Inside Social Games

Zynga Expands on its Sweet Seeds Program – Back in October, Zynga raised money for children in Haiti through FarmVille. The program was called Sweet Seeds; since its inception, it has raised over $800,000. Now, the program is expanding to include a Haitian drum for Mafia Wars and a premium chip package in Zynga Poker. Together with non-profits FATEM and Fonkoze, the revenue will be used to further feed families and build school kitchens.

Habbo Adds Facebook Connect – The teen virtual world known as Habbo has long been popular among its target demographic. Now, users that also have a Facebook account will gain access to the social network through the virtual world. Players will be able to broadcast their Habbo activities and accomplishments through their Facebook feed, regardless of which of the 31 Habbo communities they are part of.

Sony’s Winter Charity Drive – Also in the giving spirit is Sony Online Entertainment. Until January 17th, players of the MMOs Free Realms, EverQuest, and EverQuest II may purchase a Triceratops pet, an Anklebiter doll, and a Bouncing Baby Panda Cub in each game respectively. Each item costs 500 Station Cash, and for each transaction $10 will be donated to the pediatric charity, Child’s Play.

[via Massively]

How Social Games are doing in Latin America – While the past few months have shown notable influxes from the Asian demographic in social gaming, we have also been seeing, on Inside Facebook, growth from Latin America. Though it is unfinished, a study from a Brazilian university is showing that in its first survey, of 250 Brazilian users (ages 18 – 35), has shown that 26% of those that joined Facebook did so because of its social games. Moreover, another 30% joined due to friends being on the social network. Of everyone, however, 86% stated that the games were what they enjoyed the most, and of said games FarmVille made up 35% of all Brazilians playing Facebook titles while Mafia Wars made up 26%.

[via DMLcentral]

Civilization On Facebook – Sid Meier’s masterpiece, Civilization has been expected on Facebook for some time now. Leading up to its release, we’ve been kept up to date on its progress by the developer himself, and the game’s Facebook page (Sid Meier’s Civilization Network). Thus far, the page has garnered over 50,000 fans, and to their elation, the wait may be coming to a close. Just this Tuesday, the fan page stated that an open beta may be expected sometime early in the new year.

Zynga Tests Mobile Notifications – According to TechCrunch, it looks like Zynga is going to expand the usability of its games collection by allowing mobile notifications via SMS. Players will be able to track what is happening in any Zynga game without having to log onto a social network like Facebook. It is currently only available for about 10% of the Zynga player population.

Become a Facebook Fan and Win Fabulous Prizes – Looks like mainstream MMO titles are making even greater use of the social graph these days as developer Funcom is looking to give away prizes to people that become friends, fans, or followers of their Facebook and Twitter accounts. The company will have two accounts for each of its major titles including Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, The Secret World, and Funcom itself. For each one that a user signs up for, they will be entered into a drawing to win prizes such as free game time, beta access to new expansions, and other, unannounced items.

gWallet Launches gLTV Platform – Going live this week was ad offer platform gWallet’s brand new gLTV. The new product is intended to add greater insight and accuracy in the measurement of social media analytics by allowing publishers to “measure and increase their lifetime value of users on their applications.” According to statements from the company, the gWallet platform can generate a gLTV metric on individual users. From here it is able to demonstrate exactly how to increase a “lifetime value of a user based on prior usage and transaction history.”

Answer Our Inside Social Games Weekly Trivia Question, Win a Free USB Drive from Surfpin – Tell us the correct answer to the following question before anyone else, and mobile payment company Surfpin will award you an 8GB Surfpin-branded USB drive in the shape of a credit card. The question, drawn from an article we published this week, is as follows: What is one possible reason that gaming applications have seen slower growth in the past couple of weeks? Send the answer to eric (at) insidesocialgames (dot) com.

Not too long ago we were given word of a new start up called SparkyBee. From what we know thus far, this social developer, located in the Isle of Man, has been hard at work with a pair of social games and a new social platform. While the company has opted to keep a certain level of ambiguity on some of these matters, we were granted a look at one of their upcoming titles, Sparky Words, which it describes as “Tetris meets Scrabble.”

The overall objective of Sparky Words is about the same as any other word game: Form as many words as you can to pass each level. In this particular game, letters float upward in the shapes of honeycombs and players connect them by clicking the starting letter, dragging the mouse through the middle ones, and clicking the last letter. It certainly is an interesting mechanic as it not only creates a challenge of getting around letters that might be in the way, but when you are feeling lazy, you can just play with one hand while propping yourself on the other.

With each completed word, a jar of honey is filled and the level completes once it is topped off. But be wary, because these words are, well, explosive and when completed, shift about all the others floating around them. While this does mix up the letters a little more, allowing you to see words you may not have noticed before, it also can mess up the line of sight (so-to-speak) needed to connect one letter to the next. Of course, you can always maneuver your mouse around unwanted letters, but it does slow you down and can be rather tricky at times (if even possible). Furthermore, if two identical letters collide, they can combine into an entirely new letter that is worth more points (sort of like how “Q” is worth more in Scrabble than “I”).

Sparky Words also has a few extras as well such as bonus words to find for a tremendous amount of points, blue letters that cost a life if not used, and a bonus hang-man style game that adds points on to your final score – which, of course, becomes part of a leaderboard system. In fact, if you do beat a friend’s score, they are sent a notification when it happens.

Frankly, as far as game play goes, the only significant complaint that can be made is that it has a rather curious difficulty curve. The first two rounds are extraordinarily easy. There is no pressure due to the lack of a timer and minimal blue letters. There is really no way to lose. However, all of a sudden, half way through the game’s six rounds the letters begin appearing much faster, making it difficult to discern words out of the garbled mess of letters. Moreover, while blue letters were a scarcity in rounds one and two, they appear more frequently in the third round with two to three on the screen at any given time, which can lead to losing rather quickly.

For the record, this isn’t to say that a game being hard is a bad thing. Honestly, Sparky Words isn’t all that difficult; it’s just very jarring at how sudden it changes. One minute you’re relaxed and having a good time and the next you’re going “Whaaa! Blue letters!” and panicking as your lives begin dropping.

Nevertheless, Sparky Words is still a pretty fun game; it would just be nice to have a more gradual difficulty curve. Also, it might also be prudent to let players choose what round they start on, just like they can in Tetris — this game’s comparison, no? Remember, that Tetris has infinite levels, and users could start at the tier that was right for them. This game has that same capability with its design, so why not?

Of course, all this is nothing more than food for thought. The design is solid and fun, leaving us with only the concern that it is a word game – a genre that has not seen much of the limelight lately. Regardless, Sparky Words has a lot of potential, and we look forward to seeing it when it is fully launched as well as what else comes out of SparkyBee in the near future.

[Edit: We have added links to the application since it was launched roughly a day after this preview.]

We’ve seen massively multiplayer titles built on Facebook in the past – such as Sacred Seasons and Vikings of Thule. The latest one comes from a pair of social developers hailing from Israel. The game is Kali’s Portal and places the user into a fantasy realm where they must travel the world in search of glory and treasure.

The now-beta version of the game has users create a simplified avatar portrait then dumps them right into the world of Kali. There is a minor tutorial to show the player how to navigate the menu system and pick up quests, but from here on out it seems to be a journey in fending for yourself as the flow of information stops upon the first quest’s completion.

Players walk around, as a purple dot, in an overhead view of a a fantasy-like forest, picking fights with random enemies, finding treasure, and hopefully completing a quest or two. The combat is completely voluntary (or at least it is at early levels). Upon entering a battle, the player is granted control of various units for their hero’s army and by timing a click on the enemy, (which is represented by a sort of attack bar with an arrow moving quickly up and down) they can inflict damage. As it seems, this army will eventually grow and contain a multitude of units such as archers, swordsman, catapults, and so on.

From the looks of things, the player can earn resources from battles and random treasure chests such as gold and wood. Combine these with some iron and you can build up your town to have training facilities for the aforementioned units. The question is: how do you get iron? Frankly, the game has yet to tell us, so we’re assuming it’s from quests and higher level enemies that have yet to be seen.

Ignoring that aspect of the game, we were at least able to train more swordsmen for our army… and upon exploring the world more, eventually ran out of health for our hero. This was curious as there were still eight swordsman left (represented by a small number on the bottom right of each unit when in battle). Why couldn’t those eight still fight? As a matter of fact, the hero that the user created is never even seen on the screen. So, why does its health matter? There is no noticeable justification for this choice, and really creates a disconnect from the game world.

