Spymaster, Twitter game or Twitter spam?

Posted on 01. Jun, 2009 by Bradley Hebdon in Reviews

spymaster

For those of you who are familiar with Facebook’s social networking games like “Knights” and “Mob Wars”,  Twitter’s Spymaster is in the same mold.  It’s the typical social networking game where you recruit members to build up your clan, and simultaneously purchases weapons, buildings and revenue streams to grow stronger. And then there’s the standard mode of conflict which results in either acquiring more wealth and members if you’re victorious, or the opposite if you’re not. It’s all about leveling up and domination, and it really pays to have as many friends on your social network as possible.

And while you might not have heard of Spymaster, it was actually the number one trending topic on Twitter for a while – albeit an artificial level of “discussion”.  Essentially, game actions and events are broadcast across Twitter in the form of notifications, thus driving up the “topic” and driving exposure exponentially.  Were the developers of this game smart? Yes.  Is it spam? Many will perceive it to be just that. Fortunately, players can control their notifications and turn them off if so desired, but here’s the catch — players are rewarded with virtual money for keeping notifications turned on.

Now that’s a conflict of interest which will continue to blur the difference between game or spam. You can try it for yourself here.

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