Cheaters never win do they? You might think cheating at Social Games is innocent enough, but PopCap Games along with the Information Solutions Group have created a great study that shows cheating is bad news. According to the survey of 1,200 adults, nearly half admit to cheating in social games. But those same 48% also admit that they cheated at something in real life too! Anything from stealing towels in a hotel to cheating on their taxes, social game cheaters are almost 3.5 times as likely to be dishonest in the real world than their non cheater counterparts.

The report surveyed both US and UK Social Gamers. The 2011 PopCap Social Gaming Cheaters vs Non-Cheaters Research pdf is actually very interesting and worth the read. It’s incredibly in depth and shows a varied number of statistics. These gamers must have felt incredibly comfortable to admit to these things.

11% of people in the UK cheat compared to 7% of all US social gamers. Women you better watch how your man plays social games, because the study found that men are more likely to cheat in social games than women. Which also stands to show they are more likely to cheat somehow in real life. The study breaks down how the person cheats as well.

“How we behave in virtual space and interact with others in social games often mirrors how we act in the real world,” said Professor Clay Routledge of North Dakota State University’s Department of Psychology. “With more than 100 million people playing social games regularly, we can expect to see the full range of psychological characteristics represented in the social gaming population – even cheating.”

Here are some quick facts:
53% of people who cheat in social games report cheating on tests at school
51% of people who cheat at social games report stealing towels, cups or other items from hotels (compared to just 14% of those who said they don’t cheat at social games)
49% of people who cheat at social games report cheating on a committed relationship
U.S. gamers who live in the mid-West are the most likely to cheat versus other regions (29%)

Next time you go on a date, you might want to suggest playing a PopCap game to observe if your date cheats or not. It may tell you more about that person than any talk over coffee.

Little Cave Hero is a sort of throwback to pixellated games of my youth with a twist of sociality. Your town has been ravaged by monsters and it’s up to you to put it back together and build it back up to help make the mayor look good again. The games starts players out getting used to mining the caves for treasure, completing missions for the mayor, and rebuilding the necessary components to start the town running and pump up population. At first, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the exaggerated pixelation of the game, but before too long, it grew on me. Now when I play, I find it endearing and nostalgic.

The beginning of the game feels good. The character of the mayor is humerous, and spouts some witty remarks. The missions come fast and are completable in a reasonable amount of time, which adds to a sense of accomplishment. Jean’s town, which is the stable, even if you have no friends who play, you have this friend and this friend has been playing since inception so the world is inspiring sort of town, gives a glimpse of possibilities of what’s to come and the different things that can be done when rebuilding and repopulating.

Like many games, especially in the Facebook arena, leveling up in the beginning happens quickly enough to keep playing a little longer (as energy gets replenished when leveling up). Once that starts to slow down, the familiar feeling of the Facebook limits sets in. Without many friends to visit to collect additional energy, playtime is occasionally disappointing, especially because it takes sometimes a lot of energy to finish caves or challenges. But paying attention to the XP bar helps keep strategy in line to level up and be able to play longer. Building the town up, fortunately, and redecorating or moving things around, getting production of wood, refining ores, etc. are things that don’t take up energy. However, they don’t add too much play time because the production takes time, and often one thing needs producing before others can be produced. If there are more friends added to your population, however, the building/producing time decreases, which would help quite a bit.

The game is entirely click and play. Click where the hero should go, what the hero should break through, monsters the hero should attack. This makes it simple and accessible for multiple connections and gadgets. Sometimes the towns become mazes and there are characters and creatures that get in the way. So little hero just stops. If this happens in the hero’s own town, though, anything, even critters and characters can be moved anywhere in the town with the handy editing tool. The editing feature not only helps get heroes unstuck, but also organizes and reorganizes the town, enables selling and rotating of items to get the look just right.

There are a few other ways to help make each hero’s town unique, from purchasable decorations, fencing, roads, and even animals, to the edit feature which allows just about anything in the town to be moved, rotated one of two ways, or even sold. But the thing that allows for the most individuality is the design studio. In the design studio, players can make and customize decorations such as an apple, snail, lion, bookshelf, bed, or anything they can build. This, I believe, is the thing that adds the most time possibility if more time in the game is desired. These items are also savable and can be placed in the town at any time.

The social aspect of the game includes the ability to share gifts with friends, which initially seems possible only when the game first loads, but now I see a little gift icon on the side of the screen while playing, which does open up the option. Also, visiting friends and talking to their icons gives some xp, coins, and energy. Once energy is full, though, it doesn’t add more and the “visit” is wasted. There are some maintenance actions that can be done to earn more coins and xp in friends’ towns as well. Presently, I have only friends who seem to play the game very occasionally, so the social aspect is not incredibly high.

