Review of Social Features in Social Network Games

This review examines the social features of 16 Facebook social games, addressing the contested question of whether such games genuinely qualify as social. Drawing on academic frameworks that describe sociability as layered across presence, communication, and interaction, as well as industry critiques that label many social games as antisocial or asocial, the work frames its inquiry around a central debate. It situates the empirical analysis within prior player studies suggesting that sociability influences engagement and continued use, while acknowledging that those studies rest on small samples.

The empirical findings identify 30 social features across the three categories. Informational and invitational features, such as presence indicators, off-game links, Facebook notifications, and invite requests, are ubiquitous, appearing in every title. Genuine player-to-player interaction and team formation are largely absent, leading the authors to characterize these games as "massively parallel single-player games." Gameplay interaction and monetized gifting are comparatively rare, and only one feature is tied directly to monetization. Puzzle games and first-person shooters display the fewest social features, suggesting that sociability is deliberately de-emphasized in some genres.

The authors conclude that social games cannot be categorically labeled as either social or asocial, since their sociability varies substantially by genre and feature type. Most identified features are oriented toward player acquisition or retention rather than revenue generation, and several, such as spammy requests, are disliked by players. The analysis is limited to 16 Facebook titles and reflects the platform environment of its period, so its conclusions speak most directly to that ecosystem. The accompanying reference list spans roughly 2002 to 2015 and draws on academic and industry sources in game design and human-computer interaction.