When we said "Facebook Games Portal," this is not what we were expecting. This leads us to believe--maybe "hope" is a better word?--that this is not the big update fabled by TechCrunch in October, but seems like a minor change. At any rate, Facebook has delivered on an updated Games Dashboard. Clicking on "Game Requests" on the left side of the Facebook home page will now take players to simply the "Games" page. It's here that all of your requests are located, but scroll past the litany of Mystery Gifts and other miscellany to find something completely different.

Game Stories. This is the new place to be to get all of the scoop on what your friends are up to in their respective games. These are the same stories that appear in your normal News Feed, but all in one, convenient place so that you don't miss a beat. This is another phase of Facebook's efforts to improve the gaming experience on the platform without pissing off disrupting the non-gamers time on the network. By default, the feed presents stories from every one of the games you play chronologically, but you can filter stories down to the exact game you want to know about using the drop down menu.

This way, if all you want to see is updates about your games, all you need to do is click on Game Requests and scroll on down to see up-to-second updates on your friends' status on those insane Kid Goals in FrontierVille, for instance. In other news, Facebook has also reworded gaming requests to read "Accept and Play" rather than simply "Accept," according to Inside Facebook Games, to dispel any confusion by non-gamers as to what they're getting into. We say "non-gamers" because, as of this writing, all of my requests merely read "Accept," which is probably because I already play these games and should know what the button does. (I would hope so considering it's my job.) Unfortunately, this still doesn't solve the problem of finding new games to play nor does it seem like the rumored "Games Portal." We're holding our breath on both counts.

What do you think of the changes to the Games Dashboard? Does it make finding game news any easier for you? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.