Game genres come and go out of fashion, and a particular type currently trending is social games. This is a broad game category, but the overriding common aspect is the game’s social functionalities, and many of them are available to play on social media platforms like Facebook. Below, I look at social games in more detail and how they shape the gaming industry.
What are social games?
As mentioned, social games are a broad range of games that have social features. I don’t simply mean multiplayer gameplay, but social gameplay. This could be chat interactivity, joining teams or alliances, visiting friends, giving them gifts, and helping with tasks.
This type of game originated on Facebook, and you could play many original titles like Farmville on the social media platform. Indeed, there are still plenty of Facebook titles available, but social games have now evolved beyond that, with the majority being standalone apps available for download from locations like the App Store.
Social games are incredibly popular, spawning a range of similar concepts, such as social casinos or sweepstakes casinos. The sweeps experts at WSN.com have done a review of Zula Casino and their promotions such as no deposit bonuses, and more than 30 unique jackpot slots. This is an example of a social casino where you can play casino-style games, compete against others in leaderboards, and even win prizes.
What makes social casinos and social games compelling is interactivity and the ability to engage with your friends, as well as people from around the world. It opens you up to a whole new world of connectivity.
Main categories of social games
There are a range of subcategories in the social games genre, and looking at them will help you understand what they are and if you will enjoy them.
Social RPGs
Let’s start with the most popular option – social RPGs. Examples of popular social RPGs include Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, Lords Mobile: Kingdom Wars, and the upcoming Solo Levelling: Arise. In these games, you usually control a single character or a team of characters.
You can upgrade your stats and equipment and progress as you would in a classic PC RPG. There is usually an underlying storyline, and you can fight bosses, etc. The social aspect of these games is amazing, and you can usually interact with other players in real time, join guilds, and fight in epic raid battles or server-wide boss battles together.
Social RPGs are currently trending and usually offer some degree of cross-platform support, meaning you can play on mobile or PC/ console.
Base-Builders
Ah, the base-builder games. I’ve spent A LOT of time (and money!) on these games. Next to social RPGs, they are arguably the most popular type of social game available, and there are so many different titles to choose from.
The premise is simple – you control an entity (depending on the game, this could be a city, empire, faction, country, or castle, for example). You are responsible for managing the resources within that entity, building its infrastructure, and usually training military units.
The social aspect of these games comes from the PVP action and the cooperative aspects. For example, Clash of Clans is easily the best base builder example. In this game, you can join a clan with other players and participate in clan wars against other teams. The social nature of these games is often so strong that clans will create Discord chats and make participation mandatory for members!
Sports management games
Some casual games are based on different sports, with the most popular genres being tennis, soccer, basketball, and football. These social games usually have team or player management elements, actual gameplay, and RPG elements.
For example, with Tennis Mania, you control a single tennis star but can upgrade your equipment and stats and attempt to rise through the tennis rankings. This game also has some fantastic social elements, such as allowing you to play doubles matches with your friends.
Casual social games
Many social games are for hardcore gamers and those who love to compete. However, there is a branch of social games that are more casual – for the person who just wants to pass a little time or maybe chill for 5 minutes on their toilet break!
These are casual social games, and they are all about having fun. The gameplay is usually incredibly easy to pick up, and you can play for 5-10 minutes at a time without much commitment. For example, Overcooked 2 is a social cooking game where you can play with friends and try to manage a restaurant.
I used to love the classic casual social game Farmville, too. This series continues today, but I still love the original version the best. With this social game, you could have fun building your farm, including planting and harvesting crops. It wasn’t intense and you could visit your friends’ farms. The original game was launched on Facebook, and it is one of the best examples of a classic social game.
Virtual village games
Many popular social games revolve around the premise of a virtual village. It doesn’t specifically have to be a village, but a common area or a community where you can interact with other people. You typically control a character or avatar within these games, and there is an element of creativity where you can obtain cosmetic items and decorate a space within the virtual village. Examples of these types of games include Harvest Town, Life Sim, Dream House Days, and Sally’s Spa.
Word and puzzle games
There is an entire genre of social games based on word games and puzzle solving. These often take traditional concepts such as word searches, scrabble, or sudoku but add social aspects such as requesting clues and helping solve your friends’ problems.
One of the most popular examples of this genre is Wordle. This game exploded into popularity a few years back. You essentially have 6 turns to guess a 5-letter word. Each time you guess, the boxes change color to reflect your accuracy. Other examples of word and puzzle games include Boggle, Letter-Boxed, The Crossword, and Spelling Bee.
Social Games continue to shine
Their popularity means an increased push in the gaming industry to develop social games and games with social features. I don’t expect this trend to go away anytime soon, and with things like VR and AR, the future of social games could be incredibly interesting.
Featured image credit: Hannah Rodrigo / Unsplash
