For years, video games were strangely absent from the social media tidal wave. Aside from casual games built into social networking websites, games didn’t support social media.
The recently released (Oct. 13) “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” for the PlayStation 3, hopes to change that with a built-in Twitter feature. The game uses Twitter in a fairly simple way, by sending updates on a player’s progress to his or her Twitter account.
Twitter is also at the heart of a social media update to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 that went live today. It allows you to post tweets, read the tweets of those you follow, search and view trending topics. Along with a Twitter app, the Xbox 360 update also has a Facebook app to stay connected to friends through basic Facebook features.
These instances of Twitter in video games—one software and one hardware—still only scratch the surface of the potential to meld social media and gaming. The use of Twitter in “Uncharted 2” seems like a good way to market the game and to find other people who play the game, but beyond that it doesn’t do much. And the Twitter integration on the Xbox 360 isn’t very deep, as you can’t run the app while you are playing a game.
The real issue here isn’t how Twitter is integrated into games or hardware platforms, but how the gameplay can take advantage of social media’s best assets—connecting people and sharing information.
With millions of people connected through social media services like Twitter, games could leverage these networks to connect gamers. Currently, the only way you can find players on Xbox 360 is to know the person’s gamertag or by friending random people who are playing a game the same time you are.
This system could be augmented by broadcasting gaming notifications to social networks that alert your friends what you are doing, game-wise. Our MCDM director, Hanson Hosein, happens to be a fan of the “Uncharted” games. Through the game’s Twitter feature, it would be easy to connect with him about the game and share a common interest or even begin playing together. One interesting feature of the Xbox 360 Facebook app is the ability to see if any of your Facebook friends are also on Xbox LIVE. This is exactly the kind of feature games need to adopt.
Social networks could also be leveraged as a kind of community-driven Help feature to help gamers when they get stuck. Failure is a critical part of game design, but too much failure can result in a negative gameplay experience. Instead of the traditional, lengthy walkthrough documents created by gamers to help others, Twitter could be used as a real-time Help system where players can ask questions and search for answers while playing the game.
Social networks could be used in many creative ways in video games, from connecting gamers to augmenting gameplay. Gaming is inherently social; it only makes sense to bring social networks into it.
Brian Johnson is a student in the MCDM program who is pursuing a career in the video game industry. His Xbox LIVE gamertag is thepiecesfit. Brian recently started Grybo Productions to author music for the Rock Band video game. His favorite video game is “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.”
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16 Comments, Comment or Ping
mepriestley
Great post. It is pretty strange that the console companies are just barely starting to work social networking into the systems now. With these new updates, they are just barely scratching the surface. I really hope that they add more social networking features because as you were saying, there is so much potential there to make connections and collaborate with other gamers…and connect with friends that you never knew were gamers.
The Playstation update with Facebook integration comes out today. It doesn’t seem to allow you to find Facebook friends on the network like the Xbox does, but it does allow you to post trophies, items bought in the PSN store, and game-specific information (to be added by game developers later on).
I hope they continue to add social networking features. Right now it’s only a drop in the bucket, but it’s exciting to think how far they could take it.
Nov 18th, 2009
Brian Johnson
I agree that they were certainly cautious about jumping into the social media world. I can understand why though. The API technology had to be in place and social networks had to battle it out to see who is on top as it would have looked dumb to pick the losing social network like Myspace of Friendster.
I saw that the Sony PS3 was getting a Facebook app as well. Thanks for the details of the implementation, as I don’t have a PS3 to test out. Interesting that the best selling console of this generation, the Nintendo Wii, is being left behind from the innovation that Microsoft and Sony are developing.
Nov 18th, 2009
David Jones
Interesting post Brian. I agree there is a lot of untapped potential for the use of social media in video games. You point our some very interesting examples of interactive gameplay using using some Twitter. But I must disagree or at least suggest you qualify your position about social media being absent from the video game experience until recently.
You touch on it a bit in your post when you talk about being able to connect to people in XBox Live. If we agree that online community is a part of social networking, then we would have to say that social networking has been built into the gaming experience for several years. Through XBox Live as an example, you can “connect” with your friends in a variety of ways: see who is online, see how they see themselves via their avatars, send messages, chat online via text and voice and even see what they are doing at the moment.
