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.

We-intention to continue playing mobile multiplayer games: the role of social play habit

“…For the present purposes, relevant technological features are defined as MMG social features. Previous human-computer interaction studies Adinolf, 2017, 2019) and game studies (Paavilainen et al, 2017) have categorized social features in terms of three dimensions: presence feature set, communication feature set and interaction feature set. The presence feature set provides information about the player's status, performance, or avatars in order to establish social presence and relatedness (Consalvo, 2011;T€ urkay and Adinolf, 2017).…”

“…The communication feature set enables players to develop social bonds through in-game communication channels (e.g. chatting) (T€ urkay and Adinolf, 2019; Paavilainen et al, 2017;Przybylski et al, 2010). Finally, the interaction feature set facilitates player-to-player interactions (e.g.…”

“…Finally, the interaction feature set facilitates player-to-player interactions (e.g. sending gifts and clicking "Like") (Paavilainen et al, 2017), but does not support conversing and exchanging messages among players. For example, sending or receiving gifts as interaction features do not support back-and-forth communication among players.…”

“…We excluded MMGs with no co-play characteristics and then summarized all the social features of each of the others. Finally, based on the guidelines of T€ urkay and Adinolf (2019) and Paavilainen et al (2017), we categorized specific features into three feature sets: presence, communication and interaction, as shown in Table 1. The measurement items were developed based on T€ urkay and Adinolf (2019) and Paavilainen et al (2017).…”

“…Finally, based on the guidelines of T€ urkay and Adinolf (2019) and Paavilainen et al (2017), we categorized specific features into three feature sets: presence, communication and interaction, as shown in Table 1. The measurement items were developed based on T€ urkay and Adinolf (2019) and Paavilainen et al (2017). The scales for privacy concerns were adapted from Zhou (2017) and Choi (2016).…”