1）Pew Internet & American Life Project最新数据表明，50%的美国成人都是社交网络用户。

在所有的美国活跃网民中，社交网络用户比例达65%，而在2008年，仅有29%美国网民使用社交网络工具。

在年龄不低于30岁的群体中，社交网络用户比例更高，这一群体中有61%用户每天都要登录Facebook，但该调查并未区分具体社交网络的用户使用情况。

social networking site used by online adults(from readwriteweb)

2）Digital Chocolate首席执行官Trip Hawkins日前发表博文，对苹果iOS和Facebook平台进行了一番对比，并认为两者的社交游戏运营环境差距正在缩小。他称Facebook的“社交回应”特点更有助于推动游戏的病毒式传播，但苹果却拥有稳定的游戏用户群体，他们无需系统信息提醒也会经常回访游戏。

trip-hawkins(from weblinxx)

但他认为，Facebook的这种社交回应特点自2010年以来已呈下滑趋势，在2009年主流Facebook游戏的DAU/MAU比值可以高达40%，但现在的同一比例甚至难以达到20%；假如开发者通过市场营销和病毒传播一天内可带来100万新用户，在2009年的时候，这100万用户中就会有40万人隔天会回访游戏，但在今天这些回访用户可能仅有20万，也就是说现在的开发商每日盈利水平仅相当于2009年的一半。

Hawkins认为iOS社交游戏的盈利水平正在追赶Facebook，再加上Facebook平台政策变化无常，苹果设备正迅速发展，未来将有不少主流开发商转战iOS游戏领域。

3）Making Fun（新闻集团旗下的手机、社交游戏发行公司）日前与Qunify Games、多位新兴漫画书插画作者联合向Facebook推出《CLASH：Rise of Heroes》。这款数字搜集卡牌游戏引进了全新的用户界面，以及限量版“ Artist Series”卡牌（游戏邦注：其第一套 Artist Series卡牌由游戏及漫画界新兴插画作才Hanzo Steinbach所作）。

Clash Rise of Heroes(from teepeegames.com)

4）Blade Games World公司日前推出了一款DIY游戏开发工具Jumala平台，支持没有编程技能的玩家设计并分享自己制作的3D游戏。

a screenshot of a Jumala game(from crunchbase.com)

据该公司所称，该平台目前正进行内部测试，支持玩家通过创建或修改游戏，添加搜藏物品和敌人等元素以赢取积分奖励，并将添加更多社交功能。玩家可以体验其他用户创造的游戏，并在玩游戏或创造游戏的过程中，在Jumala社区与其他好友进行互动。该平台未来还将绑定其他社交网络，以便玩家与更多用户分享自己的成果。

Blade Games成立于2009年，目前已融资400万美元，其首席执行官是RealNetworks前业务开发主管Virl Hill，预计Jumala平台将于今年底进行公开测试。

5）与农场、捕鱼和餐厅等题材相比，时尚是一个相对较新的Facebok游戏题材。从以下图表中可以看出，目前在Facebook排在前6名的时尚类社交游戏分别是《It Girl》、《Mall World》、《YoVille》、《Fashion Designer》、《Fashion World》、《Sorority Life》。

Games by fashion genre(from insidesocialgames)

最早的Facebook时尚游戏理念非常简单——给虚拟形象穿衣打扮，看看好友角色的打扮如何。从2009年开始，这类游戏的虚拟商品选项已变得更为丰富，玩法逐渐推陈出新，例如今年刚上线的《Fashion Designer》就巧用UGC（用户制作内容）这一理念，鼓励玩家自主设计服装和饰品，并在游戏中的市场出售自己制作的产品。不过insidesocialgames认为这一领域还有许多元素有待挖掘，例如举办时装秀、租借演出活动的服装等，另外还可以借鉴《It Girl》与老海军的营销推广模式，植入更多现实生活中的品牌丰富游戏体验。

6）据games报道，Geek Mentors Studios近日模仿《愤怒的小鸟》玩法， 发布了一款旨在抨击印度政治腐败现象的Facebook游戏《Angry Anna》，并计划推出iPhone和iPad版本。

angry-anna-level-4-stage(from games)

这款含有4个关卡的游戏将著名反腐败积极分子Anna Hazare以及Bada Ramdev、Kiran Bedi作为“小鸟炮弹”向Manmohan Singh、Suresh Kalmadi、P. Chidambaram和Kapil Sibal这些“绿色的肥猪”发动攻击。通过Facebook的“likes”和Twitter的口碑传播，这款游戏登陆Facebook仅两天就已被访问20万次，平均每半小时访问量达3000次。

