Social network game

A social network game is a type of online game that is played through social networks. They typically features multiplayer and gameplay mechanics. Social network games are most often implemented as browser games, but can also be implemented on other platforms such as mobile devices. While they share many aspects of traditional video games, social network games often employ additional ones that make them distinct. Traditionally they are oriented to be casual games.

The first cross-platform "Facebook-to-Mobile" social network game was developed in 2011 by a Finnish company Star Arcade. Social network games are amongst the most popular games played in the world, with several products with tens of millions of players.(Lil) Green Patch, Happy Farm,Farm Town, YoVille and Mob Wars were some of the first successful games of this genre. FarmVille, Mafia Wars, FrontierVille, CityVille, Gardens of Time, Kantai Collection and The Sims Social are more recent examples of popular social network games.

Major companies that make or publish social network games include Zynga, Wooga, Bigpoint Games, Gameforge, Goodgame Studios, MegaZebra, 5 Minutes, Playfish, Plinga, Playdom, Kabam, Crowdstar, RockYou and Booyah.

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