Social networks integration

[Chris]

Let's assume we have a finished game and want to make it work with social networks (to get more players obviously ). The goal would be to make minimum changes in order to let the additioanl players play from the social network site.


Social networks: Facebook and MySpace (anything else?)

Basic implementation: Facebook has something called "Connect" which is desigend for our purposes http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Connect/Authentication_and_Authorization
If anyone know examples it would be great.

Additional implementation: for Facebook we would probably need "Bookmark" functionality as well.

Marketing: How do we promote on social networks? I recal that on FB they had a special paid option to get the App featured, but they discontinued it already. How is such game marketed right now? On which sections should it be put/included?

Limitations: The game's interface should fit into social network frame (WIDTH only HEIGHT is flexible?) How many pixels width is available on FB? For FB API code PHP5 is required, no other requirements I think.

How it could work: Each user in social network has UID, we make a special index page for the network, it checks if UID is present in our separate "socialnetwork" table and if yes is retrieve our player_id. If it is not present it goes to special register page. Upon register it only asks for username. Password and email is not filled, also a socialnetwork table entry is created with UID. When user try to login (via our normal index page) and the password in NULL then it denies it since it must be social newtwork account (or redirect it to social network index page).


Anyone knowlegable about social networks please revise it and correct what was mistaken. My knowledge about these is very slim

[Mufasa]

Good thread, I'm about to embark on the same journey for prisonblock. Don't forget openID in there.

In any case, my plan was to have it where it inserted a normal user into the database using their social network (SN) credentials (and store some sort of unique identifier attaching the account to this SN account). Then the login page should allow normal logins or SN logins as well.

For example, I could go to the site and click the OPENID button to log in, or the log in with facebook button. On successful login to the SN I check the db for which account is linked to said SN account and then log them in as that user.

That is currently the plan anywho

[ST-Mike]

Admins have ignored my deletion request - if you're not going to delete my account then don't have the option there please.

[Chris]

The purpose is not to let users login via social network account (it is merely irrelevant side effect). The purpose is for the game to appear on the application list of the social network games list so we get more players. The game also have to launch inside social network's page.

Google Friendconnect and https://rpxnow.com does not meet these conditions?

[tellmore]

people playing the same game might have some intentions common.

So i get to my point straight.
If you want a load of players, create a dummy account on social networks.
Like iwiw, and those things.

You can make clubs there.
Players who play the game can invite each other (you must start the chain reaction)

People love to belong somewhere.

A nother GREAT form of advertise, is to offer some small prise for players who swap their image on MSN for your games logo, and include the website in the personal text.

As long as they are log in to MSN, You get valuable people to see your game icon.
It will draw attention.

[toxin]

I am still working on getting more knowledge on it so I may not be best to give advice. You may also have found the info I have to offer but here it goes.

For Facebook
http://developers.facebook.com/get_started.php
http://www.facebook.com/developers/ you may need to be logged in to see. If you have an amount use it do not make one for your game or it may get removed.
Facebook gives you a basic php set up
link to it
http://svn.facebook.com/svnroot/platform/clients/packages/facebook-platform.tar.gz
also found this http://gathadams.com/2007/06/18/how-to-write-a-facebook-application-in-10-minutes/

Myspace also has a the same basic setup

basic hello world tutorial

[Mufasa]

The purpose is not to let users login via social network account (it is merely irrelevant side effect). The purpose is for the game to appear on the application list of the social network games list so we get more players. The game also have to launch inside social network's page.

Google Friendconnect and https://rpxnow.com does not meet these conditions?

I disagree, well, maybe that's your intention, but in general, making the registration/login as easy as possible even for those who find your site OUTSIDE of a SN should be a plus no?

[Chris]

I disagree, well, maybe that's your intention, but in general, making the registration/login as easy as possible even for those who find your site OUTSIDE of a SN should be a plus no?

Not necessarily. If you take an effort to register you make a commitment, it is more likely for you to come back next day. If you only clicked one button to "earn" an account...
It's similar to the psychological effect of 3D MMORPGs entry purchase, they all sell boxed version and you need to buy it first. They claim that this way it is less likely you quit too soon and keep paying the monthly subscription (and since you paid the monthly subscription for a few months to offset the initial price of the box then you want carry on so you don't lose the money you invested in previous months paying monthly subscriptions )

I'm defintely going to show the facebook button to those logged on Facebook only.

[Chris]

I made some HelloWorld app yesterday, but I can not find it today (well, I know where it is on my server, but the whole FB page and settings...)

[codestryke]

Not necessarily. If you take an effort to register you make a commitment, it is more likely for you to come back next day. If you only clicked one button to "earn" an account...
It's similar to the psychological effect of 3D MMORPGs entry purchase, they all sell boxed version and you need to buy it first. They claim that this way it is less likely you quit too soon and keep paying the monthly subscription (and since you paid the monthly subscription for a few months to offset the initial price of the box then you want carry on so you don't lose the money you invested in previous months paying monthly subscriptions )

I'm defintely going to show the facebook button to those logged on Facebook only.