Nonetheless, this whole army/real-time strategy concept seemed most promising. This was further exemplified by the fact that you can make allies and add their forces to yours, which creates expectations of grandiose battles.

Oh, but this is putting the cart in front of the horse as we come right back to the initial complaints. What are you supposed to do!? The player is forced to walk around, painfully slowly, mind you, and investigate every little thing to try and figure out how to do quests — they have no direction other than “kill this.” Well… all enemies are question marks, so it sort of becomes a game of Russian roulette as we try to find “this” and evidently, we still haven’t found the spider (necessary to get a health potion and finish the early quest).

Suffice to say, Kali’s Portal is a wonderful idea in regards to combining elements of real-time strategy with the MMORPG setting, but the execution is frustrating. Luckily, the game is in beta so fixes should certainly happen. Not knowing what to do is the quickest way to lose a potential player (as you can see by the results so far in AppData), and until we can actually proceed deeper into the game without losing our minds, there’s not much else we can say.

It was a long time coming, but social developer Playfish is finally going all in with its first Facebook poker title, Poker Rivals. When we looked at a first rendition of the app a month ago, it was still, mostly, “unlaunched” according to the company. Now that it has been out for a while, here’s our full review.

If you’ve played Texas Hold’em (Zynga) Poker, or any online poker for that matter, you’ve played the bulk of this game already. But beyond the cards, players are able to don a virtual version of themselves that levels up as they win. Built in Flash, Poker Rivals has each avatar sitting around a poker table, and while this alone may not seem like a big deal, it does allow for some interesting additions. Not only does the Flash allow for everything to run more smoothly with no real loading, but each avatar comes with a myriad of animations that range from how you sit to angry hand motions.

The concept of these animations is actually a pretty cool idea. Not only does it grant the user a means of expression, but almost, sort of, mimics reactions one might see at a real poker table. Almost. At best, making animations might allow players to perform a bluff of sorts, but since watching people’s unconscious reactions in poker is part of the game, manually clicking one sort of defeats the purpose (not to mention the average user probably won‘t even notice). Now, if Playfish made them more passive and reactionary to how users are doing, and added a whole “poker face” element (i.e. the higher level you are, the less likely you are to show such tells), then that might accomplish the theoretical goal better. Couple that with manual control and it would become hard to tell if they are bluffing or really holding a bad hand.

Beyond tells, Playfish has also included an interesting feature called “tagging.” When sitting at a table you can tag a user with a particular name such as “Low Roller” or “Slowpoke.” The more they play, the higher these tags can grow and can really give players an idea of who they are playing with. Do they never fold? If they’re a “Maniac” likely, yes. Do they only bet when it’s a sure thing? Maybe if they’re a “Rock.” What this does, is create a digital version of the strategy it takes to play real poker. Just as with the potential animation tells, when you play with someone long enough, or watch them play, you begin to get a feel for their personality and will know when it’s smart to bet or fold.

Assuming you’re making use of these poker strategies and are currently winning, you can then actually purchase various items with that cash for your room and avatar. As it stands, the former is limited only to the room background itself and a few (three) “luxury” items like a laptop, while most of the emphasis is on the avatar. After all, most players are simple going to be at the tables, and the avatar is what they will see most.

This is perhaps the best means of virtual expression for any type of card game app, and Playfish allows for seven different features (hair, jacket, hats, etc.) to be customized… for a price. The options available range from samurai top-knots to bizarre chicken suits, so whatever you’re looking for, there is probably something that suits your tastes. Unfortunately, not all of this is available right away, and is limited primarily by cost, and player level.

The only real game play complaint to be had with Poker Rivals is that it really doesn’t do much to help out a new user. While it does explain things like the avatar, a daily lottery, and the player’s room, it actually doesn’t even touch on the actual card game. One of the selling points is that new and veteran players will be able to catch on, but none of the poker table interface or rules of game are explained (all that is available is the different types of hands). It really doesn’t need much, and anyone that has played poker will be able to figure things out, but for a brand new player, it can be a bit overwhelming. They don’t want to lose all their money, after all.

Nonetheless, Poker Rivals is still a fairly strong game, but really only in the respect that it looks good and works the way it’s supposed to. Beyond that, though, the game feels a bit standard as far as poker games go. After releasing seminal social games like Restaurant City, this one feels less impressive. The game is good — it does have over 1.2 million monthly active users, so many people clearly think so – but you get the feeling it could be something more.

Social and casual games developer Digital Chocolate has just launched their newest app for the Facebook platform, MMA Pro Fighter. With virtual currency powered through Offerpal Media, the title has players fighting each other as they vie for the championship of this mixed martial arts role playing game.

As with any RPG, players start by selecting what “class” they want to be. In most cases this consists of three choices that often equate to earning more money, stamina, or health. Pro Fighter, however, gives six choices: Three fighting styles and three grappling styles which are kickboxing, muay thai, and boxing, and judo, brazilian ji-jitsu, and wrestling. Players may select one of each, immediately adding a level of personalization to their character.

Along with fighting style, players are also able to customize their fighter’s look with other, with purchasable items becoming available in the shop after character creation. However, one has to wonder just how much customization can ever be done when all they wear is a pair of boxing shorts.

The rest of the game should be fairly familiar to most RPG players. The goal is to fight and raise your rank, and that’s just what you do: Fight other players. In each fight, the game pits up against another player avatar of your choosing and proceeds through an automated sequence of narration (that can be skipped) describing the fight. What is interesting, is that players have two stats to watch in each bought – health and cardio.

While health is self-explanatory, if your cardio drops (which it does for every action), your character starts becoming tired, leading to more mistakes or missed attacks. Suffice to say, this is an important stat to raise. Of course, doing so isn’t too hard, as player’s will be more than familiar with the method — doing missions, or quests, or training, or whatever you call it in your RPG of preference.

This is probably the most standard part of Pro Fighter. Players do training, master a “mission” and buy additional equipment. In turn, they gain experience and cash. As they do so, their stamina drains and they must wait for it to recharge.

Interestingly enough, players can actually buy items to actively recharge said stamina or to use during fights. Unfortunately, money does get a bit tight at times. More than items and the aforementioned equipment, players must also buy and master new techniques for their chosen fighting styles; something that gets very costly, very quick. Granted, players can earn more cash by mastering training sessions, fighting, or even completing challenges (achievements), but this gradually becomes rather slow.

This is where Offerpal comes into play – in order to earn a little extra coin. With the virtual currency Pro Points (which can be converted to cash, stamina, health, etc.), players are welcome to take part in offers or make direct purchases using methods such as mobile billing or prepaid cards. Moreover, the standard computer character that gives you stuff for your Pro Points (i.e. the don or the godfather in mafia RPGs) is… well, also likely intended for a male audience: ring girls.

Frankly, MMA Pro Fighter is a pretty solid RPG. It has enough similarity to standard mafia-style games to not scare people off, but enough differences to make it unique and interesting. To be honest, the only real burning question is whether or not a mixed martial arts title will appeal to the social networking crowd. In the past, we have seen many a sports title not do as well as it should based on quality alone. However, Pro Fighter is not as major a sport as something like NFL Football, and it doesn’t involve a team, only a single fighter, thus making it more personalized. Nonetheless, it is difficult to say whether this will make a difference or not.

World hunger is an ongoing problem all over the globe, and according to the World Food Programme (WFP), countries such as Cameroon are in dire need of help. With around 16 million people, 40% are living on less than one U.S. dollar a day To help fight the issue, social gaming company Zynga is stepping up to the plate.

Within three of Zynga’s larger titles, players can purchase virtual goods that feature the WFP’s symbolic red plastic cup, which represents the organization’s various school meal programmes. A portion of each proceed will then go to helping feed school children in Cameroon.

Among the game’s offering the WFP-themed items will be FishVille, Roller Coaster Kingdom, and YoVille. Below are the purchasable items for each game:

• FishVille: Users may purchase a WFP Glitter Globe for 25 Sand Dollars (FishVille’s virtual currency). 50% of each transaction will go to WFP.
• Rollar Coaster Kingdom: Users can purchase a WFP cup ride for 25 Coaster Cash, with 50% of the revenue going to WFP.
• YoVille: Users may purchase a Camaroon-themed food platter using 10 YoCash.

