A Review of Social Features in Social Network Games

Abstract

Although social network games on Facebook have become popular, their actual sociability has been questioned. In this paper, we review the social features of 16 social games and, as a result, present a list of 30 social features in three categories: presence, communication, and interaction. A common set of features, which was found in all of the examined games, is mainly focused on the presence and communication aspects, while neglecting player interaction. In addition, social features are primarily used for acquisition and retention purposes, rather than monetization. These findings are useful for the study and design of social features in social games and in other games with social network integration.