Agents of influence are those whose opinions online are trusted, but who are they and how do we get them to talk about what we do?

Influence through cyberspace is about tapping into the power of social networks to build the ideology’s perception, reputation, and in the case of brands, profits. Today’s online influencers are cyberspace natives who trade in values, trust, reputation, and relationships, using social media means to accrue the influence that builds up or brings down ideas online.

The Internet has substantially changed the way we deal with influence — no where is this more apparent than in the field of advertising and marketing. Consumer environments are short on trust and populated by consumers who are cynical, savvy, and informed. Though it’s easier than ever to reach your customers, it’s less likely that they’ll listen. Today, the most valuable online currency isn’t the pound, but trust itself.

At the same time, social networks and personal connections as elements of influence through cyberspace carry far more weight on consumers than any top-down messages ever will — unless we realise how to harness this power. In Trust Agents, two social media veterans show you how to tap into the power of these networks to build your brand’s influence, reputation, and profits.

Trust agents are ordinary people with a keen interest in an area, they are digital savvy wield the web to provide an honest, genuine relationship for their own means. They have the capability to elevate an ideology and reputation or vise versa.

Counterintelligence is typically associated with the idea of catching foreign spies and double agents attempting to spy on their own country for financial gain or blackmail. However in the context of influence in cyberspace counterintelligence is really about understanding and countering all aspects of intelligence operations.

And thus in order to indentify, deceive, exploit, disrupt, or protect against cyber espionage we have no choice but to take cyberspace seriously and learn from marketers and advertisers who wield it to their advantage.

So having had a good look around the social game world & having made our 3rd social game this year,  here’s some nuggets of information that should help any budding social games designer to develop a better game.

Its all about a great single player game experience with a bit of social attached! Or is it? I would argue that even though the single player aspect is paramount, if that is the starting point the design of the social game will be sadly rather limiting.

Ready, Steady, Fight!

When we were designing iSeed, we looked at opt-in leagues and leader-board tables and felt that whilst useful they just didn’t cut the mustard in getting people to engage with each other, so we extended the competition to one on one, head to head, good old fashioned fighting. Its not a first person shooter, it’s a game about the environment, so there were limits on what we could do – that’s where we decided to design for direct competition. You can pick an adversary and pit your stories and plants against them, a virtual grow-off if you like.

Kerching! Its time to Monetize!

Some people love the word monetize next to social media, some don’t really get it. We think it’s super important but needs careful consideration about target audience and what the project is for.

Whist we developed iSeed we wanted a way to encourage folks to donate to the charity involved, so we hit on the idea of selling money! Yes we reinvented virtual currency, in our case Seeds and Plant Food – if this is sounding like Farmville can I just clarify that we built it before Farmville. Any how, having a market place with virtual goods that can be exchanged with hard cold cash is not new, but needs incorporating into ‘any’ social game. After all if you can’t monetize your social game, how will you sustain it?

Going beyond the application

A lot of the time the social game is designed to suck you in and get you spending. But what if it’s a serious social game? What if you really are trying to influence and change behaviour? Will a web game, all be it on Facebook be the answer? Well probably not, the real change happens after the person has walked away from the screen, in what they do once they’ve played your social game. How do we do that? That’s the real challenge. So back to iSeed and the premise of the game is that you start in the real world, with real world challenges. Bringing it all together through mashups using facebook, twitter and google maps.

Going fully social on the social game

Its yet to happen, but when it does you can bet your bottom dollar it’s going to be massive. The closest thing to it? Probably Kongragate or Second Life – but neither is it. What is it? It’s the next big innovation in social games, being able to play multiple games together under one platform, moving from one game to another seamlessly as though it’s all part of the same universe. Granted Kongragate makes a good job of it, but what’s missing is a common platform, will it be Facebook? I suspect not, but being able to socialise in the game itself rather than in the wrapping website is probably the next big thing in social games.

PlayGen has created a number of public policy games. Designed to educate the public on different aspect of policy, to help them better understand and fulfill their role as citizens in a democracy.

FloodSim is about bringing policy decisions to life , measuring attitudes and informing citizens and policy makers.

Floodsim is an online simulation aimed at raising public awareness of the complex issues involved in UK flood policy, at the same time as providing aggregated feedback to policy makers about public attitudes towards specific flood protection options.

Since its launch in August 2008, FloodSim has received over a 100,000 hits with tens of thousands of completed games and hundreds of positive feedbacks, including praise from the environment minister.

SeriousPolicy is about using immersive learning simulations to engage the new generation on government policy.

SeriousPolicy is a downloadable 3d game about public-policy engagement.  Providing a game based educational solution in critical awareness of and engagement with, the policy process in the public domain, its global trends and local contexts.

StrictlyPolicy (For DIUS Department of Innovation Universities and Skills  - internal Use only) is about visualising policy popularity for policy makers

Developed in collaboration with Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, StrictlyPolicy is an online game based around the media coverage of DIUS polices. The game measures policy popularity in 50 different areas and provides the mechanics and visualisations that are easy to understand and engage with.

There’s a lot of variety out there in the realm of social network design. Some sites keep a very professional approach (like LinkedIn) while others have a more organic, free-form look (like MySpace). Most sites fall somewhere in between, mixing professionalism with personalization (like Facebook). But what’s the best way to design a social network? What are the elements that make a social network more user-friendly and more attractive to users? Read on to find out.

1. Engage Quickly

Engagement is crucial for the success of any website. You need to make sure that visitors are immediately drawn into your site, either through great content, a compelling call to action, or some other means.