This marks yet another humanitarian move on the part of Zynga as a part of their efforts in “transforming the world through games.” Previous efforts included donations from FarmVille farmers to help feed children in Haiti – which has earned over $700,000 – and the YoVille campaign to sell virtual pet bulldogs and tabby cats in order to help the San Francisco SPCA. That initiative has raised $90,000 since Spring 2009. See more about these programs at Zynga.org.

With presumably over 300 million players (according to the Casual Games Association) casual gaming is certainly one of the most popular forms of computer gaming in today’s market. Couple that with the potential of social networking, and you have quite the potent recipe. To that end, the casual gaming portal from Geewa, recently launched on the Facebook platform as Live Games.

With its stand-alone site already garnering around 2 million monthly active users and a peak concurrent user count of more than 20,000, the Czech company is looking to expand its success by bringing its collection over 5,300 games to the Facebook network. Players will be able to navigate the sea of titles using real-time searching or by browsing them based on ratings or newness.

In addition to discovering and playing the myriad of titles, Live Games users can also create and customize their own personal avatar, purchase virtual goods and currency (G-Points), become part of the hall of fame (leaderboards), and participate in weekly leagues. Moreover, while playing games, players will be able challenge their Facebook friends to both asynchronous and synchronous multiplayer with the former being a simple “beat my score” sort of challenge. Synchronous games, however, will be live and include games such as Pool live! and World Soccer live! Users will also not be limited to just Facebook either. As a matter of fact, the application will also allow for challenges to Geewa users outside the social network as well (i.e. users on the stand-alone site), since all instances of the portal connect to the same central database.

Another curious feature, is that Geewa attempts to incorporate a full screen mode within the Facebook app itself. Unfortunately, Facebook page format limits it only to a marginal expansion of size. However, through Facebook Connect, the developer has made a work-around. Players can actually switch back and forth between the Facebook application and the website in order to make use of the full screen view without losing the social outlets.

According to the company’s official blog, this is only the beginning of social integration for Geewa. In the future, the casual company is looking “to optimize [its] technology for Facebook’s Newsfeed.” While it does not go into further depth, the company does look to be going the third party route as it states it is looking to grant access to it platform’s application programming interface, allowing other casual (and, likely, social) game developers to make use of Geewa’s virtual currency, multiplayer engine, and more.

While games such as FarmVille and Farm Town are currently going the winter wonderland route (in terms of virtual goods) a new farming title from Playdom is taking a different approach. Many are probably wishing for a nice, warm tropical setting now that we’re getting deeper into winter. So, Tiki Farm, one of the developer’s most recent titles, is here to help make that wish come true.

The last time we went farming in the tropics was with Meteor Games’ Island Paradise, and while the basic premise is the same, Island Paradise is a more Robinson Crusoe feel. We should also note that other themes have recently changed latitudes, like new theme park-style game Happy Island from CrowdStar.

Tiki Farm is reminiscent of Cancun or Honolulu. However, it is, like its predecessors, your standard farming app. Players plow land, plant crops, sell them, and repeat, all the while decorating the virtual farm space granted to them. It’s as simple as that.

Just like with the mafia-style role playing games, the farming genre is pretty cut-and-paste. Nonetheless, it is curious to see it following similar patterns in the fact that we are starting to see different flavors of the same core game play. This is fairly common for video games in general, and social games in particular — Zynga’s Mafia Wars, Fashion Wars, and Dragon Wars are all the same basic role-playing game, yet one has you as the modern “bad guy,” another a socialite, and another a fantasy hero.

The lesson here, however, is that these different themes allowed the company to attract different user tastes and demographics. This is something new farming app developers should consider. Don’t get into the cage with a 900 pound gorilla, right? In other words, if people want to play a farming game that looks like real farming, they’re probably going to play FarmVille; Playdom seems to have realized this, thus the tropical feel.

Frankly, Tiki Farm is refreshing. Everything about the game is warm and pleasant-looking. The colors are vibrant and saturated, and the music does help to set the mood (though it does wear on you after awhile). Even the types of crops themselves add to the island look and feel; they range from sugarcane to birds of paradise.

In fact, all of the décor adds volumes to the style. While any game dealing with a virtual space can always benefit from more decorative items, Tiki Farm allows players to go either the beach patron’s route with patio sets, beach chairs, and coolers or the islander direction with stick fences, totems, and giant tiki heads.

Truth be told, there really isn’t much to complain about with Tiki Farm other than the fact that it’s another farming game. The visual style is great, the sound fits the mood, and assuming more items will be added, the current number of decorative objects more than suffices. In fact, the game even has a few game play and usability bonuses as well, including extra steps such as clearing bugs and the ability to queue up actions when you are planting multiple seeds or plowing new plots. You can even pick up and move a plot if you made a mistake (rather than having to delete and redo it completely).

Currently, Tiki Farm is sitting at just above 500,000 monthly active users, and has been growing faster over the past four days. Considering the quality and style of the game — as well as the cross-promotion and advertising that Playdom is probably doing — this is a trend likely to continue in the coming weeks. In the end, if you are looking for a new, yet different, farming game, or your just feeling a bit chilly this winter, this is one app worth a try.

Buy a Meowmodon and Help Kids – Online game Wizard101 is feeling the giving spirit this Christmas season. Players who purchase the new Meowmodon mount will be indirectly donating the full price, $15, of the virtual item to two charities; the Austin Children’s Shelter and Child’s Play. Wizard101 developer KingsIsle will not be keeping any of the revenue from the Meowmodon sales, and is making the item available until January 5th of 2010.

Smule Raises $8 Million – Smule, creator of popular, musical iPhone titles such as Ocarina, Leaf Trombone: World Stage, and I am T-Pain announced this week the raising of $8 million in a third round of funding. The investment comes from Shasta Ventures as well as existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Granite Ventures. This brings the total funding to $13.7 million and keeps the company on track to meet its goal of $3 million in sales for 2009.

PlayStation Home Hits 10 Million – Having heard little in the past few months from Sony, regarding its virtual world PlayStation Home, it finally stated, yesterday, that it now has 10 million registered users. In tandem with the announcement the console developer also revealed a new virtual space within the world called “Sodium One” from European developer Ousto.  Within the space, players will find more social outlets, becoming bartenders, serving virtual drinks, playing mini games, buying new virtual goods, and oh… wreck havoc in some very sexy vehicles of destruction.

Crispy Gamer Media Acquires GamerDNA – The gaming social network, GamerDNA was purchased just this Thursday by the games news site Crispy Gamer Media for an undisclosed amount of money. Competitor to similar companies such as Raptr, GamerDNA connected gamers across multiple platforms such as Xbox Live, Xfire, and Steam. Since its launch in 2008, the social network has raised $3 million, but now Crispy Gamer is looking to take GamerDNA to a new level.

Square Enix Begins Selling Virtual Currency – Japanese RPG developer, Square Enix- known best for its Final Fantasy series – is the latest mainstream games companys to make use of virtual currency. Users will now be able to purchase the currency known as “Crysta” in amounts of 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, 5000, and 10,000 yen with one yen equaling one Crysta. The virtual currency will then be usable for online community games, the Square Enix MMO, Fantasy Earth Zero, and the Square Enix e-store. Unfortunately, the new currency is only available in Japan.

[via Siliconera]

The iPhone App Economy is Bigger than Expected – According to information presented by mobile advertising company AdMob, the Apple iPhone’s app economy is much bigger than we thought. Presently, there are around $200 million worth of apps sold in the AppStore each month, thus equating to around $2.4 billion a year. Tthese claims are further reinforced by Apple, who states around 1.5 billion applications have been downloaded thus far. You can check out the full breakdown here.

AdNectar Uses Virtual Goods to Promote Privacy Filters – Privacy filters are screens for laptops and mobile devices when they are being used in highly populated areas. In order to promote 3M’s Privacy Filters, social advertising network AdNector is launching a number of branded virtual goods. Entitled “TMI” (too much information), the goods will feature images of people in… compromising… situations and can be sent as gifts from the Facebook application TMI Moment.

Sometrics Launches the Shop & Earn Shopping Feed – For all those Christmas shoppers out there, social analytics and advertisement targeting company, Sometrics has revealed the Shop & Earn Shopping Feed to help users earn a little something extra during their gift buying frenzies. Whenever an online purchase is made at certain retailers, the purchaser will earn virtual currency for a participating online game. Consider it like frequent flyer miles, but for computers, and on the Internet, and with pixels. Users need only click through the Shopping Feed to reach the participating retailers, make a purchase, and voila they get free virtual currency.

