Tag Archives: zynga

Game publishers and developers are asking gamers to open up their wallets and help out those devastated by the earthquake in Haiti.

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GDC Austin takes place September 15-18, and you already know that Blizzard and Sony Online will be there, but so will others.

Here’s a list of the recently announced speakers and what they will be discussing:

• Craig Alexander , VP, Product Development, Turbine: MMOs to Consoles – Challenges, Opportunities and Emerging Trends
• Brandon Barber, VP Marketing, Zynga: What Are The Stickiest Design Models and How Are They Monetized?
• Bill Dalton, Technical Director, BioWare Austin: Come and See the Elephant – Challenges Encountered Growing an MMO
• Raph Koster, President, Metaplace: Games are Math: 10 Core Mechanics That Drive Compelling Gameplay
• Jeffrey Kesselman, Chief Technology Officer, Rebel Monkey: The Monkey Wrench: Design and Architecture of an Online Environment
• Jesse Schell, Faculty, ETC Carnegie Mellon, CEO, Schell Games, Laralyn McWilliams, Creative Director, Sony Online Entertainment, Matthew Schwartz, Senior Designer, Cartoon Network: Reaching A New Demographic: Kids AND Their Parents
• Craig Sherman, CEO, Gaia Online: Next Phase of Casual Games: How to Make the Free-To-Play Model Work for You
• Richard Weil, Director of Community Relations, Cartoon Network, Rebecca Newton, Head of Safety, CrispThinking.com: Kids and Gaming-One Year Later. Still Keeping up with your ABCs?

The full press release is after the break.

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Zynga’s social networking game Mafia Wars has hit four million users.

According to Gamasutra, daily players have doubled over the last three months, and like most free-to-play titles, it’s micro-transaction based should you choose to purchase items.

To help build on the success of this genre, Zynga has hired game designer Brian Reynolds whose previous works include Alpha Centauri and Rise of Nations.

The browser-based multiplayer RPG is available on Myspace, Facebook, Yahoo Games and iPhone.

We had no idea how popular it was, despite the barrage of Facebook invitations we get for it in a single day. But there ya go.

Thanks, VideogamesBlogger.