You freeloaders better get to spending fast, because any Facebook Credits received for free from Facebook will expire Feb. 15. The company has been doling out Credits for about six months as it solidified five-year exclusivity deals with several developers including Zynga, Playfish and Playdom. All Facebook reports that the social network is killing the free credits because the idea behind the promotions was to spur in-app (ahem, in-game) spending, not hoarding.
However, Inside Facebook reports that this change will only effect a small number of the lazier folks to receive promotions. All Facebook guesses that this implies that Credits will only be removed from accounts that have yet to long into a Facebook app since receiving the free Credits. Of course, this has yet to be seen.
Clearly this all ties back into Facebook's July 1 deadline for all applications on the platform, including games, to use Facebook Credits as their one and only currency. Console gamers will already be used to this type of transition given how many of you are used to buying games and expansion packs through services like the Xbox Game Marketplace and the PlayStation Store. But for terribly non-traditional gamers on Facebook, the company is doing everything it can to educate them in time for the change.
Even if you're a frequent Facebook gamer, I would recommend spending those free Credits as soon as possible to play it safe. Refilling the old Energy bar once or twice never hurt anyone, huh? Or maybe it's time to indulge in one of those lovely Unwither Rings.
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn social games. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn social games. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Thứ Bảy, 7 tháng 1, 2012
Thứ Sáu, 23 tháng 12, 2011
Activision actively working on Facebook games, says CEO Bobby Kotick
At the end of June, Activision Blizzard Publishing head Eric Hirshberg gave off the impression that Activision would be focusing on Call of Duty: Elite and Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure as their main casual and social properties, but it turns out that the company's jump into Facebook might actually be coming sooner than we might have originally thought. As reported by Business Insider, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick confirms that "a lot of work is being done on Facebook games" within the company. The delay, he says, was due to the time required to build up a social games division after analyzing the particular kinds of talent needed to develop in the space.
Speaking with Forbes, Kotick explained: "[T]he skills that are required to do social games on a Facebook platform include analytical skills that are different than what we have in our business intelligence unit today. So we've had to go out and find people who have these unique kinds of skills –and there are very few of them that actually have proven their skills. So you have to find people who have the characteristics of being able to develop systems to analyze game play or game behavior."
As for what kind of games the company is currently developing, Kotick didn't say, although he did say that Activision has come to understand that many of the most popular Facebook games are ultimately resource management games, bringing back a genre that was incredibly popular a decade ago. Could this mean that Activision's Facebook games will include some form of resource management? Or, will they pull a 180 and take a risk to develop something never before seen on the platform? As more details of Activision's future social projects come to light, we'll make sure to let you know
With the big players like Zynga and EA holding the majority of the Facebook gaming pie, is it too late for Activision to come in and take a slice? Should they stick with the basic Facebook gaming mechanics of farming and city-building, or should they just adapt some of their console games for a social experience?
Speaking with Forbes, Kotick explained: "[T]he skills that are required to do social games on a Facebook platform include analytical skills that are different than what we have in our business intelligence unit today. So we've had to go out and find people who have these unique kinds of skills –and there are very few of them that actually have proven their skills. So you have to find people who have the characteristics of being able to develop systems to analyze game play or game behavior."
As for what kind of games the company is currently developing, Kotick didn't say, although he did say that Activision has come to understand that many of the most popular Facebook games are ultimately resource management games, bringing back a genre that was incredibly popular a decade ago. Could this mean that Activision's Facebook games will include some form of resource management? Or, will they pull a 180 and take a risk to develop something never before seen on the platform? As more details of Activision's future social projects come to light, we'll make sure to let you know
With the big players like Zynga and EA holding the majority of the Facebook gaming pie, is it too late for Activision to come in and take a slice? Should they stick with the basic Facebook gaming mechanics of farming and city-building, or should they just adapt some of their console games for a social experience?
Thứ Sáu, 16 tháng 12, 2011
Coco Girl on Facebook: For the fervent fashionista in all of us
Alright, so the fashion game has already been done on Facebook. But Damian Harburger, CEO of Argentina-based social game developer MetroGames, thinks that it hasn't been done right. Well, until now. We know, you're used to seeing hardcore-skewed social games come from the developer like AutoHustle.
Consider this most recent release a fundamental shift for the studio. Harburger tells us that, from here on out, MetroGames will focus largely on women when it comes to Facebook games, and on the more hardcore crowd (mostly men) in its mobile efforts.
Coco Girl is a Facebook game designed for the fashionista in every girl (and guy, in this writer's very particular case). Every girl has her opinions on fashion--some are just more vocal than others, no?--and Coco Girl provides the medium through which to express them.
At every turn in Coco Girl, you're given the opportunity to voice your take on various outfits and in a multitude of situations. In fact, rating your fellow females' outfits is the basis of the game. Sure, players can visit various shops and dress their heavily customized avatar (seriously, even I spent at least 30 minutes fine-tuning my lady). But it's the ability to give other players' clothing choices your two cents, or Rubies in this case, that's the star of this fashion show.
Coco Girl isn't governed by an energy system or too much of a gameplay structure, though you are given daily tasks to complete and quests to embark on. The quests are simply introductory, tiny tasks designed to introduce you to the game's myriad features and customization options. Your Daily Ruby-Maker Checklist is the bread and butter of Coco Girl, and is essentially what's going to get you the Rubies you need to purchase now outfits, make-up and accessories.
Gallery: Coco Girl on Facebook
While in your character's home, you will notice a magazine called Fashion Expert. Every day, you'll open it up and rate at least 20 outfits based on whether you dig them, or whether they're appropriate for certain situations like, say, a job interview or a casting call for a horror movie. However, the amount of Rubies you earn for doing this depends directly upon whether you're opinions gel with the rest of the Coco Girl player base.
While this does well to keep you in line with "what's hot" at the moment, it has the potential to limit daring or unique fashion statements. Nevertheless this is perhaps the most elegant approach yet to having opinions play a meaningful role in a Facebook game. Players can then participate in various mini games in the Coco Carnival to add a dash of variety to simply voting on get-ups, which of course will result in precious Rubies.
The first of which is Fashion Slots, a game in which you must successfully complete an outfit that a fellow lady is looking for. You do this by stopping a spinning wheel of various clothing items in a particular category. As you continue to try and select the correct items, the wheel will spin faster. Then there is Elusive Treasures, a hidden object game that times you on how many, well, hidden objects you can spot within the time limit. The Final mini game is Love Machine, a puzzle game that has players rearranging pipes to create a direct path between two lovers.
Coco Girl Home
All three mini games offer a considerable challenge and refreshing variety to Coco Girl. More importantly, they also provide Tickets, a currency that can only be spent in Coco Carnival on more Rubies or accessories for your avatar to hold. Finally, you can create Daily Looks and Quest Looks--an important aspect of Coco Girl, if you want to be a respected fashion expert in-game.
Every look you create in the game, once saved, can and probably will be voted upon by other players--friend or not--in the Fashion Expert feature. The Daily Looks are voted upon using a star system, while Quest Looks, the outfits you create to best fit certain situations, are a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down affair. And at the end of the day in Coco Girl, it's all about the votes, it seems.
The ultimate Goal of Coco Girl is to have one of your outfits make it into the Daily Looks Hall of Fame. The get-ups that get the most positive votes are featured every day, and those that the score the most of all time get a spot and recognition forever. You can even buy those top-ranking outfits for Facebook Credits, if you want a competitive edge.
Coco Girl, on top of its detailed artwork, slick animations and varied gameplay, is all about what matters in a Facebook game about fashion: the looks and what people think about 'em, because we all have an opinion.
Click here to play Coco Girl on Facebook Now >
Have you tried Coco Girl on Facebook yet? What do you think of Facebook games directly geared towards women? Do you think any game thus far has been one that "gets it?"
Consider this most recent release a fundamental shift for the studio. Harburger tells us that, from here on out, MetroGames will focus largely on women when it comes to Facebook games, and on the more hardcore crowd (mostly men) in its mobile efforts.
Coco Girl is a Facebook game designed for the fashionista in every girl (and guy, in this writer's very particular case). Every girl has her opinions on fashion--some are just more vocal than others, no?--and Coco Girl provides the medium through which to express them.
At every turn in Coco Girl, you're given the opportunity to voice your take on various outfits and in a multitude of situations. In fact, rating your fellow females' outfits is the basis of the game. Sure, players can visit various shops and dress their heavily customized avatar (seriously, even I spent at least 30 minutes fine-tuning my lady). But it's the ability to give other players' clothing choices your two cents, or Rubies in this case, that's the star of this fashion show.
Coco Girl isn't governed by an energy system or too much of a gameplay structure, though you are given daily tasks to complete and quests to embark on. The quests are simply introductory, tiny tasks designed to introduce you to the game's myriad features and customization options. Your Daily Ruby-Maker Checklist is the bread and butter of Coco Girl, and is essentially what's going to get you the Rubies you need to purchase now outfits, make-up and accessories.
Gallery: Coco Girl on Facebook
While in your character's home, you will notice a magazine called Fashion Expert. Every day, you'll open it up and rate at least 20 outfits based on whether you dig them, or whether they're appropriate for certain situations like, say, a job interview or a casting call for a horror movie. However, the amount of Rubies you earn for doing this depends directly upon whether you're opinions gel with the rest of the Coco Girl player base.
While this does well to keep you in line with "what's hot" at the moment, it has the potential to limit daring or unique fashion statements. Nevertheless this is perhaps the most elegant approach yet to having opinions play a meaningful role in a Facebook game. Players can then participate in various mini games in the Coco Carnival to add a dash of variety to simply voting on get-ups, which of course will result in precious Rubies.
The first of which is Fashion Slots, a game in which you must successfully complete an outfit that a fellow lady is looking for. You do this by stopping a spinning wheel of various clothing items in a particular category. As you continue to try and select the correct items, the wheel will spin faster. Then there is Elusive Treasures, a hidden object game that times you on how many, well, hidden objects you can spot within the time limit. The Final mini game is Love Machine, a puzzle game that has players rearranging pipes to create a direct path between two lovers.
Coco Girl Home
All three mini games offer a considerable challenge and refreshing variety to Coco Girl. More importantly, they also provide Tickets, a currency that can only be spent in Coco Carnival on more Rubies or accessories for your avatar to hold. Finally, you can create Daily Looks and Quest Looks--an important aspect of Coco Girl, if you want to be a respected fashion expert in-game.
Every look you create in the game, once saved, can and probably will be voted upon by other players--friend or not--in the Fashion Expert feature. The Daily Looks are voted upon using a star system, while Quest Looks, the outfits you create to best fit certain situations, are a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down affair. And at the end of the day in Coco Girl, it's all about the votes, it seems.
The ultimate Goal of Coco Girl is to have one of your outfits make it into the Daily Looks Hall of Fame. The get-ups that get the most positive votes are featured every day, and those that the score the most of all time get a spot and recognition forever. You can even buy those top-ranking outfits for Facebook Credits, if you want a competitive edge.
Coco Girl, on top of its detailed artwork, slick animations and varied gameplay, is all about what matters in a Facebook game about fashion: the looks and what people think about 'em, because we all have an opinion.
Click here to play Coco Girl on Facebook Now >
Have you tried Coco Girl on Facebook yet? What do you think of Facebook games directly geared towards women? Do you think any game thus far has been one that "gets it?"