What’s It For?

Users need to know what your site is all about within seconds of reaching your home page. Most people don’t have time (or inclination) to try to figure out what a website is for if it’s not immediately apparent to them. A simple tag line, the use of graphics, your site’s title, or any number of other elements on your home page can serve to provide new visitors with some indication of what your site’s purpose is.

Facebook does an excellent job of quickly informing new visitors of their purpose right on their home page.

Give Visitors Something To Do

Your home page should present visitors, both new and returning, with something to do. Logging in or signing up is the most obvious thing for visitors to do, but think about other options. Give them the opportunity to explore what the site is all about before they sign up. Let them search for people they already know on the site. Give them a chance to see why they should sign up before forcing them to. It builds a sense of trust between your site and its users right from the start.

Xing presents users with multiple actions right on their home page, including signing up, taking a tour, or exploring content.

Promote Interesting Content From Friends

Show your users what their friends are doing. From the moment someone logs in, they should be able to see what their friends have been doing, posting, and otherwise promoting. Most sites approach this with a news feed or similar listing of all the activities your friends are up to.

Library Thing shows books recently added by friends.

Make It Easy To Find Friends

There’s nothing sadder than a social network account with few or no friends. Make it easy for your users to find friends, both new and old. Letting users search by email, school, company, name, and other identifying factors makes it more likely they’ll engage with a lot of other users, improving everyone’s user experience. The more friends a user has, the more active their profile and news feeds will be, meaning they’re more likely to come back often.

Facebook’s “Invite Friends” page uses a format similar to sending an email.

2. Let Users Express Themselves

Self-expression is one of the hallmarks of social media. Some sites approach this by giving users almost full control over the way their profile page looks (MySpace). Others restrict the design options but let users add content to suit their own preferences (Facebook). The degree to which your social network allows users to cusotmize and personalize their profiles is up to you; just make sure there’s some functionality in that area.

Profile Pages Should Promote Personal Expression

Whether you allow full control over user profiles or only limited access to changing their appearances, users should at least have some ability to make their profile reflect their personality. This can be done through changing color schemes and backgrounds or adding content.

DeviantART allows artists to customize their profiles by adding different kinds of content modules.

Promoting Individuality In Applications

Letting users show their individuality within applications is also a good idea in social networking design. You can do this by allowing users to comment on their activities within applications (as Facebook does) or in other ways. Some applications can be used directly to express a user’s personality. Applications like this include the various gifting, flair, and survey applications. One of the best examples of an application that lets users express who they are is the Living Social application (which is kind of a social network within itself), which allows users to create “top 5? lists about almost anything.

3. Be Dynamic

Dynamic content is the lifeblood of Web 2.0 sites. Social networks are no different. Content should change constantly, with the newest, most popular, and most valuable information continually pushed to the forefront for users.

Have Regularly-Changing Content

Because of the nature of social networking sites, there’s new content constantly available from users. Take advantage of this by including content, both on the home page and on individual users’ profiles or main pages, comprised of these updates. Updated content keeps users coming back, as there’s more to see each time they visit.

Experience Project includes featured content on their home page.

Update Content in Real-Time

Utilizing a real-time news feed for your users is a huge convenience. At this point, very few sites are doing this. Facebook has the closest thing to a real-time news feed I’ve seen. It shows you when there are updates, but still requires a click to actually view them (and is often buggy when displaying them). The ideal would be an ajax or similar news feed that updated every minute or so without requiring any user input.

Living Social has a real-time news feed of activity happening across their network.

4. Allow Friends To Be Grouped

As friend numbers grow, the ability to group them becomes more important. When you only have thirty or forty friends, it’s often not a big deal to just lump them all together. But when your friend numbers grow to 100, 200, 500 or higher, being able to group them together almost becomes a necessity. After all, you might want to keep your work friends, college friends, casual acquaintances, close friends, and family all in separate groups, both to filter whose updates you see and how much others see of your updates and other information.

Let Users Define Groups

User-defined groups make the most sense when it comes to organizing friends. Some users may only want to organize their friends into a couple of different groups (such as business and personal or family and friends). Others might want to set up dozens of groups for their friends. In either case, make sure users can add their friends to more than one group at a time.

Create Automatic Groups

Automatically grouping friends makes sense, too. Grouping friends by which applications they’re using seems to be the most popular of this kind. Other options might include friends who are also members of the same groups or who share common friends.

The Brooklyn Art Project social network groups their members by the type of art they work with.

5. Use OpenSocial

OpenSocial, Google’s application platform for social networks, opens up a range of possibilities for your social networking site. The primary function of OpenSocial is to allow developers to create applications that can be used across a wide range of social networks. But OpenSocial has other benefits, too, like letting your users take their profile information across the range of sites using OpenSocial.

Provide More Applications To Users

Applications have become one of the most important and most-used features of social networks. Everything from productivity apps to games to gifting apps to apps for expressing yourself are available through OpenSocial. And developers are adding new applications on a daily basis. Because Google runs it, you also don’t need to worry about the program closing down anytime soon.

Ning is only one of a host of social networks that supports the OpenSocial API.

Let Users Take Their Profiles Anywhere

Allowing your users to take their profile information to other sites implementing OpenSocial is another big advantage. This, of course, means they can also bring their profile information over to your network, which can increase the number of new registrations you get.

6. Make It Easy To Communicate

The entire point of a social network is to foster communication. If you make it difficult for users to converse with each other, your site most definitely will not last for very long. Make sure when you’re planning and developing your site that you keep communication at the forefront of every decision you make. If it does anything to hinder your users from talking to each other, drop it.

