Social Network Gaming: The Conclusion, Part 3

One of the more positive aspects of the social network gaming hobby, is that it lends itself to a progression over time. I thought it would be really cool to see the difference between day 1 and day 30 on the various games to see what progress was made, so as a send off to this hobby, I have posted sets of screenshots from each of the social networking games that I played over the last month. Some of the screenshots are from a little later for comparison purposes.

Bejeweled Blitz

Day 10

Day 30

FrontierVille

Day 3

Day 30

City of Wonder - Home

Day 3

Day 30

City of Wonder - Colony

Day 21

Day 30

FarmVille - Home

Day 3

Day 30

FarmVille - English Countryside

Day 16

Day 30

Mafia Wars - New York

Day 6

Day 30

Mafia Wars - Brazil

Day 24

Day 30

Social Network Gaming: The Conclusion, Part 2

 

The screenshot above was taken the first day of my FarmVille farm. I think, if I had the chance to do it all over, I probably would have done things a lot differently. 

Well, now that I have shared my experience and thoughts on social network gaming, lets see how I kept to my goals.

1. Play at least one game in each of the following social network game genre's: asynchronous competitive, simulation, and casual role playing.

• FarmVille: simulation
• FrontierVille: simulation
• City of Wonder: simulation
• Mafia Wars: casual role playing
• Bejeweled Blitz: asynchronous competitive
• Words with Friends: asynchronous competitive

 2. Games should incorporate one of the following gameplay elements: asynchronous gameplay, community, no victory conditions, and virtual currency.

• FarmVille: asynchronous gameplay, community, no victory conditions, virtual currency
• FrontierVille: asynchronous gameplay, community, no victory conditions, virtual currency
• City of Wonder: asynchronous gameplay, community, no victory conditions, virtual currency
• Mafia Wars: asynchronous gameplay, no victory conditions, virtual currency
• Bejeweled Blitz: asynchronous competitive, community, no victory conditions, virtual currency
• Words with Friends: asynchronous gameplay

3. Play at least 2-4 hours a week total for 4 weeks: Without tallying up the numbers, I think it would be safe to say that I spent about 1 - 2 hours a day playing the games. I would usually play each game for 10 - 15 minutes in the morning and 10 - 15 in the evening.

4. Purchase virtual currency: I purchased $10 of virtual currency in FarmVille, FrontierVille, and City of Wonder.

5. Games should be playable/manageable on a mobile device (iPhone 4) if possible: FarmVille and Bejeweled Blitz were both available on the iPhone to be played. the non-flash parts of Mafia Wars was possible, but it was not a good experience.

6. Games will be connected to the same social network, Facebook: All games were connected to Facebook. Each game was playable on the Facebook website with the exception of Words with Friends, which will be available soon.

I did really well with my goals. I went a little overboard with playtime, but I think that was to be expected. I expect that if I had only played one simulation game, my playtime would have dramatically decreased, but I doubt I would have had as much fun, or be able to speak to each game as well.

Next I want to compare day 1 to day 30 screenshots.

Bejeweled Blitz - Day 30

I knew what Bejeweled Blitz was about coming into this hobby, but it definitely evolved since I first played it over a year ago. For example, it never had "Boosts" when I first played it. It also didn't have metrics like it does now.

This game was perfect for when I didn't have much time, or was physically indisposed, like walking my daughter around the apartment to get her to sleep. I could just pop up this app on my phone, play a couple rounds then put it away without wasting much brain power or time.

It has proven itself to be a game of luck. You will play 30 games where you will get 25,000 points, but then you will have one game where all of the jewels line up and its like fireworks on your screen with jewels blowing up left and right, and your just sitting there watching your score skyrocket.

Bejeweled Blitz - Day 30

It made me very hesitant to purchase boosts. They cost several thousand coins to purchase and only last 2 - 3 games and when you only make a couple hundred coins per game at best, it made me not want to waste them. My highest score was 257,600, whereas some of my friends would score almost 500,000 points. I spoke with them about their secrets and their answer was basically to use the boosts.

The ability to play this on the iPhone was definitely a plus, in fact, I think I only actually played it on the iPhone, but would login on the computer to take the higher resolution screenshot.

Social Network Gaming: Day 29

I was able to squeeze in a couple minutes of play time before going to see HP7. I started working on my City of Wonder civilization, and am very proud of how everything turned out, I should be able to post it tomorrow.

Check out the daily screenshots after the break:

Social Network Gaming: Day 28

I didn't have much time last night to play, so I mostly did my harvesting, and collecting for the various games. I did some RP in Mafia Wars to get the second level of a property in Brazil, but I doubt it was worth the cost.

Check out the daily screenshots after the break.

Social Network Gaming: Day 27

With the end of the month fastly approaching, I have decided to spend the time to pretty up my farms/cities/civilizations and see what type of dystopian empire I can create with the abundant amount of in-game cash I have accumulated. I will also try and finish as many of the Words with Friends matches as I can before the end of the month.