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Sunday, December 27, 2009

App Economy/Social Gaming

Well,

A small intro. My college education was more or less ruined by (among other minor irritants)two strategy games , both from Blizzard: Warcraft and Starcraft. I swore to myself that I would never get addicted to games again, and has been successful for 12 years. So far, so good.

Enter Mafia Wars. The app game. Companies like Zynga (of the Farmwille fame, that relies on peer pressure more than anything else, according to one of my friends) and Playdom are making it big. I just tried Mafia Wars because a colleague was heavily into it, and I wanted to figure out why. I kind of figured out, but I am hooked now.
Moral: Never trust colleagues.

It's big money, with these companies raking in millions from the power of their ideas. (Question: Can you make a million or so in two weeks by selling virtual potato seeds?)

It's a little irritating too - these games will make you want to shell out solid cash for some of the features - the other option is to play for hours and get there. Anyway, the games are awesome, and I haven't heard anyone complain so far.

Is this a fad, like pet rocks? Time will tell. For now, the answer is no. At least until something better takes over.
Here's a good read:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_44/b4153044881892.htm

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