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Google Social Networks Games

Google Adds Games To Google+ 161

Posted by Soulskill from the tic-tac-toe-better-have-an-i'm-feeling-lucky-button dept.
derGoldstein writes with this quote from the official Google blog: "Today we're adding games to Google+. ... We want to make playing games online just as fun, and just as meaningful, as playing in real life ... When you're ready to play, the Games page is waiting — click the games button at the top of your stream. You can see the latest game updates from your circles, browse the invites you've received and check out games that people you know have played recently. The Games page is also where your game accomplishments will appear. So you can comfortably share your latest high score — your circles will only see the updates when they're interested in playing games too."
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Google Adds Games To Google+ More

Google Adds Games To Google+

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  • Google+ (Score:4, Insightful)

    by zget ( 2395308 ) on Friday August 12, 2011 @03:29AM (#37065850)
    At least Google isn't dumb enough to forget that people want to play games and spend times on social networking sites. It's also interesting to see that Zynga is there.. There goes two usual slashdot arguments straight out of the window, one being that Zynga is somehow completely relies on Facebook and that Google+ is in some way different social network than Facebook. It is currently, but only because they're lagging behind in development. And to be honest, the place is completely dead without casual people, games and pages. The latter one they still need to add too.

    Google+ is so direct copy of Facebook that it isn't even funny. The whole thing even looks almost exactly the same, just that it has different colors and is lacking features that Facebook has. What exactly is Google trying to archieve here? They aren't innovating, they're just copying. I rather don't have everything about me known by a single company, so I like to use Facebook much more than let Google know all my personal details, my friends, my web searches, my YouTube views, my emails and every site I visit on the internet (via Google Analytics). Putting that much information to a single company is just plain stupid, especially when they just a few days ago revealed they're been secretly handing European citizens information to US agencies, even when it's illegal to do so in the EU.

    • Re:Google+ (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 12, 2011 @03:39AM (#37065892)

      Circles, privacy options, hangouts, and keeping games/apps out of the normal social areas.

      How is Google+ an exact copy of Facebook with less features again?

      • He's not saying it is an exact copy right now but it's in the process of becoming one.

        I for one hardly believe that you will be able to protect your personal info from these games for too long. I'm pretty sure a "what transformer are you?" app that scraps your friends' "friends-only" data is just waiting to happen. The functionality must be there for the really interesting (and way creepier) apps that do actually make use of your friends' private data.

        The circles thing is sorta of a scam*, trying to give yo

        • Re:Google+ (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 12, 2011 @08:13AM (#37066888)

          Separate profiles? I don't think you understand how relationships work. The status of my various contacts is _not_ static: co-workers became friends, friendships get broken, etc. Separate profiles are totally unable to cope with that seamlessly and most importantly invisibly to the contact in question. My contacts do not need to know how much information I'm giving them / keeping from them.

          • "They've now baited the trap... with cheese."

            It oughtta be called "Crop Circles." You're just another load of round-up ready, for the Google combine.

            Harvest away.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by geekoid ( 135745 )

          It depends on google policy.

          Circle is a good implementation of a digital representation of physical privacy and security.

          maybe you should stop letting XKCD do all your thinking?

          • The problem with Circles is that you really can't step away from a Circle without loosing all it's protection. Which I guess it's okay if all you are going to use G+ for is organising gatherings, share photos of those gatherings, family photos, gossip and very, very low profile promotion of interests.

            Since my interests lie in debates and participation in online communities, I have a need to be "publicly private". That is, if I'm not interested in having the online drama following me home. Which I don't.

            On t

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bkaul01 ( 619795 )

        Circles, privacy options, hangouts, and keeping games/apps out of the normal social areas.

        How is Google+ an exact copy of Facebook with less features again?

        Circles are just Facebook Friend Lists by a different name ... Privacy options I've found to be more useful (if less discoverable) on Facebook (e.g. you can blacklist Lists, where you can only whitelist Circles) ... Facebook has group chat and Skype integration, so there's essentially parity there ... you had a point on the absence of games, though Google looks to be moving towards Facebook on that one.

        There are a few differences with the G+ news feed - essentially it's a hybrid of Facebook and Twitter, sin

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by geekoid ( 135745 )

          different name, better implementation, easier to use, and the core of the App.

          That's the paradigm change.

    • Well, if they add games to Google+, but avoid the annoying thing that Facebook does, it's a great move.

      With Facebook, game request permission to post on your wall, and all your contact knows which games you play, when and how often. It's annoying for them and for you.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by zget ( 2395308 )
        You know, you can just not allow it to post. Google+ has the exact same thing, they described how you can post "your high scores" and everything else for others to see.

        For the other end it's also not that complicated to block those updates. The first time you get them, click the x and select hide updates. There's also the dropdown box next to latest updates link which allows you to select which kind of updates and from who you like to see. They're improved it a lot since a some years ago.

        • Re:Google+ (Score:5, Informative)

          by Pieroxy ( 222434 ) on Friday August 12, 2011 @04:28AM (#37066088) Homepage

          For the other end it's also not that complicated to block those updates.

