Video gaming has had a stigma attached to it for as long as I can remember. From what I understand, it has never really been accepted by the mainstream community (I was a bit young in the days of Space Invaders and Pac Man arcades, so I can’t really comment on that period or earlier), and, in my experience, has been regarded as childish and geeky by the great majority…

However, things have changed somewhat in recent years. Sony’s Playstation brought gaming to the masses in the 90s, but it was still considered pretty geeky. More recently, Nintendo’s successes with the DS and Wii has lead to somewhat of a ‘revolution’ in gaming — gaming has gained a foothold among the majority by way of simple, intuitive controls and titles.

Still, some (including myself) would argue that the games are too simplistic, and as such, the popularity of the Wii is a fad that will fizzle over time… Every non-gamer I know that owns a Wii either doesn’t really play it anymore, or just keeps it for the kids. Myself? I haven’t played a really good game on the Wii for a long while, and I could count the titles I enjoy on the fingers of one hand… Still, I think the Wii is an interesting system for what it is – particularly for kids – but it goes to show that simplicity is not the only thing that people are looking for…

Recently, a new craze has come to my attention, and it has surprised me to say the least. The amount of people playing games like "Farmville", "Mafia Wars", and "Bejewelled Blitz" on Facebook has really blown me away. Some of my friends that play these games are people that have, in the past, expressed to me their disinterest in gaming. These are people that have a Wii and never play it – they mainly bought it for the kids. Yet some of them spend many hours online playing these games… But why?

I think there are a number of reasons behind this (not the least of which being the fact that they are free and attached to a service that most of these people are already using on a daily basis), but one thing I notice that Nintendo has overlooked is the social aspect… People love the fact that all their friends can see what they are doing, and they can post their achievements to facebook. They love the fact that their scores are recorded and they can be listed on a friends leaderboard. Social Networking has grown enormously popular over the past couple of years, and as a result, social gaming needs to be given increased attention.

These kinds of elements (social leaderboards and the like) have been available on Xbox Live and PSN for a little while now, but these systems are still not considered by many to be social networking tools (compared to the ubiquity of the PC, that is). Further, both Xbox Live and PSN are looking to integrate facebook and Twitter in future updates (coming to Xbox Live later this year), and the Wii? Nothing. Nintendo needs to change its ways – get out of their old fashioned habits and beliefs – and realise the broader picture if they want to stay in the lead. Social network is going to be a big part of the future, whether you like it or not. Anyway, this post was not intended to be a dig at Nintendo (but it did come from a realisation that Nintendo’s idea of ‘simplicity in gaming’ may have gotten the attention of society, but it wasn’t enough to maintain it)…

Still – I don’t know if gaming (as we gamers know and love it) will ever be truly accepted by society. The next generation of systems might include a great deal of social functionality, as well as simplify gameplay in an attempt to extend to the masses, but I think it would have to be pretty damned impressive to convince people to go out and buy a new system to do something they are probably already doing on their PC…