Tumbleweed-plagued Google+ is minus Bejeweled and Wooga

Two games developers are withdrawing from Google's troubled social network Google+. Kiddie game dev Wooga and Popcap, which is owned by giant Electronic Arts, confirmed they are deploying their resources elsewhere. Popcap markets the popular Bejeweled game. Tumbleweed via Shutterstock Ironically, it is in games developers' …

[Anonymous Coward]

Tumbleweed-plagued Google+

LOL, what a tool. Clearly you have no understanding about what Google+ is.

CLUE: It's not Facebook.... It's something MUCH bigger and comprehensive than Facebook or Twitter, it's the best bits of both. So rather than sitting there waiting for someone to trot up and add you to their circle, you add yourself to circles that you are interested in.

If you like Formula One, then I recommend the #F1 circle.

Of course you don't have to join circles and have private discussions in your circle (something that all these doom-mongers don't understand, most of Google+ activity is in private circles).

If you like Rock Music, join in on #FridayRockShow and post your favorite YouTube vids.

[Lee Dowling]

Re: Tumbleweed-plagued Google+

Gosh. So it's like a newsgroup. Or a forum. Or a Steam group. Or any of a billion and one interest forums.

I agree that's different from Facebook. Facebook isn't interested in that, so much. You can "like" things but the only people who will really care are the friends / family you already have linked on there. That's probably why Facebook is filled with people linking in their entire social circle and G+ is regarded as a bit of a dead-horse, then, really?

I'm on Facebook to share photos with my family and put the odd bit of family news or funnies on there. I'm not on G+ because of the reasons you state - there's nobody on there who's doing that, it's all just "interest groups". I have that. That's the whole point of things like newsgroups, forums, etc. But I can't get my granny onto G+, because of lots of associated hassle and the fact that NOBODY else I know is on there. Literally. I have 5 different IM accounts linked into Pidgin, I have Facebook, hell I have my own pseudo-private family website to share things like Christmas lists and wedding photos, etc. What I don't have is a single person from those lists wanting me to come onto G+ so they can do something we don't already do on other media.

Facebook isn't about meeting strangers. Google+ isn't about meeting friends. That's the problem. That's why nobody's on it. I don't WANT to meet other educational ICT specialists with an interest in Counter-Strike and Encryption. If I did, there's places for me to meet those people already. Google Calendar, on the other hand, is fabulous for sharing among people and we often use Google Calendar to organise international meetings of friends. But what, precisely, would I let my Google account go on G+ for that I can't already do?

[TeeCee]

Re: Tumbleweed-plagued Google+

"....MUCH bigger and comprehensive than Facebook or Twitter, it's the best bits of both."

So it's fuck-all then?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Tumbleweed-plagued Google+

Circles? Like in circle jerk? I totally get G+ now.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Tumbleweed-plagued Google+

Hmm...Do you use G+? "I recommend the #F1 circle." That's a hashtag, not a circle

you can't join Circles! You can add people to your own circles, but not join other peoples. They would add you to their circle if they wanted

all that siad, I love G+

[frank ly]

Re: Tumbleweed-plagued Google+

"...most of Google+ activity is in private circles."

So, do you spend your evening jerking from one circle to the next, or can you take part in more than one circle at a time? (I do have a Google+ account but nobody has invited me to join a circle. I was thinking it might help if I made myself visible.)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Tumbleweed-plagued Google+

You can share your own circles, or find a popular subject and it's likely someone's already created a circle and shared it. I'm in a F1 circle and it's very active, i'm guessing if you are a footy fan, there will be a Euro2012 circle that's got alot going on tonight, and guess what... It's not dull text Twitter....

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Tumbleweed-plagued Google+

There is of course lists of shared circles. Join a few to spice up your G+ feed. Make some new friends. Much better than those dull facebook friends that you see at work/pub/footy practise anyway...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao1OX3UN25EvdHRWR3lwWXQ0a0RhWnFuWml5RnJHdkE&hl=en_US&ndplr=1#gid=0

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Tumbleweed-plagued Google+

Why we have to put up with the bullshit "news"...

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-SI-4G4PRCUs/T9il7qG-MyI/AAAAAAAAVpE/JcAylF_QbV4/s1030/Worldmapofdominatingwebsites_4fcef6068b61b_w1159%5B1%5D.jpg

Clearly Facebook are marginalized, and frankly a one-trick pony. There are alot of desperate shareholders making desperate claims (like this "news" article).

[Blitterbug]

Re: Tumbleweed-plagued Google+

Why all the downvotes? Are you now saying that facebook users *aren't* tools?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Tumbleweed-plagued Google+

Sounds exciting! What have I missing all this time?

