Inside Social Games

All sorts of gaming veterans have been moving to social and mobile gaming recently, and now, a new group of them is forming a startup called SiXiTS. The goal? Through an exclusive partnership with Sibblingz, a cross-platform game technology company centered around social games, the startup is seeking to create “persistent social game[s]” that can be played on Facebook, the iPhone, and even the iPad.

Located out of the San Francisco Bay area, the company consists of individuals with well over 16 years in visual effects experience. According to the company’s new website, team members include CEO and Creative Director Euan Macdonald, COO and Creative Director Nathaniel Hunter, VP of Business Development Mary Butler, VP of Technology Chris Wilson, and CFO Sherry Wangenheim.

The team’s experience stems from such places such as Electronic Arts, Nokia, Disney’s ImageMovers Digital, Lucasfilm Animation, Industrial Light and Magic, Pixar, Mondo Media, Motorola, and 3DO. Some examples of past work include The Mask, The Matrix Reloaded, Jurassic Park: The Lost World, Monsters Inc., Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace – there are many more.

Unfortunately, SiXiTS has yet to announce what their first social game will be. However, the company says it will be launching into public beta sometime this spring. Hopefully, we will catch a glimpse of what this creation will turn into before then, but considering the visual merits of the mentioned movies, you can bet it will at least look good.

Japanese anime, manga, comics are popular around the world. In light of this, online entertainment company, GCREST made its social MMO, TinierMe, available to English speaking audiences in North American and Europe.

The game is currently within open beta for the Americas and Europe, and its core game play is exactly what the title suggests: To create a tinier version of you. The web-based TinierMe has players jumping head first into a very manga/anime style virtual world, dubbed SELFY Town, with their whole goal being to create the perfect outfit and room for them.

Quite frankly, once you figure it out, the avatar customization was wonderful. With just the starting money the game grants you (more can be earned through normal game play; i.e. mini-games), it is possible to go from an outfit that screams “newb” to something that looks really cool. Moreover, the game also has a secondary, purchasable virtual currency, G-Coins, for users to spend on even more unique items. Of course, even if you do not spend real money, all of the outfits are all still very nice-looking and most are quite unique, ranging from things like a belt jacket to floating demon flames. Unfortunately, this ability to look so good early on is a double-edged sword. Yes, it is gratifying to get some sort of character improvement, but it is better to take smaller steps forward. If you look awesome right away, then what do you have to look forward to? Nevertheless, as time wears on and the clothing selections increase, this might prove to be a moot point.

Even if clothing becomes limited, players still have a room to decorate, and this proves most expensive. Most of the items worthwhile (chairs, tables, etc.) are about the cost of two or three clothing pieces, so a lot of time has to be spent earning money. However, some of them are quite nice, with interior designs ranging from traditional Japanese, to modern, to “feline” (cat-girl). Make them look nice too, because anyone can visit your room at any time.

While self-expression through avatars and rooms is the key draw, TinierMe also has a number of other basic social elements as well such as diaries, friending, mail, chat, and mood emotes. The MMO also has a few synchronous mini-games too where you can play with other users. One such game is Old Maid, which allows you to play cards with a couple other players simultaneously.

A second mini-game worth mention is the fishing game. When you actually get a bite, you have to “shoot” the fish as it darts about a small screen. You get limited tries, and if you don’t hit it enough, you don’t catch it. But when you do get it, everyone in the immediate area knows via a chat announcement.

Unfortunately, all of this becomes a little difficult to figure out because the game never tells you what to do. Thankfully it is not a complicated game. Furthermore, half of what you can do is from a Flash window, and the other half from a separate web page. This includes equipping items, buying clothing, finding help, and so on. It isn’t a huge deal, but it does break the flow of the game.

Beyond this, the only other major complaint is limitations. As it stands, the game world is very, very small, the clothing selection is moderate, and frankly, there isn’t a whole lot to do. Yes, you can earn new clothes, better stuff for your room, and even pets (eventually), but doing so feels repetitive (just playing the same games over and over to earn more money). Granted, this is a bit of personal preference, but the actually “play” part of this title feels a little lacking.

Regardless, GCREST states that its social MMO does have over a million users over in Asia, thus these opinions are just that. Opinions. The game isn’t bad at all. Quite frankly, the art style is very nice despite a slight variation between the avatar and background, the clothing looks great, the rooms do have a lot of options, and the mini-games are fun. TinierMe just feels like it could benefit from more of everything. The game is still in beta, so we expect to continue to improve.

