In our latest employment-docious round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from Telltale Games, LucasArts and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted this week include:

Low-quality users in the world of Facebook gaming? "Bullshit," says Playfish COO Sebastien de Halleux (Pet Society). Such a perception simply comes from developers failing to meet social gaming users' needs, he tells WiM sister site Gamasutra -- and if the users are "low-quality...that's your own damned fault."

De Halleux is also co-founder of the London-headquartered social gaming company, which runs games such as Who Has The Biggest Brain? across multiple social networks, including Facebook.

Success in the highly-competitive social network gaming space depends heavily on user numbers, and many developers and publishers aim to acquire high user volumes rapidly. At the recent Social Gaming Summit, however, Offerpal Media's Anu Shukla said the "quality" of users racked up so quickly tends to be low..

"So, here's something where you're touching a very sensitive topic," said De Halleux, responding to the comment in today's Gamasutra feature interview. "What does 'the quality of a user being low' mean?"

Shukla's comment addressed the business standpoint, suggesting that legions of early adopters spells lower conversion rates, less engagement and poor monetization. "That's bullshit," De Halleux stated. "I mean, how can you tell your users, 'you are a low quality user'? I mean, think about that! That's horrible to say, right?"

"Every person inherently is someone that has needs," he continued. "If they're 'low quality,' that's your own damned fault! You have not touched that person with something that has meaning to them, right? There is no such thing as a 'low quality user,' there is just a low quality experience."

"And if you monetize badly at a certain rate, then you have a low value proposition for some users, not a low-quality user. And that's point number one," he added.

Further, the commonly-employed tactic to drive userbases quickly is what De Halleux calls "spamming technique" -- and it's "normal" not to expect those users to yield the same kind of ROI as those who've elected to join the game based on its design and appeal. "Quality aside: we, A, believe that users shouldn't be spammed; B, that you should not push games to them, and so you should make it hard to invite users," he said.

Playfish places an invite button within easy reach of users of all its games, and informs them about how having friends join would enhance their experience, and then leaves it strictly optional.

"If it's strangers that you need to add to your game, so to speak, you click that button repeatedly," he said. "If it's your best friend, you can spam him once, twice, you know, and that third time he's going to ignore you, right? And you're going to lose some real life social capital, too. So, that's why it's been quite powerful."

"Maybe our traffic is, using those terms, "higher quality," because they are more engaged. Because 18 months on, over 50 percent of our players are still playing on a monthly basis, maybe -- but I hate those terms. The failure can only be yours, not your users'. That's an unfair point."

The full interview with Playfish's de Halleux is now available on Gamasutra, including lots more specifics on the rise of social network gaming and how to create a 'sticky', fun environment for those playing games on Facebook and elsewhere.

Brett Close, president and CEO of Massachusetts-based online game developer 38 Studios, resigned from the company, the studio said Friday.

A rep for the studio told WiM sister site Gamasutra in a phone call that Close left 38 Studios "to pursue other opportunities." She didn't offer specifics, as 38 Studios is a privately-held company that doesn't comment on personnel changes.

Close was with the company for three years, but left before the launch of the studio's first MMO, currently dubbed Project Copernicus. In a statement, he said, "I've had the privilege of building 38 Studios to become an established force of IP creation and entertainment."

Taking his place is Jennifer MacLean, who is moving into the CEO rank from SVP of business development. 38 Studios initially announced that she would be joining the company in March 2008.

Former pro baseball pitcher Curt Schilling, an avid player of World of Warcraft and Everquest, founded 38 Studios in 2006. In May, the studio announced that it acquired Rise of Nations developer Big Huge Games from THQ.

Schilling said, "Brett's leadership over the last three years has well-positioned 38 Studios for the next phase of the company's development. The entire 38 Studios team wishes Brett much success in all his future endeavors."

[UPDATE: 38 Studios clarified that Close did in fact resign from the company.]

In its fourth year of operation, Blizzard Entertainment's fan-centric BlizzCon event sold out its approximately 25,000 tickets in under a minute, reflecting the studio's status as an industry institution all its own.

Sister site Gamasutra was there, covering the notable news surrounding World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, and Diablo III. We also spoke to Blizzard executives and developers about the company's plans.

Here are all of our news stories from the show floor, with full interviews with Blizzard staff to run in the coming days and weeks:

- Blizzard Officially Unveils WoW Expansion Cataclysm
In the headline announcement of the show, Blizzard shared details on its third boxed World of Warcraft expansion, which promises to radically alter the in-game world with new location design, characters, quests, and races.

