作者：Marc van der Chijs

过去3年，互联网的一大趋势就是社交游戏兴起。Facebook的主要发展源自这些游戏，很多估值颇高的大型互联网公司都是社交游戏公司。但社交游戏是新兴事物吗？未来社交游戏会出现什么新类型？

游戏的一大变化是最热门的在线游戏如今是社交游戏。游戏领域出现不同游戏玩法，你既能同好友合作，也能同好友对抗，游戏消耗时间远少于传统MMO游戏。很多人没有意识到这点，但这些游戏的理念其实并不新颖。许多游戏主题和基本玩法与先于社交游戏的游戏类似。

The Sims from kotaku.com

不妨参照那些最受欢迎的社交游戏，将这些游戏同那些热门可下载游戏做比较。它们存在很多颇有相似之处。Zynga热门作品《Cityville》几乎就是翻版《模拟人生》（游戏邦注：在这款游戏中，玩家需创建和管理自己的城市）。《咖啡世界》类型是基于《梦幻餐厅》系列（玩家在其中管理咖啡厅和餐馆）。《Farmville》类游戏则是源自90年代中期以来的农场游戏。Playdom很多热门游戏都是隐藏物品游戏，这类游戏已在妇女群体中流行10年之久。

游戏本身大同小异，最大区别是这类游戏更富社交性。将社交元素嵌入现有游戏，这样你便能够同好友共同体验，不论是竞争，还是互助形式。避开竞争元素至关重要，因为事实证明很妇女都不喜欢竞争型游戏。她们喜欢同好友共同体验，而非总是和她们对抗。游戏玩法更多关注交流，而非竞争。

传统观点认为，游戏都有社交性（游戏邦注：多数棋盘游戏都是如此）。这些通常都是你同好友或家人共同体验而非自己体验的游戏。社交游戏之所以吸引人是因为我们都是社交动物，都希望同他人共同体验，而非独自享受。长时间来，PC的可下载游戏都无法满足我们这个要求，但互联网让玩家能够重新同好友一起体验。

未来社交游戏不会出现许多新主题，很多有名气的可下载游戏都已化身社交游戏。社交元素将会更加完善，画面效果将会日益优化，但游戏领域不会忽然出现全新游戏类型。而是那些更加简单的休闲游戏将会被打造成社交游戏（游戏邦注：如Popcap公司的《宝石迷阵》）。你同时会发现传统单人Flash游戏开始融入社交元素，所以如今你能够晒高分，同好友比较结果。例如，Spil Games将这些功能添加至其所有新Flash游戏，不仅包含网页游戏，还包括手机游戏。

社交游戏的最大挑战是它们将依托移动平台（手机或平板电脑），而非PC或笔记本。这将会改变某些游戏玩法（如触屏vs.键盘/鼠标），但它同时能够添加地理定位元素。这会带来些许有趣新构思，真实世界的地理定位元素将应用至社交游戏中。

总而言之，社交游戏和传统热门可下载游戏颇为相似，全新游戏不可能很快问世。更可能出现的是现有休闲游戏融入更多社交功能，未来很多热门游戏将会搭载移动设备。社交游戏的变革并不在于游戏主题。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Social Games: Same Meat Different Gravy?

Marc van der Chijs

One of the biggest trends on the Internet over the past 3 years has been the rise of social games. Much of Facebook’s growth came from these games, and some of the biggest and most valuable Internet companies are social game companies. But are social games really something new? And what kind of social games can we expect in the future?

The revolution in gaming is that the most popular online games are now social games. There is a different game play at work that allows you to play not only against your friends but also with your friends, in an environment that is less time consuming than traditional MMO games. Most people don’t realize this, but the concepts of these games are actually not new. The theme and basic game play of many games are very similar to that of games that were popular before the first social game was even invented.

To illustrate this, take a look at the most popular social games and compare these to (former) top downloadable games. Many of these turn out to be very similar. Zynga’s hit title Cityville is almost a copy of The Sims, where you also need to build and manage your own city. The Cafe World genre is based on the popular Diner Dash titles where you run a cafe or restaurant. Farmville games are based on the farm genre that has been around since the mid-1990s. And some of Playdom’s popular titles are just hidden object games, the kind of game that has been very popular with women for almost a decade.

The games itself are not that different, the main change is that they are now much more social. A social layer was put on top of existing games so that you can play with your friends as well, either in a competitive way or by helping them. Going away from competitiveness is important, because it turns out that many women don’t really want to play competitive games. They like to play with their friends, but not always against them. Game play is more about communication than about competition.

Traditionally games have always been social, think about most board games. Those are normally games that you play with your friends or family, not games that you play on your own. Social games appeal to us because human beings are social animals that prefer to play with other people instead of only playing alone. For a long time that was not possible with downloadable games on a PC, but the Internet made it possible to play with people again.

For the future of social games that means that it’s unlikely that many new themes will suddenly appear, most of the famous download games have been made into social games already. The social layer may become more advanced and graphics will likely get better, but I don’t expect a whole genre of new games to suddenly appear. Likely more simple casual games will be transformed into social games, something you now already see with games that popular games such as Bejeweled (made by Popcap). Also you will see that traditional single player flash games get a social layer on top, so that you can post your high scores and compare your results with your friends. Spil Games is adding these features to all of its new flash games for example, not only on the web but also for mobile games.

The biggest change for social games will likely be that they will be played on a mobile device (phone or tablet) instead of on a PC or laptop. This will change some elements of the game play (touch vs. keyboard/mouse) but it can also add a location based element. That may lead to some interesting new ideas in which real world locations can be used in social games (Foursquare meets Cityville anyone?).

Concluding, social games are quite similar to traditional popular download titles and it is not likely that complete new genres will appear soon. More likely existing casual games will get social functions and many of the future popular games will be played on mobile devices. There the innovation will take place, not in the game themes.（Source：businessinsider）