1）据games.com报道，法国发行商Gameloft于7月份向Facebook推出的MMORPG游戏《混沌与秩序》（Order & Chaos Online）将于12月20关闭项目。

Order & Chaos Online(from games)

statement(from games)

从该公司发布的声明中可以看出，该游戏仍向iOS、Andorid用户开放服务，但并未说明关闭Facebook版本的原因。

不过观察者猜测，Gameloft这项决定背后应该有三个原因：其一，3D版MMO游戏通常需要下载，对操作要求较高，这一点在Facebook上往往行不通；其二，该游戏在今年秋季遭遇了严重的玩家帐号被黑现象，也因此流失了不少用户；第三就是玩家在游戏中升到第10级时，系统就会弹出要求其使用Facebook Credits支付订阅费用，以便持续体验游戏的对话框。

众所皆知，多数Facebook游戏玩家并非付费用户，仅有3%-5%玩家偶尔会为谷仓或能量等道具付费以加速游戏进程，从这一点上看，《混沌与秩序》的做法已经违背了“免费游戏”的精神。

2）据Andriasang报道，日本社交游戏平台GREE最近透露了关于其全球扩展战略的一些细节信息，宣布Konami的《DanceDanceRevolution》、Capcom的《Resident Evil Mercenaries VS》和《Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting》、Tecmo Koei的《Dynasty Warriors》等知名游戏将登陆GREE全球平台。

GREE称与OpenFeint合并后，其平台游戏将覆盖1.5亿玩家。

recruiting billboard(from pocketgamer)

据pocketgamer报道，GREE最近在旧金山I-80大道上展示了一个巨幅招聘广告牌，将在2012年新增100名美国团队成员。

3）摩托罗位最近针对9000名用户的调查显示，三分之二的英国用户有边看电视边访问社交网络的习惯。英国用户平均每周看电视达14小时（与日本并列第二），而美国用户则以每周15小时居于首位。

与此同时，63%英国受访者表示自己在看电视时喜欢上网或登陆社交网络讨论自己所观看的节目。

Social TV survey(from Motorola)

中国有92%网民在线讨论电视节目，29%英国用户在移动设备或笔记本电脑观看流媒体或下载的视频/电视内容。

从总体上看，互联网是对电视内容的补充，而不是与电视节目抢夺观众。调查发现用户每周在线时间为18小时，但其中有3小时是一边看电视一边上网。

这种趋势在中国、土耳其、拉美和俄罗斯发展最为明显，这些地区的用户在移动设备上看视频的时间多于其他地区用户。

4）据CNet报道，谷歌近日在其旧金山总部宣布将推出“本地客户端”的技术，将支持掌机视频游戏运行于网页浏览器。

从该公司推出的视频演示内容来看，Xbox Live Arcade游戏《Bastion》运行于谷歌Chrome浏览器的效果很流畅，画面也极为精细。

bastion-google-chrome(from dazzwireless.com)

游戏发行商Square Enix宣布动作游戏《Mini Ninjas》也将登陆谷歌Chrome Web应用商店，并将在明年向该平台推出更多游戏。

据venturebeat报道，谷歌该项目工程经理Eric Kay表示，这项技术可让本地客户端游戏通过浏览器获得更多未购买掌机设备，或者昂贵PC硬件的玩家。Chrome目前已收获2亿用户。

5）据games报道，最近有一位名为BBQ的玩家在EA游戏《模拟人生社交版》中，使用游戏内商店的瓷砖铺出了一块红色愤怒的小鸟地面，另外还铺设了经典格斗游戏《街头霸王》中的主角Chun Li的头像。

Angry Birds in The Sims Social(from games)

Chun Li(from games)

观察者称，虽然玩家在游戏社区中为自己所爱游戏创造同人作品的现象并不罕见，但这是《模拟人生社交版》问世6个月首次出现这种情况，这种玩家的瓷砖艺术堪称游戏中的一道风景线。

6）迪士尼在线工作室近日宣布旗下儿童在线游戏《Club Penguin》将从12月15至27日推出第五次Coins for Change年度公益活动，假如玩家于12月下半旬在游戏中捐赠了足够的coins（其目标是将coins填满游戏中的灯塔），工作室就将向社会慈善机构捐赠200万美元。

beacon-full-of-coins(from clubpenguin4you.com)

该游戏付费会员用户（每月会员费最多7.95美元）以及免费玩家，都可以通过参与游戏或挑战赢取虚拟货币。玩家并不能直接使用现金购买该游戏中的coins，但如果购买游戏的实体周边产品（游戏邦注：例如玩具、书籍等商品），就可以获得解琐这些coins的代码。

去年该游戏儿童玩家向这项慈善活动捐赠了1220万个虚拟货币，迪士尼在线工作室向多种公益项目捐献了100万美元。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Order & Chaos Online finds that subscriptions don’t work on Facebook

by Joe Osborne

And as a result, the game will be no more come Dec. 20. Mobile (and social) game developer Gameloft informed players from within the game. Order & Chaos Online for Facebook is the social

version of the online mobile MMO (massively multiplayer online game) available on both iPhones and Android phones. So, if your one of the game’s 2,000 daily players out there, bummer.

The message given to players in-game reminds them that they can join their friends on either their iOS or Android device to continue playing Order & Chaos. So, why did the game shut down after launching just in July of this year? While Gameloft hasn’t provided an official explanation, we’d guess it’s due to three things.

For one, 3D MMOs that require downloads (additional to the ubiquitous Flash), have control legends and list system requirements haven’t done well on Facebook historically. Secondly, the game suffered severe security issues earlier this fall that could have very well scared many players away. And finally, when players in the game hit level 10, they were hit with a subscription fee to be paid in Facebook Credits in order to continue playing.

If there’s one thing that’s known about Facebook games, it’s that nearly nobody likes to pay. And as for the 3 to 5 percent that do, they prefer to buy things at leisure, like new barns or an extra boost in energy to keep going. Order & Chaos Online threw the illusion of “free-to-play” out the window completely.（source:games）

2）Finally, GREE reveals what everyone actually cares about: the games

by Joe Osborne

Japan’s mobile social gaming network GREE has leaked details regarding its global expansion through OpenFeint ever so slowly. Painfully so, in fact. Now, Andriasang reports that DeNA’s archenemy has finally announced a number of big time games that will be right there with GREE’s launch on iPhones and Android phones in the US and abroad. How does some DDR sound?

Konami revealed that it’s bringing the iconic dance machine arcade-gone-mobile game, DanceDanceRevolution, to GREE. Capcom is in on the global GREE launch, set to happen between April and June 2012, with a mobile version of Resident Evil Mercenaries VS and Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting, which is already available for iPhone. Tecmo Koei is bringing over a version of its hit Dynasty Warriors franchise to GREE as well.

This is all well and good, but we have one concern: All of these games, including those from Japanese game makers we didn’t mention, appeal to a very niche, dare we say “hardcore” audience. While part of GREE’s global expansion is to merge with OpenFeint (and likely many of games under that Western service’s umbrella), the network is going to need games that appeal to a mass audience to live up to its expectations of beating Nintendo.

GREE claims that, after the merge with OpenFeint, its games will be exposed to 150 million players. But 150 million players or not, those players are going to need all types of games to be interested in. Granted, we’re still a long ways away from the GREE global launch. Oh … about that.（source:games）

by Jon Jordan

A well connected US CEO recently told me that it’s becoming impossible to hire anyone in the Bay Area with a pulse, such is the current hiring frenzy.

And maybe that’s the subliminal thinking behind GREE’s new recruitment drive, which is backed with high visibility billboard ads on the San Francisco I-80 freeway.

The Japanese mobile gaming platform, which bought San Francisco-based OpenFeint for $104 million in April and is based in Burlingame, CA, is looking to expand aggressively with 100 new hires planned during 2012, which would double its US headcount.（source:pocketgamer）

3）Two thirds of Brits use social media in front of the telly

by Tim Green

And 29 per cent watch TV on mobile.

A global study of 9,000 viewers by Motorola has detailed the stealthy rise of the ‘social TV’ habit wherein people watch a programme and bitch about it at the same time on social networks.

It found that, with a combined weekly average of 14 hours of viewing, Brits are watching more than any of their European neighbours. They are joint second with Japan, behind the US, where the average viewer watches 15 hours a week.

Meanwhile, 63 per cent of them say they have used the Internet or a social network to discuss a TV programme while they are watching it.

In China 92 pe rcent of the population have discussed a TV show online.

29 percent of British viewers are watching streamed or downloaded video/TV on a mobile device or laptop.

Overall, the web is complementing TV rather than competing with it.  The study found that people spend 18 hours a week online, but that three of these hours coincide with TV watching.

This trend is most advanced in China, Turkey, Latin America and Russia, where consumers spend more hours than anywhere else watching TV on a mobile device and they are far more interested in signing up to new services.（source:mobile-ent）

4）Console games headed to Chrome browser

By Brett Molina

A scene from ‘Bastion.’CAPTIONSupergiant GamesSearch giant Google showcased new technology that would make Web browsers powerful enough to run console video games.

As CNet reports, the Native Client was revealed in a demo Thursday night at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco.

Along with providing tighter browser security, the Native Client is also beefy enough to run console-quality games, such as the Xbox Live Arcade title Bastion.

Based off a demo of Bastion running in Google’s Chrome browser, “it was apparent that the gameplay was smooth and that the graphics were highly detailed,” says the CNet report.

Publisher Square Enix announced that action game Mini Ninjas would debut on Google’s Chrome Web store. In a statement, Square Enix also says more of its titles will appear within the next year.（source:content）

5）An Angry Bird (and Chun Li) lands in The Sims Social through Tile Art

by Joe Osborne

It’s nothing short of awesome when you see a game community create in their game of choice for the sake of it. The Sims Social players haven’t even been at it for six months, and already they’re showing mad skills. Take Tile Art, for instance: It’s not as creative as stacking has proved to be, but it’s an indisputable display of skill. (Remember Super Mario?)

This time around, a player known as BBQ has recreated the red Angry Bird from Rovio’s iconic mobile game using various colored tiles from the in-game store. What’s most impressive about this piece is its accuracy. Just look at the shading! Sure, the finer points of the original drawing are lost in translation, but for what BBQ has done using just square tiles is impressive.

The second piece is Chun Li, one of the most popular characters from the classic fighting game, Street Fighter. Also created by BBQ, this is probably the most impressive piece of Tile Art we’ve seen yet. Again, you have to consider what the artist is working with: square tiles. Just like in the Angry Bird piece, BBQ displays his/her skills in shading and attention to the details that make the image recognizable. Now, let’s see what BBQ can do with, say, The Mona Lisa.（source:games）

6）Club Penguin Charity Event Reaching For $2M Goal

by Eric Caoili

If Club Penguin players donate enough virtual coins in the kid-targeted online game during the second half of December, Disney Online Studios will donate $2 million to real charitable causes.

Running from December 15 to 27, Club Penguin’s fifth annual Coins for Change program invites players to donate their virtual coins to causes like medical services, safe housing, and protecting the earth.

Subscribers to Club Penguin (who pay a membership cost of $7.95 per month or less), as well as users who play in the virtual world for free, earn their virtual currency by participating in games or competitions.

Club Penguin’s coins are not purchasable with real-world money, though they often are included in the game’s physical merchandise as unlock codes with toys, books, and other products.

Disney Online Studios will make the $2 million donation if players manage to fill an in-game lighthouse with coins. Last year’s Coins for Change saw kids collecting some 12.2 billion virtual coins for the different causes.

The 2010 campaign divided $1 million in donations to different projects. Since its inception, Coins for Change has funded schools, libraries, health clinics, clean water programs, and more across 40 countries.

“I am continuously amazed by the commitment and passion our players have for helping improve the lives of others,” says Club Penguin co-founder and Disney Online Studios executive vice president Lane Merrifield.

He added, “The Club Penguin community has already helped more than a million people all over the world through Coins for Change and I hope by doubling the donation, they can help even more.” （source:gamasutra）