I have this theory. All websites that have a high percentage of repeat visitors have characteristics of a game. There was an article in Social Times about the 7 features that should be in every social game. I am not a Farmville or MafiaWars player, but there are things about Facebook (a website that has social game elements) that keeps me entertained, most importantly real friends, messaging, and customization. I like to see what’s going on with real friends. I like to get comments on photos, links, and status update. I like that I can hide select feeds and personalize my profile page to show certain applications and information. Maybe I cheated a bit by choosing a social networking site. But, you should think about what elements of a social game can be used for your website to make it sticky and entertaining for your website visitors.
From the article, 7 features of a social game:
- Real friends
- Gifting
- Leader boards
- Challenges
- Messaging
- Teams
- Customization
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Sophia Perl is a product manager at eBay. She has over 10 years of software development, research, and product management experience in areas of data management and e-commerce security. Sophia holds a BS in Computer Science from University of Southern California and an MBA from University of California at Davis. She is the creator / iOS developer of iPhone apps 
