Social media games are making my friends, family, and old school chums (most of whom I’ve not actually seen with my own eyes since 1998) into the worst sort of telemarketing asshats. And it’s become such the norm, that I don’t think they even realize it.

I’m a big fan of multi-player gaming. I’ll play a game with another person or other people on the PC, console, or even my phone.

First Person Shooters? Done em.

Massively Multi-Player Game? I’ve been an elf, a dwarf, a sorta cow thing, cyborg thing from the future, and even a Jedi, as well as many other offerings.

Hell, I’ve even played Candy Land.

But lately, I’ve noticed gaming taking a dark turn towards turning everyone I know into an un-intentional, and unpaid,  marketing employee for their game of choice. I’ve stopped going to Facebook even though I kind of liked catching up with old friends. I’m just tired of turning down requests to join farms, or mafias, or whatever the flavor of the month game is over there. Not that there’s alot of work in chosing not to participate in the game of choice for these friends and family of mine, but these ARE people that I tend to care about. And turning them down sort of feels rotten. A fact that I’m pretty certain these gaming companies are counting on.

Now, the social gaming disease is spreading to my phone. Closely modeled on what is going on in Facebook, MySpace, etc., tons of “social” games are popping up in the IPhone App Store.

Do any of us really want to live in a world where we’re forced to reject our Mom, Dad, Wife, Sister, or kid we played Jr. High football with’s request for a friend to play some game with when we go to order pizza?

I think not.

-dr