1）据FarmVille Freak发现，Zynga有可能推出第5个名为《FarmVille:Jade Falls》的《FarmVille》扩展内容，它采用东方背景，包含亚洲主题文化元素。

farmville freak jade fall(from games)

除了常规的农场游戏元素之外，这个新内容可能将引进“梯田农场”这一独特元素，但Zynga目前尚未正式公开新项目详情。

2）据gamasutra报道，Facebook日前推出新功能“feed gaming”，支持开发者让用户在其Facebook页面的动态消息及Timeline中体验社交游戏，以便用户快速找到并尝试其游戏的简化版本。

feed gaming(from insidesocialgames)

现在开发者可以创建一个游戏的简化版本，让用户与好友在自己的动态消息栏目中共同体验游戏（游戏邦注：由于这是一个简化版游戏，所以用户无需安装应用，或授权其获取自己的个人信息）。

例如，玩家体验一款社交游戏时，可以选择将自己的高分发布到动态消息上，并在其中嵌入游戏简化版本，邀请好友参与挑战；结束游戏后，该简化版应用会邀请玩家安装完整版应用。

目前Idle Games游戏《Idle Worship》、Rovio游戏《愤怒的小鸟》、Tetris Online游戏《Tetris Battle》、King.com游戏《Bubble Witch Saga》已经采用feed gaming功能以获取新用户并提升用户粘性。

3）Zynga发行合作副总裁Rob Dyer日前表示，Zynga今年不会派遣大量人员参与E3展会，只有Dyer及其他5名成员将出席其中一个有关内容合作的会议。

Rob Dyer(from gamesindustry.biz)

Dyer称E3目前处于转型状态，它已不再是由掌机游戏领域主导的展会，它也为网页或手机领域的游戏开发者提供了相互交流的机会。据其所言，去年他在东京游戏展上看到除了索尼之外，只有其他三四款掌机游戏在该展会上亮相，这种景象让他大为震惊，使他决定离开索尼进军手机/社交游戏领域。他认为今年的E3展会有可能重现这一幕，届时将有更多免费增值游戏在该展会现身。

4）《暴雨》制作人David Cage在最近采访中指出，他并不认为开发游戏算是创造艺术的过程，他只是凭自己的热情去制作游戏，并不在乎游戏算不算一种艺术。

David Cage(from gameinformer.com)

5）Large Animal Games与Starz Digital Media日前联手将根据美剧《斯巴达克斯》改制的社交游戏《Spartacus: The Game》推向中国社交平台新浪微博。这款游戏及其继集《Sparatcus: Vengeance》目前仍在Facebook平台运营（其发行商是6waves）。（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）FarmVille Jade Falls: Zynga heads for the Far East? [Report]

by Joe Osborne

Really, Zynga? Another FarmVille expansion? Honestly, we’ve lost count at this point on how many farms the developer has released in FarmVille. Now, FarmVille Freak has reportedly discovered unreleased images of yet another expansion that Zynga may push out: Jade Falls. If we’re counting correctly, this will be the fifth farm available to players.

Of course, this farm will take place in an Eastern setting, incorporating Asian themes and culture throughout. Like all farms released in the past, players will either have to pay up some Farm Cash to get in or wait around until Zynga releases the content for free.

You can also expect Jade Falls to bring with it new crops, animals, trees and decorations. It also seems as if Zynga has a unique feature in the works for this expansion: terrace farming. (We have no idea what that means, so don’t ask.) Mini games also seem like they’ll play a bigger role in this update, with exclusive items at stake.

Zynga has yet to make any announcement regarding a Jade Falls expansion for FarmVille, so all of this information is subject to change–blah, blah, blah. We know, you’re already gazing onto FarmVille’s horizon with either disdain or excitement … maybe a little bit of both. If anything, let this hold you off until FarmVille 2, if that’s even a thing.（source:games）

2）Facebook allows devs to embed social games into users’ news feeds

by Eric Caoili

Facebook has launched a new feature that enables developers to share playable versions of their social games in users’ news feeds and timelines, so that people can try out titles instantly.

This “feed gaming” feature makes it easier for users on the social network to discover and start playing games, as they’re introduced to and invited to immediately begin playing them on the site’s primary point of interaction, its news feeds.

Developers can now create a short sample of their game, which players can share with their friends in their news feeds. Because it’s a sample of the game, users are not required to install the app or allow it access to their personal information.

For example, a user playing a social game can choose to post their high score to their news feed, embed a game sample with the post, and challenge their friends to beat it. At the end of their sample game sessions, players are invited to install the full app.

Facebook notes that several titles — Idle Games’ Idle Worship, Rovio’s Angry Birds, Tetris Online’s Tetris Battle, and King.com’s Bubble Witch Saga — are already using feed gaming to increase user engagement and acquisition.（source:gamasutra）

3）What’s Zynga doing at E3, anyway?

by Chris Morris

Something was missing at last year’s E3.

