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Facebook Releases Their Top Games of 2011 List

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Social gaming has been huge this year, from Facebook launching new game features to Google+ adding gaming to their social network. It will be both fun and interesting to see what 2012 has in store for game play within our favorite online social hangouts.

Facebook released their Top Games of 2011 list yesterday (December 21). I was very surprised to see that Gardens of Times earned the top spot. I fully expected to see CityVille, but given the way Facebook pulled together this list, it explains why it wasn’t number one.

Facebook said, “This list was compiled by looking at the top games on Facebook with more than 100,000 monthly active users and giving priority to those games with the highest user satisfaction scores. The result is a list of the games that received the most user recommendations in 2011.”

Here are Facebook’s Top Games of 2011:

  1. Gardens of Time (by Playdom)
  2. The Sims Social (by EA)
  3. Cityville (by Zynga)
  4. DoubleDown Casino (by DoubleDown Entertainment)
  5. Indiana Jones Adventure World (by Zynga)
  6. Words With Friends (by Zynga)
  7. Bingo Blitz (by Buffalo Studios)
  8. Empires & Allies (by Zynga)
  9. Slotomania-Slot Machines (by Playtika)
  10. Diamond Dash (by wooga)

Which Facebook game is your favorite and sucks the most time out of your day?

Facebook Game “WeTopia” Links Fun and Philanthropy

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What if you could play a Facebook game for fun and do good at the same time? I know. It sounds too good to be true.

Sojo Studios announced the preview launch of WeTopia, a community-building game where players can develop a better world for children on both Facebook and in real life.

Ellen DeGeneres and The Ellen DeGeneres Show are the first partners for the game. If you watch Ellen, you know how much she is personally involved in Social Good, so this partnership just makes sense.

“I am so proud to be involved with WeTopia,” said DeGeneres.  “You know when you hear about an idea and you instantly fall in love with it?  That’s how I felt when I heard about WeTopia spreading joy to people around the world.  It’s kinda the same way I felt about Pajama Jeans, only more so.”

Here’s more information about WeTopia from their official announcement:

As players build and grow their WeTopia villages and help their neighbors, they earn currency called “Joy” which they can apply toward real-world projects: whether food, healthcare, education or other programs assisting children, both in the U.S. and other nations.  Players can choose specific beneficiaries to receive their Joy and track their contributions through pictures, videos and in-game messages.  WeTopia is free to play – players can also buy Facebook credits to spend in-game – but everyone can have a real-world impact simply by earning and spending Joy through game play.

Money on the game will be made through advertising, with 50% of the net profits going to charity.

Here’s a video introduction to WeTopia.

What are your thoughts on combining social good with Facebook gaming?

Rovio Hints at New Bird for Angry Birds

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After 400 million downloads of their popular game Angry Birds, we all know who Rovio is.

Some other fun stats include “130 million monthly users, 30 million daily active users, and 300 million minutes of game play each and every day” according to TechCrunch.

Not bad for a few unhappy birds wouldn’t you say?

Oh, and get this. Their total marketing budget is $0. No, that’s not a typo. It’s $0. Amazing.

For all of you Angry Birds fans, you’ll be happy to know the rumor of a new bird being released is true. It’s been confirmed the company will release a new bird for the game on Halloween. This photo was posted on the Angry Birds Facebook page Monday.

Their message was “The Angry Birds have a big surprise for you! Can you guess what it is? Share this for more clues!”.

I may or may not be excitedly awaiting the release of this bird. Okay, I will. I absolutely can’t wait. What do you think the bird is going to look like?

Zynga Announces New Facebook Games

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Are you ready to get even more addicted to Facebook and spend even more time playing games on the social network than ever? Well, you’re in luck.

The people at Zynga, who are responsible for popular Facebook games CityVille and FarmVille, announced a bunch of new games.

The announcement came from their Zynga’s Unleashed event held today (October 11) in San Francisco. Here are a few of the new games coming soon as posted on Zynga’s blog:

  • CastleVille joins the “Ville” franchise – “Enter a rich medieval world with an engaging storyline, just a touch of fantasy and memorable and playful characters”
  • Zynga Bingo – “We’re talking friends, fun, and the indescribable but oh so awesome feeling you get when you hit it, before anyone else, and you’re the winner. BINGO!!!”
  • Hidden Chronicles – “Hidden Chronicles is about mystery, discovery, and a little friendly competition”
  • Dream Zoo – “Dream Zoo is our first zoo themed game that lets players collect some of the world’s most exotic animals”

For a more in depth look, as well as information about “Project Z”, be sure to check out their blog post.

It looks like there is a little something for everyone in their new list of games. Which one are you most excited about?

Café World and Farmers Insurance Partner Up for Social Media Promotion, Includes Food Lover’s Contest

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Café World and Farmers Insurance have partnered up for what looks like one very fun social media campaign.

From special features to a trip giveaway, this is one promotion you just might want to get involved in. If you like food, traveling, and hanging out with celebrity chefs that is.

Players of Zynga’s Café World will notice a promotion that includes the iconic Professor Burke from the popular Farmers TV commercials. Players can get “spoil protection” when they place a Professor Burke statue in Café World through October 2nd.

Also, on the Farmers Insurance Facebook page, they are hosting a contest (open to the public) where you could win the trip of a lifetime. One lucky foodie will win airfare for two, hotel accommodations in the heart of South Beach and $500 spending cash, plus exclusive entry into the Food Network Magazine Lounge in Miami with celebrity chefs. Enter to win by simply “liking” Farmers Insurance on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/FarmersInsurance.

