1）Facebook游戏部门主管Sean Ryan日前透露了一个与社交游戏开发商有关的重要消息，Facebook将在2011下半年调整其搜索算法，以用户的喜好和关注程度为准，仅在News Feeds展示他们感兴趣和有可能点击的信息。

games on facebook(from insidesocialgames)

Ryan称公司对其自动筛选系统很有把握，如果用户不会点击通过News Feed发送的游戏信息，那么久而久之，这个系统就会自动根据用户的这一需求，逐渐屏蔽此类信息。

据他所述，Facebook在今年底还将继续探索新的平台功能，向Xbox Live、PlayStation Network或Kongregate等其他游戏系统取经，以便提供更好的游戏检索服务。

2）EA日前进行大规模的管理层人事变动，指派EA Sports主管Peter Moore接替已离职的John Schappert担任首席运营官，EA Interactive原执行副总裁Barry Cottle则升任该部门主管，掌管公司所有手机及社交游戏业务，以及不久前收购的PopCap Games运营业务。

EA-logo(from tieba.baidu.com)

EA BioWare则将从EA Games脱离出来，由BioWare联合创始人Ray Muzyka带队；Frank Gibeau则将担任EA Labels总裁。

3）MMO游戏公司Gravity Interactive（游戏邦注：代表作包括《Ragnarok Online》）宣布将于8月11日向Facebook平台推出《Eternal Destiny》。这是一款中国风的3D游戏，玩家在游戏中的任务是打怪物、获取道具，帮助各个城市的的居民。当玩家晋升到30级时，就可以选择自己最喜欢的地区进行玩家之间一对一的决斗，也可以加入公会壮大自己的声势，目前尚未公布游戏具体的社交功能。

Eternal Destiny(from news.cwebgame.com)

4）由ESPN电视节目网与三星、迪士尼Playdom联合推出的Facebook游戏《Sports Bar & Grill》发布两周内收获了35万MAU。这是ESPN推出的第二款社交游戏，其首款社交游戏《ESPNU College Town》（与Playdom合作）于去年9月发布，目前的MAU是56万左右。

Sprts Bar & Grill(from blog.games.com)

5）手机社交游戏平台OpenFeint日前通过Android版本的700多款游戏推出新社交功能，其中包括用户状态、玩家信息墙等有利于增加用户粘性的设置，并计划在今年秋季向iOS版本推出此类功能。

Android-OpenFeint(from droidol.com)

6）俄罗斯开发商Pixonic于7月1日推出的《The Island: Castaway》是一款角色扮演类城市建设游戏，曾在7月22日跻身Facebook新晋游戏榜单。据AppData数据显示，该游戏最近在Facebook的MAU是24万8579，DAU是4万5172。

The Island Castaway(from insidesocialgames)

玩家在游戏中的任务是扮演一个像鲁滨逊一样被海水冲到一个荒岛中的人物角色，必须自己安营扎寨和觅食。玩家执行清理小岛和建设小屋等操作都会耗损一些能量，随着游戏发展，玩家会建设更多农场和建筑，并从中获得收入。游戏还支持玩家个性化装饰自己的小岛，使用钱币买入更多动物。除此之外，玩家还可以添加好友邻居，互访对方小岛并互赠礼物等。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Updating Discovery for Social Games on Facebook With Algorithms, Better New User Experience

By AJ Glasser

Developers can expect to see virality restored to social games in the latter half of 2011 as the platform adjusts its discovery methods, Facebook Director of Game Partnerships Sean Ryan tells ISG.

At Casual Connect in Seattle last month, Ryan alluded to some API changes that would help surface game stories to the Facebook users that actually play social games as opposed to spamming the News Feeds of all players’ available friend. In a recent follow-up interview with us, he details an algorithmic solution that will not only show players more stories, but also filter out only those stories that players are likely to click on.

