1）据彭博社报道，有知情者透露Zynga最近正计划通过发放股票期权以留住所有的全职员工。值得注意的是，Zynga之前虽然也向员工放发股票，但之前的这一政策并未覆盖所有员工。

zynga office(from business.financialpost.com)

Zynga最近麻烦不断，目前股票行情已跌至每股3美元左右，远逊于去年12月IPO时的每股10美元售价；除此之外，Zynga原首席运营官John Schappert最近也已经离职，该公司还面临来自股东的集体诉讼以及同EA之间的侵权官司。

2）据gamasutra报道，任天堂传奇设计师宫本茂曾在与《Dragon Quest》开发者Yuji Horii的谈话中指出，他们设计一款动作游戏时，总会先制作第二个关卡，等到其他一切都完成时再动手制作第一个关卡。

shigeru-miyamoto(from pitchyourtalent.wordpress.com)

这两者的共同观点是，关卡设计理念在实践中总比理论上更为困难。宫本茂团队在游戏完工时总会将游戏关卡难度降低20%左右，而Horii则表示纸面上的关卡设计在实际落实过程中“极端困难”，因此他总得在之后进行相应调整。

由此可见，游戏的首个关卡（游戏邦注：或教程，或序列等入门指南）必须有助于引导玩家探索其余内容，不可一开始就呈现过高难度而吓退玩家。

3）据insidesocialgames报道，Zynga最近与电影《The Lorax》合作，在旗下游戏《Draw Something》和《Words With Friends》嵌入该电影元素，并支持玩家通过游戏为自己所指定的学校捐赠Dr.Seuss（美国著名的儿童漫画家）的书籍。

Draw Something-The Lorax(from artofdrawsomething.com)

4）Digital Chocolate及Spil Games最近针对8-12岁女孩用户市场的调查结果显示，这一市场已有930万休闲游戏月活跃用户，其中84%用户通过平板电脑玩游戏，她们更喜欢体验测试、烹饪和美容/时装类游戏。

5）在本周新晋Facebook游戏（MAU不足100万）榜单中，Arvara旗下的酿酒题材的RPG游戏《Chateau》位居榜首，新增3万MAU，增幅为75%。

Top gainers this week-MAU(from AppData)

GamePoint游戏《WordTornado》名列第二，新增3万MAU，增幅达60%。IGG旗下的3DMMO游戏《100YearsWar Phillippines: An Unreal 3D MMORPG》位列第三，MAU达2万，增幅为40%。MeetHi的亲子模拟游戏《Happy Baby》新增2万MAU，增幅为29%；6waves于5月份发布的游戏《Cat Rescue》新增2万MAU，增幅为40%。

6）econsultancy在今年初针对2000名英国用户的调查报告显示，五分之一（19%）受访者玩过在线社交游戏，三分之一玩家（30%）每天都要多次玩游戏。

15%社交游戏玩家曾购买虚拟商品，8%曾购买虚拟货币（Juniper曾预测社交游戏虚拟商品市场规模将从2011年的21亿美元增长至2016年的48亿美元）。

Flowtown于1月份发布的信息图表则显示，在美国社交游戏玩家群体中，女性占比54%，男性为46%。

多数美国社交游戏玩家是已婚并有子女的用户，年收入介于5万至7.4万美元之间。

43%社交游戏玩家拥有大学文凭，41%属于全职上班族；67%社交游戏玩家还会玩视频游戏，76%用户在台式电脑玩社交游戏。认为玩社交游戏是为了与他人竞争的用户占比59%，为与他人互动的玩家占比49%，为赢得奖励者占比35%，为与他人协作完成任务者占比31%。

who-are-social-gamers（from flowtown)

（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 doles out stocks to keep employees from leaving – report

by Eric Caoili

Zynga might not seem like the most attractive place to work right now considering its recent turmoil, but sources say the company is looking to ensure employees don’t jump ship by handing out stock options to all full-timers.

It’s an unprecedented move for the developer, as it’s given out stock options to workers before but never to all full-time employees, a source close to the matter told Bloomberg.

The report comes a couple of weeks after Zynga’s stock plummetted, when the social game company’s admitted that its revenues for the quarter fell well below Wall Street’s estimates. Its share price has languished at around $3 since, a far cry from the $10 the stock initially opened at when Zynga went public last December.