While there were the usual big announcements and spectacle, the absence of Zynga – which was already one of the largest publishers in the industry – was a shadow hard to ignore. This year, though, the social games maker has reversed course – and will join the industry’s annual circus.

“It was an easy decision,” says Rob Dyer, vice president of partner publishing at Zynga. “We have a number of potential partners who will be there. … We did this very purposefully. We knew when we signed up for the space we would have launched Zynga Partners and would have Zynga.com up and running.”

Despite some early speculation to the contrary, don’t expect Zynga to go hog-wild at E3. The company opted to bypass the show’s expensive booths and won’t be sending a contingent of employees.

Instead, Dyer and about five other staffers will be huddled in a meeting room at the show to meet with prospective content partners. The company’s even turning down media appointments, so it can focus on finding new games.

While E3 is still very much a retail-oriented show (and, given the large media presence, a consumer facing event), the industry at large is changing. And Zynga is betting that evolution will extend to the show.

“E3 is in a bit of transition,” says Dyer. “It’s no longer just about consoles. It’s about games and having an opportunity to talk to the people making those games, whether on the web or mobile. It is where we need to be, so we will have a presence.”

Social games in general will have a larger presence at this year’s show. EA and Disney will both prominently showcase those divisions of their companies, despite having major console games on display. And as both vie for Zynga’s king-of-the-hill status, it could help with their recruiting – another reason Zynga decided to make the trip to Los Angeles this year.

It was, in fact, the growing presence of mobile/social games at industry trade shows that convinced Dyer to leave his position as senior vice president of publisher relations for Sony Computer Entertainment America nine months ago.

“The thing that struck me last year and influenced my decision to leave Sony was the Tokyo Game Show,” he says. “In the past, it was a very big deal about what was coming out on consoles. Last year, there were maybe three or four games outside of Sony’s booth that were console games. Everything else was social or mobile — and that was the canary in the coalmine for me. … I believe that over time, you’re going to see the same thing occur at E3. You’re going to see more free to play games on the show floor.”

Zynga’s stop at E3 is the white whale the ESA has been chasing for the past year (last year CEO Mike Gallagher said “We believe there’s a home for them at E3 and would very much like to see them at the show”), but the company is hardly the first socially focused developer/publisher to attend.

Kabam used last year’s E3 to showcase its core-focused social games and meet with developers – and accurately predicted the influx of other social gaming companies.

“It’s a great show for meeting partners and every major gaming company is here,” said Kevin Chou, CEO of Kabam, at the time. “There are a lot of major things going on in the industry and I think you’re going to see this disruption of the traditional gaming space and digital really converge in an interesting way in the next couple of years.”

Dyer acknowledges the competition – and even notes the irony of a company so focused on casual titles attending a show that caters more to the core gamer. Ultimately, he says, Zynga hopes its presence at E3 – and the partnerships it makes there – could convert those core gaming doubters into customers.

“I’m very cognizant we are not the only ones doing this,” he says. “The reason we’re there is to find games we can use to court the core gamer. We really want those kinds of games on the Zynga platform. You go hunting where the ducks are.” （source:gamasutra）

4）Heavy Rain’s David Cage: ‘I don’t care’ if my games are art

by Staff

When asked if he considers himself an auteur, Cage had to think about how to answer the question. “Do I consider myself doing art? Honestly, certainly not. I don’t think I’m doing art. I’m just doing it by passion, and I’m doing what I believe in.”

The creator sees himself as part of a team collaborating together — and that’s what’s important to him.

“That’s really what we do. And if something of what we create today, people still talk about it 50 years from now, then we’ll say, ‘Okay, it was art.’ But that’s really not something I have in mind every morning. Honestly, I don’t care.”

He does, however, see himself as an auteur in one sense: “I spend a year writing this stuff. It’s one year of my life doing this from morning to night, non-stop, for a year. And I put a lot of myself. I’m not talking about me — I’m talking about what I feel, what I think. Heavy Rain was really about me becoming a father, and all the fears that go with it. Yeah, all the fear and all the promise and all the things… In that sense, yeah, I think I’m an auteur, in a way.”

The full feature interview, in which Cage discusses everything from the technology that drives Kara — the new technology demo he showcased at this year’s GDC — to how his writing process shapes his games and vice versa, is live now on Gamasutra.（source:gamasutra）

5）Spartacus: The Game comes to China [Launch] — Large Animal Games and Starz Digital Media are breaking into the Chinese social game scene, launching Spartacus: The Game on social network Sina Weibo. Both Spartacus: The Game and its sequel Sparatcus: Vengeance are still active on Facebook under the 6waves banner.（source:insidesocialgames）