The games people play
Social gaming: not just for Facebook anymore
By Chris O'Neal 06/30/2011
Aunt Agnes has picked a rutabaga in Farmville, which is great news. Last you heard she was bedridden and couldn’t remember your name. But she can’t plant next year’s crop alone; she needs you and 30 of your friends to do that for her. Aunt Agnes remembers when farming used to involve an hour’s worth of calamine lotion to stop the stinging, but via Facebook, she can bake a pie and never touch any of the appliances that confuse her so. Welcome to the next generation of social gaming — it’s been here for a while, in a crude, borderline perverse manner via status updates and constant nagging. Now is the golden age, though. Now, your hoarding simulators are everywhere you want to be.
Prior to E3, Facebook and the many games that litter our walls were received, at best, by scrolling away or using the “ignore” feature. After E3, there’s just too much good to be had. Take, for instance, Gardens of Time from developer Playdom as part of Disney Interactive. Set in the Victorian era of regal gardens and social gatherings, Gardens of Time incorporates a hidden-object element (think Where’s Waldo) with a feng shui-like mentality.
Using a time machine, which appears as a globular object in the middle of a garden, the player is transported to different moments in time where something is “wrong.” Find the objects listed at the bottom of the screen to earn points and money to spend in the garden and unlock new levels. What sets this apart from other Facebook-based games are the detailed designs and the ability for cooperative play, solving puzzles alongside your Victorian pals. Of course, there is the ability to share every single (and I do mean every single) achievement on your Facebook wall, but it can be bypassed. What lies beneath the very familiar marketing strategy is a unique and quaint time-killer, one part Sim City, one part Carmen San Diego.
If you’re one of those for whom Facebook has become Sauron, an ever-present all-seeing evil, then there are other methods by which to form a dependence, namely, via your smartphone.
Japanese publisher DeNA announced last week that it will be bringing Level 5’s highly acclaimed Professor Layton series to an app store near you. This fall, Professor Layton Royale will hit Japan, where games based on the iPhone and other phones sans “i” have enjoyed a robust gaming market, followed by a release worldwide. Expect puzzling hijinks with an English sensibility, allowing for a multiplayer experience not seen before in the Layton series.
Another major theme of E3 this year was “free to play” (FTP), a phrase that reeks of “Oh, God, they’ve stolen my identity.” Alarms go off when the word “free” is tossed around, so a little skepticism is a good approach to the varied offering of FTP games available.
From Chinese developer Perfect World’s multitude of rather top-notch first-person shooters (Black Light) and MMORPGs (Rusty Hearts features a busty redhead with a scythe, which should draw a crowd regardless of the game’s quality) to Nival’s Prime World, a war simulator pitting you against — you guessed it, your Facebook friends, these games are indeed free to play. But if you’re one for upgrades, expect to pay for it. (For instance, a unique weapon might run you a dollar in the equivalent currency used in game.)
Of course, the theme that binds all of the above together is the idea that if a player wants to be the best, the player will pay for that advantage, whether it be a bird feeder in Gardens of Time or a phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range. Simulators especially tease players with gifts over time, in small enough increments to keep players from quitting, in hopes that they’ll purchase upgrades. In other words, how is gardening like smoking?
Chris O’Neal is a rebel without a motorcycle. Follow him on Twitter @AgentONeal.
chris.oneal13@gmail.com
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT