What I think is quite deceiving about flowlab is the plays count that is next to likes in a games description. Some examples:
-a thoroughly tested game might have been tested by five people in a three month developing period, and testing occurs daily. If this is so, by release a game would have already racked up 900 plays.
-someone might try a game once and never come back to it, while someone else might click on and off of a game over and over again to give the game an extra 200 plays.
Even though plays shows how much people might come back to the game, its also quite deceiving.
And likes? Not everyone who likes a game might click like, let alone anyone who plays it.
This is why players should be added. This counter would show how many different users ever opened the game. The same user can open up the game one hundred times, but the player count would only increase once. Think of it as favorites but its clicked instantly for any user that opens the game.
The icon would perhaps look like the google default profile picture icon? Im not sure.
Benefits to the players counter:
-You could see an actual player to favorite ratio. Again it may be a little inconsistent, but it paints a way clearer picture than the current plays counter.
-you can tell if a game is bottled. Games have been bored to grant themselves even 200,000 plays before, but it would clearly look more like bottling happened if the players count was really low.
-you can see replayability. If the plays count isnt as high as a bot would make it, but its still high, the developer could get a picture of how often people come back to the game or not.
Hope you take this into consideration, grazer! Thank you for your time.