Provide Multiple Means Of Communication

Most social networks provide multiple means of communication for their users. The basics are private messages, public wall messages or comments, and live chat or instant messaging. While it’s best to include all three of these, at a bare minimum your site should provide some way to send public messages and a way to send private messages.

Facebook’s private messaging system is only one way they foster communication among members.

Foster Conversations

Make it easy for users to have conversations with each other. Whether this is done through threaded messages, commenting, or some other method, you want your users to have effective conversations. Make it easy to pull additional people into the conversation, too, to make your site even more dynamic.

7. Show Only Relevant Information

Social networks are generally teeming with information. Between friend updates, users’ own activities, and notices from groups they’re associated with, there’s a constant stream of data coming at your users. Don’t compound the problem by sending them even more information that they dont’ necessarily need.

What Really Needs To Be Here?

When designing your user interface, ask yourself this question repeatedly. Is it really necessary for a certain bit of information or an option to be included on a given page? If the answer is no, then don’t include it there. Only give your users the minimum necessary information to perform the tasks you want them to perform. Just make sure if there’s additional information some users might want that you make it easy enough for them to find it.

Daily Challenge hides some information until users hover, which leaves their interface decluttered and clean-looking.

Don’t Overwhelm Your Users

The volume of information on a social network can quickly become overwhelming. Don’t contribute to this problem by then offering them a dozen different options for each action they might take on your site. Simplify the information and choices you give them to make their user experience better.

The same principal applies to the volume of information the site itself provides to users. If your site is constantly sending out updates and news announcements, it can quickly overwhelm users. Only send out notifications when absolutely necessary. Set up a blog or news page (with an RSS feed) for posting non-essential information. This way users can see what’s happening on their own terms.

Give Users The Ability To Filter

Allowing users to filter out information from some users or groups is another way to improve a user’s experience. Letting users filter out updates from certain users or applications makes it easier for them to see the information they want to see without getting overloaded.

Facebook allows users to filter their news feed based on content or user-defined groups.

8. Make It Easy To Take Action

Every social network has certain actions they want users to take. Whether it’s to join more groups, invite more friends, click on ads or sponsored links, or post more updates, there’s likely a laundry list of desired activities every site would like to have all of their users perform. The key to getting users to actually take these actions is to make it both easy and appealing to do so.

Emphasize The Desired Response

Make it obvious which response or action you want users to make. This can be as simple as using larger buttons for the preferred response and a small text link for the less desirable one, or using different colors or language for different options. In either case, make the desired response appear to be the more desirable one.

WriterFace makes it very obvious what actions they want users to take.

Make It Easy To Find Things

If you want users to perform certain actions, make it easy for them to find those actions. The most obvious example is in inviting new friends. Make it straightforward and easy for users to find the form to invite their friends who might not be members of your network. Organize available actions in a semantic manner so users can logically find the options they’re looking for.

9. Show Avatar Photos

Virtually every social network out there allows users to upload a profile photo. Display this image near any activity a user performs. This could be next to their updates in a news stream, in lists of friends, or in the general site directories.

People Like Seeing Other People

Social network users like to see other social network users. And seeing your friend’s picture next to a particular application or other element of the site makes it more likely you’ll click on whatever they’re promoting. It builds a sense of trust to see a face you recognize, even if you’ve never actually met that person in real life.

10. Include Ways For Members To Connect

When social networks first started, most people only friended other people they knew in real life. But as social networks have grown, they’ve become a way to meet new people. Empower your users to find each other based on common interests. Provide tools to let people who don’t know each other, and who possibly aren’t even friends on the network, to communicate and get to know each other.

Include User Groups

Many social networks now allow users to create and join groups based on common interests. Sometimes these groups are serious (such as professional groups) while other times they’re just for fun. What they all share in common, though, is that they allow users to find other users who are interested in the same things they are.

Eons showcases user groups right on their home page.

Provide A Member Directory

Member directories are another good way to allow your users to find each other. These are particularly useful for small, niche social networks, as they allow every member to see every other member. In a large social network they quickly become less valuable unless you also include ways for members to filter the directory (such as by age or location). In large social networks it’s also a good idea to let members opt out of being included in the directory (kind of like having an unlisted phone number).

This article was written by Cameron Chapman and has featured on http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/13/social-network-design-examples-and-best-practices/

Cameron Chapman

Cameron Chapman is a professional Web and graphic designer with over 6 years of experience. She writes for a number of blogs, including her own, Cameron Chapman On Writing. She’s also the author of Internet Famous: A Practical Guide to Becoming an Online Celebrity.

There’s a lot of very creative folks out there and this post is nothing short of breath taking work from flash developers working in 3D from around the world.

1. Twigital

Twigital is an interactive 3D twitter visualisation created for Flash on the Beach and London Digital Week.

2. NcK Design

NcK Design – Flash 3D Portfolio

3. Nissan Cars UK

Discover the Nissan range of vehicles: city cars, crossovers, 4×4s, SUVs, sports cars and commercial vehicles.

4. Campri

The brand new Campari website, all about making cocktails, sharing Red Passion around the world, the new calendar and its testimonial, the brand identity and communication.

5. Me InTru 3D

MeInTru3D InTur™3D Intel Advergame.

6. Ford 2010 Mustang

The 2010 Ford Mustang Unleashed – Watch Videos, view interior and exterior photos, view specifications, build and price your custom Mustang and more.

7. VB2

8. 100 Best Films

100 Best Films – animated 3D boxes using Papervision3D engine.

9. Dan0

Portfolio of Daniel M. C.

