Facebook's killer app
It's the game playing...
Inman News's Alice, bless her geogeeky heart, and I are addicted to geography - aficionado Facebook game Traveler IQ Challenge. Simply put, it quizzes you to find a city or landmark on a global map and awards points on how close you can click on the location (I've gotten within 10 km on such a small global map) and how fast you clicked it. With a little mouse-moving practice and arcane landmark memorization, your score improves.
Frankly, this is what makes Facebook addictive - not only are you playing online games, but you're "competing" with others in your community. It's a kind of alpha introduction to the concept of massively multiuser games, like Warcraft, which are mostly played by teenage boys and... Korea. Also, since I'm a Columbia grad, all the Traveler IQ players' scores are aggregated and ranked by college.
Note that foreign and international studies schools place well.
I can imagine independent teams will form all over Facebook to play a variety of games - it's easy to prognosticate that the most addictive online games are now being developed as Facebook widgets These future games will have massive participation several magnitudes above Warcraft Game playing is fun and lubricates the new connections that will build networks. That's why CEOs, VCs and startup entrepreneurs play bridge, pickup basketball and ... Warcraft.
Oh... the tie-in to real estate? Can you imagine that you'll meet clients from extended online networks playing games? Just wait... the new paradigm of games that will connect people based on their interests, hobbies and philosophies is just beginning.
Technorati Tags: facebook, widgets, traveller iq challenge, online gaming, online games, social networking, multiuser games
Thanks for making me aware. I am intrigued by this game and am going to test my geo-skills this evening and invite some friends to do the same.
Rebecca D. Levinson- http://www.connect2agent.com
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Great balls of fire. Thanks for posting this.
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Pat - this game IS addictive! I always wind up a handful of points below what's needed to get past level 10. Need to study up on Africa.... that and some of the eastern Europe questions get me almost every time.
But I *will* catch you!
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Africa is hard, but Micronesia and any of those islands will kill you!
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