Starting a Game

Great advice. There are two prototype videos of my game Shadow Physics on youtube (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb5DjyoDObA" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb5DjyoDObA</a>), which is the popular one that demonstrated the concept to the wider public and gained enough interest to secure funding and allow me to work on it full time. The other is the original 3 day prototype I hacked together during TIGJam (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcjxo9svhxw" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcjxo9svhxw</a>). Not as impressive to anyone but myself, but it proved that the tech and concept were viable and got the entire project going.<p>These were both made after about a year of me talking about how awesome the game would be, but of course no one quite got it until they could see it in action. The power of a strong prototype is immense.

Does this advice apply to games that aren't so much fun, as addictive (i.e. Farmville)? I'm guessing most people would watch a gameplay video of a social game in boredom, not seeing the draw to it, and would need to play it themselves to "get it."

Is it me or do prototypes seem more attractive then the actual glossed up $60 game?