Apparently Facebook has a lot work to do to satisfy gaming gurus: A very heated debate at the L.A. Games Conference revealed more negative opinions about the social network than positive ones among audience members and panelists alike.This all arose during a panel of industry veterans — Alex St. John, president and chief technical officer of Hi5; Geoff Cook, chief executive officer of myYearbook; Mari Baker, president and chief executive officer of PlayFirst; Rick Thompson, chairman and co-founder of Idle Games; and Mike Vorhaus, president of Magid Advisors, moderating it all.
Alex and Geoff argued against Facebook, Mari and Rick argued for Facebook as a gaming platform. Mike moderated them in 15 minutes of debate team style arguments. Each debater was given 3 minutes to argue their side, and then 1 minute for rebuttals of the other side’s arguments. An audience vote was taken before and after the debate to determine the effectiveness of each side’s arguments.
Alex set a confrontational tone prior to the debate by saying to the audience: