Jonathan Blow on why social games are evil

[terriko]

If you haven't read this interview with Jonathan Blow (creator of Braid), you really should.

Some choice quotes:

A game like World of Warcraft or Counter-Strike or whatever is way more social. Because you actually meet new people in clans or guilds. You go do activities together and help each other out, right?

[With certain social games] it’s about the game exploiting your friends list that you already made, so it’s not really about meeting people. And it’s not really about doing things with them because you’re never playing at the same time. It’s about using your friends as resources to progress in the game, which is the opposite of actual sociality or friendship.

I've always said the really addictive part of games, for me, was the people. Now I'm just disturbed by that interpretation of the use of people in fb games...

Designers know what they are doing. They know when they show up in the office – “My goal is to degrade the player’s quality of life”. They probably won’t think about that exact phrase. But [will think], “My goal is to get people to think about my game and to put more money into my game and get other friends to play my game to the exclusion of all other games and all other things that they might do with their free time.” That is the job description of those designers. And that’s evil. It’s not about giving people anything. It’s about taking from people.

Now go read the interview: Jonathan Blow interview: Do you believe social games are evil? “Yes. Absolutely.”

Comments

[jrosen]

“My goal is to get people to think about my game and to put more money into my game and get other friends to play my game to the exclusion of all other games and all other things that they might do with their free time.”

I don't think this is any truer of FB game developers than any other game developer, really. Anyone who provides a non-essential product or service for a living wants people to give them money and use their product/service instead of someone else's -- because if you use person B's product instead, person A doesn't get money.

[terriko]

I don't know... Having known someone who worked in that industry, it definitely felt like the level of intentional evil was much higher there than in other similar jobs.

[geekymom.blogspot.com]

The sad thing is I like those FB games on the surface. I don't like having to ask my friends every five seconds to give me something. But I do like virtual city building, virtual cooking, etc. I might be willing to give those games actual money if I could play without bugging my friends, i.e. a one-time cost or small subscription fee, not cash for every goal.

[terriko]

This is why I prefer to play DS games. There's a lot of similar fun puzzles and building and repetitive motions with little rewards for all your skinner box needs, but no harassment of other people involved, and just a simple up-front cost of between $10-30 per new game.