Supreme Court favors the game industry; the future of social gaming [PM Linkage]

Supreme Court justices appear to favor video game industry in violence case [Venture Beat]

Casual Games Start-Up OMGPOP Raising a Serious Funding Round [AllThingsD]

Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2011 [Inside Social]

Amazon Now Allows You To Send Gift Cards To Friends On Facebook [TechCrunch]

Pure Bang Games: Baltimore startup targets Facebook gaming [Baltimore Sun]

Diversity through Facebook: USA Network's Social Circle promotes acceptance in gaming

Social Circle
Have you made with friends of all shapes, sizes and colors? USA Network wants to test that in its most recent Facebook game, Social Circle. Just one facet of the cable TV network's efforts to promote diversity and tolerance through its Characters Unite program, Social Circle aims to measure how diverse you are by asking you questions about your friends to see if you really know them. The idea behind Social Circle is simple: to hit home the message that diversity is important in our modern society and since we're only becoming more integrated, it's time we think about diversity differently.

According to USA Networks vice president of digital Jesse Redniss, "[Social Circle] is more of a thought catalyst, which is a little bit of a different approach to gaming. In gaming traditionally you're faced with a challenge, you complete the challenge and you get rewarded for it through points or virtual items." Redniss believes this game is more about using game mechanics to cause self-reflection and perspective on their diversity.

Find out more about USA's next Facebook game behind the break.

Social Circle Gameplay
In a way, Social Circle is like a slot machine for your Facebook friends, but with an interesting twist. The game begins with eight slots rolling through your litany of Facebook friends. It will eventually choose eight lucky friends (after a few more spins) who might carry some interesting facts about their ethnicity, culture or even orientation. To match those eight friends are eight extremely specific questions--your job is to figure out who owns which defining trait or background.

The more questions you match up with the correct friends (and one friend per question, folks), the higher your diversity percentage will rise. It's this number that you'll be showing off to your friends through post sharing and might inspire other friends to join in. This might sound like a good time, but I wouldn't take your diversity percentage as direct evidence or allow it to complete boil down to a number or an achievement. Redniss wants much more than that to come of Social Circle.

"I think the goal here is to raise more awareness," Redniss says. "[Social Circle] is really part of the bigger Characters Unite initiative in which we're looking to get everyone around the world to think about how they can push the boundaries of fighting against racism, sexism or really any other 'isms' out there. Rather than just pushing a PSA down their throat, we're utilizing the Facebook platform to attach a gaming element to this initiative."

Social Circle Diversity Score
While games for social change or those designed to inspire critical thought aren't uncommon, they are on Facebook's games platform. There are several places for users to gather and discuss issues over Facebook, but it's rarely been done in Facebook games. Considering this, it's understandable to doubt social games as a potential source for change, but here we are.

"When you think about gaming in general, it really all goes back to storytelling--they have great characters," Redniss says. "What we're looking to do is utilize your friends and their diversity to tell a story of who you are and how diverse you are. And it's on the Facebook platform so [this story] will easily, virally spread."

While Social Circle might not be your run-of-the-mill Facebook game, it's refreshing to see a game that literally tests your friendships rather than equate them to more free gifts. Perhaps if more social games included gameplay elements that helped players to foster their friendships rather than use them as a tool for success, we'd see more connection in the various social game fan pages other than the rabble of "Add me!" posts.

Play Social Circle on Facebook Now >

There are 12M monthly paying Facebook gamers in the U.S.

When compared to the 700 million total Facebook users, this seems minuscule. But remember that under 12 million World of Warcraft players pay $15 every month. PayPal says in a new infographic that 12 million monthly Facebook gamers in the U.S. pay for content in their favorite games. And here's something else: Of those 12 million monthly players, 58 percent of them spend between $10 and $50 on games like FarmVille.

But a tiny 9 percent of that 12 million, just over 1 million, spend $50 or more on Facebook games every month. It was previously estimated that anywhere from 1 to 3 percent of all Facebook gamers pay big every month for new goodies in their games. Then according to PayPal, U.S. Facebook gamers make up just about two-fifths of a percent of the globe's "whales," a casino term that's been applied to these big social spenders.

However, this number was sourced from U.S. social gamers alone, and Facebook games are a global industry. So, you can imagine that the percentage of paying players worldwide is even larger. The oft-sputtered and mystical "1 to 3 percent" has been demystified, at least in the U.S. (judging from PayPal's findings). As the number paying Facebook gamers increases, it'll be interesting to see not only how (or if at all) prices change for Farm Cash, but how pricing changes for hardcore games.

[Source and Image Credit: VentureBeat]

Do you think number is an accurate representation of paying Facebook gamers? How big would you guess is that number worldwide?

Meteor Games wants to be the Nintendo of Facebook games, not just "for moms"

While Meteor Games may be a name that's foreign to most Facebook gamers, with just 1.1 million monthly active users across their entire catalog of Facebook games, that doesn't mean their games aren't successful. Just ask CEO Zac Brandenburg. According to Forbes, Meteor finds success in their Facebook games (including their most popular - Island Paradise) because they're more focused on the long-term when designing a game, rather than on instant success.

"The feature set is much more than a simple compulsion loop," says Brandenberg, "You need to have different things for players to do, centered around what the plot is going to be." In an upcoming branded game, released with Viacom, we'll apparently see that ideology in full effect. Meteor is currently working on three games that are "close to launch," but Brandenburg didn't reveal specific details about any of them, other than the fact that they may be "fantasy-themed."

We do know the company's end goal, however: to focus on the middle section of gamers. "We don't think like Kabam with hard core games and we are also not just casual games for moms. There is a middle ground - like with Nintendo. There's a huge audience in the middle. We're going to draw from the hard core elements and the super casual side." Brandenburg says that games don't need massive audiences to be successful, so long as you've given players a high quality experience that engages them over the long term. Of course, high-paying users don't hurt either.

While Brandenburg refrained from using the term "whales," Meteor apparently does have them, and in droves. In Meteor's case, whales are gamers that spend over $1,000 a year on their games, while a handful of Super Whales in each game spend over $10,000 - that's a lot of premium currency!

Even with all of that being said, Brandenburg made it clear that the company's focus isn't so much on a game's social aspects, but on making an individual user want to come back to the experience just to play the game. "You only play if you actually want to not because your friends want you to. Then you have a smaller audience but the audience may spend 50 times what another gamer (on a different game) spends. You can have a lot of success there."

When Meteor Games announces more details about their three upcoming titles (including the branded game with Viacom), we'll make sure to let you know.

FarmVille Facebook Game Requests missing, hundreds of items lost

Zynga Message Center
Well, at least this is the case for one FarmVille Freak blogger. Over the weekend, FarmVille Freak writer CabbagePatchKid found that many of his or her FarmVille game requests simply weren't appearing where they should if at all. So, the illustrious blogger decided to contact Zynga customer support and get to the bottom of the issue.
Empty Greenhouse
With brand new buildings including the Duck Pond, Greenhouse and Valentine's Day buildings, friends are essential at times like this to complete them. When CabbagePatchKid reported the issue, Zynga customer support representative Sarah responded:

    Sarah T.: Hi, my name is Sarah T.. How may I help you?
    CabbagePatchKid: For quite some time now I have been losing about 90% of my gifts. It has been very difficult for me to complete things, now especially with the 125 bonus limit.
    CabbagePatchKid: Only a few of my gifts show up in the in game gift center, so all my neighbors time and mine is being wasted. Now as of tonight, I click on game requests and they all disappeared, and it continues to do that ( on facebook).
    Sarah T.: Do you know what is exactly missing?
    Sarah T.: I am sorry you are missing items.
    CabbagePatchKid: I have lost a lot of gifts! Especially a lot of special delivery boxes, probably close to 100 this evening.
    CabbagePatchKid: Why are game requests going missing from Facebook?
    Sarah T.: We are currently working on getting this issue resolved with Facebook.

It appears that Zynga has confirmed that the issue is with Facebook and not FarmVille. As of yesterday, a fix to the problem was in the works and still is, according to Zynga community manager Voltai. Stay tuned for updates.

Have you experienced these errors over the weekend? If so, have you discovered any workarounds? How do you think Zynga should handle the losses for players?

UFC Undisputed Fight Nation on Facebook: A loss by decision

The number one thing that makes or breaks a sports-based Facebook game is its faithfulness to the sport. And the recently released UFC Undisputed Fight Nation by THQ teeters on that very line. There are some parts of UFC that make for an engaging, original experience. However, it can't be helped to notice how this game is just like all the rest after seeing the big picture.

So, does UFC Undisputed Fight Nation survive the Octagon? Find out after the break.

Kickboxing
Logging into the game marks one of its more original concepts. You must choose between two camps, or a fighting styles, kick boxing and wrestling. Each school has its own advantages that actually effect the outcome of fights. Wrestlers focus on pinning opponents to the ground while kick boxers rely on hard-hitting strikes. All in all, it makes for a good balance when in the Octagon.

After choosing from one of several ridiculous nicknames like Pseudonym, Big Papi and The Saint, you'll be guided to the Training Screen by Dana White, president of the UFC. This is where you will train moves to use in fights much like Jobs in Mafia Wars. However, these directly effect your performance in fights. Training, of course, consumes Energy that refills over time or can be refilled using paid currency, or UFC Points (sound familiar?). There are four types of moves: Strike, Submission, Transition and Buff. These moves can be mastered for increased effect and extra bonuses like more damage or Stamina recovery. Not to mention that training contributes to your experience gain too.

But so do fights, the core of UFC. Go in untrained, and the game's randomly chosen opponents-which happen to be real players--will mop the floor with you. Enter the Octagon prepared and you might have a chance. While you are fighting real players, it all happens asynchronously. Much similar to how you wouldn't know if a player iced you in Mafia Wars until your next log-in, you would not be aware of being KO'ed by an opponent until doing the same in UFC. And while the preparation for fights and the camp distinctions are certainly unique, the excitement stops there.

Fights are turn-based events in which each player is given five moves per round, which are chosen at random from a deck of move cards. The cards will fling themselves toward the opponents deck in a flourish of red and white depending on whether the attack landed. This automated process goes on until either a player is knocked out or players run out of Stamina. Each move drawn consumes a certain amount of the stat and when it's all gone, players get "gassed," meaning they're all out of oomph for attacks. From here, the player with the most health wins. In fact, this whole process can be skipped just to see the results immediately. It's as if THQ knew that players would get bored to tears of it.

Training
The standard Facebook game tropes are all present. There is a store in which players can buy performance boosts for either UFC Points or standard credits. You can even fight your friends every once in a while, but what's to stop you from just skipping straight to the results? There is also a Career section that provides players with goals to achieve--a feature similar to Goals in FarmVille. Finally, players can fight the pros after reaching certain landmarks in the game. Beating them down provides huge amounts of experience points and other rewards, but we bet you'll just skip to results in those fights too.

UFC for Facebook gives players purpose to otherwise mundane tasks like training and interesting decisions to make like fighting camps and which moves to improve first. However, the fight portion of the game, like so many sports or action-based social games, fails to come off as even close as exciting to the source material. Even being able to choose which moves to employ during fights would have been enough for an engaging, skill-driven fight system. But what we get is a Facebook game backed by an enormous brand that, sadly, isn't terribly different than the rest.

Boxhead the Nightmare on Facebook: A bloody good time

Boxhead Nightmare
There's been a niche in Flash and casual gaming that has endured a litany of adaptations and interpretations on the legion of Flash gaming websites. It's called Boxhead and its designer, Sean Cooper, has brought his baby to the next frontier for Flash games, Facebook, with Boxhead the Nightmare. Far more action-driven than most social games, Boxhead the Nightmare, or "Boxhead" for short, is immediately reminiscent of games like Jackal released by Konami on the original NES in 1988. From an isometric perspective, you assume the role of a Boxhead whose mission is to fend off hordes of zombies, mummies, fire-breathing demons and more "Baddies." And it's not easy.

Especially when playing on a laptop with just a track pad. That limitation aside, Boxhead is one difficult game. Before diving into the battlefield, players can customize their character's appearance and weapons load out. The game only provides you with a few options to start like the weak, inaccurate pistol and the powerful Uzi. Yes, the guns in Boxhead have accuracy ratings--it can border on infuriating when you aim directly for an enemy with your mouse to see your shot whiz past its head.

Boxhead Customization
In fact, all of the weapons in the game have statistics attached, like accuracy and damage, that can be upgraded after certain amounts of play time. However, you also need to add friends to increase your weapons' stats, which is at least more appealing than requesting their help every few days. Of course, all of the weapons, defense structures like barricades, and their upgrades can be bought outright for Bollars, the game's paid currency.

With such intense menus, Boxhead could be described as complex. Though, that's right about where the complexity ends and the mindless, gory fun begins. Players control their Boxhead on the battlefield by moving with the arrow keys, aiming in all directions with the mouse and switching between weapons with the number keys. Making the blood splatter is as easy as clicking the mouse, and you'll be doing plenty of both.

Boxhead blood shed
In traditional Facebook games, you're always well aware of the task at hand. It's difficult to get lost in a game like FrontierVille when every action is driven by the next Goal or achievement. In Boxhead, there is only survival, hours and hours of survival. The hordes of undead and demons stop at nothing to destroy your small entrenchment. Well, except for leveling up, which allows you to reload and customize your weapons selection. And this is exactly the hook embedded in Boxhead.

For each of your weapons, you're only given one clip of ammunition for each wave of enemies. This forces players to aim, move, and shoot smart, though all of which can prove frustrating when trying to fend off hordes of flame-belching, horned devils. Yet you might feel just the right amount of frustration to be pressured to become stronger through, well, playing more. This is exactly Cooper's intention. When you see a squad of 50 some mummies approaching your encampment, explosions rock the ground and bullets and blood fly with not even a stutter, you'll want some more Boxhead the Nightmare.

BattleBall on Facebook: Explosive graphics, but where's the game?

"Boy, that sure is a nice tech demo," I thought to myself as I watched lithe street ballers destroy backboards with shattering force in BattleBall's preliminary matches. Standing as one of the few basketball games on Facebook, BattleBall was developed by Schell Games and backed by Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks. While the game makes impressive use of the Unity 3D graphics engine, BattleBall sadly does nothing to explore the power of three dimensions. In fact, this game could have easily been presented in Flash-based 2D and absolutely nothing would have been different. Well, the explosions would be less prominent.

But should that be the basis for the quality of a game? Absolutely not. There are plenty of games on Facebook that make effective use of the Unity engine like Milmo and EA Sports PGA Golf. They do this by allowing players to navigate the space and interact with objects in that space. BattleBall does none of that, yet presents its scenarios in flashy 3D graphics and animation.

BattleBall in action
Now, that isn't to say that it looks bad. In fact, this game looks amazing on Facebook. The amount of depth on the court and the details of its surroundings is certainly an accomplishment. (Especially considering its on a platform not even meant for gaming.) But as soon as you begin a shoot-out with an opponent, it's completely out of your hands. Your customized avatar, based on the equipment you provide him through the in-game store, will simply go through the motions. Whether or not your player thwarts your opponents' attempts or sneaks past the opposition to make a reverse dunk--and deplete its health bar--is entirely up to his level and whatever special equipment he has on.

I use the words "your player" because, in reality, you're not an active participant in the explosive dunk mongering. Even correctly timing certain abilities like "Dunk" or "Swat" during the sequences would have introduced some engaging gameplay. It's strikingly odd that the game includes achievements considering none of them would be the result of your skill. Rather, the achievements are more like milestones or tallies of inevitable happenings. As you increase in level, you will gain access to new environments, which are surely a treat to look at, but don't touch!

BattleBall dunk
Well, you can't anyway, so don't worry about it. Aside from the ability to play with your friends asynchronously every few hours and the impressive graphics, BattleBall simply doesn't bring anything new to the table where it counts most in games that revolve around the thrill of competition: gameplay. With such slick animation, BattleBall could be the ultimate basketball game on Facebook, if it introduced deeper interactivity. If you want to help ensure that happens by sticking around, give BattleBall a shot--it has potential in the truckloads.

Click here to play BattleBall on Facebook Now>

Have you tried BattleBall yet on Facebook? What type of gameplay do you want from a sports game on Facebook?

Fleck brings social gaming (and zombies) to Google Maps and Facebook

Ever wonder what it would be like to grow trees, build houses, plant flowers and interact with other real world players all on top of Google Maps? No, I hadn't really thought of that either, but the people at Self Aware Games sure have. They've brought their idea to life via Fleck, a new browser-based game that's currently in beta at Fleck.com. Fleck can be signed up for independently, or you can connect to the game via Facebook to easily start playing in less than 10 seconds. It should be noted that Fleck is technically available to play as a game on Facebook by installing the App, but I found the experience to be much more enjoyable when not confined to the small play area on Facebook. You can also play the game on your iPad.

Fleck's gameplay can be most easily thought of as a combination of MMO and the established Facebook social game. You'll enter into a real-time environment populated by dozens or even hundreds of other real-world players, depending on your geographical location, and can then interact with both those players, and the surrounding environment through a variety of activities. The novelty behind Fleck is the game's world - the real world, as seen through Google Maps. That is, each environment in the game represents a real world place, but rather than seeing a completely animated background, filled with static buildings or plant life, you'll see the white lines of streets, green shaded areas representing parks or forested areas and so on - just as though you were looking up a general location via the Google Maps service.
This isn't to say that animation isn't represented here, but that all happens in the foreground. Rather than simply looking at these plain map sections, you'll be able to plant flowers or trees in 3D to make the world come to life digitally. Like in other social games, you'll need to water plants often or they'll die and wither. In fact, all of the major social gaming elements are here. You have both a stamina and a health bar, and XP meter that fills as you complete tasks (watering or harvesting plants or trees and so on), and will unlock new items to purchase in the store as you level up. There are even free gifts to send to your friends, like new flowers that they may not have unlocked on their own otherwise.

While your actions in Fleck are your own, your alterations are seen by all players, just like the world of an MMO. In this is the beauty of the game. Due to its Google Maps backdrop, you can literally travel anywhere within the United States or Canada, so long as you know an address. This allows you to stand on top of your own real-world home, planting flowers on the nearby streets, or, will even let you travel to what may be a particularly shady part of your real-world neighborhood and make it a better place - at least within the game. You can even travel to landmark locations, such as the Statue of Liberty or the Space Needle, without knowing the address, by just typing the name of a particular landmark into the Travel bar.

One of the first places you'll likely visit is your home address, which is encouraged through the game's ample Quest system. You'll be able to place a small house on any particular address in the game, so this only makes sense. Doing so gives you an automatic spawn point whenever you next login to the game. These quests will also introduce you to the many, many features and various platform integrations available in Fleck.

For one, there's a real-time chat window where you can talk to other players, and there's also the ability to connect your Twitter account to your Fleck profile to send themed tweets. In addition, say you've found a particularly pretty area of the map and want to take a picture of it. There's a button for that too - automatically taking and posting a TwitPic if you've allowed for the connectivity. Are you a Yelp fan? Businesses may even pop-up on your map, allowing you to read that real-world business's Yelp reviews, or allow you to purchase the building in-game for coins. While this may be a lot of cross-promotion, none of it seems forced, allowing you to use as much or as little of it as you please.

Oh, and did I mention there are zombies? Every now and again, you'll come across a grave stone in the middle of a map's area. These don't seem to correlate one-to-one with real world cemeteries (that would be a bit too creepy, I think), but once you find one, you'll be able to start a new zombie battle mini-game. The Zombies of fleck are unlike anything I've seen - bright purple mounds of hair that chase you around the map or spit at your from afar. Your character will automatically shoot at the undead, but you need to click around the map to move and avoid being lunch.

Gallery: Fleck


With everything Fleck has to offer, along with its simple novelty, I've found myself pretty hooked right from the start. For the technologically minded, that have Twitter, TwitPic, and Yelp accounts (and so on), or just for those that would like to take a look at places like Disneyland or your local Zoo from a different perspective, Fleck should at least be given a once-over. If you're not won over by its charm, then I guess that just leaves more zombies for me to kill instead.

Survey: Nearly 20 percent of social game fans are brand new gamers

And you claim to "dabble" in FarmVille and the like--we're onto you. A new survey by Bejeweled Blitz maker PopCap and Information Solutions Group found that 68 percent of social gamers play said games at least once daily. That amounts to 81 million players, while a still-impressive 49 million (41 percent) report playing social games multiple times daily.

The survey was completed by 1,201 people (801 in the U.S. and 400 in the UK) who reported playing social games more than 15 minutes a week. All in all, according to this survey, social games are on the rise, but you already knew that. What's important to note is that 17 percent of all social gamers have never played a video game before. (According to the survey, they're mostly 50 plus women.) While much smaller than you might have imagined, it's without a doubt that the genre has literally created a new breed of gamer.

As these new social gamers continue to invest themselves in their favorite Facebook games more traditional companies will undoubtedly attempt to garner their attention. Of course, these folks will have different expectations of what a video game actually is, and therefore change how games are made ... perhaps across the board.

And, according to the survey, more folks between 18 and 29 years old are playing social games, who have more likely than not played video games before. When new demographics crop up in any industry, they're almost immediately targeted. The social games movement will be no different, and color us intrigued to see the results. Click here to see the full survey.

Do you consider yourself a new breed of gamer, or one that's simply taken an interest to social games? How do you think social games will continue to change video games across the board?

You'll only find Ford's 2013 Escape through a sweet triple-word score

The next thing we think of when thinking SUVs certainly isn't word games, but we'll bite. Zynga has announced that Ford Motor Company will reveal its 2013 Ford Escape through Words With Friends starting tomorrow, Nov. 15, on Facebook. Social wordsmiths in the U.S. will get to play a larger version of the game along with actress Jenny McCarthy live.

Again, not seeing the connection, but we'll humor it. From what's gathered in the announcement, Jenny will play Words With Friends on a giant game board in Los Angeles tomorrow from 8 to 9 p.m. EST at the Hollywood & Highland Center. Players from around the country can tune into the live game as an online broadcast through the Ford Escape Facebook page and Ford's Livestream page, and submit their own word choices to Jenny.

"We're always looking for fun ways to celebrate and give back to our players," Zynga With Friends GM Paul Bettner said in a release. "Creating a huge, live game, and pitting our players against Jenny on a single day is going to be a lot of fun, and we're excited Ford has helped put our game up in lights."

The whole promotion is reminiscent of Toyota's recent Social Network Racer, which was designed to unveil the company's new concept car. It's still unclear how exactly playing Words With Friends will ultimately reveal the brand new compact SUV in just an hour (not to mention what Jenny McCarthy has to do with it), but you'll just have to play along tomorrow to find out.

Do you plan on tuning in to the see the brand new 2013 Ford Escape through a life-sized Words With Friends session? What do you think of Zynga and Ford's method of revealing the car?

Could games like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft work on Facebook?

Who knows (and definitely not at the moment), but Facebook's European head of gaming partnerships Julien Codorniou hopes "every successful game that exists on PC, consoles, should come on the Facebook platform at some point." According to PocketGamer.biz, Codorniou made the forward-looking remark during this year's Social Gaming Summit in London.

