We often throw around new genre terms in games and much like micro-genres in music, their definitiions aren’t always clear. So there’s the new thing called social games. You may have heard of it. It comprises at least 12% of Facebook’s revenues. But what are they? Raul Aliaga Diaz gives a brief primer and walks through the basics from gameplay to monetization to 

Social games take advantage of limiting the game session length to fit into the expectation of visiting the social network for a short break -after all, social games compete for people’s time.

And more importantly:

The game’s depth drive monetization, retention and viralization.

The whole thing is worth a read even for those who think they know games in and out.

[Via. #AltDevBlogADay]