          No it's not simple. I mostly access my social networks from my phone, and the mobile app doesn't have an X. So I get constantly annoyed by this crap and it forces me to go and log in on my PC to disable it. Then another game takes over. It's a never ending battle to keep facebook usable.

          • The trick is to block gamers, not individual games. There's usually a small group of people who play these things and let them spam indiscriminately.

            • Yes Mom, I blocked you because you kept spamming me with Farmville crap so I didn't get your post that Grandma died.

              • Yes Mom, I blocked you because you kept spamming me with Farmville crap so I didn't get your post that Grandma died.

                But, since you didn't block Grandma, you should have gotten the news directly from her last status update...you know, the one that ended with "NO CARRIER".

          • Really? Because when I block them on the website, all the other apps stop getting them, too.

        • But there is a key difference to how google allows the high scores etc to be posted. Google posts it to an entirely different feed, and still allows you to limit what circles can see it within that feed. To put it in comparison the way Facebook handles games is like a water balloon fight at a picnic, where the rule is, if someone hits you with a water balloon, you can ask him/her not to hit you again, a new kid shows up you need to ask that one too. G+ on the other hand is more like, "We have an area for wa

    • You know, XKCD said it first. [xkcd.com]

      What is Google+?
      -- Its NOT Facebook
      What's it like?
      -- Facebook!

    • You don't understand. It's NOT Facebook. That's the whole feature! I know this doesn't make any sense to Facebook users...

    • I rather don't have everything about me known by a single company, so I like to use Facebook much more than let Google know all my personal details, my friends, my web searches, my YouTube views, my emails and every site I visit on the internet

      Oh believe me, Zuckerberg's no slouch when it comes to tracking facebook users.

      http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/11/30/facebooks-button-tracking-you/ [thinq.co.uk]

    • Google bought 10% of Zynga last year.

    • let Google know all my personal details, my friends, my web searches, my YouTube views, my emails and every site I visit on the internet (via Google Analytics)

      So install NoScript and block analytics?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )

      Innovation is in the implementation.
      It's like saying Audi is copying Ford, so what are the trying to accomplish?

      ". I rather don't have everything about me known by a single company, so I like to use Facebook much more than let Google know all my personal details, my friends, my web searches, my YouTube views, my emails and every site I visit on the internet (via Google Analytics). "

      Google has all your facebook information already.
      I'm not sure what could happen that would destroy all your data.

      AS for your bo

    • Google+ is so direct copy of Facebook that it isn't even funny.

      And in other news, Google Docs has cut-and-paste just like Microsoft Word.
       
      Seriously, Facebook has set the bar with regards to what features a social networking site must have, and Google+ needs to meet or exceed that bar. Beyond the "hate everything that isn't Google" crowd, just being "not Facebook" isn't enough.

      • This is a great comment.

        Within a week or two of Google+ being released, people here and elsewhere mentioned that it would not get very far or ever be popular without Apps and Games specifically. Now that they're deploying them (in an intelligent way), it's a horrible idea and shows Google has no innovation and is only copying Facebook. You can't have it both ways.

  • Oh dear $DEITY.

  • How's that news? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Friday August 12, 2011 @03:42AM (#37065900)

    Let's put it that way, it would be news if Google made the statement that they decided to NOT copy one thing of Facebook.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hal2814 ( 725639 )
      Unfortunately for Google, they can't copy the users.

      • Don't worry. With the "invitation only" system they made it look exclusive enough to make people WANT to join.

  • Google Apps? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by richy freeway ( 623503 ) on Friday August 12, 2011 @04:13AM (#37066028)
    How about just getting the hell on with it and adding support for Google Apps users? Once again we're left lagging behind!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )

      What are you talking about?

      • Google Apps users can't use Google+, cos Google Apps doesn't support Google Profiles. Capiche?

        If you don't know Google Apps, it's a way of tying your domain name into Googles products. Mainly for the benefit of using Gmail directly with your domain, that's my reason anyway

        Go look it up! The benefits of Googles spam filtering, plus everything else they offer, far outweighs the fact that they're not so "do no evil" as they used to be.

    • At least with the update, when we go onto Google+ we are actually allowed to log out of our Google Apps accounts so that we can log into standard Google accounts... for at least a month, I was stuck having to go into Gmail, log out, then go to Google+ and log in with another account.

    • What's worse is what are they going to do for people who are using a secondary gmail account just to be on Google+ for the moment? Are they going to provide a way of migrating your Google+ settings between a regular Google Profile and an Apps for Domains user?

      Probably not. So I'm going to be stuck deciding if I want to keep switching logins whenever I go on Google+, or actually try and re-add everyone that I have on my other account (and ask them nicely to share back with me).

      Overall, the way they handled

      • All I'm really using G+ for at the moment is a handy automatic backup of any photos I take on my phone, migration would be nice though.

  • Maybe Facebook filed a patent application for "online games in a social network site". As well as a number of other patents.

  • awesome.. (Score:3)

    by crossmr ( 957846 ) on Friday August 12, 2011 @05:13AM (#37066244) Journal

    They're going to turn around and be just like the service everyone claimed to hate, and that's why they went to google+. In the meantime, they can't get around to fixing things like broken, unchangeable "personalization" that breaks services and can only be corrected by not using google+..
    Sorry, but being logged in to Facebook has never broken other services/sites for me.