The European mirror to Facebook's Sean Ryan did, however, point out what's keeping the industry from getting to that point. Simply put, the rampant copycatting needs to stop. As PocketGamer.biz's Will Wilson put it: 'Please stop making FarmVille-style games, we've already got enough, thanks.' Codorniou went on to praise games like Social Point's Social Empires for sourcing its inspirations elsewhere, like the popular Age of Empires PC strategy franchise.

And while Codorniou wishes for the best games on consoles to also hit Facebook, he knows where the immediate future is. "We believe the mobile web platform is the future for the gaming industry," Codorniou concluded. "Bet on mobile, HTML5. This is really the future of gaming for us."

Alright, so you know that already. But let's stop and think for a second: Could the best of traditional gaming really make it to Facebook? Well, we're certainly getting there. From advancements in the Unity Player and Flash Player (the primary tool for making Facebook games) to the Unreal Engine arriving on Facebook, we're inching ever closer to that reality. These types of games on the web are simply an eventuality--the audience for them, however, is far from that.

Do you agree that mobile is the future of social gaming? Will hardcore or traditional games ever have a place on Facebook?

If Pawn Stars works on Facebook, Storage Wars will feel right at home

What the hey, let's throw Parking Wars on their too while we're at it--oh, never mind. It's official, folks: Now that Storage Wars has made it to Facebook after just a single season on A&E, reality TV has staked its claim in social gaming. The game based on the popular--though, we can't understand why--TV show hits Facebook today as the second season premieres tonight on A&E. (With Pawn Stars still kicking, this is A&E's second Facebook game.)

In Storage Wars on Facebook, players join animated versions of characters from the show in high-stakes bidding wars on things in folks' storage units. Players travel around the world in-game to bid on various relics with virtual cash in order to earn more digital bucks to bid on more things. It sounds like a boring vicious cycle, but ultimately players will go all-in for Wanted Treasures that come with huge profits.

"Storage Wars fans have shown that they are eager to get in on the bidding action themselves and our new game for Facebook lets them do just that," said A+E Networks SVP of Games Kris Soumas in a release. "We've put the same emphasis on developing a fun and addictive game experience that A&E brings to its program development."
Gallery: Storage Wars on Facebook
Based on these first screen shots, the game looks to pack numerous storage units with items to bid for inside. More importantly, however, players are guided through the game with none other than quests, or folks craving for Wanted Treasures. But what about our Wanted Treasure, Mario Kart on Facebook?

Click here to play Storage Wars on Facebook Now >

Are you a fan of Storage Wars on A&E? What do you think of the rampant growth of branded games on Facebook?

Social game startup Pangalore makes HTML5 games look good

Let's just get something out of the way: HTML5 gaming on Facebook and mobile hasn't exploded because, frankly, most of the early HTML5 games look like high school programming class projects. Pangalore, a startup based in Seoul, South Korea and San Jose, Calif., looks to change that with HTML5-based social games that both work across platforms and are actually a treat to look at.

Today, the company launches its first two HTML5 games--ArtFit and Wild West Solitaire--for Facebook, iOS and Android devices simultaneously. (Players can also play these games from their smartphone's web browser.)

The former of which is a puzzler presented in colorful, semi-realistic crayon and paper mache-style artwork. Players must use predetermined colored blocks in various shapes to fit them inside of a larger shape, like, say, a giraffe. Of course, players are scored for how long it takes them to fit the pieces within the larger shape, and for how many changes made before it's complete.

Everything from the music to the textured artwork in ArtFit is top notch, which is surprising for an HTML5 game. (However, it's important to note that animation isn't a particularly impressive component to neither this game nor Wild West Solitaire.) Players can invite their friends to compare scores with and source hints for tough puzzles from, which you'll incessantly be reminded of.

Gallery: Pangalore Games on Facebook

While the latter, Wild West Solitaire, looks wonderful, its animation is rather choppy, a likely limitation of HTML5 games. (Not to mention its artwork is terribly reminiscent of Blue Fang's take on The Learning Company's The Oregon Trail.) The game is a variation on Solitaire in which players must clear numerous stages of cards by clicking them in either standard or reverse numerical order. Doing so quickly and without fail earns combo points, and each stage is a representation of the Oregon Trail.
ArtFit in action
Each stage in the game culminates with a target practice of sorts in which players click badges in succession similar to the Solitaire portion of the game. The more badges you can put a dent into before the dynamite goes off, the more badges you'll collect, which are needed to access the next stage. Players can compete Wild West Solitaire's weekly tournaments as well, which rank players based on their scores. Of course, you also need friends to provide you with more cards to play with in story mode.

Aside from the annoying, constant requests to add friends and somewhat unnatural animations, ArtFit and Wild West Solitaire are two of the most visually impressive HTML5-based Facebook games we've seen to date. More importantly in Pangalore's case, however, is that these games are linked via Facebook. This means players can pick up where they left off on in, say, ArtFit on Facebook through their iPhone, and later continue their progress made on the iPhone back on Facebook.
Wild West Solitaire
Pangalore calls this "Universal Play," and during a demo of the two games, CPO Doyon Kim tells us that it's the developer's core mission. While Kim admits that the games are asynchronous, like nearly all social games, Pangalore is more concerned with allowing its players to enjoy games like ArtFit everywhere they are. Two more HTML5-based social games, Pop Candy and Bubble Prince, are due out before the end of the year, according to Kim.

But Kim also took the time to show us another game built using the Unity Player for decidedly more hardcore or traditional audiences. The game, which has yet to even receive an official title, is essentially a more visually robust FarmVille, but set in a medieval world. Players will create their own farming village, which is to support their character's quests slaying monsters and rescuing damsels. While we were only shown a knight class, Kim tell us that more character options that fit into the high fantasy theme will be available when the game launches simultaneously on Facebook, iOS and Android in early 2012.
Wild West Solitaire in action
Pangalore's strategy is twofold: Make games for the average Facebook gamer through HTML5, and hit up the supposedly growing hardcore gaming audience on Facebook with more visually robust games through Unity. (Notice how Flash--the normal method of creating social games--is avoided altogether.) Then again, Pangalore's approach comes back to a single motivation: Make games that people can play from wherever they are.

Click here to play both ArtFit and Wild West Solitaire on Facebook Now >

What do you think of the growing movement toward HTML5 games? Are you the type of gamer that wants to have their favorite games wherever they are?

Facebook strategy games match PC quality ... from back in the day

"We see the emergence now of companies on Facebook who are building what they'd call a core game," Facebook games platform head Gareth Davis said to GamesIndustry.biz in an interview. "Games targeted at people who played PC games back in the day, strategy games. They're at the quality level now of those PC games."

Considering these games are being created in 2011, we're not sure whether that's a compliment or a complaint. This isn't to say that games like Kixeye's War Commander or Edgeworld by Kabam aren't impressive in their own right. However, if Davis is referring to classic real-time strategy games for the PC like StarCraft and Command & Conquer--you know, games that allowed for real-time multiplayer matchmaking and control of individual units on the battlefield--then we'd have to disagree.

Davis's ultimate point is that new genres are blooming in the Facebook games space for growing niche audiences, like hardcore strategy gamers (from the late '90s?). Jokes aside, new niches in Facebook games are certainly cropping up, and that can only mean more diversity from the tired FarmVille formula. For instance, Entertainment Games is aiming directly at our parents with its first Facebook game, Retro World.

"So we're seeing this broadening now of the kinds of games and audiences and you can be very successful, creating different types of games and you can make a lot of money doing it," Davis told GI.biz. "We're seeing a real maturing of the eco-system as people figure out the right opportunities and go after them." If this means an end to the rampant propagation of the 'Ville species, then count us in.

[Via IndustryGamers]

Do you think strategy games on Facebook come close to the classics? What other niches do you think Facebook games could cater to?

Half of all U.S. social gamers own a game console, RockYou study says

As if we already didn't know: Some social gamers are more "hardcore" than we thought. But the next study released that attempts to drive this point home is courtesy of Zoo World creator RockYou and conducted by Interpret, a media research firm. Titled the "Social Gamer Thought Leadership Research Study," it finds that 50 percent of U.S. social gamers own a traditional gaming console.

The study, which polled over 2,00 social game fans living in the U.S. aged 18 and older with a 60-40 women to men split, also found that social gamers are more "sophisticated." To back up the claim, the study reports a quarter of social gamers prefer games with quests, and that 22 percent admit that score-sharing drives their urge to play more. Oh, and these players also spend quite a bit of time with the games.

Of the over 2,000 people polled, RockYou and Interpret found that the average social gamer spends an average of 9.5 hours playing out of the 13 average hours they spend on networks like Facebook. The average social game player, according to the study, has just over 16 real-life frieds playing these games with them and has made 20 new friends through social games. Of course, the study doesn't get into how deep said friendships are, but how could you?

The study also reports that 42 percent of social gamers would play a social game more, if offered real world rewards like coupons or gift cards. (But isn't the idea to get them to pay up?) It was just recently that Raptr discovered that a number of Zynga fans may be Halo and Grand Theft Auto fans, too. And before that, Kabam found in its own study that the hardcore crowd on Facebook is growing.

What should you take away from this influx of studies and reports? Regardless of whether you still dig tending to virtual crops or running a shanty town, many developers--even the "casual" ones--seem all but done with your farms and cities of yore.

