Is FarmVille changing everything? Games biz bigwigs speak out

To say the game industry is undergoing a transformation would be an understatement. The entire playing-games-on-one-system paradigm is rapidly shifting, as more people play games on multiple devices — consoles, PCs, and increasingly the iPhone, iPad, or even the favorite medium of the Games.com – The Blog! crew, Facebook (along with other social networks)

Is FarmVille changing everything? Games biz bigwigs speak out

To say the game industry is undergoing a transformation would be an understatement. The entire playing-games-on-one-system paradigm is rapidly shifting, as more people play games on multiple devices — consoles, PCs, and increasingly the iPhone, iPad, or even the favorite medium of the Games.com – The Blog! crew, Facebook (along with other social networks).

Quote of the Moment: Cheating yourself

“What we did have were massively multiplayer online games such as Final Fantasy XI and World of Warcraft, where players were encouraged to engage in a long process of leveling up their characters, to become more powerful and to earn game currency. And although it was deemed against most games’ Terms of Service (and thus illegal), there were (and still are) companies that would sell you in-game currency (or in-game items) for a convenient charge to your credit card. Eliminate the tedium-get to the good stuff.

Market Street Cheats & Tips: Seven easy ways to get ahead

Market Street is a Facebook application game developed by Playdom (or shall we call it, Disney?) Get ready for some fun as this game allows you to build and have your own dream business. Player starts with a small store with one stand and one display that you can eventually expand and add along the way. Unleash your creativeness in decorating your own store! Decorations are offered and vary to suit your taste

Roller Coaster Kingdom riders decline

Zynga’s theme park inspired social networking game, Roller Coaster Kingdom seems to be on a steady decline this month. In part, the game’s lack of a real fun factor, no fast option to add visitors to one’s park, a firm reliance on players recruiting friends and too many choices in the Facebook gaming world may all play roles in the decrease in players.

Playdom Buys Green Patch and Trippert Labs

The company behind social network gaming hits like Mobsters 2 and Sorority Life announced late on Thursday that it had purchased two companies that specialize in social and iPhone games. The first of the two, Green Patch, is best known for its one million user strong (Lil) Farm Life, a game that competes with other social networking resource management games like FarmVille

Social gaming boom great for social game company employees

Sure, we know the biggest social game companies are starting to attract millions of dollars in investments , and that the sector is expected to be worth over a billion dollars a year very soon. But how is all that money affecting the rank-and-file workers at these newly minted social gaming powerhouses? Well, it’s making them all pretty rich, unsurprisingly.

Quote of the Moment: Generosity is its own reward

“It’s unintuitive to think that games where you actually do not ever directly interact with another person could have a community, but what social games do is generate an asynchronous cloud of persistent community formed by the constant exchange of gifts, tools, and requests sent by other players. It’s generosity-driven, but transactional – if I send you a gift, I’m feeling happy because I helped you out (especially if I’m responding to a request you’ve put out), but I’m also hoping you’ll send me something back.

Cow Clicker breaks down social games, misses the point

Filed under: Farmville , Mafia Wars “You get a cow. You can click on it.

New study predicts we’ll spend 1.5 billion in social games by 2014

While the real-life economy continues to tank, the virtual economy for games on social networks is booming. A new study from Screen Digest says that FarmVille junkies and their ilk have been fueling this relatively new economy by opening their wallets and buying one-to-10 dollar items with wild abandon

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