Facebook games is certainly still very casual centric. The market is only going to get bigger though and as a result bigger and better core games are sure to arrive. Which leads me to wonder, what happens when you can start blowing stuff up and bleeding out on Facebook?
Blaming media for people being crazy or crappy is a time honored tradition. It was only a few hundred years ago that legions of English people were being tortured and killed because they just want to translate the bible into English. Our parent’s parents freaked out because of comic books. Unfortunately even our own peers still propagate the ‘dangers’ of media usually via image problems or violent video games. Apparently they miss the ironic of positing that ‘other people’ can’t handle the media without being under the influence to make bad or dangerous decisions while at the same time being influenced by something they learned of from the media, not peer reviewed studies.
The point of this post isn’t to rehash all that madness, just to try and predict when it will happen with Facebook games when core titles start arriving on the platform. I’m willing to bet when it does happen, it will arrive with extra vitriol and vigor because of the ubiquity of the platform and the tendency for young kids to simply lie about their age in order to access the service. I can see ‘family’ activis’s website now about the tens of millions of underage kids ‘only a click away from gore, violence and suggested sexual perversion.’
Facebook has already been taking plenty of hyperbolic heat for kids using the platform. Though Facebook’s rules say you have to be 13, apparently kids have figured out you don’t really have to tell the truth. (Pay no mind to my decades long internet record of being over 18 almost as long as my father).
The good news is that no matter what the public’s reaction to violent video games on Facebook the constitution remains a firewall for the far majority of the reactionary mob’s proposals. It’s almost to the point where I would say that the game industry really doesn’t need to worry about it, because the courts will take care of it for us. That’s not entirely true, but I’ll go as far as saying that any activist calling for legislation regulating video games is so far away from anything that is constitutional it can reasonably said the only reason they are doing so is self-promotion.
Facebook’s use by practically every kid in the US will give these activists a juicy new target though and I wonder if Facebook will, can or even maybe should embrace a few controls to prevent kids from playing violent video games. I don’t really see how it would be possible though, because at the end of the day everything is just a fake over 18 profile away.
Either way I can’t wait. Facebook is a promising platform and core games will take social games only towards more awesomeness. Plus most of the activists are so self-promoting they are more entertaining than effective, so it makes for good Daily Show fodder. Let’s just hope we don’t have to endure too many ‘villes’ before it happens.
Blaming media for people being crazy or crappy is a time honored tradition. It was only a few hundred years ago that legions of English people were being tortured and killed because they just want to translate the bible into English. Our parent’s parents freaked out because of comic books. Unfortunately even our own peers still propagate the ‘dangers’ of media usually via image problems or violent video games. Apparently they miss the ironic of positing that ‘other people’ can’t handle the media without being under the influence to make bad or dangerous decisions while at the same time being influenced by something they learned of from the media, not peer reviewed studies.
The point of this post isn’t to rehash all that madness, just to try and predict when it will happen with Facebook games when core titles start arriving on the platform. I’m willing to bet when it does happen, it will arrive with extra vitriol and vigor because of the ubiquity of the platform and the tendency for young kids to simply lie about their age in order to access the service. I can see ‘family’ activis’s website now about the tens of millions of underage kids ‘only a click away from gore, violence and suggested sexual perversion.’
Facebook has already been taking plenty of hyperbolic heat for kids using the platform. Though Facebook’s rules say you have to be 13, apparently kids have figured out you don’t really have to tell the truth. (Pay no mind to my decades long internet record of being over 18 almost as long as my father).
The good news is that no matter what the public’s reaction to violent video games on Facebook the constitution remains a firewall for the far majority of the reactionary mob’s proposals. It’s almost to the point where I would say that the game industry really doesn’t need to worry about it, because the courts will take care of it for us. That’s not entirely true, but I’ll go as far as saying that any activist calling for legislation regulating video games is so far away from anything that is constitutional it can reasonably said the only reason they are doing so is self-promotion.
Facebook’s use by practically every kid in the US will give these activists a juicy new target though and I wonder if Facebook will, can or even maybe should embrace a few controls to prevent kids from playing violent video games. I don’t really see how it would be possible though, because at the end of the day everything is just a fake over 18 profile away.
Either way I can’t wait. Facebook is a promising platform and core games will take social games only towards more awesomeness. Plus most of the activists are so self-promoting they are more entertaining than effective, so it makes for good Daily Show fodder. Let’s just hope we don’t have to endure too many ‘villes’ before it happens.
RSS Feed