Typical MMOG players sneer at the very topic of Facebook games,
deriding such offerings like style="font-style: italic;">Farmville
as money-sucking operations. While the vast majority of Facebook games
are unappealing to MMOG players, there are a few items that MMOGs can
learn from Facebook to enhance their gaming experiences.



I can hear the disbelieving howls of gamers already, but I have not
lost my mind. While playing countless Facebook games to find some href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/editorials/5-facebook-mmogs-worth-playing">MMOGs
worth playing, a few features of
those games piqued my interest.
While the game I was playing may have been dreadful, a certain feature
would catch my eye and I would think, “This would be a nice
addition to style="font-style: italic;">WoW
or DDO
or any other good MMOG.” To that end, here are five features
found within Facebook games that could be used to enhance mainstream
MMOGs.

Proclaiming Your Achievements

Who doesn’t want the news of our mighty deeds within our
favorite MMOG to be heralded throughout the land, or more precisely,
known to our gaming buddies? When playing a normal Facebook game, every
level advance, new title, or achievement can be posted on your Facebook
wall for all to see and marvel at your gaming prowess. While Facebook
games tend to go overboard with this feature (I’ve had to
remove such notices from my news feed as that my sisters and nieces all
play Farmville),
it’s still a great idea. While some MMOGs
have started to adopt this feature, it should definitely be a
no-brainer to include it in future games and add it to existing games.
I look forward to the day when my level-capped assassin, Deathkrusher
Painlord, can post his triumph of becoming a grandmaster of tailoring!

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/99035"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 620px; height: 522px;"
alt="facebook game achievement announcement"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/99035">

Calling for Backup

This feature I’ve seen in more the micromanagement games or
shooters of wherein you can send a post to your Facebook friends asking
them to jump into the game you’re playing and help you out.
This is definitely something that could be of tremendous value to
MMOGs. Rather than calling, texting, or skyping your friends to help
you out fighting some hideous boss, you can just click a link that
automatically sends out an alert to all of your compatriots asking them
to jump in and give you a hand. Since gamers tend to be plugged in
24/7, they’ll definitely be aware of your cry for help.
It’s like having a posse standing by on speed-dial. Some
griefer camping out your spawn location? Send out an alert
and…BAM!...instant mob of noob-beating buds to exact some
retribution.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/99038"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 620px; height: 519px;"
alt="facebook game friend invite"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/99038">

Rewards for Playing
Consistently

Since most Facebook games are designed to pry money out of your wallet,
they want to make sure that you keep coming back to them day after day.
One way they do this is to offer rewards for consistent play. Usually,
they do this in two separate ways. First, they offer you a reward that
you can claim after a certain amount of time has passed. Once you claim
your reward, the timer starts again, usually with a greater amount of
time needed for the next treat. The second method is rewards given out
for playing for a certain number of consecutive days. The more days you
play in succession, the better the rewards given out.



This feature is something that can be used by MMOGs to keep players
coming back for more. I know I would be more apt to log in for a bit
every day knowing that I would get a freebie for doing so, and
isn’t the purpose of online games to keep you coming back and
paying for that subscription? What’s the harm of handing out
some healing potions or xp boosts to get players logging in on a daily
basis? Absolutely none. Some MMOGs hand out player rewards after
playing for a year or for some other anniversary associated with the
creation of their account, but such rewards don’t factor into
a player’s decision to log in. Do you spend time wondering
what your player loyalty reward is going to be next year or when the
game celebrates some milestone? Neither do I. However, if I know that
if I log in every day for 3 days, I’ll get a 25% xp boost
potion that lasts an hour, I’ll make an effort to do so and
get that potion. If a costume piece that I think looks cool or a fancy
mount is available for logging in on a daily basis for 10 days, 30
days, or however many days it takes, I’ll make much more of
an effort trying to reach that pinnacle and I won’t think of
it as grinding. I’ll just put it forth as, “Well, I
was going to log in anyway so why not get the free stuff?”
Players love to be rewarded for just showing up and playing.

Bribing Your Friends to Lure
Them In

Many Facebook games attempt to get you to get your friends to begin
playing that game by offering them bribes, i.e. free items. You can
send a “free gift” to a buddy and all they have to
do to get it is to start playing the game. Who doesn’t love
free stuff? I know I do. We see this all the time with pre-orders for
games. If you pre-order from one specific retailer, you’ll
get the cool Helmet of Awesomeness when you begin playing while those
damned souls who didn’t pre-order from retailer X are doomed
to wallow in misery with just plain normal helmets.



While some MMOGs offer rewards for player referrals, the Facebook
bribery method is astonishingly simple, direct, and effective.
There’s no need to fill out forms of who referred who and
wait to see if the new player actually lasts past the trial period.
Here the new player gets the reward for just trying the game. Players
are just normal people, and like all people, they leap at the chance to
have an advantage from the start. Giving special items such as armor,
weapons, or costume pieces all help to lure players in. Getting someone
to try out a game is the biggest hurdle for a game (keeping those
players is the second) and anything that brings a heightened degree of
interest should be encouraged.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/99037"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 620px; height: 598px;"
alt="facebook game friend gifts"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/99037">

Jazzing it Up

Many Facebook games are the equivalent of slot machines.
There’s always something going on with lots of razzle-dazzle
to keep you in the game and, hopefully, spending some cash to keep
playing. Some games feature contests of luck where you can win tokens
to be spent within the game or other prizes, such as experience boosts
or equipment. Sometimes, the razzle-dazzle is less usury, such as in
GodsWar
Online where you can win free
tokens by taking a quiz on the
lore of the game.



Overall, such contests can help break up the monotony of the grind and
provide some entertainment as long as the use of such events is benign
and not designed to fleece the players of money. Who doesn’t
like games of chance when there’s no harmful consequence?
It’s like having a carnival fairway within the MMOG all the
time and not just for special occasions. Why not allow players a crack
at playing fun games of chance or taking quizzes for free swag like xp
bonuses, potions, special gear, or costume pieces? You could have these
events on a timed basis (such as once per day) or perhaps a turn of the
wheel for every quest completed. There are a large number of
possibilities in how this feature could be implemented and players
would eat it up.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/99036"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 620px; height: 508px;"
alt="facebook game contest"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/99036">

Overall, many Facebook games feature social interaction (bribing
friends to play, being able to ask friends for help) and inducements to
keep coming back to the game (contests, daily rewards) to hook and
keep players.
MMOGs can use such ideas to enhance their own gameplay experience.
Online games should take every possible advantage of such features to
keep players entertained and coming back to the game on a regular
basis. While many
gamers, including me, laugh at the vast majority of games found on
Facebook, nobody can deny the success of some of those games. So why
not take a page out of their playbook and use it? If MMOGs
don’t take advantage of the new landscape of the online
world, then they’ll become increasingly left behind.