If there is any one Japanese, pop-culture icon that most people should be familiar with it is the cute cartoon cat, Hello Kitty. The downloadable title, Hello Kitty Online, published by Aeria Games, seems like a great fit for the franchise.

To clarify, Hello Kitty Online (HKO) is not a true “social” game like those found among Facebook, but massively multiplayer titles are, in their very nature, social in the sense that you work and play together, create guilds, customize avatars, and communicate with one another within a virtual world. These are of the many reasons they become so addictive — and, combined with the use of virtual goods, and customized virtual spaces — why this particular title caught our attention.

Having launched with open beta status in North America in early September, Hello Kitty Online brings players into the soothing and vibrant world of the pop-icon. Users create an avatar, and in their sleep enter Hello Kitty’s world. Evidently, all her friends are going to sleep and she can’t wake them up, thus it’s up to you to save them.

This is a true-blue MMO, in the sense that it is impossible to get the entire picture without playing for a few weeks, but from a new user perspective it is a very love/hate relationship. When first entering the world, players are greeted with a wonderfully colorful style and soothing music that adds to the atmosphere of serenity. Within your first couple steps, you already have a quest and you are on your way.

All movement and basic interaction is fairly intuitive with left click moving and right click performing a contextual action (right clicking an enemy attacks it, for example, but right clicking a plant gathers it). Furthermore, the area map displays all non-player and player characters, making whoever you need to find fairly easy.

As players complete tasks, defeat enemies (nothing dies, they just go to sleep), and gather items, they level up. However, what is nice is that players can level up skills such as gathering or woodcutting in tandem with themselves. To clarify, this means if you don’t want to fight, you can still level up just fine, and later on, these gathering skills will help support various crafting professions such as carpentry or cooking.

The game, surprisingly, also has a lot more social elements than we had initially expected. As with all MMORPGs, players do have an avatar, but rather than being a knight or mage, players are just themselves, thus the clothes they wear are not only bonuses to stats, but a form of expression as well. Furthermore, these can not only be bought in game, but with the “Item Mall” as well as virtual goods.

From this Mall, players can use real money to buy virtual goods for their avatar. Moreover, goods are also available for housing. Yes, players can actually buy a house and decorate it as well, thus integrating the whole personal, virtual space concept (which is made even more gratifying by the fact that your friends can visit it). There are also sections for farms, pets, extra emoticons, and functional items, but at this time they are empty. In fact, the farming element is curious as well; almost like a HKO version of FarmVille, earning players potential profit for grown crops. The only real difference is that the decorations are part of the house, not the farm, and players don’t directly support each other (i.e. visiting each other’s farms to scare off crows). Unfortunately, all of these virtual goods from the Mall leads to one of many related complaints. One has no idea how to buy the virtual currency (Loyalty) needed to make a purchase, and the help button does nothing.

Before getting into complaints, there is also an integrated blog, email, and even videos that can be shared directly from the game. Unfortunately, the video doesn’t seem to work at the moment, but it does look interesting. Assuming the player can figure it out.

And now we come to the problems — although this is in open beta, so we expect the features to continue improving. For its audience, HKO is a wonderful free game… except for one devastating poison. Usability and instruction are absolutely, and utterly horrid. Aside from quests, a new user has NO idea what they are doing. For example, there is a quest that gives a level three item. If you are not level three, it tells you, but nowhere on the visible interface is there a place to see how far you are from that level. No, you have to hit the “S” key to pull that up. Never was the player told how to do that. Since when are users omniscient? There are a number of issues like this, beyond just hotkeys, where something is not explained and its up to the user to figure it out.

Even the Wiki that is provided is fairly useless. First of all, there is no link to it (but it is on the main page you downloaded the game from), and half the stuff one searches for comes up with nothing. Sure, the information is probably there, but not in a very intuitive spot. A more avid use of search tags would be quite warranted. However, it did help in one crucial area… actually setting up the game.

