In examining these games, this article will ultimately indicate the need for game studies to interrogate the intersection between commercial motivations and game design and a broader need for media and cultural studies to consider the social, cultural, economic and political implications of impatience. This article will examine three ‘freemium’ games, Snoopy Street Fair, The Simpsons’ Tapped Out and Dragonvale, to explore how they combine established branding strategies with gameplay methods that monetize player impatience. Although offering a free gameplay experience in line with open access philosophies, these games also create systems that offer control over the temporal dynamics of that experience to monetize player attention and inattention. Free to download, but structured around micropayments, these games raise the complex relationship between game design and commercial strategies. The gaming industry has seen dramatic change and expansion with the emergence of ‘casual’ games that promote shorter periods of gameplay. Through the PLEX framework, this research helps to understand the playful experiences in social network games. The genre-specific analysis revealed both similarities and differences between the genres, while the outlier experiences provide new perspectives on social network games. Based on our study, Competition, Completion and Challenge are the most common playful experiences in these games. Lastly, we provide examples of interesting outlier experiences. Then we focus on genre specific experiences in casual puzzle, casual simulation, and mid-core strategy games. First, we provide an overall analysis on playful experiences in social network games. We analyzed 110 reports containing 330 PLEX descriptions and present findings from three perspectives. In our study, 110 informants played 23 games on Facebook and reported their experiences using the Playful Experiences (PLEX) framework. Despite their popularity, qualitative research on experiences in these games has been scarce. Social network games are popular pastime for millions of players on Facebook.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |