Today marks my second day as Lead Analyst at Blue Fang Games in Waltham, MA. I’ve joined the team in order to focus on metrics and analytics for Blue Fang’s projects, including Zoo Kingdom for Facebook. I get to work on both business metrics and game design metrics, but instead of MMORPGs (which I’ve worked on professionally for the last 5 years) I’m now working on social games on Facebook.
I do have prior Facebook game experience – I did some metrics consulting for Popcap on Bejeweled Blitz, and I actually consulted for Blue Fang during initial Zoo Kingdom development earlier this year. I’ve never been fully focused on social/FB games, and I’m really excited about it. One reason I find it exciting is because I always saw MMORPGs as a kind of a stagnant genre. Yes, they’re evolving, but their evolution is set in a direction that I’m not personally fond of. I think social games are young enough that they’re still in flux and there’s a lot of room for design experimentation.
And yes, there are many criticisms that can be leveled at the genre of social games, probably the most incisive one being Ian Bogost’s game-as-criticism Cow Clicker. But one of the most heartening trends I’ve seen in the last few years is excellent game designers like Brenda Brathwaite, Brian Reynolds, and Steve Meretzky moving to social games. These, and others, are people who are aware of the points made by critics like Bogost, and will work to design games that address these criticisms.
Beyond all that, there are just plain awesome things coming down the line from Blue Fang, and I’m looking forward to telling everyone about them when the time comes! In the meantime, give Zoo Kingdom a shot!
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