A few months ago, I was playing a first person shooter and saw the pop up notification that a friend had gotten online. I immediately invited him to play, and within minutes we were locked in heated battle with enemy forces and discussing our plan of attack via voice communication. This isn’t anything new. The capability has been there for years. It just hasn’t been in the form that we tend to popularize as social networking in the current landscape.
Nov 18th, 2009
Brian Johnson
David,
I agree with what you are saying about the current social nature of console gaming. (I didn’t even get into PC gaming because it is an entirely different beast when it comes to multitasking, as PC gamers have always had the opportunity to use whatever social tools they want alongside their game.) There is a social aspect to multiplayer gaming— you ARE playing with other people, but it feels very single purpose.
I know that is vague, but social media is very powerful and more often than not has unforeseen uses. Some games have taken social media to a much greater level, like Halo and Forza. Both of those games have terrific websites with all kinds of social features, but they are siloed to those specific games. If game developers, MS, Sony, and Nintendo started connecting other social media tools to their games, I think gaming would become even more social than it already is.
Nov 19th, 2009
mepriestley
Yeah, it’s strange that the Wii hasn’t released any news of jumping on board as well (at least not that I’ve read).
You’re right, it would’ve been pretty funny if they had gone earlier and tried to integrate MySpace or some other network that has been passed over for Facebook or Twitter.
Gaming is social when it comes to multiplayer and such, but as you said, it could definitely go much further and incorporate a whole other type of social networking. It’s exciting that they’ve decided to add on more services and gateways to connect. Who knows where they’ll take it.
Nov 19th, 2009
Brian Johnson
Nintendo will be in no rush to experiment with social media. Nintendo has built it’s reputation on being family friendly and in the big, bad world of social media where anything goes, Nintendo won’t touch it. Which leads us into the other thing Nintendo has built it’s reputation on… 1st party. Nintendo is notorious for being a 1st party company, from software to hardware. Their strict control over all of their products means that they probably aren’t interested in letting 3rd party social networks represent their brand.
Nov 19th, 2009
mepriestley
Just saw this article. WIRED – Game/Life Why Facebook, Twitter, on Game Consoles Miss The Point http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/11/social-networking-ps3-xbox-360/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Gamelife+%28Blog+-+Game|Life%29
True. That’s the only thing I could think of as well, that they don’t want to alienate families with the news that their activities could be shared with other people or that their kids could find their way onto networks through the console. I wonder if the Wii homebrew community will try to add social networking apps.
Nov 20th, 2009
Brian Johnson
Thanks for the link to that article. I see it the same way as that author, a good step, but all companies need to turn up the volume on social media. One of the big problems is not being able to run the Twitter and Facebook apps at the same time as a game.
I’m not into the Wii homebrew scene (because I just don’t play my Wii very often) but I’m sure they will be able to come up with something. Homebrew is so niche though that it won’t even register for most gamers.
Nov 20th, 2009
MFranco
Great post, Brian. I do agree with David, but I did not think about incorporating existing social networks with games. I used to be really into gaming, back in the days Nintendo and Sega Saturn (remember those?). I have been, however, completely out of the loop for the past several years. I have thought of gaming as having great potential for being more social, and I wonder if anyone is developing an all-in-one online port to import all the systems and tools you can. This may be already out there. Does anyone know of anything like that?
What I am thinking of is an online hub that acts as a social network for gamers that is compatible with all the major systems. I realize there may be some legal and technical barriers, but the potential for cross-system interaction could be very cool. For instance, a game that is offered on multiple systems could have an even greater potential network. I think some networks may have already been created around specific games, but they are probably limited to the specific game. An all-in-one network would allow friends form one game bridge over to others without having to change their cyber-locale.
Nov 20th, 2009
xurxo
Hmmmm. Twitter, Facebook, a social network for gamers. That makes me think about Raptr (http://raptr.com/). Is an Instant Messaging system where you can tell others -in Raptr or through Twitter- what game are you are playing, your developments or talk to people with your same preferences.
It looks they have some kind of integration with Xbox 360 (see http://raptr.com/tour#showfriends)
At the same time is a gaming social net, a kind of Last.fm of videogames, in which you can rate games, find all kind of aggregated info on each, know what games use to play other Raptr users, make friends with them and so on.
Nov 20th, 2009
hrhmedia
Love to see so much chatter about this.
I will say that as a non-serious gamer (I prefer to play solo, mainly because I’m not particularly good), I’ll probably turn off my Twitter feed from Uncharted 2 soon. And I have yet to update my PS3 firmware to incorporate Facebook functionality. I don’t see any need to add further noise to my FB feed. But I understand how a community of gamers would find utility in all of this social network functionality.
Nov 21st, 2009
Matt Davis
This is a great discussion! I would like to add that if you look at the long view for gaming console development that integrating more capabilites that people do outside the console make sense. Today’s consoles are not just game systems. They have music, they provide entertainment (movies, television streams) original content. They are becoming a centralizing technology in the home and in our virtual communities. It’s really smart if you ask me to begin pulling in features that people would typically do on their home pc to the console. It reinforces the value of the product, inproves engagement and ultimately reduces fatigue/churn because it’s not “the same ol games” all the time. I hope to do a little bit of study/reasearch on this very topic in this program if anyone would be interested as well please contact me. matzilla1@hotmail.com Xbox gamertag: matzilla01
Nov 21st, 2009
Justin
Matt – Your comment on the use of social media services as a help tool for gamers was particularly interesting. We all know reputation and status are important currencies in both the social media and online gaming communities, what better way to show your status, skill, and expertise than to help another gamer through a particularly difficult level or task.
As a former gamer, I don’t know how many games I gave up on or cheated my way through by reading an online guide to make it past a certain level. It took a lot of entertainment out of the experience. If I were able to submit a “help” request to the XBox Live community of online gamers and then have someone ping me with a few tips, it would not only increase my enjoyment level, but would also foster the community as well as provide the helper with additional experience points and an increased status within the community.
Nov 22nd, 2009
Brian Johnson
mfranco,
I’m not sure an all-in-one gaming portal would be a good choice to bring social media further into video games. As you mention, both the technical issues and legal/business strategies would never allow this to happen. Never is a strong word, but I don’t see this happening in the near future or distant future.
This is why I think existing 3rd party social networks should be implemented to avoid these problems, yet still allow social networking to happen with video games.
Xurxo,
Thanks for bring up Raptr. I haven’t used their service yet, but I have heard that it is doing pretty well. It looks to be a capable IM system for gaming, but I think it might stay pretty niche and have a hard time breaking into mainstream gamers.
Matt,
I think you are spot on with your train of thought. I don’t know how they are going to brand the next generation of video game machines, but they certainly will have to do something different. They indeed will become the “centralizing technology,” which is why I think Microsoft has done such a good job with they Xbox strategy. I’ll add you on LIVE.
Justin,
There is a lot that can done with social networking to improve of change current gameplay. I agree about the reputation aspect of helping other gamers. For many gamers, reputation is a HUGE part of the gaming world.
Nov 23rd, 2009
Jeremy
Brian – I disagree. I think that an “all-in-one” social games app would be fantastic. MSFT tried this a little with the Xbox LIVE / Games for Windows LIVE cross-platform matchmaking, but it didn’t catch on. Frankly, I’m surprised that a company like GameSpy hasn’t pushed social tools into the multiplayer services that they license to PC developers.
More than that, though, I love MFRANCO’s idea of a game-equivalent to Digsby or Trillian: some place that I can merge all of my game IDs into a single consolidated platform and refer to that for all of my buddy lists, achievements, and even (someday) cross-platform matchmaking.
Dec 3rd, 2009
Jim Hong
I have to say that I’m slightly doubtful that the integration of FB and Twitter into the existing social platforms is anything more than glomming onto a fad. Gaming has been social for quite some time. You can point to the early MOOs and MUDs as a gaming mechanic with gaming evolving into “Counterstrike” style multiplayer frag fests and finally into the connected consoles where multiplayer gaming has really taken the engagement effect to the next level. At least, that’s my perspective when it comes to “hard core” gaming.
Casual gaming, especially when the social aspect is more asynchronous, has a little more connection to these newer forms of social media since you don’t require nearly as much synchronous context as you do with the hard core console and PC games. So seeing everyone’s Farmville updates and Bejeweled Blitz scores as a status update fits more into paradigm of Facebook and Twitter than do hardcore games. But you’re not doing quite as much social interaction there, although the games may (arguably) be more fun to play with other people.
Dec 8th, 2009
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