作者：Joe Osborne

games.com在今年6月份时预测了社交游戏2011年的数个发展趋势，在岁末时又根据现实发展情况回顾了这些预言：

1、手机社交游戏获得发展

社交游戏在今年向移动领域大举进军，甚至有些传统游戏公司也加入这一大潮，向该领域投入大量资源共直接进行业务重组，调整发展策略。Zynga在今年发布了8款手机社交游戏。

2、3D游戏现身Facebook平台

Facebook平台今年出现了不少3D游戏，但其表现都不甚理想。但3D游戏向社交网络进军的步伐并未减缓，Flash Player现在已支持3D技术，硬核游戏开发工具Unreal Engine也加入这一阵营，Unity Player也同样不例外。明年的3D社交游戏的表现究竟如何，我们拭目以待。

3、《CityVille》将丧失主导地位

cityville(from insidesocialgames.com)

尽管这一点并未实现，但已经很接近之前的预言。EA社交游戏《模拟人生社交版》的横空出世已几乎威胁到Zynga社交游戏领头羊的地位，尽管其用户正在下滑，但它确实一度打败了Zynga名列前茅的数款游戏。

4、社交游戏品牌营销现象盛行

这个预言准确无误，娱乐明星频频在Zynga顶级游戏中露面的现象就可以说明这一点。Indiana Jones元素植入《Adventure World》确实是个不错的主意，Farmers Insurance广告植入《FarmVille》也是个妙计，这种趋势或许还将延续下去。

5、Zynga推出自己的游戏平台

Project Z(from games)

Zynga曾宣布将推出Project Z，人们普遍将其视为Zynga摆脱Facebook的重要战略之一。虽然这个平台至今仍未出炉，但games.com认为其作用类似于微软Xbox Live。

6、广告游戏兴起

这是另一个已被印证的预言，广告游戏或者贴牌游戏在2011年大批涌现：《Weeds》、《吸血鬼日记》等电视剧相继发布社交游戏，《权力的游戏》也即将推出第二版社交游戏。

7、出现更多Facebook MMO游戏

MMO on facebook(from games)

Facebook在2011年出现了更多MMO游戏，虽然没有一者算是成功或上乘之作。将MMO游戏推向社交平台从理论上看也许是可行之举，但实际上可能并不是很适合以休闲社交玩家为主的Facebook平台。

8、“强者愈强”

Zynga自2010年以来已收购17家公司，而EA今年仅收购PopCap一家公司就斥资10多亿美元，从AppData所监测的用户数据就可以看出，这两大Facebook游戏公司之间已经存在较大差距，其他社交游戏开发商更是被远远甩在后头。

9、Facebook重新开放相关病毒传播渠道

虽然社交游戏开发商无法再取得像2010年早期的那种病毒式传播效应，但Facebook已经在采取措施试图为开发商创造新机会，增加游戏在Facebook平台的曝光度。（本文为游戏邦gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Games.com’s 2011 Social Gaming Predictions: How did we do?

by Joe Osborne

Well, not to toot our own horn, but beep-beep. As it turns out, we did pretty darn well, thank you very much. At the start of 2011, the Games.com team sounded off on what we thought would be the top trends of the year. It’s been a crazy year of ups and downs, bringing about the most impressive social games to date.

Almost more importantly, 2011 also brought the most interesting developments. And we pretty much called the lot of them. Some might call it back patting, but we call it … a retrospective. Here’s how we did in our predictions for 2011:

The Mobile Explosion

Our list devoted entirely to the best mobile social games of 2011 pretty much sums this one up. Social games broke out on mobile phones in a big way this year, so much so that some traditional companies have either focused huge portions of development to the genre or simply reorganized entirely to that end. Zynga released eight mobile social games this year alone. Boom.

3D is Gonna Take Off

Hey, we never said social gamers were going to dig it. Numerous 3D games came out on Facebook this year … and none of them did as well as we might have hoped. However, the push for 3D games on social networks hasn’t slowed down. Flash Player–what almost all social games are made in–now supports 3D. Better yet, the hardcore games creation tool Unreal Engine now supports Flash, as does the Unity Player. Next year will be different, we promi–wait, never mind.

CityVille Shall Fall

Alright, so this one didn’t happen at all. But we came pretty damn close, right? We know, horseshoes and hand grenades, but at least The Sims Social threatened Zynga’s stranglehold on the social game market. While EA and Playfish’s social masterpiece has been on the decline for some time, it still has disrupted much of its competitor’s top games.

Interactive Billboards?

We’re sad to say this prediction was 100 percent on the money. Unfortunately, branding in Facebook games has only become more popular. Just look at the number of celebrities featured this year in Zynga’s top games. At least we’ve seen some gems that make sense, like Indiana Jones’s takeover of Adventure World. Farmers Insurance in FarmVille was clever, too, but an ad is an ad.

The Zynga Network

While it wasn’t exactly what any of us expected, Zynga announced Zynga Direct, popularly referred to as Project Z. We figured this would be The Big Z’s move to escape Facebook, but the social network appears to be baked right in. This leaves us wondering just what value zTags, similar to Xbox Live’s gamertags, will add for its fans much less Zynga.

The Advent of the Advergame

Another sad-but-true prediction, advergames, or branded games as some like to call them, exploded in 2011. Almost every TV series you can think of–from Weeds to The Vampire Diaries–has launched a companion social game. In fact, Game of Thrones will soon get its second tie-in Facebook game. At least that Dexter Facebook game was pretty neat-o.

Facebook MMOs Go Big Time

Not quite. We’ve certainly seen more MMOs come to Facebook in 2011, though none of which were any good nor successful. The combination simply makes sense on paper, but perhaps it’s just not a good fit for the more casually-minded social gamer. Now, if you count Facebook-connected MMOs, we were right without a doubt.

The Fat Cats Get Fatter

Zynga acquired some 17 companies since 2010. How’s that for fat cats? Hell, EA bought the biggest name in casual gaming for a whopping $1 billion. Looking at the disparity between even the top two Facebook game makers and the rest of the market, according to AppData, we’d say this estimation was about accurate, wouldn’t you?

Facebook Gets Friendly Again

While social game makers will never see the viral success they did in early 2010 ever again, Facebook has made strides to support its game creator community. Sure, Zynga has quite the deal with the social network, but the company has made numerous changes to how games are presented on the network for all developers. Although to the dismay of many, Facebook even championed the top games on the platform with the rest of us.（source:games）