    • What services are broken for you by being logged into Google+?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by crossmr ( 957846 )

        Google news archive searches.
        For some reason Google has decided that because I'm in Korea (despite not being Korean, or fluent in Korean) any google news archive searches will only search Korean language news papers in Korea. It doesn't even want to search the various English language papers that exist here.

        I've spent hours searching my account for anything that would indicate I want it to do that, I can find nothing. I even went through and removed every single reference to Korea in my profile, and anywher

  • The beginning of the end (Score:5, Insightful)

    by broothal ( 186066 ) <christian@fabel.dk> on Friday August 12, 2011 @05:24AM (#37066294) Homepage Journal

    Sweet Jebus - that was the reason I LEFT facebook. To get rid of that crap.

    Oh well - it was fun while it lasted. IRC is still my favorite social network

  • Oh no, there goes the neighborhood (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Masa ( 74401 ) on Friday August 12, 2011 @06:03AM (#37066444) Journal

    Why in the hell they want to ruin Google+? I hate Facebook for two reasons:

    1) It is annoying as hell to have those game requests. And if you don't block all applications, then you have to "enjoy" the constant stream of shit, when your friends request new tools in Farmville or want to share a pony.

    2) Gaming becomes a sole purpose for using social networking site. Most of my friends don't bother to use Facebook for keeping touch or sharing interesting news or stories. They just spend time playing and filling their page with useless game-related crap.

    I lost hope with Facebook long ago and recently joined Google+ hoping that it would be different. It seems I was wrong :(

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by janek78 ( 861508 )

      How difficult is it to block the application the first time it spams your wall? Two, three clicks? Maybe it's the choice of friends who I let appear in my Facebook feed, but few mouse clicks every couple weeks/months when a new game appears does not seems to "ruin" anything for me. But then again, I don't have friends who start playing five new games every day and of my 200 contacts, only about 20 are not "hidden" competely from my wall, so my experience may be different.

      • How difficult is it to block the application the first time it spams your wall?

        For one thing, it appears not all clients have the block button [slashdot.org]. For another, a publisher could just introduce its new game, and that won't also be blocked.

      • I don't put my face in the book, but surely this is the wrong way around? If you opt in to things a person says, that shouldn't opt you in to things various programs that they own say. Each game / app should have its own message type, and you should opt in to person / message type pairs, with optional wildcarding (e.g. every stream from this person, every stream of this type from anyone I know). What kind of crazy system does the spam book use?

    • Well their focus seems on having games on a separate tab. So if you don't want to know about games you don't click on that tab and you don't hear about others playing games either.

      Don't know if that works perfectly, but that appears to be their goal: "your circles will only see the updates when they're interested in playing games too".

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by slyrat ( 1143997 )

        Well their focus seems on having games on a separate tab. So if you don't want to know about games you don't click on that tab and you don't hear about others playing games either.

        Don't know if that works perfectly, but that appears to be their goal: "your circles will only see the updates when they're interested in playing games too".

        This! I like that g+ is trying to make the default behavior for users not involve what a lot of people find to be annoying.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Syberz ( 1170343 )
      You do realize that games are segregated to their own section, so you can just choose to ignore them... right?
    • Friends don't spam friends for farmville tools. If someone you friended does, it reveals an interesting characteristic trait of that person, that he/she is willing to nag friends and family for a very modest personal gain. Better to de-friend them and tell them why.

      At any rate, you can not run away from your core problem. You have friends who suck. Suck the life out of you, nag you, who don't care about you. Your fundamental problem is, you mistake them for friends. You can not solve this problem by runn

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by j-beda ( 85386 )

        Golden Rule: Treat others as you would like to be treated by them. You will never punish abusers and never give an incentive to treat you nice. Stupid rule.

        I can see that if you follow the "Golden Rule" you might never punish abusers (unless you are wise enough to realize that you too would like some feedback for undesirable behaviour when it occurs), but why do you feel that following the "Golden Rule" would make you to "never give an incentive to treat you nice"? Surely you would like incentives for yourself to treat others nice?

        Oh, wait a minute, I understand - that was all one idea, not two different problems: "You will (never punish abusers and thus never

    • In case you haven't read, games and game notifications will be placed on it's own, entirely separate, area. But don't let that stop you from being bitter and grumpy, if that's what you want.

  • Can others see it? I can't find it on my page.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by slyrat ( 1143997 )

      Can others see it? I can't find it on my page.

      A friend from google posted in g+ that they are doing a very limited opening of the games at first before letting everyone in the trial. So you'll see it soon enough.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by geekoid ( 135745 )

        You need to go to 'Settings' and then hit ALT-F4

  • And smack down jerk companies like Zenga that like to spam the hell out of everyone. I'm ok with others playing games, but if your game sends me crap all the time.... I'm going to punt you.

    Also I want to see the API and the contract that lists ALL The data they hand deliver to the application. IF a game owns my profile and all my friends profiles then it's the Same crap from Facebook just recolored.

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