LJ, you used to be good.

[purplebob]

I just checked LJ for the first time since Mystery Hunt. Here are some of the things I found:

• Interesting updates from friends
• Awesome posts about Mystery Hunt (still!)

And here are some of the other things I found:

• Interstitial ads that hide the close button from you
• Comment spam in Russian on my LJ
• Interface pages full of brightly-colored widgets

Comments

[lokiect]

I suppose moving over to dreamwidth isn't going to help much, huh?

[pteromys]

Heh, "predatory"? What are they doing? I'm somewhat familiar with the tendency for some games to barf all over the players' walls and friends' walls, but I must not have had enough exposure to these, uh... "social" games... to notice things that would be described well by "predatory".

[purplebob]

Most games are designed so that the participants have fun playing them. Social games are not. They use some small amount of fun as a lure, and then make the game into an obligation. The typical formula is that they make you feel that you're failing and disappointing your friends by not accomplishing certain things within the game, and then they give you the option of buying these accomplishments.

Not that I would ever find myself playing one of these games, but using a site that is supported by them feels like living next to a casino full of rigged slot machines.