Hong Kong-based developer Frenzoo Ltd. announced the launch of its public beta for Frenzoo, a browser-based virtual world that features user-generated content, which the company claims is a first for 3D online worlds. The virtual world features language versions for English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, German, Portugese, Dutch, and others.

In Frenzoo, adult and teen users are invited to create an avatar, chat in animated scenes, play games, join contests, and create and sell fashion and content. The game features a dual currency system with free Silver Coins and paid/earned Gold Coins. Players can trade and sell Gold Coins on virtual currency partner sites like AnsheX, First Meta Exchange, and Fgcxchange.com.

With the online world's 3D fashion design tool, users can make clothes, hair, skin, items, and animations through their browser without any external software. If they want to use other applications, though, Frenzoo supports mod sims and native import from 3ds Max, Blender, Maya, Google Sketchup, Poser, Milkshape and others via Collada API.

Looking for input on product design, Frenzoo enlisted the help of Anshe Chung Studios, a virtual content producer that's produced goods in similar online communities like Second Life, IMVU, and Entropia Universe. Anshe believes the new virtual space was "great potential as an accessible 3D world on the web."

Frenzoo Ltd. has worked on this project since 2008, powering the online world with the Unity 3D engine. It's backed by Ambient Sound Investments, a tech startup seed investment company founded by four engineers from Skype Technologies.

"You can escape to Frenzoo to meet people and be creative, no matter what country you're from" saysFrenzoo CEO and co-founder Simon Newstead. "Whether designing stunning outfits for a fashion show, hosting a intergalactic danceparty or speed-dating in a tropical island hideout, we envision Frenzoo as the website to live your virtual dreams. What's different is accessibility - we want to bring all the fun of 3D without the frustration."

NYC-based casual/advergaming developer Arkadium named Dan Hart, formerly the senior ice president and general manager of MTV Digital, as its chief revenue officer to assist with the company's social gaming strategies.

Hart is tasked with building on several of Arkadium's new monetization strategies introduced in 2009 to help grow the firm's client base, game library, and development expertise. Presumably, those plans include further development of recent acquisition Advergame.com and its newly relaunched gaming portal GreatDayGames.com.

Before joining Arkadium, Hart oversaw all operational aspects at MTV.com, helping develop and launch the site's products and platforms. He was also MTV Networks's vice president of the Online Games Strategy and Operations for the Digital Music and Media group. Prior to that, he worked in Yahoo!'s Entertainment Group, where he helped develop the Yahoo! Games portal.

Founded in 2001, Arkadium specializes in licensing and customizing games from its library of more than 250 Flash-based and custom titles. Its clients include high-profile companies like Hasbro, Mattel, CBS, Warner Bros., General Electric, Sony, NBC, and many others.

"2010 is a year of opportunities and significant growth for Arkadium,"says CEO Kenny Rosenblatt. We’re excited to bring Dan on board to further develop and push our social gaming and monetization strategies to the next level. Dan brings a depth of experience that will help Arkadium create products that benefit our partners and tap the revenue potential of the millions of casual gamers that play across our network every day."

Video game publisher Electronic Arts and Dr. Pepper announced a brand marketing program to distribute virtual goods for several popular EA titles like Spore and The Sims 3 with Dr. Pepper drinks.

As part of the promotion, more than 500 million Dr. Pepper bottle caps and fountain cups will include a redemption code, which consumers can then enter on a special site to redeem and download exclusive digital items for EA games. In The Sims 3, for example, players will receive theme-based bundles (Vintage Vegas, Beach Party, Celebrity and Football) with virtual clothes, furniture, and even cars.

Other downloadable content available through the promotion include cyborg-themed body parts for Spore, armor pieces for Mass Effect 2, four sets of character clothing for Battlefield Heroes, and four kit upgrades that enable players to become Special Activities soldiers with new camouflage and a modified weapon in Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

EA and Dr. Pepper plan to announce more participating video games throughout the year. The promotion will run until December 31st, 2010, and Dr. Pepper will continue to accept codes until January 31st, 2011.

