901am

New Media News Every Morning

Facebook’s City of Eternals Game Breaks Social Gaming Norms

By

Screen shot 2009-11-11 at 8.06.20 PMMost, if not all of the social games on Facebook are casual in nature – that is, these games can only hold users’  interests at such a short time every time they play. And that’s what Ohai, a game startup wants to change as it prepares to launch City of Eternals – a new Vampire-inspired massively multiplayer online game on Facebook.

City of Eternals, unlike other Facebook social games will feature synchronous play – live gameplay where movement and action are constantly moving. In case you haven’t noticed, most Facebook games available today are asynchronous in nature.  Hence, game progress is slow and user engagement on the app is very low. [Read more…]

Originally posted on November 11, 2009 @ 8:10 am

Facebook Reconnects You with Dead Friends

By

Facebook Reconnects You with Dead Friends

Facebook’s relentless drive for innovation is part of the reason it’s the number one social network in the world today — but as any adventurous developer will tell you, with relentless innovation often comes ridiculous errors. Not only is Facebook singling out your less popular friends, its algorithm is now asking people to reconnect with their dead friends.

The problem is amplified by Facebook’s need to focus on people instead of content. When your Facebook feed shows the occasional dead link, the error carries little emotional weight. When Facebook recommends the occasional dead loved one, tempers flare. Algorithms are great, and I love how they bring up the best content from my network, but Facebook simply can’t afford to treat people the same way it treats content.

Originally posted on October 26, 2009 @ 11:46 am

Atari launches Photo Sauce Facebook app

By

atari-photo-sauce-meerkatI have many fond memories of Atari but they’ve certainly evolved a lot in the last three decades.

The latest news is that Atari has jumped onto the social networking bandwagon, launching something it calls “Photo Sauce” which, unsurprisingly, has a strong focus on digital photographs.

In fact, Atari hasn’t started its own network. Instead, it has created a Facebook app which allows photos to be decorated and personalised through stickers, speech bubbles and accessories.

It’s possible to create a slide show for sharing with friends, and Atari will release new stickers over time.

Check it out here.

Originally posted on October 22, 2009 @ 5:37 am

Facebook Abuse

By

Facebook can be an incredibly powerful social application platform for commerce, collaboration, and networking. That’s why ten percent of companies allow full access to Facebook and other social media platforms. That’s why online office applications from Zoho are actually available on Facebook.

Unfortunately, Facebook can also be a place for your unnecessarily cheery cube-dwelling coworkers to annoy the fuck out of you. We have unfettered access to the most advanced social graphing tools in human history, and what do we do with them? Throw sheep at each other.

Man in the Box takes on the problem of Facebook abuse in the workplace.

Originally posted on October 23, 2009 @ 9:03 am

Facebook begins pointing out your less popular friends

By

facebook-only-one-friendAs well as the recent news feed changes, Facebook has decided that it’s time to point out the people on your friends list who just aren’t quite so popular.

This morning, I saw one of my friends in the suggestions box, with the comment “[name] only has 17 friends” and the invitation for me to suggest more people she might know.

Point, stare and snicker!

Turns out this is an official feature. [Read more…]

Originally posted on October 26, 2009 @ 7:26 am