Details on a secret Zynga payment option emerged today via Gawker. Zynga’s “Platinum Purchase Program” is a private discount deal on virtual currency, according to an email reproduced on the site, limited to members willing to spend over $500 in a single transaction.

We’ve checked; the Platinum Program is real enough. It’s not entirely new, either, having been running at least since February [update: a commenter points to a post from December].

The Gawker take is that Zynga has hidden the program out of shame. That’s more than a bit sensational, considering that it’s well known in the social game industry that “whales”, the tiny percentage of users who spend massively, are a vital part of the business. We’ve written here about super-whales who spend over $10,000; Zynga’s biggest whales certainly far exceed that sum.

On the other hand, most companies don’t announce how many whales they have or how much those users are spending. That information, along with the best monetization strategies, is closely guarded for competitive reasons.

In this case, there’s yet another potential explanation. According to a source close to the company, Zynga set up the Platinum Program primarily for international users, with well over half of its transactions coming from overseas.

The reason for creating something like the Platinum Program, with that in mind, looks pretty straightforward. In-game transactions have upper limits, and international users often find it difficult to pay through Facebook. The Zynga approval letter cited by Gawker supports that case; it references wire services and bank transfers multiple times, while credit cards are never mentioned.

The program also looks fairly exclusive, and seems to have spread through referrals between the most active players, while each transaction requires a unique ID number from Zynga — perhaps an added barrier to potential customers, but also a barrier between Zynga and customers who aren’t serious or want to scam the company.

Even with an explanation for the Platinum Program, though, the social game industry should expect more accusations and anger about whales in the future, even though they only comprise a tiny percentage of all users.

Big spenders are a fact of life throughout most parts of the entertainment industry; neither the idea nor term “whales” are original to social gaming. But the idea of spending anything at all on virtual goods is still working its way through the public consciousness.

Here’s the letter Gawker got its hands on:

Congratulations on your decision to participate in our Wire Transfer Platinum Purchase Program.

We are pleased to inform you that we are giving all Platinum purchases this week only (Mon., Aug. 30th, 2010 – Fri., Sept. 2nd, 2010) an extra 1 POINT, in addition to the current Platinum purchase point value of 9 points per dollar!!

So, for this week only, all your purchases through the Platinum Purchasing program will be 10 Reward Points to the dollar. This represents significant savings over the best package deal that is available in-game during this week.

Your wire request must be received by Friday, September 2, 2010 to receive this exclusive discount.

We would like to introduce our Refer-A-Friend incentive for the Platinum Purchase Program. Through this incentive you will be able to refer all of your friends who have never participated in the program previously. Upon successful completion of their first wire transfer you will be awarded an additional point per dollar for your most recent wire transfer, or for you next wire transfer. You can refer as many friends as you like, but it is important to note that you can only redeem one Refer-A-Friend Incentive point per wire transfer.

In order to claim your incentive, the friends you refer to the program must include your Mafia Wars link and name in their initial request, which must be sent to platinum AT zynga.com.

Please note that purchases made under this program are non-refundable and subject to the terms listed below:

All wires must be bank to bank wire transfers. Electronic checks (ACH transfers), Western Union or any other money transfer services will be rejected. In the event that a wire is rejected any associated fees are your responsibility.
All wire transfers are final, non-refundable and must be made in U.S. Dollars. Any wire transfer fees and/or exchange fees are your responsibility. In addition, you agree that any and all funds that are received in amounts greater than the agreed upon transfer amount will automatically be applied to the players account at the agreed upon point per dollar rate.

There is a minimum purchase of $500 USD to participate.

Each wire transfer must contain a unique Zynga generated Wire Transfer ID number (WID) which we will provide to you. Each WID may only be used once and is non-transferable. WID’s will expire 7 days after they have been issued.

Wires received by Zynga containing an expired WID, a used WID or missing its WID will be rejected and subject to any and all fees associated with its rejection. There will be NO EXCEPTIONS to this rule.

Points will be granted within 3-5 days of our receipt of a valid wire.

You must be at least 18 years of age.

If you wish to proceed with a platinum Purchase please respond with the following text:

“I agree to these Terms and the Zynga Terms of Service (listed below), I wish to purchase X dollars in points.
I understand that in addition to the fees charged me by my bank to send a wire transfer, intermediary banks through which my wire travels may also incur fees against my wire that neither I nor Zynga can predict. In the event that an intermediary bank charges a a fee against my wire causing the amount received by Zynga to be less than the above agreed upon amount, I authorize Zynga to grant points on the total amount received. I also agree that any amount received in an amount greater than what was agreed to will be credited to my account at the set point per dollar rate.”

In addition to the above statements, you must include the City, State and Country of your residence. Once we have received this information, we will generate your WID and send you further instructions on how to proceed.

Kind regards,
Todd C.
Zynga Customer Support

Mid-sized developer Lolapps’ plan to break into the ranks of well-known game companies on Facebook is off to a good start. The company’s new game heads up this week’s AppData list of fastest-growing games on Facebook, defined as those still under a million monthly active users:

	Name	MAU	Gain	Gain,%
1.	Critter Island	323,066	+290,473	+891%
2.	CBSSports.com Franchise Football	217,328	+209,211	+2,577%
3.	Ikariam – The free browser game	319,612	+193,153	+153%
4.	Free Flash Games	809,401	+157,285	+24%
5.	Bubble Town: Party Planet	632,226	+134,456	+27%
6.	快樂島主	723,576	+128,556	+22%
7.	Juega al Truco	390,589	+124,163	+47%
8.	Digger	124,246	+108,137	+671%
9.	i Like Slots	232,968	+106,773	+85%
10.	Glamble Poker	968,009	+97,395	+11%
11.	TKO Deutschland	266,782	+96,621	+57%
12.	Tre Regni	165,761	+93,270	+129%
13.	Mahjong Trails	292,886	+91,997	+46%
14.	Robot Unicorn Attack	119,765	+90,566	+310%
15.	Cupcake Corner	164,967	+88,471	+116%
16.	Woozworld	275,432	+86,014	+45%
17.	Bricks	232,549	+83,553	+56%
18.	Warstorm	230,901	+80,465	+53%
19.	Mythopolis	170,610	+73,905	+76%
20.	Mynet Çanak Okey	224,072	+72,624	+48%

Critter Island, the new Lolapps game, heads up the list with 290,743 new MAU. Although it has been out for a few weeks now, the island management game’s biggest gains have mostly come in the past few days.

CBSSports.com Franchise Football comes in second with a new fantasy football app for the fall season. Several similar CBS apps have done well in the past, so the company is obviously onto something; but they rarely grow past a few hundred thousand users, and usually disappear after the sports season is over.

At number three, Ikariam – The free browser game is not actually a Facebook game, or at least not originally. It’s a fairly well-known browser-based game with a theme much like Electronic Arts’ My Empire, in which the player builds a Greco-Roman civilization on an island.

The imported casual games don’t stop there. Free Flash Games is the latest portal to show up; below it, Bubble Town: Party Planet is a bubble-shooting game with an island-based progression (like Wooga’s Bubble Island) These two apps both appear to be from casual game developers moving onto Facebook.

Then there’s Robot Unicorn Attack, down at number 14. This tongue-in-cheek game is pretty simple: you’re a robot unicorn, you want fairies, and you really don’t like walls. Robot Unicorn appears to be the first game on Facebook from Adult Swim (or at least the first we’ve seen), marking yet another casual game incursion onto Facebook.

Many social game concepts from Facebook have migrated over to the mobile — most to the iPhone. BayView Labs is one developer bringing over some of the most popular concepts, including farming and virtual aquariums. Their three primary games include Tap Ranch, Tap Fish, and Tap Birds. Each is simple but has iterations and “expansions” that grant virtual currency to main game.

Granting players virtual currency for downloading expansions follows TeamLava’s model for Farm Story. But with the various Tap titles, receiving virtual currency was unreliable.

Tap Ranch

Tap Ranch is the most recent title; part of the farming genre, it’s not actually that close to the category leader, FarmVille. Rather, it’s more comparable to Meteor Games’ Ranch Town or Country Life.

Players use simple tapping to plow land, plant crops and harvest them. Like other farming-oriented titles, better crops take longer to grow and if players takes too long to harvest them, they spoil.  This also applies to trees, which normally don’t wither.

Once harvested, everything is stockpiled in the barn and can either be sold or used to produce other goods. Players are able to purchase a variety of animals and machines to produce better products. This consists of cheese, wine, honey, milk, and so on. Some, such as milk, are simple. It merely requires feeding harvested alfalfa to a cow. Then, from the milk, you can make cheese. Essentially, the more steps a product takes, the more it is worth.

After the cash starts coming in, players can decorate their virtual space. The social mechanic involves other random players visiting and watering their crops for experience points and money. A player’s experience level determines what they can purchase.  Right now, it doesn’t appear possible to visit friends.

Tap Ranch: Red Tulips is a recent title released in connection with Tap Ranch. This app is free to download and will grant users access to a new red tulip crop and grant 10 free Ranch Bucks (the game’s virtual currency). Unlike Farm Story’s “expansions,” Red Tulips does not connect to a player’s original farm, but players do receive the currency in Tap Ranch.

Ranch Bucks are typically used as an alternative means of buying virtual items or to expand a farm, but can also be used to revive dead crops or purchase “Helpers” that automatically harvest crops or care for animals.

Tap Fish

Tap Fish is the oldest of the three BayView Labs apps and is a mobile rendition of the popular virtual aquarium genre. Every day, the tank becomes dirty and players must scrub the algae off the glass, feed the fish and generally make the best looking aquarium they can.

Income is the same in this game as its Facebook counterparts. Players buy fish eggs — of a wide variety — and grow them into adults. Once fully grown, they can be sold for a hefty profit. Players can also earn extra experience and money by periodically “loving” their fish.

This is all well and good, but it’s also rather basic. In order to change things up a bit, players can use another familiar mechanic, breeding their fish. Not all fish can breed, but it does allow users to experiment with cross breeds and sell them for a nice price. Tap Fish has a number of trophies associated with breeding specific fish, so there is an achievement-style reward.

Players can add specific friends as their neighbors. If they don’t have any buddies that play with them, they can still visit random users to help clean up their tanks and feed their fish. As with Tap Ranch, this grants a moderate experience and monetary reward.

