Home Game Improvement: Ways to improve the Social Dynamics of Online Games.
A way to improve the social dynamics of Toon Town would be to enable a “speaking” chat feature that allows the kids to talk to each other online, other than having to type. That way the kid can make new friends easier by simply chatting, rather than scrolling through the menu list to see what is available to say and can tell if they are speaking with a REAL kid or some creepy guy online, of course with most things online, parental supervision is encouraged. Another way to improve the social dynamics of Toon Town is to allow a group chat feature, which enables more than two players of a specific group, like members of the same class, to talk to one another and allow them to do “jokes” together, similar to how guilds in World of Warcraft perform quests together.
Kingdom of loathing should have a messaging system which allows one players to talk to one another individually, like how one talks to another using American Online’s Instant Messenger. Another way, would be to enable the players to actually play together and do quests together at the same time, or at the very least, if its too much, let them play a mini game together so that they can share the same social experience.
Bejeweled Two should allow a versus mode so that players could compete with one another which will give them another incentive to play the game, to beat each other. They should also enable a feature that hinders the other player’s game play when the player is succeeding in a particular level. The creators can also add another social dynamic to the game by having a talk feature so that they can simply speak to their opponent and not worry about typing a response by trying to play the game at the same time, not only time will run out , but they may also lose track of the puzzle as well, a talk feature will give both players the opportunity to speak.
Like Bejeweled Two, the creators should also enable a feature which allows players to compete with on another. Or they can make the game so that the players can work together to solve the puzzle rather than against each other. Not only will working together form stronger bongs, it will also feed the player’s interests in the game and will give them a reason to play it again, because they will want to find something that they can do together. Another way Poppit! can improve the social dynamic is by having the players hide certain words or phrases in the balloons so that when the other player pops it, they will get the message and that will add another dimension of fun to the game.