Infinite-Realms(from insidesocialgames.com)

与其他策略类游戏一样，《Infinite Realms》的用户定位也是硬核游戏玩家，它展现的是科幻背景和高级的艺术风格，支持用户通过PayPal、信用卡、手机、预付卡或银行转帐等途径购买虚拟货币，玩家也可以通过游戏中的广告推广服务赢取虚拟货币，目前尚未绑定Facebook Credits系统。

2）Saatchi & Saatchi公司最新调查表明，生活空虚是用户体验社交游戏的最大原因之一。该报告的调查对象是2000名18至44岁的男女用户，其中57%受访者称玩社交游戏可以让自己在无聊的时候打发时间；还有40%用户自称在情绪低落的时候玩游戏，39%受访者称玩社交游戏是一人独处时消磨时间的最佳手段。

Frequency of social gaming(from saatchisblog.com)

多数女性用户自称玩社交游戏是为了打发时光，而大部分男性却称他们主要是为了体验竞争的快感。50%的受访者表示自己几乎每天都玩社交游戏，还有一半以上的上班族称自己在闲暇时间就会玩游戏。

3）在最近的E3展会上，澳大利亚开发商Halfbrick宣布即将推出《水果忍者》的Facebook版本《Fruit Ninja Frenzy》。

Fruit Ninja Frenzy(from games.com)

从新游戏的演示版本中可以看出，它的吸引力堪比《宝石迷阵闪电战》。它保持了60秒切水果的简单游戏机制，同时还添加了好友积分排行榜功能，如果玩家赢得了100个积分，还可以获得10个Juice虚拟货币。该游戏的另一种虚拟货币Starfruit支持玩家解琐一可增强功力的“杨桃”。玩家在游戏中还可解琐成就、刀片和其他道具等内容。该游戏设置了跨平台功能，可将Facebook版本与iOS版本绑定，如果玩家在Facebook平台赢得高分，其手机版本也会同步更新分值。

4）日本社交网络Mixi最近宣布将从6月13日开始，调整用户足迹（footprint）功能设置。该功能原来可显示好友在几秒/分钟前浏览用户页面（包括个人资料、日志和照片等内容）的情况，Mixi准备让该功能显示“上周访客”这种非即时性的内容。

Mixi--footprint(from asiajin.com)

观察者称之前的即时性信息显示功能，常让重视礼仪的日本用户产生“有个朋友在5分钟前看了我的日志，我不去回访她的页面就太失礼了”这种感觉，这一点很有助于提高用户粘性，但现在Mixi将其调整为这种非即时性功能设置却有点令人费解。

5）据games.com报道，《妙探闯通关》游戏开发商Telltale Games将把AMC热门恐怖科幻剧《行尸走肉》（The Walking Dead）改编成系列电脑游戏，并将向Facebook平台推出与其相关连的社交游戏。《行尸走肉》的电脑游戏预计于2011年底发布，但并未敲定Facebook版本的问世日期。

the walking dead(from games.com)

6）EA Playfish将于今年夏天向iOS平台推出免费版《Pet Society Vacation》，它是原Facebook版本的扩展游戏内容，玩家在原Facebook版本中的宠物形象也将移植到这个新版游戏的热带小岛环境中。但比较遗憾的是，这个版本也并非与原Facebook版本完全兼容，玩家在Facebook游戏中搜集的道具、积分均不可用于这个新版游戏，而且也无法直接通过这个手机应用，与Facebook游戏中的好友互动（游戏邦注：除非对方也在玩这个iOS版本的游戏），反之亦然。

Pet Society Vacation(from games.com)

7）上个月已被Zynga收购的社交游戏开发商DNA Games最近宣布将于7月8日关闭旗下的《Casino City》、《Bar World》和《Slot City》游戏项目。insidesocialgames之前的报告曾指出，一款社交游戏通常会在发布后的三四个月中达到其流量顶峰，但如果开发商不调整其发展策略，就有可能导致该游戏在随后12个月中逐渐流失用户。

Casino City---MAU DAU(from insidesoicalgames.com)

DNA Games这几款游戏也出现了用户数量下滑的趋势，据AppData数据显示，发布于2010年11月的《Bar World》登台仅一个月就达到流量峰值，随后就开始逐步走向下坡路；而发布于今年4月初的《Slot City》甚至还没达到三个月内的流量峰值，就已开始一路下滑。《Casino City》的表现略有不同，该游戏发布于2010年4月，是DNA Games历史最悠久的一款游戏，它在今年1月份才达到用户峰值，3月份开始出现下滑倾向。

