Social Websites As Games - How to Win at Digg, YouTube, Facebook
In a comment on our recent post The Digg Effect, C. Weng pointed to an e-book he has written called The Web: Hidden Games. It is available for free on Lulu.com. Weng commented that his book reveals "how websites such as Digg, Youtube and Facebook can be viewed as games (even though they weren't designed as such), and how this perspective is beneficial to both web designers and users."
I downloaded the e-book and have started to read it. This description of Digg as a game rings very true:
"So just how exactly is Digg.com a hidden game? Certainly, it has no swordwielding heroes who save fantasy worlds from evildoers, but it does have more characters than in any video game. With millions of users, Digg has a wide array of personalities contributing to the community. This makes it like a massive multiplayer online roleplaying game, just without the slaying of monsters. There is a clear goal: to get to the front page, and there are obstacles: not getting dugg up and having to keep trying multiple times. There is fierce competition between all Diggers for that top spot. Sometimes, they even attempt to discredit others’ posts by commenting on poor grammar, false information, and duplicate stories. Strategies are used to defeat other players and they are numerous. Just as many plans for Digg domination through friendship exist though. Seeking out the different users and adding them to the “friends” list is among the most popular and most successful methods. In the end, a win is only when a story has hundreds of diggs, regardless of how you go about it. Everyone is striving to be the best at what they do and this keeps them coming back to Digg for more."
The e-book goes on to tell you how to "win" at Digg and notes that "like all games, Digg’s system can be cheated." It also compares YouTube to chess: "there are an infinite number of ways to win in YouTube but it only occurs under certain conditions. Every single method, strategy, and theory leads back to the essential factor: getting people to view your videos." And as for Facebook, it is compared to The Sims: "The object of the game is more to monitor or to guide characters in daily life rather than to win at something. There’s no simple goal in sight but it is all about the process of playing."
It's a fascinating e-book and thanks C. Weng for making it freely available on Lulu!
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Great post, thanks for the pdf link. We're going to find this report very useful. Cheers! Happy Holidays!
- Michael vu
www.fantasysportsmatrix.com
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Thanks for sharing the eBook link. It is an interesting perspective on social networks.
I guess anything that involves a group of people can be viewed as a game ... as long as we don't loose the final goal of the game.
Alex
This is really a great guide for those who want to be on top of the others, a must have for all social network fanatics. Thanks for sharing.
Nhick
http://www.itrush.com
Great read. More than truth.
If you're interested in this topic, you should take a look at our Nitro product: http://www.bunchball.com
- rajat
Thanks Richard for pointing it out to us...
C. Weng is brilliant, this is great. I guess he goes by "C. Weng" to remain anonymous? (I guess the social sites won't like this ebook much). Does he have a blog or something, I would love to see more of his work.
thanks for the link, i'll probably check it out today. i'm not on facebook and i don't go to digg as much as i should. but every once in a while i'll be on youtube and before i know it, 3 hours have gone by.
Thanks Richard for sharing it. What Mr. Weng said is very much true indeed.
I am not as good on Facebook or YouTube- but I certainly have fair idea of how the game is plyed on Digg. I remember reading a blgpost on SEOMOZ of how top 100 diggers like the Social Marketing Guru Neil Patel dominate DIGG frontpage.
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/top-100-digg-users-control-56-of-diggs-homepage-content
I'll definitely go and download Mr. Weng's book now.
John
This reminds me of www.iminlikewithyou.com
a social "flirting" game that is all based on competitions
- headlines
Interesting New Look at Online Flirting
Love in the time of Facebook
Hot or Not for the Web Savvy
Flirting 2.0
A New Way To Find People Who Don't Suck
Game Mechanics + Social Network
- interview
http://www.calacanis.com/2007/04/14/calacaniscast-24-beta/
- reviews
http://kevnull.com/2007/05/iminlikewithyou-and-game-design-in-the-web.html
http://www.pronetadvertising.com/articles/iminlikewithyou-hot-or-not-for-the-web-savvy21115.html
http://gigaom.com/2007/03/28/iminlikewithyou/
- news
http://www.redherring.com/Home/22754
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/04/03/iminlikewithyou-an-interesting-new-look-at-online-flirting
http://www.alleyinsider.com/iminlikewithyou/index.html
-quotes
Kevin Rose: “iminlikewithyou is the most innovative dating/social hookup sites I've seen in years. Think ebay for dating."
Om Malik: "as addictive and as powerful as Facebook. And just as Mark Zuckerberg reinvented the Yearbook, Charles & Dan are going to reinvent the art of flirting"
//////There is fierce competition between all Diggers for that top spot.
Most of the Digg members never submit anything, they are there to read. Only a percentage occasionally submit stories and only a fraction of those are regular submitters.
Great post. I like using this line of thinking to think about news sites like digg. I recently interviewed top-digger and "pro" social bookmarker David Cohn on my blog and "gaming" digg was a big part of the discussion. Check it out, David knows digg inside out in a way that few users do.
Thanks for sharing the e-book link. :)
Weng calls these social media sites (digg, youtube etc) games. I think that is a reach - but what we are clearly seeing is that addictive game mechanics are being built into the design of social media sites. Mechanisms like keeping score, publishing popularity, leveling up, collecting, reciprocity etc are well known among game designers to keep players playing longer. More at the Lightspeed blog:
http://lsvp.wordpress.com/2007/03/28/game-mechanics-applied-to-social-media-easy-to-learn-hard-to-master/
and
http://lsvp.wordpress.com/2007/04/06/game-mechanics-applied-to-social-media-keeping-score/
bled sang carefree!apparel rivalling iterated morality?writable gardens?
Great book, game mechanics are increasingly part of the real web browsing experience, as we move from an information age into a user experience age, refining and filtering the mass of comment out there.
With each new client, from film companies to blue chip brands it's important to engage the target audience using tools they are familiar with and game mechanics are central to this.
Thank you for the link and good info! I'm awayre there's a lot of new black, gray and white hat software born to dominate web 2.0. what is your opinion?
Thanks for the feature Richard!
I appreciate everyone's feedback. Unfortunately, I don't have a blog up yet, but please feel free to email me at webasagame@gmail.com if you have any comments. Hopefully, I will have more free time in the near future to work further on this.