After spending hours and hours playing Frontierville, I noticed that the game doesn’t really have any goal or objective for players to reach. Compare to other triple A hardcore titles, Frontierville doesn’t even seem like playing a game. However, one fact for sure is that games like Frontierville are very “addicting” and time-consuming. As the article by The New York Times, “Virtual Goods Start Brining Real Paydays”, suggested, “The people playing these games on social networks don’t define themselves as gamers – they are just killing time, having fun”, games like Frontierville is very typical example of casual games. While I was playing Frontierville, I, too, thought that I wasn’t playing the game for serious. However, every 10 minutes or so, I constantly checked into the game and suddenly realized that I was addicted in my own Frontierville universe. Due to the limitation of “energy” I can spend within the game, I was tempted to spend some real cash to recharge my energy. So far, I haven’t spent any money on game items, but eventually I might buy some in-game currency mainly because the game currency seems really cheap. The game encourages the player to spend little money like less than 10 dollars, it feels like buying in-game currency isn’t such a bad deal or a waste.
The New York Times article talks about how these virtual goods are actually making or will make big money mainly because of the ideology that players/buyers have regarding virtual goods. Because these types of games are free to everyone, I believe people first approach to play the game without any huge expectation of the game quality. As the article says, one of the main reasons why Zynga first designed and developed the game was to make a game that puts an emphasis on social-networking tool. I view this tactic as a very successful marketing tool because People think that they are playing game and interacting with other people for free at the same time. As I played Frontierville, one thing I noticed was that in order to be successful in playing the game, player interactions are very important. Players have to constantly exchange items and other stuff (work for others) to be successful in game play and the game encourages inviting people I know to play the game in order to get advantages within the game play. As the article suggests, virtual goods can bring more than 5 billion dollars worldwide this year. Since in-game currency purchases don’t require huge money from each player, players approach buying in-game currency without too much pressure.
Another key-point to the success of game developers like Zynga is through encouraging and forcing players to play other games that are developed by the same developer. For example, while I was playing Frontierville, I had to play Mafia Wars (the game also developed by Zynga) to get a special item. Even though Frontierville and Mafia Wars are two different games, the developer makes a connection between those two games through virtual goods. In this sense, I personally think that it is possible for game developer like Zynga to become “Google” in gaming industry. When I read the article saying that parents bought their kids 20 dollars worth of in-game item instead of a toy at Target, I realized how a new generation has emerged. Even a decade ago (maybe little more), kids wanted toys, not virtual goods. However, the form of entertainment for kids has changed. Now kids are playing computer/video games, not playing Lego toys. Instead of asking for Lego toys for Christmas gift, kids of modern world ask for virtual items/goods for social network games from their parents.
I have two questions regarding the articles for this week. First, do you agree that the form of entertainment for kids have been replaced by computer/video games? Do you think physical goods/toys for kids like Lego will disappear soon or later?
Second question is that do you think social network games like Frontierville or Farmville (or similar casual games that are provided to players for free) will be placed as a bigger market in game industry (compared to Triple A titles)?
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