I just played a round of Picture This, a game on Meebo, with my friend. It was a greatly fun experience, rivaling any Pictionary event at the coffee table. Before that, I’ve played multiple rounds of Scrabulous on Facebook, as well as a bunch of other games that I’ve installed into my profile. The whole experience of casual gaming on social platforms is finally becoming as much fun as the traditional board games, that have been a compulsory part of most larger holidays and other major family gatherings.

It is relatively easy to see that (ultra)casual games like Quizzes, Vampires, and many others, are the fastest growing applications, often reaching very large user bases. Currently the applications are very simple, and mostly they will stay such, but eventually richer experiences will start emerging also on the social networks. It’s exciting to see how the market will transform during the coming year, and how this opportunity will be monetized without alienating the users.

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Tags: casualgames, meebo, facebook, social network