On the topic of fiscal gratification, Tap Fish has the most “expansion” apps, including Tap Fish: Sharks, Tap Fish: Exotic, Tap Contest: Fish and a number of apps that grant Fish Buck (the game’s virtual currency).

Tap Fish: Sharks and Tap Fish: Exotic grant a small reward of virtual currency to the main Tap Fish game, but are not significantly different. The play is the same and, once again, they are not interconnected. The only difference is that players start out with more expensive fish (e.g. a shark).

However, many users experience issues receiving the virtual currency that was promised. Once the expansion apps are run, the default Tap Fish game is supposed to receive the bonus of virtual currency. The support FAQ says to wait one to three hours. We waited a bit longer and it still hasn’t shown up anywhere. With the Farm Story apps, the bonus was instantaneous. The expansions were free, so it’s not a huge problem, but it is a waste of time. We had bigger problems with the Fish Buck apps.

There are at least half a dozen apps along the lines of “Tap Fish – X Fish Bucks.” Players can download one worth five Fish Bucks for free, but the others cost anywhere from $0.99 to $19.99. Because currency can be purchased in the Tap Fish game, it’s a bit odd to give currency for purchasing apps. And it doesn’t seem to be doing too well for BayView’s image — several players are complaining, heatedly, about not receiving their virtual currency.

Tap Contest: Fish is separate free app that creates a pretty cool social element. It’s not really a game, but allows users to easily view all the different players’ virtual aquariums and vote on which are the best. The winner gets Fish Bucks.

Tap Birds

Tap Birds is the only app of the series that doesn’t have any supporting apps. But it doesn’t really do anything new either. It is almost a carbon copy of Tap Fish (or Birdland on Facebook), the only difference being that everything is bird- rather than fish-themed.

It’s a rinse and repeat of buying bird eggs, feeding them (this time via a feeder that the player fills up periodically) and selling them once they reach maturity. As with Tap Fish, players must clean their aviary from time to time and can “love” their birds every few hours for extra monetary and experience rewards. They can also breed the animals and earn new species and trophies to boot.

The social mechanics are actually a step down. It doesn’t appear to be possible to add real friends. The ability to visit other random players’ aviaries is still present. Overall, the game is not really a new experience from that of Tap Fish, but is a different flavor for players that prefer birds over fish.

As was already noted, there are no “expansion” style apps for Tap Birds yet, but the game does offer virtual currency for downloading new BayView apps, namely Tap Ranch: Red Tullips.

Conclusion

Overall, each of these games is pretty average, but the issues with virtual currency are considerable. Also, we noticed that if a player already has an app being promoted through an offer, they will not earn currency for running the app. You have to have the original Tap Ranch, Fish, or Bird app first, then download the offers.

Our only other criticism is that these apps are just remakes of old Facebook games that are, frankly, more fun on Facebook. It is nice to have the games available on the go, but it just feels like more of the same. Even the three BayView titles feel like clones of each other, just with a different theme. In the end, the iPhone is far too powerful a platform for users to be satisfied with apps that just do the minimum.

[Editor's note: This is a guest post by Thayer Preece, an associate at Silicon Valley law firm Sheppard Mullin, where she is part of the Intellectual Property group. The post was previously published at a Sheppard Mullin blog, Law of the Level.]

The rise of social games has changed the face of the gaming industry in countless ways. With lower barriers to entry than traditional game development, new titles are launching essentially non-stop, not only from larger companies, but from a multitude of start-ups as well.

As a game developer, you are creating a product that you believe is innovative and compelling. But how do you make your game stand out in this throng―and how do you protect yourself against the horde that will try to ride on your success? By using trademarks effectively to promote and protect your brands.

Ingredients for a Strong Trademark

Naming a new game can be a challenge. You want a name that stands out and draws players in, but you also want to tell potential new players something about the game you’re offering. One of the main problems that many developers encounter stems from this second desire—descriptiveness.

The strength of a trademark (its ability to identify the source of goods or services), is measured on a sliding scale, with generic words (“cake”) on one end, and purely fanciful marks, that is, words that have no inherent meaning, (“cakiala”) on the other. Generic words can’t be protected on their own as trademarks. Fanciful marks and arbitrary marks (words that have no relation to the goods on which they’re used) are the strongest trademarks.

In between these two extremes are the categories where most social game titles fall—descriptive and suggestive marks. The line between these two categories is pretty blurry. Descriptive marks, as the name suggests, describe a quality or characteristic of the goods. Suggestive marks, on the other hand, do not outright describe a quality of the goods, but merely suggest it.

Hypothetical example—PastryPlay is a successful new social game developer using its first rounds of funding to create a game where players plant and grow delicious magical cupcake plants.  A descriptive name for this game might be “Cupcake Farm.” The name describes exactly what the content of the game is.  In contrast, a suggestive name could be “Sprinkle Harvest.” The name evokes the content of the game without expressly describing it.

So why should you care whether your mark is descriptive or suggestive?  Because suggestive marks are considered inherently distinctive and therefore automatically entitled to trademark protection. On the other hand, descriptive marks do not, on their own, merit full trademark protection. Only once a descriptive mark has been used and advertised extensively, so that it serves to identify that one specific game, can it get full trademark protection.

When a social game is published, it is instantly viewable by millions of potential players—and countless competitors. If a game is successful, chances are it will breed imitations. In the example above, PastryPlay can’t stop its competitors from coming out with their own cupcake-farming games. And because the terms “cupcake” and “farm” simply describe the content of the game, PastryPlay can’t prevent other developers from using those words in their game titles. Social gaming giant PlaySweet can then sweep in with its newest title “Cupcake Ranch,” and there’s nothing that PastryPlay can do to stop it. If PastryPlay had chosen a suggestive name, on the other hand, they would be in a good position to challenge anyone who used a confusingly similar title for another social game.

Sifting through the Competition

Once your company has chosen several potential names for your new game, it’s time to find out if you are the first person to use that trademark. In the United States, trademark rights are based on first use in commerce, so if someone has used anything confusingly similar to your potential name before you for related products, you could be in trouble.

Searching for prior trademark use is an absolutely necessary part of the branding process. Performing a trademark search before a game title (or other company name or product, for that matter) is adopted is exponentially less expensive—and annoying—than fighting a legal battle over your title at some point in the future. This is why you want to choose several potential names for a new game—it is entirely possible that you may be blocked from using one of the names by a prior use, particularly with the huge number of social games that are already on the market.

The searching stage is where you want to get your trademark attorney involved. It may seem simple to perform some quick Internet searches to find any really obvious obstacles, but a trademark attorney brings a couple of desirable qualities into play—knowledge of search techniques for a wide range of sources, including trademark databases, and the experience to know which search results are likely to cause conflicts.

In the social game space in particular, because the barriers to entry are so low, there are an incredibly large number of games out on the market. While many of these games are not huge success stories, and may have a limited number of players, trademark law doesn’t care how many monthly active users you have—only who used the mark first.

Suppose that PastryPlay didn’t perform any trademark searches before adopting the game title “Sprinkle Harvest.” The game is released, and thanks to creative genius, effective marketing, and word of mouth, it’s a huge success, with over a million monthly active users in just a few weeks. Unfortunately for PastryPlay, Bill Baker, a retired software engineer, coding in his spare time, had published a similar game called “Sprinkle Harvester” about a month before. His game isn’t as sophisticated or popular. He only has about 2,000 monthly active users. But if he files a lawsuit, he could force PastryPlay to change the name it has spent so much time and money promoting, and he could also be entitled to a lot of money in damages.

Prepare in Advance

The good news is that there are ways to protect your new game title before the game is published. The United States Patent and Trademark Office allows you to file an Intent-to-Use (“ITU”) trademark application. Essentially, this application allows you to reserve your rights in a trademark that you plan to use. Protection for ITU trademarks dates back to the moment the application was filed.

Let’s re-visit our prior situation, but with slightly different facts. PastryPlay settles on the name “Sprinkle Harvest” about halfway through its development process and immediately files an ITU trademark application for the title. Shortly after PastryPlay files its application, Bill Baker releases his “Sprinkle Harvester” game. PastryPlay then releases “Sprinkle Harvest” about a month later. In this scenario, PastryPlay is now in control, with the basis to claim trademark infringement against anyone using the name after its trademark application date, including Bill Baker, who will likely have to change his game title. And, because PastryPlay’s application was on record, and Bill had a duty to search trademark records before adopting his mark, he may now have to pay a higher amount in damages than if PastryPlay had simply used the mark first.

As you can see from this example, the filing date of an ITU application is incredibly important. By being proactive about your trademarks, you can gain the right to prevent future developers from using any titles that are confusingly similar to your own. The date from which you can first establish trademark rights could prove to be the difference between maintaining the goodwill of your brand or losing your investment.

You Have Your Cake. Now Eat it, Too.

Having trademark rights is all well and good, but you don’t maximize the benefit from having those rights unless you enforce them. Enforcement is an integral part of both maintaining your legal rights in a mark and retaining the distinctiveness of your brand.

The first step of enforcement is keeping an eye out for infringing uses. If someone on your team notices a game with a similar name, send it to your trademark attorney to find out if it’s going to be a problem. You can run periodic searches of social game platforms, or have your attorney do it for you. Your attorney can also order watching services that will monitor new trademark filings, both in the United States and abroad, in order to identify potential new threats as quickly as possible.

Once a potentially infringing use has been identified, you need to address it. The most typical way to do that is to have your attorney research the situation, then send a cease and desist letter if appropriate. Ideally the letter will lead to a quick resolution, but in some cases, further legal action may be necessary.

Back to the delicious dealings of PastryPlay—Fiona Frosting is an artist working on Sprinkle Harvest. While surfing the Internet one night, she discovers the infringing Sprinkle Harvester game and notifies PastryPlay’s CEO. The CEO decides that because the infringing game is so small, he will just ignore it. This leads to a couple of potential problems—

First, PastryPlay does decide to go after a more popular, nautical-cupcake game called “Sprinkle Harbor.” The makers of Sprinkle Harbor point to Bill Baker’s Sprinkle Harvester game as evidence that PastryPlay’s trademark lacks distinctiveness, and that coexistence should be possible, since Sprinkle Harvest is already coexisting with a more similar mark. This could cause complications if PastryPlay tries to bring a lawsuit, and almost certainly puts it in a weaker position when negotiating a settlement.

In a second scenario, PastryPlay has ignored the Sprinkle Harvester game until seven years later. During that time, Sprinkle Harvester was acquired by industry giant PlaySweet, which upgraded its graphics, and launched a massive marketing campaign. Now an active competitor, PastryPlay decides to sue. But PastryPlay has waited too long. PlaySweet is able to mount defenses based on implied consent, laches, and the statute of limitations for trademark claims, and it is now too late for PastryPlay to protect its brand.

As a developer, your game titles are one of your most valuable assets. The value in your titles comes from their ability to identify your game. The more competitors there are in the market with similar names, the less your title serves as a unique identifier. As a result, it’s vital to address any infringement in order to maintain that value.

Sweet Satisfaction

Trademarks are one of those areas where handling things properly from the beginning can save a lot of trouble and heartache down the road. There is no substitute for getting trademark advice directly from your attorney, but hopefully this article has given you a basic recipe to keep in mind while cooking up your game brands.

Recently, we launched the Inside Network Job Board – dedicated to providing you with the best job opportunities in the Facebook Platform and social gaming ecosystem.

Here are this week’s highlights from the Inside Network Job Board, including positions at Playfish, Glu Mobile, Stumptown Games, BOKU, and Ngmoco.

• Acquisition Marketing Manager (San Francisco, CA)
• Game Developer (San Francisco, CA)
• Policy & Compliance Manager (San Francisco, CA)
• Sr. Analyst (San Francisco, CA)
  
• Business Analytics Manager (San Francisco, CA)
  
• Engineering Director, Marketing & CRM (San Francisco, CA)
  
• Server Developer (San Francisco, CA)
• Systems Operations Engineer (San Francisco, CA)

• Sr. Product Manager (Casual Games) (San Mateo, CA)

• Senior Engineer-Android & iPhone (Portland, OR)

• Publisher Account Manager (San Francisco, CA)

• Android Software Test Engineer (San Francisco, CA)
  
• Android Client Engineer (San Francisco, CA)

Listings on the Inside Network Job Board are distributed to readers of Inside Facebook and Inside Social Games through regular posts and widgets on the sites. That way, you can be sure that your open positions are being seen by the leading developers, product managers, marketers, designers, and executives in the Facebook Platform and social gaming industry today.

It’s been a busy week of hiring for major social developers, according to data from both data from LinkedIn and a few of the companies themselves. There have even been a few major hires this past week as well including a new VP of Finance & Administration for Crowdstar, Victoria Bourne, and a new Game Design Lead for Digital Chocolate, Joshua Dallman. In addition to these, Zac Brandenberg is appointed the new CEO of Meteor Games, while Xbox Co-Creator, Kevin Bachus joins Bebo as its new Chief Product Officer. And be sure to check out our interview earlier this week with Henric Suuronen, who has just joined Wooga as a studio head after a successful stint at Digital Chocolate. Beyond these, there was the ongoing title changes within Slide due to its acquisition by Google, as well as internal changes at Playdom due to its acquisition by Disney.

If your company is bringing on new people or doing a notable promotion, be sure to let us know. Email editor (at) insidesocialgames (dot) com.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to make a move yourself, be sure to check out our Inside Network Job Board.

Here’s this week’s list:

Bebo

• Kevin Bachus - Bebo gains a new Chief Product Officer in the form of Kevin Bachus. Though he is a long-time executive and investor within the video game and digital media spaces, he is best known as one of the founders and creators of Microsoft’s Xbox console. Bebo is looking to make itself more of a social gaming platform, we and others have heard, as part of its new focus on entertainment.

Booyah

• Jeff Skaggs – Formerly the Director of West Coast Sales at appssavvy, Skaggs joins Booyah as their new West Coast Director of Sales.

Crowdstar

• Victoria Bourne - Bourne joins Crowdstar as their new VP of Finance & Administration. Prior to this, she was the VP of Finance at Cellfire.

Digital Chocolate

• Carole Riault- Riault changes positions at Digital Chocolate from a Localization Tester to one of their newest Account Managers.
• Joshua Dallman – Leaving Playdom after Disney acquired it, the former Studio Game Design Lead from Playdom joins Digital Chocolate as their new Game Design Lead.
• Miikka Luotio- Another job change at Digital Chocolate as Luotio switches from a Producer to an Associate Product Manager.

Kabam

• Tess Chu – Previously an Engineering Manager for Linden Lab, Chu joins Kabam as their newest Sr. Engineer Analyst.
• Brad Bonkoski- Now a Senior Software Engineer for Kabam, Bonkoski’s previous experience stems from Yahoo! where he was a Tech Lead & Engineering Manager.
• Christian Biermann - Formerly a Lead QA Analyst for Playdom, Biermann takes on the same role, as Lead QA Analyst, for Kabam.

Meteor Games

• Zac Brandenberg – Announced as the new CEO of Meteor Games, Brandenberg  is a digital media veteran, serving previously as the CEO of digital advertising platform Hydra.

Mindjolt

• Luong Tam – A former Flash Developer for MySpace, Tam joins Mindjolt as their newest Developer.

Playdom

• Noor Mohammed- One of many transitions beneath the Disney guise, Mohammed moves his Senior Artist role under Playdom to the same role under the Walt Disney Media Group.
• Ryan Ragona- Formerly a Senior Software Engineer under Playdom’s tag, Ragona is now a Development Lead under Disney Interactive Media Group.
• Thi Nguyen- Nguyen joins Playdom as its newest Associate Producer. Prior to this, she was a Legal Clerk for Sega of America, Inc.
• Christopher Chapman- Under Playdom, Chapman held the role of Senior Web Developer. Now moving under the name of The Walt Disney Company, he fills the role of Web Developer.
• Andy Sponring- Filling “Assorted Roles” at Playdom, Sponring moves into an Associate Producer position under Disney Interactive Media Group.
• Faiz Kamarul Baharin – Previously a Story Intern form Red Giant Studios, Baharin joins Playdom as a Junior Artist.
• Jason Dickson – Formerly a Quality Assurance Manager for SouthPeak Interactive, Dickson is now a QA Lead for Playdom.
• Kara Baskett- Baskett joins Playdom as their newest Recruiter. Prior to this, she was a Strategic Staffing Specialist for Mead Johnson Nutrition.
• Jimmie Tyrrell- Now a Development Lead under the Disney Interactive Media Group, Tyrrell was previously filling the same job role under Playdom.
• Edvard Toth- Toth remains under the Playdom tag as their new Art Director. Previously, he was one of their Senior Flash Developers.

Playfish

• Bob Weiler- Weiler joins Playfish as their newest Sever Engineer. Previously, he was a Staff Engineer for StubHub.
• Duncan Brown- Formerly an Art Lead at Playfish, Brown moves up within the company as their newest Art Director.

Slide

• Ryan Ye – Part of the continuing Google transitions, Ye switches from Technical Lead under Slide to a Member of Technical Staff at Google.
• Yongrong (Damien) Hou - Previously an Engineering Lead at Slide, Hou also becomes a Member of Technical Staff at Google.
• Aris Chen – Coming under the Google tag, Chen becomes a Designer. Previously, Chen was a Graphic Designer at Slide.

Zynga

• Sterling Reames – Zynga gains a new Animator in the form of Reames, who filled the same role at the recently acquired Conduit Labs.
• Julie Ray -- Ray joins Zynga as their new Stock Plan Administrator. Ray was formerly a Sr. Manager for Sybase.
• Mike Bailey – Previously a Senior Quality Assurance Tester at DCS, Baily is now QA Analyst 1 at Zynga.
• Farzam Farrokhi- Joining Zynga as their new Senior MySQL DBA, is Farrokhi who was previously a  DB Engineer, Business Analyst, and BI Analyst for Five9.
• Nathan McGee – Formerly a Senior Producer of Social Media for CafePress.com, McGee joins Zynga as a Contracted Community Manager.
• Melissa Sawicki- Sawicki joins the social realm as Zynga’s newest Designer. Prior to this, she was a Designer for console developer Rockstar Games.
• Binu Philip- Philip joins Zynga as their newest Architect. Before this, he was a Principle Engineer for Yahoo!
• Daniel Wiggins- Another person, Wiggins, from mainstream video games joins Zynga as part of their Corporate Development. Wiggins’ experience stems from Finance at Turbine.
• Andy Scott- Now a Development Manager of Warstorm, Scott remains under the Zynga tag, but was previously a Senior Software Engineer.
• Sudhanshu Sethi- Prior to joining Zynga as a Sr. Information Security Project Manager, Sethi filled the same role over at PayPal.
• Erik Island- Also from PayPal comes Island, a former Senior Analyst. Now, he joins Zynga as “Data Analyst.”

Less than three weeks have passed since the last time we wrote about Applifier, which offers Facebook developers a cross-promotional bar that is shown to players alongside games. But in that short time the company has already added 20 million new monthly active users across the network, according to CEO Jussi Laakkonen.

Applifier is becoming more public today, opening officially to any Facebook game developer, with a new web page showing off top clients and how the bar works.

But the real news, as it was in August, is the size that Applifier has grown to. As a network, it’s now larger than any Facebook developer with the exception of Zynga — Electronic Arts comes a close second with 54 million.

The promotional network has been growing so quickly because there are a large number of developers, like ZipZapPlay and Booyah, who have millions of monthly active users but only one successful game, which means that they can’t do significant cross-promotion on their own.

Mid-sized developers like Wooga and Digital Chocolate, who do have multiple games, are also taking part. Laakkonen says that Applifier has had to concentrate almost entirely on scaling since its launch four months ago; it now delivers 200 million impressions daily.

Asked whether a top five developer like Playdom could potentially take part in Applifier, Laakkonen says it likely won’t ever happen. “When we think about ourselves, we think about leveling the playing field,” he says. “The whole point is the portfolio. Zynga, Playfish and so forth can build that portfolio for themselves, and they can try to capture the whole game-playing of a particular player.”

At the same time, Laakkonen is still coming to grips with Applifier’s growth to date. “When we started four months ago, if someone told me we’d cross 50 million, I would have laughed. At 10 million, I thought we’d made it, that there was nothing more to be done,” he says.

Although Applifier does paid campaigns, its main premise is that player traffic between games is free; it’s now up to 10 million click-throughs, according to Laakkonen. For more on how the network works, check out our stories from its launch and 35 million milestone.

The boom of soccer-oriented apps may be over, but an older Facebook soccer manager came to our attention recently. Top Eleven Football Manager was developed back in May by European developer Nordeus — a company comprised of former Microsoft engineers– and has grown steadily in the past months. Currently, the title has upwards of 204,000 monthly active users and a good player loyalty rate with a daily active user count of over 52,000.

Top Eleven is a very slow burn game, due to its focus on management. In fact, that’s all it is. The game lacks some of the more common “play” elements and actual matches that come with games such as FIFA Superstars or Epic Goal. The game also requires a great deal of patience with its extraordinarily slow progression and very little instruction.

The goal of this particular soccer app is about the same as any other: Create the best team possible. Players start out with… well, they start out with a mail box of expiring contracts, a bunch of buttons, and absolutely no direction whatsoever. Not a good start. But after some poking about, then attractiveness of the app began to reveal itself to us.

When a player joins the game, they are placed into a season that lasts 28 days, with 26 games played and two days in between seasons. While this may be an interesting element for experienced players in the genre, it’s not so good for new players because it can leave very little to do.

This problem presented itself today. We joined on Day 2 of the season, when games do not begin until Day 3. We wasted about an hour trying to figure out how to play a match before noticing this fact. The only games that we could play were friendly matches between friends that must be scheduled for specific dates and times. Even this is slow burn. Matches can only be scheduled for every quarter hour, meaning players may have to wait up to 15 minutes to do anything.

Once a game is underway, there isn’t a lot to see beyond a stream of commentary on what is happening. But users can change their tactics on the fly and make live substitutions. The seasonal games are not much different, except that at the end of each the top four teams become eligible for an even tougher league of players called the “Champions League.” This live play mechanic, is actually one of the cooler aspects of Top Eleven and it extends to more than just the games.

To create a winning team, it is important to have the best players. One way of acquiring them is by buying and selling player contracts. This consists of buying contracts from a scout list — which displays respective players’ statistics and any special abilities e.g. PK Specialist. But the live auctions are much more interesting,

Aside from selling players, users can also sign any number of sponsorship deals for their uniforms and stadium and earn a good chunk of change over the course of a few days. Of course, each deal will have to be renewed as they expire.

This income can then be turned around and used to buy either more players or to build up facilities for a player’s stadium. This becomes a quasi-virtual space in which players construct training facilities to improve their team’s statistics and thus increase their fan base.  More fans appears to equal more income from tickets. This is yet another painstakingly slow element. Even the facilities take days to build and users can only build one at a time. We selected a gym in order to train our players and it will be three days until we can actually do anything.

The biggest problem with Top Eleven is this combination of slow burning mechanics coupled with zero direction. The game has many management features and some very nice live elements, but for a new player there is no way of knowing what should be done first and when. On top of all that, everything takes so long that there is little, if anything, to do in the first sitting.

For the veteran sports manager player, this title might be a good bit of fun, but in its current state it’s going to shoo away anyone who is not a hardcore player of this genre. There is just no hook to the game; nothing to makes the new user want to come back or grants them any sense of progression.

Appearing both on our top daily active user and monthly active user lists this week, Ludia’s Facebook app The Price Is Right Game has been growing rapidly. In just over two weeks, the new title has attracted over 919,000 MAU and 253,000 DAU.

The game itself is a respectable rendition of the long running television show, and luckily for the player, it’s quite fun. Supporting up 12 players simultaneously, the title includes all the nuances that made the game show popular, and few flaws.

First and foremost, The Price Is Right is not intended as a single player endeavor (at most there are some practice mini-games). Players start off with a handful of daily coins and for the cost of two, hop right into a game with 11 other Facebook users. The game from here is more or less identical to the actual show.

Players will be given a random video of some retail item and all 12 try to guess the price by coming closest to its value without going over. The top four will move up to “Contestant’s Row” where they will be able to compete for the big prizes and payouts. This process will repeat itself for five rounds, with audience members replacing the four in the Contestant’s Row should they make better guesses.

Once in the Contestant’s Row, the closest guess will be sent to a random mini-game for a chance at bonus cash. These are the same mini-games seen on the show and include Safe Crackers, the Clock Game, 3 Strikes, and so on. There are nine games, and each involves some gimmick to guessing the price of another random retail item. As a basic example, Safe Crackers gives the players three dials with three numbers. However, each number can only be used once. The idea is to guess the right “combination” for the safe, which will be the price tag on the presented item.

Unlike the game show, the prizes aren’t real, but the bonus cash can earn some real stuff, with more of it unlocking extra mini-games to practice on. Cash is also used to enter users into weekly contests, by becoming “Team Cash.”

This is one of the other social aspects of the game. Team Cash consists of one’s own cash multiplied by 10 and all of their friends’ cash multiplied by two. Once a required amount of Team Cash is accrued, the user can then enter the weekly contest. Currently, the prize is a trip to LA and VIP tickets to The Price Is Right show itself. That said, players need about a million Team Cash to even enter.

