immersion breaking

I have no interest in playing this little 'My Moviestar' social game, but I am geekily confused by the demo screens.

Appeared in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? That's Kirsten Dunst. I love Kirsten Dunst. And Neon is no Kirsten Dunst. She's not even blond! (Okay, Spiderman fans are used to KD not being blond, but she was blond in this movie....)

Also appeared in Bring It On... as Missy, Torrance's friend? But... Kirsten Dunst was in that movie. She played Torrance. Not Missy. I AM SO CONFUSED NOW! ARE YOU PSEUDO-KD OR AREN'T YOU???

Worlds In Time

I generally ignore browser games.

I have no interest in being sucked into 'free' worlds that want me to part with my sanity and eventually upgrade my experience with nickels and dimes.

But I have to say, the little preview animation for the new Doctor Who game is rather adorable.

social reality

BBC news article:

For a £30 annual fee, 10,000 farm followers will help manage Wimpole Home Farm, in Cambridgeshire.

The National Trust says its MyFarm project aims to reconnect people with where their food comes from.

It was partly inspired by the online Facebook game Farmville and follows the example of Ebbsfleet Football Club which is run on a similar basis.

Considering how much people screw around and muck things up to see what happens in games (a reasonable learning approach) do you really want them thinking in those terms for a real farm?

socialness

So, someone was talking about 'social games' not being either games or social.

It's true that many facebook gamethings, especally in the past, didn't quite qualify under traditional definitions of game. As I understand it, there are more gamey games turning up in facebook nowadays, as well as hybrids with some gamey elements and some pay-money elements and some spread-this-meme elements and so on. But not being a game doesn't mean things can't be entertaining, toys and 'play' aren't games but people still enjoy them. So. Discounting that.

Are social games actually social? I don't really know because I don't play them. Do people ever interact within the games other than just clicking on something to send points to someone else? If your friends can come into your garden and plant special flowers in their own unique chosen pattern so that you can get 'Rex Was Here' spelled out in roses, that is interaction, but I have no idea if it happens. Do cool, unique-to-you things ever happen in these games that you might want to talk about with others? Do any of the games allow for sufficient player creativity that your results might be interesting to share and compare with other players for reasons other than to get more virtual credits?