Mobile Social Gaming

After ten years of game design practices routed within traditional PC and console development aimed at hardcore gamers, the mobile games industry has embraced the realization that these have limited value for mobile, and new approaches need to be considered. In particular the greater utilization of social factors within games would embrace the social practices in which mobile phones often engage. Whilst this has led some to propose MMOGs for mobile, the behavior of players of these games suggest they also have the characteristics of hardcore gamers and we suggest the games emerging on mobile social networks or online casual game sites is more applicable. In relation to this we discuss the real world behavior of gamers using a novel game widget which allows users to play and chat across the mobile network anywhere in the world. With approaching 10,000 users and growing, the game highlights that even a very simple game mechanic, when combined with simple messaging, can be compelling, producing some interesting emergent behavior in countries where access to traditional platforms or social interaction may be more constrained.