Friendster 2011

Simple interface. Bookmark your favorite game and it goes at the top.
Shoutouts and friends' status are way below the fold.
So yeah, it's a games world.

Every now and then, I get restless with my favorite social networking sites and want to try something new.

Last weekend, I nearly gave my son a heart attack when I blurted out, "I want a Friendster account!"

"Whutt???" He gasped, as though I said something really scandalous/ immoral. I suppose for an 11 yr old, having anything to do with a social suicide site IS scandalous and immoral.

For the life of of me, I didn't know why I suddenly wanted one, only that I'm bored and heard that the new version is out.

Even if Google+ came out, I wasn't too hot about it since it's on limited invitation basis only. I remember being burned with Google Wave, etc. Desperate to get first dibs then for what? A bulky, slow-loading interface, etc.

Anyhoo, so I signed up for Friendster the other day, and what I found was: It's early Facebook! (Well the early version 3 or 4, I think.) Version 2 of fb was amusing with the pokes and sending gifts and drinks. Version 3 grabbed people with the cute games like Pet Society, Mafia Wars' etc. Because of users' daily pre-occupation with games, eventually fb was able to grab Friendster's throne (here in the PH at least, Myspace elsewhere) of listing friends, from right under Friendster's sorry ass.

So Friendster is now a games site, where you 1). Play games, 2) Make friends with people you play with and 3) invite all your real-time friends and collect your newly harvested gaming friends. This is exactly how I did my early Facebook v3. And by the time fb was established as a real friends' site, I've stayed away. Sorry, was bored. To backtrack even earlier than that, that is exactly how I did with my Friendster v1. By the time everyone was in Friendster, I was playing games and poking in FB.

BUT! I noticed Friendster's flash games load much quicker than fb's flash games. The reason why I stopped doing fb's games were the horribly impossible loading times of pet society, chocolatier, etc etc. The Friendster games also have a chat window. It's suitable for those who want to make new friends. I don't know about the coins to keep playing the games though. You can buy pre-paid cards in 7-11 etc plus there's (groan) Paypal, so I hope I don't lose sight of my sense and splurge on online sudoku. Booo.

Back to my pondering on FB vis-a-vis Friendster: Everything's just a VICIOUS VICIOUS cycle eh, and whoever gets the social networking throne, we the users are ALWAYS in the line of fire. You think?

They can all grab each other's thrones, back and forth. I don't care. I just want my cute games. And yes, I always go home to Plurk after I tire of all the drama and switching sides.


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