Social gold: the design of Farmville and other social games

I think the most crucial slide is #15: Growing through social. The integration of social pressures into the core game mechanic is a vital part (IMHO) of the growth of Zynga.

If the Zynga games were stand-alone, their reach would be a tiny fraction of what they are. And it's not something that is tacked on as an afterthought - it's right there in the mechanic from the start.

Last year game designer Brian Meidell wrote an article about Farmville that covers similar ground, from a different perspective: http://meidell.dk/archives/2010/11/25/what-i-learned-from-fa...