This is by far, the most god-awful set-up for beginning a game. If a user does not go to the Wiki, they will not be able to figure out what to do. Here is the break down. First, take about two hours to download the game and about 30 minutes to patch (no big deal, this is sort of expected). After that is done, it asks for login email and password. That’s it. Never does it ask you to register, yet you have to. So where do you go? Oh, you have to register with Aeria. Done. Still doesn’t work. Search the Wiki… “you have to synch your Aeria email with Hello Kitty Online to create a new email @hellokitty.com” How?! How on Earth is one supposed to know that?! Likely, most users are not going to take the extra step unless they really want to play the game. Users don’t like making extra effort if they don’t have to, they don’t like to read. That’s why tutorials in console games have to be designed as part of the game. Players don’t want to listen to or read a lesson. They want to PLAY.

Developers constantly overestimate new users because they are so close to the game, they cannot take a step back to see how intuitive it is or is not. Sadly, this is an all-to-common mistake, and in the case of HKO, something that should be fixed immediately if it is not already underway. The game is pretty good for a free-to-play title and has all the right elements for a successful social/casual MMO. However, if these usability issues are not fixed, then this game is going to lose players before they even get started.

There are more than 80,000 applications available within Apple’s iTunes store. While games that make it in do go through an approval process, the occasional undeserving title makes it through. As such, the Australian Classification Board, according to iTnews, is expressing concerns to the national government that mobile applications do not go through a game rating system.

“I recently wrote to [Commonwealth Censorship Minister Brendan O’Connor] regarding my concern that some so-called mobile phone applications, which can be purchased online or either downloaded to mobile phones or played online via mobile phone access, are not being submitted to the board of classification,” said Australia’s Classification Board Director, Donald McDonald.

The task of classifying the myriad of iPhone apps, in and of itself, is not an easy undertaking and hardly a decision to take lightly. In 2008 – 2009, the ACB received 4,792 film applications, 1,095 games, and 197 publications; a small number when compared to the deluge that is the Apple AppStore. The concerns are emulating pushes made by the Entertainment Software Association and the Entertainment Software Rating Board here in the United States. It was just this summer, with the 3.0 OS released, that ratings via age appeared. However, this was a sort of “self-policing” policy for developers and the ratings would not go through the ESRB themselves (as the organization would like).

“ESRB ratings empower parents to do their job,” said organization president Patricia Vance. “Considering the fact that the vast majority of parents are already aware of and regularly using ESRB ratings, Apple’s adoption of them for iPhone games seems like a no-brainer.”

Reasoning behind such pushes by these organizations is attributed to a number of factors: Many apps are games yet are not treated like them rating-wise; they are easily accessed by anyone with an iPhone or iPod Touch; the iPhone is becoming a gaming platform in its own right and, in fact, is comparable to both the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS; and occasionally, apps that should never be released get through the Apple screening process.

A prime example of an app to make it through the submission screen was a “game” by the name of Baby Shaker. All ready you can see the censor flags flying, and for good reason: The object of the game was to shake a crying baby to death. Thankfully, the app was removed shortly after its approval, but it’s the sort of thing that gets rating boards’ attention.

When asked about the game by iTnews, the Classification Board stated that it had to determine if Baby Shaker was a “game,” and could not pass judgment “without seeing the application in its entirety.” However, they did reiterate that “the Board will classify films, computer games and publications upon receipt of a valid application.”

Regardless, according to Apple spokesperson, Fiona Martin, “[Apple will] do what the Australian Classification people tell us to do,” and that the company would be prepared to make any changes needed, in accordance to Australian law. This marks another point of interest: In talks with iTnews, Martin noted that there were currently “no laws” mediating the mobile space. He seemed to suggest that all mobile games will be receiving more scrutiny in Australia.

What does this mean for iPhone game development? Well, should legal precedent be set, it will likely add a great deal of fuel to the ESRB and ESA’s pushes for their ratings on these mobile applications here in the U.S. In turn, this requires more hoops for developers to jump through and a significantly increased time on approvals.

While virtual goods have been driving revenues in Asia and Europe for years, 2009 will be remembered as the year virtual goods-based businesses began to scale in the United States. Virtual goods may be bringing the largest disruption entertainment, communication, and e-commerce infrastructure companies have seen for a long time.

That’s why I’m excited to announce today a new in-depth research report with partner/co-author Charles Hudson that is exclusively focused on the size and future of the virtual goods market in the United States, entitled Inside Virtual Goods: The US Virtual Goods Market, 2009 – 2010. It is being released for the first time this morning. The big picture? We estimate the total 2009 US virtual goods opportunity at just over $1 billion.

Purchase this report Buy PDF: $995 USD OR Buy PDF + 1 Year of Quarterly Updates: $1,995 USD

About the Report

Inside Virtual Goods is a new report designed specifically for entrepreneurs, investors, and analysts interested in the growth of this exciting new category of online commerce that is fueling the growth of games-as-a-service businesses. During our research over the last several months, Charles and I have spoken with dozens of executives and entrepreneurs from all parts of the ecosystem in order to form what we believe are the most detailed estimates, analyses, and predictions for 2009 and 2010.

We focused and organized the report around the following areas:

1. Social Networks, Applications, and Games - The explosion of the virtual goods market on social networks is in our view one of the biggest stories of 2009. We delve deeply into the trends, stats, key players, opportunities, and challenges facing the space this year and next.
2. Casual MMOs and Virtual Worlds - Virtual worlds and casual MMOs continue to grow as a meaningful share of the virtual goods opportunity in the United States. Our study breaks down the key drivers for success in this segment, trends in monetization and engagement, and the prospects for the future.
3. Hardcore MMOs and Free-to-Play Online Games – Developers in the MMO / MMORPG space have been among the earliest adopters of the free-to-play model. We explore why free-to-play MMOs are succeeding, revenue and user trends, and the key issues facing this space as we head into 2010.
4. Emerging Areas: Consoles, iPhone, and Subscription MMOs- As the virtual goods business model becomes more well understood, it is beginning to show up in new and interesting areas of the games and entertainment landscape. We highlight a few of the more promising areas where virtual goods are emerging as a promising opportunity.

Each section contains:

1. A brief history on the evolution and growth of this space in the US, including a description of all key players.
2. Estimates on the size of the US virtual goods market in 2009 in that area.
3. A diagnosis of the key opportunities and issues facing the growth of that space, including our outlook and projections for 2010.

In addition, prior to delving more deeply into each market segment, we’ve provided an overview of the emerging payments ecosystem that is growing to serve these new businesses. Traditional e-commerce infrastructure providers only offer a partial solution, and the virtual goods payments layer is currently in a major state of flux. In the report, we describe the variety of solutions that have been brought to market to date, and the key challenges facing the industry from a payments perspective as a whole.

For more details, check out the full table of contents below.

The price of the report is US $995. In addition, we will be releasing quarterly research and updates on key developments in the space. A one-year subscription is now available for US $1,995.

Charles and I are looking forward to continuing to cover the evolution of the space over the coming year. We look forward to hearing from you!

Table of Contents

Buy Now

The price of the report is US $995. In addition, we will be releasing quarterly research and updates on key developments in the space. A one-year subscription is available for US $1,995.

Purchase this report

Buy PDF: $995 USD

OR Buy PDF + 1 Year of Quarterly Updates: $1,995 USD

List of Related Companies: Acclaim, Activision, AdParlor, Aeria Games, Amazon, Artix Entertainment, Bebo (AOL), Boku, Boomerang Networks, Challenge Games, Electronic Arts, Facebook, Fatfoogoo, Firecue, Frogster, Gaia Online, Gala-Net, Gambit, Google, GratisPay, Green Patch, gWallet, Hi5, IMVU, iovation, Jagex, Kontagent, Meez, Metaplace, Microsoft, MySpace, Nexon, Nintendo, Offerpal Media, Outspark, PaymentPin, PayPal, PeanutLabs, Playdom, Playfish, PlaySpan, Rekoo, Riot Games, RockYou!, Second Life, Serious Business, SGN, Six Degrees Games, Slashkey, Slide, SocialGold, Sometrics, Sony, Sony (Free Realms), SponsorPay, Sulake (Habbo Hotel), Super Rewards, SupersonicAds, SurfPin, TheBroth, ThreatMetrix, Three Rings (Puzzle Pirates), TokenAds, TrialPay, Turbine, Twofish, Viacom (MTV), Viacom (Neopets), Viximo, WeeWorld, Zong, Zynga

The new American rendition of Dungeon Fighter Online, a two-dimensional massive multiplayer online role-playing action game already going strong in Asia, is getting another revenue stream in its open beta. The game’s publisher, Nexon, has recently opened the cash item shop which will allow players to spend the virtual currency known as Nexon Cash (also known as NX) on various virtual goods.

Originally developed by Neople, and already popular in the regions of Korea (Dungeon & Fighter), China, Taiwan, and Japan (Arad Senki), the game is a mix of arcade action/fighter type games and RPG-like fantasy.