10. Audi VDT

11. Air Jordan 2010

12. New Peugeot

Peugeot Motion & Emotion.

13. Drawn

Online demo of amazing casual game – Drawn: The Painted Tower, with unique levels.*unofficial*

14. Operation: Dairy

Operation: Dairy – Dairy Education Game from the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association.

15. SoBe

Experience how SoBe defines zero inhibitions and learn more about latest zero calorie flavors from Sobe.

16. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Transformers: Revenge of the fallen game for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, and PC.

17. Endless Eye

Endless Eye is a Chicago-based video production and post production company that strives to cultivate socially informative media.

18. Scion xPressionism

Custom Scion Designs – A unique Scion application that allows users the ability to customize their Scion paint, patterns, decals, spoilers, rims, light kits, and more.

19. big boss studio

Agency specializing in the design and implementation of digital strategies.

20. Quantum of Solace

James Bond 007, Quantum of Solace is a first-person shooter (third-person shooter for PlayStation 2) video game based on the films Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

21. Gráfica Dedone

22. Standard Advertising

Standard agency, LOWE TOKYO, Standard Creative is a web site. Minato-ku, Tokyo. Planning, production, marketing and communication strategy implementation.

23. FWAPhoto

One Photo a Day.

24. Neostream Interactive

Serious multimedia company.

25. The Turn

Theturn.tv is an interactive site framing the music and visual work of Fredo Viola.

26. Fat-Man Collective

Thinkers. Designers. Developers.

27. salinas

Spring/Summer 2009 fashion shows.

28. ExtremeMusic

Class A Production Music Library, A Site For Sore Ears, the worldwide production music unit of Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sony.

29. Vegaone

Beautiful illustrations, artworks, and wallpapers.

30. T2

Motion Graphics Studio with videos.

31. Wally

The White Wall.

32. Virtual Center

Virtual Center for Contemporary Art “Signs of the Times” in Torun. It is a 3D website where you can walk around in the building.

33. Honda Pilot

The Honda Pilot – Powerfully efficient. See photos, compare specs and learn more about the versatile features of Honda’s crossover SUV.

34. Mario Kart Wii

Mario Kart Wii is a racing game developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development and published by Nintendo for the Wii console. The game was released worldwide throughout April 2008.

35. The Big Picture

The Big Picture is an anniversary project of X3, which depicts 7 years of the studio’s life in 2400 images of the work, awards, projects, innitiatives, offices, parties and team.

36. Lacoste Red

Enter the LACOSTE Red! party. Discover the new Lacoste Collection by Christophe Lemaire. Cool fashion, sneakers, super slim fits, colorful styles, 60’s inspired.

37. Masterbeat

Web’s newest music superstore featuring MP3 downloads of the hottest tracks from major & independent artists & labels including exclusive DJ remixes.

38. Land of the Lost

Land of the Lost (2009). Directed by Brad Silberling. Casted by Will Ferrell, Anna Friel, Danny McBride, Jorma Taccone.

39. PIECE WALKER

40. Teamgeist

Every Team needs a jersey with a story. A graphic novel game that reveals the true value of the German National Team jersey.

41. LES MÉNINGO

LES MÉNINGO – Mission Megapolis

42. GTI Project

The GTI Project celebrates the car and its history. Delivering an amazing race experience on the secret GTI interactive Scalectrix test track. Volkswagen UK.

43. Volvo FH16 700

44. Annick Tremblay

Freelance Industrial Designer for 3D Modeling, Realistic Color Renderings, Technical Plans for Production, Prototypes, Conception with production in mind.

45. Virtual Sean

Sean Kingston Sing Along with Lil Sean Karaoke.

46. Real Casual

47. Herbal Essences Spice

Herbal Essences Spice – Sensuously Smooth Shampoo and Conditioner for Dry / Damaged Hair with Blackberry, Avocado and Mango extracts. Discover the mystical treasures of the East for opulent, sensuously-smooth hair!

48. Neglected Sensibles Shelter

Neglected Sensibles Shelter: Meet your Sensible and start rebuilding the bridge of kindness you burnt so long ago.

49. ANDREAS SMETANA

ANDREAS SMETANA – Photographer from Australia.

50. Cheese and Burger

We are the Cheese & Burger Society. We believe that cheese is the Grand Poo-bah of every cheeseburger grilled at a backyard barbecue or flame-broiled at a roadside diner. But not just any slice of cheese, Wisconsin Cheese. So join us as we celebrate the greatest cheeseburgers ever made.

51. Ben Dziuba

Ben Dziuba is a freelance Art Director, Designer and Flash Developer based in New York City offering Flash design and web design, both on-site and remotely. Official Website.

52. Ion Drimba Filho

Personal portfolio of Ion Drimba Filho presented in 3D cube.

53. Corny

Corny, the delicious meaty bolt. From natural ingredients and with lots of chocolate – delicious for energy to keep going!

54. Oasis For Fun

With Oasis, enter into the adventure and go in search of … Source: Find all Oasis products, fruits Oasis, Oasis commercials, the goodies and win prizes.

55. THE DINER

Classic American dining served with classic cocktails and endless coffee. Open every day of the week for breakfast, lunch & dinner. With five locations across london; Camden, Islington, Kensal Rise, Shoreditch, Soho.

56. Premiyum

Premium site – Confectionery.

57. Tati

Tati Celebrate on Orange Cinega of June 21 to 26
To explore the universe of Jacques Tati with special programming on Orange Cinega of May 21 to 26 films, documentaries and interviews, and participation of the heirs of the spirit Tati Makeieff Macha, Jerome Deschamps and Pierre Etaix.

