Associatedcontent: Mafia Wars, by Zynga, is one of the most successful Facebook games today. As implied by the name, while playing Mafia Wars you assume the role of a member of a crime family and climb the ladder of success within the game by performing illegal activities.
Today several publishers, developers, and corporations within the gaming industry released a joint announcement to launch the #PlayApartTogether Campaign.
Might be nice for some of these companies to offer free play weeks, or weekends for some of their games so people that aren't drowning in back log like us can play some new games and keep themselves occupied.
I think a good way to promote playing with others while staying apart may also be for console makers to give a free month of their online services to all users. While it's likely those without these services are just going to run around getting into groups to play MP, I think it encourages that people can still play together, and gives them a platform to do so. It also sends the message that games are a great way to stay connected during difficult times, and by extension games are a great way to stay connected under normal conditions. From a business perspective, it fosters good will, and seems like a rather inexpensive way to get good publicity....although I'm not one to promote taking advantage of a bad situation for publicity....but it is what it is.
Having play events for certain games can also motivate community for those games. Just like a free weekend, or bonus weekends are used now. Many games already do this, but doing so with the pointed purpose of promoting social distancing is something that would help get the concept through people's heads.
Just a couple of suggestions. Hopefully the console makers see it. May go post it on their execs twitter accounts.
Zynga will no longer continue development on its soft-launched 4X game Mafia Wars.
Available from the App Stores in Canada, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan in April, the titlewas a reimagining of an early Zynga mobile hit updated with new mechanics and monetisation.
Zynga bring free-to-play to VR with in-game advertising to boot.