What do you think of the numerous reports on the growing hardcore crowd in social games? How do you think this will change the industry in the long run? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment

Microsoft Research releases Facebook game for 'research'

Sure you are, guys--we're onto you. The Research division at Microsoft has released its first Facebook games, Project Waterloo, in order to find out how people interact and negotiate with one another across social networks. The game is a turn-based combat simulator in which players allocate 100 generic troops across five locations. In a way, Project Waterloo works a lot like Zynga's Words With Friends.

Of course, we're referring to the one-on-one, turn-based gameplay, not the words. Players challenge friends with allocations of 100 troops either using a slider or directly entering a number in each location on the battlefield. Said friends can then respond with their own strategic positioning using 100 troops, and if they don't currently play the game, they will be invited prior to responding.

So, it might help to think of Project Waterloo as a cross between games like Words With Friends and the classic board game Battleship. Players can also start games with random players, regardless of whether they're Facebook friends. Project Waterloo, according to a post on the Microsoft Research website, is the start of the "Facebook Game Theory Lab." This will serve as a platform through which Microsoft Research explores concepts of strategic human interaction within "resource allocation and negotiation games." The team of four researchers wrote:

    The goal of the project is to test the behaviour of real people in game theoretic interactions, and especially those that take place in social networks. Some example questions are: how do people negotiate with one another? How does such negotiation take place in social networks? How can we aggregate opinions of individuals to arrive at high quality decisions? In what ways do people reciprocate other people's actions?

Project Waterloo in action
While it doesn't appear that Project Waterloo will be a source of revenue for Microsoft Research's parent company, the team does use words like "viral marketing" to explain how it will reach new players. Ultimately, we don't see a game like this taking off commercially, but it is another step in that direction, as Microsoft has already expressed interest in entering the space. Just recently, the company began to offer support to developers through its Windows Azure service. Perhaps Project Waterloo and the Facebook Game Theory Lab represent Microsoft further testing the waters.

Click here to play Project Waterloo on Facebook Now >

[Via ZDNet]

What do you think of Microsoft's very scientific foray into Facebook games? Do you think the company would ever dive into the industry like Google or Facebook has? Sound off in the comments. 2 Comments

Get your booze on in Malibu Rum's Beach Club on Facebook

If developers can make Facebook games in which you grow and sell a certain controversial plant and not hear "boo," I guess a game revolving around the firewater can slide. Because the sales of Malibu Rum tend to dip ... a lot in the colder months, Pernod Ricard, the company behind Malibu Rum, created a Facebook game to promote the awareness of its brand.

The game, which launched today, is known simply as Beach Club, and frankly, it's a pretty impressive branded Facebook game. (Look, more and more companies are going to be up to this in the future, and the games are only becoming more detailed, elaborate and visually impressive.) The game, which has Malibu Rum branding aplenty, tasks players with running their very own beach island.

Beach Club, developed by Aegis Media Group's Isobar, is said to block underage Facebook users from playing by relying on both the birth dates in their profiles and an age verification immediately after installing the app. They're not exactly airtight methods of keeping the kiddies out, but do more to keep the game in front of 21 to 35-year-olds than other Facebook games surrounding questionable topics.

According to AdAge, Malibu made a conscious effort to keep the game geared toward adults through more than just age verification. The game makes liberal use of more mature-looking artwork than other games aimed at the same crowd. "In our game the drawing of the avatars are more mature, they are clearly adults walking around this beach," Malibu senior brand manager AnnaMarie Battiloro told AdAge.
Beach Club overview
Oddly enough, the game isn't governed by an energy system or much of anything that limits your play time, unlike most games. While the game is available globally on Facebook, U.S. players earn points that go toward a vacation to Barbados, the rum's birthplace, that Malibu is giving away through Beach Club.

You'll earn these valuable points by keeping the guests of your resort happy through landscaping and adding new attractions to your tropical getaway. The most notable of which is a beach-side bar. Guests will approach the bar, and clicking on it unveils a mini game of sorts in which players have to bartend a series of Malibu Rum-themed drinks. You'll take guests' orders and have to fill them accordingly and quickly by clicking and dragging various ingredients.
Beach Club bartending
And it's all done to the sound of a 30-minute long club soundtrack with some of this past summer's most popular original tracks. Battiloro told AdAge that Malibu doesn't want Beach Club to be "overtly tied to the brand." "We actually are not trying to earn fans from this at all, Battiloro said. "We are trying to earn more brand loyalty, recognition and association."

But when a beach comber drives past our beach resort, leaving the Malibu Rum logo in its wake, we seriously doubt that. But you know what, this is one of the more full-featured, smoothly-animated branded games we've seen in awhile on Facebook. And if this is the direction brands will go when making games on Facebook, I'm not sure I mind that much.

Click here to play Beach Club on Facebook Now >

After hopping into the game, what do you think of Beach Club so far? What do you think of branded games on Facebook? Could they ever reach the quality of original Facebook games? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment