Big Fish Games, a Seattle-based casual gaming company, will release a service in beta today called My Big Fish Games, connecting a MySpace-style social network with a new affiliate scheme. Users have their own profile pages called "game spaces" where they can promote casual games and earn cash when their friends purchase a game.
It seemed inevitable that MLM would return in the form of a social network, but while My Big Fish Games is a fair attempt, it seems to miss the mark in some respects. Mostly this is due to a lack of features: profile customization, or the ability to promote your page on other sites using so-called MySpace codes (see Feeding the MySpace Beast).
In fact, you may not even need the social networking element: affiliate schemes like FavoriteThingz don't have social networks of their own, but instead plug in to existing communities. A simpler solution would have been to release a Big Fish Games widget and reward users with gaming points whenever they refer a new user. Building yet another social network seems like overkill, but perhaps they'll justify it by rolling out some much-needed personalization features.
My Big Fish Games User?
Mashable's My Big Fish Games profile is at my.bigfishgames.com/mashable - feel free to add Mashable to your friends list if you sign up. Please note that if the account does earn any money, it'll be donated to charity.
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