1）据GamesIndustry International报道，Zynga外部工作室高管及游戏设计元老Bob Bates（游戏邦注：他曾参与开发《Empires & Allies》和《Mafia Wars 2》）在最近采访中表示，他们对游戏“社交性”的理解仍处于初级阶段，目前Zynga游戏确实具有病毒性，但尚未实现真正意义上的“社交性”（即玩家与好友之间的真正互动，而非“我在这头玩，他在那头玩”的状态）。

Bob Bates--right(from realitypanic)

他认为让玩家与好友实现真正的互动，是Zynga需克服的一大挑战，并且承认他目前仍未找到解决问题的良策，但认为这种寻找出路的过程可能会很有趣。

2）Facebook监测工具MinorMonitor最近针对1000名家长的问卷调查结果显示，有38%的Facebook少儿用户年龄未满13岁（游戏邦注：Facebook规定未满13周岁的儿童不得成为注册用户），每1000名Facebook儿童用户中，就有40人年龄不超过6岁。

kids' safety on facebook(from MinorMonitor)

有74%家长对孩子在Facebook上的网络安全感到担忧，48%家长认为Facebook注册帐号的年龄准入门槛应该更高一些。

3）云游戏服务Gaikai近日宣布将通过其新款应用向Facebook推出《Farming Simulator 2011》，但目前在Facebook发布的仅是游戏演示版本，但许诺即将推出更具可玩性的完整版本。

Farming-Simulator-2011-tractor(from computer.gamers)

据其首席执行官及联合创始人David Perry所称，Gaikai的目标是让游戏像电影和音乐一样流畅运行。

4）休闲游戏粉丝网站CEGamers日前通过《Pioneer Trail》的一些交叉推广资料等未公开信息推测，Zynga下一款Facebook游戏可能就是《Bubble Safari》。

bubble safari-unreleaed-preview(from cegamers)

CEGamers认为《Bubble Safari》是一款“迷你”游戏，但观察者称制作迷你游戏并非Zynga开发传统，假如它只是一款嵌入大型游戏的迷你游戏，那么Zynga还有必要为其展开交叉推广活动吗？（要知道Zynga从来没有为《FarmVille》中的飞镖游戏展开类似推广活动）

目前与《Bubble Safari》玩法相似的游戏包括EA PopCap的《祖玛闪电战》、Wooga游戏《Bubble Island》以及King.com旗下的《Bubble Witch Saga》。

5）在本周DAU增长最快的Facebook榜单上，居于首位的Rovio游戏《愤怒的小鸟》一周内新增50万DAU，增幅达17%。

King.com旗下的《Bubble Witch Saga》及《Hoop De Loop Saga》占据第2和第3席位，增幅分别达3%和18%。

Top gainers this week--DAU(from AppData)

OMGPOP游戏《Draw My Thing》增幅达52%，新增13万DAU，迪士尼Playdom游戏《Marvel: Avengers Alliance》也收获13万DAU，增幅达20%。

由6waves发布的Playrix游戏《Township》新增5万DAU，增幅达63%；《Astro Garden》也得益于6waves的发行支持，新增4万DAU。（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）Zynga game design head: ‘We’re viral, but true social … is still ahead’

by Joe Osborne

A little humility from the largest social game maker around can go a long way. Today’s dose of reality is courtesy of Zynga CCO of external studios Bob Bates, during an interview with GamesIndustry International. The game design veteran who worked on Zynga hits Empires & Allies and (flops like) Mafia Wars 2 conceded that it hasn’t cracked the code for truly social gaming just yet.

“The thing that makes this different from everything we’ve done before really is the social element. We’re still in the infancy of understanding what’s possible and what it really means for a game to be social,” Bates told GamesIndustry International. “Right now we’re viral, but true social, where you feel like you’re actually playing with your friends, not ‘I’m playing here, he’s playing there’ is still ahead.”

Bates went on to say that achieving the sense of actually playing together with friends in social games is a challenge that he looks to overcome with Zynga. The designer admitted that he doesn’t know enough about the space yet to make that happen, but thinks that “finding ways to do those kinds of things would be very, very cool,” Bates told the news site.

It’s refreshing to hear the biggest player in social games admit that even it doesn’t know everything. Bates had plenty more interesting factoids to reveal about his time with Zynga, so be sure to check out the feature in full here.（source:games）

2）Infographic: Over one third of kids on Facebook are under 13 years old

by Joe Osborne

For the 48 percent of parents that think the minimum required age for a Facebook account should be even higher, this is one scary statistic. A survey of 1,000 parents conducted by Facebook monitoring tool MinorMonitor found that 38 percent of kids on Facebook are under 13 years old–the current minimum age requirement for kids on the network. That’s not even the half of it.

The company also found out the 40 in every 1,000 kids on Facebook are 6 years old or younger, based on responses to its survey. The question then shouldn’t be, “Do many kids that young even know how to use a web browser?” but rather, “Do many kids that young even know the ins and outs of social networking safety?” We highly doubt it.

MinorMonitor also found that a whopping 74 percent of parents are concerned about their kids’ safety on Facebook, with sexual predators being a concern of 56 percent of those mommies and daddies. And if you ask folks like Charles Conway, social games like The Sims Social can be a haven for folks of that ilk. Well, at least 51 percent of parents monitor their kids’ Facebook use by logging into their account. Check the infographic in full below.（source:games）

3）Gaikai wants ‘real games’ on Facebook, like Farming Simulator 2011

by Joe Osborne

You think FarmVille is a hoot? Pssh, then you clearly haven’t played Farming Simulator 2011. As if to make fun, that’s one of the first games cloud gaming service Gaikai has brought to Facebook through its new streaming app. The groundbreaking Facebook app went live today, and promises to bring “real games” to the network in a way that everyone can play.

However, today’s launch only brings game demos to Facebook, not full-blown games. Of course, Gaikai promises that fully playable games are on the way. This is just the company’s way of ironing out the kinks and giving the core game crowd a taste of what’s possible on the social network through streaming.

You see, when you play one of the games Gaikai offers, like Saints Row: The Third or Dead Rising 2, the service actually streams the game’s graphical content to your computer much like a YouTube video would. When you bludgeon a zombie with a vacuum cleaner, however, your computer streams that information back to Gaikai’s servers. This way, you get 100 percent interactivity without the need for an expensive gaming computer.

“Our goal is to get games as accessible as movies and music,” Gaikai CEO and co-founder David Perry told Engadget, “so games get the chance to compete.” Streaming game demos is one step in that direction, but we’ll believe it when we see MMOs (massively multi-player online games) stream their way onto our Facebook pages.（source:games）

4）Zynga has its own bubble bopper in the works, Bubble Safari [Rumor]

by Joe Osborne

It looks like Zynga wants to enter new territory. (Well, at least new for itself.) Casual gaming fan site CEGamers claims to have discovered what could be the developer’s next big Facebook game: Bubble Safari. The website found the unreleased data as cross-promotional material for Pioneer Trail that, if players try out the bubble popper, they’ll earn items for the former.

CEGamers calls Bubble Safari a “mini game,” but mini games aren’t exactly Zynga’s modus operandi. Even if this was a mini game to exist within one of the developer’s bigger games, we doubt it would run an entire cross promotion campaign for it. (Did Zynga run such events for, say, the dart game in FarmVille?)

It makes sense for Zynga to try its hand at a bubble-bashing Facebook game–just look at the competition. EA and PopCap have their own form of bubble blaster in Zuma Blitz, Wooga’s Bubble Island is its second most popular game and King.com’s raise to fame is thanks to Bubble Witch Saga. Bubble Safari could very well be the next social game we see from Zynga, though the company has yet to confirm anything. We’ve reached out for comment.（source:games）

5） Angry Birds roosts on top of this week’s fastest-growing Facebook games by DAU

Mike Thompson

Rovio’s Angry Birds gained 500,000 daily active users this week, a 17 percent gain that kept it in the No. 1 spot amongst the fastest-growing Facebook games by DAU.

King.com took the No. 2 and No. 3 spots on the list, thanks to Bubble Witch Saga and Hoop De Loop Saga each gaining 200,000 DAU (a 3 percent gain for Bubble Witch Saga and an 18 percent gain for Hoop De Loop Saga).

Ten other games on the list saw gains above 20 percent.  Emagist’s Ninja Saga increased by 150,000 DAU (an 18 percent gain); this is the first time in over a month that the game’s seen an increase in DAU, but looking at Ninja Saga’s history shows the title has a habit of losing traffic until suddenly jumping up again. OMGPOP’s Draw My Thing is continuing to ride the Draw Something wave, gaining 52 percent with 130,000 DAU. Disney Playdom’s Marvel: Avengers Alliance also increased by 130,000 DAU for a 20 percent gain, probably helped by the new TV spot for The Avengers debuting within the game last week.

Cookapps’s Superball gained 60,000 DAU for a 24 percent gain. Etermax’s Angry Words, a Scrabble clone that’s playable on Facebook and mobile devices, gained 63 percent with 50,000 DAU. Playrix’s Township is continuing to see growth under 6waves’s publishing banner, having gone up by 50,000 DAU for a 63 percent gain. MindJolt’s Paddle Ball jumped by 43,000 DAU for a 614 percent gain, notable since the game hasn’t seen traffic like this since it launched in March 2011.

Astro Garden is also doing well under 6waves, having increased by 40,000 DAU for a 29 percent gain. Kobojo’s city-builder Atlantis Fantasy also increased by 40,000 DAU for a 29 percent gain.（source:insidesocialgames）