Mobile

The Social Games Rant You Didn’t Hear From GDC

By all accounts, “No F@*#king Respect: Social Game Developers Rant Back” was a hit at Game Developers Conference 2011. A standing-room only crowd listened to a panel of eminent designers address the virtues of and double-standards applied to social games.


February 28, 2011
News

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp Buys A Game Developer

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp media empire has bought into the gaming business, purchasing not a global powerhouse, but… a tiny social games developer called Making Fun.


February 17, 2011
PC

Become A Millionaire With Facebook Monoopoly

The offline social game you play with your friends becomes the online social game you play with your friends with Monopoly Millionaires, the Facebook game where everybody gets their own Monopoly board.


January 27, 2011
PC

The Oregon Trail Leads Carmen Sandiego To Facebook

Now everyone on Facebook can experience the joy of hunting criminals and having dysentery, as Blue Fang Games and The Learning Company bring two of the most beloved learning computer games of all time to the social network next month.


January 14, 2011
PC

Cooking Mama Barges Into Café World’s Kitchen

Every day thousands of players flock to Zynga’s Café World, clicking on food and serving it to the virtual masses for experience points and in-game coinage. That’s some sweet action right there, and Cooking Mama wants a piece of it.


January 7, 2011
PC

Mafia Wars Feels The Sting Of The Green Hornet

Wherever there is crime you’ll find the Green Hornet and Kato, and that includes Zynga’s popular social mobster game Mafia Wars, where players can unlock one hell of a ride if they play their clicks right.


December 2, 2010
In Real Life

FarmVille Takes Root In Japan, Vegetable Hats Worn

Social gaming smash hit FarmVille officially goes to Japan, signing on with the country’s biggest social network, mixi, and resulting in the best Zynga photo op possible. Over there, they call it FarmVillage and telecom powerhouse SoftBank is helping to spread the cow-clicking obsession. [GameWatch]


November 17, 2010
News

Same-Sex Marriage Thrives In FrontierVille

While the majority of US states don’t legally recognise same-sex marriage, the wilds of Zynga’s Frontierville have no need for laws, spawning 650,000 boy-boy, girl-girl unions.


September 12, 2010
News

Survey Says 17% Of Facebook Gamers Call Themselves ‘Addicted’

A marketing research firm found that 17 per cent of social gamers – FarmVille, Mafia Wars and the like – consider themselves “addicted”, though it’s not clear if they say that regretfully or as a light-hearted self-description.


June 29, 2010
News

Six Flags Facebook Game Is Fun Until Someone Loses An Arm

With countless folk horror tales of theme park rides decapitating or removing the limbs of riders, you’d think Six Flags would have shied away from promoting over-the-top, blood-spurting violence in their new Facebook game, Six Flags Mascot Park.