Facebook vs. Google+: Social game makers ready to hang hats on big G's network

Right now, Facebook is the place to be if you want to make social games for the Web. That's great if you're, say, a big fancy company like FarmVille-creator Zynga who has millions of dollars to spend on advertising and a cushy deal with the social network.

If you're a smaller game studio, Facebook has its severe limitations, which include making it next to impossible to getting the word out about a game (not to mention the hefty 30% cut that Facebook demands from all game developers.)

None of the other social gaming platforms -- MySpace, hi5 -- have managed to come close to mimicking Facebook's social gaming success, so many social game makers are looking to Google+ to, possibly, fill that void.

Pot Farm creator and East Side Games CEO Jason Bailey says in this Gamasutra article that that all social game makers are "crossing their fingers and bowing down to the almighty G and saying, 'Please, please let this work and give us a viable second platform where we can build our games.'"

A simple way that Google+ could become 'the' next hotspot for social gaming? Instead of requiring a 30% cut from game makers (like Facebook does), let companies host games on G+ for a lower fee (or the low, low price of free!). Facebook has also done a terrible job at surfacing new and interesting games to its users -- and recently made it more difficult by pulling its app directory from the service. If Google+ can support even the most bare bones recommendation system for games on the network, that could be a big win for people who make games and those of us who like to play them.

[Image credit: Infographicsblog]

BringIt puts games in your Facebook games, so you can ... gamble?

If you're the type who enjoys wasting their money gambling, have we got some news for you. In select Facebook games by CrowdStar, East Side Games, Sometrics and Mall World, you can wager your hard-earned, paid game currency with your friends in custom mini games by BringIt. A real-time transactional platform for social games, BringIt announced that its head-to-head competitions for virtual currency are now available in games from these developers.

According to BringIt, 8 million players have participated in these mini games within their favorite social games, and the asynchronous, head-to-head competitions will increase their number of daily players to 2.1 million. Players can wager any amount of virtual currency they choose, and post challenges to multiple friends at once. These challenges are sent to players who then can respond with their own wagers and post their scores in said games--the winner takes all.

For instance, Happy Aquarium fans can now challenge each other in a game of match-three, Aqua Blast, which is strikingly similar to Bejeweled. Using speed and various power ups, players must score as many points as possible in 60 seconds after wagering so many Pearls (the game's paid currency). Then, players can post that score to whomever's News Feed that they challenged.

If a friend responds with a wager of Pearls and a score that beats the challenger's score, they win whatever the challenger wagered. If the friend happens to score less than what the challenger did, then whoever posted the challenge wins whatever amount of Pearls that the loser wagered.

Payments are said to be posted automatically, but as of Sept. 11, there have been issues with the speed of payment, though BringIt is cataloging all payments to ensure that all winnings are met with payments. (At least this applies to Happy Aquarium.) Other BringIt partners like East Side Games, have different BringIt-powered mini games such as Gold Rush in Pot Farm.

Developers like East Side Games hope to make lots of dough from this form of in-game gambling. BringIt claims that the novelty of wagering paid currency could turn more freeloading social gamers into ones that pay up to play. And we guess it's all kosher, because the money at stake isn't "real" money. Though, if you paid for it with real cash originally, it kind of is, no?

Would you ever gamble wager your hard-earned Pearls or other paid currency in these mini games by BringIt? What are your thoughts on online wagering, generally speaking? Sound off in the comments. 2 Comments