KlickNation title Age of Champions has found its way onto one of our top emerging apps lists, even though it has been out since last May. Here’s a review of where it’s at today.

Though the game is not tremendously popular, it appears to have carved out a user base, today earning more than 600,000 monthly active users and around 50,000 daily actives after all sorts of ups and downs in the past month, according to AppData. The recent growth appears due to some game updates and a new advertising campaign that kicked off at the beginning of this year.

Anyway, primarily a text-based role-playing game, Age of Champions comes with a number of the familiar mechanics that have come to be known as “mafia style.” Set in a fantasy world, the game does attempt to be a bit different in terms of its quest and player versus player systems, granting users a bit more variety in quest types (e.g. crafting/harvesting), beyond sequential storyline jobs, and slightly different PvP challenges such as King of the Hill. Nevertheless, while the game’s static visuals look decent, many of its advertised, 3D, selling points, and overall polish feel clunky, at best.

Long story short, players are entered into a fantasy world where the king of the land is gone and it’s they that are putting in their bid for the throne. With the basics that of a mafia-style RPG, players do quests at the consumption of energy, repeating them until they are dubbed 100% complete and move on to new ones.

While users can find equipment for their avatar and increase their statistics, the bulk of their might comes from an actual army. As users level up, they will be able to purchase more and more soldiers, of varying types and power, and equip them (this is done passively as items are bought) as they would themselves. Additionally, units for the army require both gold and food to procure, with the latter produced by purchased farm buildings. In fact, there are also buildings for earning periodic income, unlocking new units, or researching new types of equipment.

This is where the game is similar to a past reviewed game, Mercenaries of War (though Age of Champions was released first). Many of the quests that can be done are animated with a brief battle sequence. Though users have no control over the battle itself, they are able to see the extent of their army charge that of whatever the enemy holds. It’s also worth noting that, like the gun-touting successor, Mercenaries, there is a level of gratification and satisfaction in seeing one’s army (rather than they be text on a screen) grow and watch them battle it out. That said, the visual is rather underwhelming. While everything appears to be in 3D, it looks extraordinarily basic and pixilated, sapping a majority of the noted satisfaction away.

On another note, there is no real investment in the army; no real upkeep beyond having enough farms. Units die very quickly in the battles, but unlike Mercenaries, they never have to be healed. They just magically return when needed again.

Still on the topic of quests, one of the more interesting aspects is that players are not limited to a sequential series of quests. Players can actually jump around chapters in a sort of book doing either the storyline missions, new player tutorial quests, high level challenges for advanced players, or even perform more craft oriented jobs.

This actually raised the our eyebrows the highest out of anything in the game, as it is not something we typically see. Players can actually visit a place called “Scalesong Village” and perform quests that will allow them to sell random items (such as rabbit fur), fish, or gather herbs. Beyond experience and fiscal (which can be significant) benefits, this allows the player a chance to collect rarer items that can be utilized in Age of Champion’s “Alchemy” feature; allowing users to combine items to create more powerful ones. Moreover, any quest can be bookmarked so that the player can quickly access it again at any time.

Moving on to social interaction, the standards of sharing achievements on wall feeds, sending gifts, and joining guilds are all present and accounted for. Also, once at a high-enough level, players can summon epic boss monsters that drop exceptional items that multiple players can attempt to defeat. With the first “boss,” as it were, unlocking at level 10, the battles play out about the same as in games such as Castle Age or Haven, with users getting only a few attacks, and the boss staying active for a limited time. Also, as a side note, it is worth noting that some of these larger bosses do look significantly better than the rest of the game’s 3D elements.

On the player versus player side of things, there is a bit more to it then other RPGs. Yes, there is still the random challenging of players that are roughly the same level, but users can also participate in a “King of Hill” mode. It works identically the same as normal challenges – meaning that players pit their army against another’s in an automated, and animated, battle – but the leaderboard updates every 10 minutes. The idea is to work your way to the top and stay there for as long as possible. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any real reward for doing so, other than just doing it, but the idea of engaging players in something different from random challenges is a positive one.

