Investing in Facebook Games
While no one doubts that there are a lot of folks who hang around social web sites, and do things, stay in touch with friends, stalk former friends, the idea of social networks as a gaming platform might not be a bad idea. You go where the folks are, and gaming is one way that people choose to waste their time, and anyways games can be more fun.
The idea of social gaming is nothing new; variants on the theme seem to work well in communities like FFXI and Halo series that allow for cooperative gaming in a virtual environment. Even non game games like Second Life and others also do well. The issue before us now becomes who is investing in social games, and the bigger question is where is the money going to come from. In game ads spring to mind, but these would be more of a subliminal product placement in game, rather than a click – sale form of advertising that we are so used to seeing. Are product placement ads really the way to go here, well if you follow the investment front, Jeff Bezos who is sinking his money into social gaming might be onto something here.
It all depends on how well the money model will work out. With the economy in the tank right now, and people worried about layoffs and other things, people while not looking for a job, will be spending more time on facebook, linked in, myspace hoping that maybe one of their friends might know of something. Job hunting Web 2.0 style, and when the job hunt gets boring, go play a quick game of something while waiting for people to get back to you.
Maybe not a crazy idea after all, as people struggle to find anything, the idea of product placement ads in game make much more sense.
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