Along with its financial troubles, the company has recently suffered the departure of COO John Schappert, a number of class action lawsuits from investors, and a copyright infringement suit from Electronic Arts. （source:gamasutra）

2）A free tip from Miyamoto: Make your first level last

by Frank Cifaldi

“When we’re doing an action game, we make the second level first. We begin making level 1 once everything else is completed.”- Nintendo’s legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto, in a candid conversation with Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii in 1989.

The topic of conversation was about how both creators find that the level designs in their heads (or on paper) end up being a little too difficult in practice.

Miyamoto goes as far as to say that (at least at the time) his teams reduce the difficulty of his game’s levels by around 20 percent once the game is complete. Horii says that the Dragon Quest dungeons he designs on paper are “outrageously difficult” in practice, and he’s usually forced to adjust the designs later.

In a world where many developers find themselves forced to polish a game’s opening sequence first in order to get a playable demo out, this 23-year-old advice might not seem feasible, but I think there’s some golden wisdom here.

Your first level (or tutorial, or sequence, or whatever you want to call it) should serve as a prologue for the rest of your game. It should introduce many of the concepts your player will be interacting with through the rest of your game, and it should do so in a way that doesn’t alienate them right away.

And what better time to introduce the rest of your game than after it’s done, and you know it inside and out? （source:gamasutra）

3）The Lorax comes to Draw Something and Words With Friends — Zynga is continuing to bring in movie content to its games, this week with The Lorax, which came out on DVD this week.  Both Draw Something and Words With Friends will have exclusive content themed to the movie and also provide players with the opportunity to donate Dr. Seuss books to schools of their choice.（source:insidesocialgames）

4）Tween girl game market sees growth spurt — A new study from Digital Chocolate and Spil Games revealed the tween girl market (with users between the ages of 8 to 12) is increasing dramatically. Highlights include there are 9.3 million monthly active users playing casual games, 84 percent of these users play games on tablets and they tend to prefer quizzes/tests, cooking and makeover/dress up games.（source:insidesocialgames）

5）Chateau on top of this week’s list of emerging Facebook games

Mike Thompson

Arvara’s wine-making RPG Chateau took the top spot on this week’s list of emerging Facebook games, up by 30,0000 monthly active users for a 75 percent increase.

GamePoint’s WordTornado came in at No. 2, also taking in 30,000 MAU but for a 60 percent gain in this case. IGG, a developer whose games regularly appear on our emerging lists, had its 3D massively multiplayer online game 100YearsWar Phillippines: An Unreal 3D MMORPG take the No. 3 spot with 20,000 MAU for a 40 percent swell. MeetHi’s parenting sim Happy Baby had a 29 percent gain with 20,000 MAU, allowing it to come in at No. 4. Finally, 6waves’s Cat Rescue (which launched in May but is finally beginning to take off) placed at No. 5 with 20,000 MAU, a 40 percent gain.

Three other games on the list had gains of 40 percent or higher. Yahoo’s Premier League Fantasy Football was up by 20,000 MAU for a 40 percent increase. Tyler’s long-running strategy game Battle Stations saw a swell of 16,219 MAu for a 48 percent gain. Meanwhile, Gerwin Software’s Quiz Tower was up by 11,239 MAU for a 60 percent increase.（source:insidesocialgames）

6）Profiling the social gamer: infographic Print

by Vikki Chowney

An obsession with social gaming peaked in 2010, remained steady during 2011 and is only now starting to even out.

But just because the buzz has quietened, it doesn’t mean the growth rate is slowing.

Our most recent stats on social gaming (based on responses from 2,000 UK consumers) show that a fifth of respondents – 19% – said they played social games online. Social games were also played frequently, with almost a third of gamers (30%) saying they play several times a day.

Plus, 15% of social gamers had purchased virtual goods and 8% virtual currency – which gives weight to Juniper’s prediction that the amount of money spent in this area will double in the next four years from $2.1bn last year to $4.8bn in 2016.

But just who are these social gamers?

Our research suggests that slightly more females are playing social games (20% compared to 18% for males). A new infographic from Flowtown says the same – with 54% female to 46% male.

Flowtown also says that most US-based social gamers are married with children, earn $50–74k and are obsessed with Words with Friends – which probably isn’t far off what the profile would be from a global perspective too.（source:econsultancy)