‘Blood’, And Four Other Hardcore Games Facebook Should Bring To Browsers In 2013

Not content to let Android, consoles, and PCs host action games, apparently Facebook will be deploying hardcore games this spring. Or, at least, harder-core than the current attempts to get you to spend real money on your fake farm.

True, there are already some surprisingly casual-hostile games on the platform, usually FPS or RTS games, but apparently Facebook wants a lot more of them:

Facebook is spearheading the launch of 10 high-quality games created by third-party developers in 2013 that squarely target so-called hardcore gamers, an atypical audience overlooked thus far against the wealth of family-friendly offerings like Zynga Inc’s “Farmville” that now dominate the social network’s gaming landscape.

The effort, which began late last year but will accelerate in 2013, is part of Facebook’s ongoing objective of making sure its 1 billion-plus users log in and spend more time on the network, which in turn boosts ad revenue. Facebook also takes a cut of its applications’ revenue.

The idea is that Facebook serves as the social layer: You build your clan out of your Facebook friends.

But really, this idea isn’t going to get any currency until we see a few classics on the platform to give us some context.

And needless to say, we have a few suggestions.

Blood

Part of Facebook’s problem is the fact that everybody associates Facebook games with sugary, cartoony joy. So a game featuring ridiculous gore, human sacrifices, and a snarky undead psychopath for a hero should put paid to that rep quite nicely. Movies like Eight-Legged Freaks had pixelly FPS games as a bonus on their website ten years ago: Bringing a twentieth century FPS to the browser shouldn’t be a problem.

Dune II

The open-source version is already a browser game, and it’s still a time sink. Why not license it and bring it to Facebook?

Day Of the Tentacle

Point-and-click adventure games are actually a good fit for Facebook, especially the goofier LucasArts games. They have comedy that genuinely appeals to all ages, they’re lighthearted, they’re not as frantic as other classic genres, but they’re more complex and engaging than crap like WhateverVille.

Also, if this catches on, we might finally get a sequel to Loom.

House of The Dead

Rail shooters are a perfect fit for Facebook, really. They’re essentially frantic clicking, there’s less concern about controlling your movement, and they’re simple to understand, but hard to master.

World Of Warcraft

It’s not a big secret that playing WoW in your browser is an in-demand concept. Nor is is a secret that Blizzard is trying to bring it to more platforms. Even just a free trial on Facebook would do a lot to both bring back lapsed players and pull in new ones.

What old-school games do you want to see on Facebook?