Social Gaming: Not There Yet

Okay, so I'm coming down from my "revelations" about social networking invading gaming.

First off, I tried a game application of Facebook. It sucks hard. I thought I'd remembered people who said that the social gaming sites were catching up to the quality of commercial games quickly. If the most active games on Facebook are any indication, that is not the case. Urban Dead is better. Kingdom of Loathing is better (or was the last time I logged on). Maybe I just have to try more games, but jumping in and playing the most active game (Mouse Hunt), was terrible. You bait a mouse trap, then check in a few years later to see what you caught. Urban Dead had me constantly checking in to see if it was time to run away. With Mouse Hunt, I just need to do the math to figure out how many hours it will be until my cheese runs out and check back in that many days. What's the point?

At least with the vampire / zombie / werewolf applications, they actually take advantage of the social nature of the system. I bite someone, they become a monster. I get that. So far the only thing Mouse Hunt has going for it is that you can win real life prizes. But to actually catch the best mice, you have to pay real money to get the best cheese. How much money would you pay to win a $10 Amazon gift card? Probably more than $10. Oh well. Vegas wasn't built on the populace's math skills. And evidently this game isn't either.

Also, the pace of people's updates is pretty slow. Apparently none of us are doing anything on facebook. The service really needs to compensate for that. If my friends aren't doing anything interesting, there should be some other goings on on facebook featured, because when the site just looks dead, it kills the addiction, and it's boring old MySpace all over again.

At some level, it's a good thing facebook isn't slick enough to provide a truly addictive experience. But neither is WoW (World of Warcraft). I'm just worried that these companies will eventually create something legitimately life consuming. And if it's done very well, Little Big Planet may be that thing.

More tomorrow.