58. Leaf A Legacy

For Cancer Research in BC (British Columbia, Canada) – Signals Design Group.

Add your leaf to this growing tree with a donation to the BC Cancer Foundation. As the tree flourishes, so too will the fight against cancer. Tell your story – leaf a legacy – and help build a future free from cancer.

59. Maria Lebesheva

Photographer’s site.

60. D2D Queso

Cheese Fingers (D2D Cheese) are strange creatures “Little Village” brings you from afar … An island full of mysteries and characters that will blow your imagination. Being an adventurer is not always easy, but with cunning and enthusiasm you will discover the secret in it.

That is it for now, if you want to get more of these kind of sites, I suggest you to head to KoFlash website for some more Flash related inspiration!

I love their selections and works there:

Video Games and the technologies that support them have fundamentally changed the way we play. The players are older, the genres are broader, the games are much more advanced, immersive, and engaging.

There are many companies today who wish to integrate gaming mechanics and game-based learning into everyday applications, fundamentally changing the way work is done. Add to this the inescapable fact that digital interactivity is being used in disciplines such as behavior modification, autism therapy, leadership skill building, and strategic analysis by organizations like us, PlayGen.

What is game based learning ? Screenshot from Choices&Voices

Most learners only remember  5 to 10 percent of what they read; 20 percent of what they hear; 30 percent if they see visuals related to what they hear; 50 percent if they watch someone do something while explaining it; but almost 80 percent if they do the job themselves, even if only as a simulation.

Today’s schools and companies are running in competition with some of the most compelling and engaging content out there, namely console and video games. Its only by staying ahead of the curve that our schools and organisations can captivate the audience by using the power of interactivity and simulations (dare I say games) to enhance and improve the way we learn and work.

Serious games and game based learning forms a new critical component of the equation to make education smarter. Although the field is still young, PlayGen has already shown how game-based learning has the potential to deliver sophisticated business, science and behavioural education to hundreds of thousands of users simultaneously.

Unlike other historical mass-media experiments in education, for example TV or webcasts, games are a highly interactive medium, and providing they are designed properly they share many key attributes with sophisticated pedagogical approaches (the art and science of how we learn).

PlayGen’s serious games differ from other forms of learning by providing rich, rewarding, relevant and multi-faceted environments in which the player can put their theory into practice in a safe, simulated manner and learn from their own decisions.  We offer continuous feedback and cooperative team learning in an inquiry-based, authentic environment where players are motivated by rewards and new levels toward achieving their objectives.

The design framework is the result of analysing a number of social network games. Looking at the most popular multiplayer games such as Farmville, Lil’ Green Patch, Mafia Wars, Who Has the Biggest Brain?,  or interesting game designs such as Parking Wars, PackRat, PhotoGrab.

Translating the results into a framework that can; inform design decisions, be used as an inspiration, and a starting point when brainstorming social network game concepts.

A design framework for social network play mechanics

Here is a framework of design drivers in visual format as devised by Aki Jarvinen.

Part 1:  Narrativity. This is  the concept that various player actions and play results are narrated across the network. That is why I argue that Narrativity, in this sense, deserves to be identified as an important aspect in the framework.

Asynchronicity permeates play in social networks: Play takes place in turns, or in individual time units (‘ticks’) per player which then get acknowledged by the game as a system facilitating networked play. That is why it is pictured as an orange, cyclical path of game play along which players repeatedly go through. Furthermore, their progress, network standing, and reputation evolves parallel to this cyclical process of core play mechanics.

In the visualization, the clouds between individual play moments specify some consequences for player experience, or ‘PX’ as Nicole Lazzaro calls it, that the particular transitions bring about. Therefore, the idea of the framework is that design solutions affecting and producing such transitions can be put into specific focus, and some perhaps emphasized over the others, thus giving the play the game facilitates potentially a different flavor.

Now, let’s start identifying design patterns which relate to the four aspects of playful interactions: Spontaneity, Symbolic Physicality, Inherent Sociability, and Narrativity.

Design patterns for social network play

The illustration below unravels a number of design patterns that can be used in supporting a particular aspect of social network play. Various specific implementations of each pattern can be found already out there, especially in Facebook, and without doubt, new ones will be introduced. However, such design solutions are constrained by the particular network they are implemented within, to varying extent.

Designing social network play: Unlearning game design and embracing network play

Design topics traditionally held as integral to good, successful games matter less – they are there to pay attention to, but they do not necessarily break your game. For example: game balance, i.e. designing the goals and rewards in a balanced way for each player to guarantee satisfactory play experiences, seems to matter less in social network games than with board games, or computer and video games.

Another aspect to unlearn, to an extent: Subtlety of game mechanics, and the dynamics they create, are not that important, when we are designing networked social play. This is largely due to the fact that it is the network, and its whimsical and contextual factors, including players with playful dispositions, that substitute such design sophistications in creating fun (enough!) experiences.

As a game designer, it can be hard to break from the above-mentioned tools of the trade, as they can be the very reason that games and designing are fascinating. But online social networks, and how people play them, is fascinating as well, right?

The near future of innovation in social network games

The above is not to say that new game design innovations won’t be seen in social network games – however, it is to say that the innovations will more likely take place in the aspects that characterize the network, rather than the game as a design object.

This example gives evidence that games in social networks are events and services, and they should be designed as such. This means being sensitive to the constraints and possibilities of networks, and the online human interactions – and creativity – they facilitate.

