Comments on: Starving Metaplace Game Gods Marooned In Facebook

By: Mitch Olson

Mitch Olson — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 23:09:17 +0000

Well written article Pixeleen. I just came across the Herald – I enjoy your insightful coverage of the VW space.

Its extremely difficult developing a UGC-oriented product for both content-creators & content-consumers simultaneously due to the chicken-n-egg situation of the ecosystem. This is especially so when the required commitment of content-creation is relatively high (vs, say uploading a video to youtube).

The content-consumer focus of MP’s Facebook experiments is a more accessible strategy, & presumably IslandLife is just a toe dipping exercise; its a bit late to the Farmsim party to win any significant usershare. But MP are well positioned to capitalize on the 2nd generation of FB Social gamers that Zynga et al have created, who will in 2010 be looking for a deeper game experience. Good luck to them.

By: Pappy Enoch

Pappy Enoch — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:29:51 +0000

Them farm-games am dumb as hell. You cain’t shoot stuff that bothers you, and they ain’t no twisters, ornery neighbors, or farmer’s daughters to git you off in the barn-yard.

I plans to stick to the RL farm…I kin be drunk n’ nekkid there.

By: Pappy Enoch

Pappy Enoch — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:28:11 +0000

I done lost me traction in my old F-150. I had to get me the backho’ to pull me out.

Raph needed hisself a good tractor.

By: Alyx Stoklitsky

Alyx Stoklitsky — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:40:00 +0000

Fuck farmville, go play Haven and Hearth

By: Senban Babii

Senban Babii — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 06:05:26 +0000

Okay, this is what worries me.

I get shipwrecked on this desert island. And I find a nice little patch of cultivated land with cabbages growing. This is not generally considered a natural occurence, therefore someone else is already on the island and I’ve just eaten all their cabbages. So in fact, Island Life promotes wars of resources and yet makes no attempt to highlight alternative options such as communication, negotiation and generally just getting on with people.

Faced with the despair of endless conflict with the natives and possibly a violently explosive death from terminal leguminous vegetable overdose, I decided to take my own life by drowning myself in the sea just off my bit of island while a cheerful Caribbean steel drum band played and seagulls frolicked over my floating body as if laughing at the cruel irony of it all.

Okay, so it’s Sunday morning and I was bored 8D

Seriously though, I think it was inevitable that Metaplace and derivatives would end up as Facebook apps. You only have to look at the popularity of all those little games like Mafia Wars and Farmville to see why companies are trying to get into them. But being honest now, Metaplace allegedly closed due to loss of traction. Do they honestly feel they have traction against the existing big players of the Facebook game app market? Time will tell I guess. I honestly just don’t get it myself though. I’ve just ploughed my little plot and now all I can do is watch cabbages grow. It’s sucking out my will to live.

Oh wait, this just in! I’ve apparently just graduated to asparagus. And for this we created the internet…..