Is viral the only eco nom i cally fea si ble way to dis trib ute a social game?
No, answered a panel of four game devel op ers and pub lish ers at the Social Gam ing Sum mit in San Fran cisco which should have been called the “Face book” gam ing sum mit. Every time some one men tioned “social” gam ing, some one asked the ques tion, “Are you being social anywhere else?” The answer was always no. That’s because by using viral hooks, the cost to acquire a player through Face book, is essen tially cost less. You can still pay to acquire play ers through Face book adver tis ing. None of the pan elists dur ing the ses sion “Lessons from Lead ers — Dis tri b u tion” admit ted they did. Although they did say they were will ing to try as many real ized that the viral “hon ey moon” of col lect ing play ers goes very quickly soon after launch. Once it starts to set tle down you have to look at other options, like tra di tional mar ket ing, to gather more players.