Thứ Tư, 14 tháng 12, 2011
FarmVille's creator: Making a great game is 'like making a cake'
Wait, so this is the analogy behind making a multi-billion dollar game franchise? When asked what makes a great game by The Times of India during his first visit to the country, FarmVille maker Mark Skaggs said, "Think of it like making a cake. You have to get the right ingredients - in this case the art, the technology, the music and the game play. And like a chef, put it all together in the right way."
Skaggs, who serves as Zynga's head of product, is also credited as the mind behind CityVille. That said, the EA veteran is arguably the driving force behind the two best performing social games of all time. So, the guy has to be onto something, right?
"You need art that makes people feel it's inviting and attractive," Skaggs told Times of India. "Music and audio gives you the sense of space and reality. The game play (the rules of play, why something moves in a particular way, how interactions happen etc) determines whether you have fun playing it or whether you get bored." (So says the man behind the main source of inspiration for designer Ian Bogost's Cow Clicker.)
Skaggs went on to praise India for its talent, revealing that a whopping 200 of Zynga's employees are based in the country. Better yet, the man who birthed the 'Ville franchise said that original, global Zynga games developed in India are coming soon. Let's just hope those developers aren't taking Skaggs's analogy to heart--we already have enough of those games.
What do you think of Skaggs's approach to explaining how great games are made? Do you think Skaggs's two primary contributions to Zynga are "great games?"
Skaggs, who serves as Zynga's head of product, is also credited as the mind behind CityVille. That said, the EA veteran is arguably the driving force behind the two best performing social games of all time. So, the guy has to be onto something, right?
"You need art that makes people feel it's inviting and attractive," Skaggs told Times of India. "Music and audio gives you the sense of space and reality. The game play (the rules of play, why something moves in a particular way, how interactions happen etc) determines whether you have fun playing it or whether you get bored." (So says the man behind the main source of inspiration for designer Ian Bogost's Cow Clicker.)
Skaggs went on to praise India for its talent, revealing that a whopping 200 of Zynga's employees are based in the country. Better yet, the man who birthed the 'Ville franchise said that original, global Zynga games developed in India are coming soon. Let's just hope those developers aren't taking Skaggs's analogy to heart--we already have enough of those games.
What do you think of Skaggs's approach to explaining how great games are made? Do you think Skaggs's two primary contributions to Zynga are "great games?"
Say 'Happy Holidays' with $50 in digital dragons with Kabam gift cards
What rings in the holidays better than complete online pwnage? Social game domination without the need for a pesky credit card, that's what. Facebook strategy game maker Kabam announced that $25 and $50 gift cards are now available in GameStop and Best Buy locations across the U.S. Of course, players can use these cards to buy in-game boosts for an unfair competitive advantage.
"The introduction of Kabam Game Cards is an important step forward in our continuous search for new and better ways to serve our audience of core gamers," Kabam COO Chris Carvalho said in a release. "The availability of pre-paid Kabam Game Cards at these two leading game retailers validates the rise of hardcore social gaming as a mainstream activity and allows more players to enrich their game experience with powerful in-game items."
By "enrich their game experience" we assume Kabam means "crush their weaker, non-paying foes." But really, the point of the Kabam gift cards is to allow a new portion of social gamers the chance to pay up: those without bank accounts or credit cards. The gift cards are usable through the developer's games hosted on Facebook and Kabam.com, but not Google+.
That said, every Kabam game supports the new gift cards at least somewhere, including the brand new The Godfather: Five Families. Attention stubborn free players: Prepare to have your butt handed to you this winter--Happy Holidays.
Now that you can buy items and boosts in Kabam games without a credit card, is that something you'll consider? What do you think of the option to purchase advantages in competitive social games?
"The introduction of Kabam Game Cards is an important step forward in our continuous search for new and better ways to serve our audience of core gamers," Kabam COO Chris Carvalho said in a release. "The availability of pre-paid Kabam Game Cards at these two leading game retailers validates the rise of hardcore social gaming as a mainstream activity and allows more players to enrich their game experience with powerful in-game items."