"Dr. Pepper’s decision to partner with EA is an investment that will bring a lot of value to their brand and to their consumers," says EA's SVP of Global Media Sales Elizabeth Harz. "Consumers get free game content and a whole new way to experience the Dr Pepper brand."

Chinese online games company Shanda Games Limited announced an agreement to acquire San Francisco-based Mochi Media, a Flash gaming ad network and payments platform, for $60 million in cash and $20 million in equity. With the purchase, Shanda plans to combine its online game content with Mochi Media's distribution platform to create a global online game media platform.

Founded in 2005, Mochi Media's online game network of 15,000 browser-based titles reaches more than 140 million monthly active users on nearly 40,000 publisher sites. The company's platform offers game development products and services that help developers track usage analytics, distribute their games to websites, and monetize their releases through in-game advertising and microtransactions.

"Shanda Games is the perfect partner to help take Mochi Media to the next level," says Mochi Media co-founder and CEO Jameson Hsu. "Mochi Media has created a successful distribution and monetization platform, tying together a vast network of developers, publishers, advertisers and players. The additions of Shanda Games' extensive content catalog and proven monetization capabilities unlock tremendous value on our platform for everyone involved."

Shanda's CEO Diana Li noted that this acquisition, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2010, is the company's largest, according to a report from Reuters. The purchase was financed by the proceeds from its $1.04 Billion IPO last September and cash funds reserved for such deals.

The announcement follows several days after the Shanghai-based company revealed its acquisition of Chinese developer Goldcool Games along with several other key deals. Shanda's current catalog of MMORPGs it's operating in China include MapleStory, Dungeons & Dragons Online, The Legend of Mir II, Ragnarok Online, Aion, and many others.

"Mochi Media's impressive array of browser-based games is an ideal complement to Shanda Games' portfolio of nearly 70 multi-player online games," comments Li. "With Shanda Games' ability to source robust content through multiple channels, and Mochi Media's reach to users, game developers and publishers worldwide through its leading innovative platform, this transaction positions Shanda Games to become a truly global online game media platform. We look forward to devoting our energy and focus to the integration process."

Publisher and developer Bigpoint announced that its online gaming portal BigPoint.com received its 100 millionth registered user in less than four years since the site launched. It currently attracts some 250,000 new registrations each day.

The company says its more than 1,000 media partners benefit from the size of BigPoint.com's community, as they receive a share of the proceeds whenever a player sent to the portal from one of the partner sites spends money on virtual goods. Some of Bigpoint's media partners include major sites like MySpace, Facebook, MTV, NBC, and others.

Based in Hamburg, Germany, Bigpoint produces free-to-play, browser-based games, ranging from MMOs to more casual titles. Its two most popular products, Seafight and DarkOrbit, claim 25 million and 30 million registered gamers, respectively. The firm has another upcoming title (Q1 2010) that it's predicting success for, Poisonville, a 3D open world gangster game produced by a team of 30 working for over a year with a €1 million budget.

The publisher recently re-ogranized Bigpoint.com to focus more on core offerings, spinning off a new portal called BiPogames.com dedicated to mini and casual titles. It also began integrating social gaming elements into both portals, such as chatting with friends, personal "walls" for posting in-game news, and the ability to coordinate clan activities and other events through Facebook and Twitter.

"A few years ago, I never would have dreamed that we would one day reach this crazy goal," says Bigpoint CEO Heiko Hubertz. "This is a great achievement for us. "But, the approximately 250,000 new daily registrations at Bigpoint.com show that we have the potential to be even bigger."

Online world firm Trion World Network and cable network channel SyFy (formerly SciFi) received funding from NBCU and GE Capital's Peacock Equity fund for One Earth, a joint project featuring a TV show and massively multiplayer online role-playing game that interact with each other. Neither company disclosed how much Peacock Equity Fund, which is dedicated to financing digital media companies in the venture capital space, invested.

"We have fantastic backing and the financial muscle of GE and NBC Universal involved," said Trion CEO Lars Butler. "We also have the great partnership with SyFy, one of their core properties. And so, we are making this game now with a lot of support from every side. We can, in this unique setup, do things that other people would never even dare before."

With One Earth, the video game and TV show exist in the same universe and not only promote each other but also "depend on each other and co-evolve." The setup is designed so that the game world will reflect events in the television program and vice versa, which is made possible through communication and coordination between Trion and SyFy's teams.

In a video posted at GE Reports about the Peacock Fund's investment, SyFy president David Howe commented, "From the SyFy perspective, it's absolutely what our audience, in particular, really want to do, which is live, eat, [and] breathe a universe, a space, or a world that's very interesting [and] very immersive 24/7, as opposed to just living, eating, and breathing a TV show one a week for an hour."

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.

After weeks of Christmas-, New Years-, birthday-, and friendship-themed apps dominating our list of "gainers" for the social network, social games are once again dominating the top ten, taking up six of the spots this time around. Shikha's Pillow Fight is at #1 continuing its rapid growth, adding 2.9 million new players with a 22 percent jump to a total of 13.1 million.

At #2 is Tiki Farm, a recently launched "tropical paradise" from Playdom, attracting 2 million new users (48 percent). CrowdStar's own tropical getaway (where you spend more time tending your property than actually vacationing), Happy Island (#5) enjoyed 1.7 million new users (22 percent), increasing its total to 8.1 million.

RockYou!'s Zoo World at #6 grew with 1.4 million new players (11 percent), returning to the top ten upstarts chart after a short absence. LOLapps's Dante's Inferno, a Facebook adaptation of Electronic Arts's upcoming PS3/PSP/Xbox 360 game (itself a very loose adaptation of Dante's Alighieri's Divine Comedy), gained 1.2 million (30 percent, #2).

And at #10, we have Zynga's Texas HoldEm Poker still going strong, creeping back into the top ten gainers list at #10 with 1 million new card players (4 percent), adding to its healthy total of 23.8 million.

Two months after suspending its in-game offers due to complaints over scam ads, social game developer Zynga has re-instated them with a limited selection of companies it considers trustworthy: Netflix, Discover Card, Blockbuster, HSBC Direct, Gamefly, Book of the Month Club, SnapFish and The New York Times.

The lead generation offers are popular with social gaming fans who want to earn free virtual currency for titles like FarmVille or Cafe World by signing up for trial subscriptions, filling out surveys, or downloading out applications. Many took issue with the practice, though, after users complained of misleading offers that forced unauthorized fees and frivolous but expensive products on them.

Increased attention on the Cost Per Action offers attracted at least one class action lawsuit against the developer and prompted Facebook's temporary closure of Zynga's FishVille after scam-like ads appeared in the game. The San Francisco-based company responded by pulling all offers from its titles until it could control their inclusion and presentation themselves.

Zynga has since set up a team dedicated to checking each offer before displaying them within any of its games. The group reviews each offer against a set of self-imposed content/user experience standards (viewable here), and applies technology that regularly checks the ads to verify that only approved offers are displayed.

They firm says that it plans to add to the list of approved companies as they meet its new standards. It also plans to test "new brand engagement ads" with its games. PetVille, for example, will test ads for Visa, Sprint, Xbox, Timberland, MTV, TV Land, CW and HTC.

"Offers represent a valuable channel for advertisers, users and developers," explains CEO Mark Pincus in a post on his personal blog. "They enable advertisers to sponsor a user's game session or item purchase in return for their attention, affiliation or purchase. For some users, this enables a purchase they could not have otherwise made or justified. For developers like us it represents incremental revenue to fund our games."

He continues, "Looking forward, we hope to partner with the industry to develop standards and policies for advertising around social games and virtual goods to ensure that our users have meaningful game experiences from companies they can trust."

UK-based Jagex, developer of the popular free-to-play MMORPG RuneScape, is publishing a third-party developed title for the first time in its history, according to a report in the Cambridge News.

"With the strongest pipeline of new games and updates in our history, we're on track to cement our position as one of the fastest growing games companies in the world," commented Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard, who promised "big plans" for 2010.

"2010 is set to be our most successful year to date, with more world class browser games, the publishing of War of Legends, our first third-party developed title, and building on the success of our first iPhone game Bounce Down," he added.

Jagex has an official website for War of Legends that describes the online multiplayer title as "free strategy game." The game's official Twitter account says the game is real-time and has "a mix of 3D isometric and 2D graphics." The game's developer is currently undisclosed.

Jagex is best known for the internally-developed RuneScape, a fantasy-themed browser-based MMORPG that originally launched in 2001. Gerhard said in a July 2009 report that the game has 10 million active players per month, including both free and paying customers. The game generates revenues through ads and voluntary monthly subscription fees.

Jagex currently holds Cambridge News' Business of the Year title.

GDC and technology site VentureBeat are partnering to debut GamesBeat@GDC, a game business summit that's part of GDC 2010 in San Francisco this March, including a "fireside chat" with EA COO John Schappert.

GamesBeat@GDC, a partnership between Venturebeat and the Think Services Game Group, will take place on the second day of the GDC Summits, Wednesday, March 10.

Following a debut last year off-site which included speakers such as Curt Schilling of 38 Studios, John Smedley of Sony Online Entertainment, and Seamus Blackley of Creative Artists Agency, GamesBeat@GDC will "continue to focus on game business and host executive-level speakers from a wide variety of companies, from the smallest startups to the biggest in the industry."

The Summit will "discuss the fate of the game platforms, where investors are putting their money in games, how big companies and brands are adapting to the growth of social and mobile gaming, new trends such as cloud-based gaming, and games as a service."

The first confirmed lecture at GamesBeat@GDC is a "fireside chat" with John Schappert, chief operating officer of Electronic Arts and a 17-year veteran of the video game industry, discussing EA's move into social gaming and its overall business plans.

The GamesBeat@GDC event will also host a startup competition, where judges and the audience can vote for the best game startup. And by having GamesBeat located at the GDC, speakers and attendees can enjoy even more compelling content and opportunities for networking and business.

Attendees can access GamesBeat@GDC -- which will be programmed by veteran game journalist and business writer Dean Takahashi -- with several different passes, including a GDC All Access pass, a Summits and Tutorials pass, as well as a GamesBeat@GDC pass.

"Thousands of developers are already showing up at the GDC," said Matt Marshall, founder of VentureBeat. "So we’re bringing GamesBeat to them, letting those developers participate in the debate around the industry's most disruptive companies and ideas. This is a win for everyone."

"GDC is excited to welcome GamesBeat to our lineup to this year," said Meggan Scavio, GDC event director. "VentureBeat’s editorial content and GamesBeat’s event offering represent a critical facet in our industry's economy. GDC attendees will appreciate the addition of this Summit and the new networking opportunities it presents."

A coalition of five companies -- communications firm Cisco Systems, credit reporting agency Equifax, production company Heads and Tails TV, pet education television show Faithful Friends TV, and technology developer Montage Systems -- revealed United Nation Citizens, a new "virtual living environment" that looks to replicate the real-world retail experience right down to the paid sales personnel.

The group has invested millions of dollars into the technologies that enable the virtual retail experience within the world. Along with allowing users to explore and buy from digital stores with their customizable 3D avatars, United Nation Citizens will employ online commissioned sales assistants and paid greeters to help visitors with their questions and purchases.

UNC has already signed up 330 stores through affiliate marketing arrangements, including Apple iTunes, Microsoft Store, Walmart, and Sky Mall. "We've created the world's first virtual workplace where real people can actually hold down good paying jobs," says Heads & Tails TV CEO Anthony Loiacono. "We've created a whole new way of putting people to work..."

The virtual environment will feature in-world HD television screens with "passion point programming and active website links", audio chat with paid greeters, local programming opportunities (e.g. high school sports, festivals, game and social media network), and mobile and online extensions. The companies also point out that UNC users the same core graphics engine featured in the film Avatar.

"Advances in virtual and augmented technologies allow content to reach audiences in methods that were speculation in the prior decade," says Dos Dosanjh, world wide customer solutions manager of Marketing at Cisco. "Cisco Digital Media Creative Services along with global content and innovative partners such as Heads & Tails will provide solutions that address the content demands of the new decade..."

Final Fantasy house Square Enix has partnered with the U.S. branch of online games publisher Gamepot to bring free-to-play MMORPG Fantasy Earth: Zero to North America some time in early 2010.

Developed by Fenix Soft, the game originally debuted as a subscription-based title in Japan in 2006, published by Square Enix. The company canceled the game several months after its launch due to the lack of susbcribers, but then Gamepot purchased the publishing rights and transformed Fantasy Earth: Zero into a microtransaction-based MMO, which attracted more users.

Fantasy Earth: Zero offers three different classes (warrior, mage, and scout), five kingdoms to pledge allegiance to, web-based stat-tracking, live voice-overs, a soundtrack from renown video game music composer Hitoshi Sakamoto (Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy 12), a 50 vs 50 players-versus-player war system, and more.

"It’s quite unlike any MMORPG available – our 50 vs. 50 PvP system is pure, pulse-pounding excitement," says Gamepot USA's Business and Marketing senior director Thomas Lee. "And now, for the first time ever, North American players can step into a world from the creators of so many high-quality RPGs, completely for free."

iPhone developer and publisher SGN, or Social Gaming Network, announced that founder and former CEO Shervin Pishevar is stepping down from his position to make way for game industry veteran Randy Breen, who joined the company five months ago as its interim chief operating officer.

Pishevar, who established the company in March 2008, will continue to work with the company as executive chairman. When Breen was brought into SGN last September, he quickly involved himself in all aspects of the company's operations, including game production, business development, marketing, strategy and executive management.

Prior to SGN, Breen was chief product officer at brain-computer interfaces developer Emotiv Systems Inc. Before that, he spent four years at LucasArts Entertainment as vice president of development, and nearly 14 years at Electronic Arts in several production roles culminating in a five-year term as creative director and executive producer.

Based in Palo Altao, CAlifornia (with offices in Beijing and Argentina), SGN currently employs over 100 workers and is backed by a $15 million Series A round from May 2008. The company specializes in creating social games for the iPhone and Facebool like Agency Wars, Mafia, and Vampires vs. Werewolves. It has so far enjoyed more than 15 million downloads for its titles.

"Over the last five months, Randy has done an incredible job leading the company ,and I look forward to continuing to work closely with him," says Pishevar. "With the industry preparing for explosive growth this year -- resulting from massive expansion in the iPhone, Android and tablet marketplace -- I strongly believe that Randy's experience and knowledge will be instrumental in building SGN into the largest mobile social gaming company of 2010 and beyond."

Japanese online and mobile game publisher Gcrest will open up a new office in San Francisco, representing the company's first international expansion.

Gcrest says the new location, situated in San Francisco's tech-heavy South of Market area, is set to open next month and will "answer specific demands of U.S. communities and expand its presence in the North American market." It will be co-located with the United States division of parent company CyberAgent Inc.

The company operates the online graphical game portal TinierMe, which already operates in English. The publisher says more than half of the site's user base resides in the United States.

Other Gcrest products include the online games Derby Legend Live! and Barvillage, as well as the mobile game Runeark Online.

"We are thrilled and really excited to open our first office in San Francisco," said global operations VP Masaru Ohnogi in a statement. "Despite the economic downturn we have experienced a strong demand of users to expand our presence in America."

"We will maximize our strength to entertain as many people as possible worldwide," he added. "We're starting with North America because many of our fans are here in the U.S.!"

Independent social game developer Meteor Games announced that 10 million users have registered for and played its Island Paradise title since it released in August 2009, and that the game's Facebook Fan page has attracted one million fans.

The company says Island Paradise has been able to retain most of its users, too, as it claims nearly seven million monthly active users and two million daily active users. To celebrate the announcement of these milestones, Meteor wants to reward those loyal players by giving out 200 in-game credits to all of its players, current and lapsed.

Based in West Hollywood, California, Meteor Games was founded by Neopets creators Adam and Donna Powell in 2007. The company has since released three titles on Facebook: VPN (Vikings, Pirates, Ninjas), Island Paradise, and most recently Little Rock Pool. The latter two games both draw their virtual currency for a single Meteor Credits account, allowing players to share their in-game wealth across both titles.

"Our community brings Island Paradise to life by growing and cultivating gardens, crops and livestock, populating their islands and visiting their friends" says CEO and creative director Adam Powell. "It's important for us to acknowledge our members for their immense contributions that further helped to make Island Paradise one of the fastest growing games on Facebook. We will continue to recognize significant community milestones by giving back to the driving force behind our games' success - the fans."

MMO operator THQ*ICE announced a partnership with microtransaction and virtual trading platform PlaySpan to power in-game cash transactions for free-to-play casual 3D MMORPG Dragonica Online, which came out of its open beta and released in North America last October.

With this new deal, Dragonia Online players can purchase ICE Cash, the game's virtual currency, using PlaySpan's more than 85 global payment methods (e.g. credit cards, Ultimate Game Card, and dozens of country-specific payment methods). PlaySpan is also providing credit card processing and fraud risk management services for THQ*ICE.

In Dragonica Online, players create customizable adventurers in one of four classes, explore a world filled with fantasy monsters, join parties with friends to complete quests, and battle each other in player versus player modes. Though the game is free, users can purchase additional content and features on a microtransaction basis with ICE Cash.

THQ*ICE is a joint venture established by Los Angeles-based publisher THQ (Darksiders, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010) and Chinese developer/operator ICE Entertainment (Sangokushi Online). The company is located in Southern California and specializes in providing games with free-to-play, microtransaction models.

"PlaySpan’s broad selection of payment methods will enable our players without credit cards to enjoy Dragonica Online’s premium content and enhance their experience,” says THQ*ICE CEO Eddie Chen. "The partnership will also help increase our free to paid conversion while effectively controlling transaction and fraud expenses."

Social media sales group Appsavvy and marketing agency Ignited (working on behalf of Universal Studios) are claiming its week-long campaign in Zynga's Mafia Wars for the Blu-ray and DVD release of gangster film Public Enemies was a "viral success".

The companies worked with Zynga to integrate various elements from the movie into the social game, holding a "Public Enemies Week" for Mafia Wars's 25+ million monthly active players. Users could complete jobs in the game to unlock Public Enemies Loot (virtual items featured in the film), like John Dillinger's wooden gun, prison stripes, Public Enemy #1 Newspaper, and more.

Players could also take on Public Enemies-themed missions (e.g. breaking out of prison like John Dillinger), which upon completion, would offer clips from the movie and John Dillinger factoids. All of these elements served to remind users about Universal Studios's DVD and Blu-ray release for the Michael Mann-directed flick in December 2009.

During the one-week campaign, Appsavvy recorded nearly 55 million interactions with Public Enemies Loot. The Loot and Job interactions in Mafia Wars showed up in players' Facebook Newsfeeds more than 7.6 million times, generating nearly 25,000 "Likes" on the social network and 26,000 comments on the Mafia Wars Facebook Fan page. The firm added the promotion over delivered on its expectations by a multiple of 13.

The companies saw the "viral success" of the promotion as having played a significant role in supporting the film's Blu-ray and DVD releases during the holiday season. You can see screenshots from Appsavvy's "Public Enemies Week" in-game campaign in Zynga's Mafia Wars after the break.

"The opportunities for marketers to engage with people in social media are vast but they have to be done in ways that are relevant to consumers as the Public Enemies campaign demonstrated," says Mafia Wars general manager Scott Koenigsberg.

He continued "The metrics were off the charts in every KPI (Key Performance Indicator) exemplifying not only the relevance, but the success of adding value to the Mafia War game experience. We are excited about exploring more opportunities as we look ahead to enhance Zynga games through advertising partnerships."

The latest issue of Worlds in Motion sister publication Game Developer magazine includes a postmortem of NCsoft's Aion, written by the game's Seoul-based internal development team.

Aion, a unique MMO heavily based around the mechanic of player flight, is the latest major MMO from the online-focused publisher. It was first released in South Korea in 2008, and was localized for the Western market for a release last September.

