Mashup: Social Gaming
Description
Social gaming commonly refers to playing games as a way of social interaction, as opposed to playing games in solitude, like some card games (solitaire) and the single-player mode of many video games. One hundred million people are playing these games and about $1 billion in revenue is expected this year.
Social gaming is also changing the stereotype image of games players and through the fast pace of technology changes helping gain adoption for platforms like facebook in the US/Europe and RenRen in China, more so in China the adoption of social gaming into the culture has helped drive the adoption rate of the social networks.
Popcap games commissioned Information Services Group to perform a survey of people who play social games online. It found that the average social gamer is a 43-year-old woman, despite long-standing social stereotypes about people who play games. The survey also found that 55% of social gamers are female, are more avid gamers, 38% of females said they play multiple times a day. Women are more likely to play with people they know (68% vs. 56% for males) .
We will be debating the future, impact, value and role of social gaming.
