I never had a Nintendo. Don’t get me wrong – I always wanted one, my parents would never buy one for me (don’t worry, I still love them). I was forced to enjoy a good game of cards, or Monopoly, or Scrabble, or even Clue. But growing up in the late 80′s and early 90′s, all I wanted was to be able to play Mario Brothers 3 without having to visit my friend down the street. I’m not necessarily a gamer, but I’m certainly as competitive as the next guy: just check out my article at The Good Men Project, where I ask what it means to “win” at life.
So it comes as no surprise that when offered the chance to combine my love of emerging technology with some sort of competition, I’m, um, game. Enter: social gaming.
Social gaming is the use of social media for competition. You’ve seen it already: games built on social media platforms (Farmville, Mafia Wars), social media platforms with game layers (Foursquare, Whrrl), and games built on their own platforms (SCVNGR).
Completing a SCVNGR Trek Activity. Noooooorm!
Last week I had the opportunity to try SCVNGR at the AdClub’s Hatch Trek, a hunt around the city of Boston, culminating in a cocktail hour to introduce the judges for the 50th Hatch Awards. My partner in hunting, John Park, and I moved through the city, completing certain tasks and answering trivia questions.
The team over at Allen & Gerritsen have put together a great recap of what SCVNGR does well and what it does poorly but here’s my quick summary: It was a great way to learn about the city, showcase the event sponsors (each stop had a tie in to a sponsor), and get out on a nice (albeit muggy) evening in Boston. The problem is when it came to announcing a winner. John and I completed every task, answering all trivia questions. But if we didn’t type in the answer exactly as the administrator expected us to, it would lock us out after a few tries. And while I was on a team, there was no real way to connect John’s SMS interaction with the system and my iPhone app based interaction.
These points seem minor. And they were. Like I say, we had a lot of fun and eventually ended up at the cocktail hour to network and enjoy some post-game refreshments. But even these small flaws in the system highlight something important about social gaming: it’s still a game. I mean, I wanted to have fun…but I also wanted to win an iPad.
We’ve already seen plenty of discussion about how platforms like Foursquare are working against “cheaters.” The CEO of SCVNGR, Seth Priebatsch, spoke at TEDxBoston 2010 last week and said that “the previous decade was about social, this one is about gaming.” He’s probably right – just take a look at Google’s recent acquisition of Slide.
People are competitive. They like a challenge. In fact, the reason some Apple Stores were built with a false floor is because once someone takes a step on to the six inch incline at the entrance to the store, they want to complete that challenge and come all the way in. But with competition comes other problems. I hope Priebatsch is right and we’re about to see a huge expansion in the social gaming sector. I’m extremely curious to see how these problems get worked out.
