Using your friends: social mechanics in social games

Author(s)
Consalvo, Mia
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Abstract
This paper analyzes the social mechanics in top social games. It identifies several mechanisms by which social games encourage sociality: the friend bar, gifting, visiting, challenge/competition, and communication. Different implementations of these components result in varying gameplay experiences. However, no mechanics were found to offer very deep or sustained social interactions between players.
Date issued
2011-06
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/100463
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing
Journal
Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Foundations of Digital Games (FDG '11)
Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Citation
Mia Consalvo. 2011. Using your friends: social mechanics in social games. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Foundations of Digital Games (FDG '11). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 188-195.
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISBN
9781450308045
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