Buy a certain virtual crop in Farmville or building in Cityville and – with the help of Save the Children and the Red Cross – your money goes to Japan earthquake relief, EngageDigital.com reports. "Social games can deploy charity items rapidly in response to disasters." Zynga (via its Farmville and Cityville games) started in mid-March. Sony Online Entertainment started its relief effort in late … [Read more...] about Gaming for the Japan relief effort
FarmVille
Parents, you’re not just focusing on FB, right?
It's great that parents are getting the message that they can monitor their kids on Facebook by joining it, but they also need to remember that Facebook isn't the all of teen online socializing (even though it's in the news a lot!). It's just the big social utility that aggregates basically "everybody" in teens' real-world school and social lives. But there's plenty more social activity happening … [Read more...] about Parents, you’re not just focusing on FB, right?
How social gaming works & who likes it
Xbox Live-like game chat has gone mainstream, it seems. The Washington Post says a 31-year-old mom and clinical social worker who has plenty of "real world" friends but sometimes catches up with them in a "Scrabble-like" cellphone game called Words with Friends is a good example of social gamers. Words with Friends is her favorite among all features and apps on her iPhone, and she taps into it … [Read more...] about How social gaming works & who likes it
UK child’s Farmville debt
A 12-year-old in the UK has put a new twist on farm debt. So caught up in playing Farmville this past spring, he ran through all his savings of 288 pounds (about $430), then used his mother's credit card to buy 625 pounds ($936) worth of virtual farm objects, The Guardian reports. The mother asked Zynga, Farmville's publisher, and Facebook, where her son played the game, to refund the money but … [Read more...] about UK child’s Farmville debt
Social gaming’s social engineering
Zynga, creator of Farmville, claims 70 million active players in all of its social-Web games a day (Farmville getting nearly half of them), reports eModeration CEO Tamara Littleton in iabUK.net, and Zynga's just-launched Treasure Isle "gained an extraordinary 5.4 million players in its first week." Littleton says Zynga CEO Mark Pincus chalks it up to meeting three basic criteria: "interaction with … [Read more...] about Social gaming’s social engineering