8）据pocketgamer报道，Capcom公司即将推出新款免费手机社交游戏《Monster Pet Shop》，支持玩家经营充满各色怪物的宠物商店，搜集、饲养和照料20多种不同的宠物，并与好友共享怪物蛋以完成搜集任务。《Monster Pet Shop》支持玩家离线体验游戏，与之前的《蓝精灵村庄》一样植入了微交易功能。

monster-pet-shop-iphone(from games.com)

9）Nival公司旗下的《Prime World》是一款即将面世的MMO即时战略游戏，其独特之处在于植入了Facebook功能，支持玩家邀请Facebook好友（例如那些对硬核游戏不感兴趣的用户）参与其中的城堡建设迷你小游戏。《Prime World》甚至还提供了一款风格与《祖玛》相似的迷你小游戏，以便不愿参战的玩家从中获得休闲体验。

prime world(from games.com)

如果男女用户组队参与游戏，还可以赢得使其免受攻击的奖励，组队参战的玩家越多，玩家群体的胜算就越大，也就可以获得更多奖励。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Infinite Realms Aims to Cater to Hardcore Gamer Crowd with Realistic Graphics and Strong Story

By Pete Davison

Infinite Realms is a Facebook strategy game from developer Joyport Inc. The game officially launched December 6, 2010, but in the words of game producer Waye Geng, it was “unstable and somewhat unsuccessful back then.” Since that time, the team worked to “fix” it and re-released the game on May 13 of this year. Geng says he’s pleased with the metrics so far, believing that traffic will pick up in earnest very soon.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Infinite Realms currently has 51,394 monthly active users and 3,934 daily active users.

Infinite Realms is monetized through its premium currency of “tokens,” which players can spend on special items and gameplay boosts. Geng says the game monetizes well with hardcore players willing to spend real money on Hero equipment and higher-end weapons. Tokens can be purchased using PayPal, credit card, mobile, bank transfer or pre-paid card. They can also be earned through the game’s offer wall. At present, the game does not feature Facebook Credit integration, which Geng says is due to lack of communication with Facebook.（source:insidesocialgames）  

2）The number one reason for playing social games? Boredom

by Libe Goad

TweetIn the modern media world filled with e-books, mp3s, Facebook updates, email, Hulu and endless cat videos on YouTube — it seems crazy that anyone could ever be bored. But, a new Saatchi & Saatchi study says the b-word is the main reason that people play FarmVille or other forms of social games.

Here are a few more telling quotes from respondents to the study, which surveyed a total of roughly 2,000 men and women, ages 18-44.

“They help me pass the time when I am bored.” (57%)

“It gives me something to do when I am in the mood for something mindless.” (40%)

“It’s a good way to spend time alone.” (39%)

While most of the women who responded to the survey say they play to quell boredom, men tended to say they play social games for competition. Some other fun factoids uncovered by the survey are that 50% all people online ages 18-44 play social games on a daily basis, and for those who are employed, more than half of them play social game while on the clock. Sounds about right to me.（source:games） 

3）E3 2011: Fruit Ninja Frenzy takes a slice out of Facebook this summer

by Brandy Shaul

At this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, we had a chance to go hands-on with Halfbrick’s upcoming port of the popular iOS game Fruit Ninja – Fruit Ninja Frenzy – on Facebook. As of this writing, you can Like of the game’s official fan page, and you can “play” an incredibly short version of the game, slicing one single fruit just to see what the mechanic would look like (you hold down the left mouse button and then slice just as you would when drawing your finger across a touch screen).

For this E3 demo, however, we got to take a look at a fairly final version of the game, which is more comparable to Bejeweled Blitz and other one-minute games than anything else. In Fruit Ninja Frenzy, the same basic gameplay from the mobile version has been retained, but has been chopped (no pun intended) into 60-seconds of bite sized fruity goodness. Your goal is still to slice as many pieces of fruit as you can in the 60 seconds to earn points. You’ll earn combo points for slicing multiple fruit at once, and you’ll need to what out for bombs that will remove points from your score.

While all of that remains the same, the Facebook elements here give you an overall profile and score. Sure, each game has an individual score, which allows you to climb your leaderboard of friends that have posted scores, but you’ll also earn a tenth of your points as Juice, a new currency in the game (that is, if you scored 100 points, you’d receive 10 Juice). Another currency, Starfruit, allows you to unlock Smoothies, which are power-ups that can be activated before each run at the game.

This power-up system will be familiar to Bejeweled Blitz fans, as they allow you to make bombs harmless (they’ll show up as dimmed outlines and can’t be sliced), add more time to your clock and so on. You’ll start with only one power-up slot free, but can eventually expand to three by spending more Starfruit, which can be earned through simply playing the game or purchasing it outright.

