Fast forward to February 2009, and trivia games began to appear like Twivia and Twivial. Both of these were simple games, relying on less viral means than what you see in typical viral social applications (e.g. MafiaWars).

In the last 24 hours or so, the more popular viral game mechanic (do missions, spend energy, earn money, level up, spam your friends) has found its way over to twitter. There appears to be a few that are popping up (e.g. TwitterVampire, TweetLord), but the one that has received the most attention has been SpyMaster. What is amazing to me is that these games do not yet have micro-transactions (whether it is a direct virtual currency transaction, or an offer-based system) linked to them yet.

Because of their very nature, many in the Twitter community feel these games are undermining what Twitter “does”. I understand the concern, but I think Twitter is still a medium that has more than one function. If anything, the rise of games in Twitter will mean that additional mechanics like filtering and group functions are needed (and in my opinion, long overdue).

What excites me most about seeing games appear in Twitter, is that any platform can be the foundation for a social gaming experience. Just look at the iPhone. And how about Google’s Wave? My mind reels with the possibilities for game developers to create amazingly fun experiences that aren’t in the traditional form factor with this new platform.

Do you know of other games that reside in Twitter? If you were going to use Wave as a game development platform, what would you create? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

The questions asked were:

1. What are your top 3 trend predictions for the virtual worlds industry in 2009?
2. What business and product goals have you set for 2009?
3. What challenges do you expect 2009 to bring for the virtual worlds industry?
4. How will you adjust to the economic changes of the recent months and coming year?
5. What was the most significant evolution of your company over 2008?

Thanks for dropping by and reading my cross-posted blog. What do you think about LinkedIn as a social network? Do you have advice on what you have found to be successful here on LinkedIn specifically? Have you found any applications that you really think elevate the LinkedIn profile to the “next level”?

Coworking is a cafe-like collaboration space for developers, writers, and independents. Marc Dangeard set up a Coworking Day over at Studio M last week. The idea behind Coworking Day is to trek off to a different space one or twice a month to meet new people and have a nice change of environment.