Yesterday we brought to you a news that Google+ has just gotten its first batch of games which includes popular titles such as Angry Birds and Bejeweled Blitz. It is quite clear that by launching its gaming platform, Google is ready to kick it into high gear with Google+. Not to be outdone, Zuckerberg and Co. unveiled a couple of new features for Facebook games just hours after Google+ games went live. So is this the start of the inevitable social media war?
The first feature announced by Facebook for its gaming platform is called the Game Ticker. This transforms the right-most panel where the Facebook Chat is located into a newsfeed dedicated for your friends' game activity. The Game Ticker will be displaying information such as the games your friends are currently playing as well as the usual achievements, milestones, high scores and so on. Facebook designed Game Ticker with social elements in mind which means that if you click a particular story in your newsfeed, it will take you the game that he or she is playing so you can join and play together. And just like the normal Facebook newsfeed, you should be able to customize what stories will appear in your stream or not.
Aside from Game Ticker, the social networking behemoth also introduced a new expanded screen mode exclusively for games. Ever feel that Facebook's screen space for games are too limited? Well good news for you because with Facebook's new expanded screen mode, you get to have a bigger sized screen for attacking your enemy's empire or harvesting your crops. And then the final addition to Facebook games is the ability to bookmark your favorite games or applications so you can quickly and easily launch them from the newsfeed.
The first feature announced by Facebook for its gaming platform is called the Game Ticker. This transforms the right-most panel where the Facebook Chat is located into a newsfeed dedicated for your friends' game activity. The Game Ticker will be displaying information such as the games your friends are currently playing as well as the usual achievements, milestones, high scores and so on. Facebook designed Game Ticker with social elements in mind which means that if you click a particular story in your newsfeed, it will take you the game that he or she is playing so you can join and play together. And just like the normal Facebook newsfeed, you should be able to customize what stories will appear in your stream or not.
Aside from Game Ticker, the social networking behemoth also introduced a new expanded screen mode exclusively for games. Ever feel that Facebook's screen space for games are too limited? Well good news for you because with Facebook's new expanded screen mode, you get to have a bigger sized screen for attacking your enemy's empire or harvesting your crops. And then the final addition to Facebook games is the ability to bookmark your favorite games or applications so you can quickly and easily launch them from the newsfeed.
Personally while I think that it is great that Facebook's gaming platform is getting some attention, it seems that these features are rather rushed. Based on the screenshot, Game Ticker isn't all that intuitive and only serves to clutter your screen when you all you want is just to play games. In my opinion it doesn't look that good and can be very distracting. Expanded screen size for games is definitely a positive but its benefits could be offset by Game Ticker.
And what's up with Facebook adding new features, the same day that Google did? It's a good thing that Facebook continues to release new content for its improvement but why so abruptly? Something tells me that this is just the start of the fierce competition between the two social networks. [via Mashable]
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