Social Game

There is a genre of games called social game that currently thrives in the Asian game industry, forcing traditional game companies to cede their budgets from triple-A games and try to compete in the space.

I do not have a concrete view on this, but the naming itself is quite interesting. Most games labelled under this genre, despite the term social, have little to no multiplayer elements, making them actually less social than local or online multiplayer games.

But those games also enjoy far more exposure on social networks and forums, with players making artworks, writing fanfics and discussing about the progression of their own instance of the game.

I would think that the whole genre would not climb to the position it is today without the modern overdose of social network services. It seems that most of the players spend even more time on forums and creation, rather than on actually playing the game, which is honestly a glorified PRNG designed to suck in as much time as possible, while training players' attention cycles.