Player interaction has to be the biggest driving force in player enjoyment and development. This can be through interacting with the game itself (Single player), with a handful of other players (Multiplayer), or large social networks. Here are some of the sessions I attended that help me better understand this topic.
The 4 Most Important Emotions for Social Games
This session was really productive and shared an abundance of information pertaining to emotions and how they drive Social Games. The four emotions that drive Social Games are Amusement, Amici (Chumminess), Amidar (Admiration), and Amiero (Social Bonding). I enjoyed how we looked at several different types of fun and how these concepts can be realized through the game mechanics.
Being able to create these emotions in the player through various types of gameplay mechanics was an eye opener. From simple help friend request, to rare collectibles you can enable the players to grow and share emotion in your game. The slides are available at slideshare.