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A Brief History of Social Games

Posted by Soulskill on from the i-poke-you-with-tim dept.

Tarinth writes "Social games (such as FarmVille, etc.) are hardly new, because games have been part of recorded history for thousands of years. An infographic has integrated many of the key games from history (starting with Egypt's Senet game from 3100 BC), showing major milestones along the way, such as play-by-mail, Dungeons and Dragons, and Magic: the Gathering. Today's cultural phenomenon of social games, which might better be better called 'social network games,' is the confluence of several trends ranging from asynchronous gameplay, social play, and virtual economies — all of which are shown within the infographic."

7 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. News for nerds? by Locke2005 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wouldn't a history of antisocial gaming be more appropriate for slashdot?

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    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    1. Re:News for nerds? by nschubach · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Nerds (and/or geeks) all around the world play games like Dungeons and Dragons and Magic the Gathering to obtain all sorts of social contact... Just because said social interaction occurs in places with names like "Guard Tower" or within one's basement doesn't make it any less social. ;)

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      Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
  2. VGA Planets by stoolpigeon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Good times. A privateer gorby, some cloaked ships towing in victims. So much fun. I remember picking up copies of Computer Shopper to get phone numbers for local bbs's that hosted games and even a meet up with other players from one of them. I think it was the first PC game I played with human opponents.

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    It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
  3. Excellent manufactured blog post by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Let's see, we have completely unoriginal commentary on a hot topic, "social gaming". I suppose this is separate from that other non-social gaming where you play Monopoly or Clue by yourself. "I like to think of social games as "games you play with other people" (usually-but not always-your friends)." What an amazing insight! We've got a fancy graphic which is actually remarkably information-free, with a full-size poster available. The entire post is 814 words, not long at all. We've got a hot, sexy search term "social network games", OMG I'm getting horny here. I mean, come on people, the title tries to warn you off! "Internet Entrepreneur 2.0"? Who would possibly take what this man says seriously? But the entire post is tailor-made to be linked to and consumed in five minutes by today's internet audience, desperately searching for that next hit of novelty...anything to stave off the crushing boredom that is life without want.

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    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  4. WTF? by geminidomino · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Infographic?" Really?

    "Diagram" or "Flowchart" or even fucking "Image" weren't pretentious enough, you had to hit us with fucking "Infographic?"

  5. I survived 3 weeks of Farmville... by shava · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...and lived to tell the tale (on Gamasutra)

  6. !Interesting. by cosm · · Score: 2, Funny

    After spending approximately 2 seconds of my life analyzing the infographic, only to realize it is just a picture of the ways people have been wasting time for the past millennium, I have concluded that I need to get the fuck off /. and go outside.

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    'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF