Playdom's Raph Koster: 'Free to play is not evil, it's just different'

If you're surprised at the fact that people out there think social games are evil, than you must not talk to many gamers. Much of that popular opinion points toward the business model social games employ: free to play. Many knock the genre for celebrating games that work painstakingly to create paying players. But Gardens of Time maker Playdom's Raph Koster asks, "What's your beef, really, yo?" (paraphrased, of course) in an informative if lengthy post on his blog.

Koster points out that, while the free-to-play business model (selling virtual goods to players in games that are free to play) social games is seen as predatory and exploitative, it's not much different from those almost everywhere else, even in traditional games. "These people only pay because they really want to, by and large, though of course, like any business, there are many tricks used in order to get people to convert to payers," Koster writes.

Which leads Playdom VP of design to "whales", a casino term used to describe social gamers that pay enormous sums of money to get ahead in their favorite social games. (So much so that they collectively keep most social game makers afloat.) Koster argues that whales aren't a product of the free-to-play model, citing fans of traditional games that purchase every limited edition package and spend thousands on enthusiast conventions annually.

It's true: Some social games allow those that pay to get ahead, but Koster points to industries surrounding other competitive sports or hobbies: "This is not a new debate-we have seen it in everything from sleeker swimsuit fabrics for competitive swimmers, to horse breeders with dough getting access to the right bloodlines, to salaries for Major League Baseball teams," Koster writes.

"Free to play is not evil, it's just different," Koster concludes. "If you're freaked out by seeing business practices nakedly, realize that what's changed is that you can see them. And to my mind, that's actually better for you than blissful ignorance." For those interested in a take on the larger debate revolving around the merits of how social games handle virtual goods, this is a read you cannot miss out on.

[Via Massively]

Are you not a fan of the way social games handle virtual goods offers? How do you think social game makers can make the business model more appealing or less ingrained in the games' design?

Player Love Week: Zynga shows its undying affection for mobile players

Alright, so maybe it's not that ... romantic? (Yeah, that would be kinda creepy.) At any rate, Zynga announced Player Love Week, an event in which the CityVille maker will give away free stuff in seven of its most popular iPhone and iPad games. Starting Jan. 12, the developer will host a virtual giveaway in one of its games each day until Jan. 18 to build buzz.

Zynga sees Player Love Week as a way to give back to the millions of players of Zynga's iOS games. And there are a lot of them: The most recent official number is 13 million daily players of all Zynga mobile games, and you can imagine iOS players make up for a healthy portion of that. Here are all the promotions going on for the rest of this week:

    1/12: ForestVille: A free animated bear-in-a hammock for players to decorate their forest
    1/13: Hanging With Friends: 20 free coins to put toward power ups or balloon bling
    1/14: Zynga Poker: 3,000 poker chips to up the ante
    1/15: Dream Zoo: It's raining hearts. Players receive 40 hearts via an in-game "fruit drop"
    1/16: Words With Friends: A free tile pile that tells players which letters remain during a current match
    1/17: CityVille Hometown: Enjoy twice the amount of energy offered throughout the entire day
    1/18: Scramble With Friends: A token of love: free boosts for the entire day


Zynga took this golden opportunity to tout some interesting (though not very telling) numbers regarding its top iPhone and iPad games. For instance, out of 2.3 million ratings across all of the company's games on iOS, the average rating is 4.5 stars. Other interesting figures include over 3.5 million words in Words With Friends played per hour, and over 2 million friends' animals washed in Dream Zoo.

With both this infographic (seen below) and Player Love Week, it's clear that Zynga looks to show its prowess in mobile games. And it's a smart move, considering marketplaces like the App Store and Android Market are the place to be right now for social game creators. Well, that and the fact that it's in everyone's best interest to catch up with Rovio.

Are you a fan of any of Zynga's games on iPhone or iPad? Does Zynga have a shot at winning the mobile games race like it seems to have won Facebook games?

Triple Town to soon trick out iPhone, iPad with cross-platform to come

We here at Games.com love us some Triple Town, the Kindle game that recently made the leap to Facebook and Google+. And indie developer Spry Fox knows that we're not alone in our love for the town of threes. Spry Fox told Inside Social Games (ISG) that it's working on a standalone version of Triple Town for iOS devices. Soon after, players will get work on the same towns that they've cultivated on social networks (i.e. cross-platform).

"All we can say is really soon," Spry Fox CEO and co-founder David Edery told ISG, referring to when Triple Town will hit iOS devices. "We haven't submitted to Apple yet, but we're close. We have every intention of making it cross platform, timeline T.B.D." While there are no details as to when Triple Town will hit iPhone or iPad, Edery did get into some recent changes made to the Google+ and Facebook versions of the game, like a new premium currency known as "Diamonds".

According to Edery, the reason for adding a premium currency now was to allow the developer to continue to be more generous with ways for players to accumulate coins, which can buy the more important items in Triple Town. (In other words, game designers need to eat, too, you know.) But what about that game that beat Spry Fox to the punch on iPhone, Yeti Town?

"When we saw it we thought it was very similar and I've seen many articles that say things like 'swap bears with yetis and ice cubes with gravestones and you've got Triple Town,'" Edery told ISG. We were disappointed to see that. We felt it was not something that another game company should do to an indie like us, but what can you do?"

Are you psyched for Triple Town to hit iOS devices soon? What did you think of Yeti Town in regards to Triple Town?

Army Attack to launch iPhone, iPad assault as Digital Chocolate grows

Planning a strategic assault on mobile, it seems, social game maker Digital Chocolate has announced that Army Attack will make its way to iPhone and iPad. The game will follow Zombie Lane, another of the Millionaire City creator's Facebook games that recently made the move to mobile. And, according to the announcement, both games with get both tablet and Android-specific releases in the future.

In addition to Zombie Lane vaguely "getting good results on Apple iOS devices," the news is joined by the fact that Digital Chocolate has hired two more executives to lead the company's Helsinki, Finland studio. Digital Chocolate has hired Nokia's Kaj "HeGe" Haggman as VP and GM, and new VP of product management Emmi Kuusikko joins the company from Habbo Hotel creator Sulake.

The company has promoted numerous employees from within, with Digital Chocolate president Marc Metis stating that it's "pleased that our strategy and progress have attracted such experienced and talented executives," according to a release. In the future, the 7.2 million player-strong studio plans to launch games in new genres and on new platforms, specifically from its St. Petersburg, Russia and in Seattle, Wash. offices.

Are you excited that Army Attack will hit mobile devices or that Zombie Lane will get an Android release? What about Digital Chocolate's approach to iPhone and places other than Facebook altogether?

Word With Friends Word-O-Meter: Or should we say, Cheat-O-Meter?

If a player paid Zynga, say, four bucks so he or she can cheat in a game, most of us would shout that it's wrong. But if someone wanted to pay you the same to help them cheat in Word With Friends, would you do it? Well, I've never heard of anyone caught in the second situation, but the first example is already here.

Last month, Zynga added two paid features to Words With Friends that -- well, there's no getting around it -- were borderline cheat tools.

For the cost of 10 Tokens or roughly $1.50 USD, Tile Pile allowed players to see what letters remained in the hidden letters pile, while Word-O-Meter tells you whether you can get a better word with the tiles you've got if you're willing to cough up 32 Tokens or $4 USD. Neither of those prices are for one-time use either: Tile Pile allows for 10 uses and Word-O-Meter offers 99.

While outrage amongst mobile users have been loud and clear, usage of the Facebook version hasn't stopped soaring. I don't know how many people have opted to cheat, but there's no question that Zynga's making money off of it. And therein lies the problem, it's not so much the cheating that annoys people, but that Zynga wants to make money off of cheaters. Thereby, sending the message that cheating is OK. But there's something worse up ahead.
Words With Friends Tile Pile
Even before the existence of Words With Friends, Scrabble clones were all over the web. Before the world got Facebook and Facebook got Scrabulous (which got shut down by Hasbro), I was playing something called Literati at Yahoo! Games. Cheating happened then, and it continues to happen now. You didn't need a cheat tool geared towards a specific game. Or one devoted to cheating. All you needed were websites that specialized in unscrambling letters, like an innocent anagram tool. This reality brings us to another point -- if people are going to cheat, they might as well do it for free. Because they can, they have, and they will. Not only that, some of the third-party paid cheat options out there aren't just cheaper than what Zynga has to offer, they're better too.

In light of all this, Zynga's strategy will only hurt their players, the integrity of the game, and ultimately themselves. As one player had put it, "I seriously doubt that loyal Scrabblers are going to be happy when they find out that the reason their friend has been winning lately is because he paid an extra $10 to have an advantage."

Are you going to love Words With Friends less, knowing that Zynga enables cheaters?

CityVille Storage Building Upgrades: Everything you need to know

As we all know, one of the biggest ways to earn money in CityVille is by simply collecting from and supplying your mass supply of Businesses. But, as we also know, your Goods will only go so far, and if you haven't dedicated massive areas of your city to farm land or Goods storage (or both), your city may not be as profitable as it could be. Since land space is often at a premium in the game, it wouldn't be surprising if you don't have as many buildings for storing Goods as you'd like, simply because you have saved that land space for homes or community buildings. If any of this applies to you, you'll likely be thrilled to know that you can now upgrade the Goods storage buildings that you do own to hold more Goods.

To be specific, these storage building upgrades apply to the Silo, Red Barn and Sticks buildings. Depending on the size of the original building, you'll need to complete harder tasks to actually upgrade them, but the basic setup for upgrading is the same. We'll use the Silo as an example.

To upgrade a Silo from Level 1 to Level 2, you'll need to collect three each of Wood, Nails and Siding. These are earned by sending out a combination of general news post requests and individual requests to your friends for help. You can also earn the Wood (just the Wood) at random when harvesting crops. When you collect these nine items, the SIlo will go from storing 100 Goods to storing 200 Goods. From there, you'll have to collect five each of the same building materials to reach Level 3 (500 total storage), and another eight of item to reach the final Level 4. When your Silo is upgraded to Level 4, it will hold 1,000 Goods.

The Red Barn and Sticks offer similar upgrades. Here's a complete rundown of their stats.

Red Barn

    Level 1 - No Upgrade - 415 Goods stored
    Level 2 - 5 each of three materials - 1,245 Goods stored
    Level 3 - 7 each of three materials - 2,075 Goods stored
    Level 4 - 9 each of three materials - 4,150 Goods stored


Sticks

    Level 1 - No Upgrade - 485 Goods stored
    Level 2 - 6 each of three materials - 1,455 Goods Stored
    Level 3 - 8 each of three materials - 2,425 Goods stored
    Level 4 - 12 each of three materials - 4,850 Goods stored


Unfortunately, you'll need to complete all three of these upgrades for each and every storage building you own, so if you own a lot of these individual Barns or SIlos, you could dedicate an awfully long time in upgrading them. Still, only upgrading one or two of these individual buildings will have a huge impact on the amount of Goods you can store, so feel free to only tackle a couple, and then go back and upgrade more when you once again need more storage.

Check out the rest of our CityVille Cheats & Tips right here.

What do you think of these Storage Building Upgrades? Will you start working on these upgrades right away, or have you purchased premium Goods storage in the past so that you won't have to?

Triple Town developer files copyright infringement suit against Yeti Town maker

I wonder if that whole 'natural process' bit also applies to lawsuits. Just days after 6waves Lolapps CPO Arjun Sethi commented on the similarities between the company's Yeti Town and Spry Fox's Triple Town, more or less brushing off the argument that the games are one in the same (with different coats of paint), Spry Fox has come out of the corner swinging.

As first reported by Gamezebo, David Edery, CEO of Spry Fox, has spoken out against 6waves Lolapps on his website, and has filed a copyright infringement suit against the Facebook and mobile game developer. Via his website:

"We (Spry Fox) have filed a copyright infringement suit in federal court against 6Waves LOLAPPS in response to their release of Yeti Town, their blatant copy of Triple Town. This was a difficult decision for Danc and I. We are not enthusiastic about the prospect of spending our time in court as opposed to making games. And in general, we believe that only in the most extreme circumstances should a video game developer resort to legal action in order to defend their creative works - the last thing our industry needs is frivolous lawsuits. Unfortunately, it is our opinion that 6waves has behaved in a reprehensible and illegal manner, and we can not, in good conscience, ignore it."

But this isn't just a matter of the two games having nearly identical gameplay mechanics, as the similarities, says Edery, go much deeper than that.

"Yeti Town, as launched by 6waves, was a nearly perfect copy of Triple Town. We're not just talking about the game's basic mechanics here. We're talking about tons of little details, from the language in the tutorial, to many of our UI elements, to the quantities and prices of every single item in the store (how exactly did 6waves "independently" decide to price 200 turns for 950 coins, or 4 wildcards for 1500 coins each? That's quite a coincidence!)"

Adding another twist to the story is the news that 6waves Lolapps and Spry Fox were, for a time, under negotiations for 6waves to publish Triple Town. According to Edery, the company was given "private access to Triple Town when it was still in closed beta, months before the public was exposed to the game." These negotiations were allegedly broken, via Facebook message, the day that Yeti Town was published.

If these accusations turn out to be true, I imagine it might be difficult for 6waves Lolapps to save face with those familiar with both games. Either way, this does also raise questions in another similar situation - that between Tiny Tower developer NimbleBit and Dream Heights creator Zynga. If Spry Fox is willing to go to court over alleged copyright issues, will NimbleBit also be? We'll make sure to stay on top of both stories, and will bring you more details as they develop.

[Image Credit: Edery.org]

Do you think Spry Fox has a case against 6waves, or are the similarities between the two games inconsequential? Which of the two games do you prefer to play?

Digital Chocolate's New in Town on Facebook: Being the new kid is hard

Zombie Lane developer Digital Chocolate has launched a new life-simulation game on Facebook called New in Town. The game follows a character of your own design as he/she graduates college and moves to the big city. Instead of energy, your progress is limited via "Time Units," with each working day giving you 1,000 Time Units by default. You'll spend these by completing jobs, purchasing clothing and basically completing any other task in the game (as in the real world, everything you do takes time, with more time required for some tasks than others).

The "Big City" itself doesn't actually appear to be that big at the start, as you'll be limited to just a handful of buildings, with one being City Hall, where you'll be able to find new jobs. You'll have a choice of three low-paying jobs to start, which are completed Mafia Wars-style, by simply tapping on a button to fill a job mastery meter. If you want to earn a better job, you'll need to take classes at the local college (didn't we already graduate from college at the beginning of the game?), with each of these adding points to one of your character's stats: Practicality, Charisma or Intelligence. Reaching different levels gives you different options for jobs, with some offering more money than others (and taking longer to master).

Ultimately, the Time Units mechanic is the most interesting element of the game, as you'll be given a certain number of Working Days to complete all major tasks like taking classes or working. You can still go into the various restaurants and feed your character when you run out of working days (feeding your character can only be done once per day), as you'll be in your Leisure Day, waiting for more Working Days to recharge over time, kind of like energy (although taking longer to do).

Pushing the story along is your sister and her group of friends that give you either sets of missions or challenges to complete. Missions are completed on your own, and can ask you to simply visit friends' apartments or talk to certain characters, while Challenges see you being placed on an unmarked in-game timer as the opposing computer player works to complete the same tasks at the same time. Overall, if you're pushed along through the game with the simple desire to finish these Challenges, you'll quickly find that the game's balance of Time Units and in-game requirements for using those Units (and the rates at which you earn money) aren't very generous.

Gallery: New in Town on Facebook


At the end of each working day, you'll be forced to head back to your apartment and sleep. Any sort of work or classes you do/take during a day will lower your character's happiness, so if you send him/her to bed unhappy, you'll be given less Time Units to spend on your next day. Add that to a hungry character and you'll have even less. As many of the game's missions require you to spend money, you'll need all of the Time Units you can get to actually earn that money, but as you earn more money by working, your character's happiness decreases in a seemingly never-ending cycle. See where I'm going with this?

For a new Facebook game, there's still plenty of time for Digital Chocolate to tweak some things and make the game more forgiving to power-players who enjoy longer gameplay sessions, and the gameplay is at least fairly original, to the developer's credit. It will be interesting to see if Digital Chocolate can really turn the game into something able to compete with the big boys, and we'll be around every step of the way to see how the game does.

Play New in Town on Facebook -->

Have you tried New in Town on Facebook? What do you think of Digital Chocolate's take on the life-simulation game?

FarmVille Valentine's Day Items: Valentine Bear, Heart Ram and more

As FarmVille's Valentine's Day theme continues, we're given a fairly small amount of items to choose from in the game's latest update. There are no new trees to speak of in this theme (although Pink Plumeria and Jacaranda Trees have been added in a no-name theme), but there are a few animals and decorations to choose from if you're in the mood to go shopping.

Animals

Vosges Cow - 3 million coins
Valentine Goat - 14 Farm Cash
Valentine Unicorn - 30 Farm Cash
Valentine Bear - 18 Farm Cash
Giant Valentine Bear - 20 Farm Cash
Heart Ram - 16 Farm Cash
Heart Boar - 16 Farm Cash

Buildings

Valentine Treehouse - 20 Farm Cash

Decorations

Heart Pool - 20 Farm Cash
Valentine Bike - 20,000 coins
Heart Candy Gnome - 12 Farm Cash

Avatar Costumes

Heart Dress - 7 Farm Cash

All of these items will be available in the game for the next two weeks. It's interesting to see the game's Valentine's Day theme slowing down before the holiday, rather than becoming more prominent, but I wouldn't be surprised if this didn't mean Zynga was working on another large feature for the game, rather than focusing on these store updates.

Check out the rest of our Valentine's Day 2012 coverage here.

What do you think of these newest Valentine's Day items? Are you disappointing to see no trees released in the Valentine's Day theme in this update?

FarmVille Mystery Game (01/29/12): Valentine's Day animals share the love

Another round of the FarmVille Mystery Game has launched this evening, with the game receiving a love-filled Valentine's Day animal theme. There are seven animals available to win in all (if you include the bonus free prize), and it costs 20 Farm Cash to play per dart, if you don't have any extra darts on hand to throw at the board for free.

This week, you'll have a chance at the following:

Pink Peacock
Pink Pegacorn
Pink Poodle
Pink Skunk
Rose Pony
Valentine Giraffe

If you can win at least one of each of these six animals, you'll walk away with the bonus prize: a Pink Parrot. This particular animal sits on a perch, for the record, rather than sitting on the ground like traditional animals. Just keep in mind that you'll be able to win duplicates in the process, making this more expensive.

There doesn't appear to be a free dart available just yet this week (as seems to have been the case over the past few weeks), but I wouldn't rule it out just yet. Just keep checking on your farms and you'll see if, if were are actually given one. Either way, these items will expire from the Mystery Game after a week, so make sure to play before they expire for your chance at the ones you want.

Check out the rest of our Valentine's Day 2012 coverage here.

What do you think of the animals in this week's Mystery Game? Which ones would you most like to win? Which ones did you actually end up with?

: kotaku, wall street journal, wsj, zynga, zynga employee dinner,

Aspiring thugs, the new way to show you're 100 percent gangsta has arrived: Eminem has launched his very own Facebook game. Titled Bad Meets Evil to match the name of Eminem's side project, the game is designed to promote Hell: The Sequel, a recently released EP by the duo.

But what you get is the rappers essentially shouting obscenities in your ear as you stab random passerby on your journey to Hell. That's the goal: to become so evil you reach the fiery pits of Hades. (This ought to be fun.)

Well, that and to get you hyped enough about Eminem to buy his new EP from iTunes. At any rate, the game operates like your standard fare with an energy resource that depletes as you search for Skulls, the game's primary currency, to kill random fellows walking down the street.

This increases your level and access to new weapons and gear with Cash, the game's standard currency. However, fighting your friends and random computer-controlled characters (asynchronously, of course) costs Skulls that can only be filled with Facebook Credits or by using more Energy to search through objects.

Bad Meets Evil Combat
It should go without saying, but to cover our bases, this game is absolutely NSFW for more reasons than we can count. Honestly, the number one reason Bad Meets Evil is NSFW is because we can't possibly think of ways for you to explain when your boss walks by and notices that your screen reads, "Shank that motherfucker!"

While highly interactive with its own battle system, featuring fully customizable characters and smooth animations by developer Grab Games, Bad Meets Evil appears to be more of a set piece for Eminem and his music than anything else. In fact, almost every environment within the game has a video screen that can play either promotional content or Eminem's music videos. So, if you want to hear some of Eminem's new tracks while stabbing a few dudes, give it a go, I guess.

Click here to play Bad Meets Evil on Facebook Now >

[Via Mashable]

Have you played Eminem's Facebook game yet? What do you think of rap artists, or any artist for that matter, promoting themselves through Facebook games?

Zynga serves food for lunch you can't even get in FarmVille

Zynga lunches
Well, at least we know they're fed well. In a Wall Street Journal report regarding the perks of being part of the supposed second tech bubble, Zynga was found to serve daily lunches and dinners to its employees with some fairly exorbitant condiments:

    Zynga Inc., which filed for an initial public offering on Friday, serves lunch and dinner daily to its employees, using specialty ingredients like wasabi oil, Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise and pine cone syrup as well as locally sourced produce. The social gaming company has said that its goal is to offer sustainable and fresh food rather than be flashy or excessive.

I guess that's what you get for working at a $20 billion company. Zynga filed for IPO last week, and looks to raise another $1 billion to make it potentially the most valuable games company in the world. And with numbers like that, we hope the Kobe beef steaks are grilling next to that chocolate fountain.

[Via Kotaku]

[Image Credit: Erin Kunkel]

What do you think of Zynga now that it's known to offer seriously awesome food at lunch? Is this tech bubble bound to burst soon?

Nintendo Wii U will arrive after April 1, better start saving now Nintendo Wii U will arrive after April 1, better start saving now

Seriously, this thing is will not be cheap. During an interview with Forbes, Nintendo of America COO Reggie Fils-Aime said that its much-awaited Wii U console will not arrive until after April 1 of next year.

When asked about how Nintendo plans to market both the new console and its existing Wii at the same time, Fils-Aime said, "This is a device that will launch in 2012, after April 1st, so we will deal with that situation at the appropriate time."

The exec went on to further deny any rumors that the Wii U controller, a slate with several buttons surrounding a 6.2-inch touch screen, is a tablet. (Well, you kind of had to expect these questions, guys.) But more importantly, Fils-Aime revealed some interesting potential in the Wii U. When asked about whether the system can stream other content than games to the tiny screen wirelessly, specifically Netflix, he replied, "Theoretically, that's possible."

Nintendo recently revealed that it has big plans for the Wii U's approach to online gaming, namely social features. But in this interview, the company stated that it will largely leave online gaming up to its third party publishers with a platform that will change from game to game. Regardless of this loose end among others (like whether its price will scare casual gamers away), that little screen just became even more impossible to wait for.

[Via TechCrunch]

What are you most excited about when it comes to the Wii U? Do you think it will do as well as the original Wii did with its potentially steep price?

Zynga's PrivacyVille: A silly mini game about a serious issue

When Zynga can't think of a better name for a product, slapping a good old 'Ville' on there does the trick. PrivacyVille sounds like the company's next big game, but on the contrary. It is Zynga's way of communicating the issues of Internet privacy to its fans--through a mini game.

This interactive tutorial, available now right here, rewards players with zPoints to use in RewardVille for learning everything there is to know about the intersections of Internet privacy and Zynga games.The "game," clearly inspired by CityVille, is largely a series of pop-up windows explaining each facet of the company's privacy policy plainly.

Each broken-down explanation provides links to all the tools at your disposal to edit your privacy settings with both Zynga and Facebook. After you read all of the information, Zynga will quiz you on what you learned. (And trust us, there's no way you can lose this one.) Once you're done, you will be asked to connect to RewardVille to collect your 200 zPoint reward.

PrivacyVille Quiz
While this certainly isn't the next big game we're all waiting for, it's an interesting take on privacy. Most companies merely place their privacy policies in a wall of text that no one in their right mind would waste time reading, but Zynga knows its audience. And its audience has learned to play countless Zynga games, so why not treat this lesson as one? It certainly makes sense, but ... PrivacyVille? Really, guys?

Click here to participate in PrivacyVille Now >

What do you think of Zynga's new approach to educating its players about privacy? What is your take on social games and their effects on our privacy?

Free-to-play games dominating paid games in the App Store

According to a report published today by Flurry, an independent analytics company, free-to-play games are now bringing in more revenue than traditional paid games. Free-to-play games require no up-front fees to play, you can simply download the game and start playing immediately. Paid games require the app to be purchased from the App Store for a minimum of $0.99 each.

In January of 2011, 61% of the revenue from the top 100 highest grossing games in the App Store came from paid apps. This number has now dropped to only 35%, with the other 65% coming from free-to-play titles like Smurf Village or Tap Zoo. It would appear that all forms of gaming are quickly trending to the freemium model, a business model that has proven successful for many developers including PopCap Games (who release free versions of all of their casual games). Facebook games have been using the free-to-play model exclusively, including the titan Zynga who reported over 90 million dollars in profit in 2010. Traditional games have been trending in this direction for years, despite hardcore gamers' best efforts to push back.

Free-to-play games feel like a win for everyone. Those who want to play without paying can do so, and those who want to pay have no theoretical cap on how much they can spend. It feels like a no-brainer to launch games as free-to-play on the App Store and Android Market.

What would inspire you to pay for goods inside a free-to-play game? Would you prefer a one time up-front fee?

