A History of Social Games

Over on his blog, Jon Radoff provides a terrific map of the history of social games.  Really worth looking over in its more detailed version.  He starts with ancient times and wends his way down to the present (leaving out many games, even some seminal ones, but still catching the main currents).

What I'm most interested in is where we are now and (of course) what's next.  Jon's brief taxonomy separates current social games into Strategy, Sim, RPG, and "experiences" (music, pets, etc.). Not a bad set of categories -- and note that this includes some social games as descendants of MMOs and VWs as they descended from paper RPGs and MUDs.   I'm particularly interested in the potentially convergent growth of RPGs (Mafia Wars, etc.) and Sim games (Farmtown, Social City), and whether both can interweave well with some kinds of strategy games.  Are these kinds of games sufficiently social that as they evolve they can support hybrids and cross-overs, or are we more or less stuck with these genres?

(Crossposted in slightly edited form from my Online Alchemy blog.)

Comments

[Cunzy11]

1.

Contrived!

[robusticus]

2.

I agree, I think we're seeing and will continue to see all types of games.

While there is alot to be said for playing with people you don't know, the case for the majority of MMO players... it is a potentially far more powerful thing to offer that along with enabling existing social groups. As that image points out humanity's been doing that already for a long enough time to declare the concept beyond a fad.

[billd]

3.

Lacks an entire category of games -- what might be called 'schoolyard games.' Things like tag, hopscotch, jacks, etc.

[David]

4.

Ultima Online should get the credit for MMORPGs. It went online in 1997 and was mature by the time Everquest came online.

[Mike Sellers]

5.

billd: Interesting thought about schoolyard games - very much in the ilinx tradition.

David: Meridian 59 was out a year before UO. Radoff has said he's used a representative name in most categories, not trying to get the first. I think we can give him EQ.

[Stabs]

6.

I'm not sure free-to-play games will enjoy being depicted as the bastard offspring of World of Warcraft and professional gold farming.

[John Beety]

7.

@Stabs: They may not like it, but how much truth is there to it? That's the real question.

I found the diagram thought-provoking. Look hard enough and there are a few quibbles to be had (play by mail associated with tactical wargames instead of chess via correspondence chess, for example), but an excellent visual representation nonetheless.

[Brandon Dennis]

8.

There are plenty of ways to make a social RPG, for instance, interesting and different from the "name brands" out there. My company has made a social RPG named Expedition (and I'll of course plant the obligatory link at the end) but we went out of our way to make it different from the power-houses.

The point is to find new and inventive ways to make the game more engaging. I think of social games as having there own genres. For example, there are story based shooters, like Halo and Half Life 2. Yes, they are similar, but the two are also uniquely different, enough to appeal to different people (I, for one, love Half Life, but am not too fond of Halo).

Now for the link to my game :P
http://apps.facebook.com/expeditionegypt/?yad=5017

[Warhammer 40k]

9.

I think that popular IPs will continue to dominate for quite some time however, the MMO market is becoming so crowded that they will have to start offering something other than a popular brand name (i.e. Star Wars, Lord Of The Rings etc).