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When Will Someone Make An Original Facebook Game?

By on June 1, 2010

The status updates. The friend requests. The inane gift requests. The addition of games to Facebook has changed it significantly, for better or for worse. Facebook is built with an open platform that allows anyone to develop an application for it and the arguably hottest apps are games. And Facebook is the perfect venue for them. Facebook has a built in social network and does the hard work of getting people to join in on the fun for you.

But we here at Das Reviews think that the makers of games for the Facebook platform have pushed the development of games as an art form backwards. The world’s most popular game right now is Farmville. It’s bigger than Twitter. Twitter! What is the engrossing story that gamers take in while they toil in the soil in Farmville? What innovative game play mechanic has its users hooked? What awe inspiring visuals has people with their eyes glued to their screen?

If you don’t know what Farmville is (congratulations) or Facebook (get off Myspace, it’s totally not cool anymore) then we will answer those questions for you. There is no story, there is no game mechanic and there are no remarkable visuals. Farmville is a click happy, flash graphics grind fest.

Facebook games are the de-evolution of video games. The mechanics are boiled down to the simplistic and the graphics are scaled down to run on the most basic computer. We will never get recognition as a valid art form as long as we continue to devolve our passion to the rawest form it can be. Maybe in the future it will gain respect much in the same way that modern art movements have gained respect in death after they wallowed in notoriety in life. But, that is then and this is now.

When is some visionary developer going to make a truly innovative original Facebook game? One that isn’t a clicktastic grind fest or a time wasting wait-a-thon? The Civilization IP is coming to Facebook soon and we have seen some turn based Worms-like games out there. But where are the team based games? The World of Facebookcrafts? The Call of Duty: Myspace Warfares? (We would totally play that.)

We want more. And we need more if ‘the others’ are going to see games as we do: not mere hobbies but true passions. So Das Reviews puts a call out there: Make a Facebook game for us, not for the house-wives, the bored office worker or the teenage homework avoider. Gamers will accept this new platform, we promise. They embraced mobile gaming with the iPhone and other smart phones and they will love Social Network Gaming. You just have to give them a reason to love it.

About David Scarpitta

I am a critical guy, and love to review and give my professional opinion on just about anything. Though have a love for tech/gaming and music alongside the cinema. You can catch me consulting and developing the net any day of the week.
  • Jordan Montreuil

    I wonder how many people still play Farmville just because quitting would make them feel like they wasted a huge amount of time.