Hey everyone. My name is Chris Marshall, I'm a grad student in the Guildhall game development program at Southern Methodist University. I'm currently studying social networking's relationship to game development, and integrated social networking features (i.e. Halo: Waypoint, Call of Duty: Elite) specifically.

As part of my research, I'm conducting a survey, and I need as many respondents as I can get. If you have the time, I'd greatly appreciate you taking it via the link below.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QZHCPSG

I'd also love to discuss the issue through this forum post, naturally. :)

If you have any questions or concerns you can reach me through this post, or at chrismarshal@smu.edu.

Thanks!

I very rarely use social networking integration in games, and some of them really like to shove it in your face to the point where it's just annoying and gets in the way.

I have no problem if your game includes those features, but presentation is key. Make it known but make it subtle. Otherwise you're just getting on my nerves.

I don't mind a discretely-placed brag button with completely optional social media hookups. You can even post screenshots or whatever you want through a very optional interface.

I despise a button designed for accidental presses, or when the entire game is designed around "Rate me! Rate me! Tell your friends! Make me popular!"

I won't immediately dismiss a game that does the latter, but it certainly reduces the time before I tire of the game. It is an extra cost to my enjoyment. When my enjoyment buffer reaches zero, the game is removed.