- Internet-Authenticated LAN For StarCraft II Likely
Blizzard has taken hits from some fans for its decision not to include pure offline local area network play in its upcoming RTS StarCraft II, but comments from two key figures suggest the company is planning on option to allow LAN-level latencies while authenticating player data through the Battle.net online service.

- StarCraft II Will Allow Modders To Sell Custom Maps
In an attempt to learn from and compete with the success Valve has had with encouraging user mods of its games, at some point post-launch Blizzard will be allowing StarCraft II mod-makers to sell their creations through an official marketplace.

- Blizzard's Pardo - Battle.net Bigger Than WoW
Although World of Warcraft has been an unprecedented success in the MMO world, Blizzard design honcho Rob Pardo says there are still more users on the free Battle.net service, which hosts Blizzard's other online games and is set for a major relaunch come StarCraft II.

- Battlestar Galactica Actress Tricia Helfer Joins StarCraft II Cast
Since Blizzard announced that StarCraft voice actress Glynnis Talken would not reprise her role as Kerrigan, Queen of Blades in the upcoming StarCraft II, fans have wondered who would. It turns out it's Cylon-portrayer Tricia Helfer, who spoke on her experiences as Kerrigan in a BlizzCon panel.

- Diablo III Monk Class Design Influenced by 'Console Brawlers'
Game design inspiration can come from anywhere, as Blizzard developers demonstrated when they revealed the Monk class from upcoming PC action RPG Diablo III was influenced by console fighters and brawlers. Several designers and artists discussed the thought process behind the character.

2009 GDC Austin organizers have announced its final keynote, with Playfish co-founder Sebastien de Halleux (Pet Society) talking about Facebook and social network gaming at the September 15th-18th conference.

London-headquartered Playfish is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing social games companies, with hit microtransaction-powered titles such as Who Has The Biggest Brain? and Crazy Planets on Facebook and other networks.

By examining the inherent strengths of the community on social networks, de Halleux’s keynote will "provide insight on how these platforms can be used to create engaging games, and why developers should be looking at social networks as a burgeoning area of video game design and business development."

Playfish itself has a verified base of more than 100 million game installations across nine titles, reached only 18 months after the company’s launch in late 2007, and de Halleux was recently interviewed about social gaming trends on Gamasutra.

This keynote joins two others -- by Sony Online Entertainment head John Smedley on the company's move into a wider market, and by a notable Blizzard duo on 'The Universe Of World Of Warcraft', as well as over 90 other lectures at the event, which has three days of main conference content focused on connected games, online games, virtual worlds, and social networking game play.

GDC Austin (part of Think Services, as is this site) also has four two-day summits including the Game Writers, Game Audio, iPhone Games and Independent Games Summits, takes place at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas September 15-18, 2009. More information is available on the official event website.

Just a little over a month after revealing that its MMORPG reached 9 million registered accounts, developer Artix Entertainment has announced that AdventureQuest Worlds has now attracted 10 million players since last October.

The free browser-based MMORPG has a growth rate of 1.1 million players per month, which Artix brags is four time greater than the U.S. population's. Along with its other other online RPGs launched in the past five years -- AdventureQuest, MechQuest, DragonFable, and WarpForce -- the company claims a total of over 85 million registered accounts across its titles.

In AdventureQuest Worlds, players battle monsters in real-time combat and take on quests, with new quests released every week. They can also customize character items (armor, helms, weapons, etc.) and change their class at any time.

"Since we at Artix have fun taking things to the absurd, at this rate we should have every American signed up by 3022, but that’s just a guess," jokes Artix founder and CEO Adam Bohn. "Signing up the rest of the world might take a little longer."

Adding onto the list of rappers and R&B artists putting themselves out on virtual worlds and online games, publisher Outspark announced a partnership with T-Pain to offer virtual items based on the "I'm N Luv (Wit A Stripper)" singer in free-to-play MMORPG Fiesta.

Fiesta players will be able to purchase T-Pain's top hat, glasses, and suit featured on the cover of his latest album Thr33 Ringz. Outspark is also offering users an opportunity to enter a T-Pain-themed video contest and win prizes like autographed items.

This agreement with the autotune artists follows Outspark's similar partnerships conducted through virtual goods sales and distribution system Virtual Greats, such as deals that brought Rocawear's (rapper Jay-Z's clothing line) apparel to snowboarding MMORPG Project Powder, and Tila Tequila clothing to Fiesta.

"T-Pain is one of those pop culture figures that resonates with our audience," says Wilson Kriegel, Outspark Vice President of Business Development. "We love it when we can provide our users with the opportunity to connect themselves with the music, TV shows, and clothing they immerse themselves in every day."