7）在本周的MAU增长最快Facebook游戏榜单上，由6waves Lolapps发行的《胡莱三国》位居第一，最近MAU是92万4788；其次是Tetris Online推出的《Monster Fusion》（最近MAU是63万9409）和《SlotSpot》（最近MAU是96万901）。

Top Gainers This Week-Games(from AppData)

该榜单另一款由6waves Lolapps发行的游戏是位于第七名的《Simply Hospital》，该游戏由RedSpell开发，它在去年10月首次在新晋游戏榜单露面时的名称是《Sim Hospital》。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Half of U.S. Adults Use Social Networking Sites

By John Paul Titlow

For the first time ever, 50% of all American adults are using social networking sites, according to new data from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Of active Internet users in particular, 65% are social networking users, a number that continues to climb. To put things in perspective, only 29% of adult American Internet users reported using social networking tools in 2008.

Unsurprisingly, social media usage is even higher among Americans under 30 years old, 61% of whom use sites like Facebook on a daily basis. It’s not just younger people who are using the Internet to connect with friends, family and colleagues. The rate at which older people are using the social Web continues to grow as well.

Although the report doesn’t break down usage by site, it’s safe to assume that the majority of people are partial to Facebook, which has 750 million users worldwide and recently surpassed 1 trillion pageviews in a single month. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he expects the site to reach 1 billion users before long. （source:readwriteweb）

2）Trip Hawkins compares Facebook and Apple for social game monetisation

by Stuart Dredge

The gap between social game revenue on Facebook versus Apple is shrinking…’

With many social games publishers now releasing games on iOS and Facebook, comparisons between the two platforms are inevitable. Digital Chocolate boss Trip Hawkins has just published a blog post digging into the subject.

Hawkins says Facebook has more of a social ‘echo’ to help games spread virally, but points out that Apple “has a gamer audience that tends to remember what they have downloaded in the last month and will not need reminders to return to those games on a regular basis, at least for awhile”, as well as a popular store.

However, he warns that the echo on Facebook has declined in 2011, following a sharp fall in 2010. Hawkins measures this by comparing the Daily Active Users (DAU) total for a game with its Monthly Active Users (MAU) total.

“On Facebook, the leading games in 2009 had DAU-to-MAU ratios of as much as 40%, and a comparable game today is lucky to achieve 20%,” he writes. “What it means is that if your marketing and virality bring 1 million new players in a day, back in 2009 perhaps 400,000 of them would be playing again the next day. Now it would be 200,000. At the same level of daily monetization you would bring in half the revenue.”

On these grounds, Hawkins suggests that iOS social games revenues are catching up with Facebook, which may lead more social games publishers to shift emphasis towards mobile devices.

“The gap between social game revenue on Facebook versus Apple is shrinking,” he notes, saying policy changes on Facebook are part of the reason. “The other part is Apple device growth combined with an effective merchandising system. When you then add in Android device growth and tablets, it may not be that long before there is no longer an advantage for a game to be on Facebook.”

One other thought we had while reading Hawkins’ blog post was this: could Digital Chocolate be positioning itself as a potential acquisition by Zynga? It sounds unlikely, but the CEO takes some care to describe three of his company’s games – Millionaire City, Zombie Lane and Army Attack – as “games that even Zynga should want”. But perhaps Hawkins is just looking to awaken a touch of green-eyed jealousy in Zynga boss Mark Pincus.（source:mobile-ent）

3）Do Games and Art Mix? CLASH Facebook Game Depends On It

By Kenna McHugh

San Francisco-based social games publisher commissions emerging artists to create limited edition cards for CLASH: Rise of Heroes.

Making Fun, a mobile and online social games publishing company and division of News Corporation Digital Media Group, has partnered with Qunify Games and emerging comic book illustrators to launch a massive update to CLASH: Rise of Heroes.

The game is now available today to play for free on Facebook. The digital collectible card game features a completely revised user interface, exciting new content additions, and the introduction of limited edition “Artist Series” cards. CLASH: Rise of Heroes differs from most other online CCG’s in that players are able to battle one another in real-time.

The first set of Artist Series cards was created by Hanzo Steinbach, who has recently been featured as a hot emerging illustrator in game and comic publications. Influenced by the Anime and video games he grew up with in the 1980′s, Steinbach’s self-taught, free-spirited style gives his illustrations a unique look that perfectly complements CLASH: Rise of Heroes features. These one-of-a kind cards bring a whole new level of artistry to the game and will only be featured for a short time.（source:socialtimes）

4）DIY game design from Blade Games World

Aislyn Greene

Ever wanted to design your own game, but aren’t a programmer? Well, now you can with a new gaming platform from Blade Games World.

The Bellevue startup said it’s launched a limited beta of its Jumala platform, which lets players with no programming skills design and share their own 3D games.

The building of a game is a game in itself, said the company. Players gain points by building or modifying games and adding collectibles and enemies.

The platform is deeply social, with more social features expected soon, said Blade Games. Players can play games developed by other members and talk and collaborate with friends in the Jumala community while playing or building games. The company said in the future it will integrate the platform with other social media sites to let players share their games with a wider audience.

Blade Games was formed in 2009 through the merger of Digini and Vyk Games and raised $4 million in startup funding soon after. When TechFlash covered the startup two years ago, it looked as though company’s technologies were designed to help game developers create products faster and cheaper. Now it appears that Blade Games has honed in on Jumala as its primary platform.

“At Jumala, we’re truly giving the power to the players,” said Blade Games CTO Frank Savage in a press release. “Jumala will continually evolve – we’ll offer additional genres of games, new types of functionality, better graphics and different environments – whatever our players need to make the best games and to have fun in the process.”

The company is led by CEO Virl Hill, a former director of business development at RealNetworks. Hill also spent time at RealNetworks’ Rhapsody, RollingStone.com and Disney.

The open beta launch of the platform is expected in late 2011. Click here to join the limited beta.（source:techflash）

5）The Top Fashion Games on Facebook by Traffic

By AJ Glasser

Fashion is a newer social game genre on Facebook compared to farming, fishing, and restaurants, with the potential for growth as developers experiment with expanding the scope of the genre.

Here are the top fashion games on Facebook today by traffic:

The earliest fashion games for Facebook weren’t very complex: dress your avatar and look at the way your friends’ avatars were dressed. These games were limited at the time by technology and by the lower standard of art quality common to successful social games. As the platform matured and this “art bar” rose, however, the fashion genre picked up throughout 2009 and 2010 as developers were able to offer more — and prettier — clothing and accessory items as desirable virtual goods.

Moreover, there are other elements of the fashion industry that could be incorporated into a fashion game to greater effect — such as organizing fashion shows or the business of loaning dresses out for modeling events. Lastly, there is a lack of brand integrations with real-life fashion brands. It Girl has had sponsored stores selling branded virtual goods for outfitters like Old Navy; but what if a fashion game could offer coutuer branded virtual goods?（source:insidesocialgames）

6）Angry Anna: India battles political corruption in homage to Angry Birds

by Jenny Ng

Corrupt politicians don’t stand a chance against Angry Anna, a new social game that’s captured India’s social conscience. The game has earned over 200,000 playthroughs at about 3,000 every half hour since it hit the web two days ago. True to its name, this game is a small Angry Birds clone that contains four levels and features popular anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare as an Angry Bird, along with Baba Ramdev and Kiran Bedi. The baddies, or the green pigs, are implied to be the following political figures: Manmohan Singh, Suresh Kalmadi, P. Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal.

Promoted solely from Facebook ‘Likes’ and word-of-mouth via Twitter, Geek Mentors Studios plans to eventually release the game for the iPhone and iPad. Currently, Angry Anna is hosted by a U.S. computer software company, GameSalad, and you can play it here. The game’s official website is at www.angryanna.com. So go play and make some heads roll! Never has doing so been so cute, and there already there appears to be fanart for the game.（source:games）

7）胡萊三國 Tops This Week’s List of Emerging Facebook Games

By AJ Glasser

Hoolai Social Game Ltd’s 胡萊三國 (Hoolai Sanguo) leads this week’s list of emerging Facebook games one week after its debut on this very same list. The Chinese role-playing/combat game is published on Facebook by 6waves Lolapps.

Tetris Online’s Monster Fusion and SlotSpot round out our top three, while the rest of our list shows a mix of genres from RPGs to card games. Another sports fantasy title, SI.com Fantasy Football, turns up in the lower end of the list while Fantasy La Liga (the Spanish language version of Premier League Fantasy Football) holds its place higher up on the rankings.

Another 6waves Lolapps-published titles turns up at No.7 on our list this week. Simply Hospital from developer RedSpell used to go by the name Sim Hospital, back when it first turned up on our emerging games list in October 2010. The game tasks players with running a successful hospital, judged in part by how well players diagnose and treat the illnesses of incoming patients.（source:insidesocialgames）