“Last year when we made the changes because of the spam issues, we really dialed back [virality],” Ryan says. “Now that we feel confident about our automatic [filter] systems, we can start dialing back up virality with better targeting and better quality. So that if your game is sending stories through the news feed that users don’t like — they don’t click on it — then over time, the algorithm adjusts and users see fewer of those stories. We want quality to be about whether or not users like it.”

The key to this system is social discovery, something that doesn’t work for new users on the Facebook platform. This is where Ryan’s team finds itself pulled in two directions — on the one hand, wanting that user’s social graph to determine what games that user sees; and on the other, needing a Games destination site to give a new user a place to start figuring out what (if any) games they like.

The reason Ryan shies away from a Games destination on Facebook, like the version currently available, is that users expect to see lists of the 10 most popular games on destination sites because that’s what they’re used to seeing in the App Store or Android Marketplace. Ryan says these lists tend to be self-fulfilling, and the idea of Facebook dictating to a new user what they should or shouldn’t play goes against the platform’s philosophy of social discovery. Even so, he admits that there needs to be a better new user experience available to those just now entering the social games ecosystem on the platform, though Facebook hasn’t found that answer yet.

As it stands, a new user can stumble on the destination site through the Games tab (which has made several moves around the default Facebook view in the last six months) or by clicking on a Games-related post in the Facebook.com landing page like the one pictured above. The developer-oriented Facebook+Games page is also functions as a discovery tool for games new to the platform.

Beyond the end of 2011, Ryan says the team will continue to look at new games platform features that will work for Facebook. By studying other games ecosystems like Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, or Kongregate, Ryan says there may be lessons to learn that could contribute to better discovery systems.（source:insidesocialgames）

2）Electronic Arts Moves Moore Up to COO; Cottle to Oversee Mobile, Social Gaming

By Kim-Mai Cutler

Electronic Arts shuffled its executives today with EA Sports’ head Peter Moore taking over as chief operating officer. He is filling the position that John Schappert left open when he left the company for rival Zynga.

Barry Cottle, who had been executive vice president of EA Interactive, becomes head of that division, which oversees all of the company’s mobile and social gaming initiatives. PopCap Games, which the company just agreed to acquire for up to $1.3 billion including earnouts, will also fall under its umbrella.

EA BioWare will split off from EA Games and be run by Ray Muzyka, the BioWare co-founder. It and the three other labels, including EA Sports and EA Play, will be overseen by Frank Gibeau, who becomes president of EA Labels.（source:insidemobileapps）

3）Ragnarok Online creator’s new Facebook game is your Eternal Destiny

by Joe Osborne

Well, it looks like you have no choice but to play it. Gravity Interactive, creator of the mega hit MMO (massively mutliplayer online game) Ragnarok Online, will bring Eternal Destiny to Facebook this Aug. 11. The game, which looks terribly similar to the Calif.-based developer’s flagship game, throws players into an epic battle to restore the realms’ connections that the God of Chaos has shattered. (It’s almost as if these storylines are ad-libbed, no?)

The game, which looks to be inspired by Chinese folklore and themes, tasks players with slaying monsters, grabbing loot and aiding hapless citizens of various cities. In that regard, it’s not a far cry from what you’ve come to expect from an RPG (role-playing game). Once players reach Level 30 in this 3D fantasy land, they can choose their favorite realm and fight in the name of said realm in player vs player battles. Of course, it helps to be in a guild of fellow adventurers, which players can join or create.

Players will connect to WarpPortal, which hosts Gravity Interactive’s games, through Facebook. However, no particularly social features have been mentioned by Gravity Interactive, which has us slightly worried whether Eternal Destiny will take advantage of the platform. Regardless, if you’ve been hankering for a new, free world to romp around in and fight baddies, Eternal Destiny sounds like a promising start based on the Ragnarok pedigree alone.（source:games）

4）ESPN Facebook Game Gets 350,000 Players In 2 Weeks

by Matt McKinley

Finally, sports fans have a social game worth playing on Facebook: ESPN has teamed up with Samsung and Disney-owned Playdom Online Games to create the Sports Bar and Grill application.

The game was launched just over two weeks ago and already has more than 350,000 monthly active users.