It’s possible Farmers Insurance might set some social media records again this week. Earlier this year, Farmers made an appearance on FarmVille along with a sweepsakes to ride in the Farmers Airship. Farmers set a new Guinness World Record for most “likes” in a 24-hour period.

Our own Nikki Katz chatted with Ryon Harms, head of social media at Farmers Insurance about the success of their social media campaign in November of 2010.

Are you a fan of CityVille? Stay tuned for a Farmers Insurance promotion there as well, where one lucky winner could get a trip to a world-class city.

Zynga’s CityVille Game Launches on Google+

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One of Facebook‘s most popular games is coming to its competitor Google+. Back in July, Zynga announced they were bringing Zynga Poker, as well as other games to the social network. At the time, no one knew if that meant their two most popular games – CityVille and FarmVille.

The company announced today, via their blog, the addition of CityVille+ to the new Google+ game platform. The game allows players to build a thriving metropolis and has people hooked!

They said, “CityVille grew to become our largest game on Facebook, so naturally we wanted to “build” a presence for it on Google+. Ultimately, we want to make our games accessible to everyone, everywhere – no matter where they play or what platform they play on.”

Out of Zynga’s 146 million users of its social games, most of them are from Facebook. It was back in July of 2010 that Google invested (quietly) $100 million in Zynga, so most knew seeing their games arrive on Google+ was only a matter of time.

Google+ currently has 18 games including Angry Birds, Crime City, Bejeweled Blitz, Zynga Poker and now CityVille. Is Farmville next? That’s what Google+ game players want to know!

Facebook Wants a Broader Range of Game Choices

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Facebook’s recently added gaming features sounds like just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to their dreams and desires for their gaming platform.

In an interview with MCV, Sean Ryan – Facebook’s head of game partnerships, says he wants a broader selection of gaming choices such as the ones found on consoles. He wants a little bit of everything offered on Facebook “from sports to core shooters to family games and social games.”

Ryan says when you look at their platform, they don’t have the type of breadth gaming consoles do. Why is that? He believes it’s because they are still so young.

“That’s because we are young – we are only three and a half years old. We are a pure platform – we don’t invest in games or make them. But we ask ourselves how we can make games like a football manager title rise up and become a success. There is a range of sophisticated games we want to get on our platform.”

Facebook has definitely taken a step forward into the console market with Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony already using the the Facebook Social Graph API.

“Everybody games, just at different levels. What Facebook does through social games, as Apple and Google have done in mobile, is broadening the types of users who play games. So is this a challenge for the traditional companies? It’s an opportunity.”

Ryan says their goal is to have more people playing games on Facebook or the games that use the Facebook Social Graph.

Now that Google+ has games, can you see some major competition between the two companies for the attention of gamers? It will be interesting to see how far Google+ wants to take their gaming platform.

Game On! Facebook Launches New Gaming Features

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It’s game on for Facebook who in the midst of Google+ announcing their new games, unveiled some new gaming features of their own. This little back and forth between Google+ and Facebook is getting fun isn’t it?

Facebook’s new gaming features include the Game Ticker, where you’ll see a separate column on the right hand side that includes your friends’ game activity, scores and achievements. Just click on a Game Ticker story and it will take you directly to that game, making the whole experience very social oriented.

They also introduced a bigger screen for game play. Games such as CityVille and Zoo World can now be expanded to a full screen.

Another feature includes bookmarking your favorite games. If you are an active Facebook gamer, you can now keep the best ones at the top for easy access. They’ve made it super easy for you to edit, rearrange or delete the games in your bookmark.

It’s hard to compare Facebook’s games to Google+ games since most of us don’t have access to Google’s yet. If you have had the chance to play the new Google+ games, let us know your thoughts.

Google+ Gradually Rolling Out Games

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Google made an announcement on their official blog today regarding the games we’ve all been hearing about. They are gradually rolling out games on Google+ and so far, they seem to have a decent selection to get you started.

Google+ is all about sharing, but as they pointed out, sharing is more than just having a conversation. It’s also about playing and having fun, which is where Google+ games comes into the picture. Google wants to “make playing games online just as fun, and just as meaningful, as playing in real life”.

Google+ games gives you complete control over when you see them and who you share them with. Not interested in playing games? No problem. They’ve made them easy for you to ignore.

For a list of games and how to get started, visit the Google blog. Now, pardon me while I go play some Angry Birds. Are you planning on giving Google+ games a whirl?

Rovio’s “Angry Birds” Making Its Way into the Classroom

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What started out as just a seriously addicting game to play on your iPhone and iPod, has turned into a franchise gold mine possibly no one saw coming. I’m talking about Angry Birds. We first saw signs of this when they teamed up with the movie “Rio” and apparently, that was just the beginning.

Brace yourself for Angry Birds movies, toys and yes – educational books.

The Wall Street Journal says we can expect the first product to come out this month; a book entitled “Bad Piggies Egg Recipes”. The title “refers to the game’s porcine thieves, who become targets for an enraged group of birds after stealing their eggs.” For those of you who play the game, you know exactly what they’re referring to.

Next up, books in the classroom for kids ages 4 to their teens. The books embrace the Finnish education system concept, which is kids learn best while playing. One of the books teaches geometry lessons featuring an Angry Bird flying through the air.

Given the fact that there are currently 120 million active Angry Birds players, do you think this franchise has a shot of becoming extremely successful as they branch out into other areas?

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