For iOS fans, the game will connect to the iOS version, just as the way Bejeweled Blitz works on iPhone. The Frenzy gameplay will be available in the palm of your hand, and if you happen to beat your high score posted on Facebook, it will be updated via this cross-platform support. Additionally, just as with the iOS version(s) of the game, you’ll be able to unlock achievements, blades and other unlockables on Facebook, giving you an incentive to keep going (as if you really needed any extra persuasion).
Does Fruit Ninja Frenzy break the mold when it comes to 60-second gameplay on Facebook? Not really, but it doesn’t have to. The game has become so iconic to mobile players, and the gameplay was incredibly smooth here, making for a seamless transition. I can’t wait to be able to spend five minutes (or more, let’s face it) here and there slicing and dicing my way through fruit to earn bragging rights among friends.（source:games）  

4）Mixi To Turn Off Its Unique Footprint Function

by Akky Akimoto

Mixi, Japan’s largest Facebook-type social network service, today announced that they would change their ashiato(footprint) service from June 13th.

Mixi’s footprint is a feature to show you which your network friend browsed your page (profile, diary, photo, etc.) at how many seconds/minutes ago.

By this, Mixi in early days acquired users stickiness, by making polite Japanese users worried, like “oh, my friend A read my diary 5 minutes ago, I will be impolite if I will not leave footprint on her page”.

Also, after the East Japan Earthquake, this footprint worked well for people to check if their not-so-serious friends had come back online.

The release said that the feature will be remodeled to “the last week visitors” list, less real-time. Here is the sample image of the planned new page.

Mixi explains that footprint is not so important nowadays as some of Mixi features like Mixi Voice (microblog) does not mark footprints, and Mixi Iine(Like) covers some light communications with your friends. But I can not see why they have to make it less real-time at this point.

This kind of change must cause lots of refusal responses if it was done, say in 2005, however, I have not observed them both in Mixi or outside.（source:asiajin）  

5）E3 2011: Walking Dead game gets a Facebook tie-in

by Libe Goad

A few months ago, we learned that The Walking Dead, a hit TV series on AMC as well as a comic book series with a serious cult following, is getting the game treatment. Sam & Max creator Telltale games is turning the popular franchise into an episodic game series that — instead of rehashing the comics and TV show — tells the story about a criminal named Lee Everett who escapes police custody due to zombie attack and then unites with a 7-year-old named Clementine, and the pair then attempts to battle their way out of Atlanta.

In addition to this main game, Telltale will apparently be releasing a separate Walking Dead social game on Facebook and that will be linked with the main game in some form or fashion. No details yet on what this Facebook tie-in will look like, but fingers crossed that its more than a poorly executed adver-game designed to upsell its bigger sibling. Yeah, yeah — hope springs eternal.

The main Walking Dead game is expected to rear its head at the end of 2011, and I suspect that the Facebook game tie-in won’t be too far behind.（source:games）  

6）E3 2011: Pet Society Vacation on iPhone takes your Facebook pet on a tropical trip

by Brandy Shaul

Before this year’s E3, we were given nothing more than a name to go on for EA Interactive and Playfish’s newest iOS game, but what a name it was: Pet Society Vacation. Today, we may not have been able to go hands-on with Pet Society Vacation, or even see it in action (due to a temporary wi-fi issue), but we did learn more about what makes this expansion of the established Facebook game tick.

First and foremost, Pet Society Vacation isn’t so much a new game as it is a way for you to earn exclusive items back in your Facebook game. Your pet’s appearance and level from Facebook will be brought over to this tropical expansion and island, where you’ll be given a house boat. The house boat has a single room, but over time can be expanded just like your normal home.

These rooms, of course, will be empty, so a set of tropical item shops will be available in the game to allow you to outfit both your new rooms and your pet in tropical gear. Unfortunately, if you have any themed items currently in your Facebook inventory, you can’t access these from Vacation, so you really are starting from scratch in that respect.

As for earning coins in Vacation, you’ll be able to visit friends and care for your friends’ pets as you’d expect, but you can also play a new Scuba-diving mini-game to dig for not only coins under the water, but also new decorative items for your house boat.

Even if you have a lot of Pet Society friends in the original game on Facebook, you won’t be able to send free gifts to all of them via the app; only the ones that also play Vacation on iPhone. Additionally, due to the fact that both games on are different platforms, you’ll have to accept not being able to use your saved premium currency on Facebook over in Vacation and vice versa.