Players are allowed to pick from five character classes (each with unique abilities) and are then able to customize them with various weapons, armor, skills, items, and clothing; hence the RPG label. These various customizations can be either functional (i.e. skills) or aesthetic (i.e. clothing).

Currently, many of these items are available in the beta version of the cash item shopfor as little as 500 to as much as 25,000 Nexon Cash ($1 equates to 1000 of the virtual currency) for a single item, and anything purchased during beta will carry over once the game finally goes live. This includes Avatar Tokens, Life Tokens (used to resurrect dead players), healing items, extra inventory (if only all MMOs had this), “respect” items, and trading licenses that allow players to set up their own personal shops.

Despite the number of different items, the most curious is the one dubbed “Avatar Tokens.” These tokens do not actually have an effect on the player, but rather can be used to turn into something more interesting. They let players a randomized effect that may change how their character looks or improve a random stat. They could turn out to be purely aesthetic or functional. Essentially, the idea is to create a bit of a gambling allure as players buy multiple tokens in the hopes that they get what they want or need.

Founder of both Electronic Arts and a relatively new mobile start up, Digital Chocolate, Trip Hawkins has said that the way to monetize iPhone games was with virtual goods. However, if recent data has taught us anything, growth isn’t just limited to the mobile space. On the contrary, free to play virtual goods revenue models are being seen more and more across the board; be it iPhone, PC, Xbox, mainstream, or casual. Of course, we have covered many of these before, but what we haven’t looked at closely is just how many mainstream developers are going this route.

Virtual goods in the US were worth roughly $265 million this year, according to Piper Jaffray (an estimate we think is very low) but around $5 billion in Asia, according to +8* | Plus Eight Star. So the concept is proven elsewhere and growing here.

Electronic Arts has been one of the most prominent behemoths to slowly lumber its way into the virtual goods realm.

The EA Mobile release of the Sims 3 marked a small step into the social space for the company, but greater plans are still in store for the high quality iPhone title (which according to EA was classified as a mere “test” to see if high production value for a social iPhone game was worth it). Well, with over 1.4 million sales within one week, it is probably safe to assume the game did well, but shortly thereafter came virtual goods that were purchasable using a virtual currency called SimPoints. Supporting both PayPal and major credit cards, the virtual goods store for Sims 3 would mark one of the earlier renditions of mainstream virtual goods.

Another PC game from EA, the real-time strategy (RTS) and collectible card game (CCG) hybrid BattleForge was a project intended to test the waters of virtual goods in a full price game, forcing players to purchase virtual cards to further grow their fantasy-like armies. Initially, the game cost about $50, but even after a $20 price drop, the game still sold less than 100,000 copies. Developed by Phenomic, the RTS/CCG creation was bombing.

BattleForge was not a sinking ship yet, though. To EA’s surprise, the virtual goods – card booster packs – were selling amongst users like wildfire. Noticing this, EA Games President Frank Gibeau made a curious call. BattleForge would go freemium, granting access to all of the game’s content, but offering fewer cards to start out with (originally, players began with 16). To Gibeau’s elation, the unorthodox move (from EA’s perspective) would lead to “record sales.” Unfortunately for us, Gibeau has not revealed average revenue per user (ARPU) metrics specifically, but he has stated that some freemium players were spending over $100 for virtual goods.

According to the LA Times, the freemium change may have single handedly saved Phenomic from a rather expensive failure. To that end, Gibeau also stated to the Times that EA did, indeed, have “four or five” new freemium projects in development. This was at the start of June.

Perhaps one of the aforementioned projects was Battlefield Heroes, as about a month later it appeared on the scene. This online, freemium, and multiplayer shooter announced, shortly after release, that it had over 1 million registered players. With two forms of virtual currency to purchase items for a player’s avatar, Valor Points for playing and excelling, and purchased Battlefunds, the game offered two very viable options for advancement. But, with a matchmaking system that was designed around skill levels, EA kept players from advancing strictly because they had a lot of money to spend.

As Virtual Goods News noted in July, “industry standards suggest that less than half of Battlefield Heroes’ 1 million registered players will be active and that fewer than 10% of the active players will ever purchase anything.” This is a common sort of revenue distribution in freemium games. EA is actually expecting around $80 million dollars in revenue, from digital sales (which includes virtual goods transactions) for 2009.

