Gaming | Cheryl Waller

Facebook Music Game GIG-IT Will Let Players Create Virtual Concerts

April 30, 2013 by Brian Anthony Hernandez Leave a Comment

GIG-IT, a new social game coming to Facebook in May, will let players create 3D concerts featuring virtual versions of famous musicians along with music from the game's library or music available to purchase within the experience

Players will be able to customize every aspect of the concert such as the music, backup dancers, speakers, opening act, headline performers, wardrobes, sponsors and venue. They will then have the option to share their creations with their friends and followers on Facebook, turning the game into a music-discovery experience.

"This ain't no farm."

"This ain't no farm." Read more...

More about Facebook, Music, Entertainment, Gaming, and Celebrities

Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, Celebrities, entertainment, Facebook, gaming, Music, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking

EA to Shutter ‘SimCity Social,’ ‘The Sims Social,’ ‘Pet Society’

April 15, 2013 by Chelsea Stark Leave a Comment

EA is shuttering three of its Facebook games on June 14: Sim City Social, The Sims Social and Pet Society.

Those games' players are being notified by the Playfish forums and the Facebook fan pages. Players are encouraged to spend all their in-game currency before June 14.

Sim City Social was announced last year and released on June 25, meaning it will have survived for only a year. The game was developed by Playfish and Maxis, and allowed players to collaborate on cities.

The Sims Social was the Facebook spinoff of EA's dominant simulation game. It was released in 2011 and rose to the top of Facebook's app charts, becoming second only to Farmville in popularity. In the past six months, however, it had seen a decline in users. Read more...

More about Facebook, Gaming, Playfish, Electronic Arts, and Ea

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NASA’s Curiosity Rover Soars at This Year’s Shorty Awards

April 9, 2013 by Brian Anthony Hernandez Leave a Comment

The Shorty Awards, an annual crowdsourced contest that honors the best social media users and Internet celebrities, announced winners Monday at a ceremony in New York City

NASA's Curiosity Rover was among the night's highlights (you can watch the entire show below) as it shared an intimate moment with funny man Seth Green in a short video and even won Foursquare Mayor of the Year for using the check-in app from Mars.

SEE ALSO: George Takei Beats Grumpy Cat for Internet Culture Prize at Shorty Awards

"Can I borrow your login for #HBOGo," @MarsCuriosity tweeted to Green in the clip

Other winners — who earned awards for their use of Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, YouTube, Tumblr and other platforms — included Jimmy Kimmel for Lifetime Achievement, George Takei for Internet Culture, TextsFromHillary.com for Tumblr of the Year, Bravo's Andy Cohen for Best Social Media Manager and @SarcasticRover for Best NonHuman. Read more...

More about Entertainment, Social Media, Shorty Awards, Film, and Gaming

Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, entertainment, Facebook, Film, gaming, search engine optimization, SEO, shorty awards, social media, Social Networking

‘Game of Thrones’ Facebook Game Will Follow HBO Series

April 2, 2013 by Chelsea Stark Leave a Comment

If you're still trying to get over Sunday night's premiere of HBO's Game of Thrones, and suffering from Westeros withdrawal, you can get your fix in Game of Thrones Ascent on Facebook.

Game of Thrones Ascent, released in beta on Facebook in February, is going to start releasing new content each Monday that pairs with episode of Game of Thrones shown the night before. As season 3 gets underway, players will be able to play along as the events unfold in the show.

On Monday, Disruptor Beam, the team behind the game, released the first content update "Episode 1: Valar Dohaeris", which allows players to access content from that episode as well as the end of Season 2. Players can even take part in Season 2's Battle of Blackwater Bay. Read more...

More about Facebook, Gaming, Facebook Games, Entertainment, and Tv

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‘Candy Crush Saga’ Creator Launches 2 New Facebook Games

March 27, 2013 by Emily Price Leave a Comment

King, the company behind popular Facebook games Candy Crush Saga and Bubble Witch Saga is bringing two new games to the social network: Papa Pear Saga, and Farm Heroes Saga.

A huge player in the online gaming space, King currently has 108 million players playing its games each month over its entire network of mobile, online and social games. That adds up to a whopping 12 billion gameplays on all platforms in a single month. Daily players across all platforms total 50 million.