All in all, I like playing Little Cave Hero. Though it does have a similar feeling and premise to other social games, the variety of activities keeps it interesting. It is, however, an easy game to let fall by the wayside as sometimes it takes more effort to keep up with than the reward feeling of playing it. It’s cute, entertaining at times, and has potential. I would say give it a shot, especially if you have friends that already play, or would be willing to play. Note that the game is still in Beta. It will be interesting to see

It’s spring… a perfect time to think about gardens. But these Gardens of Time are much more than your backyard variety gardens. These are extravagant gardens you can build using artifacts bought with money made by completing quests and finding lost objects throughout different scenes in time, helping the Time Society to solve mysteries and correct the course of history.

“Gardens of Time redefines the previously solitary experience of downloadable hidden object games by adding a variety of social features so players can share the excitement and challenge with their friends,” said Playdom’s Senior Producer for Gardens of Time, John Hsu. “We want to give players the opportunity to collaborate, compete, and show off their achievements.”

Gardens of Time allows Hidden Object lovers the opportunity to share and collaborate with their friends, or soon to be friends. The content is free to play (always a favorite), and, though the game is social in nature, it doesn’t seem to be completely reliant on friends playing in order to enjoy. You can test it out and start building your own Garden of Time here.

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I am always impressed with opportunities for gamers to give back while doing what they love, which is why I am so excited about this one. Plus, I might be a little biased working in the health care field, but it’s time once again to play for a good cause.

Hospitopia is a new social game created by CausePlay, which allows players to create and run their own virtu-hospital while helping Children’s Miracle Network raise real money for children’s hospitals across the country. How does this work? Simply put, CausePlay will donate 10% of all game revenue to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. The money raised is donated across the network, but players will have the option to select a specific Children’s Miracle Network hospital to benefit by way of prizes and incentives from their game play.

“With nearly 27% of the US population playing social games, the time felt right for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals to expand its fundraising tactics into this growing space,” said Craig Sorensen, chief marketing officer, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

Hospitopia introduces the social gaming 2.0 revolution, which incorporates unique gaming features like a “video earning metrics platform,” which rewards players with game points for viewing video material. Organizations or advertisers can layer PSAs, movie trailers or promotions within game play, and then users earn game points while viewing it.

“CausePlay is proud to have created a business model that not only aligns with nonprofits like Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals to give back to outstanding causes through game play 365 days a year, but also delivers the most innovative and interactive tools available through social gaming to ignite user interaction and satisfaction,” says Jonas Hudson, founding partner and President of CausePlay, LLC.

“This is a unique opportunity for Intersections to give back to the community in a forward-thinking and interactive platform,” said Michael Stanfield, Chairman and CEO of Intersections. “We are grateful for the opportunity to help children in need while also educating consumers about safe practices for protecting their sensitive data.”
Play Hospitopia on Facebook now.

CMNHospitals.org.

PlayFirst has opened Diner Dash for early beta business on Facebook, inviting players and their friends to help spunky waitress Flo to keep her diner customers happy. Facebook game players will be able to experience complete Diner Dash original time management gameplay on Facebook with all of their favorite features and characters.

“Diner Dash is the first Facebook game to embed robust time management gameplay in a truly social environment,” said Eric Hartness, Vice President and General Manger of Social Games at PlayFirst. “We’ve taken the addictive gameplay that has made Diner Dash so popular on PC, Macs and iOS mobile devices and accented it with a rich ensemble cast and narrative elements that bring new depth to the Dash experience. Diner Dash propels restaurant games on Facebook to an entire new level! ”

In the Facebook version of Diner Dash, all of the stars from the past games come together to continue their legendary fight against Mr. Big, who attempts to destroy DinerTown park, dumping all of his broken down bulldozers, cones, flat tires, oil spills, and other construction and factory debris, taking the appeal of the park away from the city, causing beloved restaurants to shut their doors for lack of patrons. So not only will players keep restaurant patrons satisfied, but help clean up the park as well, in order to unlock more DinerTown restaurants and keep the community thriving.

“We’ve brought together all the compelling Diner Dash elements that have made it the number one time management franchise and married that to the social experience of Facebook,” said Mari Baker, CEO of PlayFirst. “Diner Dash on Facebook points the way forward to a new class of time management game while retaining the authentic Dash gameplay that made the series so popular.”

With new content added in the coming weeks and months, Diner Dash for Facebook will continually evolve and challenge players with new activities. Visit the Diner Dash Facebook page for more details!

A significant portion (some are saying that it could be nearly half) of Disney Interactive staff have been laid off, according to several reports.

However, this isn’t surprising, given that Disney has started to shift away from console gaming as a whole – first by acquiring social game developer Playdom earlier this year, then putting their CEO, John Pleasants, into power as head of Disney Interactive. When that happened, they called it “shifting [their] investment,” and that sort of strategy appears to be what Disney is sticking to, telling Variety that the layoffs yesterday occurred “[a]s part of setting a strategic direction for future success in the digital media space.”

