media games such as FarmVille,
yet fifty-six thousand users played it
at its peak. The community also evolved
and spawned similar games, garnered
critical reviews and even gained a
strategy guide.
In a study by Bitdefender, it was shown
that social games increase spam and
phishing by 50 percent in social media
platforms. This is made possible through
hackers creating fake profiles and
relying on bots to send spam messages to
other users via social gaming
applications. Many of these users who
receive the messages willingly add the
spammers' fake profiles into their
circle of friends to depend on them for
additional gaming support. In doing so,
several users have become more prone to
being victims of data, identity theft,
account hijacking, and other issues. The
spammer's action here, however, does not
constitute as abuse since it is
typically the user who adds the spammer
on their end. As such, the spammer's
account cannot be suspended by a social
network.
Social networking gamers are also
susceptible to unwanted charges. For
instance, some of these games offer
virtual currency if the player fills out
a survey. After completing the survey,
users are asked to type down their phone
number, then wait for a text message
that will give them a PIN to enter into
a site and will finally give them their
results. By entering the PIN into the
site, they are subscribed to some
service—such as ones that provide
horoscope forecasts—are charged for it,
and may not be aware of it unless they
have carefully read the fine print.
Some critics have also claimed that
social networking games have caused the
numbers of fake profiles to rise.
Creating a fake profile can be
advantageous if the game, for example,
offers rewards whenever a user
introduces the game to their friends. By
inviting the fake profile to play the
game, the user can trick the games'
point-based system into thinking that
they are actually helping the game gain
popularity and in return, they may
receive rewards from the game. Social
networking sites such as Facebook
eliminates fake profiles if and only if
these profiles are reported by other
users.
One of the more popular genres to social
games are those that imitate gambling
activities which are free to play and
easily accessible through a social
network. However, the similarity these
games have with gambling has also
created a debate about whether or not
social games need to be regulated.
Several policymakers from various
countries—Australia, Belgium, Spain, and
the United Kingdom—have shown concern
about the potential and negative impact
these games could cause.
References 
