The State of Social in Social Games

Aki JärvinenLead Social Designer, Ph.D.

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Background

• Aki’s 10 years of experience includes:– Mobile game design– Online & Social game design– Online gambling design – Board game design– User experience design– Product Management– Business development– Academic Research &

Development

Menu of the Day

• Is social broken in social games?

• Dilemmas in designing for social on Facebook

• Design Concepts for Social:– Social Presence– Social Graph– Social Capital

• Case study: Social Space

• ‘Less Social is More’

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Social Games Defined

• ‘Online games that adapt your friendship ties for play purposes, while accommodating your daily routines.’

• Social games on Facebook presents a particular instance of this definition

• More definitions: http://www.gamesbrief.com/2011/01/what-is-a-social-game/

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Is Social Broken in Social Games?

• From Game Developers:

– is sociality in social games something that equals passing notes under the door of a friend - instead of knocking on the door?

– are social games turning social relationships into mere game resources?

– are social games making players feel like they're playing with their friends even if they're not?

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‘Social’ versus ‘More Social’

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Social seems to be broken...

• Players have hard time articulating what they are doing when they are interacting with their friends via a game on Facebook..

• ...even if the games are supposedly built on the premise of being social.

• Findings from the SoPlay research project: http://soplayproject.wordpress.com/

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What if...less is more?

• What if social games players do not want any deeper social exchanges in their games?

• If we build more sophisticated incentives for social proof, curiosity, presence, etc...

• ... will they come?

• NO, if it takes too many clicks – i.e. too much cognitive load

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So what should we do?

What is social, anyway?

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Designing social...games?

• ‘Social design is the conception, planning, and production of web sites and applications that support social interaction.’ (Joshua Porter)

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Dilemmas of social games on Facebook

• I.e. why good intentions can be hard to translate into a game’s social design:

• Interactions vs. interruptions?– social engagement vs.

aggressive acquisition

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The dilemmas of social games on Facebook

• I.e. why good intentions can be hard to translate into a game’s design:

• ‘When social goes too far’– engaging gameplay

vs. social barriers for monetization

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Dilemmas of social games on Facebook

• The freemium business model has consequences for social features:

– developers build ‘social barriers’ in the shape of collectable virtual items in order to monetize

– virtual goods sales indicate these games can be viable as Massively Parallel Single-Player Online Games (MPSOGs)

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http://www.slideshare.net/christophercarfi/the-six-kinds-of-free

How to judge what is social

• Yet: Should social games’ sociality be judged with the criteria of social context and how it contributes to the social experience...

• ...instead of evaluating the social in gameplay?

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GameplayGameplay

Close your eyes: Virals are social!

• A fact: viral feeds are the most concrete, in-your-face form of social in social games at present

• Socially acceptable virals are both ‘shareworthy’ and ‘clickworthy’

• Viral has become a retention tool

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Social games are real games

• Key point / provocation:– these products are not, nor will they be, similar to

games we (developers and gamers) are used to...– ...so get over it!

• i.e. you should disregard any use of words ‘true’, ‘real’, ‘artificial’ and ‘only’ when reading game developers’ comments on social games

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Social = Communication

Presence via asynchronicity?

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Communication and its discontents

• No relationship is possible without communication

• Facebook provides the social substrate with its – constantly changing - communication channels.

• Are they enough – or do you feel a need to go hardcore?

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Parallel Play molds social exchanges

• Social games facilitate players’ daily routines rather than the other way around

• Parallel play: playing independently beside others but checking the others’ progress from time to time.

• Affects how fellow players’ presence is experienced while playing.

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http://ginalijoi.com/

Social through Presence

• Social presence: – the salience of others

when communicating across distance, and the salience of interacting with them in said situations.

– the degree of person-to-person awareness that occurs in a mediated environment.

• Is more presence necessarily good?

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/geetaariani/3602456383/sizes/z/

Presence requires Immediacy

• Social games in Facebook have had a weak impact in terms of social presence:– slipping the message

under the door instead of knocking on it.

– Immediacy does not belong to the vocabulary of social games.

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Towards greater Immediacy

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Social Graph & Capital

Food for thought

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Social Graph gives your game wings, right?

• Social graph:– Facebook has largely

come to own the concept – implies that it brings

additional value to using a social application or site

– leveraging the social graph will enrich one’s social experience?

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Social Graph

• Key point: Xbox Live, Steam, etc. create social graphs of their own, but they are interest-driven instead relationship-driven (Facebook)

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Interest graphs

• Social graphs are transforming into interest graphs

• Interest graphs are centered around common interests and relations - rather than relationships - between enthusiasts.

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Kindness of Strangers?

• Cooperation and competition have always co-existed in human networks

• Yet, there are no strangers in most social games

• Because it is safe, and built around the core use case of Facebook.

• More social is less...?

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Takeaway

• Does your socially revolutionary game hinge on leveraging ‘real’ friendship ties for more depth?

• Or, should you just embrace the ADD ME culture, and also facilitate playing the game without friends, as a single player experience?

• (I know.)

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Social Capital

• Social capital: – the intangible value

of one’s social network:

– The value to be gained from social capital does not lie in the individual but in the structure of her relationships and how they can be leveraged.

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Social Capital builds bridges and bonds

• Two kinds of social capital:– bridging type: weak ties which privilege exchange

of information or new avenues of thought – bonding type: a tightly knit web of emotionally

close relationships

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Bonding vs Bridging Social Capital in SNS

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Games of Weak Social Capital

• Social games in Facebook are typically low maintenance: – any social capital that emerges is bridging in nature.

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Takeaway

• When considering the feature set of your game, are you demanding the players to bond?

• Do you want them to do that? (That’s ok but hard.)

• Or should you let them ‘only’ bridge?

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Case study: Social Space

Making it social

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Crossing time & space, socially

• ‘The Ghost Mechanic’

• An instance of the social grind where the constraint of asynchronicity has been turned into a strength

• Contributes to social presence!

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Space for social

• Sense of shared space is paramount to authentic social experience

• Social spaces facilitate asynchronicity:– It is no coincidence cafes,

restaurants, cities, and other public spaces figure prominently in social game settings

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/rossatkin/4603446889/sizes/z/

Gifting shared space

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More or less social

Some ‘lesser’ concepts & a summary

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The Less than Obvious

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When less social can be more

• Strive to create opportunities for social exchanges

• OR, for the lone grind • ...instead of

unconditional barriers

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When less social can be more

• Pay attention to so-called parasocial relations:– on an emotional level, people

treat many game elements as real

– e.g. call them stupid– characters and celebrities

that we come to ‘know’ support emotional attachment

– attachment breeds retention

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Summary

• Social is communication– yet extra channels & too many exchanges are intimidating

• Social presence requires immediacy– but should you rather build ‘ambient’ social presence?

• Social capital requires commitment– are you willing to risk it?

• Social space creates familiarity– yes, you want to model that

• Viral is social– yes you can

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References

• 'State of Social in Social Games' feature at Gamasutra

• Games for Social Networks – Aki’s blog

• @aquito at Twitter

• Thank You!

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