“The exceptional growth of our mobile, Facebook, and cross-platform audience is a testament to the care and craft that goes into our games,” says Riccardo Zacconi, co-founder and CEO of King. Read more...

More about Facebook, King, Entertainment, Gaming, and Apps Software

Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Apps and Software, Blogging, entertainment, Facebook, gaming, King, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking, Uncategorized

‘Game of Thrones’ Facebook Game Now Open to Fans

February 25, 2013 by Chelsea Stark Leave a Comment

Are you a direwolf, lion or kraken? Fans of the Game of Thrones fantasy show and series of novels can now enter the kingdom of Westeros as a lady or lord through Facebook

Game of Thrones Ascent, an officially licensed social game based on the HBO show and George R.R. Martin's novels, entered open beta late last week. It challenges players to create a character and enter the tangled web of power, strength and intrigue similar to the fictional world.

Players can pick their own character name and avatar, as well as create their own house banner. They'll then have to swear fealty to one of the bigger houses from the Game of Thrones universe — the loyal Starks, the cunning Lannisters or the banished Targeryens — that will give you different advantages in the game.

Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, entertainment, Facebook, game of thrones, gaming, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking, Uncategorized

‘FarmVille’ Could Be Coming to a Television Near You

February 8, 2013 by Chelsea Stark Leave a Comment

From the man who brought you Rush Hour 3, it's FarmVille ... the TV show?

Zynga's social game monolith is being turned into a television show, according to the Wall Street Journal

Brett Ratner, the director of the Rush Hour trilogy as well as Tower Heist, has been tapped to produce the series by Canadian production company Six Eleven Media

"FarmVille is one of the most exciting brands out there today and its cross-platform opportunities are endless. I am thrilled to be expanding the brand with existing fans and also engaging a whole new audience,” Ratner told the WSJ.

Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, entertainment, Facebook, farmville, gaming, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking, Television, Uncategorized, Zynga

King Overtakes Zynga to Become Number One in Facebook Gaming

January 17, 2013 by Emily Price Leave a Comment

King.com is now number one when it comes to Facebook games. The company has overtaken Zynga for top honors on the social network, with three of its games making Facebook's top 10 in January.

In the #1 slot is Candy Crush Saga. A Bejeweled-style game that has players match three or more like pieces of candy together to remove them from the board.

King initially launched the game on Facebook in April of 2012, following that launch with a mobile version of the game in November. Still relatively new to Facebook, King's first Facebook game, Bubble Witch Saga, launched on the site just 18 months ago.

According to AppData Candy Crush Saga has more than 9.7 million daily players, beating out Zynga's FarmVille 2 with 8.8 million and Texas HoldEm Poker at 7.1 million

Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Apps and Software, Blogging, Facebook, gaming, mobile, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking, tech, Uncategorized, Zynga

‘Offensive Combat’ Brings Hardcore Gaming to Facebook

January 4, 2013 by Chelsea Stark Leave a Comment

Former Activision executives are attempting to court hardcore gamers in an environment they never expected to find them: Facebook

The browser-based shooter Offensive Combat by U4ia Games has been in a soft-launch open beta for a little more than a month. It is a free-to-play shooter that incorporates with Facebook, and is the first real push for the shooter genre into the social network.

U4ia CEO Dusty Welch says the reason people don't expect a first-person shooter on a browser to be satisfying is because the genre is defined by having great mechanics first, something rarely found on web games

Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, entertainment, Facebook, features, FPS, gaming, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking, Uncategorized

‘Mass Effect’ Facebook Page Attacked Because Misidentified Shooting Suspect Liked It

December 14, 2012 by Chelsea Stark Leave a Comment

Facebook users attacked the official Page for the video game "Mass Effect" after media misidentified a Facebook user as a suspect in Friday's shooting that left 26 people dead at a Connecticut elementary school who listed the game in his interests.

Facebook user Ryan Lanza, 24, has said he is not the person accused at the Newtown, Conn., elementary school shootings, after several media outlets uncovered his Facebook page when police announced his name earlier Friday. According to recent reports, Ryan is the older brother of the actual suspect, 20-year-old Adam Lanza.