Shanghai-based social game developer and operator 5 Minutes closed a $3.5 million Series A round in funding led by VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson last week, according to reports from Chinese media translated by Inside Social Games.

The company's primary title is Happy Farm, a virtual farming simulator similar to Zynga's immensely popular FarmVille and SlashKey Farm Town. Though an English version of Happy Farm is available to play on Facebook, the game is also featured in Chinese social networks like Xiaonei and Kaixin.

5 Minutes's funding follows another recent successful round from a Chinese social games start-up -- Rekoo in Beijing picked up $1.5 million in funding from Japan's Infinity Venture Partners last week. The developer's Animal Paradise claims around 2.3 million monthly active users on Facebook, while Sunshine Ranch has 4.4 million, according to metrics from AppData.

As for 5 Minutes's Happy Farm, the game currently claims 3.2 monthly active users and 1.1 million daily players on Facbeook. You can see a couple screenshots from the farming simulator after the break.

Developer and publisher Six Degrees Games has chosen Crisp Thinking's NetModerator to guard its Action AllStars users from online threats like predators and cyber bullies in real time.

Launched in December 2008, Action AllStars is a free-to-play, sports-themed virtual world targeting teens and tweens. In the online community, players can create and customize athlete avatars, interact with friends, play mini-games, compete in daily challenges, and more.

NetModerator's algorithms analyze dialogue between online users to identify and block threats like sexual predators and cyber bullying. The tool also locates potentially escalating situations like self-harm, flagging the discussion for further analysis.

Crisp Thinking's clients include Cartoon Network, Zula World, Sony Online Entertainment, and SuperSecret. The company notes that UK's Cambridge University conducted tests in 2007 that found NetModerator 98.4 percent accurate at identifying online threats.

"NetModerator's ability to quickly analyze context in real time is a crucial feature of the product," says Crisp Thinking founder Adam Hildreth. "The efficiency gains provided by the technology allow human operators to focus on high-level tasks while NetModerator handles the massive conversation data on its own. Community managers have always asked for a management and control system like this: NetModerator is our answer to them."

French publisher Ubisoft has partnered with the Toys for Tots charity to release Giving Rabbids, a Facebook application enabling users to create and send Rabbids-themed digital greeting cards, as well as donate to Toys for Tots.

French publisher Ubisoft has partnered with the Toys for Tots charity to release Giving Rabbids, a Facebook application enabling users to create and send Rabbids-themed digital greeting cards, as well as donate to Toys for Tots.

With the free app, users send an e-card to their Facebook friends with artwork from Ubisoft's humorous Rabbids series (a spin-off from the company's Rayman series), including Rayman Raving Rabbids, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party, and Rabbids Go Home, the last of which just released for Wii and Nintendo DS last November.

After choosing what Rabbids artwork to include with their cards, users are presented with the option to donate to Toys for Tots. Their full donation will go towards the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, which plans to use contributions to help provide disadvantaged children with new toys and books during the holiday season. Users who donate more than $2 also receive a 20 percent off coupon for Ubisoft's online shop.

Founded in 1991, the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation is a non-profit organization authorized by the U.S. Marine Corps and the Department of Defense to provide fundraising and other support for the annual Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program. Last year, Marines gave out gifts to 7.6 million children in more than 650 communities nationwide as part of the program.

You can see screenshots of the Giving Rabbids Facebook app after the break.

Virtual world software platform developer Metaplace, Inc. will be closing its flagship property Metaplace in January after "not gaining enough traction to be a viable product," the San Diego-based company said today.

Metaplace is a software platform that allows its users to create their own 2D Flash-based virtual worlds, which are hosted on the company's own servers. It is still in its beta phase, according to its official website.

While the Metaplace platform itself will be shut down on January 1, proprietor Metaplace, Inc. will continue on as a business, undergoing an unspecified "strategic shift."

The company has already disabled various components of the platform, like its VIP account system, which allowed users to pay $9.95 a month to get additional functionality including creating multiple worlds. After the shutdown, users will lose all access to the assets and code they have created for their worlds. Metaplace says it does not currently plan to license out its server technology to private users, but that it may do so if there is sufficient financial interest.

Metaplace, Inc. was founded as Areae in July 2006 by Raph Koster, the MMO designer previously known for his work on Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies. Koster has voiced a hope that initiatives like Metaplace would help to established World Wide Web standards for virtual worlds.

