14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook and its users have a love/hate relationship with games. On the one hand, it's one of the most popular activities on the site, on the other it's one of the most annoying things on the social network. Facebook is now trying to reach a middle-ground with changes in the way game apps can interact with their users.
"Today, we're launching features to give you better control over the updates you see in your News Feed," Jared Morgenstern, product manager for games at Facebook, announced.
"Previously, you've had the ability to hide an application story, or block it completely. Now, we're putting changes in place so game stories only post to your feed if you're playing them," he added.
"This means people who play games can post stories to their Wall without worrying about overwhelming their friends who aren't playing, and people who don't play games won't see irrelevant stories in their feed for which they have no context," he explained.
The biggest change is in the way game apps can send notifications. In the past, apps could post notification and updates for all your friends to see. This lead to a huge growth in gaming on Facebook, but it also spammed the News Feeds of users not interested in games.
Facebook took the controversial decision to severely limit the way apps could send out notification early this year. This pleased most users, but it made life a lot harder for developers.
Now, with Google's increasing interest in social gaming, as evident from all of the acquisitions and rumors about the company's plans as well as Google's investment in Zynga, the largest social gaming outfit, Facebook isn't taking any chances.
It is introducing a number of changes that should benefit the users and the developers even more so. But the big change is the fact that game apps can once again post in a user's News Feed.
Users who play the same games will get to see each other's actions, while others will see smaller notifications and less frequently. The more you play a game the more important updates from it are deemed, so they show up more prominently in the News Feed.