I’ve made mention of this before but wanted to clarify and expand upon the issue.
I believe most Facebook games have a distinct design flaw. Facebook is about being social and incorporating a social network into a game is a great idea! But too many games rely upon the mechanic that only a friend can unblock progress/development in the game. This creates a direct correlation between how many friends play a game and how successful the player will be… that is, more friends = more fun.
Correction: The more friends that actively play the same game as the player results in the more successful the player will be at the game, as they will spend less time blocked from advancement!
Requiring a player to develop and maintain a network of other active players can quickly become an annoyance – especially in games that singularly rely on this mechanic – and eventually, I think, is the game’s ultimate demise.
A player should always be able to play the game(s) they like to play without being arbitrarily blocked/hindered from advancement because of a simple Yes/No choice of another player to help or not. Advancement in a game really should be about what the player does, the choices they make, and more over their successes and failures the have while playing a game. That is not to say friends couldn’t (or shouldn’t) influence a game though.
I’d still like to see, let alone find, more games on Facebook that incorporate friends into the play experience, but that doesn’t block/hinder my own advancement in the game based on their actions.
