Analysis of Mobile Social Games from the Viewpoint of Gamenics Theory

The mobile Internet business is entering a new era in Japan with the emergence of revenue being generated from mobile social games. Users using high-speed mobile Internet with flat-rate data services have acceptance of micro-payment and increased payment acceptance in mobile social games. This has been impacting mobile business and the game business in Japan for the last 12 months. Given the hype surrounding mobile social games, the author attempts to identify mobile social extensions of Gamenics theory. Observation of mobile social game design has revealed that most of the design guidelines follow Gamenics theory. The mobile-specific uniqueness resides in the extension of the 4th rule of Gamenics theory. The author presents new design rules from this viewpoint of augmenting Gamenics theory for practices of mobile social game.