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The Escapist : Latest News:  Blogger Says Farmville Ads are "Scams"

Tradeskill Perspectives:  The darker side of Facebook applications

Journeys with Jaye:  WoW Pandas are Nothing Compared to This

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Anu Shukla got fired and totally deserved it http://bit.ly/2JEELA #VGSummit 9 days ago

Just watched the Arrington vs.Shukla: Virtual Goods Controversy http://bit.ly/2jGwn1 seemed to have missed this somehow. 14 days ago

Controversy at the Virtual Goods Summit: Arrington vs. Shukla http://bit.ly/2JEELA #socialgaming 18 days ago

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Blogger Says Farmville Ads are "Scams"
The Escapist : Latest News — Popular social games like Farmville and Mafia Wars are huge money makers, but Michael Arrington of TechCrunch says a lot of that revenue comes from from "completely unethical" advertisements that trick players with false promises of free stuff . Online games that are free to play but offer in-game items or currency for sale to gamers who want to advance faster or farther than everyone else should be familiar to just about everyone reading this. Microtransaction-based MMOGs have been around for years; their emergence in North America is a relatively recent phenomenon but the system has already been credited with at least the short-term ...

The darker side of Facebook applications
Tradeskill Perspectives — No original thoughts from me in this post, but I know quite a few people read this blog who don't necessarily read other gaming news sites, so I thought I'd share a few articles about the shadier side of Facebook/MySpace games and applications that have been receiving a lot of attention within the gaming industry lately. (Those who actually work in the industry have probably already read them, please do feel free to skip the rest of this post if so!) It started (at least in the public eye) last week, when TechCrunch ...

WoW Pandas are Nothing Compared to This
Journeys with Jaye — I’m not really surprised that WoW has dipped its toe into RMTs (predicted it on SUWT show 50).  This is clearly the trend with MMOs right now, although it’s been slow and cautious.  Rightfully so, since these games have been built upon certain established cultural rules and taboos regarding the intrusion of money (and anything real life, for that matter) into virtual worlds. We often fail to acknowledge it, but I think most MMO developers feel the same way as their playerbase:  the game experience has always come before the fast buck. Above:  The 2005 WoW parody Pandaren Express, which joked that you can order chinese food in game ...