In addition to keeping track of friends and family, Facebook also enables users to indulge in a little casual gaming to help pass the time. Originally these games were all very simple 'click the button to get some set outcome' affairs with people who wanted to click the button more often having to pay some real world money for the privilege. Farmville was the king of these early days with its 'click the button to choose what new buttons to make and where to put them, and then get your friends to click those buttons' system having enough window dressing to make it seem like a deeper experience than it actually was. And so it was that after a brief dabble I gave up on Facebook games, that is until I saw a notification saying 'your friend is play CivWorld'.
I've always enjoyed occasionally playing the Civilisation games (while I always enjoy playing them I just can't ever seem to bring my self to play through them more than twice, the exception being the original Civilisation and Colonisation on the Amiga) and thought I'd check it out. I was pleasantly surprised, rather than running a whole nation you are given control of a single city which you decide they layout of and also which resources it will generate. While basic resource gathering is still a simple click the button experience, CivWorld manages to make that the minor part of the game. Most of your play time involves gathering additional resources through minigames, joining a nation, and taking part in votes to determine which path to victory your nation should pursue. While I did enjoy playing the game I still had the same old problem of after playing through twice I couldn't really be bothered playing it again (yes unlike most other Facebook games CivWorld has an end).
I next saw that people were playing The Sims Social and again my interest was peaked. Much like with CivWorld I was pleasantly surprised by this game. The main differences between The Sims Social and a normal Sims game is that you only control a single Sim and can only carry out a set number of actions per unit time (unless you are willing to part with real world money). In addition to the usual teach your Sim skills to get money and upgrade their house, the game sets lots of small goals to keep you playing and interested. What ultimately killed my desire to play The Sims Social was that it was too popular and I was receiving so many notifications and requests from other players that it just got annoying (I know that you can adjust how these messages are handled but they should default to off and not make me put in the extra effort to remove them).
The final game I will talk about is War Metal: Tyrant an on-line CCG. What makes Tyrant enjoyable is that it has a main quest arc which, as you play through, gives you more and better cards; in addition to this you can battle other players, form factions, and take part in tournaments that have in-game prize support. While the actual game is neither ground breaking nor revolutionary it is enjoyable enough, its biggest problem is that the game usually comes down to who can build the most momentum in the first few turns, making the second half of the match often a forgone conclusion.
I am pleased to say that the quality of games on Facebook has greatly improved over the years and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for this gaming medium. I just hope that future games are less intrusive and find a way to do away with the play limits for non-subscribers (maybe in-game product placement would fix this, although The Sims Social has both product placement and energy limits).
No comments:
Post a Comment