
paid a dollar each visit for a new outfit for his or her avatar in a game, that would have produced a lot more revenue than the fractions of a penny the sites got for each click on an ad. If each of Facebook's 33 million and MySpace's 72 million October users - according to figures from comScore Inc. They're less about skill levels and escapism and more about joining friends and strangers in virtual spaces where chatting, comparing fashions, going dancing - and, yes, slaying monsters - are all options. Played in virtual worlds with advertising and goods for sale, games like KartRider and Kaneva now go beyond the scope of early interactive games.

"The question is, who are you sharing it with?" "Video games have become the ultimate party line," he said. "I've seen gaming go from a solitary thing to where there really is a cinematic experience going on in front of you that you can share in a social capacity," said Dague, whose site coordinates matches in Xbox Live games like Halo 3 and hosts forums about gaming. And gaming sites would benefit from increased membership and broader acceptance.ĭavid Dague, a 34-year-old executive in Chicago who runs a website called, said games have changed fundamentally since the early days of Space Invaders. Social networks that incorporate more features of "massively multi-player online games" could enhance their already-substantial earning power.
