Social Networking Profiling - The Missing Link

When the theme of Social Networking is at hand, usually a few keywords come to mind – MySpace, community, friend list, pictures – amongst a few others that, when place together, build in our imaginary the concept of a Social Networking Website. But, what most people fail to notice is that Social Networking as concept is evolving beyond its original model, developing new areas, restructuring the basics and adding a new extra value for the users.

In a previous post, I explained how users in a SNW can be placed in various categories. The next step is defining categories for the SNW – their structure, purpose and main types of users. But before starting with those posts, I thought it would be interesting approaching a type of website which can be considered a hybrid for SNW – browser games.

Browser games are, stating the obvious, games which are played via browser – they do not require an installation in the client side. Basically, the user accesses a website, where after reading the instruction and gaming context, he registers and account and starts playing. The games are mostly categorized in the strategy or RPG gaming – the user either has to control an empire and their resources in order to grow – such examples are the sci-fi Ogame or the medieval Travian - or he has to fight and develop his online text persona to be the best fighter – see Monster Game for reference. But the type with the most users and most titles are definitely the strategy based. And the main feature in these games is: they are multiplayer.

Essentially, the users are placed amongst other players and have to choose how to spend resources, what to build and what to research, amongst other common actions for a strategy game. But, since this article is not about game mechanic, I’ll focus at the theme at hand – the social networking inherent to these games. The main drive of these games are the users – they group together in alliances, fighting against each other, and have to follow rules defined by the alliance in order to be accepted. Not only that, they develop a collective conscience that creates, in most cases, an obligation to go online to aid their alliance. Actually, most of the users in these alliances become friends – chatting quite frequently and exchanging in game information. These games usually contain user profiles, pictures and friend lists – aka the same tools as your common social networking website. But with a main difference – there is a purpose for this engagement between the users.

Unlike the normal SNW, users have a regular return rate to the game – most up to 2 hours a day split into various accesses. While in the common SNW some users lose interest due to boredom, in these games they become more and more interested. The main difference when it comes to user retention is the moment of retention – SNW have a higher adherence in the beginning becomes it requires little engagement while OG take time to learn – but the user who insists will never leave the game.

To sum it up, the OG is the hybrid between SNW and Videogames. Critics would probably refer that the target for the OG are young techies – but it isn’t necessarily like this. These games are perfect for users who have little time to spend online but like to play. World of Warcraft might be a fabulous game, but the average working 35-year old man lacks the time to play it. But the OG usually requires only little time to build up a frankly good experience. Besides, one of the most famous OG is based on the management of a football team similar to the massive hit Football Manager.

For the marketers this is a good way to think about new ways to engage their clients. It provides a simple way to create added value to the costumers with little development besides Server Side – little when compared to an actual Videogame, of course. Just find a context, develop a system that pits the users against each other and brand it suavely. And then, the word-to-mouth kicks in – if you were able to respect the user and create an actual experience without just focusing on selling the brand, you’ll see the registries rising. This is a simple way to place it, but it can actually work! But, always take in mind that I’m not talking about flash-made puzzle games or even RPG games like the ever popular free game Maple Story, but games that are just text, a few images and a lot of server side programming to create a dynamic universe in the browser. I guess the best way to learn is to actual join one and give it a try. There are many for the taking!