Social Network Game

A Social Network Game uses a social network as a starting platform. There is usually an asynchronous game that demands a certain level of social interaction. The games are offered not only as a browser game but also increase for mobile devices. Often the term is used Social Game synonym. Due to the high number of players and revenues, this is one of the most popular areas of the games industry. Market leader Zynga recorded end 2011 240 million active users per month and achieved a turnover of 1.14 billion U.S. dollars in that year

Development

Depending on the interpretation of the definition there may have been some precursor. The birth of social games, as they are known today, but can be set to May 2007. This month, Facebook opened its interface for third-party developers and applications. In April 2007 Mark Pincus founded the company Presidio Media, whose name he changed in Zynga in July. Today, Zynga has prevailed around 40 % as the market leader. Other well-known companies are King.Com and wooga. As in other areas of IT are leveraged buyouts a major expansion strategy. Especially for the major game development companies this is a means to the social games sector to take root. Just bought EA Games 2009 for 300 million euros, the company Playfish on.

Business models

Under the business model, there are three main streams:

Commercial

In the commercial, social games are games which sales are expected to be acquired. The user can either buy access to the game or certain games extensions and resources. On most established here is the model of freemium, in which the game is free, but certain resources can be acquired in monetary terms. This business model has spread rapidly in the field of social network games, and it shows here the following phenomenon: The revenue is generated by a large number of customers with low willingness to pay. In Zynga can easily illustrate this topic: sales of 1.14 billion U.S. dollars in 2011 over 240 million users has been generated. This means that the average revenue per person is U.S. $ 4.75. Furthermore shows that 2.9 million users (about 1.21 % of total users ) has only a very small part of willingness to pay.

Multi- Sided Approach In the commercial arena is enriched by the integration of external companies in addition to the revenue by players in many social network games business model. You are essentially two ways to offer can be incorporated into a game. The approach is widening is to be switched in the game advertising for the company, products or projects. Advertising is integrated into the gameplay and thereby shown to the player. The second approach is, however, somewhat complex. In many social network games, the possibility is offered to be able to get free in-game currency. In - game currency is money that the user can use in the game in order to play different extensions to buy, such as Farmville new building. With this menu item, the player gets a choice of options offered in which he has to perform a particular task and is rewarded with in-game currency credited. So far, there can be seen two currents. Either the player pays a fee or with information. The paid an order with Quelle GmbH would be, for example, makes, for which he receives additional virtual money. The other option is for the user is to participate in a survey, for which he also obtained after carrying out in-game currency.

Indirect commercial

These are games that are connected to the user at no cost and thus offer all users the same game experience. The intention is here to get the attention of the user, to win it, for example, as a customer. The company Tamron has introduced the introduction of a new lens the game " Tamron Iceland " on a page, a background with a playful shows the user the products from Tamron.

Non-commercial

These pose no intention to achieve direct or indirect monetary income, but pursue other ideas on how to make for example the user attention to a problem. These include, for example, the two games " Flutter " and "My Polar Bear", the WWF has released and available on Facebook. In this case, should be made ​​specifically aware of umweltliche grievances. On the other hand, there are also other games that deal with a general problem. For example, the game " Greensight City " is to provide ideas for discussion and debate on the issue of urban mobility. These games usually have a serious game character.

Criticism

The reason for emerging critique of social network games can be illustrated by the following quotation:

"Get users in the door to play free, then monetize the hell out of them once they're hooked. " IGG Cofounder Kevin Xu

This is expressed that the business model of social network games is based essentially on the fact to bind the user in the first step of the game and then exploit it. In this context, it is also spoken by a lack of social responsibility in the game companies, because there are in the social networks like Facebook, in no small part also under-18s. The multi- sided approach is therefore to enable transactions with the game manufacturer for teens also scored as an idea of the company. Content which are otherwise only be purchased by direct payment to the game makers can under the guise of purchases eg Orders are obscured at source or marketing surveys. Starting to make choice of words, " free " in-game currency, which can likely many users on a this business. In particular, the possibility of surveys looks at the first glance very lucrative. It is, however, disregarded that precisely the point information to reveal about themselves, is an accomplishment. From this perspective, the player pays with his attention and the choice of words " free " is relative.