Long-term game designer Jon Radoff has written an excellent prescriptive feature for Gamasutra on how to make sure a game becomes popular. It has nothing to do with the graphics, and indeed very little to do with the plot; he takes his lessons from viral games which spread, as the name suggests, like contagious, air-borne disease through overcrowded urban transport.
All of his suggestions, from supporting player-created content to designing games with fan sites in mind, reek of the steps taken by massively multiplayer online games to ensure followings. And gosh, look at their trajectories. And the dedications of paying subscribers. And the tipping point, long tail-like accumulation of players.
His argument is particularly that the most viral games (titles like Magic the Gathering) are communal experiences, whereas:
Most computer games are played in solitary, either on a console or your personal computer, without anyone else around. However, if computer games can be designed such that some aspects of gameplay are made visible to other players, it can translate into a huge amount of awareness.
Thus, he recommends introducing mobile functionality or web capabilities.
Mobile I can understand; there are legions of potential gamers out there who would probably happily level something up in the time it takes to wait for the bus. The online component I'm not so sure about; few people are willing to log onto a server, relinquishing their "real lives" behind them.
So. To pose a question, then. What have, in your opinion, been the most successful viral games? Which are the games you've played not because you've read about them from some third party, but because you heard about them from a friend. We're talking little to no marketing budget. No ads in the Underground. No, not seasonal Flash games; what are the game memes that have captured your imaginations?
I'll propose one, unsurprising, contribution: Samorost. Flash, yes. Viral, yes. Hours lost: loads.
