Posts with tag social-network

The other day over dinner, my wife and I were talking about a new game on Facebook and how easy it would be for us to game the system. My brother-in-law stopped us mid-conversation and asked, "What the hell happened to you two? You used to be hardcore raiders! Now you're talking about min-maxing a Facebook game!"

My wife and I looked sheepishly at each other and hung our heads in shame. This is what it had come to. While we're committed to playing together come Cataclysm, we had now been reduced to the most casual of casual gamers -- playing browser-based games with no real, complex story or engaging gameplay. At least, nothing as complex or engaging as the World of Warcraft. But the reality is that casual gaming is a bigger phenomenon than we can imagine. Zynga's Farmville has over 61.6 million active users -- that's almost six times WoW's 11.5 million subscriber base. Never mind that World of Warcraft is subscription-based and that not all of Farmville's players are paying customers. Forget about revenue for a moment. That's 61.6 million gamers playing one game.

Steelseries and J!NX have teamed up to give away some loot over the next three weeks -- hardware from Steelseries and some outer wear from J!NX, as well as other pretty cool stuff. The contest is open to Facebook users, who will be eligible to win one of six loot packs to be given away. Two loot packs will be given away each week, and each pack consists of the following:

• 1 SteelSeries World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse
• 1 SteelSeries March of the Scourge QcK Mouse Pad
• 1 SteelSeries Zboard Wrath of the Lich King Gaming Keyboard
• 1 J!NX Talking Murloc Plush Toy
• 1 J!NX Horde or Alliance Hoodie
• 1 J!NX Frost Resistance Hoodie
• 1 J!NX Green Linen Shirt
• 1 J!NX Horde or Alliance Shirt
• 1 J!NX Horde or Alliance Wallet
• 1 J!NX Horde or Alliance Cut out Sticker
• 1 J!NX Horde or Alliance Keychain

The first week simply asks Facebook users to 'like' or become fans on both the Steelseries and J!NX Facebook pages, with two winners to be determined randomly on May 5, 2010. The second week will require Facebook users to flex their social networking muscles a little bit as contestants are asked to post a screenshot of their favorite person, place, or activity in Azeroth on the J!NX Facebook page and garner as many "likes" for their entry until May 12. The screenshot with the most "likes" will win one loot pack, while a panel of judges from J!NX and Steelseries will determine who wins the second pack.

The third week is a similar exercise in social network popularity, but contestants are asked to submit a video of an in-game dance party on the Steelseries fan page. As with the week before it, the video that ends up with the most "likes" at the end of the period, May 19, will win one loot pack. J!NX and Steelseries will select the winner of the second loot bag. If you're not averse to the whole social network experience, this promotion seems like a relatively painless way to try and score some cool swag.

A little while back, we checked out a Facebook app to show your WoW characters in your profiles, and just this week, reader Orangelick asked for an update to the other app we linked to, called I Play WoW. Previously, I couldn't get it working, but I gave it another try, and as you can see above, it works just fine. In fact, it's pretty customizable, even moreso than what I implemented above -- you can upload a picture for your character, and even give status and description updates for every character on the roster.

If you're looking for some WoW representation on Facebook, it'll do you right. The only real complaint I have is that it doesn't by default show off any armor or stats that you have (the other app, WoW Armory, does, and here's another app that's even flashier if you want to go that way), but then again, how many of your Facebook friends really want to follow your characters that closely? And there's a quick link to the Armory page for those who do. All in all, nice app, and the perfect way to show a little WoW pride on Facebook.