Getting back to the actual game, after five rounds are completed, the top two players will compete in the final Showcase round where they attempt to guess the price on a large collection of expensive items. Meanwhile, the remaining 10 users will spin the Big Wheel to try and earn bonus cash by spinning it up to two times. The catch is that they cannot exceed one dollar (sort of like black jack in wheel form).

In truth, it’s easy to see why The Price Is Right has been growing so rapidly. There really is absolutely nothing wrong with the game. The only real concern is the volume of items that are in the games video showcase. It only happened once during a practice mini-game, but if there are not enough products in the game, some will inevitably repeat. This means that long-time players could have an unfair advantage. All the same, the repeat only happened once, and, on average, peoples’ memories probably are not going to be that accurate.

Overall, The Price is Right Game has all the nuances that made the actual show enjoyable and translates them well into a digital format. Granted, the prizes may not be as abundant, but it still does have a nice means to grant some tangible reward; even if it just a chance. This is an app that will likely continue to grow for some time.

Facebook began signing five-year agreements with developers this spring, working to guarantee that its virtual currency, Credits, will soon be the exclusive payment option for virtual goods in all applications on its platform.

As part of this, Zynga, the largest and most powerful developer on Facebook, is readying a switch to using Credits exclusively, according to multiple sources. The move will happen sometime before the end of the year, and possibly as soon as the next month or two. When Zynga signed its five-year contract with Facebook in May, Credits exclusively was part of the deal — the two companies just didn’t say so.

[Update: The official joint statement from Facebook and Zynga, confirming the deal: "Facebook and Zynga have transitioned Facebook Credits to be the exclusive method of payment for most Zynga network games on the Facebook platform. The companies are committed to working together to provide the best possible customer experience during this transition." It appears that the only Zynga title on Facebook not using Credits is Texas HoldEm Poker. Also, third party offer and game card providers continue to appear in most games, likely meaning that users can still buy in-game virtual currencies directly without going through Facebook.]

Facebook says it expects that over time Credits will be the main way that applications and people transact on Facebook Platform, although it hasn’t officially stated that Credits will be mandated. However, given that large developers like Zynga will lose millions in at least the short-term due to the switch, we believe Facebook has required that they all use Credits exclusively despite protests.

Credits have, of course, been offered as an option in most Zynga games for many months (excluding Zynga Poker), with Zynga experimenting with various interfaces to show it among other payment options. The latest payment flow visible in FarmVille today, as you can see below, and it is using Credits exclusively. Interestingly, the flow appears to let you pay directly for virtual currencies in games using a credit card. However, if you complete the transaction, you’ll get an email confirmation from Facebook Credits saying that you have bought the in-game virtual currency (either Farm Cash or Farm Coins) in the game. Facebook says this payment flow is easier for players, who might otherwise be confused about first having to buy Credits.

Zynga is joining the other largest social game developers on Facebook in switching to Credits as the sole payment method for virtual currency and virtual goods. CrowdStar introduced the first Credits-only game last fall, testing out Credits late last year in Happy Island; it eventually signed a five-year contract in June. RockYou signed on the next month, and Playdom, which is currently the second-largest developer (but still only a fifth of Zynga’s size) did too. Neither Playdom or RockYou has made the full switch to exclusively using Credits yet, but also will within the year. EA’s Playfish, which has been relatively quiet with Credits, has also been testing the currency in its games, and we expect it will move over along with the others.

The list doesn’t end there — mid-sized companies like Lolapps and Wooga have also told us they’re using Credits, and it appears that a large portion of smaller developers have at least started offering Credits as an option, too. Overall, Facebook says that 70 developers are offering it in around 150 applications, with a waiting line of developers wanting to get into the still-closed beta test.

The details of the five-year contracts have remained secret, but by going first, Zynga showed the way for other top developers. Because it is the largest business on Facebook — the company is on track to make more than $500 million this year, according to our Inside Virtual Goods report – it will be paying Facebook the most money out of any developer when it begins using Credits exclusively, or 30 percent of its payment revenue on Facebook.

One other point, here: neither Zynga nor other developers are getting a break, according to Facebook — everyone gets the same terms. Following the agreement, rumors had circulated about Zynga if not other developers getting some form of ad rebate or other discount in exchange for the agreement.

Zynga can still attempt to pull players of Facebook to destination sites like FarmVille.com, where Credits aren’t an option at all, but so far Facebook has continued to be the main way that social games have grown and maintained users. Even with the new costs, Zynga needs to be on Facebook going forward.

Credits itself continues to grow, with Facebook adding more payment partners to help get money flowing through the system. Zynga’s arrival could significantly increase the liquidity of the overall system, meaning that Zynga players who migrate to other games will bring their Credits with them, ready to spend.

That, in turn, could help out Credits, all developers, and Zynga itself.

We’ve covered Credits extensively in the past. Here are some links to previous stories:

• The Case For Facebook Credits
• The Case Against Facebook Credits
• Facebook and Zynga Battle Over Credits — and Bigger Platform Issues
• As Facebook Continues Testing Credits, Some Developers Worry About Costs
• Facebook: We Want to Integrate 200 Credits Payment Options Worldwide