We announced earlier in the week that we'd be allowing the option of authentication on Echo Bazaar through Facebook. It caused a bit of a fuss among some of our players. Lucky for some little-known MMORPG company, who chose to sneak out their own mildly controversial change under cover of our announcement. You're welcome, Blizzard.

First, why we're doing this.

There are 500 million users on Facebook, and 1 in 4 of them play games. There are 80 million users on Twitter. More players means more food and shoes for us. It also means more content for you.
We don't enjoy being squashed by the Fail Whale, as kept happening all last month. We've long needed an alternate authentication method, and the World Cup downtime pushed this up the priority list.
You would not believe the number of people who say, 'I'd play this game but it's on Twitter and I despise Twitter'. Every time we get a thread about EBZ on a forum it comes up. It's like some sort of natural law.

Now, the details.

We won't be a canvas application, i.e., actually inside Facebook - we'll just be using Facebook Connect for authentication. The Facebook link won't change either gameplay or UI.

You'll be able to log into the game via Twitter or Facebook. You can also authenticate via both and link your accounts. Why would you want to link your accounts? First, so you can invite friends on both networks. Second, so you can authenticate afterwards by using either one. This gives us some protection against the Fail Whale.

We'll be mirroring the functionality we currently have in Twitter: so you can get action refreshes for echoing content in FB, you can invite your FB friends to social functions. As ever, we're being polite about this stuff. If you're authed with both networks, by default you'll broadcast echoes via both, but you'll be able to specify only one that your echoes go out on (particularly important for people who stream their Twitter updates to Facebook already). Our guiding principle is as ever that it's your stream, not ours.

Q. Am I stuck with my Twitter name? What if I want to use my Facebook name? What if I don't?
A. We will probably be allowing people to change their character display names. To prevent abuse and confusion, and limit the inevitable BigPenis31 crowd, there will probably be limits on this.

Q. Why don't you implement OpenID, Google Friend Connect, or something else more open than Facebook?
A. Social networks give us viral marketing, which for a small lean startup like Failbetter is absolutely essential. They also give us an immediate social graph so people can interact with their friends. But above all, Facebook is where the users are.

Q. What are the privacy issues here?
A. If you have a deliberately anonymous Twitter account and a public Facebook account (or vice versa), we suggest you don't link the two - just like you wouldn't post a link to one from the other.

We're pretty sure that's it as far as privacy is concerned. We won't be mining your personal data and selling it on, we won't be checking whether you're using your real name, we won't be asking you personal questions.

Q. Facebook are evil! Why are you getting into bed with them?
A. So, Failbetter Games' answer, then Alexis Kennedy's.

The FBG answer is, we're using their service, like thousands of other companies. We've got a good track record on being responsible with our users. We're not going to force anyone to sign up. (Also, getting into bed with them? as if. They don't know we exist, they'd squash us like a beetle.)

My personal answer...I think Facebook's attitude to user privacy is an issue. But I also think that Facebook is a fact of life in the early twenty-first century and it isn't going away. Half a billion users! I think it's more effective to advocate for change from a position of engagement. This is why I didn't delete my own account when the privacy problems hit the headlines. danah boyd, who's a well-respected social media researcher and no friend of Facebook, put it better than I can in this blog post:

http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2010/05/23/quitting-facebook-is-pointless-challenging-them-to-do-better-is-not.html

So that's my personal position: if you're not convinced, I respect that. The FBG position is, as above, 'We will never force you to sign up.'

Q: About these Facebook-only treats...
A: More details about that later. Teh spoilerz! We like the idea of people signing up on both networks, so it's a small inducement. We don't like the idea of punishing Twitter users, so it's a *small* inducement. Ice-cream, not jewellery.

Q: Will the Masters move to Facebook?
A: We'll stream them there, but to talk to them you'll need to be on Twitter.

Q: When does all this stuff go live?
A: Around the end of July.

Q: And the rest of the content?
A: Watch this space.