Electronic Arts isn’t the only developer looking into virtual goods. More recently, Atari made a similar movement with the closed-beta launch of its first-person shooter/RTS mix, Battleswarm (developed by Reality Gap) earlier this month. This system utilizes a virtual currency system called MetaTix, which according to Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, functions a bit like those found in arcades.

Through it, users can purchase virtual items that might allow them to gain an early advantage. Sounds useless for just Battleswarm, doesn’t it? Well, not to worry, because this currency will actually work across multiple games. The idea is that if a player has a number of MetaTix, they are more likely to try a game they know little about. Furthermore, with MetaTix costing about one penny and be attainable through in-game means (such as selling items), there is going to be quite a few in circulation and available for use.

As a matter of fact, the system is all ready live in the game Monato Espirit which is licensed from the Korean developer, Gamasoft. That in mind, Reality Gap Co-Founder J. Mark Hood told VentureBeat that seven developers have thus far agreed to participate in using the virtual currency system.

Even the largest game developer in the world, Activision-Blizzard, may be looking into virtual goods. The possibilities, at the moment, stem more from the Blizzard end of the table, but according to Battle.net Project Director, Greg Canessa, the company is not going to “rule anything out” in regards to a virtual goods platform addition to the Battle.net online gaming service. In essence, Blizzard commentary suggests that it would be remincient of Xbox Live’s current Avatar Marketplace, but the question lies in how such a new system would play out. Since its launch in 1997 with the role-playing game Diablo, everything from Battle.net has been free.

“Blizzard’s reputation is about providing an amazing value — an amazing amount of stuff for free. And then enabling additional stuff, like value-add services, to maintain the free level,” said Canessa in comments to 1up.com. “Okay, you pay for StarCraft 2, and Battle.net is free. All the stuff we’re talking about: the Achievements, the profiles, the Avatars, the unlockables, the leagues; it’s all included for free. Then there’s value-added services — like for [World of Warcraft] where you have a paid subscription with tons of stuff, and we then added paid character transfer services on top of that later. So we may add some stuff to Marketplace, but it won’t interfere with the free tier.”

Certainly the road leading to these new virtual goods possibilities can be seen, and with the upcoming release of the StarCraft 2 RTS, a relaunch of Battle.net will include a new store, the Map Marketplace, where players can purchase new game maps (something that was free in the original StarCraft). As it stands, the fees are likely to be very small,. Of course, the availability of anything beyond the StarCraft 2 maps is mere speculation, but the probability seems high.

In the end it doesn’t matter who you are. Virtual goods are not something to be taken lightly. These minuscule pieces of digital art, animations, and sound have been adopted by the public. As a billion dollar industry world wide, some of the largest players are stepping forward to take a crack: Electronic Arts used virtual goods to boost the sales of the Sims 3 for the iPhone, mend a wounded BattleForge, and attempt to repeat the success with Battlefield Heroes. One of the oldest developers, Atari, even stepped in with both virtual goods and its MetaTix virtual currency to promote new, and unfamiliar games. And even the best of the best, Blizzard Entertainment looks to be considering a virtual goods bonus for its players for its new releases. Suffice to say, virtual goods have proven to be one of the fastest evolving and most successful new additions to come to not just social games, but the gaming world as a whole.

Raptr, the cross-platform social gaming tool, today launched a new IM service than spans the most popular IM networks.

Now, all Raptr friends will be consolidated to one list that can be seen from PC, Mac, and even Xbox 360. Supported services include AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, and Facebook Chat – even Xfire and Xbox Live.

“It’s often frustrating to connect with friends,” says Dennis Fong, Founder and CEO of Raptr. “You don’t know when they’re actually playing or how to reach them.”

As with other Raptr features, the new messaging support also tracks what games your friends are currently playing and updates their status in real-time, broadcasting their in-game achievements, rankings, and statistics for not only the previously stated platforms, but also Facebook, Flash, and even a few PlayStation 3 and Wii titles. Best of all, your friends can easily join your game (assuming it is joinable) through just a single click.

In related news, Raptr also announced new co-branded client partnerships with Activision and THQ. The two game developers will join other companies such as Sony Online Entertainment, NGN USA, Gala-Net, and GamesCampus.

Raptr is demonstrating the power of “word-of-mouth” through its social discovery mechanics. Between the new IM network, integration with social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and just the overall appeal of social distribution, it is no surprise that more large companies are taking notice.

