social gaming

Zynga - all the rage because of its fast growth and huge monetary value - is building on some of the same principles as the persuasive technology and behavioral economics trends. A new york times article today mentions that (at least some of the) users pay for virtual goods in games because they have so little time that it is a good way to connect and share with (apparently) relatives and friends who spend their time racking up points the hard way.
This is the same phenomenon that's been driving the gold farming industry in WoW, Everquest, and other high-investment games for more than a decade, but Zynga has figured out how to use the Facebook context to lower the barrier to entry and return some level of communication/sharing/togetherness for the investment of just 5 minutes a few times per week.
I've never played such games (for fear of getting sucked in - but maybe it's worth a few weeks of my life to understand such an important trend more deeply?) but I suspect that the relatively low investment required by these games results in a lower sense of community and less input into the game itself by the players. It seems the players would be less likely to form guilds, to build new levels, or to plan to be online all at the same time to collaborate, compared with your average MMORPG players.

NYT: Zynga next Google?

But it's impressive that Zynga has figured out how to monetize it. They've captured this idea that players will pay to have the game represent them in a similar context and with a similar status to family members and college friends. Basically, this is like paying to be represented as having empathy (like the $20 to get into a hip club on saturday night)? to facilitate communication (like a Hallmark card sent to an aunt)? Or is it more obvious than that - is it a space/medium/excuse for togetherness (like a game of Monopoly among any group of pre-adolescent acquaintances)?

In any of those cases, I'll argue that the next step for this business model is to incorporate it into a physical space. Like starbucks but with more emphasis on meeting and interacting with strangers (for even a shy person or someone without any particulars in common to get started talking to others about); like a bar or club without the emphasis on alcohol, dancing, and finding a mate; like facebook but embedded in a physical space. I'm working on the multi-user interaction model, so call me if you have the physical space part underway.