Playfish: Trust is key after Facebook scam era

Playfish boss Kristian Sergestrale has urged developers to help restore the reputation of games on Facebook by fostering trust with gamers.

“The early days of Facebook games were characterised by issues with scams, spams and privacy, but as the industry matures, building consumer trust is key,” Sergestrale said today at a keynote at the Evolve Conference in London.

Facebook this year put virility restrictions on its published games – a response to the rising number of complaints of unwanted game updates appearing on news feeds.

Many developers complained that such restrictions will make Facebook games a riskier proposition. Yet Sergestrale reminded attendees at Evolve that such ‘spamming’ had its own negative effect on the Facebook games offering.

Sergestrale went on to advocate higher quality, more original content on the social network. In fact he appeared to suggest bigger ideas are becoming a necessity.

“Era of winning by cloning is over,” he said. “Franchise and meaning will win.”

He added: “Facebook has done an incredible job as a platform, but the investment decisions we’re having to make are getting bigger and are cross platform. We have to think about the long-term now.

“The production value of our Playfish games is changing, especially in terms of graphics and creating more meaning in terms of gameplay for a player, and how this ties back into the social aspects and how it changes how you interact with friends.”