Casual Games, Hardcore Dough

Since their grand debut in 1997, social networking sites have drawn hundreds of millions of users to communities such as Facebook and MySpace. Recently, casual game applications have sprung up within these networking powerhouses, allowing players to compete in wildly popular game variations such as Scrabulous or Texas Hold’em Poker. Half a million users on Facebook have taken up the Scrabulous challenge, and plenty of others kill time in any of the site’s over 500 other game-related applications.

This playful match has caught advertisers’ attention. A huge gathering of mouse-clicking consumers with free time and a shared entertainment interest adds up to an ideal target audience. Mochi Media and NeoEdge both unleashed their casual game ad networks, MochiAds and NeoAds, in mid 2007. NeoEdge committed to the genre one step further by appointing the founder of Atari and “Father of video games,” Nolan Bushnell, as board chairman. But the small startup which launched just last month, GamersMedia, may have its own advantage. Its founder, Jay Gould, is the former owner of the now defunct social networking site Bolt.com, which operated from 1996 to 2007, and as Bolt2.com in its final year. Other than the opportunity to meet people, Bolt also focused on social games and age-appropriate play. GamersMedia will follow a similar code, blacklisting sites containing “adult content, sexual content, profane content…gambling or related” from their network.

This shouldn’t be a difficult rule set to follow, with the ever-growing support for casual games offering plenty of sites and games to choose from. What was a $281 million dollar industry in 2006 is planned to reach $1.15 billion by 2011. And this industry can utilize advertisements that wouldn’t cut it for more mainstream console games: more women, a larger range of ages, and even those that do play the ‘hardcore’ games are logged on to casual games. These players typically aren’t as taken aback by advertising, either, due to the nature of the games. An ad floating above your popped up game of Bejeweled won’t distract as it will from the targeted sight on your FPS sniper rifle.

Companies and brands are utilizing this new attitude with their own games, designed specifically as interactive advertisements distributed as typical Flash challenges. One I’ve always found impressive is Kmart’s Haunted House game, in which you must navigate a haunted house to find keys and secrets to escape, encountering Kmart Halloween paraphernalia and even changeable costumes along the way. The ads are obvious but not obtrusive, and the game itself is visually appealing and though simple, honestly fun to play (but it would get old if it were any longer).

The giant social networking, virtual life, and gaming site Neopets always has a number of brand-sponsored games available to its users. There’s currently the “Chef Boyardee Saucy Shot,” Alvin and the Chipmunks’ “How Many Chipmunks Could You Fit?” and “Froot Loops’ Clickity Split,” a mouse-controlled climbing game in which you guide Toucan Sam up a mountain. These games are typically shorter than the site’s other features, with a set number of rounds which indicate a cognizance that players will give sponsored games a shot, but don’t want to be overwhelmed with advertising.

Games are even creeping their way back into these same sponsors. I dug a handheld Xbox Live Arcade game out of my box of Froot Loops a few months ago (it was the size of my palm, shaped like a ladybug, and played some variation of Space Invaders). Of course, like the brand-ridden games above, this reverse setup only maintained my interest for a few days (off and on, I didn’t sit on the couch playing it straight). But if it wasn’t clear before, the hungry circling of ad agencies and large corporations has made it crystalline: people like to play. We enjoy games.