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It's another one of those buzzwords that the suits in the games business like to toss around. Tthe more often, the better, it would seem. That's where the money is, since gaming "became mobile", which is a construction that alone is something I really dislike, but the phenomenon isn't new, nor is it particularly creative, in all honesty. Video games have been portable, or in modern parlance; mobile, for quite a few years and the latest fad to sweep the normal people are the social games.

Funny how social games often manage to make people the exact opposite of that; unsocial. I have personally witnessed a lot of people, not exactly teenagers but rather a bit older, gather in one place and sit in near complete silence, mesmerized by their little digital companion, rather than real-world communication a few centimeters away.

I hate to be the guy who looks back at things and think about how it was better in the old days, but in some aspects I can't help myself. There are no rose-tainted glasses in my toolbox and I rarely think things actually were better than they are now. Yet in the terms of sitting down and playing games, at least it used to be carried out with the people in the same room and you actually interacted with them. It wasn't so much about that technology has improved that created a problem, but rather that we let ourselves be dazzled by it in the wrong ways.

Without the ubiquitous connection to the rest of the world in our deices, and being designed for the single purpose of playing games and having fun, we were very much in the same room in both mind and body. Now the mind can be far, far away even though the game is the same for all people in the very same room. There's no need for the physical connection between the devices, the link-cable is since long a thing of the past, and with the lack of that direct connection to another person, apparently the need to interact in person with it.

It's fascinating how those who used to be critical about electronic games and entertainment now are some of the worst offenders, rather than those who grew up with video games.

While some might overanalyze this and make some drastic assumptions based on it, I don't think it will be the end of society, nor will it be the undoing of the games industry at large. Like things that have come before it, it will at some point or another become a thing of the past. The fad will perish and the viability as a market will diminish, making it unattractive to companies. Fewer people will care and less games will be played, something else will take over. Just as it always has.

So basically, social games, aren't really.

Robert Falck

Robert is a freelance tech writer from Sweden. You can follow his posts here on the British Tech Network, listen to him yap away on the British Tech iOS Show and read even more of his stuff on his site streakmachine.com or you can even follow him on twitter @streakmachine. (But you won't find him on Facebook!)

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Robert Falck

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