Status in Social Games: There’s two different kinds
It’s common to think that a shiny new piece of technology brings with it an entirely unique experience of the world. For a number of reasons people involved with cutting edge experiences can dismiss thousands of years of human history and try to treat
If other people are your resources when you play a social game, then what is it that lets the user that both communicates and interacts with that resource?
The answer is Status.
And when it comes to Social Games it’s a word with two meanings. Direct status defines player’s position in the world as the game defines it. How many points/levels/gold etc. they have. And then there’s their position relative to the other people playing: relative status. Both are important in Social Games, but the second obviously has even more importance for social media, because that relative status allows the developer to parse just how much value each user can provide.
A pretty good example of this in action is the standard "X-Wars" games like Mob Wars, Mafia Wars, etc. Because there’s money in having more people playing the game, the developers are mostly interested in using player Status as a way to get more people to become players.
The first kind of relative status is simply being a Facebook friend. The rules of the X-Wars game make everyone on the friend’s list a potential resource for the player. The game will push the player hard to get them to invite them their friends to play the game. The game rewards for converting them, by allowing you to purchase bigger and better stuff. Essentially it’s asking the player to ask their friends whether they would be willing to change their status to help you out, and vice versa.
Ultimately that Direct status can be compared to other player’s on a score ladder, using your direct status to compare it to other people’s relative status.
Get it?
It’s one of the key methods of social communication inside a game, and in MMOs, it’s also one of the key motivators.
Thoughts? Questions? Throw them in the comments below.
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[...] be clear, the type of game we’re trying are of the “X-Wars” variety – RPGs-lite with plenty of items and missions, with player-v-player battling [...]