San Francisco (CNN) -- In the world of gaming, money doesn't necessarily buy respect. Online games designed to be played on Facebook, called "social games" in industry jargon, have multiplied in the last few years, since the world's largest social network introduced a Web platform for friend-enhanced applications. But even at a time when Zynga Game Network, which makes the wildly popular "FarmVille," is valued higher than software giant Electronic Arts, social games don't have much street cred among hard-core gamers or industry veterans. A clearer picture of these dynamics emerged at last week's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, where CNN attended panels and interviewed designers and programmers.
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Facebook game developers say they're sometimes put at the bottom of the pecking order
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That's despite the fact that social-game business is very profitable
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Some critics consider social games money-driven rather than artistic
But that didn't stop other @placeholder attendees from criticizing the social-games trend.