research-article

Howdy pardner!: on free-to-play, sociability and rhythm design in FrontierVille

Authors:

Saara ToivonenAuthors Info & Claims

MindTrek '11: Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments

Pages 22 - 29

https://doi.org/10.1145/2181037.2181042

Published: 28 September 2011 Publication History

Abstract

Despite their rapid evolution and wide popularity social games played on Facebook have so far gained relatively little interest among academic game researchers. A close reading of the Facebook game FrontierVille aims to provide some starting points for the study of social games. The paper starts by outlining the rationale behind the economy based on virtual object sales and examines how also the non-paying players are affected by the system. Second, the paper considers the different forms and functions of sociability present within FrontierVille. Finally, the study explicates how FrontierVille both allows flexible playing patterns and actively builds particular rhythms of play. All in all, the paper argues that design, economics and playing of social games are tightly interconnected and should be studied in relation to each other.

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Cited By

Gonçalves DPais PGerling KGuerreiro TRodrigues A(2023)Social gamingComputers in Human Behavior10.1016/j.chb.2023.107851147:COnline publication date: 1-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.chb.2023.107851
Wijanarko ADewanto Hadisumarto A(2020)Online Video Games as Distribution Channel for Retail Brand VoucherProceedings of the 4th International Conference on E-Commerce, E-Business and E-Government10.1145/3409929.3409931(7-14)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3409929.3409931
Cai JWohn DFreeman GArnedo JNacke LVanden Abeele VToups Dugas P(2019)Who Purchases and Why?Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play10.1145/3311350.3347196(391-396)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3311350.3347196
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cover image ACM Other conferences

MindTrek '11: Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments

September 2011

341 pages

ISBN:9781450308168

DOI:10.1145/2181037

Conference Chair:
Artur Lugmayr
Tampere University of Technology, Finland
,
Program Chairs:
Heljä Franssila
Tampere Univ. (UTA), Finland
,
Christian Safran
Graz University of Technology, AUT
,
Imed Hammouda
Tampere Univ. of Technology (TUT), Finland

Copyright © 2011 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 28 September 2011

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MindTrek '11: Academic MindTrek 2011

September 28 - 30, 2011

Tampere, Finland

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Cited By

Gonçalves DPais PGerling KGuerreiro TRodrigues A(2023)Social gamingComputers in Human Behavior10.1016/j.chb.2023.107851147:COnline publication date: 1-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.chb.2023.107851
Wijanarko ADewanto Hadisumarto A(2020)Online Video Games as Distribution Channel for Retail Brand VoucherProceedings of the 4th International Conference on E-Commerce, E-Business and E-Government10.1145/3409929.3409931(7-14)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3409929.3409931
Cai JWohn DFreeman GArnedo JNacke LVanden Abeele VToups Dugas P(2019)Who Purchases and Why?Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play10.1145/3311350.3347196(391-396)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3311350.3347196
Cutting JGundry DCairns P(2019)Busy doing nothing? What do players do in idle games?International Journal of Human-Computer Studies10.1016/j.ijhcs.2018.09.006122(133-144)Online publication date: Feb-2019
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2018.09.006
Harviainen JPaavilainen JKoskinen E(2019)Ayn Rand’s Objectivist Ethics Applied to Video Game BusinessJournal of Business Ethics10.1007/s10551-019-04159-yOnline publication date: 16-Apr-2019
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04159-y
Kasurinen JPalacin-Silva MVanhala ETonelli RCounsell SDestefanis GMurgia ATempero E(2017)What concerns game developers?Proceedings of the 8th Workshop on Emerging Trends in Software Metrics10.5555/3106039.3106044(15-21)Online publication date: 20-May-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3106039.3106044
Kasurinen JPalacin-Silva MVanhala E(2017)What Concerns Game Developers? A Study on Game Development Processes, Sustainability and Metrics2017 IEEE/ACM 8th Workshop on Emerging Trends in Software Metrics (WETSoM)10.1109/WETSoM.2017.3(15-21)Online publication date: May-2017
https://doi.org/10.1109/WETSoM.2017.3
Hamari JAlha KJrvel SKivikangas JKoivisto JPaavilainen J(2017)Why do players buy in-game content? An empirical study on concrete purchase motivationsComputers in Human Behavior10.1016/j.chb.2016.11.04568:C(538-546)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2017
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Tyni HKultima A(2016)The emergence of industry of playful hybridsProceedings of the 20th International Academic Mindtrek Conference10.1145/2994310.2994358(413-421)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2994310.2994358
Kinnunen JAlha KPaavilainen J(2016)Creating play money for free-to-play and gambling gamesProceedings of the 20th International Academic Mindtrek Conference10.1145/2994310.2994336(385-392)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2016
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