I at one time agreed with this argument but we are in a new world when it comes to online and what people expect when they visit a new site. I know Chris has all his games and they all funnel to one forum for support, news etc. We went a different route and each game has it's own forum and sometimes even a WIKI for player's to contribute to game documentation. None of these systems share a user/password database so it's getting to be a bit much. We've had player's even tell us they would have tried our other games but they didn't want to signup for yet another game and forum. We are no longer looking for a commitment instead we want people to try our games because we feel our games have more to offer then other games. Anyone who's run a game knows they get a bunch of dead accounts of people that signup play once or twice and leave so the commitment is that big of a deal.

The other benefit that we are looking at is deep linking from the search engines. If I have on my front page one of those Facebook add-ons that say "people that follow our game", which goes to our Facebook page which is about our game, those players then could be following other games, say for instance, Mufasa's Prison Block so now we are linked with his game or other games etc etc. This is some really deep linking which Google loves, this alone is worth the time and effort.

Haven't had time but the intent this year is to move all our online properties (including BBG) to use rpxnow.com which supports quite a few of the nifty add-ons along with a single point of login.

[ST-Mike]

Admins have ignored my deletion request - if you're not going to delete my account then don't have the option there please.

[Murzim]

I made some HelloWorld app yesterday, but I can not find it today (well, I know where it is on my server, but the whole FB page and settings...)

Congrats

[tellmore]

Login with your YADADA user profile is one thig if i see on a webpage I refuse to log in.
It is just a notice, but still if someone has option to log in with facebook or whatever ID and username/password, its a good thing.
But make sure to allow regular registration.

It would be annoying to sign up to facebook just to test a game i heard abut.
Makes things a bit complicated, but think of all the sociopaths who are just like me, and refuse to sign up for X just to log in to Y.

[Chris]

About Facebook userbase:
"I finally came to this realization: People on Facebook won’t pay for anything. They don’t have credit cards, they don’t want credit cards, and they are not interested in shopping."
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/01/how-to-spam-facebook-like-a-pro-an-insiders-confession/

[tellmore]

Hmm, yes can happen with ease that people who join 100% free stuff don't really bother to pay for anything.

For example, veteran players who like browser games may simply refuse to join games that are "free, and have extra optional premium features" IF it is advertised as "free to play".

As soon as they find out its not quite 100% free, they will leave the game.

Anyways, good to have an option to use facebook account to log in, but MOST probably that won't yield premium users. If you are earning revenue for showing banner it helps, but other than that I don't quite see the point of it.

[Chris]

For example, veteran players who like browser games may simply refuse to join games that are "free, and have extra optional premium features" IF it is advertised as "free to play".

As soon as they find out its not quite 100% free, they will leave the game.

It is not true, they only say so. If the game is to their liking they will stay
Watch the GoDaddy video blog, they were talking in one issue about all these people who were offended by their ads and say they will quit using their service.

[133794m3r]

i just saw this thread... and if that was true in that article which i have read, then how do games such as scamville prosper so well? only x% of their money is coming from scamming people so there has to be some sort of revenue in the game itself. Now, although i don't really see using facebook as a good viable platform for pbbg sake unless you're willing to scam yoru players to make any money, having teh facebook connect thing would help a bit in increasing traffic. I know alot of people who just also have a facebook. So it's free marketing is all.

[Daedeloth]

Hi,

I've spammed this in another thread earlier, but I'm actually working on a system that allows browser based game owners to easily integrate their game on Facebook, OpenSocial (so Myspace, Hyves, Hi5, ...), Bigpoint, Popmog and others (later on).

At the moment we're testing the system with a few games and finishing a few issues, but we're almost usable for the big public. (Except that we don't have admin panels etc yet, so at the moment registration is by hand).

In total, we offer 3 services:
- We make sure your game is technically ready to launch on Facebook, Hyves, Netlog, ... (see the networks listed above). You only have to implement our library, we handle the rest.
- We give users the ability to login using facebook, google, ... account and allow games to push updates ("spam") to the social network)
- We offer a payment gateway that makes use of the required social networks. It will also hold a set of payment gateways (paypal, mobile payments, offer based "free" payments, ...) We send you the money you've earned once every month, so you don't have to keep track of your hundred payment providers.

Our service will be free, but we will charge a small commission on the payments.

To give you an idea about the implementation efforts: I've installed the whole authentication system in an old game of mine a few days ago and it took me less than an hour.

And now for the really interesting part: we don't use closed protocols! We use OpenID for our authentication. So if you're unhappy with us, you still have OpenID to offer to your customers.

As I've said, this project is very much in it's first stage, but we've got 4 games running now and we're ready to grow some more. If you're interested, leave me a little message and I'll help you implement the library. You can be up and running on Facebook within a day

[Mufasa]

i just saw this thread... and if that was true in that article which i have read, then how do games such as scamville prosper so well? only x% of their money is coming from scamming people so there has to be some sort of revenue in the game itself. Now, although i don't really see using facebook as a good viable platform for pbbg sake unless you're willing to scam yoru players to make any money, having teh facebook connect thing would help a bit in increasing traffic. I know alot of people who just also have a facebook. So it's free marketing is all.

I'm sorry, it was hard to digest your post with all of the loaded content contained therein.

[Daedeloth]

As some people have asked before, I've put some documentation on my system online:
http://developers.browser-based-games.org/

It's still very basic, if you have any questions, just ask :-)

[jannesiera]

As some people have asked before, I've put some documentation on my system online:
http://developers.browser-based-games.org/

It's still very basic, if you have any questions, just ask :-)

I tweeded it ^^.