On the negative side of things, and other than the 3D visuals, a lot of the game just feels clunky in terms of presentation. There’s a constant loading between screens breaking game flow, and a number of the user interface elements feel like they’re just laid atop the game’s background, rather than feel a part of it. Moreover, a good deal of it actually seems blurry. That said, the 2D monster and character artwork looks well done. Granted, the 3D is likely used to help differentiate the game from other RPGs, but truthfully, it does more harm than good.

In the end though, Age of Champions is an average RPG. It has a few nice elements and concepts to it, such as the animated battles, crafting/harvest focused quests, and even slightly different modes of PvP. Nevertheless, most of the game has been seen and done before. Between constant loading between pages coupled with underwhelming 3D visuals, Age of Champions is decent, but nothing truly awe-inspiring either.

Following major changes by Facebook to notifications, the news feed and other key communication channels, social game developers shifted more interest to finding users through third party channels last year. In response, Helsinki, Finland-based Applifer launched a toolbar that lets developers cross-promote traffic with each other — a “rebel alliance” for smaller developers versus the in-house toolbars that Zynga and other leading companies use to send users between their own games, as the company described itself last May.

The result: lots of developers joined (the company said it was reaching 55 million monthly active Facebook users as of last September) and new rivals emerged offering similar services. Today, Applifier is doubling down on its business, raising a $2 million round from a group of angels, and introducing a beta program for a toolbar that will promote games across the web.

For those not familiar with the details of how the service works, a developer embeds the toolbar at the top of their canvas application. The toolbar promotes other developers’ games on the Applifier network, and the hosting developer in turn has its titles promoted on others’ embeds.

Broken Bulb Studios launched Appstrip to do the same thing in August. Then monetization service provider Tapjoy (née Offerpal) bought it in November, and as of earlier this month had lured longtime client Zynga to use it as well.

That’s not the only competition. Digital Chocolate, which had joined the Applifier network last year, launched its own cross-promotion toolbar for developers in December. The other two companies give developers back 0.9 clicks for every 1 sent out, so part the new service, called the VIP Games Network, matches 1:1. While the other companies sell the 10% of clicks they keep, Digital Chocolate’s interest is in finding more paying game developers.

Applifier, then, was first to the Facebook platform with the idea, but now things are getting more crowded. It has been adding more features to compete, like retargeting last month. And its web effort is already off the ground.

“Applifier for web games is a pioneering effort,” founder and chief executive Jussi Laakkonen tells us. “We’ll find out if the same model works for free to play games outside of Facebook, there’s definitely pain as user acquisition can be 3-4x more expensive than on Facebook. It’s already live with over a good number of publishers and we are looking for more to join.”

With more than 100 developers who have participated, more than 50 million clicks generated, and 750 million impressions per day, Applifier looks well positioned for its next phase. Investors in this first round of funding include MHS Capital, PROfounders, Tekes, Lifeline Ventures, Jyri Engeström, David Gardner and Lars Stenfeldt Hansen.

This week’s list of fastest growing games on Facebook based on daily active users contains an almost even split between the larger players in the space and the smaller developers. Though CityVille is nowhere to be seen as it suffered a loss this week, Zynga is still commanding two of the spots in the top 10 with FarmVille and Texas HoldEm Poker.

Meanwhile, RockYou’s Zoo World is back on upward trend after a few weeks of plateauing traffic, and Ravenwood Fair has also been showing success for LOLapps and is now just shy of 900,000 DAU.

With a placement promotion by Facebook due to using Facebook Credits combined with a polished and unique game, It Girl by Crowdstar has been gaining momentum steadily ever since it launched. The game now boasts over 1.2 million DAU after increasing by another 4% this week.

