Could social games inspire players to help out in the real world, too?

Social games may be about using your friends as resources to progress, but that's a two-way street, you know. (And if you're the type that's only going one way, don't expect to have many friends for very long.) The same applies to the real world, in a way, no? Iowa State University professor of psychology Douglas Gentile's recent findings might point in that direction.

In an article published in the December issue of the journal Nature Reviews/Neuroscience, Gentile puts forth the idea that social games might inspire players to be helpful to others in real-life social situations. Titled "Brains on video games," the article is a collection of independent studies from six researchers on the psychological effects of video games.

Particularly speaking to social games, Gentile found in experimental studies across the U.S., Japan and Singapore that playing "pro-social" games led to more "helping behavior" in players as a result, according to Medical Xpress. In one longitudinal study, or one conducted over an extended time period, it was found that students that started their school year playing social games displayed increased helpful behaviors later in the school year.

"If content is chosen wisely, video games can actually enhance some skills," Gentile said to Medical Xpress. "But overall, the research has demonstrated that they're far more powerful teaching tools than we imagined. But the power can be both good and bad." Of course, Gentile was referring to the potentially negative psychological effects of violent video games like desensitization and everyday aggression.

While it can't be said for sure that helping one another through social gaming directly leads to players feeling driven to help others in the real world, it makes sense on paper. While the motivations are far more simplified, social gamers use their friends to advance much like folks make friends to advance. Whether that real-world motivation be emotional fulfillment or scoring a carpool to work, there's still a possible connection there, right?

Do you think social gaming could lead to more helpful behavior in real social situations? Do you find yourself more cooperative in your day-to-day, thanks to FarmVille or another Facebook game?

Coco Girl maker MetroGames lets go of employees after failed buyout

Unfortunately, even developers that appear to be doing well aren't safe, it seems. Inside Social Games reports that, after failing to close a deal that would have sold the company to a larger publisher, MetroGames has begun to ax its staff. Best known for hits like Coco Girl, which released earlier this summer, the company enjoys a seemingly healthy 5.5 million monthly players.

"We informed our staff of our financial condition last week," MetroGames CEO Damián Harburguer told ISG. "A significant number of really talented employees have left the company and we will be forced to make additional reductions very soon. We regret that this happened during the Holiday season, but we did not want to take drastic action while any chance remained that a deal would be successful. We are doing everything we can to help our former employees find new positions with other companies in Buenos Aires and elsewhere."

According to the website, Harburguer's statement follows an email that arrived at several news outlets last week from someone that claimed to be a MetroGames employee. The supposed employee reported that both Harburguer and MetroGames COO Julián Lisenberg had publicly asked staffers to continue working throughout December holiday bonuses or even wage payment. The anonymous employee also claimed that the two had privately pressured employees to quit simultaneously.

The news comes as a shock considering MetroGames' top game is home to over 3 million monthly players and 530,000 daily players. There has been no official mention of MetroGames closing down, but the nameless employee does warn of "imminent closure," according to ISG. Best wishes to those affected, and sadly, this is just latest in a string of layoffs in the social games scene this year.

Are you bummed at the thought of MetroGames closing down? What do you think of the rampant closures and layoffs in social games this year?

The breakdown of Japanese social gamers is a lot like the U.S., actually

As it turns out, older women in Japan like social games just as much as they do in the states. Major Japanese social gaming companies including DeNA, GREE and Mixi have released detailed demographic information regarding their players. And, aside from a few interesting caveats, Japanese social gamers don't differ too much from their Western counterparts.

According to GREE, 53 percent of its players are women, while 34 percent of those are aged between 20 and 29 years old. Just under that is 27 percent, accounting for Japanese gamers 30 to 39 years old. GREE also breaks down its player base according to geographic location. Of course, those based in Tokyo dominated the graph, making up 34 percent of all GREE players. Following that is Kinki with 16 percent of players.
GREE gamer demographics
As for DeNA, the company has only provided aged-related data, but Serkan Toto guesses that its gender demographic split is similar. Since March 2011, a whopping 41 percent of Mobage--its mobile social game network--players are aged 30 years or older.

Japanese media publisher Enterbrain has provided its own unique demographic data of social gamers focusing on occupations. According to the company's findings, nearly 15 percent of all Japanese social gamers are housewives, followed by office workers coming in at around 13 percent. It looks like, no matter where you're from, the current crop of social games just speaks to the ladies.

