Three crazy possibilities for Facebook games with Video Chat
Don't click away just yet--these ideas might be crazy, but they're safe for work. (Though, potentially as creepy as HAL over there.) Facebook launched its long-awaited Skype-powered video chat feature to the network today, and all is abuzz about what this will do for social networking.
However, no one has said a peep about what this might do for games. Granted, that's because games weren't exactly in mind when this feature was created, but you can't stop a guy from dreaming. So, here are three crazy possibilities for Facebook games, thanks to video chat.
1. Pre-recorded News Feed Shares
Text-based sharing is so done for. Imagine instead of hitting that annoying share button, you would hit a "Record+Share" button. You could create fully customized messages for your friends to pluck right from the News Feed.
Then, your friends can see your beautiful face and hear your angelic chords sing, "This Shovel is for you, buddy!" in FarmVille. Well, they would probably sound more like "You just got owned, sucka!" in matches of Bejeweled Blitz.
2. Real-time Collaboration over Video
Alright, so maybe this isn't so crazy, but it's cool nonetheless. This would come especially handy in the brand new Civilization World, which revolves around real-time collaboration between alliances. Even imagine just chatting with your grandmother across the way as you tend to each your homestead in FrontierVille. Real-time gameplay or not, video chat would just improve that experience, though some bonuses for chatting would be most welcome.
3. Augmented Reality
Finally, you could get back at your buddies for marking up your face at that party last weekend. Except your revenge would come from miles away ... and not with a real marker. This is just one of the possibilities for augmented reality in Facebook games--virtual pie throwing, anyone? Of course, these games might end up being mini games for larger Facebook games considering how tough it might tough be to overlay the standard social game interface over live video. Regardless, count us in for the virtual face painting sessions.
Of course, these three ideas would only be possible if Facebook opens up its video chat feature to third-party developers like Zynga and EA. But considering the insane growth of social games (and Facebook's apparent stranglehold on them), the company would be stupid not to give it the green light. Well, that could be the inner child in us talking--he has a thing for drawing on faces.
[Image Credits: Billerica, Computer Weekly, Facebook]
Do you think Facebook will allow game developers to toy with the new video chat feature? What ideas do you have for video chat in social games? Share with us in the comments. Add Comment.
