"Traditional developers are coming around to the opportunities of Facebook," says Brathwaite

Loot Drop co-founder and gaming vet Brenda Brathwaite believes the days of social game development carrying a stigma are slowing going away, as there is a "completely valid market," for the titles.

Speaking in an interview with GI.biz, Brathwaite said that there's a misconception surrounding social games as a way to suck money out of players first, before providing the added value of entertainment.

"People understand that these type of games are here to stay. It's not a bubble, it's not a fad," she said. "The 100 million gamers that have been woken up that like a more casual style of play are not going anywhere. That audience is growing, it's becoming more sophisticated, it's wanting to move into more deeper game experiences.

"With the traditional games industry it can be hard to see and appreciate games that we ourselves would not play. There's this whole range of very light-touch games that are played for 10-20 minutes at a time, and because that's not the type of gaming experience you're used to - you're used to destination games where you literally sit in a chair for three or four hours - so a Reader's Digest version of a game may seem trivial to you, or silly to you and not enjoyable in the way that knitting feels trivial or annoying to some people.

"But it's a completely valid market. People in the industry are seeing Facebook as a platform like we see the PlayStation 3 or the PC as a platform. They all have a particular audience and the demographic tends to like a specific type of game more predominantly than others. By looking at it as a platform and not judging the whole thing just based on a few games or a subset of mechanics that you deem unacceptable for whatever reason, I think traditional developers are coming around to the opportunities of Facebook."

You can read the full interview with Brathwaite here.

Loot Drops' latest social game, Ravenwood Fair, is available on Facebook.