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September 28, 2009

Facebook Games - Fun or Annoying?

Anybody who uses Facebook for more than a few days is familiar with the message of dread, the notification of evil.  The infamous "John Smith is kicking ass in Mafia Wars and wants you to join his gang!" notices.  Or "Jill Jones has helped you out in Farmville! Click here to return the favor!" message.  Or yet another god-forsaken quiz!  Yes, these kinds of apps and games are all the rage on Facebook, and I would assume that much of the traffic that has been driven away from Facebook is driven away because of these incessant messages.  My news feed is cluttered with people taking "What kind of sex crime would you be charged with?" quizzes (or something like that; I'm sure they exist).

Facebook did a wonderful thing when they let you hide those notices from your newsfeed, but they didn't go far enough.  You can only react to them rather than cancelling them out before they're inflicted on you.  The same thing with the game notices, though they aren't quite as bad.  It would be nice if each quiz/app/whatever had a category, and you could choose to exclude anything from that category from your newsfeed.  It would be totally up to you to cancel them, because I'm all for user choice.
Now, I'm not against all quizzes.  Some of the movie ones are kind of fun, for example.  However, those are all within the Flixter app, so they are relatively self-contained.  I never send the quiz to anybody who doesn't already have Flixter installed.  You can rest assured that you will never get an invitation from me for an app that you don't have.  That annoys me greatly, so I would be extremely hypocritcal to inflict it on you.  But if you've already opted in, then why not?

I also have to admit that I am addicted to two games:  Word Twist and Farkle.  Word Twist I've been a fan of from day one, though I have pretty much withdrawn from it except a series of tournaments with one friend with whom I have a fun time competing with (and mostly losing to).  I'm always open to a game if anybody else wants to challenge me, though.  Oh, and Molly?  That invitation to you was by mistake, since I don't think you actually have the app installed.  I clicked on the wrong button.  Sorry!

Farkle is a game that, sadly, I got sucked in to because of my newsfeed and the numerous friends who were posting their high scores.  And it is very addictive. God, I can't even say how addictive it is.  It's like dice crack (as opposed to cracked dice, which I'm sure the program swears it doesn't use).

But I have no interest in Mafia Wars, Vampires, becoming a knight in one of your fantasy legions in Castle Wars or something like that.  I don't want to be a member of your entourage in Sex Games (though if you want me to be a real member of your real entourage, then call me...we'll talk...are you hot?).  I don't want to know what Lord of the Rings character you are, which Twilight Character you are, which Vin Diesel character you are (c'mon, I'm sure that quiz is out there somewhere) or even which fairy tale you'd be the villain of.

There.  I feel better now.  Back to clearing out my newsfeed.

3 comments:

  1. And let's not forget Pet Society (or whatever it is called) that won't let you hide the app. I really don't care what your pet has done in this fake world.

    Facebook used to just have a status feed. I miss being able to just read that and moving on.

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  2. I think I must have avoided having any friends doing that. Either that, or I've mercifully blocked it out.

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  3. I think you have to use some cheat codes for that kinda problem. If you have some trouble than use it. Thanks for sharing problems with us.

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