Gaming and Facebook: Social Gaming Heaven

Facebook may not be the place for fancy games with top-of-the-line graphics, but it is nevertheless revolutionizing the social gaming world. Where else can you battle head-to-head with your octogenarian 80-year-old aunt and your former college roommate?

Sure, there’s always been X-box Live and MMORPG’s, but Facebook has brought social gaming to the masses. And when we say the masses, we mean the masses. How many friends and family members do you know who play Bejeweled Blitz, FarmVille or DrawSomething on a regular basis? Probably too many to count!

The Appeal

So what makes Facebook’s games so popular? It’s the social media aspect of it all– when it pops up in your news feed multiple times that someone you know just earned 400 points in Words With Friends, it piques your interest.

There’s also the draw of social interaction. You might be thousands of miles away from a close friend or family member, but Facebook games allow you to bond with that person on a regular basis, regardless of the distance between them.

Playing these social games on Facebook is a nice way of interacting with your friends—from asking for their help with ingredients on Restaurant City, or dueling their vampires on Vampire Wars; it’s a nice way of keeping in touch.

So…what to play?

There are a several types of games out there: simulation games, puzzle/arcade games, role-playing games—the list goes on. Let’s start with classic arcade-style games.

Arcade games

Candy Crush Saga is a charming puzzle game—the interesting social aspect is that you can ask your friends for extra lives (you only get five lives at a time), and you need to get a friend’s help to complete each level.  Plus, each level has a leaderboard, and it’s always fun to try and beat your friend’s high score. Bejeweled Blitz has a similar charm and competitive aspect!

Simulation games

There are a lot of great simulation games out there, like Farmville (where you work together with your Facebook friends to create a thriving farm). Not surprisingly, it has over 10 million players. Also growing in popularity are costume games like those found on www.dressupgames.org; popular with everyone from young girls, to fully-fledged adults—you can even spend an entire afternoon dressing up an avatar to resemble your favorite character from a book, television show or movie.

Role-playing games

Many of the most popular role-playing games on Facebook are related to various movie franchises. For example, many Facebook users are raving about The Hunger Games Adventures, a game that allows the player to explore Panem with characters Katniss, Gale and Peeta. In a similar manner, the Avenger’s Alliance game is another favorite.

Dragon City is also supremely popular—like FarmVille, it has over 10 million players. In Dragon City, you’re in charge of breeding, raising and training dragons. You can then ultimately use the dragons you create to compete in battles against other players’ dragons.

So, long story short, there are a lot of great games out there—and we can safely say that Facebook has revolutionized the gaming world. What games do you play on Facebook?  How has Facebook changed your experience with social gaming?  Share your thoughts in the comments.