Something interesting is happening to me these days while playing Farmville. The game knows who in my 320+ extended network plays the game too and allows me to add them as neighbors. Two of my high school classmates who I haven’t seen in over ten years are playing the game. Ok, so what, you may say. We see all kinds of past classmates and co-workers on our social networks but that doesn’t mean we’re sending a message to everyone or writing on their wall every day.
But wait! Farmville, in its infinite wisdom to drive virality, has built in incentives for people to gift farm animals and trees to each other. And because the gifting screen is the first thing you see when you log in, a very curious thing is happening. My high school friends and I started sending each other farm stock every day. It’s like all of us discovered the same addition, something we are doing in common TODAY despite having led separate lives for a decade. I log in every day with the anticipation of seeing what gifts my friends from home have sent me (we have a 10 hour time difference). It’s become such part of our routine, we recently emailed each other to reconnect. What’s more, we’re using the Farmville application to reconnect with more of our high school friends by dragging them in as neighbors and sending them sheep and apricot trees. I wouldn’t be surprised if I see the same faces in other games on the Zynga platform – it’s already happened in Fashion wars, where some of my girlfriends from back home are my “posse”.
So what does that mean and why am I writing about it? Put simply, social games are a huge departure from the old hardcore gaming concept, which was a niche. These games are viral and they transcend platforms and social networks. Moreover, they help bring people together in unexpected, surprising, yet simple ways. And in our global world, where people live thousands of miles apart from friends and family, the more of that the better. One day, we may even see virtual highs chool reunions on social gaming applications. Complete with chickens and plum trees.
