日前，Zynga首席游戏设计师布莱恩·雷诺兹（Brian Reynolds）在SXSW大会的演讲中表示，“这是一个庞大的市场——如果有6000万人都在玩游戏，那他们就不能算是社会的异类。”游戏邦认为曾推出《FarmVille》和《Mafia Wars》的社交游戏开发商Zynga已成功地将电子游戏形成一种社会现象，让玩游戏不再是一种个人消遣，而是一种人们共同分享和庆祝的活动。

FarmVille

雷诺兹表示，人类总因社交而产生相互联系，纵观整个人类历史发展过程，个人的成功在很大程度上得益于他所精通的社交技能，就算是内向的人也有可能很擅长应对不同的社会情境，这就是我们的行事方法，我们的大脑要求我们完成这种任务，喜欢处理这种事情。

游戏邦获悉，这名拥有20余年行业经验的游戏玩老认为，游戏并非天生具有社交属性，但如果添加了社交元素会更有趣味性。例如，在其中加入群体、竞争或协助元素，整个游戏就会更具可玩性。他表示Facebook重新定义了社交游戏的概念，并将所有社交元素浓缩后融入其中，推动社交游戏进入全新的发展水平。

他相信人们内在的社交才能与社交游戏机制是一种完美组合，“社交游戏的不同之处在于，你可以在自己在乎的人面前玩游戏，以积极的方式深化你们的关系，这也加强了大家玩游戏的意义。”

雷诺兹认为社交游戏通过参与和分享特点，让用户积极表现自己。大家都喜欢听游戏中的花边新闻，比如那些你在玩游戏时遇到的可与好友分享的趣事。

他在演讲将近尾声时表示，有所选择地添加趣味性和交互性元素，让游戏故事对玩家更有意义，是打造一个好游戏的关键所在。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Farmville: it’s not just for geeks anymore

“This is a mass market thing – if you have 60 million people playing the game, it’s not just geeks anymore,” said Brian Reynolds, founder of Zynga in a keynote at SXSW today. The gaming company responsible for Facebook games like Farmville and Mafia Wars has turned playing video games into a social phenomena – not a private pastime but rather, a hobby to be shared and celebrated.

“If you think about it, human beings are wired to be social. Going all the way back through the history of the human race, succeeding as an individual is a lot about having good social skills to navigate all these different things that go on between people. Even if you’re an introvert you become good at navigating social situations; it’s how we do things, our brains are made to do it and our brains are made to like doing it,” says Reynolds.

A 20-year gaming veteran, Reynolds explains that gaming isn’t inherently social but can be more fun when social elements are introduced. For example, he explains that a game becomes much more fun when you add group, competitive, or cooperative elements into the mix. The epitome of all things social, Reynolds attests Facebook took the idea of social gaming and redefined it.

“Facebook is the phenomenon that took social gaming to a whole new level,” says Reynolds matter of factly.

Reynolds believes the inherent social aptitude embedded in all humans lends itself perfectly to social gaming.

“What’s different in the social networked games is that you’re playing the games in front of people you actually care about with a relationship you’d like to move down the track in a positive direction so the gaming matters more,” says Reynolds.

He says social games are a way of expressing yourself where meaning is placed on engagement and sharing. He explains people care about interesting tidbits from your gaming experience, for example, something funny within the game that happened which you and your friends can have a conversation about.

Reynolds finishes his talk by explaining what makes a good social game. He says adding interesting decisions and interactive elements with choices that make the story more meaningful to the player is key.（source:rcrwireless）