1）据techcrunch报道，Zynga产品管理主管Curtis Lee近日辞职加入团购网站Groupon，担任后者消费者产品副总裁，负责监管Groupon面向消费者的一切事务。

groupon-cat(from games)

报道称Lee是Zynga的“盈利高手”，曾为Zynga制定了高效的财政管理方案，并曾与《FarmVille》设计师Mark Skaggs配合开发Zynga的超级神秘项目。观察者称，Zynga目前的高级人才流失情况令人担忧，仅在过去一个月中就有一名首席设计师和品牌广告主管相继出走。

2）社交游戏开发商Kixeye近日宣布，3月14日是即时战略游戏《Backyard Monsters》登陆Facebook平台2周年纪念日，并发布了该游戏的相关数据：

backyard-monsters(from unigamesity.com)

*游戏安装量超过2000万次

*玩家体验游戏超过1.75亿小时

3）据Venturebeat报道，新闻集团旗下的在线游戏网站IGN Entertainment日前宣布裁减部分员工（游戏邦注：有报道称裁员比例在10%以内），以便提升核心业务的运营效率，推动IGN向独立公司转型（IGN于去年收购了UGO公司）。

key_art_ign(from digitaltrends.com)

另一家游戏网站GameSpot的母公司CBS Interactive最近则收购了独立游戏评价网站Giant Bomb，值得一提的是，后者由Jeff Gerstmann、Ryan Davis与Whiskey Media合作成立于2008年，而Gerstmann之前曾任GameSport编辑主管，但因撰写了一篇有损《Kane & Lynch》名誉的评论而被革职，他随后就与其他前GameSpot同事合作创建了一个更为激进的网站，现在他又将回归GameSpot怀抱。

4）《Blackwood & Bell Mysteries》是继《Gardens of Time》之后又一款由迪士尼Playdom开发的寻物解谜游戏，据其执行制作人Joey Kline所称，他希望新游戏能够扩大用户基础，同时又吸引《Gardens of Time》用户群体。

Blackwood-and-Bell(from insidesocialgames)

从基本机制来看，其玩法与其他Facebook寻物解谜游戏几乎没有差别。该游戏社交功能支持用户拜访好友的“Evidence Yard”以获得奖励，同时也可以向发送留言信息，并设置了一个“Sleuth Challenge”异步多人模式（要求玩家双方在特定场景和时限内找到大量隐藏物品）。

该游戏目前是本周MAU增长最快的Facebook游戏榜单第5名，当前MAU为200万，DAU为49万。

5）Pew Internet Life上月发布报告显示，社交网站用户对隐私问题的敏感日益提升。ZoneAlarm根据这些数据制作了一份信息图表（详见下图），指出仅有11%社交网络用户经常忘了自己发布的内容是什么，男性用户遗忘发布内容的比例为15%，女性用户则是8%。

女性用户更喜欢自己设定隐私权限，男性用户则多使用公开隐私设置。将自己的隐私设置为“公开”状态的男性用户占比26%，女性仅占14%；设置为“部分公开”的男性占比23%，女性占比16%；设置为“仅好友可见”的男性占比48%，女性占比67%。

年轻用户更新隐私设置状态的频率更高，多数社交网站用户认为设置隐私状态并不困难。

social-media-management-protect-your-privacy(from ZoneAlarm)

（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’s product head can’t resist a good deal, joins Groupon

by Joe Osborne

Have you seen the deals on Groupon? We can’t blame the guy, really. Oh, this is a different kind of deal, isn’t it? TechCrunch reports that Curtis Lee, Zynga’s director of product management, has left the company for daily deals service Groupon. Now, Lee is Groupon’s VP of consumer products, overseeing everything that is consumer-facing about Groupon.

Considering Groupon is all about consumers saving money, isn’t that kind of everything? Anyway, TechCrunch suggests that this is a rather large talent loss for Zynga, which we’d have a hard time disagreeing with. According to the website, Lee was a “monetization guru” at the developer, and laid the blueprint for the company’s clearly effective money-making schemes.

Citing unnamed sources, TechCrunch also reports that Lee was working with FarmVille designer Mark Skaggs on his super secret project at Zynga. But what’s worse about the situation is the rate at which the CityVille creator has lost high-level talent recently. Just this past month alone, Zynga has lost a lead designer and its brand advertising head.

