%0 Journal Article
%T Analysis of Motivational Elements of Social Games: A Puzzle Match 3-Games Study Case
%A Marcel Toshio Omori
%A Alan Salvany Felinto
%J International Journal of Computer Games Technology
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/640725
%X The main motivational elements of the social network sites and the social network games will be shown according to studies already existent in the literature, highlighting the elements which motivate the players the most to play social Match 3-type games. Seven games have been analyzed: Diamond Dash, Collapse!Blast, Mystic Ice Blast, Bricks Breaking, Plock, Gem Clix, and Blast!. The results showed that asynchronous time, activities publishing, rewarding system, competition, and social status are the elements which motivate and stimulate the most the players to play. 1. Introduction The social network sites show a great number of users [1], in particular Facebook which at the end of December 2011 owned more than 845 million active users per month [2]. At the same time, the social network games also prove a great popularity, an example is the game FarmVille present at the Facebook which in 2010 achieved a mark of 76 million active players per month [3]. Other more recent examples are Angry Birds Friends with 12 million active players per month and the most recent release of the game FarmVille, FarmVille 2, with more than 60 million active players per month [4]. Despite the success of these games, the social games have a lot of challenges to overcome, and one of them is attractiveness [5]. What are the elements which attract the players? Why do people play social games? There are a lot of studies at the literature about guides on good practice to develop interfaces, mechanics, gameplay, and ideal stories for the games [6], but for the social games which appeal more to the emotional side than to the actions themselves [3, 7], it is also necessary to identify the main personal, social, and psychological elements which motivate and stimulate the players to play. There are some studies about this emotional side such as the ones by Ines and Abdelkader [3], although the analysis is generally aimed at all kinds of games. At this study, we have focused on identifying the main motivational elements of the social Match 3-type games. One example of this type of game is Diamond Dash which has 19 million active players per month [4]. The goal of this kind of game is to destroy the greatest number of gems as possible within a determined period of time and obtain points. In order to destroy the gems, the player must find and click on the gems which have combinations of three or more gems of the same color. The mechanics of the game demand that the player should have a good visibility and mouse handling. How come games which possess so simple arts, sounds, mechanics, and
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijcgt/2012/640725/