SuperPoke! Pets creator 'working out the details' on post-closure access

To say even that SuperPoke! Pets fans are "pissed" is an understatement. (Seriously, just look at the comments on our first post regarding the sad news.) SuperPoke Pets and SPP Ranch players' rage at Slide's shuttering at the hand of Google has made headlines of nearly every major news outlet, and finally some details regarding Slide's response have come to light.

Namely, CNN reports that Slide and Google representatives have responded to complaints concerning players' hard-earned cash pumped into the now-defunct game. "One thing you can't do [with virtual goods] is bring them home and keep them forever," Slide's communications team wrote on the SuperPoke! Pets forums in response to complaints.

While Slide did say that it's "working out the details" on how to make some of the games' content and items available outside of the game, it also compared digital pets purchased with real cash to Halloween costumes, according to CNN. "You purchase it to dress up and enjoy the experience, but likely don't wear that costume day in and day out, or for every Halloween thereafter," the team wrote. (Um, was I the only kid who had to wear the same costume for a few Halloweens?)

Net Jacobsson, a former Facebook executive and adviser to companies like CrowdStar, told CNN that refunding players with their hard-earned, spent digital cash is far from simple. "The accounting issues can be massively complicated," Jacobsson told CNN. "They've already counted it as revenue. They've taxed it. Refunding $20 would cost more than $20, not to mention the man-hours involved in dealing with it."

CNN recalls that, when games like Pirates Ahoy! and Gangster City shut down, creator Playfish allowed players to take their earned currency into a new Playfish game and offered free incentives for the games' fans to enjoy new Playfish games. However, players wouldn't exactly have any other Slide games to go to. So, why not herd the disgruntled players into one of those shiny new Google+ Games with either some free in-game cash or other incentives? Or, here's just a thought: Bring the games into Google+ Games already.

Here's the official Google Games logo, thanks to Google+ source code

Man, you can't hide anything on the Internet anymore, can you? Okay, so we already knew that the Google Games effort is 100 percent happening, thanks to some nerdery at Engadget that found clues referring to it in the recently released Google+ (essentially Google's answer to Facebook) source code.

However, in that same source code, TechCrunch has found a direct link to the official Google Games logo, courtesy of a tipster. Better yet, that tipster found some interesting bits of code that reveal what could be a social gaming service (as if it would be anything else):

    /_/games/getGameFriends
    /_/games/getActivities
    /_/games/postToStream


While none of this is particularly shocking, we'll take all the confirmation of a worthy opponent to Facebook's games platform we can get. And don't think this will be some tacked-on feature to Google+. Earlier this year, the company posted a job offer specifically for its not-so-secret games project.

Google Games
And before that, Google has reportedly invested in numerous Facebook gaming companies including Zynga--not to mention it has already acquired gaming talent like Slide. Will the ultimate social gaming battle be between platforms Facebook and Google rather than creators like Zynga and EA? Our bet is in on both, and we have ringside seats.

Are you excited about the Google Games project? Do you think the search engine slash web apps slash everything-Internet-related company has a chance against Facebook in the social games space?

Google+ releases API to developers, more social games incoming

Google+ Games is cool with its no-nonsense interface and all, but the sad fact is that it only has 16 games. Compare that to the thousands of Facebook games out there, and it's clear that Google has to do something to compete with that selection. Enter the Google+ API, which was just recently released to developers, and could lead to a plethora of more Google+ Games.

The acronym API is short for Application Programming Interface, meaning it contains the tools for developers to create new applications within a given framework--in this case being Google+. Wired reports that Google will steadily release its developer API, meaning that it will be some time before it's feature-complete. And the features not yet included are, well, kinda vital.

For instance, at the moment developers can only create apps that publish read-only public posts. For instance, if a developer like Zynga released a new social game today on Google+ Games, your friends would not be able to interact with the News Feed posts you create. You all already likely know that this is essentially the bread and butter of Facebook games. It's how things get done in-game aside from directly requesting help from friends.

The reasoning for the omission? According to PC World, Google's Eric Chabot explains that this is because the company would rather improve Google+ over time, rather open up a "vacuum" with too many features at once. I'm not sure adding simple post-sharing interactivity would create a vacuum for the platform, but it's a first step nonetheless. What Google+ Games has to deal with more in its competition with Facebook's wide offering of games is scale. The bell rings on Round 2.

[Source: Google+ Platform Blog]

Do you think developers will flock to Google+ Games, even with a limited API at launch? Does Google+ Games have a chance against Facebook's Canvas platform for games? Sound off in the comments. 2 Comments