I’ll put this bluntly. Google needs to wake the hell up and that’s putting it nicely. Google’s decision to buy Slide.com one day and then virtually cut its throat the next (figuratively speaking that is) is bad enough but including SuperPoke Pets as one of the apps being killed off borders on ludicrous. Like many of Google’s past “social goofs” (can anyone say “Wave”? How about Orkut?) it shows once again that Google has failed to properly do its homework before making a decision. A decision that affects millions of people this time and a well established social gaming network that could have easily fit into Google+.

Now I know very well as just about everyone else does, that Google’s primary interest has always been search and advertising in which it has been very successful. Its Gmail and Google Apps efforts have been well received and certainly no can argue the success of efforts like the Chrome browser and Google Earth. No one can argue that Google doesn’t have what it takes in the smarts department. But when it comes down to social savvy, Google is still as numb as a pounded thumb despite the early success of Google+. This is because behind Google+ comes plenty of failures especially of the social variety. I still can’t help thinking that Google just doesn’t get it when it comes to anything social.

I mean come on now. Didn’t a single solitary member of the various Google social teams think for even one second that killing off a well established, massively successful social type network might not  be a bright idea? So the founder and creator of Slide.com went waltzing out the door for who knows exactly what reason. So what? Like he’s the only bright social type programmer around at Google? Didn’t one single employee involved this Slide.com killing decision have the wits to bring up the fact that SuperPoke Pets would fit right in with Google+ games?

Okay, look. Although I’m quite familiar with SuperPoke Pets, I don’t play the game for myself and I don’t have one of their pets. I have 3 very real cats and that’s enough for me. The reason I’m so familiar with the game is due to helping my wife with her pets and, being the tech head that I am, finding workarounds for all the glitches and bugs that come with the game itself. That’s something that both my wife and I enjoy–troubleshooting, and for me it’s just another way to spend time with her.

For my wife though, playing SuperPoke Pets has a much deeper meaning. What?  Having a virtual pet can have a deeper meaning?!? You damn well bet it can and a whole lot deeper as well. And as I started out this paragraph, for my wife it means having a way to continue to have fun with her kids who are now long grown and gone. Her oldest daughter and her are constantly competing with each other for points, pet levels and great looking habitats. But more than that, SuperPoke Pets has become yet another canvas for my wife who happens to be not only a fine artist but a very practical artist with an excellent, often quirky sense of humor. And SuperPoke Pets provides her a fine canvas indeed. Complete with friends, family and critics.

This is all personal reasons of course but it’s also indicative of the people who currently play SuperPoke Pets. But there’s another type, a more special type of person playing this game. The kind of player who values their “Pet” and the friends that have gathered around this “Pet” because it’s become a major part of their otherwise restricted life. I’m talking about the home bound, the disabled, the elderly and yes, even the terminally ill. People who cannot live what healthy individuals would call a “normal” life although there are plenty of those types of players as well.

I’m not making this up either. You can easily find out for yourself just by doing some coming sense searching. Heck, use Google itself to find the news articles, opinions and blog posts about Google killing off/shutting down Slide.com and/or Superpoke Pets and then read the  comments posted under the article or post. Take a peruse down the comment thread of one of the Google Groups on just that subject. You’ll find them. Not the ones whining and complaining about how they “paid good money” for VIP membership or “Gold items”. They should have read the license agreement they were required to sign before they could receive a SuperPoke Pets account. You know, the one that said all sales final–no refund for any reason?

No, I’m talking about the elderly mother who is house bound, the one who has named their “pets” after their children because it brings back happy memories. I’m talking about those who are disabled enough that normal social interaction is nearly or completely impossible. I’m talking about those with fibromyalgia, with cancer, people on full dialysis, with any sort of health problem where the idea of having a virtual pet along with all their friends and their pets means the difference of looking forward to waking up in the morning and hating the idea of waking up at all.

A few snippets?

I am a disabled woman who has depended on this game for over a year now it pulled me out of a deep dark hole that people like you don’t understand. I live in pain 7 days a week 24 hours a day I deal with many health issue’s and depression and this game has done for me what no medication or doctor could do. This is not just a game to us it’s our second family no matter what kind of problem your having we as a community and family stick together and help each other any way we can. I Have made friends from all around the world and they are like family I love them. I have named all of my pets after loved one’s I have lost that way I keep their memory alive and it makes me feel closer to them…

and…

I am disabled I also have a 23 year old son who is also disabled……This is my story of spp.
due to our disabilities we are very limited. We visit my daughter,we go to the store and to the doctors. .that had been our lives for many years. Then my daughter introduced me to facebook and to spp. our lives have changed dramatically. For the past 21/2 years my life has taken such a turn for the better….Spp has given me a reason to get out of bed on days that I wouldn’t have gotten out of it.
I run a 40 person online spp club. We have people from Singapore to Brazil and everywhere in between….We have daily games, exchange recipes and keep each other laughing . I have made so many friends there….475 people that I play with daily..
When my real life friends don’t have time for me due to their own lives. my online friends are always there for me. Listening, advising, building me up and loving me. when I’ve been too sick to play, I can always count on a call from someone to see how i am.
This game is like no other, there is no timing…it is to decorate and play with your friends. My son who has tramatic brain injury loves to play also….
I will be lost if we lose spp…I am afraid that my life will go back to the prison my body has made it.

and…

I began playing SPP in November of 2009, after much coaxing from a friend. To my surprise, it wasn’t like any of the other Facebook games I’d encountered. It was both relaxing and creative, and more directly interactive than any of the other games. But you could also step away for a few day and come back without feeling like you missed things. Once I joined a club, the interactions became even more personal, and I made many good friends. Together we celebrated birthdays and other milestones, and supported and consoled each other through difficult times. But the most telling benefit to me was the distraction from my chronic pain, and being able to interact socially despite the restrictions arthritis and fibromyalgia were placing on my body.

Are these the types of SuperPoke Pet players that represent the majority? Of course not. But I can safely assume that these types of players could easily measure in the thousands.

So what’s the point? The point is that Google can afford to be magnanimous in the case of SuperPoke Pets. It’s one of those wildly successful games that doesn’t involve guns, baseball bats padded with electrical tape, beatings, blood, killing, and your very own mafioso where your fellow gamers are doing there utmost best to “rub you out”. It’s a (dare I say it) completely family friendly game that can provide a bit of fulfillment in a person’s life when, for whatever reason, they’re not allowed a normal life. It’s not like Google is going to be depending on income from SuperPoke Pets to keep them afloat. In fact I sincerely doubt that operating a social app like SuperPoke Pets at a total loss would even cause a microscopic monetary dent in the financial bottom line of the behemoth that is Google.But even if it were essential that the game brings in some sort of revenue then just turn things like VIP memberships and Gold items back on and violá. Instant revenue. Want more? Then incorporate it into Google+. Gee, what an idea?

Google’s really dropped the ball on this one in my opinion. Not just the point of spending 182 million on a social platform, meaning Slide.com, just to kill it. There’s been plenty of talk about the foolishness of that decision so there’s no need to rehash it here. It’s just the idea of taking the already established customer base that Slide.com has in place and the potential that it can bring to certain areas of Google and just tossing away like it doesn’t matter–that really bugs me. And it does matter. And to so many people (millions in just SuperPoke Pet players alone?). People who are now very pissed off.

So it’s time to wake up, Google. Get your anti-social head out of the sand and, at the very least, keep SuperPoke Pets alive. There are certain types of people who really depend on it. That plus there’s no other game like it–anywhere.