Facebook Games - Mafia Wars, et al.

[Furiously]

http://fury.com/2010/02/jesse-shells-mindblowing-talk-on-the-future-of-games-dice-2010/

Thought it was an excellent watch. Talks about how facebook games threw the industry for a total loop, the success of rock band, the wii and what might be in our future.

[Mosesandstick]

Interesting, but didn't Mary Poppins cover the latter half of his talk a long time ago?

[schild]

I liked his manner of speaking, but I have no worries that that future - while it may be attempted - will never come to pass. I'm still waiting for a Pokemon MMOG and now one complete with little vinyl figures that have codes to unlock games and chase figures being worth thousands of dollars.

Nintendo, so smart, yet so ridiculously stupid.

[Hutch]

My current FB pastime (ok, addiction) is Treasure Madness.

This one hits the achiever, explorer, and collector buttons. Also, mini-games. And holiday specials.

[Signe]

So, do facebook games just stay in "beta" forever?  Do they do it so they get benefits without being completely accountable to their customers?  It's a nasty way to conduct business, no?

[schild]

So, do facebook games just stay in "beta" forever?  Do they do it so they get benefits without being completely accountable to their customers?  It's a nasty way to conduct business, no?

No Facebook game I know of has kept stuff in beta as long as say Google has kept stuff in beta, that said, they have no real release date and they evolve faster than MMOGs do, so I'm not sure it's nasty so much as just "how it has to be." I'm not really "into" the politics of Facebook betas though, but I can assure you no one sits around drinking cognac in high leather chairs thinking about how to dominate the world without ever actually finishing anything.

Edit: Actually, I can only speak for myself, and I design the damn things. There might be people at other companies that refer to themselves as Dr. Claw and laugh about the beta tag on apps, I don't know.

[Musashi]

[schild]

Yes, that was the joke.

[Raph]

Our new one is out now, My Vineyard. Trying some stuff that's new for these games -- a dash of story, a bit more complexity.

http://www.facebook.com/MyVineyard

[Signe]

Our new one is out now, My Vineyard. Trying some stuff that's new for these games -- a dash of story, a bit more complexity.

http://www.facebook.com/MyVineyard

This one is really pretty!

[Lantyssa]

Interesting use of the Metaplace stuff put into Facebook.

[Raph]

Add me. 

[JWIV]

I heartily approve of the theme.  Also, gathering grapes and stomping them is already 10000%  less tedious than planting/tilling ever was in farmville.

[schild]

Punching grapes is even less tedious.

[JWIV]

Oddly enough, the game feels a bit cramped.  I kept wanting to zoom out further and see more of the area.    Switching to fullscreen however seemed to resolve that.

[Slyfeind]

Just came out and 17,000 fans already? Wootz!

[Raph]

It's well over 100,000 players already actually. And our other one, Island Life, is well past 600k. In other words, IL is the most popular game I have ever worked on.

JWIV, you can buy terroir on the market, which expands your space. You get to decide where to expand, so you can sculpt the space any way you like. Check out the pics on the app's wall for stuff users have done.

[schild]

To be fair though Raph, in a vacuum those numbers mean precisely nothing. Nonetheless, knowing that, grats on passing 500k.

[Raph]

That was MAU. All the stats are visible on appdata.com anyway. :)

[LK]

Social networks man... they are a great built-in audience.

[Signe]

Well, I think I played Ponzi as far as it goes for the moment and all the farming games are very similar to each other.  I'm tired of cooking food.  The War ones don't really entertain me much.  I'll still fiddle with Raph's farming wino game to see how it goes but I've pretty much put a closed sign on anything else.   Except for the Ponzi game, they're all pretty much the same.  Feel free to direct me to anything that seems different.  I'm not subbed to any MMORPG at the moment but have bought a new PS3 and a pile of games that will keep me entertained until [Space for Some Unknown MMO] comes out.  I think I'm all Facebooked out.   

[Musashi]

Yea.  I got to level 50 on Ponzi, and now it's just silly.

[Lantyssa]

I'd like to see a facebook 'game' that is actually a game.  Most seem to be slot machines where your input doesn't make much difference.

[Samwise]

The Facebook "Desktop Defender" tower defense game is pretty sweet.  It's basically Desktop Tower Defense with upgrades you can buy, leaderboards, and a new map every week.

[schild]

Just to put it out there, I stopped working on Ponzi probably mid-December. Worked on Warstorm until about a month ago, and have been working on various other things here and there since. More info as soon as I can give it, of course.

[Signe]

Yes, I remember you saying you weren't doing the Ponzi game anymore.  It seems to have pretty much stopped, too, except for adding some aesthetic bits. No more rooms and I haven't noticed any new snarky comments.  So, it looks like level 135 might be it for me, for now.  I'm usually not this dedicated!  Make me a new distraction, please.  (but no farms!)

[Musashi]

If you like tower defense distraction variety, I'll second the recommendation for the Facebook version of Desktop Tower Defense.  I loved the original(s) and the Facebook version is pretty cool.  Takes a few wins to get going though.

[Xanthippe]

My Empire - Playfish game.  Seems buggy.  Every time I load the game, my people are unhappy.  So I spend my funds on decorations to make them happy and then some.  Come back later, and they're unhappy again.  What gives!

[Mosesandstick]

Have to keep playing?

[Xanthippe]

No, I mean, my population will be at say, 850 (happily).  I go away and come back, haven't changed anything, and now my population is limited to 766 because of happiness.

It's either a bug or a patch, I don't know which. 

Or maybe it's a feature!

[Xanthippe]

If you like tower defense distraction variety, I'll second the recommendation for the Facebook version of Desktop Tower Defense.  I loved the original(s) and the Facebook version is pretty cool.  Takes a few wins to get going though.

You might like Backyard Monsters.  It's sort of a combination of resource gathering, defending territory and growing monsters, where you can both attack and be attacked by other players.  I just started, graphics are pretty.

[Signe]

Look how cute!



I started but it hung forever so I wandered off.

[Xanthippe]

In Backyard Monsters, you have 2 weeks of immunity from other players (not from wild monsters) to build your base.  It seems pretty intensive for the first few hours.

My Empire is definitely buggy on the population/happiness thing.

Is there any way with these games to start over?

In other news, Zynga is making rumbles about making their own Facebook network, because they are unhappy with the 30% cut Facebook wants to take from their online transactions.  Or Facebook may be banning Zynga.  It all depends on who you listen to.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article7125932.ece

[Samwise]

Good riddance IMO.  Their games are complete trash.  Addictive, spammy trash.

[Krakrok]

Raph has competition now from Vineyard Country.


And Zynga bought Challenge Games so now schild works for Zynga?