San Francisco ( CNN ) -- In the world of gaming , money does n't necessarily buy respect . Online games designed to be played on Facebook , called `` social games '' in industry jargon , have multiplied in the last few years , since the world 's largest social network introduced a Web platform for friend-enhanced applications . But even at a time when Zynga Game Network , which makes the wildly popular `` FarmVille , '' is valued higher than software giant Electronic Arts , social games do n't have much street cred among hard-core gamers or industry veterans . A clearer picture of these dynamics emerged at last week 's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco , where CNN attended panels and interviewed designers and programmers . In the natural pecking order of game-making , visionaries like Nintendo 's Shigeru Miyamoto can attract followers that hang on his every word . But at the opposite end , creators of social games struggle to legitimize their work among their peers . This theme was pervasive enough to warrant its own panel at GDC . The hour-plus discussion was titled `` No Freaking Respect ! Social Game Developers Rant Back , '' and it attracted a large audience . Scott Jon Siegel , a lead designer for Playdom , Disney 's social-game division , spent his time onstage feeding many of the stereotypes . Something changed two years ago that formed a storm cloud over the land of Facebook games , he said . `` One game changed the entire games industry , '' Siegel said , standing in front of a silhouette of a cartoon farmer . `` And this game is 'Farm Town . ' `` `` Farm Town '' was a precursor to the more popular `` FarmVille '' from Zynga . These games earn revenue by encouraging players to click on advertisements , or through micro-payments , in which players cough up real money in exchange for virtual goods , such as barns or livestock . `` This formula instills bad habits , '' Siegel said . `` You 're doing 'making lots of money ' right . You 're doing 'engaging lots of users ' right , '' he said , addressing developers . `` You 're not making good games . '' Playdom introduced two new Facebook games during GDC . The company plans to release `` Deep Realms '' -- a story-driven , role-playing game set in a medieval town -- on March 21 . About a week later , Playdom intends to debut a puzzle game called `` Gardens of Time . '' One part is a `` hidden object '' scavenger hunt , and another is a new take on those popular games in magazines or on bar machines that present two seemingly identical pictures and ask people to spot the differences between them . Eric Todd , the game 's creative director , said he put a lot of thought into themes for his game 's story , which involves members of an organization tasked with protecting the flow of time . Before Playdom , Todd worked on the complex computer game `` Spore , '' in which players populate a new world with creatures they create . Mark Pincus , Zynga 's CEO and therefore the veritable king of social gaming , did n't attend his company 's GDC party or appear on any panels . Instead he dispatched chief designer Brian Reynolds , who defended his company 's work , saying that Zynga 's games -- most recently , `` FarmVille '' spinoffs such as `` FrontierVille '' and `` CityVille '' -- help people keep in touch with friends . But that did n't stop other GDC attendees from criticizing the social-games trend . Nintendo President Satoru Iwata , in his keynote speech , commended competitors in the console arena but had no kind words for gaming on smartphones or social networks . Even so , rival Konami , a major Japanese console game company , is moving quickly to add social networking features . And two news media empires are making aggressive plays in the social-game space . News Corp. , which owns Fox , and DMGT , which owns several big UK sites , recently created divisions for publishing Facebook games . Gaming has outpaced other categories in its successful adoption of social networks , said Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg during an October announcement of his support for a venture capital fund dedicated to social apps . `` The games and stuff that have happened on this platform are just amazing . Zynga is a great example of this , '' Zuckerberg said . `` Five years out , I think the world is going to look a lot more like Zynga . '' For developers of social games , the challenge now is convincing skeptics that becoming Zynga is an honorable goal .
Facebook game developers say they 're sometimes put at the bottom of the pecking order . That 's despite the fact that social-game business is very profitable . Score: 7