By "enrich their game experience" we assume Kabam means "crush their weaker, non-paying foes." But really, the point of the Kabam gift cards is to allow a new portion of social gamers the chance to pay up: those without bank accounts or credit cards. The gift cards are usable through the developer's games hosted on Facebook and Kabam.com, but not Google+.
That said, every Kabam game supports the new gift cards at least somewhere, including the brand new The Godfather: Five Families. Attention stubborn free players: Prepare to have your butt handed to you this winter--Happy Holidays.
Now that you can buy items and boosts in Kabam games without a credit card, is that something you'll consider? What do you think of the option to purchase advantages in competitive social games?
The Sims creator reveals HiveMind, and we'll have what he's having
Seriously, you'll want to know what he's eating (or otherwise) after reading this VentureBeat exclusive. Will Wright, the man behind both classic city-builder SimCity and family-builder The Sims has revealed HiveMind. Also the name of Wright's new startup, the game designer calls HiveMind a new evolution in games: "personal gaming," according to VentureBeat.
From what's gathered in the terribly cryptic, nebulous announcement, HiveMind will be a mobile social game that will possibly launch on Facebook as well. The point of the game, in theory, is to further connect gamers to reality and enhance their experience by personalizing game play. But don't call it an augmented reality app.
"Rather than craft a game like FarmVille for players to learn and play, we learn about you and your routines and incorporate that into a form of game play," Wright said to VentureBeat. Later Wright said, "If we can learn enough about the player, we can create games about their real life. How do we get you more engaged in reality rather than distract you from it?"
Alright, so that sounds a lot like augmented reality (and nothing like what we first heard about). But services like Foursquare largely serve to distract players from the world around them. According to Wright's vague description of HiveMind, the game will actually help players be a part of interesting happenings around them.
"This has to do with where gaming is going," Wright told the website. "We had our eras in console gaming and social gaming. A lot of this personal gaming will happen on mobile devices. The question here is how can we learn enough about the player to create games about his or her real life." Alright Will, time to give us the hook up.
What do you think the SimCity maker is even talking about? Do you think he could herald yet another new genre in gaming?
From what's gathered in the terribly cryptic, nebulous announcement, HiveMind will be a mobile social game that will possibly launch on Facebook as well. The point of the game, in theory, is to further connect gamers to reality and enhance their experience by personalizing game play. But don't call it an augmented reality app.
"Rather than craft a game like FarmVille for players to learn and play, we learn about you and your routines and incorporate that into a form of game play," Wright said to VentureBeat. Later Wright said, "If we can learn enough about the player, we can create games about their real life. How do we get you more engaged in reality rather than distract you from it?"
Alright, so that sounds a lot like augmented reality (and nothing like what we first heard about). But services like Foursquare largely serve to distract players from the world around them. According to Wright's vague description of HiveMind, the game will actually help players be a part of interesting happenings around them.
"This has to do with where gaming is going," Wright told the website. "We had our eras in console gaming and social gaming. A lot of this personal gaming will happen on mobile devices. The question here is how can we learn enough about the player to create games about his or her real life." Alright Will, time to give us the hook up.
What do you think the SimCity maker is even talking about? Do you think he could herald yet another new genre in gaming?
Call of Duty veterans set crosshairs for 'first-person social game'
That sounds a helluva lot like "first-person shooter game," no? Well, these folks are best known for their contributions to hardcore games like Call of Duty. VentureBeat reports that Activision veterans Dusty Welch and Chris Archer have founded their own social game studio, U4iA. Pronounced "euphoria" (that's cute), the Bellevue, Wash.-based studio aims to bring core games to Facebook in a big way.
Welch (CEO) and Archer (CCO) aim to set the quality bar even higher on Facebook and mobile with a "first-person social game" that matches the caliber of recent free-to-play games like League of Legends, according to VentureBeat. At least from what the U4iA heads see, the future of social games is the arrival of traditional gamers.
