1) Gigaom Article

-”A common problem with current social games, Reynolds said, is that they don’t make players’ choices interesting over time, instead “burying the player in tedious repetitive clicking.” The challenge is improving the games’ progression curve, so players get steadily increasing rewards (points, virtual money and items) to encourage continued play.”
- “Trying to take a traditional game and ‘port it’ to the social gaming space would be a big mistake”

2) Social Apps vs. Social Games

-how social networks are like games themselves, the future of games, and great comments from readers.

3) Great Site involved in the Opensocial Movement

-”A major source of revenue for social apps is, not surprisingly, advertising. RockYou creates and distributes widgets over several platforms such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo. It has over 10 million registered users and gets over 150 million widget views from over 200 countries per day. Distributing its widgets across several platforms has allowed RockYou to monetize from creating its own ad network. Moreover, RockYou makes money from performance marketing and premium subscriptions.”
-”Cross-platform development is still an issue as it requires development and even design overhead. What’s popular on Facebook might not be so popular on Bebo or a smartphone. In the social media space, OpenSocial has tried to bring down the cost of some of the cross-platform development overhead, though OpenSocial itself has been much less popular than Facebook.”

4) The Future of Games

5) Will Wright Interviewed

-educational games, games as a service, similar to the SAAS movement

6) Games as a Service

-”Newell says the future will be ‘providing ongoing value.’ Once you start thinking from a service perspective, he continues, ‘It starts to help you understand the phenomenon that’s out there.’ The core of Newell’s argument is that a service allows ‘content creators to have a better relationship with their customers.’

7) SF Social Games Meet-Up Group

-potentially a great place to recruit talent, participate in information sessions, and learn about the social games market

Cool Sites and People in the Social Games Space

-http://developer.agon-online.com/
-http://twitter.com/Playfish
-http://wefollow.com/twitter/casualgames
-http://twitter.com/gamesdotcom
-http://twitter.com/slhamlet, author
-http://www.mochimedia.com/products/