PSA: How to block Facebook game News Feed updates

Sharing in-game needs and achievements with all your virtual friends is one of the things that makes Facebook gaming so unique. But to non-players, these constant News Feed updates about a new level earned in Farmville or a quest completed in Mafia Wars and the like can get pretty annoying. Since I started writing for this site, I know I've gotten plenty of complaints from Facebook friends asking me to stop clogging their feeds with updates about games they don't play and don't care about. The complaints got so bad that I started getting reluctant to post news of my in-game happenings, for fear of pissing off my real world friends.

But I'm tired of hiding my Facebook gaming. If my friends are so adamant about not being bothered with my game-related posts, Facebook makes it pretty easy to automatically filter out the updates. Yes, the setup process is a little annoying, especially when you have to repeat it for dozens of different games, but it literally takes five seconds and only has to be done once for every game you care to ignore.

I set up this little post as a quick reference for anyone other Facebook friends who might complain that I'm sullying their News Feed. Feel free to forward it on to the next person who complains that they don't want to hear about your cute little puppy in Pet Society or whatever.

How to block Facebook games/applications from clogging up your News Feed with updates you don't care about:

1) Hover your mouse over the update in question until a "Hide" button appear in the upper right corner.

2) Click the hide button, then click the "Hide [Application]" button that appears next.

3) You're done! Click on "Edit Options" if you ever want to undo this setting later.