The Chinese government has banned the sale of virtual currency for real money, which has caused some repercussions in the Chinese gaming industry. According to a report from Seeking Alpha, in three days since the ban, the stock prices for Chinese online game operators dropped as much as 10 percent.

Considering the size of the Chinese market (which earns more than $2.8 billion per year from virtual goods alone), this is obviously a significant decrease. The companies that experienced a drop included Shanda Online, Changyou, The9, NetEase, Perfect World, and Giant Interactive, all of which trade within the United States.

Can most of the drop in these companies’ value can be attributed to investor panic? The ban on virtual currency sales was aimed at combating online gambling, which is illegal in China. This leads to a serious issue for most online MMOs within the country because they serve as a conduit for virtual gambling. For example, players can purchase virtual keys with game currency to open treasure chests. The chests contain either something good or bad (thus, it’s a gamble). Due to the court case that set precedent on the real value of virtual goods and currency, the contents of these chests can be tied to real money.

Currently, more than 90 percent of Chinese MMOs make use of this virtual chest concept, and many will now have to remove it. According to Beijing Business Today, the annual revenue loss is expected to be between 5 and 7 percent.

In addition, the official statement of the Chinese Ministries stated that virtual currency “will only be allowed to trade in virtual goods and services provided by its issuer.” In the US, small companies often use larger companies to handle payment systems for their virtual items (Mochi Media’s new payment platform being a recent example). It is no different in China. An example from Virtual Goods News highlights Shanda Online, a major provider of such services to small Chinese companies. Based on the contracts between Shanda and its partners, users can use Shanda Points to purchase various goods and services from the smaller companies’ games. Now, under the new law, those contracts are illegal.

The same article post also points out a relatively unknown problem stemming from the new law: There are a number of games that utilize two forms of currency. NetEase is one such example. It makes use of the freemium model in a rather unorthodox way; using both “game points” and “game coins” that can be exchanged for one another.

Here’s how it works (and where the problem lies): Players could once buy time cards that would determine how long they could play. They could also buy game points (for real money) that could be used for the same result. This is where freemium comes into play: Users could earn game coins by doing quests and killing in-game creatures. These coins could then be traded for points, and the points traded with other players. Other players could then redeem these points for more game play time. This allowed for a tremendously large user base (1.76 million peak concurrent users), which is likely going to drop significantly in the near future.

The adverse affects of the new legislation in China are quite apparent. However, it is important to emphasize that the online market for Asia is roughly 25 times larger than it is in the US. A vast majority of that market ($2.8 billion out of $5 billion) stems from China alone. Though 70 percent of that market is virtual goods, its sheer size demonstrates how strong it has become. It will have to evolve to handle the changes it is now forced to deal with.

Farming games are the most popular games on Chinese social networks, and they’re starting to gain more steam on Facebook now too. The first was myFarm, but then SlashKey.com came along and had much more success with Farm Town (which actually debuted at #4 in the Top 25 two months ago and is still pretty popular today). Though it wasn’t an original concept, the virtual farming game was still pretty good. Now, another clone has emerged: FarmVille.

Farmville is from Zynga, a company that has made a name for itself by acquiring or emulating many of the most successful games on Facebook and MySpace.

Currently, FarmVille has about half as many features as its predecessor. In Farm Town, players are able to travel around to the market and local inn to interact with other players. FarmVille limits players to their own farm and their surrounding neighbors.

Like the other farming titles, players plow land, grow crops, and harvest them for money with the sole objective of creating an aesthetically pleasing virtual environment that allows expression of oneself. For each action done, players earn experience and work towards new levels that unlock better and more interesting items and crops.

One main thing that seems to be different is the items one can buy. One of the chief complaints for Farm Town was the high cost of items and the relatively low income, but that isn’t the case with FarmVille. More items tend to be available at lower levels and for more reasonable amounts of coin. A cow, for example in the Zynga app is 300 coins while a chicken in slashkey’s title is 500. Granted, there are far more animals available in the latter, but most are locked until much higher levels anyway.

Visually, the game does look good, but it looks rather familiar, using the same art style of Farm Town. However, Farm Town uses a style awfully close to Zynga’s YoVille, so the circle of imitation goes full circle it seems. In FarmVille, each item has a cartoonish feel to it and fits well with the visual style. A tree has the same art style as a crop, while in Farm Town it looks more like a photograph. Ultimately, the visual design in FarmVille is excellent, but the game play still leaves a lot to be desired.