"We're making core games for a social audience." Welch told VentureBeat, "We think the hardcore gamers are going to start looking for the core games on the social and mobile networks now." Well, with companies like Kixeye and Kabam gunning for the same audience, at least they're not alone.
"We think we're at the spearhead of a lot of cool things," Welch said to VentureBeat. Since the guy is credited with creating the Call of Duty series--the best-selling game franchise ever--we can't really contest that. This first-person shooter social game will be created for both Facebook and mobile devices using the Unity Player. With expertise like that, we're sure the game will be a technological marvel, but will the audience be there to bear witness?
Would you ever play a hardcore first-person game on Facebook? Do you think shooters could perform well on social networks?
Welch (CEO) and Archer (CCO) aim to set the quality bar even higher on Facebook and mobile with a "first-person social game" that matches the caliber of recent free-to-play games like League of Legends, according to VentureBeat. At least from what the U4iA heads see, the future of social games is the arrival of traditional gamers.
"We're making core games for a social audience." Welch told VentureBeat, "We think the hardcore gamers are going to start looking for the core games on the social and mobile networks now." Well, with companies like Kixeye and Kabam gunning for the same audience, at least they're not alone.
"We think we're at the spearhead of a lot of cool things," Welch said to VentureBeat. Since the guy is credited with creating the Call of Duty series--the best-selling game franchise ever--we can't really contest that. This first-person shooter social game will be created for both Facebook and mobile devices using the Unity Player. With expertise like that, we're sure the game will be a technological marvel, but will the audience be there to bear witness?
Would you ever play a hardcore first-person game on Facebook? Do you think shooters could perform well on social networks?
Thứ Sáu, 9 tháng 12, 2011
UK Facebook users could soon gamble their earnings away (for real)
As in, gamble their real cash away with the chance of actually winning money in return. According to eGaming Review (eGR) [paywall link], Facebook is talking with a number of UK operators to possibly open up its platform to real-money gambling. And the change could happen as soon as the first quarter in 2012. We can almost hear the sobs of British men in the gutter already from bad Zynga Poker matches.
eGR reports, citing anonymous sources (of course), that Facebook is considering providing eight licenses to UK operators looking to get into a market that developers are already trying to crack. According to the website, Facebook is already staffing up in preparation for the initiative. This type of thing is likely years away from happening in the US, where online gambling is, for all intents and purposes, illegal.
The UK-based online gambling companies in question reportedly include Gamesys and 888 Holdings. However, more details on how age gates, payment solutions or revenue splits between Facebook and the companies would work aren't available. The website speculates that Facebook could be using the UK as a testbed for similar efforts in other countries.
The news comes as particularly striking considering the number of mock-casino and betting games that have hit Facebook in recent months from DoubleDown Casino to Yazino's games and Bet Tycoon, to name a few. In fact, Yazino CEO Hussein Chahine thinks that the social gaming market would be vastly different today if not for how the US handled online gambling prior to the rise of the genre. Well, it looks like those floodgates are about to open--at least elsewhere in the world.
eGR reports, citing anonymous sources (of course), that Facebook is considering providing eight licenses to UK operators looking to get into a market that developers are already trying to crack. According to the website, Facebook is already staffing up in preparation for the initiative. This type of thing is likely years away from happening in the US, where online gambling is, for all intents and purposes, illegal.
The UK-based online gambling companies in question reportedly include Gamesys and 888 Holdings. However, more details on how age gates, payment solutions or revenue splits between Facebook and the companies would work aren't available. The website speculates that Facebook could be using the UK as a testbed for similar efforts in other countries.
The news comes as particularly striking considering the number of mock-casino and betting games that have hit Facebook in recent months from DoubleDown Casino to Yazino's games and Bet Tycoon, to name a few. In fact, Yazino CEO Hussein Chahine thinks that the social gaming market would be vastly different today if not for how the US handled online gambling prior to the rise of the genre. Well, it looks like those floodgates are about to open--at least elsewhere in the world.
Đăng ký:
Bài đăng (Atom)