Social gaming is big business nowadays, even I find myself drawn into playing these addictive iOS based games on a daily basis. Games such as Draw Something are really fun and interactive and I think the reason I love it so much is because I get to play with my friends. This is normally the case for most apps for the iPhone and iPad and I think that is why so many people I know love the social aspect of gaming. The fact that it's so simple and easy makes it much mor enjoyable, all you have to do is pick a word to draw that your friend has to guess in order to collect a certain amount of coins. You can spend your winnings on more colour palettes within the game, which gives a sense or reward and acts as an incentive to play it more and more. Playing this in my spare time is very enjoyable and other apps such as Words with Friends makes social gaming a lot more challenging and dare I say it, educational.
Another very addictive game that links in with sharing via Facebook is the Bejeweled series. Senior franchise director of the app Bejeweled says that a good social game needs to engage players over a period of time. He has also said in the past that "This is obtained either through compelling core gameplay that’s endlessly repeatable — a feat achieved by a small minority of games and possible only in certain genres — or by constantly adding content to the game, which requires a very disciplined release schedule, and requires the developer to be able to produce content as fast, or faster, than the most active players are consuming it." (Erica Swallow, Forbes)
We can therefore conclude from this that a sucessful app would need variety and have ongoing content that would attract our attention. There is also a growing trend toward apps both on our iOS devices & the internet, that allow you to try various Casino Games online such as bingo, horse racing, Black Jack, roulette and so many more. These offer up a social aspect too, whilst at the same time allow us to possibly win a little extra cash too.
