上个月，LOLapps公司旗下游戏由于外泄用户资料被Facebook社交网站禁用。LOLapps旗下游戏每月总计有用户多达1亿人，游戏受Facebook限制意味着公司将遭受重大损失，正因此LOLapps目前正极力摆脱Facebook控制，转向多平台发展。

昨天，位于旧金山的LOLapps公司发布了RavenwoodFair.com网站。该网站运用了Facebook Connect功能获得所有用户的Facebook好友列表。现在，玩家不用登陆Facebook网站也可以与好友们一起体验该款热门游戏。

在此之前，当Facebook网站提出要在虚拟商品交易中分一杯羹时，社交游戏开发巨头Zynga公司也采取了类似的举措。他们为旗下热门游戏FarmVille开设了专门的FarmVille.com网站

当然，老练的LOLapps首席执行官Arjun Sethi不会直言指出LOLapps的此次举措是为了从Facebook平台转移。他说的是LOLapps正在运用Facebook Connect，该功能可以在Facebook网站范围之外通过获取Facebook好友列表让玩家享受同样的游戏乐趣。Sethi指出，LOLapps公司一直都想增加新的游戏运营平台。现在由于Ravenwood Fair发展迅速因为加速了这一计划。

RavenwoodFair

Ravenwood Fair是LOLapps逐渐从Facebook网站转移的最佳之选。据Appdata数据显示，该款由Doom开发者John Romero担任顾问的游戏在发售后短短两周内玩家激增180万。玩家体验该款游戏的平均时长是20分钟，其中高达12%的玩家愿意购买游戏道具。Sethi指出由于使用了同意的Facebook网站虚拟货币Facebook Credit，游戏的付费玩家比例显著增高。

有趣的是LOLapps发布的这款融合了Facebook Connect功能的网站可以保存玩家在任何地点进行的存档资料。玩家不论在Facebook网站或者Ravenwood Fair网站都可以继续自己的存档或角色。

现在Ravenwood Fair运营正常，但在发布之初该游戏差点脱轨。Ravenwood Fair本预计在10月15日发布，但当日Facebook仅仅以“违反Facebook原则”，关闭了所有LOLapps游戏并在17日晚间才恢复运营。之后《华尔街日报》刊登了包括LOLapps在内的多家游戏开发公司都曾向第三方公司泄露用户资料。LOLapps公司作为其中之一被Facebook关闭。对此，Sethi表示LOLapps正在和Facebook交涉在确保用户资料安全和不违背Facebook原则的前提下恢复LOLapps游戏的正常运营。10月19日，LOLapps得以在Facebook上发布新款游戏Ravenwood Fair。

当时，Sethi并没有对Facebook提出的惩罚发表任何评论。之后在博客网站中，该公司承认Facebook曾表示“开发商在多数情况下并不是有意泄露用户资料，此次事件主要是出于技术原因”。经过对该问题的分析，LOLapps马上和引发隐私纠纷的营销公司RapLeaf解约，重新依从Facebook。

从这一事件我们可以看出LOLapps的命脉被Facebook所掌控。如果游戏被Facebook关闭，LOLapps没有别的平台可发布游戏。多样化平台是该公司现在迫切需要的发展策略。

LOLapps开发Ravenwood Fair是为了进一步增强其在社交游戏领域的实力，跻身为Zynga, EA-Playfish, Disney-Playdom和CrowdStar之列。上述这些主要的社交游戏开发公司现都通过销售游戏虚拟商品印制专属的“钞票”。

据Appdata数据显示，LOLapps在Facebook网站的月活跃用户约有1500万人。LOLapps指Facebook并没有将部分使用LOLapps应用进行礼品赠送和测验的玩家计入其中。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）

LOLapps got knocked for a loop last month when Facebook abruptly shut down all of the company’s apps, which collectively draw more than 100 million monthly active users. So perhaps its no surprise to see today that the company is moving beyond Facebook.

San Francisco-based LOLapps has launched its RavenwoodFair.com website, where users of its popular Facebook game can play. The new game website still taps a user’s friend list via Facebook Connect, but the game can now be played whether a user visits Facebook or not.

It’s similar to a move that Zynga, the largest social-games maker, pulled with its popular FarmVille game, introducing the FarmVille.com website. That launch occurred in the midst of tense negotiations over the social network’s plans to get a cut of virtual goods sold through games played on Facebook.

Arjun Sethi, chief executive of LOLapps, is much too diplomatic to say his company is diversifying away from Facebook. Rather, he says his company is embracing Facebook Connect, which connects your friend lists on Facebook with applications beyond the borders of Facebook’s own social network.

“We have always planned to add new platforms and this game has grown so fast that we have decided to accelerate our plan,” Sethi said.

Zynga has also had feuds with Facebook over the social network’s decision to make it more difficult for users to solicit friends to play their games through status updates and requests, which forced big game companies to pay for more advertising to spread their games.

Ravenwood Fair is a good candidate for LOLapps to use to move beyond Facebook because it’s a big hit. Developed by consultant John Romero, co-creator of Doom, the game has grown to more than 1.8 million monthly active users in just two weeks, according to AppData.

The average session time for the game is more than 20 minutes and as many as 12 percent of users are purchasing items in the game, Sethi said. Sethi believes that the number of users buying virtual goods is high because the game makes use of Facebook Credits, the new official virtual currency for the social network.

The interesting thing about launching the website with Facebook Connect is that the game allows players to log in into their own game — with all of its saved data — from anywhere. You can go to the Facebook site or you can go to the web site and still play the same game with your same saved data and character.

Things are going well now, but Ravenwood Fair was almost derailed. It was supposed to launch on Oct. 15, but Facebook pulled down all LOLapps games on that day and didn’t restore them until the evening of 17, citing only “violation of Facebook’s policies.” The Wall Street Journal reported that some games, including LOLapps titles, were wrongfully transmitting user data to third-party companies. Of those companies, LOLapps was one that was singled out and shut down. Sethi said LOLapps worked with Facebook to restore its games and will ensure it can protect users’ safety and abide by Facebook’s policies. By Tuesday, Oct. 19, LOLapps was able to launch Ravenwood Fair on Facebook.

At the time, Sethi didn’t comment on being in the penalty box with Facebook. But in a blog post, the company acknowledged that Facebook said that, “in most cases, developers did not intend to pass this (private user) information, but did so because of the technical details of how browsers work.” Upon learning of the problem, LOLapps “immediately dissolved” a relationship (presumably a business deal with RapLeaf, one of the marketing firms caught in the privacy mistake) and then brought itself back into compliance.

The whole incident showed everyone that LOLapps’ fate lay entirely in Facebook’s hands. When its games were taken down, LOLapps had no games available at all. Diversification was an obvious strategy to pursue.

Ravenwood Fair is part of LOLapps’ strategy to become a big player in social games and join the ranks of Zynga, EA-Playfish, Disney-Playdom, and CrowdStar. Those companies have been printing money by creating simple casual games that are free-to-play, where users can play the game for free and can pay real money for virtual goods.

AppData shows that LOLapps has more than 15 million monthly active users on Facebook. But LOLapps says Facebook does not include in those stats the company’s many users who have developed their own custom gift and quiz apps using LOLapps titles. （Source：venturebeat）