Suttree.com: Casual Games, Social Software by Duncan Gough

Previously, I’ve talked about how casual games and social software have started to merge with the key players showing encouraging signs of success. A number of browser based web-mogs have grown very popular. These web-mogs are also worth examining since their ‘page-per-action’ approach to gameplay is conducive to a high number of page views, which equates to a decent slice of ad revenue. Travian continues its astonishing growth, somthing I’d attribute to its’ built in localisation, definitely an area where European game developers can claim a head-start. According to Alexa.com (not the most reliable of sources, I know), the average number of page views per user on Travian is an impressive 37. As a business model for Casual Games (well, Passive Games, really), it’s very attractive.

If web-mogs are one side of the Massively Casual Online games trend, then the Item Model is the other. MCOs are where Casual Games and Social Software collide. They bring elements of Passive Gaming and Web Mogs along too. My ideal MCO will have the offline learning of EVE Online, the RESTful APIs of a sharing website like Flickr, the persistance of any decent MMORPG and the passive immersion of web mogs.

How does this now include Real Life, though? The Item Model gives game developers a business model that offers the increasingly popular all-you-can-eat style of subscriptions. Paying for what you want and how you play a game gives consumers the choice of how to spend their money. Not being tied in to a monthly subscription fee elimintes the ‘obligation’ factor that turns many people away from traditional MMORPGs - being obliged to play a game that you’ve paid for soon feels like a chore. The Item Model negates this by giving the player the choice of how much investment (both in time and money) they make, whilst removing the ‘chore’ factor. MCOs can also claim more success with the Item Model as their audience of younger gamers are happier spending money online for virtual items. Now, though, it seems like HabboChina, part of the HabboHotel network, a Casual Virtual World leader, is making big steps in this direction.

And, in more detail:

This is the logical extension of the idea that Casual Games are fighting to become known as the provider for many of the core services, in this case game types.

Where Casual Games and Social Software have mixed, importantly, is the area of community. Web-mogs, MMORPGs and MCOs have all taken on board important lessons about how to sustain a community. Social software websites have, in comparison, added the element of fun to their offerings, using avatars and classic game mechanics of risk and reward to involve their users and build a more vibrant community. In my opinion, many Web 2.0 websites have really taken the lead on this, almost out-gaming the games websites. HabboChina, though, clearly indicates that these Massively Casual Online games still have the potential to harness a technologically-comfortable and relatively wealthy audience with ideas like this extension to the item model.

Now that there are core services available to both - what’s to stop HabboChina from letting users upload and tag photos, for example? When you’ve got an immersive game like HabboHotel with the infrastructure to support real and virtual purchases made using a micropayments system, then in-game advertising becomes something worth talking about, not just another ‘trendy vicar’.

Credit to Amy Jo Kim for discovering this. I love her description of Asia as “as the ‘canary in a coal mine’ gaming market”.