This “restructuring process” appears to be pretty far-reaching, with Warren Spector’s Junction Point Studios (who only recently put out Epic Mickey) also taking a hit. The development studio behind the canceled Pirates of the Caribbean game was also closed last week, shortly after shipping the tie-in Tron: Legacy title. Black Rock Studios may also have been affected.

So, Disney appears to be leaving the world of traditional gaming behind completely in favor of things you can post on your Facebook wall. Well, in-house, anyway. Does anyone see this as a good thing? (I’m personally pretty disappointed.)

[CNBC]

Majesco has paired up with social game developer Arkadium to test the social gaming waters with its first free-to-play social game, Cooking Mama Friends’ Cafe, for Facebook. In this latest incarnation of the popular franchise, Cooking Mama Friends’ Cafe is an all new experience that allows players to buy their ingredients, chop, mix, stir, fry, bake and pour to create more than 40 recipes including holiday ham, fried rice, and chicken parmigiana with infinite menu combinations, while managing customer service in an economy driven restaurant to earn coins and XP points for creating tasty food and serving up dishes. Players can also purchase special ingredients and decorations to customize kitchens with virtual and real dollars. The last hook is that players must return regularly and cook to maintain the business or their restaurants could be forced to shut down for good.

“With domestic franchise sales of more than 8 million units to date, Cooking Mama is an incredibly strong brand to launch our entry into social gaming,” said Jesse Sutton, Chief Executive Officer, Majesco Entertainment. “COOKING MAMA FRIENDS’ CAFE is just the first of several social games we’ll be unveiling, and demonstrates our strategic focus to create unique games leveraging leading brands that appeal to our target audience.”

Cooking Mama Friends’ Cafe is free to play on Facebook, and new features and enhancements are being added continuously.

The same basic rules apply to the game as in the original. Match a set of like-colored balls and you generate points, the more chain matches, combo and gap shots you make the better the score. If you make matches fast enough, you get a speed bonus and become one “hot frog!” And by “hot frog,” I mean your green guy becomes a blazing amphibian ready to blow up large segments of ball chains for three shots. The score multipliers are back in this game, so watch for the balls with marked with a number and an “X” beside it to get extra points. Periodically, fruit appears and if you can shoot ‘em, do it. Your score will be happy you did. Treasure chests sometimes replace the fruit targets. When hit, the chests will reward you at the end of the game with little vials of “mojo.” Fear not, your head will not explode like the Fembots in Austin Powers due to “cross-mojulation.” No, this mojo is like currency in Zuma Blitz. With each ball you hit, you get one mojo bottle. The more mojo you have the more special powers you can buy to use in your game. With each new level you pass you gain experience points, idols (which help unlock powers/mojo), and refills on mojo and lives. And all this for free? Yes, but if you find yourself wanting more mojo or lives, you can always pay with facebook credits (via credit card/paypal) to get refills if you can’t wait. My recommendation to PopCap would be to let players accumulate mojo at a faster level and to create a short tutorial on how the idol and mojo purchasing system works.

Aside from the few hiccups in the beta, PopCap keeps the game fresh and fun with a new board each week. The graphics are still stunning like it’s precursor, Zuma’s Revenge and if the tribe-like music doesn’t get you in the mood to play, I’m not sure what will. Highly addictive, fun and to quote my little green frog friend, there’s nothing better to play if you need a little “oooga and perhaps booga” in your day. Anyone else starting to hear drum-beats?

Now it’s possible to earn achievements while you are searching. Sibblingz is bringing Happy Island to a new platform, Bing.

Users searching the internet on Bing will have the chance to play through the first levels of Happy Island without signing in. Later, the player can then associate their Facebook login to earn achievements and extend the game.

“Partnering with Microsoft to bring the first social gaming title to Bing opens up some very exciting opportunities for Sibblingz and the social gaming industry,” says Ben Savage, founder of Sibblingz. “With this partnership, we’re really thinking outside the Facebook canvas.”

The new Sibblingz platform made it easier to bring the social game to Bing. The development platform helped Crowdstar and Sibblingz bring the game to Bing in a very short time period.

“Crowdstar and Sibblingz have shown amazing agility with taking an idea from concept to reality in record time” says Parri Munsell, executive producer of Gaming on Bing at Microsoft. “Microsoft is excited to have Happy Island as the first social game available directly on Bing. We believe this launch brings several important innovations to the social gaming industry, starting with the ability to experience great game play before being required to sign in. Additionally, the search integrated mini game introduces a fun and exciting way to experience the power of Bing search right inside of the game.”

The drama between Social Gaming Companies, Zynga and Playdom is finally over. The two companies were able to reach a resolution. Initially Zynga sued Playdom accusing them of stealing its trade secrets by recruiting Zynga employees.

No idea what the settlement was for. Zynga initially had asked for damages, royalties and wages of the employees that were allegedly taken.

[source Paid Content]