It uses the FarmVille-style of casual gaming, letting fans run their own virtual sports bar and grill with all the day-to-day management duties expected from a real one.

Along the way, players must win over loyal customers, decorate the walls with sports paraphernalia and show simulated live and on-demand games on their flat-screen TVs.

ESPN also provides real-time scores and news, and ESPN Radio can be turned on in the game.

You can interact with friends and must complete challenges to move forward in the game. The more patrons you serve and keep happy, the bigger the buzz, popularity and success of the bar and grill.

As more money is brought in, the bar expands and gets flat-screen TVs, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, posters, signs, arcade games, sports memorabilia, tables, chairs, bar stools and more.

This is ESPN’s second social game. The so-called wideworld leader in sports launched ESPNU College Town last September, also in collaboration with Playdom.

In this game, fans build their own university and recruit the best athletes to challenge their rivals in the game, which has more than 560,000 monthly users.（source:allfacebook）

5）OpenFeint launches new social features on Android before iOS

by Jon Jordan

One company always keen to buff up Android as a gaming platform is OpenFeint.

Indeed, reinforcing its early adopter role, the company just announced it’s encouraged developers using its cross platform social gaming network to release 230 Android games in two months. Its total on the platform is now 700-strong.

More significantly, these make up 24 of the top 100 paid and free games on the Android Market.

Highlighted titles include Halfbrick’s Fruit Ninja, Godzilab’s StarDrunk, Gray Fin’s MiniSquadron, and various Glu Mobile games such as Gun Bros., Contract Killer, and Bug Village.

“Game developers want to join the social gaming network that reaches the most global users,” said Eros Resmini, OpenFeint’s senior vice president of marketing.

“As OpenFeint games have taken over the top Android charts, our developers are also benefitting from additional distribution channels we’ve launched with AT&T in the US and The9 in China.”

Doing the robot

And continuing to build out its system on Android, the company has also announced it’s rolling out the first elements of its next generation social network.

Designed to encourage user engagement, new player profiles that include status updates and player message walls are now live in all 700 games on Android. The feature won’t come to iOS games until the autumn.

“Free-to-play games require an engaged social graph to succeed. With new features like these going live every couple of weeks, OpenFeint is rapidly activating our user base for game developers,” said Ethan Fassett, OpenFeint’s senior vice president product.（source:pocketgamer）

6）The Island: Castaway on Facebook Makes Life a Beach

By Randy Nelson

Developed by Russia’s Pixonic, The Island: Castaway is a role-playing game with city-building elements that made its Facebook debut on July 1. The title made our list of emerging Facebook games the week of July 22.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, The Island: Castaway currently has 248,579 monthly active users and 45,172 daily active users.

The game revolves around survival on a desert island, with players taking on the role of a character that has washed ashore and must build shelter, scavenge and explore in order to survive. At the outset, players must expend energy to clear room to build and perform other actions, fashioning rudimentary tools from odd items they discover. After making space and collecting raw materials, players build shelter and begin establishing a foothold on the island. As the game progresses, players develop more and more of the land with various buildings and farming resources, which provide income over time. Players can customize the look of the island and their burgeoning civilization, using income to add animals to their environs as well.

Experience points are given for performing actions and completing tasks, most of which require several energy-consuming steps in order to satisfy their requirements. Players level up by collecting experience, recharging their energy and unlocking the ability to purchase new items in the process.

Players can add friends as neighbors and visit their islands to see what they’ve done with it, and also collect items for additional money and experience points. A gift-giving and receiving mechanic is also present. Some tasks the player encounters require them to invite more friends to play the game in order to progress.

Totems are the game’s hard currency and can be used to purchase more elaborate items early on in the game, as well as speeding up the completion of tasks. They, along with the game’s soft currency, can be purchase with Facebook Credits. We observe that, as with Perfect Getaway, the pay flow almost makes it seem as though the player is purchasing the Totems directly instead of purchasing Facebook Credits to then spend on Totems or coins.（source:insidesocialgames）