That said, it’s not as if Zynga hasn’t been on a hiring spree either. Most recently, the developer snapped up EA Interactive’s Barry Cottle as its EVP of business development. And given the advent of Zynga.com, we doubt this is the last new face we’ll see at the developer in 2012.（source:games）

2）Backyard Monsters turns 2, Kixeye celebrates with cool stuff

By Nadia Oxford

We hear it’s somebody’s birthday. Backyard Monsters, a real-time strategy (RTS) game on Facebook, officially turned 2 on March 14! To celebrate, KIXEYE has posted a timeline that chronicles the game’s development and evolution. You can view exclusive artwork, archived footage, and take a look back at Backyard Monsters’ milestones.

“We’re proud of what Backyard Monsters has achieved over the last two years,” stated Kixeye co-founder and executive producer, David Scott, in a press release distributed on Wednesday. “It was a huge leap forward in terms of what was possible in the browser from a design perspective and proved that high quality games could exist on the Facebook platform.”

“It’s come a long way since we launched, and it continues to highlight our desire to innovate, take risks and make the most fun browser-based games on the planet.”

The press release also listed some very interesting numbers related to the game:

•20,000,000,000+ gallons of virtual blood spilled

•3,000,000,000+ monsters created

•200,000,000+ PVP attacks

•175,000,000+ hours played

•20,000,000+ game installs

But the festivities don’t end with death tallies. Backyard Monsters is also giving players a chance to participate in “Monster Madness,” during which you can search for a new Inferno Champion Monster, Korath.（source:gamezebo）

3）IGN lays off some game staff; CBS Interactive buys Giant Bomb

Dean Takahashi

Online gaming sites are going through a shake-up just as News Corp.’s IGN Entertainment laid off some staff and CBS Interactive acquired game review site Giant Bomb.

In a message to staff, IGN president and general manager Roy Bahat said today, “Today, we cut some roles across the company. This is never an easy thing to do, and we’re spending today supporting our colleagues and friends.” We believe that less than 10 percent of IGN’s staff was affected.

He said the cuts were necessary to enable the “next era for IGN,” which involves becoming an independent company. It began when IGN bought UGO last year.

“To enable us to continue on this path, and to create the future for IGN we all want, we need to be as efficient as possible in our core business,” Bahat wrote. “That’s what makes it possible for us to make aggressive bets on our future, and continue to invest in you – the team that will take IGN forward.”

IGN is focusing on the IGN web site, games media in general, its video business on sites such as YouTube, eSports, and AskMen. But it will likely focus less on lesser known sites such as FilePlanet and UGO’s affiliate network of game sites.

Coincidentally, CBS Interactive, owner of the site GameSpot, has acquired independent game review site Giant Bomb. Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis started the site in 2008 in collaboration with Whiskey Media, which sold its other web media holdings today to BermanBraun. Gerstmann was previously fired from GameSpot as its editorial director after he wrote a scathing review of Kane & Lynch. He and other ex-GameSpot colleagues then teamed up to create a more irreverent site. Now Gerstmann will be working inside the same company that owns GameSpot.（source:venturebeat）

4）The hunt for hidden clues on Facebook begins again with Blackwood & Bell Mysteries

Pete Davison

Blackwood & Bell Mysteries is a new hidden object game for Facebook from Gardens of Time developer Disney Playdom. Following the success of the company’s previous hidden object smash hit, Playdom aims to give the genre an “edgier” feel with Blackwood & Bell Mysteries, toeing the line between realism and popular mythology such as vampires. Executive producer Joey Kline told Inside Social Games that he hoped the new game would “broaden the market” but also “overlap considerably with the Gardens of Time audience.”

In terms of basic mechanics, Blackwood & Bell Mysteries is almost identical to other popular hidden object games on Facebook. Players alternate between building up a patch of land — here referred to as an “Evidence Yard” — and visiting various locations to find hidden objects. In the building section, players acquire “reputation” for placing structures and decorations, with various reputation milestones needed to be met before unlocking further hidden object scenes. In the hidden object scenes, meanwhile, players score points for finding objects more quickly and in rapid succession, and over the course of several repeats of the same scene, earn “stars” to prove their mastery.

