In the words of Joe Osborne of Games.com, let’s hope not. Facebook added to it’s Games Dashboard. One, is Games Stories, a section where you can view a scrollable feed of your friend’s games related activities. If Bob is sending you seeds in FarmVille, now you have one place to view this exciting development, instead of on your main profile feed.
The second change is that when you get a game related invite, the button you will view says “Accept and Play” instead of just “Accept.”
In the words of Joe Osborne of Games.com, let’s hope not. Facebook added to it’s Games Dashboard. One, is Games Stories, a section where you can view a scrollable feed of your friend’s games related activities. If Bob is sending you seeds in FarmVille, now you have one place to view this exciting development, instead of on your main profile feed.
The second change is that when you get a game related invite, the button you will view says “Accept and Play” instead of just “Accept.”
This is another attempt by Facebook to make it crystal clear to users that the invite or message is games-related. It’s a small tweak that Facebook is surely testing; over millions of requests, this small change could have a big impact for Facebook.
It feels like, however, yet another tweak Facebook is doing to keep non-gamers comfortable instead of making life better for gamers on its network. It’s a balancing act for Facebook, but it often feels like Facebook makes more changes to appeal to its non-gaming than gaming audience.
Hopefully, the next big change will be the launch of the fabled Facebook Games Portal, and we’ll see more features designed to appeal to Facebook gamers and instead of tweaks to satisfy non-gamers on the network.
Finally, I just noticed the Featured Games module on my Games Dashboard on the right hand side. It’s probably been there for awhile, but the thought occurred to me: How are the games picked to be in this module?
It is probably based on my gaming habits and behavior as well as the behavior of the game companies themselves (e.g., game companies that go out of their way to cooperate with Facebook, such as integrating Facebook Credits).
Definitely, the module is non-pay and non-promotional as of now. However, it seems like perfect space to sell along Google’s cost per click model. Facebook surely has plans to release a competitive product to Google Ad Sense in the future. This space would be a good place to start.
More information: Inside Social Games