"It was a wonderful world full of wonderful people, and I will miss it more than I can say," Koster said on his personal site following the announcement.

Stargate Worlds developer Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment says its recently-announced Stargate Resistance project is a near-term solution to help it "ride out the economic wave" and finish its long-awaited MMO amid funding problems.

The company confirmed third-person shooter Resistance earlier this month. Now, in an interview with Stargate-focused site Gateworld, the title's producer, Kathryn Dutchin, discusses how the game is helping the studio keep Stargate Worlds alive.

"Cheyenne had a top team developing a persistent online shooter when the economy went belly up, and our funding dried up," says Dutchin. "Since Worlds, at that time, was at its peak burn, and very expensive, and we were also facing some of our toughest technical challenges with that title, to make it robust and ready for market, it became impossible to sustain the team and other studios as well."

The privately-funded Cheyenne encountered pressure from investors to release a title within a short time frame, but low funds meant that Stargate Worlds couldn't be finished in time, she continues.

"So, building and releasing Stargate Resistance became the best option for Cheyenne, and its investors, to ride out the economic wave, and keep Stargate Worlds on the top tier it deserves," she says.

Adds Dutchin: "We’re no less anxious to finish Worlds, but this title has been a blast, and we’re excited to see it becoming ready to ship."

Social game developer Zynga will run holiday campaigns in several of its titles to raise money for Haitian non-profits FATEM and Fonzoke, donating 50 percent of the proceeds from users purchasing special virtual goods within its games on Facebook and other platforms.

Players can buy a special Haitian drum in Mafia Wars, which will help FATEM feed families and build school kitchens in Haiti. In Zynga Poker, users can pick up a premium chip package to support women and children living in poverty in Haiti through micro-finance institution Fokonze. YoVille, Roller Coaster Kingdom, and FishVille will also have exclusive virtual items like glitter globes and food platters.

The holiday campaigns expand on Zynga's "Sweed Seeds" program for FarmVille, which recently raised over $800,000 for providing school lunches to hundreds of Haitian school children and for providing loans to assist Hatian women living in extreme poverty while supporting their families (giving access to livestock for generating income, water filters, and free health care management).

Based in Mirebalais, Haiti, FATEM seeks to support the general education of Haitian children by ensuring that they have "the necessary meals that will permit their young bodies and brains to learn and grow." Fonzoke is a micro-finance institution that serves as an alternative bank for the poor, dedicated itself to the economic and social improvement of Haiti's people and communities.

"The concept of social virtual goods is in its infancy, and we are very excited to present our gamers with opportunities to make a difference in people’s lives," says Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus. "Being able to connect and empower players to affect change in Haiti and elsewhere is just the beginning of how social gaming can do good in the world and provide meaningful connections."

Social media monetization platform gWallet announced gLTV, a metric designed to help publishers project and potentially increase the lifetime value of users on their applications, something that the company says isn't currently offered by other virtual currency platforms.

gWallet says its platform uses patent-pending technology and algorithms to generate a gLTV metric on individual users and demonstrate specifically how it can "increase the lifetime value of a user" based on that individual's previous usage and transaction history. The company claims competing products only measure yield through a CPM model, which examines how much revenue is generated after a thousand views on their offer wall.

Optimized for Facebook, OpenSocial platforms (MySpace, Hi5, etc.), virtual worlds, and websites using virtual offer-based currency, the platform features three components: alternative online payment, virtual currency, and aggregation. gWallet works with social media publishers to insert lead generation ads (e.g. trial subscriptions, surveys) that users can sign up for in exchange for virtual currency that can be spent in games or applications.

"We plan to deliver gLTV to all of our social media publishers, giving them info on relevant monetization metrics that is unlike any reporting that our competition can provide," says gWallet CEO and founder Gurbaksh Chahal.

The startup, which revealed that it raised $12.5 Million in its first round of funding earlier this month, is bringing new brands and advertisers to social applications and games. Recognizing the recent controversy surrounding offer-based ad networks, the company describes itself as "the leader in cleaning up the virtual currency space" with its "strict ethical standards".

Social media/gaming ad company Offerpal Media announced a partnership with developer Digital Chocolate (Crazy Penguin Catapult, 3D Brick Breaker Deluxe for iPhone) to incorporate its Cost Per Action offers and alternate payment options into mixed martial arts fighting game MMA Pro Fighter on Facebook.

