The three articles pertained to games in social networks, especially Farmville and other Zynga games, why people play, and why people pay for virtual goods.
In "Marketing Virtual Goods: Q&A with Zynga's Mark Pincus," Mark Pincus is interviewed and he talks about why Zynga games like Farmville are so successful. From the beginning, Zynga worked on a way to make games that were both entertaining and gave people new ways to have meaningful relationships with people that they're already trying to network with in one way or another on Facebook (Naone). Their games are built on "the three pillars of a great social game": it allows people to play with friends, it lets people express themselves, and it gives them the sense of equity (Naone).
There are different reasons why people play these games. The primary one is for recreation/relaxation, but there are others. Alena Meeker says "she uses the games to connect with friends, co-workers and family (Helft)." Nathan R. Van Sleet plays because "online forums of YoVille players have allowed him to connect with various people (Helft)." And once they're reeled in, Zynga keeps them interested with their "episodic structure," where every week there's a new twist (Naone). This is done by "creating short and long arcs of aspiration. A long arc of aspiration in FrontierVille might be finding your spouse or unlocking the Gold Rush territory, and a short arc that you need to do to achieve the long arc is something like building a cabin that then requires other short arcs like cutting down trees (Naone)."
A big part of these games is the paying aspect. While only a small fraction of its users spend money on these games, "analysts estimate that virtual goods could bring in a billion dollars in the United States and around $5 billion worldwide this year (Miller). So why do people spend money when they could just play for free? One reason is that it can save a player a ton of time. Another is that spending money on an item can make a player stand out and be differentiated from their friends and other players (Naone). Sara Merrill describes it as an experience just like going out to the movies. In addition, it's cheaper to just buy her kids a virtual item than to buy them a toy at Target (Miller).
When I played Farmville, I found it boring. I planted my crops and I found myself with nothing to do. I didn't understand how people could spend hours on this game. I went back sometime later and found out all my crops died, so I was just really off put. With Frontierville, it was definitely more fun because I felt like there was more to do and it was instantly more gratifying with all the stars and coins popping up whenever you do a task, and big screens telling you what a good job you did clicking around. But eventually I got frustrated when I didn't have anymore energy in game and didn't know how to get more. I just found the games really hard to navigate and hard to figure out what was going on half the time and I just didn't want to play anymore. Also half the time I was playing I was vigilantly trying not to have the games post things on my profile, in fear of embarrassment, but I felt like I wasn't getting the full experience by not posting things to my profile because of all the things you can share with your friends by posting.
Farmville, Frontierville, etc. usually get a bad reputation and give the people playing them a bad reputation. Has playing these games affected your perception of the games or the people who play them?
Frontierville surely lacks the game aesthetics compared to Triple A title games. And before I actually played the game, I laughed at my friends who played the game because I thought they are wasting their time. And in fact, it might be true that players of social network games like Frontierville are wasting their time because there is no clear object or goal in the game. However, I found myself also addicted to the game. After playing the game, my perception of these types of games and gamers have changed to somewhat postivie viewpoint.
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