In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Braid developer Jonathan Blow stated that he believes that many of the social games that are currently dominating social networking sites like Facebook, are not very “social” at all. Unlike games like World of Warcraft or Counterstrike, in which “you actually meet new people in clans or guilds,” many of the more popular social games are solely aimed at “exploiting your friends list that you already made.” Aside from the fact that players seldom meet new people through such games, Blow also stated that the interaction with actual friends is limited, as most games are “not really about doing things with them because you’re never playing at the same time.”
Blow continued to state that social games actively encourage players to use their friends as resources to advance faster in the game, which, according to him, seems contrary to the very essence of sociality or friendships. Contrary to games that focus more on actual social aspects, like the aforementioned World of Warcraft or Counterstrike, many games on social networking sites seem to try and offer the minimum amount of rewards or entertainment, in exchange for the maximum amount of investment.
Jonathan Blow went on to call such games “evil,” stating that gameplay in these games oftentimes promote “selfishness to the detriment of others or to the detriment of the world.”