I personally feel that virality is the most important aspect. Here are some reasons why:
User Retention: The core social game demographic consists of middle-aged women with high disposable incomes. Unlike hard-core gamers, social gamers tend to have a much shorter attention span. They play purely for fun with not a whole lot of competitive spirit (unlike hard-core gamers). Because of this, social gamers can easily gravitate towards other popular social games once they have played a particular game for a long enough time. So long-term user retention is almost always the hardest metric when it comes to driving the success of a social game. Think about it yourself, when was the last time you came across a person who had been playing the same social game for more than a few months? For that matter, hard-core gamers are known to stay true to a game franchise (Call of Duty, FIFA, Halo) for years at a time.
Monetization: This same social gamer demographic tends to be quite careful about its spending habits too. No matter how addictive a game, most social gamers try their best to keep actual spending to a preset limit every month. Again this is because of the demographic itself which is older than the average gamer and is more mature about its spending habits. It’s also because actual spending on social games is often considered wasteful expenditure by the general population. So it can sometimes become a taboo topic. Ask any of your friends how much they spend on social games and you will never get the right answer! This is different from hard-core gamers who are willing to spend a fortune on gaming equipment and accessories and make no bones about it.
Virality: Coming back to my original point, the best way to drive the success of a game is by focusing hard on virality. That helps in keeping a safety cushion of new users and also helps in offsetting existing users who may or may not end up being a long-term customer. Every game will have its loyal fan base and they will generate a constant revenue stream. But often, that’s not enough to sustain a game. Because of this, generating new users is what every publisher should constantly focus on. And each new user brings with him/her a fresh perspective as well as a new revenue opportunity.
I personally believe that Facebook is one of the most expensive and unstable platforms for virality. The company constantly changes its rules to satisfy its users and not the publishers. So most of its policy changes are almost always detrimental to a games’ viral development. It’s not a level-playing field too. Everyone knows that Facebook has shown favoritism towards some developers and left out the rest. That’s one of the reasons why there is a strong need for innovation when it comes to making a game viral on Facebook.
(These views are solely that of the author and are open to random dismantling and violent criticism)