Name DAU Gain Gain,% 1. Texas HoldEm Poker 7,543,392 +159,420 +2% 2. Foursquare 421,951 +156,811 +59% 3. Monster Galaxy 643,434 +135,108 +27% 4. FarmVille 15,192,716 +131,597 +0.87% 5. Crime City 1,022,050 +66,913 +7% 6. Zoo World 570,428 +54,872 +11% 7. Okey 884,671 +47,105 +6% 8. Ravenwood Fair 894,579 +46,574 +5% 9. It Girl 1,211,333 +42,850 +4% 10. แฮปปี้คนเลี้ยงหม 783,006 +37,523 +5% 11. Mynet Çanak Okey 415,556 +37,406 +10% 12. World War 185,620 +37,230 +25% 13. Dragons of Atlantis 217,093 +30,730 +16% 14. Puzzle Saga 75,656 +30,175 +66% 15. Wildlife Refuge 44,418 +23,868 +116% 16. Farm Bonuses 104,634 +23,542 +29% 17. Baking Life 758,396 +23,045 +3% 18. Habbo Hotel España 139,151 +22,851 +20% 19. Madden NFL Superstars 296,313 +22,408 +8% 20. Dog Show Friends 100,061 +22,248 +29%

King.com debuted its Puzzle Saga game last fall, and we dubbed it a cute Puzzle Quest clone in our review here on Inside Social Games. Though the game has fallen quite a bit from its peak MAU of 775,749 down to just over 384,000, it reached its highest DAU to date this week after a 66% increase. It appears to be an increase in marketing dollars but could also have been a creative retention push to bring back players who had lost interest in the game.

Sony Online Entertainment has been struggling to have a breakout hit on Facebook, but Wildlife Refuge seems to be the best positioned to be successful.  The game is lightweight, builds on existing game mechanics that have been proven to work, and features a built-in charity partnership as an added source of revenue. A sudden spike in DAU over the last week has brought Wildlife Refuge up to over 45,000. Sony Online is a leader in large-scale MMO games and with some experimentation they could very well have what it takes to crossover into the social games space.

We have mentioned Monster Galaxy multiple times, as Gaia Online’s Pokemon-style game seems to pop in and out of the top games. Monster Galaxy (also nicknamed MoGa) brings adorable critters with easy combat to make a game that appeals to both the male and female demographic. While the MAU seems to have steadied out throughout January, MoGa’s increasing DAU is still climbing its way up the chart. A 27% increase over the last week brings Monster Galaxy up to the third spot on this week’s list with one of the largest percentage increases out of the bunch.

Tami Baribeau is Senior Community Manager at ZipZapPlay and a contributor to Inside Social Games.

TrialPay is working with Lolapps and Zynga to make the option to earn Facebook Credits through offers more obvious. Lolapps has also implemented Facebook’s new “Frictionless Credits” payment system into its game Ravenwood Fair. Both of these new payment flows should help the developers better monetize their games by increasing conversion rates.

TrialPay’s Facebook Credits Shortcut

TrialPay has also worked with Lolapps and Zynga to implement a shortcut to earning Facebook Credits. Previously, users had to go into the payment flow, click “Show more payment options”, then “Earn for free by shopping”, and then select from list of offers. Only certain savvy users would know how to navigate this flow, but many more are interested in earning Credits without paying. This meant a lot of lost revenue potential for developers, as well as Facebook thanks to the 30% tax it collects on Credits payments.

To remedy this, Trialpay created a shortcut that developers can currently integrate outside of gameplay, such as in banner ads or tabs. When clicked, users are immediately shown either the complete offer wall or a single especially relevant or valuable offer, allowing them to earn Credits for buying web service subscriptions, signing up for free accounts, sending Valentine’s day flowers, and more. The shortcut opens offer-earned Credits to mainstream casual gamers who might not have been aware of the option.

Ravenwood Fair uses a large “Earn Free Credits with Today’s Deal” banner below the game window. The ad opens to display a featured offer, and users can scroll to see other offers. CityVille uses a “Earn City Cash” tab at the top of the game window that opens the offer wall.

Early tests of the Credits shortcut have been promising, says TrialPay’s Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer Terry Angelos. The company will soon roll out another version of the shortcut that brings offers inside the gameplay window. Developers should realize that their users might want to spend Credits, just not pay for them. If they want to convert more users, they should make earning Credits through offers a prominent option outside the standard payment flow.

Frictionless Credits Boosts Ravenwood Fair’s Monetization

Lolapps is apparently on better terms with Facebook since almost all its existing games had their viral channels blocked for six months starting in October. Facebook offers incentives for developers who exclusively use Credits, including the opportunity to beta test new products. The company has exclusively used Facebook Credits since March 2010, qualifying for the beta program of Frictionless Credits.

The system allows users to instantly spend up to a few dollars worth of Facebook’s virtual currency without an “Are you sure?” confirmation. The beta partnership gave Lolapps early access to documentation on the feature so it could implement Frictionless Credits last week — just two days after the feature was announced.

Lolapps CEO Arjun Sethi says Frictionless Credits keeps “the payment flow part of the game, and it’s less distracting for the users. We’ve seen about a 2x increase in monetization.” Even though a quick misclick could cause a purchase, Sethi says there hasn’t been anyone calling for refunds. “We thought a lot of people might do it by accident, but no one’s had any issues with it.”

Other developers have had success with Frictionless Credits as well. OMGPOP’s implementation on Draw My Thing has tripled its conversion rate. We expect Zynga to implement it shortly.

Frictionless Credits is good for business, so developers using Credits should probably implement it, and those who aren’t should factor it into their decision of whether to voluntarily switch to Facebook Credits before the July deadline.

Though last month displayed growth for the top Facebook applications, February appears to be singing a different tune. This time around, 16 of the top 25 Facebook games have experienced loses. Of those, however, half still managed to keep the monthly active user decline under 1 million players.

Despite the negatives, a number of newer games have shown significant growth. As one might expect, CityVille continues its tremendous incline (at least for the month, as it’s fallen in recent weeks) but the top 25 also shows a bit of staying power with its “girls-only” titles. Both It Girl and Mall World continue on their upward trends for the second month in a row, with the former gaining over 1.2 million users. This month also has two newcomers and a returning app to the list in the form of Boyaa’s 德州撲克(中文版) or Texas Hold’em (Chinese Version), LOLapps’ Ravenwood Fair, and wooga’s Bubble Island.

It’s also important to note that the trends for the largest apps are not the same as the trends for smaller apps. In a detailed article last week, we examined data showing that dozens of smaller social games have had a great 2010.

Here are the highlights for the Top 25 Facebook Games for February 2011:

• As noted, Zynga remains on top with the astounding growth of CityVille, having gained over 18.4 million MAU for a total of over 98 million.
• Other Zynga games, however, drop dramatically, with most loosing well over one million MAU. The only two to grow is the classic Texas HoldEm Poker (#3), who gains 1.9 million users, and YoVille (#21), who gains a bit over 200,000.
• Digital Chocolate’s popular Millionaire City has also slowed in its growth, having lost approximately 400,000 MAU.
• It Girl, from CrowdStar, moves up significantly this month, changing from #18 to #13. It’s MAU totals out at just shy of 8.1 million.
• Car Town also grows, moving up from #17 to #14 as the Cie Games title gains around 741,000 new users.
• A newcomer to the list, Chinese app 德州撲克(中文版) from Boyaa makes its appearance at #15 with 7,756,670 MAU.
• LOLapps makes its first appearance on the top 25 this month with their popular title Ravenwood Fair. Having gained nearly 2.3 million MAU, the title caps out at just over 7.2 million.
• Playdom’s City of Wonder sees a significant drop (#13 to #23) as the city-builder declines by nearly 2.3 million MAU.
• Making a reappearance on the list at #25 is wooga with its simple puzzle app, Bubble Island. The game racks in an MAU count of approximately 5.9 million.

Booyah, an Accel and Kleiner-backed mobile and social gaming startup, laid off 13 people after early breakout hits like MyTown and Nightclub City faded among mobile and Facebook users.

“We’ve recently made strategic moves internally to better align our needs with our vision and product development goals that we’re very excited about,” chief executive Keith Lee tells us. “We should have lots of cool products to talk about in the next few weeks.” The employees were mostly in sales.

> Continue reading on Inside Mobile Apps.

It’s been a rough going for MySpace lately. In past months, the platform has suffered the loss of top executives and more recently, laid off 47% of their workforce or roughly 500 employees, and parent company News Corp. has been assessing possibilities that include both sales and mergers.

However, the numbers for top MySpace games continue on their stable trend… in a manner of speaking. Last month, many of the RockYou titles on the social network were no longer found, and this time, the last remaining title from the company, Speed Racing, is now apparently gone. Additionally, Zynga’s role-playing counterpart, Street Racing, while still appearing in the app gallery appears to have also been shut down. These developers appear to be scaling back their investments in the platform.

With the removal of the two noted games, two new applications have made their way into the top 25 in the forms of Special Forces and Friend Factory; both from Zynga.

Here are the highlights for the Top 25 MySpace Games for February, 2011:

• Thought the future of the platform if uncertain, the stability of Playdom’s Mobsters and Zynga’s Mafia Wars remains. The total users for each title, this months, comes to just over 15 million and 13.4 million respectively.
• The collection of more toy-like apps also continues to do well on MySpace. The titles of Bumper Stickers, Own Your Friends, and BitRhymes’ Tag Me all see moderate growth with their totals coming to approximately 13 million, 10.3 million, and 8.5 million.
• The BitRhymes virtual drinking game Cheers!! remains at #9, gaining just over 5,000 new users.
• Zynga RPG Vampires stands alone this month at #10 with 5.3 million total users. Typically, the game is followed by the now shut down Street Racing.
• With the loss of Street Racing, Sorority Life moves up to #12. The women-targeted RPG totals out at over 3.7 million users this month.
• Playfish title Pet Society grows slightly this month at #23 having gained 7,601 new users for a total of 1,492,269.
• Zynga adds one returning title and one newcomer to the top 25 with Special Forces and Friend Factory. The apps earn a total of 1,482,442 and 1,457,821 users respectively.

The Mafia Wars design reminds me a bit of a coffee cup: it can be tall or square, made of ceramic or glass, hand painted or textured… and sometimes just to spice things up a bit, there might be a funky handle. But still, it’s just a coffee cup. The original Mafia Wars concept has been used for zombies, pirates, gopher pirates, vampires, horses, aliens, alien zombies, and every manner of fantasy RPG.  Too often, unlike the metaphorical coffee cup, the biggest change has just been the paint.

I first experienced the Chronicles of Herenvale on Hi5 where my social network is limited at best. It struck me as a charming text RPG; a rather decent translation of the Hero’s Journey.

I was more than three chapters into the title before I realized I was playing a modified Mafia Wars design. Herenvale has recently come to Facebook bringing with it the same look and feel that made it an appealing RPG on Hi5.

The title, which still has just a small amount of traffic on Facebook, according to our app tracking service Appdata, is classic RPG fare. The player creates a character, battles creatures, purchases the best possible weapons and armor, assigns skill points for an optimum build, chooses a faction… all the while completing the quests in the various chapters.

Player-versus-player is available as one-on-one duels or in timed tournaments. Raids against boss monsters spawned by GMs occur throughout the day; these enable the less affluent player an opportunity to obtain premium items. All of the familiar tropes of the fantasy RPG are there.

What sets Chronicles of Herenvale apart from other, more derivative titles is the execution and polish. Rather than the standard rows and columns, developer Mososh has quests and sub-quests laid against corresponding artwork in patterns that complement the images. The writing is in character; the item descriptions apt and often amusing. And though only 10 chapters exist in the current storyline, duels, tournaments and raids keep the player occupied.

It would be easy to dismiss this title as derivative and in many ways it is; but in the search for The Next Big Thing in social gaming sometimes it is forgotten that doing what has been done before, just well can be enough.