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Facebook Games

12 Million Users Pay For Facebook Virtual Goods

August 2, 2011

According to a report of digital payment vendor PayPal, 12 million Monthly Facebook gamers in U.S. pay for virtual goods.

It is estimated that out of this figure, 19% accounts for spending under$10, 54% accounts for spending amount from $10 to $50 while remaining 27% accounts for purchasing over$50 on games like FarmVille.In social games, 33 percent of purchases are under $10. About 58 percent are $10 to $50. And 9 percent are $50 and more. In casual web site games, 29 percent of purchases are under $10. About 49 percent are $10 to $50. And 22 percent are for $50 and more.

Facebook games are a global industry and if we are to take the number of paying players worldwide on Facebook then the figure would be much larger.

Social game sector has been growing at a fast pace over the years, as also an increase Facebook gamers. eMarket estimates that the U.S. virtual goods market will be $1 billion in 2011, while Inside Network estimates it to be $2.1 billion. Internationally, virtual goods market is valued at around $6 billion, with huge growth potential in Asia.

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Hero Generations Facebook Game Review

July 29, 2011

Hero Generations is a new RPG/Adventure Facebook game. Life, marriage, children, achievements, and death are what this game is all about.

You start the game as a young hero who sets out in the world of unknowns in search of fame and adventure, exploring the world one square at a time. Yes, the game is tile/square based, and moving from one square to the next will cost you one year of your hero’s lifetime..interested? Read more below.

Your hero will be given a life expectancy at the beginning and once that runs out, the curtains close to the tale of your

brave hero…but don’t worry, during your hero’s short yet cherishable lifetime, your hero will find time to find his soul mate, and start a family before his old bones fails to meet up to his spirits of adventure. By settling down, you will be able to further your linage to carry your legacy forward.

Once your hero settles down and have a kid, a new chapter will begin, where you can continue with the adventure with the offspring as your hero. Items if any are passed down to the offspring..

During your adventure, you will find gold, treasures, and cross path with different monsters. Slaying monsters and completing quests will earn you fame, and the amount of fame you gather will be the only thing about your hero that will live on long after your hero is gone.

Combat outcome seems to be based on chance and the amount of your strength. The one with the higher amount of strength left wins the combat. You can find items during your adventure and also from shops that will help you give the upper hand during combat. Slaying combats will earn you fame, while losing a fight will decrease your fame.

During your adventure, you will find different women in different villages, with different images of their future mate. Some of them will want a husband who is rich or popular, while some will want a strong partner or a warrior. Once you reach their expectations, you can settle down with them.

You can also build different kinds of building adjacent to a village’s boundaries, like farms or barracks through which you can earn gold in the form of tributes or increase your hero’s strength.

The factor of luck is very evident in the game in the form of card flips, through which you can get different amounts of gold, longevity, bonus strengths, or special traits. You get 8 flips when a new generation starts and one flip whenever you reach a milestone during your lifetime. You receive bonus strength when you reach a milestone (adult, midlife) and like in real life when you get old some strength is deducted.

You hero can also acquire special traits. Some of the special traits I came across are:

Warrior – 25% strength bonus in a combat.

Farmer – Building farms cost 50% less (little confused there..)

Swimmer – Ability to move across water tile/square.

Thief – Steal 25% of your opponent’s money after a victory in combat.

Chief – Bonus strength while defending a town/fort.

Game graphics isn’t much to talk about, but what sticks to a player in Hero Generations game is the heroes-story like flow of the game. Unlike traditional Facebook games, gameplay is not limited by energy or other factors. The only downside of the game is the need to start the game afresh from generation 1 every time you comeback to the game.

Hero Generations is a relatively simple game – looks and gameplay – with a couple of hard quest thrown here and there, with that “just one more time” appeal.

(Play Hero Generations)

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Facebook Game Review: Shadow Fight

July 6, 2011

Shadow Fight is a new fighting game launched on Facebook by Nekki. This martial-arts based fighting game is in the line of classic fighting games like Mortal Kombat or Tekken, that allows you to fight against other players one-on-one, using different fighting techniques. One thing that sets this game apart from other Facebook game is that this game actually let you do the fighting, and this fact has really make this game climb up my personal Facebook game chart list.

Here is short review of the game.

After installing the game, choosing your avatar, and a brief tutorial, its all up to you to make a name for yourself. You can train yourself and fight, fight and fight.

As a fighting game, there is literally nothing much to do apart from fighting. You fight unarmed matches, have friendly duels, take Dan exams to increase your Dan (you fight here too), enter and fight in tournaments, fight bosses. And true to its name, Shadow Fight centers on combat between two shadowy opponents that very much resembles the fighting silhouette of ninjas behind a Japanese shoji screen.

But this minimalist presentation is substitute beautifully by the perfectly mimicry of different styles of fighting techniques and the fact that you are actually the one going for the high knee kick or and elbow uppercut.

There are tons of fighting techniques ranging basic strikes and movements to beautifully executed super strikes and acrobatic movements. Many of the moves can be unlocked by increasing your Dan level. A coming soon section called “Fatalities” is also present, which I presume and earnestly hope it would be very much in line with the brutal finishing moves one sees games like Mortal Kombat.

Matches are won by being the first to win two rounds. Some matches will be strictly unarmed match, while some match will require you to be equipped with a specific weapon, and any type of weapon in some match. You will find different types of weapons ranging from expendable weapons like shurikens and kunais to equipable weapons like batons, nanchuku and sai forks in the game shop. You will even find items that will aid you in boss fights.

You can enter any tournament as long as you qualify for it. Every tournament will have different reputation or weapons requirement in order to qualify for the tournament. Different tournament will have different number of matches. Every match will cost you some energy and money. Your character’s health will be replenished after every fight. You will need to win all the matches to win the tournament. Winning tournaments will reward you with experience and reputation points.

Dan exam are similar to tournaments but every level of exam requires you to have a specific minimum number of friends apart from the exam money. Here you will pay the exam money only once. You will fight a series of opponents and win all the matches without losing a match to pass the exam; else you have to retake the exam. An important thing to note is that your health is not replenished until the whole exam is over.

Game AI gets pretty intelligent as you progress through the game. So watch out!

Progressing through the game is pretty slow. Most matches require either 20 or 40 energy and if I am not mistaken, it take at least 3 minutes to refill one energy point. You will be spending most of your time and energy fighting unarmed matches, since you lack coins or fail to reach the requirements to do anything else. The reward for winning an unarmed match is 20 experience points and 10 coins. You see what I am trying to prove here right… I know it is the standard energy-based limits common on this platform but this is really one sore thumb. So, unless you are ready to cash in some real-time money, you will feel the pressure of some hard-grinding online games. Another place where the game fall short is the failure, to offer the opportunity to really take on your friends (not AI) and that is like a small cut on the index finger. Of course the game has a two-player mode that requires you and your friend to share a keyboard, which brings fond memories of squabbling over who had the most shoulder room ;P .

Apart from all the fighting, you will be able to visit your friends and check out their character profiles, help them to increase their reputation. There are also lots of collectible items, which can be exchanged for experience and coins. There are some parts which I have experience so far: Boss fights, where you apparently get MvP drops, and use to unlock more areas through the gate of shadows.

Shadow Fight surely lacks all the flashy animations most games offers (while you lay back and watch), this is one of the few games that actually let you fight. Game presentation is rather plain but gameplay is fluid. I don’t like giving a rating, but I will end my review with this – even with the sore thumb and cut to my index finger, I come back to have my short time of my fun time. If you like beat-em-up games, you will surely like this game, but remember this, Shadow Fight is easy to learn, but very hard to master.

(Play Shadow Fight game)

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Top 25 Facebok Games: July 2011

July 3, 2011

Zynga titles has completely monopolized in the top of Facebook Games for July. But what is more interesting is the Zynga newcomer ‘Empires & Allies’, launched in June 1 and is now already debuted in the top three across both monthly active users and daily active users. The success can be highly attributed because it shares many mechanics with CityVille and was launched in 12 languages worldwide. It is just the beginning and is quite brilliant yet it has got a long way to go to top City Ville in MAU or DAU.

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Facebook SEGA PLAY! Baseball Review-Cum-Walkthrough

March 27, 2011

We see a lot of sports simulation games on Facebook but baseball has been sadly lagging behind. Sega fills the void with SEGA PLAY! Baseball.

Here is a short review-cum-walk-through of the game.

About the game: As the name suggest, this baseball simulation game allow players to create their own baseball player and lead their team to clinch the pro league trophy.

The game provides a lot of customization, but lacks much in actual playability as you might have experienced in most social sports simulation games.

Customization: Right from your avatar to your home stadium, and player charts, you can expect lots of customization to do. You can buy outfits and gears for your players, upgrade your stadium and mess around with your batting and pitching line ups. Some customization that stands out are background volcano and flying dinosaurs.

Gameplay: Players will get extra slots – friends and NPC slots as they level up. Players earn points and experience by playing matches, regardless of the match result. Of course, you will receive rewards, earn more points, and level up faster if you win.

Matches are controlled by the game itself. Your avatar, and other players’ (friends and NPC) abilities will be taken into account on the outcome of the match result. Once a match starts, you can fast forward the game or skip directly to the results.

Once you start earning points you can start training your character and your friends too (the ones you have recruited in your team), as well as spend them on upgrading your stadium. The game provides different drills to upgrade different skills. You should note that NPCs are not customizable.

As you level up, more items and training drills will be unlocked. Once you reach level 10, you will be able to participate in the pro league, starting from Stone League to Platinum league. There are 5 leagues to conquer and heaps of trophies to collect.

Social Component/Factor: You can send a receive gifts. You will also be able to add your friend’s character in your team and upgrade their skills too. Note that only your player’s skill upgrades will be reflected in their account.

Graphics and Game Interface: The game interface is nothing out of the ordinary, but the various game menus are well laid out and easily accessible. Game graphics are cartoonish. They are not the best but meet the eyes lightly.

