Posts Tagged ‘social games’

Google didn’t exactly offer much fanfare for this new feature — as far as we can tell, it still hasn’t been officially announced. With the latest update to the Maps app, Mountain View delivered an extra level of functionality to the all but forgotten Latitude. Now check check-ins earn you points which are tallied and used to rank Google+ users on a global leaderboard, just like on Foursquare.

You can read the whole article here: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/19/google-quietly-launches-latitude-leaderboards/

Social networks can be a valuable tool when it comes to getting your name out there, but while many businesses have a Facebook page it’s surprising how often little to no effort is put into using them effectively. No mater how diligently you answer comments on your wall, there will come a time when your user base will grow bored. Here are a few sure fire ways to keep them interested and coming back.

Incentive Programs

A good starting place for making sure your user base sticks around is to give them a reason to. It’s pretty commonplace to see sweepstakes and giveaways as a way to encourage more people to comment, like, and generally keep interest high. What is less common and far more effective, however, is to make a game out of it. As an example, if you implemented a system where points are given for various actions—ten points for liking a page, maybe twenty for referring another user to like the page, and five points for every comment posted—you’re immediately giving your users something to work towards and a sense of progression not unlike those found in video games.

Best Using the Point System

Once you have a system like this put in place, it’s important that when an eventual winner, or winners of this game are chosen, no one feels cheated or like their time was wasted. The best way to do this is to foster a sense of community, and make your users feel like they are working together rather than against one another. A good example of a way to implement this is to keep a grand point total as well as an individual point total, and give incentives to the entire community at various points. When the grand total reaches one hundred thousand points lets say, everyone gets a coupon code for five percent off at your or maybe a partner retailer. This increases sales, makes everyone feel like they have won, and keeps interest in your page extremely high.

Source:

• jeffbullas.com by Heather Green
• Image by Master Isolated Images

“The battle’s been raging for years to try and put together a ‘social network for gamers’.  The idea is that gamers everywhere need a place where they can hook up with one another, share their scores across all their platforms, challenge one another and find new games.  I’ve seen it tried in some form by EA Rupture, Zynga, OfferPal (now TapJoy), Facebook and even Apple.  Among the various efforts, though Raptr has stood out as a solid option, combining a simple interface with a plethora of options.  Today, Raptr’s upgrading.

Raptr announced today that they are launching a social news platform, which is essentially a news feed.  This will be broadcast to its 8m+ user base today, and the goal is to get gamers interacting with one another more, and likely discovering new games and opportunities based on the feed.  They’re not saying much about the algorithm that chooses what gamer stories you see, but they’ve indicated it will be based on what you play, what platforms you use and what your friends do.  Raptr’s CEO, Dennis Fong, explains:

“At Raptr we’re reinventing the way people stay connected and informed about the games they care about. We’re excited by the launch of the new community-driven website because it builds upon the success of our existing service and provides a new way to discover and share content.”

Check out Raptr and let us know what you think.  The list of features available at the site are given below as well, in case you weren’t sure what else you can get out of the service.

• Personalized news feed
• Community-curated content
• Expanded topics to include all things related to gaming
• Suggestion engine to help you discover new games
• Automatic gameplay and achievements tracker on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3
• Centralized buddy list and friend tracker
• In-game chat and web browsing for PC games”

Source:

• socialtimes.com by Neil Vidyarthi

Amid booming consumer spend on PC social networking games in 2010, Zynga managed to pad its market share lead over the other top operators, based on the success of its CityVille and FarmVille offerings, new IHS Screen Digest (NYSE: IHS) research indicates.

Consumer spend on Zynga’s PC social networking games and its revenue from lead generation and advertising activities amounted to $544 million in 2010, giving it 39.1 percent share of the global market, a 4.2 percentage point increase over 2009. This represented the largest increase among the Top 5 operators.

The IHS Screen Digest market ranking of the Top 5 PC social networking game operators is presented in the attached table. The market sizing of PC social network games combines consumer spend on both microtransactions and operator revenues that have been derived from lead generation and advertising.

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Despite the record-breaking activity resulting from the release of Zynga’s CityVille on Facebook in December 2010, the leading social network has seen its gaming userbase swiftly settle back into the mature groove heralded in the second half of last year. One record left untouched by CityVille’s immense touchdown is that of average engagement of the top games, which stubbornly holds firm.

Wheras Zynga may have successfully expanded its position on Facebook in the past quarter, performance isn’t as rosy for some of 2010′s major companies, as increased competition and other factors take toll, and newly released games become essential for combating churn, offering little growth.

Further, we offer closer looks at the numerous alternative networks to Facebook that are presenting opportunity to European operators, such as V Kontakte, Tuenti and Nasza Klasa. Three prominent Facebook titles of various note are also examined in greater detail: Bejeweled Blitz, Ravenwood Fair and Millionaire City.

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