It’s instinct for humans to want to partake in some sort of mind numbing task in order to wind down. The playing of games is our healthy way of getting away from everything, our obligations and day-to-day life (Caillois 1961).
When trying to get away from it all, it’s interesting to see people partake in social games, which still have sorts of social obligations. A social game can be identified as one that uses a social network site to create an even smaller social network within it (Burroughs 2014, p.153). An example of a social game that will be discussed is Farmville. Farmville is a social game that involves the purchasing of various seeds, buildings and other items, plowing your field, planting the seeds and harvesting the crops that you have grown Burroughs 2014, p. 152). The reason behind this being identified as a social game is that it is based on Facebook, gamers are able to invite their friends to play, help with their farms and give each other presents (Burroughs 2014, p. 152).
Farmville (and other social games) can see great success due to this idea of social obligations. Farmville has created an empire with reaching over 73 million users with 26 million of them playing Farmville every, single day (Fussell 2010). The success can be narrowed down to social obligations, when accessing your Facebook account you are notified when another Farmville user has gifted you something or helped out with your farm, there is this feeling of obligation to reciprocate this kind deed (Sulzdorf-Liszkiewicz 2010). Considering these social obligations, users are in this sort of loop that they feel they can’t escape from. It would be considered rude to not reciprocate the giving of presents in real life, so this obligation is taken with us into the social gaming world. This social requirement can be one of the many reasons that the success of social games such as Farmville is so prevalent.
Social gamers create their own social network, or digital community, within a preexisting social networking site such as Facebook. The success of these social games can be seen as so predominant due to the social factors that are embedded in such games.
Burroughs, B 2014, ‘Facebook and Farmville: A Digital Ritual Analysis of Social Gaming’, Games and Culture, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 151-166.
Caillois, R 1961, Man, Play and Games, The Free Press of Glencoe, New York.
Fussell, J 2010, The Farmville Craze is a Firmly Planted Phenomenon, The Kansas City Star, <https://www.kansascity.com/851/v-print/story/1692350.html>.
Sulzdorf-Liszkiewicz, A 2010, Cultivated Play: Farmville, Media Commons, viewed 29 May 2018, < http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/content/cultivated-play-farmville>
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