Features: Most of the game features have been discussed above. SEGA has included a very big twist to the game – resetting the player avatar’s stats. Stats are reset every cycle which last 30 days. On one hand it is cool, since you can try out different positions and customization for your character, but on the other hand, it is quite frustrating when everything you worked for goes down the drain.

Verdict: Many customization and different ways to play your character. Not being able to actually play the game ourselves is a downer, but the game is still a big treat for baseball lovers and is definitely worth playing…well, as long as some other baseball game that will actually let you play comes around.

Having said that, EA Sports is reportedly working on a baseball game for Facebook, but when??? So, try out SEGA Play! Baseball game in the meantime.

Do leave your feedback and tips on the game for other readers.

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NBA Makes Its Way To Facebook With NBA Legend

February 15, 2011

National Football Association is finally making its presence in the world of Facebook gaming with NBA Legend. NFL and FIFA has already made their presence. The details are light, but NBA will probably introduce the game this week.

In NBA Legend, players will make an avatar, join a team, and manage the career of the avatar, rather than managing the whole team as we have seen in most sport-simulation game on Facebook. Players will apparently have control over their avatar’s skills and attributes, but not the dribbling and shooting part.

The game is part of a wide range of social media campaign by the NBA to turn its millions of fans on sites like Twitter and Facebook into new revenue sources.

Check out the official Page to “Like” the game.

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Social Empires Facebook Game Review

February 10, 2011

Social Empires is a real-time strategy game on Facebook. It is very much like the old Age of Empires PC game.

In Social Empires, players start out with a small area of land and a town center, where they can produce villagers and start growing their empire. Players need to produce and manage basic resources while protecting their empire from trolls and other Facebook players.

Game overview:

Resources – Basic resources in the game includes food, wood, stone, and gold. Food can be produce through farming and rearing cattle. While wood, stone, and gold can be collected through mining. Players can also earn gold by killing trolls, completing quests, and of course by attacking other players.

Empire

Buildings – Several types of buildings are available to build and are generally divided into 4 categories namely – buildings, defense, attack, and wonders. Except for wonders, all other buildings are divided into 5 levels with level one be the most basic type. As a one reaches higher levels, they will become powerful enough to build and own higher level buildings. Houses increases the maximum population limit of an empire.

Units – Villagers are the backbone of an empire and they are the resource collectors. They can be produced through the town center. Troops in the

game include swordsman, archers, Knights, and siege weapons. They can be produced once you built the necessary building. Troops, like buildings, also have different levels. Troops can be used either for attacking or defending. Remember that different type of unit eats up different number of your population slot

Social factor – Social factor doesn’t come into play much except for the daily gifting, sharing bonus, and visiting each other.

Battle

Battle System – In battling other Facebook players, the attacking party can use only their attacking unit, but are able to strategize their attacks. While the defender empire has both attacking unit and defense buildings to defend, they are AI controlled. A battle can be finalized at any point of time by the attacker. The party who has more kills when a battle is finalize is declared the winner.

General gameplay – Villagers can be selected and click on trees or resources to collect resources. The same formula works for troops. You can also select a group of particular unit by double clicking on a unit. Resources have to be clicked every time to collect. Trees and mines (stone and gold) are fixed. Once collected, they will be replenished after fixed amount of time. Cattle have to be captured first before rearing. They don’t last forever and after producing food for a couple of time, it vanishes and you will have to capture them again as they spawn on the map.

Trolls are the other inhabitants on the map. At first they are pretty harmless and won’t attack unless provoked. But, as one progress through the game more aggressive trolls will spawn on the map and will attack your empire from time to time. You will also have to take on the troll camp from time to time to complete different quest.

Social Empires World

There are several quests to complete and is an easy way to collect gold. Gold is the most useful resource and is really difficult to collect them.

Once you reach level 7, you can start attacking other players and boss monsters, which is a quick way of making gold. But, stay away from those who have good defense else you will end up more than you loot.

Conclusion:

A note: My troops also disappeared without any reason in the beginning, but that was a one-time tragedy. Also remember to explore the map because your empire is only a small plot on the map.

One big downside in gameplay is micromanagement in collecting resources. Every farm has to be clicked to collect food. To collect wood, stone, and gold, villagers have to be selected, click on the resource to cut or mine, click again to collect when they are finished. On top of that, you have to do this for each and every tree or ore. It will be great a selected villager collects a group of resource at a place by giving the command only once.

Social Empires is a nice looking game. It is fun and addictive. Quest also becomes more challenging. The game interface gives a detail statistic of your resources, population, level, and the number of trolls alive at the particular moment. You can easily zoom in and out with the scroll of your mouse. Graphic is cute and detailed and surprisingly, the game also loads pretty fast. There is nothing groundbreaking in the game but definitely worth playing.

(Play Social Empire Facebook Game)

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Top 25 Facebook Games: February 2011

February 2, 2011

The list of top 25 Facebook games for Feb 2011 are up and Zynga is still the top player here with 9 games making the list, and bagging all the top 7 spots starting with CityVille.