Читать книгу Social Media Marketing For Dummies - Shiv Singh - Страница 46

There are basically two camps of people online — those who believe that online games are a complete waste of time and those who find them irresistible. But are social games actually games? They are, and again, they aren’t. Social games incorporate game techniques in a social setting with the aim of encouraging you to interact with a business, a charity, or perhaps an educational entity, to name a few.

You’re playing a social game if you are on one of the social media platforms and the game encourages you to take action that surrounds a brand. Where do these social gamers like to play?

Typically when you think of a “gamer,” you might think of an adolescent with lots of time and energy to master ever higher levels of game play. But actually, according to the same study, the average social gamer is a 43-year-old woman. Businesses of all types are creating games that integrate the use of their products with the daily play. One example of this is Clarins, a French cosmetics company. Their game Spa Life on Facebook is about the challenges of running a spa. Their products are used at the spa and become part of the game solution.

But lest you think it’s all for fun, gamification takes several different cuts at the online game experience. In September of 2011, a group of gamers who play at a site called Foldit was asked to help solve a complex protein folding puzzle that had stumped AIDS researchers for years. Surprisingly, the gamers were able to solve it within 10 days. It’s reported that the competitive nature of the game drove the teams forward. CBS News reported that one researcher called it the value of “citizen science.”

If your company is thinking about creating a social game, you’ll want to make sure to take a broad approach and see what’s being done online. These games can be short or long term. You don’t have to commit yourself to something untried.