6 Awesome Social Features In Today's Facebook Games

Having played nearly every social game I’ve seen for the last few years, I’ve come to notice a few games that raise the bar on making a game social. By this I mean that certain games provide an experience that really lets you interact with your friends in a special way, something different than the thousands of games that simply ask you to send gifts and receive bonuses. I thought I’d list out a few of my favorites, and also ask our readers to let us know what games provide you with special social experiences.

Chatville – Giving Video Compliments

Chatville is a new game that allows you to video chat with others and collect points. One of the most unique features of this game is that you don’t just chat with people, but you give people “compliments” if they entertain you. The fact that there is a plethora of available badges means that you’ll try to do certain actions or behave in certain ways to get the badges you need to complete your section. This is truly an innovative way to connect with random people and get them (and yourself) to act in funny/unusual ways.

The game is entirely social, in that you have to convey a certain meaning to another person to get your points. Chatville is still early, but with time this will be a cool little game without a doubt.

Ninja Saga – Recruit Mode

Any RPG fan that has ever enjoyed putting together a ‘party’ has thought about how awesome it would be to include your friends within that party. Well one of the cool, but indirect social features of Ninja Saga is the ability to recruit your friends to be in your party as you quest. They don’t actively play with you in real time, but they will work beside you and use all their skills in your battles. It’s a really fun option and you build experience for them as well.

The real social experience here is seeing your friend’s character do a huge move and save the day, and then telling your friend about it. I just added a high level friend to my party and took on a quest where we had to defeat 3 samurai, and it was awesome to see her smoke the opponents with lightning dashes. Real-time multiplayer is not always the only way to have great connecting experiences with other game players.

Family Feud – Speed Round

I’ve said it before and will say it again, I think the Family Feud Speed Round is one of the best social features in today’s social games. The factor that best sets it apart is that I learn about my friends’ way of thinking. This happens when I choose to help my friend by answering their speed round, because after I answer 5 quick questions, I get to see what their answers were as well. We both learn a bit about each other as well as gain each other points. I feel that game activities that involve real-world social benefits – like learning a bit of trivia about a friend – will eventually sneak their way into most popular social games.

Wild Ones – “Team”

This isn’t even a real feature of the game, but it’s one of the most social experiences I’ve had and almost every player does it. By the nature of this excellent game, players band together at the start of a match to either pair off 2 on 2, or to just eliminate one player 3 on 1. This can be especially useful in lopsided matches, which definitely exist in Wild Ones. When a level 30 player appears against a few level 10 players and yourself, it’s a great feeling to band together to take on the giant. The fact that some players will abandon your team and shoot you in the back can be frustrating, but ultimately it’s to be expected and you learn to watch your back in Wild Ones. The social factor of making teams (and breaking them at any point you want) makes this a special experience, and a game you’ve got to try.

Friends for Sale – Buying and Selling Friends

In Friends for Sale, you buy your friends and sell them on the open markets. This means that your more popular friends’ prices go up at a higher rate than your other friends. It can be fun to try and wager which one of your friends is going to get sold the most, but it can be even more fun to own that person. When owning a friend, you can make them do actions to other people in the game, like make them ‘poke’ another friend. You also get to define nicknames for them that the world can see. This game is all about social, and is really a fascinating psychology experiment to boot.

Farmville – Stallions

In Farmville, from time to time, beautiful stallion horses will roam onto your farm naturally, and as a player you can either put it in your farm or post it on your wall. While this is a simpler gift mechanic that is prevalent in other games, the implementation works well. By inviting friends to help out the stray animal, your friends feel a real sense of ‘helping out’ by adopting the horse. The horse is then put into the friend’s stable, where it can grow and even have little horse babies. I suspect that this is one of the most successful viral elements in Farmville.

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