相信不少人都很了解《Farm Town》的情况，Slashkey推出的这款经典游戏在2009年顶峰时期的MAU达到1900万左右。《Farm Town》的创意来自《myFarm》，但它添加了更多虚拟人物元素，比《myFarm》更胜一筹。据游戏邦了解，《Farm Town》一天的用户数量曾高达30万，这一惊人的数字引起了大型公司的注意。Zynga随后发行了一款名为《FarmVille》的游戏，而如今的《Farm Town》却成了历史。

Farm-town

游戏机制和理念极易被效仿，但开发商们还是可以保护好自己的知识产权。Zynga和Playdom曾在2009年发生的纠纷，Zynga控诉前员工盗用了它的游戏剧本。这起法律纠纷直至2010年11月才最终落幕，该事件涉及了一系列侵权行为，包括盗用商业机密、违反合同、违反忠诚义务、侵权干预合同、侵权干预现有和未来的经济利益，以及不公平竞争。

另一个例子是Zynga的《Treasure Isle》，该游戏的创意借鉴了法国zSlide公司的游戏《Treasure Madness》，后者也曾是一款备受欢迎的好游戏。但据游戏邦了解，《Treasure Isle》在发布仅一个星期的时间内，用户就迅速增长到了430万。此时Facebook已开始对病毒式传播渠道进行限制，而Zynga也还未大量采用游戏交叉推广模式。

虽然如今已经不存在公然抄袭游戏的现象，但早期营收颇高的游戏竟然已经无法抵御后起之秀，这一点还是让人颇为意外。只有像Zynga这种规模的公司开发的大众游戏，才不会面临巨大的风险。因此许多业内人士认为，开发商不要跟风开发大众热门游戏，而应该专注于细分市场，比如Kabam就另辟蹊径，开发了《Kingdoms of Camelot》这类锁定特定用户的游戏。据游戏邦了解，这类游戏的用户数量可能远低于大众热门，但它的ARPPU普遍较为理想，用户的忠诚度也很高。

除了游戏模仿现象给开发商带来风险之外，挖角也是许多新兴游戏公司烦恼的问题。特别是那些掌握运营模式知识、游戏设计技能和其他战略性知识的成员，他们对竞争者来说都是非常有价植的人才。据游戏邦了解，这些竞争者经常从这些潜在的雇员身上打探宝贵的信息，然后借助保密公司的帮助就可以确保事情不败露。

虽然有些办法可以减少机密曝光的概率，但实际上并没有万全之策可以阻止这种现象发生。与各个竞争对手在这个领域共存，难免会导致信息外泄。会发布信息的企业只有那些提供创收解决方案的公司，他们希望以此吸引该领域中的客户。虽然我们可以从其他业内人士口中打听某公司的ARPU，但很少有游戏公司会主动公开自己的相关数据，他们总是避免公开讨论营收情况。

随着社交游戏和虚拟商品经济的日益发达，游戏公司之间的信息和机密大战还会愈演愈烈。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

What’s With The Secrecy Within Social Gaming Companies?

Why are social gaming companies shrouded in secrecy? British Island shell companies are created to deceive competitors and employees are sign contracts grounding them to secrecy.  What’s underneath the veil?

We’re all aware of the story of Farm Town, Slashkey’s flagship game that reached roughly 19 MMAUs at its pinnacle in 2009. Farm Town itself was inspired by titles like myFarm but went beyond myFarm by adding avatar components. Gaining 300,000 users a day, FarmTown began touting its numbers, awakening the big fish in the process.   Zynga, soon after, released a game called FarmVille, and Farm Town is now just a memory.

Game mechanics and concepts can’t really be defended – but companies can take efforts to protect their IPs. We recall the Zynga-Playdom conflict that arose during 2009 with Zynga accusing its ex-employees of stealing Zynga’s playbook. The lawsuit, encompassing violations such as misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract, breach of the duty of loyalty, tortuous interference with contracts, tortious interference with existing and prospective economic advantage and unfair competition, eventually settled in Nov of 2010.

Another example was Zynga’s Treasure Isle – which I can safely say was inspired by France based-zSlide’s Treasure Madness. Treasure Madness did quite well for it self and it’s a game I used to regularly play. Treasure Isle quickly grew to 4.3M users within a week of its announced launch. This is also at a time when Facebook’s virality was experiencing restrictions and Zynga was not explicitly cross promoting its titles.

Although the days of explicitly copying games have subsided, one can’t help but wonder that gaming corps with massive bank accounts are laying low in the trenches for the next innovative hit. Most titles companies the size of Zynga release are low risk, mass appeal titles. Many experts in the space now suggest to avoid going after the mass appeal games – instead aim for mid-core games the way Kabam has with Kingdoms of Camelot. Such games command decent ARPPUs and have a loyal user base albeit the numbers are less than mass appeal games.

Asides from risks associated with copying games, poaching of employees is also a vexatious issue that strikes fear in the heart of many gaming upstarts. Those armed with the knowledge of business models, game designs and other strategic knowledge can be valuable to competitors. These competitors may often probe potential candidates for valuable information so using cover up companies can help keep things covert.

Although steps can be taken to mitigate exposure, there are no foolproof systems. Working with various players in the social gaming space leads to divulging of information. The only companies you really see releasing information are monetization companies that hope to attract clients in the space. You don’t really hear about companies revealing their ARPU’s publicly, although you can hear about this from other experts in the space, so it’s best to avoid discussing revenues openly.

With social gaming and virtual goods heating up, the battle of information and secrecy is only beginning to heat up.（Source：Social Times）