Game Theory: Offer I Can Refuse

Posted 11/24/2009 at 10:15am | by Thomas McDonald

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Facebook is the answer to a question no one asked: “How can I waste more of my time?” Compared to social network gaming, however, Facebook itself is as useful an invention as the cell phone.

Actually, I do like Facebook. I’ve used it to reconnect with dozens of people I used to know. Two of them are even people I like. A year after I first joined Facebook for the sole purpose of sharing pictures of a new puppy, I find myself updating my status, making comments, and listing things like the “Five TV Characters I Wish Were Real So We Could Hang.” (Dr. McCoy, Emma Peel, Hurley Reyes, Simon Templar, and Gomez Addams: another answer to a question no one ever asked sober or outside of a college dorm.)

I used Facebook for a year before I caved in and tried any social gaming. It held no appeal at all. I ignored the messages from friends asking me to join their Mafia, become part of their vampire clan, move in next door to their rutabaga farm, or contribute to efforts to elect Ron Paul president. (Oh, you mean they were serious about the Ron Paul thing?)

Since I’m Jersey born and bred, Mafia Wars seemed like the right fit. It’s actually an elegant little piece of work: a role-playing game stripped down to pure stats and wrapped in a simple graphical interface. It has a balanced risk/reward system and a satisfying initial arc driven by leveling, establishing and expanding an income stream, and accumulating bits of stuff.
 
But it loses steam rather quickly. The leveling cycle becomes rote, and the game reaches a point where risk vanishes, rendering the rewards hollow. It’s also an oddly unsocial social game, with minimal personal interaction.

Yet it retains one important appeal: It’s undemanding. You can perform all of your duties for the day with a few clicks over the morning coffee, making it one of the most coldly efficient games I’ve ever seen. It’s like we’re even outsourcing our gameplay. That’s really not what I’m looking for.

And, no, I don’t want to join your mafia, but thanks for asking.

Thomas L. McDonald has been covering games for 17 years. He is Editor-at-Large of Games Magazine.