Hey all ! I noticed some games have a "submit results to Facebook" button. Or Twitter - make your pick. I am in the process of making my own game, and was wondering: is that really effective? How do you measure it's effectiveness when you make it? And are there any ideas on how to make it more effective, such as what to write there or what to say, what to publish and when etc? Thanks!
Hi, We have put Facebook Connect to Gaston #1, but, we remove it in Gaston #2 because we discover that the feedback is not very important. In our next game, we plan to put only a simple link to the facebook page from our company.
I feel that including utilization of Facebook/Twitter could potentially be vital to the success of an app. Witness what happened with Superbrothers, for example (although I am sure that game would have been pretty successful in spite of that feature). I generally haven't seen it work out terribly well otherwise, although I think for the most part people haven't made a particularly strong effort to get their head around it yet. I have some ideas I'd like to explore in the future, we'll see.. for now, I am content to simply have a FB button on the front page of my app as well, for lack of anything else..
Honestly speaking I feel like these "submit to social network" buttons are pretty useless for a majority of games. From observing those around me, gamers only submit scores to their facebook if their other facebook friends give a **** about what it is they are playing and even then, users will only submit their score once in a blue moon (when they achieve that elusive high score.) Personally I have only ever submitted a score in bejeweled blitz. It may be my group of friends in the social network or what not, but for every other game that I have loved competing in, the social network button has been something I make a point of ignoring.
Exactly Pointing to a fan page of your game and ask to become a fan has more impact on your facebook friends and that's less (boring) spam on your wall.
More important than a Facebook button is having an 'Invite Friends' button that lets users easily send a premade email to their friends inviting them to download the game. It's quick and easy, and helps greatly with word-of-mouth marketing. We're implementing this in our app.