This article would not have been possible without the excellent work of Aki Jarvinen.

Educators have always looked for better ways to prepare students for the real world. The mildly apocalyptic government report from the US, A Nation at Risk,  warned that an outdated school system was unwittingly sabotaging America’s economic superiority. Year after year, major educational organizations would echo the report’s call with threats of dire consequences and pleas for sweeping reform, from the U.S. Department of Labor to the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.

Audits of the U.S. educational system have revealed that the highest hurdle to adopting skills-based teaching practices is the lack of an easily implementable curriculum.

The picture in the UK is a similar affair, with publications Future Labs publications on games and learning confirming much of what we know to be a fact – namely the better the engagement, the better the learning.

Enter social games as a solution — immersive environments that simulate real-world problems. Today, technologically eager schools are replacing textbook learning with social video games, and improving learning outcomes in the process.

Contextual Learning

While university departments have cleanly separated academic subjects, solving the real-life problem of, say, building a website, requires individuals to orchestrate the expertise of communication, business, and economics, in addition to computer science. At the ultra high tech Quest2Learn school in New York City, small groups of 6th graders will marshall a range of social technologies, from video games to social networking, to solve hypothetical problems.

For instance, 6th graders learn geography from Google Earth, collaborate through an internal social networking platform, and present ideas through a podcast. Administrators hope that wrestling with the question of “How can a system function within a larger system?” will bolster critical thinking skills. Many experts contend that so-called “Scaffolded Problem-based learning” is known to improve academic skills and enhance motivation. With all these new toys, it’s no surprise that one student admits his least favorite part of the day is “dismissal.”

Simulated Life

For some school subjects, poor test results aren’t simply a matter of personal failure, but can mean life and death; especially for security officer training. Loyalist College in Canada recently boasted “massive” test score improvements for its border officer training via simulation in the virtual world of Second Life. “No single technological addition has ever impacted grades at the college in such a positive way,” says Ken Hudson, their Managing Director of Virtual World Design. Indeed, the results speak for themselves. According to the report:

“The amazing results of the training and simulation program have led to significantly improved grades on students’ critical skills tests, taking scores from a 56% success in 2007, to 95% at the end of 2008 after the simulation was instituted.”

While security screenings are taking an onslaught of criticism for what are sometimes seen as abject failures, these kinds of successes may give hope to both security experts and the future of online learning.

Conclusion

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Social video gaming has a come a long way from the days when a dozen students would squint at a 10-inch screen.

With the ubiquity of social games, its high time they were put to good use. Here at PlayGen we are developing the next generation of social games for learning and training.

We examine designing games for online social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter. Looking at how the design can be improved by embedding an interaction centric approach into the development process. Research into motivations and emotional dispositions of social media use, and analysing existing popular social games, help in identifying game mechanics that tap into user practices across social networks.

We attempt at developing a set of design principles and a design framework where interaction, social, service, and game design meet. The framework aims to support the inherent sociability, spontaneity, and playfulness that permeate online social networks.

Social network games are the fastest emerging area of game business and development

Facebook applications attract millions of users per monthly basis, and game applications frequently reach the top 10 lists of the platform.

Online applications and services incorporate playful, game-like qualities, even if they are not explicitly presented and marketed as games. Facebook has drawn this line in the water by separating the application category ‘Just for Fun’ from the category of ‘Gaming’.

In terms of design practices, these observations point towards a junction where interaction design projects embed game design tasks, and vice versa. From the vantage point of game design, it becomes engulfed by interaction, or service design tasks. In practice this means that the context of use, or in this case, play, has to be taken into account in the design in more complex ways.

Valentina Rao has studied the ‘playful mood’ that, e.g., Facebook applications encourage, noting that individual use them both for entertainment purposes and socialization tools. Often the games are considered as unsatisfactory experiences, which, on the other hand, forces developers to reconsider whether they are designing and developing games or something on the borderline of social media and games.

How can interaction design inform game design practices in the context of designing games for social networks? Second: How can such observations and findings, based on an understanding of user motivations, be formalized into design principles that would solve and inspire new design solutions in this particular design space? In the article, I explore the overlapping design spaces by identifying prominent game design principles.

Definitions: Service/Interaction/Social Design meets Game Design

The subject and goals of this article also speak to two developer communities that can be quite different in their aspirations and methods: Andrew Chen has made observations differences between web developers and game developers, e.g. regarding the role of content production and distribution: Game developers want to compete in the quality of content rather than distribution. Social application and web developers seem to be interested in games as medium, whereas game developers are interested in the particular genres of the medium, developed for video game consoles and high-end PCs.

However, recent news show that some game developers, e.g. Valve, are clearly considering and developing the service design aspects of their business.

Wikipedia defines ‘game design’ as

the process of designing the content and rules of a game. The term is also used to describe both the game design embodied in an actual game as well as documentation that describes such a design.

Dan Saffer gives us a definition that goes as follows:

Interaction design is the art of facilitating interactions between humans through products and services.

Saffer goes on to include to his definition interactions between humans and products, which are able to respond to human actions, i.e. devices and services with microprocessors.

Thus, game design is a subset of interaction design that focuses on facilitating interactions of player and games as particular entertainment systems.

In addition, it is useful to relate these fields to so-called service design. Saffer defines it as follows: ‘A service is a chain of activities that form a process and have value for the end user.’ Saffer relates service design to the design of systems by stating that in service design projects, the system is the service. He goes on to say that service design focuses on context, i.e. ‘the entire system of use’.