[Image Credist: GREE, Kotaku]

Are you surprised at all that social demographics in Japan don't differ terribly from those in the states? Do you think these numbers would look similar in other parts of the world?

Five million Facebook users are under age 11, how many play games?

Consumer Reports estimates that 5 million Facebook users are under 11, but how many of them are Facebook gamers? The news comes from the magazine's June issue, and echoes a Liberty Mutual study that reports 7.5 million of those on the social network are below the required minimum age of 13 years old. This means that either parents are making profiles for their kids or the little ones are going rogue, making their own profiles.

Facebook has age limits for a reason: it's the law. And while one third of parents claim to monitor their kids' activity on Facebook, 17 percent of them have no qualms with their kids using the service underage. In fact, All Facebook reports that many respondents seemed to have no problem with the fact that their kids might have posted fake registration information in order to get in.

And Facebook is working against them, banning an estimated 20 thousands daily that it suspects are underage. That amounts to about 7.3 million Facebook minors a year. As a gamer, one can't help but wonder how many of these 7.5 million kids are toiling away in FarmVille. As Capcom and Smurfs Village displayed effectively, kids and virtual goods can be a deadly combination. Not to mention that this could shift the average Facebook gamer demographic considerably. The horror!

[Image Credit: Fooyoh]

Do you allow your preteens to play around on Facebook, or are you a minor Facebooker yourself? What are your thoughts on kids playing Facebook games, and if your kids are on Facebook, how do you monitor their activity/purchases?

Baseball Superstars: The League goes for a grand slam on Facebook

Just in time for the playoff season in the states (Philadelphia NL East Champs! ... sorry), Gamevil has released its very own baseball simulator on Facebook, Baseball Superstars: The League. The Korean and Los Angeles-based developer best known for the Zenonia series of RPGs (role-playing games) on the iPhone released this social version of its hit baseball sims on iOS.

Of course, EA Sports and Playfish have already staked their claim to the sub genre on Facebook with World Series Superstars, but already Gamevil has one thing going for it: global multiplayer. That's right, once you choose your team's name, logo and specialty between Power, Accuracy and Speed, you can jump into games immediately with anyone playing the game.

While you will certainly need Facebook friends to play in Exhibition games, those looking for a fast and easy Quick Play game, the world's digital baseball managers await you. There's also a Home Run Derby mode as well as full-blown tournaments, which are coming soon. And the gameplay is surprisingly interactive, having players actually swing at pitches with clicks.
Baseball Superstars Logo
Baseball Superstars features a full-blown pitching system as well, in which players select from a variety of pitches and choose exactly where they land in or around the strike zone. There are also a number of commands you can give to base runners to attempt to steal bases. All in all, this looks like an impressively full-featured baseball game on Facebook at launch.
While much of the game has players tweaking their stadiums like most sports games on Facebook, it's the actually Quick Plays and Exhibition games that are the meat and potatoes of Baseball Superstars, and what could make this game a competitor to existing social sports games. "It builds upon our years of strategic advances in the global games market, and shows that we can adapt and offer a unique yet competitive social games experience," VP and head of Gamevil USA Kyu Lee said in a release.
Baseball Superstars gameplay
Baseball Superstars is just Gamevil's second release on Facebook after Train City, which didn't do so hot, according to AppData. Considering the hype train that is US baseball in September and October, baseball fans (the closet Facebook game-loving ones, at least) are going to be on the hunt for a new experience on Facebook.

And it looks like Gamevil will be there to meet them with a Facebook game that actually focuses on, you know, the baseball? Hey, the second time can still be a charm, too, right?

Click here to play Baseball Superstars: The League on Facebook Now >

Have you tried this new baseball Facebook game yet? What do you think of Gamevil's second entry into the Facebook game space, and what about their existing iOS games?

The Godfather: Five Families takes an exclusive hit out on Google+

Google+ just made hardcore social gamers an offer they can't refuse. Kabam announced that its new ... family-oriented social game, The Godfather: Five Families, hits Google+ exclusively today, and it'll stay that way for the next 45 days. In fact, this is the first game to release exclusively on Google's games platform, meaning not both there and on Facebook, capiche?

