Do you play Facebook games?

Something occurred to me, about a week ago, when flicking through the innumerable amount of inane posts by my 225 or-so friends on Facebook – I’ve never played FarmVille. I’ve never played Mafia Wars. I work in the games industry, write for a bunch of different publications across all formats, and there’s an entire of sector of games I’m not even aware of. Should I be?

I know they’re intended to be casual-skewing and the polar opposite of the Gears of War-type games on the market, but just through sheer population of users they matter. More people play these games on a regular basis than titles like GTA – it’s the next step on from the Brain Training phenomenon, and highlights that this is the only sector of the market that’s growing, right now.

Why is this relevant to the 360 collective, you ask? Well, people who make the types of games you and I play have mobilised into Facebook territory. A little while ago, EA purchased the company Playfish for $275 million. Never heard of them. Should’ve done. I looked them up, saw the type of games the company is working on and realised, that for big publishers, this is their focus for expansion. Playfish is one of the fastest-growing companies in this sector, and will likely rival Zynga if nurtured in the right way.

Still, the subject matter just doesn’t target hardcore gamers. I’m sure there’s a certain amount of compatibility, but most of my friends that play these games used to say ‘what’s that?’ whenever I mentioned Zelda at school. Times are changing.

As a litmus test, then, I want to know if you play Facebook games. If so, am I missing out? How much creative merit is there to this type of game?