Live Gamer Launches Free Realms Real Money Marketplace – Known for its virtual goods transaction commerce solutions, Live Gamer has recently announced the launch of Live Gamer Exchange (LGX) for Sony Online Entertainment’s MMO, Free Realms. The new system will offer players a simple means to buy and sell game items with one another. All transactions will be authenticated through Live Gamer themselves, thereby reducing the threat of user fraud.

SponsorPay Monetizes Users Across Over 20 Countries – Established in April of this year, German company SponsorPay GmbH has provided advertising-based payments to the online gaming world. Today, the Berilin-based company states that it is now available in over 20 countries such as Chile, Canada, Brasil, and Turkey; each of which have their own localized interface, parters, and languages.

Jivebug Tracks Your Friends – As creepy as it sounds, a new Facebook app by the name of Jivebug has the limited ability to track your Facebook friends’ real life locations. Through the app, you can install the tool onto your cell phone and it will tell you, by their first name, when one of your Facebook friends is near as well as let you chat, via text message, with anyone else you happen to find (close by) who has installed the app. The tool also has a little bit of a dating feature built into it as well, giving users an subtle beep whenever a single user is near.

Answer Our Inside Social Games Weekly Trivia Question, Win a Free USB Drive from Surfpin — Tell us the correct answer to the following question before anyone else, and mobile payment company Surfpin will award you an 8GB Surfpin-branded USB drive in the shape of a credit card. The question, drawn from an article we published this week, is as follows: What is the first Facebook game, that we know, to exclusively use Facebook credits? Send the answer to eric (at) insidesocialgames (dot) com.

Playdom has had a few game projects in the works; one is Tiki Farm, which Games.com discovered earlier this week. And, we just came across the alpha version of another: Wild Ones.

In a nutshell, the game has players create their own personalized animal avatar and wreak havoc upon other players in an explosive, last-man-standing shooter sort of game. The game could be described best as the child of the old PC title, Worms 2 from Team17. Actually, for all intents and purposes, it is Worms 2. Players scurry about a highly stylized 2D level of varying tiers, tossing grenades and bazooka shells at one another in a turn-based fashion.

The overall objective is to be the last of four players remaining. Each explosion takes a hefty chunk of life out of both the opponent and the landscape itself. In some cases, this land reformation adds to the depth of the game as it can not only impede where users can move, but if the land beneath you is destroyed, you fall into the waters below.

Each match can be played against either computer controlled bots, in a practice mode, or real opponents. And if human competition wasn’t enough, the game tends to drop random health kits and weapon caches (many of which are most curious… such as a bee gun) from the sky to aid to the mayhem. Furthermore, if a match takes too long, the water level begins to rise with each passing turn.

Of course, all of these features were in the Worms series. That isn’t to say that everything is a copy off the classic title, as there are a lot of differences: Worms fought in teams, health was lower, you could only fight one human opponent, and it had different unique weapons (i.e. the holy hand grenade or banana bomb).

What the new app does have that is distinctive, is that players are actually able to customize their avatar and even change its animal type. When you start out, all you have is a plain looking dog, but as you play and level up you will unlock a rabbit, panda, and monkey template for purchase (using currency you gain periodically or purchase). Moreover, higher levels also have greater access to purchasable weapons and more intricate level maps.

Again, the game is in alpha, so a lot is subject to change. Quite frankly, Worms was a fantastic game, so as far as game play goes, Wild Ones doesn’t earn any major complaints; well, except for that it is still basically Worms. It does, however, beg for the physics that the Worms franchise was known for. Wild Ones does have them, but they don’t feel as sensitive as Worms’ did (which is actually something you would want to copy). As an example, if a grenade landed at your feet, you were about to go sailing across the entire map. Also, the health seems a little high. It takes forever for a match to end; especially when health kits keep falling from the sky.

Also, since the game is in alpha, it’s not really possible to make changes to the core of the game anyway, but the shopping for weapons and accessories does add some uniqueness to the title. Moreover, with the social integration, it makes playing against your friends infinitely easier than its predecessor.

Thus far, Wild Ones already has over 300,000 monthly active users, and we will look forward to seeing how it does once alpha is completed.