Are Facebook games getting better?

"Another part of it has to do with the established library of games, and a major misconception that we can do no better. Because social gaming is still in its early stages, most games in the space aren't really indicative of what I see as the platform's true potential."

If there's one thing gamers like it's familiarity - names they know, franchises they trust. Popcap has managed to score a pair of hits with Facebook iterations of puzzlers Bejeweled and Zuma, two of the few casual games that have respect amongst the traditional gaming audience.

On the social network they've both been trimmed down into bite-sized, one-minute rounds of gameplay. It's as fast and exciting as ever, and there's an extra touch of competitiveness thanks to the inclusion of leaderboards featuring your very own Facebook friends.

That ability to tap into the social aspects of Facebook is what's attracting plenty of other big-name developers. While the lead design duties of Civilization 5 were handled by his much younger protege Jon Shafer, Sid Meier has been hard at work on a project called Civilization Network.

According to the game's Facebook page, Civ Net will be a persistent world with everything you'd expect from a Civilization game. Except it's on a social network. And it's free.

EA, too, has taken notice. Aside from spending loads of money picking up social game studio Playfish, EA is also taking some of its biggest names and bringing them to Facebook. And you can thank EA2D. The internal studio is best known for browser games like Mirror's Edge 2D and Dragon Age Journeys, and now it has its sights set on Facebook with the upcoming Dragon Age Legends.

Set to be released early next year, just prior to Dragon Age II, Legends is described as an "action-packed, strategy RPG." And if there's one franchise that can change the way people think about Facebook games, it's the bloody, violent Dragon Age series.

"We want Dragon Age fans to play Legends for a long time and we have ongoing content plans to introduce great gameplay features to keep the core Dragon Age fans engaged," EA2D GM Mark Spenner explains.

"We love BioWare games and admire BioWare as a studio, so we also want to help bring more people to the Dragon Age franchise. We think we can reach a broad audience and introduce them to the franchise. To achieve either of these goals, we need to make a great game that stands on its own and hits the quality bar that people expect of a BioWare game."

Dragon Age Legends is indicative of the way developers are beginning to recognise Facebook as a viable platform. Instead of simply trying to follow the next big Facebook trend, many developers are instead trying to craft more engaging game experiences that leverage the strengths of the platform.

"From the outset of our development effort on Legends, we've had to change the conversation in our studio," says Spenner. "By default, the team wants to make great core gameplay."

Hopefully gamers will take notice. Facebook games continue to improve in quality, even if games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars garner the most users and make all the headlines. It may take a while for the knee-jerk reaction to Facebook games to change, but there are many talented developers working hard at making Facebook a place for gamers.

"I think it's up to the less risk-adverse among us to keep pushing quality gaming on that platform," says Whatley. "Even at its best, this might be a long road before gamers regard Facebook as a source for high quality gaming experiences. But if it's going to happen, we aim to be one of the pioneers."