Bet the FarmVille: How Facebook games are like casinos
Playing a game on Facebook from the comfort of your living room couldn't be any further away from the loud, smoky casinos of Las Vegas or Atlantic City. But scratch that surface a little and you'll find that, aside from the complimentary cocktails, the two are virtually identical.
Both are designed to keep you sitting there playing, unaware of the passing hours. Both attract millions of visitors per year.
And both rely heavily on a small percentage of those visitors to make up the majority of their income.
In casino speak, the big spenders are called ‘whales'. It's a term social game developers use internally as well, but certainly not one they ever let their customers hear them utter. A whale, in either circumstance, is a player who spends regularly and happily. And without them, both organizations would drown.
Subscribe