I swore to myself I'd never join one of these "social" games, but when my girlfriend asked me to join Farm Ville, it was the first step to starting a new reason why I should open my laptop even if I was in the middle of class, because dammit, my blueberries are going to wither if I don't pick them on time!
Facebook's app system must be a godsend to programmers looking to make the next big thing for everyone's iPhone, laptop, or a flash game that'll catch the industry by fire. By far, flash games on Facebook are what's going to be dominating your friend feed. If even one person plays one, they'll get hooked, and try to persuade their friends to play, which will then spread again like some sort of pig based influenza!
So why are these games so goddamn problematic? Both from the standpoint of a Facebook purist and from a gamer's perspective? Well, from a purist's point of view, it'll clog your feed. Unless punch everyone you see and call everyone you don't punch "cockmonglers," you're going to have a nice pool of friends associating themselves with you on Facebook.
If you're anything like him, you must have tons of friends.
Let's say you have 50 friends. That's 50 possible breaches for a game to walk up in your grill and ask, "How would you like to play this fun, exciting new game?"
And the answer almost every time will be no. But no man is a fortress. Especially because this won't happen once for every once friend. It'll happen several times as friends will nag and nag and nag you to join cause they can get some fucking awesome tree in return for snatching another sucker to play the game.
Artist's rendering of said fortress.
But man, are these games addicting. Why you ask? As you start it, the world is your multiplayer session. Maybe not a fragging multiplayer session, but at least all the people you actually like are essentially playing multiplayer with you. No squeaky teenage boys asking if you're a chick or to kindly "fuck off." No, your best friend, your girlfriend, even that guy you kind of sort of know but not really but he friended you on Facebook. Yeah, you totally don't know until now. He's totally cool since he gave you a sweet apple tree to go with your Johnny Appleseed theme farm.
What are the top games so far? There are an abundance of farm games out there, mimicking Animal Crossing for their time management and neighbor features. I play Farm Ville, but there's apparently Barn Buddies and Farm Town, and God knows what else. Castle Age is still being played by plenty of people I know, and Yoville is Farm Ville's obnoxious little brother. Both were made by Zynga and Yoville focuses on a more urban aspect of social network gaming, you owning an apartment and visiting friends' and interior decorating. However, it just doesn't rub well with me because I actually played Animal Crossing in it's hey day, and this game is like Christian blasphemy.
Oh shit, it's almost 9pm! I'm gonna miss K.K. Slider!
By far, the one game that has held on with an iron grip is Mafia Wars. Seriously, this game has been played by nearly half the people I know, and I'm not friends with someone on Facebook unless I know them (you know, unlike that tendency to friend request complete strangers on myspace). I have yet to play it, and don't know if I ever will because I'm afraid of it's power frankly. People who seem to have so much dignity suddenly asked me to play with them for some kind of level up or something. And I'm not stooping to that level. Not yet anyways. Maybe during one of my classes.
Oh yeah, and if you haven't noticed, three of these games mentioned are by Zynga. Keep an eye on them. They obviously have a trick or two up their sleeve about brainwashing.
Yeah, you go to hell dammit.
No comments:
Post a Comment