In MMA Pro Fighter, players create and train their fighter, learning hundreds of moves from different fighting styles (e.g. kick-boxing, Judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu). They can compete against their friends and battle using the game's fighting engine, which was designed to simulate fights based on authentic MMA moves and attributes.

Digital Chocolate uses Offerpal's platform to enable users to earn MMA Pro Fighter's in-game currency, Pro Points, which can be redeemed for in-game items, stamina, and other virtual goods. You can even give Pro Points to "Ring Girls", who will help you recover stamina and health, as well as give you extra cash to buy different moves and techniques.

Players can participate in demographically behaviorally targeted offers like free trials, discounts, shopping rewards, and more to earn Pro Points. Offerpal also allows them to buy Pro Points with real money using a variety of payment options like mobile billing, pre-paid debit cards, e-wallets, and more. You can see screenshots from MMA Pro Fighter, now available to play for free on Facebook, after the break.

"MMA Pro Fighter is our first true social game, and with Offerpal's expertise we hope to hit the ground running," says Digital Chocolate founder and CEO Trip Hawkins. "The platform will enable us to earn additional revenues while providing consumers more options to advance in this adrenaline-packed MMA experience."

Every week, we'll examine the most popular Facebook applications (according to MUA, monthly active users), as well as the social network's up-and-coming apps that have picked up the most users in the past seven days.

With December 25th only a few days away, Christmas applications like Christmas Cards! and Santa Yourself (as well as a couple friendship apps) have taken over the top ten "gainers" list of apps with growing fanbases, which could point to Facebook users thinking more about the holidays than they're thinking about tending to their virtual farms, aquariums, pets, mob empires, etc.

Zynga's PetVille at #4, however, still saw a significant increase in new users, adding 4 million (+24.3 percent) in the past week and bringing its player total up to 14.4 million. CrowdStar's similar pet sim Happy Pets dropped off the top ten from #4 to #16, though its new Happy Island game debuted on the list at #5 with 2.6 million new users (+91.3 percent).

RockYou!'s Zoo World held onto a spot on the chart, coming in at #8 with 1.7 million new players (+20.3 percent), while Mob Science's Snowball Fight (+831,682, +12 percent) and Zynga's FarmVille (+341,364, +0.5 percent) fell from their top ten positions to to #20 and #40 respectively.

Helsinki-based developer Sulake announced that its teen-targeted virtual world Habbo Hotel is now connected to Facebook, and will soon hook into other social networks and web services like MySpace, Yahoo, and Google.

Thanks to Facebook Connect, all of Habbo's 15 million monthly users (scattered across 31 international communities) can find their Facebook friends in the virtual world and share their in-world experiences (e.g. building rooms, sending gifts) on the social network -- Sulake notes that brands providing in-game content will also see their campaigns extended into Facebook communities.

The company also says that with visitors spending an average 43 minutes at Habbo Hotel whenever they load the world, awareness of the online community will grow due to increased exposure in users' friend feeds. Joining Habbo Hotel should be a streamlined process now, too, as Facebook users won't need to register when using the Habbo Hotel application, and their friends on the social network will automatically appear on their Habbo friend list.

"Combining the Habbo virtual world with real-life Facebook friend networks is a very exciting step for us," says Teemu Huuhtanen, Sulake North American president and Marketing and Business Development EVP. "Facebook makes it easy to find and stay in touch with friends, while Habbo takes playful real-time interaction and meeting new people to a completely new level inside Facebook."

He continues, "Habbo is all about meeting friends and having fun together and the Facebook connection gives this a totally new meaning. Also brands wanting to engage with our international Habbo communities will benefit from the increased viral effect."

Ndoors Interactive, the U.S. subsidiary of Korea-based MMO developer and publisher Ndoors Corp., announced that it's selling a special holiday package for its free-to-play MMO Atlantica Online, with a portion of the proceeds from the virtual item's sales going towards the Child's Play charity.

Atlantica Online players can purchase Acong's Stocking Stuffer from the game's Item Mall for 3,999 Gcoins, the in-game currency used for Ndoors's titles. The gift box will contain one of 26 item set, including "a maid's suitcase, the archangel Michael's sacred wings, a prismatic unicorn, and more. "

Launched in the U.S. in October 2008, Atlantica Online is a strategic turn-based MMORPG set in an alternate version of Earth with areas modeled after real-world cities. Players manage a party of warriors and take on quests to destroy the Oriharukon, a powerful energy source from the lost civilization of Atlantis.

