For lack of a better title, here is the first of I'm not sure how many posts which will all revolve around gaming and social media. This one features a video of (what I'm guessing is a Dutch company, website here: http://bit.ly/i3r9sV) what is being called a smart wall.
Now this isn't exactly what I'd qualify as "social gaming" - yet - but based on what I've seen here and in this video - http://bit.ly/eGMHc2 - a social sign-in, either between individuals or institutions, won't be far behind.
Social gaming is evolving the way most "hard-core" gamers would snicker at... These games are of the likes of Angry Birds or FruitNinja. Smaller applications that you can play on your smartphone or tablet in between meeting or during the commute. Others like Farmville, run directly off the social media platform (in this case Facebook) and take advantage of your friends in order to engage them to help you. Your score and progress are then posted to all your connected social media platforms and others can become incited to join in and compete.
Social gaming - at least in my mind- is a more relaxed form of gaming built around prominent web 2.0 themes. The gamification of many websites is a trend reflecting this prominent direction in marketing and the evolution of the internet towards more malleable content.
As the other post will each have a more generalized theme, I will only say that social gaming, whether on your website, on a smartphone or tablet via and app, or on a wall in a classroom or in the lobby of a building, is merely meant to engage.
If you engage with an individual based on something that is the correct mix of engaging, competitive, rewarding, amusing and social, you are maintaining both their attention and interest, which can then be converted towards the next logical action... Not an action that you want, an action that they want.
The question is, how do you make them want what you want?