Former Playdom exec joins OpenFeint to help in Japanese Invasion

And another falls. Yet another executive from one of social gaming's biggest companies, Playdom, has left for a competitor. This time it's Ethan Fassett, an executive producer for Playdom who is now headed to OpenFeint, a mobile games network that enjoys 90 million players, as SVP of Product, VentureBeat reports.

The Burlingham, Calif.-based mobile games platform hired Fassett to help its clients create free-to-play games using the OpenFeint network--purchased by Japanese network Gree earlier this year--on both Android and iOS devices. He'll do this by leading development on new social networking features and distribution channels to support the freebie games, according to VentureBeat.

"We're very excited to bring on Ethan, whose expertise in free-to-play games and social communities will drive product strategy and shape the evolution of the network," OpenFeint CEO Jason Citron said. "Ethan truly understands social games, the social networks they need to be successful, and the tools game developers need to properly engage and monetize their players."

Executives from major gaming companies like Playdom and EA have been leaving for potentially more lucrative ventures in the social and mobile gaming arenas. And as these two companies appear to be in a lull (though, Playdom did just launch a new ESPN-branded game), publishers from the Far East encroach on the globe, throwing around millions. DeNA and its Mobage network are competing with both Zynga and Gree for dominance in the mobile games market, and the latter just got another shot in the arm.

[Image Credit: VentureBeat]

How do you think OpenFeint and Gree play in the growing war for the mobile games market? Will Playdom and EA be able to compete as Zynga and its opponents in Japan grow exponentially?

Civilzation creator Sid Meier: CivWorld is 'where it needs to be'

So, does that mean the CivWorld "Beta" tag is going away soon? In a lengthy interview with Gamasutra, Civilization creator Sid Meier (pictured in-game) revealed much about the blood, sweat and carpal tunnel that went into creating CivWorld.

The game launched in an open beta recently, and has since enjoyed mixed reviews, some of which deeming the game too complex with a clunky interface. However, Mr. Meier doesn't seem too spooked about it.

"If we're only finding out at this stage, then there's something wrong with our development process," Meier replied when asked about how Firaxis will use metrics to improve its game. "We think we have a game that's pretty close to where it needs to be. I think the analytics are maybe about financing or figuring out kind of additional directions to go." In fact, Meier admitted to not recording much of the analytic data that other social game companies live for such as measuring clicks.

That seems to imply that CivWorld will not enjoy as many tweaks or fixes as most social games experience almost daily. That's because most social games release first and make changes later, thus the absurdly lengthy "Beta" periods. For instance, Zynga just recently removed the "Beta" tag from its most iconic game, FarmVille. The game released two years ago. And if you think that CivWorld is too different from other Facebook games, that was kind of the point.

"It was really not our goal to re-create or copy other Facebook games around there," Meier told Gamasutra. "I think we're very early in the whole cycle of social gaming, and there's a lot of space to be explored, not just the games that are already out there." CivWorld currently has over 15 thousand monthly players, but is actually losing players since launching into open beta, according to AppData. We'll see soon enough how that strategy worked out.

[Image Credit: Firaxis]

What do you think of CivWorld so far? Do you think this game has a chance against the established competition?

Nintendo DS gamers leaving for Facebook? Not a chance, Iwata says

And still the doubting masses refused to shut up. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told investors recently that Facebook and mobile games have not hurt usage of the Nintendo DS handheld console, and he has the data to prove it, Gamasutra reports. The Nintendo chief presented his investors with two internal surveys to support his claim.

The first of which covers Japanese networks Gree and Mobage's effect on the Nintendo DS, and after polling 3,035 Tokyo and Osaka residents found some interesting results. According to the survey, over 75 percent of paying Mobage and Gree players are more likely than any other group questioned to still actively use their DS.

Of course, this is quite contrary to the belief that mobile and social games are gobbling up a market once dominated by traditional handheld games. However, the US is another story entirely.

After polling 4,385 people, Nintendo found that, while Facebook gamers are more likely to be active DS gamers than any type of DS player, the percentage of active DS players is much lower overall in the states than in Japan. And, with gaming already the most popular use of smartphones, that percentage is bound to drop ... eventually. So, are DS gamers leaving for Facebook and the iPhone? No, it's simpler than that: There are over 100 million more Facebook gamers than Nintendo DS systems have been sold since its launch.

Nintendo study

[Image Credit: Gamasutra]

Do you think the Nintendo DS can survive against the growing mobile and social games markets? How will Iwata answer to Facebook and the iPhone as they continue to grow?