The Child's Play charity was founded in 2003 by the authors of popular video game webcomic Penny Arcade. The non-profit has raised $5 million in donations in the past five years, which it has used to collect and distribute video games, toys, and movies to sick children at more than 60 hospitals worldwide.

"The holidays are a time for giving," said Peter Kang, CEO, Ndoors. "By partnering with Child's Play to donate a portion of the sale from Acong's Stocking Stuffer, we get to present our Atlantica Online community with a great new item and they can join us in giving back to a larger community. Best of all, it's as easy as purchasing something cool for their character."

One would think that playing video games should be the last thing you do after suffering a layoff, but Gravity Interactive argues that MMOs can help reduce the stress of trying trying to find another job and paying their bills. The MMO publisher even launched a new initiative that gives Ragnarok Online subscribers free subscriptions if they've been recently let go.

Starting this week, the Ragnarok Online Cares Campaign will provide free three-month subscriptions to players who were laid off any time since June 1st, 2009. The company says it wants to give its users "the opportunity to continue playing Ragnarok Online without having to stress about paying their subscription cost along with their other bills."

Designed with fantasy and anime themes that give players a break from reality, Ragnarok Online has more than 40 million registers users worldwide, 3 million of which are in the U.S. The game allows players to create custom characters, battle monsters, socialize with friends, join clans, care for virtual pets, take part in community events, and more.

"Playing Ragnarok is a great way to relax with friends and wind down from a stressful day." says Gravity Interactive CEO Yoshinori Kitamura. "The last thing we want to do is take this away from our users due to something that's completely out of their control. All of us at Gravity deeply feels for our community and wish them all the best of luck through these tough times."

Convenience store chain 7-Eleven says that despite the country's economic slowdown, sales for prepaid game cards have doubled in the past year, prompting the company to double its selection of cards for MMOs, virtual worlds, downloadable console titles, and social network games.

7-Eleven attributes the increased sales to the popularity of titles like World of Warcraft and MapleStory, as well as the rise of social gaming, which it says casts a wider net for players and draws in a casual audience or more varied ages and backgrounds.

The chain now carries prepaid cards for 30 brands, the newest of which is for the Zynga Game Network, allowing players to buy the company's universal virtual currency (which can in tern be used to buy virtual goods) for free-to-play social games like FarmVille, FishVille, Mafia Wars, and YoVille.

"Electronics and videogames are still the number one request on teens’ holiday wish- lists," says 7-Eleven's Prepaid Cards category manager Brian Haynes. "With tighter budgets many are choosing more affordable online games. Virtual currency or points can go a long way to enhance these online games without much cost."

He continues, "Families are looking at ways to stretch their entertainment and holiday gift budgets. Prepaid game cards offer a very affordable option, and they’re fun for the whole family. Free-to-play games are more popular than ever in the U.S., and 7-Eleven can easily be players’ go-to place to pick up their favorite game cards."

Online game developer and publisher Ntreev USA announced that it's released Grand Chase Lite, a mobile adaptation of its PC MMO Grand Chase, for free on the iPhone.

Good Game Productions, which released the iPhone version of True Games' Warrior Epic to the App Store just last week, also worked on Grand Chase Lite. The recently established San Diego developer and production company is committed to translating MMOs for other platforms like Facebook and the iPhone.

The PC edition of free-to-play MMO Grand Chase, originally developed by Korean outfit KOG Studios, is a side-scrolling action brawler that has players joining parties, clearing dungeons, customizing their character's skill tree, fighting bosses, and even battling each other in a medieval fantasy world presented with an anime style.

Grand Chase Lite is designed as a condensed experience, offering turn-based battles instead of real-time combat. The iPhone game offers three different characters, 29 unlockable skills, 15 bosses, 92 unique items per character, and more. Players can also join PC game's online community by clicking a link embedded in the game.

"We are very excited to launch this game on the iPhone and think both current and new players will get a kick out of playing this type of stat driven role playing game on their iPhones," says Ntreev USA CEO Chris Lee. "Grand Chase Lite brings a fantasy world to your mobile phone blending the perfect amount of addictive, action-packed gameplay with ease-of-use for this mobile platform."