MMO developer Turbine this week sued game publisher Atari for breach of contract, fraud, and other counts, accusing the publisher of purposely pulling back support of Turbine-operated Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach in favor of a forthcoming internally-developed D&D MMO.

Turbine and Atari signed a publishing agreement in 2003, a deal that Turbine claimed Atari failed to uphold. DDO: Stormreach eventually launched in 2006, but at that time, Turbine said, Atari "failed to meet its publishing and distribution obligations," according to a court filing found by Courthouse News.

Turbine said at that point it "stepped up" and "assumed Atari’s publishing and distribution obligations in North America," while Atari "insisted" on publishing and distributing the game in Europe.

The developer accused of Atari of essentially highjacking the European release, "effectively choking off sales in Europe." Turbine claimed the action led to an estimated $13 million in lost franchise revenue, $3 million of which was due to Turbine under its agreement with Atari.

Atari allegedly failed to provide marketing and media spending "in parity with competitive games," adequate PR support, and other marketing duties, Turbine said.

The developer said that it chose to co-publish the game with Atari because it wanted to protect the $20 million that Turbine put into the game.

Atari and Turbine amended the original deal yet again in May this year, as DDO: Stormreach moved to a free-to-play model. Turbine said it "continued to invest millions" into the game, and paid Atari "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in future royalties. At the same time, the deal was extended to May 13, 2016.

But Turbine claimed that Atari, while collecting royalty payments, enacted a termination strategy in November 2008 that would seek to end the contract between the two companies.

"On information and belief, Atari knew... that it planned to immediately threaten to terminate the Agreement in an effort to extort more money from Turbine or, alternately, to free itself from its obligations under the contracts in order to clear the way for the launch of its own competing MMO service based on the D&D’ and Advanced D&D intellectual properties," read Turbine's complaint."

The complaint comes after rumors that Atari's internal MMO studio, Cryptic, is working on a Neverwinter Nights MMO, which would also be based in the D&D universe.

Turbine said it seeks to recover "in excess of $30 million in losses" allegedly caused by Atari's "breach and wrongful conduct." Turbine is also the developer behind Lord of the Rings Online.

"Turbine employed dozens upon dozens of people working hundreds of thousands of hours to create the service. To date, Turbine has spent millions of dollars towards the DDO franchise and continues to invest significant capital to operate and maintain the service," the complaint added.

In the early part of this decade, "superhero games were cursed," said City of Heroes designer Matt Miller during this year's Comic-Con. Now, even the superhero MMO genre seems to be a hot ticket, with City as well as Cryptic's imminent Champions Online, unannounced Gazillion-published Marvel MMOs, and Sony Online Entertainment's upcoming DC Universe Online.

DC Universe Online is coming to PC as well as PlayStation 3, and embeds players into the world inhabited by Superman, Batman, the Green Lantern, and other DC heroes and villains -- although players will control their own custom characters, not the DC icons themselves.

WiM.biz sister site Gamasutra sat down with the game's senior producer Wes Yanagi to discuss the genre, development issues, the involvement of well-known DC creators including Jim Lee, and more.

All of a sudden the superhero MMO genre is getting crowded. Is that a good thing or a bad thing for your game?

Wes Yanagi: I think it's a great thing, because this really shows there's a lot of interest in this type of game and this genre. It's something that goes beyond the traditional fantasy MMO. For us, we really want to use the license and take advantage of the fact that we're DC Comics, and there's 75 years of content around here.

Social game developer Zynga said this week that its Facebook-based virtual farming game FarmVille attracts over 11 million daily active users, making it today's "largest and fastest growing social game."

The game is relatively new, having launched on June 19. Players create and manage virtual farms, with connectivity to friends through the Facebook social network. They can also purchase virtual items such as plants, animals, and buildings. Zynga said the game has attracted over 1 million new daily active users per week on average.

One way that Zynga has been able to expand the reach of FarmVille is through viral methods. When a cow wanders onto your virtual farm, for instance, you aren’t allowed to keep it yourself, but can send it to a friend to get them started on FarmVille.

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus dubbed FarmVille a "cultural phenomenon." He claimed the game is "the biggest online game in North America and quickly becoming the biggest online game in the world."

Zynga is also the company behind the social game Mafia Wars. In July, the company said that game is attracting 4 million daily users. Zynga said in August that overall, it attracts 20 million daily active users and 68 million monthly active users across all of its games.

In our latest employment-tastic round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from Rockstar North, Grasshopper Manufacture and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted this week include: