On the surface, no gamer finds anything of value in games on a social platform. Wendy Despain dissects just how our brain is tricked into having fun with FarmVille or Happy Aquarium.

Game designers can be stubborn. Erin Hoffman points out how denying tools like audience-tracking metrics and decrying that games are too artistic for Facebook, as well as stereotyping FarmVille players, allowed startups to steal what was rightfully theirs.

It's a little known fact that the creative head of Zynga is Bryan Reynolds, the man who brought us Civilization 2, Alpha Centauri and Rise of Nations. Russ Pitts sat down with Reynolds and asked him why making Facebook games is his focus right now.

There is one form of social games that has been around for a very long time: board games. Rob Zacny tells us how many game designers and players are paying more attention to the simple social interactions had around a board with some plastic pieces.