Game design in this context is, on one hand, succumbing to the constraints of the social network service, and on the other hand, using the service’s social functionalities to its benefits. Andrew Mayer has echoed this by claiming that ‘Your Game is a Service Business‘, stating that

The gameplay experience ends up simply being another point along that service chain. And social games push us even further out, demanding that the platform provides every user with appropriate, dynamic, and safe relationships that allow blur the lines between users and content creators.

I suggest that there is one more area of design, or at least a term, that we need to relate game design to. Joshua Porter has introduced the term ‘social design’ to emphasize the social aspects of particular interaction and service design projects:

Social design is the conception, planning, and production of web sites and applications that support social interaction.

One could conclude, then, that social design is a subset of service design, where social functionalities – e.g., communication, sharing – are the design drivers.

For the practice of designing games for social networks, the consequences are: The game design part of the design has to be embedded as a subsystem into the larger system of the social media service.

In practice this often means that the developer does not design, nor own, the service itself, but takes advantage of the service API. In effect, the API brings along a number of design constraints, but also possibilities. In any case, the community context, as with service design, becomes part of the game design.

Game Mechanics for Social Networks

The notion of applying game design techniques to the design of online applications is gaining prominence. Amy Jo Kim is a designer who has promoted an approach she has entitled ‘Putting fun into functional’, where the design of game mechanics is applied as an interaction design method for social communities and applications.

Kim’s notion of game mechanics as ‘a collection of tools and systems that an interactive designer can use to make an experience more fun and compelling’, works as a starting point. In her work, Kim has also identified certain core gameplay mechanics, i.e. player actions, such as collecting and exchange.

Daniel Cook is a game designer who has put forward the idea of ‘building princess applications’, i.e. taking advantage of structures like goal hierarchies and skill progression in designing applications. Cook takes the high level goal of the classic video game Super Mario Bros. and uses Mario’s (i.e. the player’s) journey through the game as a structure that could be applied to the use patterns of any application.

Jonathan Follet is an user experience designer who has promoted the benefits of designing playful experiences. Follett outlines four features that a playful digital product should have: lots of small rewards, no negative consequences, building on the work of others, and frivolous interaction in general, ‘just for fun’.
His definition of playfulness in user experience

as those elements of a digital design that engage people’s attention or involve them in an activity for recreation, amusement, or creative enjoyment

is useful, yet it seems altogether too broad for game design purposes. We will need to start narrowing down such observations if they are to work as design principles that can be used to solve design problems.

The design space of game design for social networks is certainly not exhausted yet, especially as new social media platforms emerge almost monthly – without doubt, an increasing number of design elements and patterns can be identified and tested within this design space. This can be easier if we lay down certain vocabulary and conceptual framework from which to follow the development of social networks for purposes of game design.

Designing Game mechanics: A Method of Triangulation

I will introduce a method of triangulation, which helps in designing game play into social networks. It starts with a more concise definition of ‘game mechanics’.

In theoretical conceptualizations of game design, the design of so-called core mechanics has been widely acknowledged as being of fundamental importance in creating play. Core mechanics has been defined as ‘the actions that players repeatedly take in a game’ (Salen & Zimmerman, Rules of Play).

Instead of understanding game mechanics as generic game design elements, I suggest a narrower yet more practical definition: Individual game mechanics can be thought of as verbs that game designer give the players to act in the world of the game. The mechanics are linked with the goals of the game, i.e. they are the means to reach the ends. Core mechanics are, thus, combinations of individual game mechanics that are used to accomplish certain goals imposed at the player. In effect, these relations are the building blocks for designing play. (See my PhD for more.)

Whereas in a single player video game, the core mechanics might create a feedback loop between the player and the software as a system, in multiplayer games, the system becomes more complex, as it will govern the actions of multiple players and their relations. In social network games, the system becomes the social network as a whole, consisting of both the service (e.g., the Facebook platform), individual players, and the community as large.

Therefore, the mechanics need to reach ‘outside’ the game itself, or, we need to expand our notion of what a play session with the product is: Besides the actual, rule-governed gameplay, play in social networks games engulfs the in-between moments – and more importantly, the ‘afterplay’ and ‘foreplay’. The latter consists of various means of network propagation that Brenda Brathwaite and Ian Schreiber write about.

Game play in social networks is a feedback loop of player actions that try to accomplish goals, and are given feedback through the network, either through the system itself, or individual players, or community as a whole. This dynamic within these elements can be thought as a triangle with three elements, around which the user experience starts to emerge as play:

Verbs – Goals – Network play model.

The model gives us a tentative idea of the scope and focus of designing games for social networks, i.e. what are the elements through which play can be created in this context. In which kind of rhythm and reciprocity should this dynamic be put into action is another game design question that we will tackle later.

Before that, a more substantial, user-centered question is: What are suitable verbs and goals that speak to a user’s motivations of engaging with social networks in the first place?

Motivations for online social networks and games

In order to bridge interaction design with game design techniques, it is useful to take the motivations of, first, social media use, and second, game play into account.

The advantage designers can gain from thinking about user motivations is that they can proceed to design opportunities for the users to act in ways that become expressions of the users’ motives. Therefore, games for social networks should target motivations of using those networks, and stylize them into playful interactions that give the players a feeling that they are expressing their motives — consciously or unconsciously.

In his study of social networks, Yochai Benkler (2006) has identified the following motivations for social media use: Social connectedness, psychological well-being, gratification, and material gain. Peter Kollock (1999) has defined four motivations of contributing in online communities: Reciprocity, reputation, increased sense of efficacy, and attachment to and need of a group.