Pet Society Vacation will launch on iPhone and iPod Touch later this summer and will be free to download. Get ready to connect your Facebook account once more to start new adventures with your pets on the go!（source:games）  

7）DNA Games Sunsets Casino City, Bar World and Slot City on Facebook Following Zynga Acquisition

By AJ Glasser

Late yesterday, DNA Games posted announcements on the Pages of Casino City, Bar World and Slot City announcing each game’s impending closure set for July 8. The developer was acquired by Zynga last month to the purpose of developing new intellectual property.

Typically, we see social games on Facebook sunsetting only after a prolonged period of decline across monthly active users and monthly active users. These games usually hit their peak traffic within three to four months of launch and then spend as many as 12 months shrinking before the developer moves to sunset or change its growth strategy. According to research published in Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2011, engaged social gamers stick around for about two months before moving on. This tells us that decline slopes are impacted as much by new users not coming in as by old users lapsing.

In the case of DNA Games’ library, we see some inconsistencies with other sunset scenarios with its two newer games, Bar World and Slot City. The former launched in November 2010 and reached peak traffic only one month after launch and instead of steadily decline, it experienced a resurgence in traffic almost four months later. The latter, meanwhile, only just launched in early April, barely giving it three months in which to aim for peak numbers. Both games saw a marked decline in May just prior to the acquisition announcement.

Casino City, meanwhile, tells a slightly different story. This game is DNA Games’ oldest Facebook title, launched in April 2010, and by far its largest, accounting for over half the developer’s total MAU and DAU across all its games. Casino City differs from what we think of as a typical sunset pattern in that didn’t reach peak traffic until February of this year.

While the beginning of this social game’s “slow burn” life cycle differs from other sunsetting games, however, the end of it looks similar — Casino City began a downward slope at the beginning of March that remained consistent even throughout the acquisition announcement period.（source:insidesocialgames）  

8）Capcom’s Monster Pet Shop: A free, social iPhone game coming soon

by Joe Osborne

Forget those blue little fur balls (Smurfs I think they’re called), because Capcom is about to release a monstrous iPhone game called Monster Pet Shop. The company announced that the free mobile social game will be available soon at this year’s E3 event in Los Angeles, Pocket Gamer reports. Players will take over a long-lost relative’s pet shop … only it’s filled with colorfully cute monsters rather than dogs, cats and iguanas.

It will be your job to collect, breed, care for and sell the critters of which there are 20 different breeds that make for over 100 unique closet-dwellers. But don’t worry, because this is a social game, after all. Players will share monster eggs with one another to help complete their collections, though the game can be played offline as well. Of course, the game will support micro-transactions, though hopefully not in the same way it did with Smurfs Village. But considering Capcom’s track record on the iPhone, we’re expecting a monstrous money-maker.（source:games）  

9）E3 2011: Prime World mixes free-to-play MMO with Facebook friend interaction

by Brandy Shaul

Nival’s Prime World is an upcoming free-to-play PC game that allows players a chance to enter a never-ending battle between two warring factions. Prime, the game’s currency, is a source of power, magic and overall life on this war torn planet, and your ultimate goal will be to gather as much Prime as possible, to strengthen your own skills and abilities. As there are two different armies in this war, each has their own moral code and way of life. One, a scientific culture, focuses on logic and uses Prime to create new mechanical objects; the other is more spiritual, artistic and free-flowing, using Prime to enhance their magical abilities.

Prime World’s gameplay seems two-fold. For one, you can exit the safety of your castle/kingdom and battle members of the opposite army, destroying towers, defeating monsters, and claiming new land for your own (the land physically changes from dry and barren to lush and downright beautiful as you claim it). You’ll earn Prime for most actions, and can then spend that prime on new abilities, whether for use in defense, self-growth or offense. The other element shown at our E3 demo was that of city-building, as you create new buildings inside your castle’s walls.

The major elements of free-to-play MMOs all seem to be present, but where the game becomes a bit different is in its inclusion of Facebook. You’ll be able to invite your Facebook friends to play the game with you (as Nival says, to introduce players who may not be as hardcore to the fun), via a castle-building mini game. There’s even a Zuma-inspired marble game for those that would prefer to match marbles than enter combat (at least temporarily). Gender based bonuses are available as well, so if a male and female play in the same group, they might receive a bonus that protects them from damage if they stay close together. As strategy and teamwork play a huge role in PvP sessions (of course, two or more units attacking the same enemy will greatly increase the odds for survival), you’ll want to invite as many Facebook friends into the game as possible to take advantage of those bonuses.（source:games）