While Facebook’s many, many wall updates for games such as FarmVille, Mafia Wars, and the like have been good news for games publishers like Zynga, which effectively get free social advertising every time someone declares to all of their friends that they’ve grown a few tomatoes, these updates could be pretty annoying for said friends. While Facebook users could block game-specific updates, setting up the block was a bit of a pain.
At a recent media event, Mark Zuckerberg said that “One the one hand, games are a phenomenon — 200 million people or more are playing games on the site … on the other hand, game [notifications] are also one of the biggest complaints that we get.”
No longer! Facebook is changing their system so that nonplayers aren’t bombarded with game-related updates in their news feeds.
AP:
To ensure that those who love “Farmville” and those who can’t stand the constant invitations to play can stay friends, Facebook is making some changes.
People who don’t play a particular game won’t get notices in their news feeds when friends send gifts of pigs or plum trees. Previously, they had to hide or block the game or the players to escape the steady stream of updates.
Good riddance! Though for the people who actually do like playing said games, whoever you are, Facebook will make friends’ gaming wall updates “even more prominent,” which should placate game developers somewhat.
(via Seattle Post-Intelligencer [AP story]. Title pic via Carolina Region.)
Published: Sep 22, 2010 02:45 pm