Are Gamers Interested in Social Media Functionality?

[zrinfinite]

My Corona SDK subscription is about to expire, which means that soon I will no longer have access to their "Social" plugin unless I want to pay for their pro subscription. Being a poor indie game developer, I'd like to save as much money as I can so that I can invest it into making games. I was just curious how people felt about having the ability to utilize social media in their games. I added a feature in my game recently that allowed players to take screenshots and be able to post them to their twitter, instagram, etc. and haven't really been able to gauge the overall response to it yet, so I figured I'd just ask.

 

[Rukbat]

That's like asking if Californians like strawberry ice cream. My wife is ... well, she doesn't play WoW, she lives there, and visits reality once in a while. She's also on Facebook all th time. But never uses one in conjunction with the other. That's her. There are probably lots like her. And there are probably lots who tweet every twitch in every game they play.

Put out a new version without the social media connection and see if you get complaints. If not, you don't need it. If you do get a lot, send those people a free update, and keep it in from now on.

 

[Italo]

I think the main reason to have social integration in your games is the free advertising whenever someone makes a post. Personally, I've never posted about my gaming achievements, mobile or otherwise; and I don't want to see it in my feeds either. There is definitely some percentage of people of that like that stuff, you just need to figure out how many of them play your games.

 

[zrinfinite]

Thanks guys. Very good points. Ya, the main reason I was interested in it was for the free marketing aspect of social media. I'm just gonna have to give it some time and see if I'm getting any results and having people post. So far though, the general reaction I'm getting from people I ask is they don't care and it's low priority for them to be able to post gameplay to social media. It's a $33 dollar difference in pricing from basic to pro, so honestly it's probably a better investment to save that money and put it towards different forms of advertising than pay for one plugin. Thanks again for the input. By the way, I'm from California and I love strawberry ice cream haha.

 

[PixelPower]

If you look at the top indie games that reached high on the charts , they all have social media facebook and twitter plus leaderboards. If you dont have a budget to promote games , social media is extremely important in boosting downloads.

 

[PixelPower]

Remember developers are mainly making games so they won't use social media as much as a regular gamer. Try to get your feedback from the general gaming population , which happens to be on social media.

 

[Shocky]

Nope, the only reason I link to them is because in most cases it's the only way to save your game or account.

 

[ogiepogigmail]

i think gamers are not that much concerned as some of the social media people think of it as a spam.

 

[PixelPower]

i think gamers are not that much concerned as some of the social media people think of it as a spam.

Based on your experience with only one game one the market? Sorry don't mean to sound like a dick but all top games have social media in them. Like I said don't ask developers because of course they don't know.

 

[kaslkaos]

Nope, I only play games when wifi is off or unavailable, but I'm not an avid gamer, though I do play daily, but to relax, not compete.

 

[Siskyn]

I can only speak for myself, but media integration is a slight annoyance at best. I consider it bloatware. I never use anything of the sort, nor do I want to see that someone got to X level in my feed. I reserve that for interesting stuff, and someone else's achievement is not interesting, only my own is.

 

[lubomir]

I'm mostly, Single Player type of gamer (and some home parties in good old times). Tried some MMORPGs though, too.

 

[gingercatgames]

It depends on how it is used. If the social media functionality is just there so that users can press the "like" button, then it might be annoying. If it lets them do things such as share their scores with their friends then maybe it will be useful if they are competitive.

 

[pocketeers]

Social media integration is only useful if done properly, for example being able to compare your progress to your friends and share your achievements to tick them off. I personally don't go for any of that but my wife loves it, kind of spurs her on to play more.