A New Way Forward: It's a brave new world - RaychelSnr's Blog

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RaychelSnr's Blog

A New Way Forward: It's a brave new world Stuck

Posted on February 26, 2010 at 05:05 PM.

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"But I know the truth: there's no going back. You've changed things... forever."

I'm reminded of that quote from the Dark Knight when it comes to online gaming and what sports developers must think of social media. Not only has social media completely turned upside down how we communicate, but it's also raised the standard which we judge the online communities we are a part of.

I know the feeling because as a managing partner here at Operation Sports, I'm seeing it with my own eyes.

EA Sports is trying to tap into this socially driven communication phenomenon with both Tiger Woods Online and FIFA Online. It's also going to make a Facebook version of Madden. But what about our regular sports games? How can the regular yearly release of Madden tap into social media?

I've always thought sports games are perfect targets for integration with things such as Facebook and Twitter, much less standalone social communities. Being able to create online leagues, rankings, tournaments, and leaderboards which could be accessed via a variety of channels is just one idea which is slowly coming to fruition. I think another big step has been accomplished with the advent of the Million Dollar Perfect Game contest from 2K Sports.

I think we're going to see a lot more of that in coming years, along with other moves towards making sports gaming more of a community driven gaming genre.

So what do you think? What can sports games do to become more integrated with other apps? What can they do by themselves to build more of a community around them? Sound off!