Hey, remember when our whole class was ridiculed for not playing games on Facebook? Well, here's why. A new study of 600 teens age 13-17 shows that gaming on Facebook is growing.
More than 75 percent of online teens play games online, and they spend twice as much time playing on social networks as on the web. Also, more than a third of Facebook gamers spend at least 50 percent of their time on the site playing games. Long story short: Facebook games are addicting online teens everywhere.
Although we may not fit the teenage game-playing demographic, it's not surprising that marketers are starting to look to social networking games to get their brands out there. Teens do control a large portion of the market, whether it's through their parents' money or the influence that they hold over their parents' buying decisions.
Not to mention the money actually spent on games. In fact, games bring in the majority of teenage social network spending. According to the study, 15 percent had spent money to purchase "currency in a game to buy virtual items," 14 percent had purchased "accessories for their avatar in a game," and only half that (7 percent) reported buying a "virtual gift."
Nearly half (49%) of those who had purchased said they had allowances for online spending. Would you want an allowance for online gaming? Would you allow your kids to have one?
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4 comments:
Interesting point (and solidifies why our class is not into online games!). Personally, I do not want my daughter to be obsessed with video games. We don't own a Wii but she does love iPhone games (which she is only allowed to play on Sundays in the car). It's tough because you want your kids to be skilled in technology but you don't want them to be addicted. As it is, she prefers learning to read on the computer rather than with real books, which makes me sad.
Well it's good to know that Ogilvy's team wasn't out in left field then. It is funny to think that those games have gotten THAT popular since most of us just don't use Facebook in that way.
However I do think there are a lot of online games out there that suck kids into the game worlds. Many times in order to access more game features or customizations, you need to purchase in-game currency or something. So I guess I understand why teens are spending money there. But at the same time you've got to be careful how much money you sink into those games and applications. It almost might be more worth it to buy a hard-copy video game for a console system.
I believe that teens' obsession with online games is becoming a dangerous trend. I'm surprised that so many parents do not control or monitor what their kids do/watch/play online. Not only is this an unhealthy practice for the kids (sitting in front of the computer for so many long hours causes eye damage), but also for their psychology. A lot of games are agressive and favor violence and killing. And yes, we heard stories about murders and crimes linked to addiction to online games. An example would be the shooting accident at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999.
Check out this article about gamers "dying and killing" in Korea for their online game obsession. That's truly insane!
http://tiny.cc/kidl9
I think the key is to be well rounded. I don't see anything wrong with playing games online, as long as children also go outside and play as well. Just as Professor Kumar said, you want children to be technologically savvy, but not obsessed.
Along the lines of Facebook gaming, I sat there quietly because I have never been too much of an online gamer. However, after the question was posed to the class and no one seemed to be a facebook gamer, I wondered how successful Oglivy's new hotel campaign would be since they planned on launching such an application.
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