In The Works: MMOs On Facebook?

Massively multiplayer online games on Facebook or MySpace? It's not as farfetched as it sounds. I've been giving the topic much thought over the better part of the week, and I just had to perform a search. This is why I've stumbled upon an article by Johnny Lim on MMOsite that tackles this very topic.

"Due to its user-based model, many applications are being developed to satisfy the needs of members of social networking sites ... so promising that MMO developers might see this as another great opportunity to build an MMO game application for social networking site platform," Lim says.



I totally agree with him, and I'm sure a lot of online games developers are nodding their heads as well. Someone has beat the MMO giants to the punch, though. Casual games are already well entrenched in social networking sites, particularly in Facebook which, to date, boasts more than 20 million users.

Couple the idea of developing a Facebook application-cum-massively multiplayer online game with the fact that browser-based games like Casvian and Canaan, then you may very well have a formula for success.

Browser-based MMOs? It's gotta be boring, you scream. Not true. They're actually pretty engrossing. Let's not discount simple video games just because they're not in 3D or doesn't have kick-ass sound effects.

Many a game developers probably thought games wouldn't flourish in social networking sites, and they had been proven wrong with the super success of the Facebook application Farmville, which, if statistics were to be believed, has over 80 million active users.

Imagine 80 million players of a single MMORPG on Facebook and other social networking sites! It doesn't take a genius to know that placing first in the race to develop and publish an MMO for social networking sites will ensure the future of any one company, its officers, and its employees.