Hold me back someone.

[Ian Johnston]

Re: Tumbleweed-plagued Google+

Right, so the good thing about Google+ is the public circles, and anyway most of the activity is in private circles. That's very clear. Thanks.

[Mike Flex]

Re: Tumbleweed-plagued Google+

> Right, so the good thing about Google+ is the public circles,

The circle system on G+ is sufficiently attractive that FB fell over themselves to claim that you could set up FB to give the effect of circles and also claimed that this feature had always been available on FB (unbeknownst to any actual FB users though).

In practice G+'s circles are easy to use but FB's "always-was-there" equivalent is still a mystery to me. The latest is that FB wants me to star my "favorite" friends to get all their updates. Presumably FB is now chosing to censor updates from people I've already designated as friends according to some algorithm it hasn't bothered to tell me about. Hey, if I didn't want to see their updates I wouldn't have subscribed to their feeds.

[DrXym]

So how do they even make money

I've played Bejeweled on G+ and it's a fairly good game but it's never asked me for money. Where does it come from?

[Andrew Jones 2]

Really - and people can't see through that?

The games are already there - the hard part - building them for the platform has been done already - I doubt it either costs that much or uses much resources to leave the games there regardless of whether people play them. This sounds much more like they have been paid to remove the games from Google+ by another platform.....

[Paul Shirley]

Let's assume the Anonymous Idiot above is right and all the heavy G+ action is in private. Seems likely those users are ignoring the public face of G+ completely and only bothering with the private stuff. Not much chance they're playing games on it.

...that of course is if you believe this fantasy of rampant private use of G+, as believed by only the tiny minority actually doing it ;)

[Steve Netting]

G+

G+ is very busy from where I'm sitting. However I can practically guarantee none of the techy/photographer types I follow waste their time on these games. G+ is not Facebook.

[Mike Judge]

my g+ feed is very active

So I guess that says alot about the people sat there like Billy no mates on g+ .

G+ works for me because I use real life to socialise with family and and friends, for Internet stuff, g+ is way better for that.

I don't give a fuck if some Facebook share holders want to shout from everyone lamppost that g+ is dead, but I know it's not.

[Anonymous Coward]

Guess BEJEWELED and WOOGA weren't a a big hit amongst Google employees then.

Maybe xBill would prove more popular? After all it's developer, Matias Duarte, now works at Google.

[Winkypop]

Why?

See title.

[Jason Hindle]

Oddly, my G+ feed is pretty active too

Though I notice that in spite of the circles, people tend to use it more like a >140 character, multimedia Twitter rather than a closed network of friends (which is what Facebook does well, as long as you keep up with their latest attempts to change the privacy settings of your account).

Google+'s problem? They tried to hard. Had they quietly integrated the social took with all their other tools and then played the long game (i.e. just let things happen), they would already be doing better than expected. Instead, they shouted from the rooftops about it and invited the inevitable comparisons from sources like El Reg.

[Mike Flex]

No games a benefit.

The lack of farm, etc updates filling up my G+ feed is one of the attractions. OK, I can kill them on FB (individually) but on G+ I don't have to bother. And if I did want to play games on G+ they are already separated off for me on a different tab.

[nederlander]

I suppose G+ has the unique advantage of being well integrated with all of Google's other services. It's useful for me even though none of my friends are on it, but I still wish they were.

I left facebook because it treated me like the product rather than the customer. Of course, I WAS the product, which is fine, as long as you make me FEEL like the customer. G+ is better at that.

[Barry Rueger]

Early Adopter, Haven't Been Back Since...?

I really liked G+, and had great hopes for it, but honestly I just never could seem to find a reason to pay attention it. There's always stuff on Twitter and Facebook that I really WANT to know, or least find of interest, but somehow G+ sits around empty.

Maybe I can make G+ more useful;, but if Twitter, Facebook and a few forums do the trick why would I spend the time?

[Trixr]

G+ lost me at "real names"

I've got two fb profies - one for the innocent lambs that consist of my family and colleagues, and the other for my actual friends. While FB say in their ToS that you should use your real name, they don't seem to enforce it, and even if they did, I wouldn't give a toss if they closed down one.

However, Google say you MUST use your real name, and if you don't they will yank your ENTIRE google account, not just the G+ part. Since I am pretty married to my Gmail and Gcal, I can't take that risk with my default Google account (which certainly not in my real name).

so, yeah, joined for a while, learned about this stupid policy, and got out quick.

[Ian Johnston]

Re: G+ lost me at "real names"

My Google account has A real name attached to it. I have no idea why Google believes it to be MY real name.