Facebook Credits and Online Gaming - The Pied Pipe's Revenge in the Age of Empire

Our sincerest laughter

With some pain is fraught.

Shelley, To a Skylark

The news hit me like a bombshell, but alas, I am in too much pain to really laugh……..or cry for that matter.

No less reputable a source than CNET TV has announced that the long awaited and much anticipated Facebook Credits is now a reality as per the video “CNET loaded - The Tax App”, aired Tuesday January 26 2011 by Natalie Morris, CNET News, CNET TV.

Long Promised? Indeed. As far back as February 2010 actually the supposedly secure Platform which would introduce paid game playing on Facebook was announced, putting Game Developers on alert as per the article “Facebook to Developers: Get ready for Credits”, published February 25, 2010 5:26 PM PST by Caroline McCarthy, The Social - CNET News.

Facebook had long had a system to allow Social Gamers to pay for upgrades to their character (why pay when it is free?) via a variety of payment options – all trusted and secure. Certainly helps that they are more popular than even Google and are effectively the new internet, being only the second most popular online portal due to social Gaming as per my blog article entitled “Google vs Facebook - Age of Empire and TRON Legacy”.

And Social Gaming is part of that draw, hence logically a push to make more money from Social Gaming, as Console Gaming takes a nosedive in terms of profits as stated in the article “Gameworld: A virtual farm turns new ground for game developers” published Thursday March 25, 9:48 am ET , by John Gaudiosi, Yahoo! News.

Social Gaming is all the rage online, with the “free” aspect being the initial draw, then people are hooked like drug addicts, reaching for their wallets as suggest in my blog article entitled “Apple iPad and Video Game Piracy - The Saint”.

Then again, I love “freeness” and I am a Jamaican, so my pragmatism is resplendent in my article, as it strikes me odd that I would wish to pay for playing online games which for the most part are ad sponsored and free.

I wouldn’t even mind if the advertisements were placed inside of the game itself and you made money just by clicking on the ads, such as I had written once about Simone Clarke-Cooper and Simon Crosskill of Smile Jamaica on Television Jamaica fame being part of a game called Simon and Simone Pig Farm as per my blog article entitled “Broadcasting and Facebook - Simon and Simone Pig Farm”.

Heck, I even came up with a similar game idea involving Regina Beavers of CVM at Sunrise Fame on CVM TV as described in my blog article entitled Broadcasting and Facebook - Where in Jamaica is Regina Beaver” in which the advertising in placed in the game and the game makes advertising revenue as well as share some of its advertising profits with the gamers, a surefire traffic draw.

Not to mention being more scientific means of gauging user traffic, creating real time interactivity, a more sensible use of Facebook as opposed to just being an oversized Wall post.

Heck, even paying people to watch advertising and text in the time and program they were watching via an app on a smart phone is more scientific as I had suggested in my blog article entitled “Broadcasters and Marketing - Paid Watching There's an app for that”.

But I find it a tad hard to trust Facebook, much-less CEO Mark Zuckerberg with my financial information after the recent problems with privacy on Facebook as stated in the article “Facebook follies: A brief history”, published May 13, 2010 4:00 AM PDT by Caroline McCarthy, The Social - CNET News.

Worse, Facebook now allows geo-location as stated in the article “Facebook will allow users to share location”, published March 9 2010, 1:44 PM by Nick Bilton, the New York Times.

Especially after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg comments on the lack of interest in privacy as stated in the article “Why no one cares about privacy anymore”, published March 12, 2010 4:00 AM PST by Declan McCullagh, CNET News - Politics and Law!

Thus the removal of gifts from Facebook in July 2010 as stated in the article “With Facebook Gifts demise, credits are maturing”, published July 9, 2010 8:20 AM PDT by Caroline McCarthy, The Social - CNET News; the signposts were becoming clearer and clearer as to the coming of Facebook Credit.

Soon, even Target chimed in September of 2011 to offer to sell Facebook Credit in US$15 and US$50 denominations, possibly as they get good advertising traffic from Facebook partnership as per the article “Target to be first to sell Facebook Credit”, published September 1, 2010 11:07 AM PDT by Don Reisinger, The Digital Home - CNET News.

But the surest sign of its coming was when EA (Electronic Arts) Games, a major force particularly in sports gaming both on consoles and in the Social Sphere, decided to jump on the Facebook Credit bandwagon, apparently pleased with the revenue sharing arrangement and the level of security of the Facebook Platform as stated in the article “EA's Social games to run on Facebook Credits”, published November 3, 2010 8:07 AM PDT by Caroline McCarthy, The Social - CNET News.

A 30% cut of all Facebook Credit transactions is a bit steep and was a sticking point among game developers from Zynga. However, they seemingly have come around and are now online with the service integrated into every game, making game play without a-paying impossible.

Now of course is a great time, if you are an International user of Facebook to get yourself a PayPal and a Virtual Visa Credit Card in order to access this service – if you’re that into Facebook!

Helps too that Facebook has deals tied up with Microsoft Bing and Skype as noted in my blog article entitled “Google vs Facebook - Age of Empire and TRON Legacy”.

But then if the Platform is a secure as Facebook claims, then Credit Cards and PayPal may be a thing of the past, as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the Pied Piper, plays his tune – and all are entranced by Facebook in this Age of Empire III.