Facebook’s Farmville, What’s So Special About It?

So I caved and finally created myself a Farmville account on the social networking site Facebook. At first glance, the game doesn’t look so dynamic or exciting, but maybe after having my account for a while, I’ll have access to currently locked/unexposed parts of the game.

Before delving any deeper into the contents of the game though, here’s a brief introduction to the Farmville browser-based game developed by Zynga. Essentially, players in the game manage their own virtual farm, complete with crops, trees, and livestock. Categorized as a real-time farm simulation game, Farmville first launched in June 2009. Since then, it’s become the most popular Facebook game application, boasting 73,015,559 users to date. Wow, that’s insane. That’s nearly 1/3 of the population of the United States!

If you’re interested in reading a bit more about my adventures in Farmville thus far, check out my review.

NOPsen Inc. Creates a Virtual World With Multilingual Translator

NOPsen Inc. has recently developed a browser-based game that instantly translates the Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and English languages. RemayQ allows its players from around the world to communicate without much effort at all. In addition to the unique auto translation system, the game also features a Global Buddy Search that allows players to find others like them.

RemayQ has many options for what player can do in the game, ranging from playing mini games to building a house. If you have skills that others want in real life, RemayQ can set up a tutoring business for you. Large companies can set up virtual meetings and chat with their business partners overseas. All virtual assets created in RemayQ may also be sold.

RemayQ will hold its 3rd closed beta session from December 18th until December 28th. If you’re interested in the browser-based game, you can sign up to be a beta tester at www.remayq.com. One thousand testers will be selected from each country on a first come, first serve basis.

Via MediaNewswire.

Square Enix CEO Talks About Future of Traditional Vs. Online Gaming

Yoichi Wada, CEO of Square Enix (the company that’s famous for the Final Fantasy series of video games), shares his thoughts on the future of social and browser-based online gaming, “Social and browser games, which is now a very big genre, is something we have started development into. I believe that these types of games are going to be spreading and growing dramatically – especially in areas like Asia which does not have much penetration of consoles.”

Wada even goes so far as to say that social gaming could possibly take over the traditional gaming market (network-based gaming) in as little as 10 years because “instead of relying on the hardware layer, the network becomes the operating system.”

While online-based gaming seems to be a lucrative venture for game developers, that’s not to say there’s nothing standing in the way of smooth sailing when it comes to developing games. The elimination of consoles and other hardware-based gaming equipment will lead to decreased sales and eliminate the need for distributors. Maybe that explains why Square Enix has begun its social gaming incentives only in Japan.

Social and browser-based gaming no doubt has quite a bit of untapped potential. We’ll keep you updated on the progress of the situation.

Via ShackNews.

Browser-Based Battlefield Heroes Boasts 3+ Million Players

Here’s another EA game that’s gaining more players as we speak. Battlefield Heroes is a browser-based game that was launched last summer as part of EA Games’ Play 4 Free model, where players can download the game for free and spent small amounts of money on weapon and outfit upgrades.

Battlefield Heroes is a military shooter game that has already reached over three million online players. The game is a simpler version of EA’s multiplayer component and features cartoonish graphics and a handful of maps and weapons.

Via USAToday.