The game, set in the Prohibition Era before the events of the first film, employs many of the same gameplay hooks found in existing Kabam games: build armies, sic armies against enemies or defend your friends asynchronously, repeat. However, this social take on the Oscar-winning franchise packs features that spice up the social strategy gaming formula, namely "Families".

Upon starting the game, players must choose to join one of five Families (get it?). The concept of "Families" introduces a level of tension to the alliances players make, because there can only be one Don. Perhaps it's thanks to features like this that Five Families is said to have enjoyed the most successful beta test in Kabam history.
Five Families in action
"The Godfather: Five Families has enjoyed the best ever beta period for a Kabam game," Kabam COO Chris Carvalho said in a release. "To support the exclusive launch on The Godfather: Five Families on Google+, Google will provide promotional support to maximize the game's visibility to Google+ users. This is our fourth title to launch on Google+ and they have repeatedly exceeded our expectations."

It's nice to hear that Google will somehow support Five Families, as the size of the network's audience could be a cause for concern, especially for a game launching exclusively on the platform. Then again, "hardcore" social gamers are said to be a dedicated bunch, and they'll certainly know where to find their next family.

Click here to play The Godfather: Five Families on Google+ Now >

Do you consider yourself "hardcore" social gamer? Do you plan on trying the game out on Google+, or will you wait until it hits Facebook?

Producer on anticipated PS3 game ditches Sony for Facebook games

One the most anticipated PS3 games of 2012, The Last Guardian (pictured), just lost its executive producer to Facebook games. And in other news, the sky is falling. Jokes aside, former Sony Computer Entertainment president and executive producer on The Last Guardian Yoshifusa Hayama has left Sony for UK-based social games studio Bossa Studios, Eurogamer reports.

Hayama, who previously worked on the popular Final Fantasy series and cult classic Ico, will serve as creative director at Monstermind creator Bossa and work to bring the studio's first 3D Facebook game to life. The game is set to launch this year, according to Eurogamer, which we imagine means within the next 365 days. Hayama sounds exceedingly confident (refreshingly so even) in 3D Facebook games.

"The future of gaming is definitely online and thanks to recent developments with Flash 11, there is no reason why a social game can no longer be as visually stunning and as compelling as the big console titles," Hayama told Eurogamer. "Together at Bossa we have plans to bring a plethora of games to Facebook and eventually other appropriate social media channels, which include 3D elements and can be enjoyed by all age and interest groups."

Not only does this news follow the unfortunate reports of Ico creator Fumito Ueda had left Sony, but the increasing rate at which big time Japanese game creators are hopping on the social games bandwagon. This year alone saw the folks behind Mega Man, Sonic the Hedgehog and games like No More Heroes break onto the scene. At least where "compelling" social games are concerned, let's hope they're all onto something.

Raptr users fell in love with The Sims Social in every way this year

Who saw this one coming? (Not us, based on AppData numbers.) Raptr, the social network and tracking service for gamers, issued a report detailing its First Annual Playtime Awards, recognizing the most played games across several genres. When it comes to social games, EA and Playfish's The Sims Social dominated, accumulating more playtime in its first month than any social game released this year did in its first 30 days.

The report goes on to reveal that the average Sims Social player logged 1.37 hours in the first week, which is 16 percent more than Zynga's two best games released this year. Breaking it down even further, The Sims' debut on Facebook also garnered five times the playtime of Zynga's Mafia Wars 2, 18 percent more than CastleVille, and 33 percent more than Empires & Allies. (However, CastleVille garnered longer average play sessions than its competitor.)

Finally, Raptr points out that, when The Sims Social launched this summer, playtime in FarmVille and E&A dropped by 25 percent. In other words, The Sims killed it this year on Facebook--at least where Raptr users are concerned. This is undoubtedly an achievement for Playfish's most successful game, but it's story plays out rather differently on services like AppData. You could argue that Raptr users are generally more "hardcore" gamers, so we can't wait to see their response when (or if) SimCity lands. Check out the full report, including the winners of all of the other genres, right here.

Are you surprised that The Sims Social won Raptr users over this year? Who do you think should have won?

Raptr users fell in love with The Sims Social in every way this year

Who saw this one coming? (Not us, based on AppData numbers.) Raptr, the social network and tracking service for gamers, issued a report detailing its First Annual Playtime Awards, recognizing the most played games across several genres. When it comes to social games, EA and Playfish's The Sims Social dominated, accumulating more playtime in its first month than any social game released this year did in its first 30 days.