On the other hand, people playing role-playing games are motivated by aspects having to do with achievements in the game (e.g., competing, and advancing) , and immersing themselves into the game’s world (e.g., discovering, customizing, enjoying the story aspects). Social aspects matter as well, e.g., working in a team, player relationships, and socializing in general.

I argue that these two sets provide a useful starting point for synthesizing a framework for thinking about game design for social networks. It combines a number of the above features, however, by filtering them through the emotional disposition of playfulness. Therefore the motivations for game play in social networks may become more casual (random, fleeting, effort-aversive) than the ones of, e.g. players of MMORPGs by average.

According to emotion theorist Jon Elster (1999) emotions transform into emotional dispositions through their long-term consequences, i.e. repeated experience of an emotion that is triggered in connection with a particular event, object, or agent, becomes an emotional disposition towards it. Playful disposition, and variations in it, can thus be seen as long-term consequences of emotions experienced during the play of social media games.

If we look back at the notion of user’s behavior as an expression of their motives, and designing for it, the challenge is how to design for playful dispositions. Principles for such design challenges can be found by transforming identified motivations and mechanics into design drivers, and iterating from there:

Four Design Drivers

Now we are ready to establish a framework of motivations and dispositions regarding social network use, which in turn can be formulated into a number of design drivers.

Valentina Rao identifies three qualities to the playfulness that characterizes Facebook use: Physicality, Spontaneity, and Inherent Sociability. As a particular game design feature, I will add Asynchronicity into these qualities, as discussed by Ian Bogost. I will use this four-fold distinction as a framework for further identifying principles that would support designing for the playful dispositions.

Symbolic Physicality

Rao identifies the symbolic ways that Facebook games ‘add physical depth to playful interactions’, such as poking, drinking beer, hi-fiving, etc. These features essentially try to add ‘human warmth’ of actual physicality to the non-physical online space.

Spontaneity

The apparent silliness and/or simplicity of Facebook games, such as a complicated game mechanic as a verbs being simplified into a click of a single button, is there to support the inherent spontaneity of user behavior in online social networks. Many of the above-mentioned manners of symbolic physicality draw from this quality as well.

Inherent sociability

‘Playfulness is intrinsically connected to social situations and cannot exist without them’, according to Rao. Again, the above-mentioned features highlight this – in addition, Rao lists fast rewards for player actions, abundance of positive feedback, no negative consequences for exploration, and ability to build on someone else’s work as design solutions that support the inherent sociability – very similar aspects that we saw Follett outline earlier. These features are, by and large, similar to ones identified from the design of casual games in general.

In terms of designing games, the inherent sociability opens up possibilities for intuitive teaming of players, since networked individuals might have a particular social context where they know each other. Nabeel Hyatt has indeed pointed out how social network games can ‘rely heavily on social context (namely school, department, and residence loyalties) to provide a framework for alliances, gameplay and motivation.’

Asynchronicity

Ian Bogost lists four features of asynchronous play – it ‘supports multiple players playing in sequence, not in tandem’, it requires a ‘persistent state which all players affect, and which in turn affects all players’, it is organized around the breaks between players: ‘‘opponent turns in Scrabble often mean bathroom breaks, email checks’ (Bogost 2004) Yet, according to Bogost, this kind of asyncronicity needs not be the game’s defining characteristic.

However, it would seem that most games in social networks do center around such breaks, it is just that the quality and quantity of the breaks are based on the nature and/or constraints of the system – i.e. breaks in play in social networks that center around instant messaging or micro-blogging, such as Twitter, would create different variety of asynchronous play than Facebook, which supposedly has a slower, more structured rhythm of use.

Interaction Design for Playfulness

Concluding from the definitions and observations made thus far, we can tentatively define game design for social networks as ‘Interaction design for social playfulness’.

This means designing for inherently casual yet highly engaged disposition to play around in the social network, with the general means afforded by the platform, and the ‘extended’ affordances for play that applications, such as games, bring with them.

Yet, designing for playfulness also means that the focus of the design result should privilege emotional engagement rather than highly intricate and innovative gameplay – even if these two are not necessarily in contradiction.

Matt Mihaly echoes this observation by stating that successful social network games are as much about expressing oneself through communication as they are about gameplay. Andre Mayer has noted that to such players knowing their standing and progress in the game, can be almost as important as knowing what will be their next goal in the game, and how to play towards it.

Rao concludes her research by stating that ‘Facebook Applications seem to appeal to the sphere of emotions (fun and playful mood) rather than actions (gameplay)’. She elaborates that instead of modeling and stylizing actions concretely for gameplay as verbs, which is what ‘real’ games do, these games rely on compressing that action into a few clicks (at most), and then narrating the resulting action through a ‘dramatic tale’, as Rao puts it. As a consequence, minimal engagement produces high rewards.

One could summarize this difference into a comparative principle: Whereas video game designers create skill-based justifications for resolutions of events, i.e. whether an action was successful or not; social network game designers create community-based, or story-based, justifications for the resolutions of events in their games.

In Part 2 of Game design for social networks, we will explore how ‘interaction design for playfulness’ is evident in a sample of social network games and their designs. From this sample, and by identifying some potential blind spots in the design space for social network games, we will synthesize a set of game design principles.

A large selection of authoring tools as well as as delivery/tracking platforms like course and learning management systems.

Key: 

• A= authoring tools
• I=interactivity/games/simulations tools
• Q=quizzing/testing tools S=social media tools
• D=delivery platforms
• T=tracking functionality
• M=Mobile enabled

Free tools are shaded grey