2. Social gaming
What is social gaming?

3. Social gaming
Social games encourage sharing between players, and run off social networks as a
result, with Facebook being the most popular. Usually, players are tasked with
building towards or maintaining a goal, and are rewarded for interacting with each
other, and for getting friends to play along, too. Most social games fall under the
free-to-play category as well.
Zynga is currently by far the biggest developer and distributor of social games.
Some of Zynga’s most popular works include FarmVille, CityVille, and Mafia Wars

4. Facebook games
Facebook is home to a multitude of
simple games played by millions. What
makes these games different from
other games? Here are some factors
that set them apart from other games
we have looked at:

5. Facebook games
• Turn-based – a social game is not
social unless you are playing with
another person. As such, social
games enable users to take turns.
Although turn-based games are
nothing new, they are a frequent
feature of “social games”.

6. Facebook games
• Awareness of others’ actions in
games – this was the catalyst for
“social gaming.” When you see in
your news feed that one of your
friends just bit another friend to turn
them into a vampire, suddenly there’s
social context – making you more
likely to interact with the game.

7. Facebook games
• Casual gaming – “social gaming” is
not really for core/hardcore gamers.
Social gaming is for the average user
and not for someone who plans on
playing 24 hours a day. However,
some social games can become
addictive…

14. Facebook games
• Multiplayer – You can’t be social
without there being other people so
whether it’s two or two hundred
users, the game has to multiplayer for
it to be social.

15. Facebook games
• Based on social platforms – They are
based around social networking sites –
with Facebook being the obvious site
they are found on. This means that
newcomers do not have to go far to find
new games and they are almost always
instantly understandable and instantly
playable – there aren’t “minimum
system requirements” or any costs
involved.

17. The story of Zynga
• Zynga is a company that develops games for
use on social networking websites such as
Facebook and Google+, as well developing
games for Apple iOS and Android
• As of July 2012, Zynga’s games had over 306
million monthly active users – this is the
standard for measuring success in the social
gaming market, also shortened to MAU.

18. The story of Zynga
• If you have ever played a game on Facebook
the chances are it will have been developed by
Zynga! If you haven’t, I bet someone on your
newsfeed has!
• In 2010, Zynga signed an exclusivity deal with
Facebook for new titles to come to Facebook
first. The relationship between Zynga and
Facebook is definitely symbiotic – in 2011,
Zynga generated 12% of Facebook’s total
revenue.

19. Blog Tasks for Lesson 1
Most of this information can be found on the Zynga Wikipedia page or on the
Zynga post on the year 12 Blog.
• PART 1: Research what the business model is for
Zynga ie. How can a company that allows consumers to
play their game for free be profitable? How do they
make their money? Remember: They are a business,
not a charity! £££
• PART 2: Research Farmville 2 that was released this
month – what strategies have Zynga used to promote
their new game? They use different tactics from our
regular AAA console games. You will need to finish this
task at home by having a play on Facebook or by
playing their apps – not just Farmville 2 but some other
Zynga games.

21. Reading up on Zynga
• Due to the nature of Zynga’s business, they are
always in the news for some reason! I have put a
handful of articles up on my Blog for you to read
– you need to become regular digesters of all
things gaming, especially any of the companies
we have looked at (Rockstar, Mojang, Activision,
Zynga)
• Task for lesson 2: Read several current news
articles about Zynga (Google News or Bing News)
and summarise the issues involving the social
gaming market today.

22. Tasks that need to be
completed by next
lesson:
3 Blogposts to do with social gaming – try to
include details and statistics to flesh out your
answers, not one sentence posts or copy/pasting!
1. Zynga’s business model – how do they make
money?
2. Case study on Farmville 2: How is it marketed?
3. Read up on Zynga in the news – summarise the
current state of the social gaming market today
Thursday (L22): Revisiting convergence and other
issues highlighted from the halfway tests!