The report goes on to reveal that the average Sims Social player logged 1.37 hours in the first week, which is 16 percent more than Zynga's two best games released this year. Breaking it down even further, The Sims' debut on Facebook also garnered five times the playtime of Zynga's Mafia Wars 2, 18 percent more than CastleVille, and 33 percent more than Empires & Allies. (However, CastleVille garnered longer average play sessions than its competitor.)

Finally, Raptr points out that, when The Sims Social launched this summer, playtime in FarmVille and E&A dropped by 25 percent. In other words, The Sims killed it this year on Facebook--at least where Raptr users are concerned. This is undoubtedly an achievement for Playfish's most successful game, but it's story plays out rather differently on services like AppData. You could argue that Raptr users are generally more "hardcore" gamers, so we can't wait to see their response when (or if) SimCity lands. Check out the full report, including the winners of all of the other genres, right here.

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus doesn't like it when fans play for too long

Right. During an interview with MIT's Technology Review, FarmVille creator Zynga's CEO Mark Pincus said, "I don't like it when I find out that people are averaging long session times in any of our games. All of the newer games that we bring out are trying to reduce those session times. Because one of the biggest reasons people don't play games is they say that they don't have the time."

According to Technology Review, this comment was made before the CityVille maker agreed to a quiet period prior to its upcoming initial public offering (IPO). The butt of that quote may be true, but Pincus's words strike us as odd. They're especially odd considering the not-so-tiny 5 percent of paying players--about 54 million people--is likely the crop of players that spend the most time in games like Adventure World and CastleVille.

Technology Review says that the burst-style gameplay of its games can spur players to eventually pay up, quoting one player in particular that plays up to four hours daily in short 15-minute spurts. "You start spending time playing a game, and you find that you care about it for any host of reasons, if we [design] it well," Pincus told Technology Review, "and at some point you may see that by spending some money you can save yourself a bunch of time [or] get something that has status or changes your friends' view of you."
Sure, these in-game boosts can save players time, but they can also serve to keep players in-game for longer. The more virtual items bought outright, the less energy spent on procuring them, and thus more time spent doing other things in the game. This writer is willing to bet that the average whale, a casino term used to describe social gamers that spend large amounts of money, spends way more time than the average player that throws up maybe a few bucks a week. And we're sure Zynga likes them just teeny, tiny bit more.

Would you consider yourself a "whale" or know someone that might be a whale? How much time do you or they spend playing Facebook games daily?

Half of all U.S. social gamers own a game console, RockYou study says

As if we already didn't know: Some social gamers are more "hardcore" than we thought. But the next study released that attempts to drive this point home is courtesy of Zoo World creator RockYou and conducted by Interpret, a media research firm. Titled the "Social Gamer Thought Leadership Research Study," it finds that 50 percent of U.S. social gamers own a traditional gaming console.

The study, which polled over 2,00 social game fans living in the U.S. aged 18 and older with a 60-40 women to men split, also found that social gamers are more "sophisticated." To back up the claim, the study reports a quarter of social gamers prefer games with quests, and that 22 percent admit that score-sharing drives their urge to play more. Oh, and these players also spend quite a bit of time with the games.

Of the over 2,000 people polled, RockYou and Interpret found that the average social gamer spends an average of 9.5 hours playing out of the 13 average hours they spend on networks like Facebook. The average social game player, according to the study, has just over 16 real-life frieds playing these games with them and has made 20 new friends through social games. Of course, the study doesn't get into how deep said friendships are, but how could you?

The study also reports that 42 percent of social gamers would play a social game more, if offered real world rewards like coupons or gift cards. (But isn't the idea to get them to pay up?) It was just recently that Raptr discovered that a number of Zynga fans may be Halo and Grand Theft Auto fans, too. And before that, Kabam found in its own study that the hardcore crowd on Facebook is growing.

What should you take away from this influx of studies and reports? Regardless of whether you still dig tending to virtual crops or running a shanty town, many developers--even the "casual" ones--seem all but done with your farms and cities of yore.

What do you think of the numerous reports on the growing hardcore crowd in social games? How do you think this will change the industry in the long run? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment