For a space that is considered the cutting edge of innovation, social game companies are missing two of the biggest trends in the entertainment and online spaces. There are no major social games that allow players to create and share content. And despite Facebook’s efforts, there really is no crowd sourcing or popularity measures that help people find social games.
User Generated Content
Rarely a day goes by without seeing a major user generated content initiative, from Super Bowl commercials created by consumers to the explosive growth of Quora, yet this trend has been virtually non-existent in the social gaming space. Ironically, it is easy to find ways that consumers could create content that would elevate these games. Players are often frustrated at the lack of new content once they have been playing a game for months or even weeks. Why not allow the community to create new content that is then used to keep the game fresh. There are great amateur artists who could create new building or even crops for a Cityville. I am sure there are also players who would love to create hidden object scenes for a game like Gardens of Time. Not only would you get fresh content, you would content that he game team has not even thought of. A game with user generated content would take on a life of its own.
User generated content is an even more attractive option to compliment a social game company’s international strategy. What better way to make a game feel more French than allowing French players to create local content. International versions of many social games reflect the biases and stereotypes of foreign countries often found in the Bay Area, be it sticking a “bag-ett” in a French game or making a Kalashnikov the only local content for a Russian version. Instead, allowing local players to customize the game creates a local game for each market, one that almost certainly will be more viral and monetize better.
Popularity
People are increasingly using different measures of popularity to make their choices, in entertainment, dining, purchasing, pretty much all aspects of life. Millions focus on top-reviewed restaurants on Yelp to pick a dining establishment, Amazon.com’s best seller list to find new books, trending Twitter topics to get their news, etc. As Bloomberg Businessweek pointed out in its 15 August issue, while there is no accounting for taste, the data can be helpful and even inspiring. Yet in social games, players cannot easily follow these trends. Seriously, players are not going to go to AppData to see the latest numbers. And Facebook does a terrible job of showing people what gams are hot, though they have tried a few times. The game companies are no better. If you are a fan of a Wooga game, can you easily find out which is their biggest game, not really.
This is another opportunity that takes on increased importance internationally. While foreign consumers often have different tastes, they usually like to use the performance of a product in one place to help them decide if it could be interesting. A movie that has failed in the US is much less likely to get traction in Poland, regardless of the merits of the film.
Overall, user generated content and better measures of popularity are fantastic opportunities for social game companies that can increase revenue and traffic significantly.
The Business of Social Games and Casino 