DESIGNER NOTES » Blog Archive » “Fear and Loathing in Farmville” Why game designers are flocking to facebook: 1) True friends list: … Multiplayer games no longer suffer from the Catch-22 of requiring friends to be fun while new players always start the game without friends. 2) Free-to-play business model: New players need not shell out $60 to join the crowd. Consumers don’t like buying multiplayer games unless they know that their friends are all going to buy the game as well. 3) Persistent, asynchronous play: Finding time to play with one’s real friends is difficult, especially for working, adult gamers. Asynchronous mechanics, however, let gamers play at their own pace and with their own friends, not strangers who happen to be online at the same time. 4) Metrics-based iteration: Retail games are developed in a vacuum, with designers working by gut instinct. Further, games get only one launch, a single chance to succeed. Most developers would love, instead, to iterate quickly on genuine, live feedback. (categories: gamesfacebookdesignsocialsoftwaremotivationmetrics )