In the hidden object scenes, the objects in question remain in the same place every time a player visits, though the specific list of items which must be found varies. This means that achieving a high score is more a case of simply learning where the various objects are rather than being especially observant. The game does its best to distract the player with occasional, subtle animations, but the backdrops are otherwise static. The visuals are attractive, though some objects blend into the background a little too well, and in a problem endemic to the whole genre, it’s sometimes difficult to determine exactly what a particular object name refers to due to ambiguity or lack of clarity.

The game offers a slight twist on the usual formula by occasionally requiring players to locate “clue” items in the scene. These are presented in the same way as normal hidden objects, but are specially marked in the object list and have direct significance to the ongoing story. Sometimes quests specifically require players to locate this clue item, though occasionally it takes several playthroughs of the same scene for the item in question to show up in the object list — and without an appearance in the list, the quest cannot be completed.

An emphasis has been placed on story and characterization in the game. For once players are not searching for a missing uncle; instead, they are assisting the titular Blackwood & Bell, a pair of consulting detectives hailing from Britain and America respectively. Much of the game’s characterization comes from the “clash of cultures” between Blackwood & Bell, though the jokes about British versus American English can come across as somewhat anachronistic at times given the game’s otherwise traditional Victorian feel, obviously heavily inspired by Sherlock Holmes’ London.

In terms of social features, the game offers a number of things for players to do with their friends. Upon visiting a friend’s “Evidence Yard,” players are immediately provided with rewards without having to click on buildings to “help.” They are then able to leave a short text message for their friend which will appear the next time they log in. They are also able to issue a “Sleuth Challenge,” an asynchronous multiplayer showdown in which both participants must find as many hidden objects as possible in a specially-designed scene against a one-minute time limit.

The game monetizes through the sale of hard currency, which can be used for a variety of purposes ranging from refilling energy to rushing building projects and instantly constructing vanity items for the “Evidence Yard.” Said items tend to carry a significantly higher Reputation reward for purchasing, meaning that paying players can unlock subsequent hidden object scenes much more rapidly. At times this means that quests can be preemptively completed, but the game requires players to click on, view and accept the quest before it acknowledges its completion.

Blackwood & Bell Mysteries doesn’t do anything especially innovative in the hidden object genre. The Sleuth Challenges and clue items are a good addition, but don’t make a huge difference to the core gameplay, which is otherwise almost identical to other hidden object games on Facebook. That said, it is a competent title with good production values, and the effort that has been made to infuse the eponymous detective duo with a degree of personality and characterization helps encourage players to engage with the game world and its narrative. A likeable cast can be a strong contributing factor in encouraging players to return to a game after they have given it an initial “trial run,” and Disney Playdom is obviously counting on this fact to distinguish the game from its numerous rivals. Gardens of Time fans will likely flock to a new hidden object game as the genre remains popular on Facebook, though whether or not Kline’s hope that the game will “broaden the market” pays off remains to be seen.

Blackwood & Bell Mysteries was the fifth fastest-growing Facebook game by MAU this week. The game currently has 2,000,000 monthly active users and 490,000 daily active users. To follow its progress, check out AppData, our tracking service for social games and developers.（source:insidesocialgames）

5）[Infographic]: We Are Becoming More Privacy-Savvy, at Least According to Pew

By David Strom

The folks at the Pew Internet Life project produced a report last month here that found that people are getting more privacy-savvy on social networks. It is about time, and I am glad to see it. Especially given how privacy-savvy you have to be to try to adjust any of your Facebook or LinkedIn account settings, which keep changing by both parties. Now ZoneAlarm has digested this information into an interesting infographic.

As you can see from the charts above, more of us are taking control over the privacy settings of our accounts compared to a few years ago, in terms of deleting comments, removing tags from photos, or unfriending someone. Women are more private, at least on the networks surveyed. And younger folks are more likely to tweak their privacy settings.

The Pew report has a lot of good advice on managing your privacy settings, including don’t accept any friend requests from strangers, make sure what you are sharing is going to the intended audience and not going to cause a ruckus, and stay on top of the photos and links that you are tagged in.（source:readwriteweb）