These excerpts from the January 2010 issue of Game Developer reveal various "What Went Right" and "What Went Wrong" highlights from throughout the creation of the game, revealing how the company used solid tools to overcome MMO comparisons and a difficult "pyramid" of user demographics.

Crytek's CryEngine: Flexible Enough For an MMORPG

Crytek's game engines, used to breathtaking effect in the company's own Far Cry and Crysis, haven't had as much pickup as, say, Unreal Engine or Source. But the Aion team wanted an engine that would do the team's assets right, and with some adjustments, it worked out:

"We used an engine optimized for first person shooters in an MMO because we really wanted Aion’s environment to “pop” off the screen. CryEngine handles landscape textures with ease, and it’s great at processing light effects, which is particularly important in a world where available light tells part of the game’s story (and Aion is based on the world of angels).

In our latest employment-specific 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 Relic Entertainment, Vicarious Visions 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:

Relic Entertainment: Senior Level Designer
"Relic Entertainment, award winning developers of Homeworld, Dawn of War and Company of Heroes, is looking for a Senior Level Designer with AAA console shooter experience for our highly anticipated action RPG for Xbox 360 and PS3... Space Marine."

Edge of Reality: Game Engineer
"Edge of Reality is a veteran cross platform console studio based in Austin, Texas. Most recently, we worked closely with BioWare to release Dragon Age PS3 & 360. We also work with The Sims Studio, a part of the EA Play label on various projects. We have been fortunate enough to be part of several hit titles. As a result of this success, the studio has a stable future. Edge of Reality is completely independent. As such, we are free to work with any publisher, on any platform."

Mobile developer Booyah announced that MyTown, a location-based iPhone/iPod Touch app that integrates game-based rewards into real-world locations, has reached 450,000 registered users since launching in December 2009.

Using the iPhone's GPS features, MyTown tracks where users visit in the real-world like local shops, restaurants, and other hangouts. They can then level up, unlock rewards, and earn virtual cash to buy digital versions of their favorite real-life places. Once they've purchased a location, they can charge rent whenever other MyTown users visit the shop.

As more people visit a player's property, the location's value and rent increases. Users can check leaderboards to compare their rankings, view a friends list using Facebook connect, and refer to a visual map to see other MyTown players' activities around the country.

According too Booyah, the free application has already seen more than 31 million check-ins from 2.1 million unique real-world locations. Users are also spending a lot of time at MyTown -- an average of more than 30 minutes per day. You can see screenshots of the app after the break.

"We are amazed to see that MyTown is growing in popularity at such a rapid pace – our numbers are more than double Foursquare and Gowalla combined," says Booyah CEO Keith Lee. "We built the foundation of MyTown as a location-based app meant to evolve and grow over time; we’re responding to the feedback and taking the service to the next level in the upcoming weeks."

Video game publisher Atari announced its subscription plans for upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game Star Trek Online, including limited-time options for lifetime and annual memberships.

Though users can pay a standard monthly fee for $14.99, those planning to play the game based on the beloved sci-fi franchise for a long time can purchase a 12-month membership for $119.99 or a lifetime subscription for $239.99. The catch is that these membership rates are only available until February 2nd when Star Trek Online launches, so subscribers will not have experienced the full game before spending hundreds of dollars on it.

The 12-month and lifetime options come with bonuses, too, as the former allows for two extra character slots while the latter promises the same and "a playable Starfleet captain who's been reclaimed from the Borg". As is standard with most subscription-based MMOs released to stores, consumers will receive a 30-day free trial with their retail purchase of the game.

Developed by Cryptic Studios (previously worked on by Perpetual Entertainment before that company folded in 2008), Star Trek Online has players captaining and customizing a starship for either the United Federation of Planets or the Klingon Empire, taking on missions, exploring planets, recruiting characters for their crew, battling other starships, and more.

"This subscription pricing and launch promotion announcement is one of the last steps we take before officially releasing Star Trek Online," says Star Trek Online executive producer Craig Zinkievich. "We are absolutely thrilled to reveal these final details and we are incredibly excited about launching Star Trek Online this February.

He adds, "For us, this marks the beginning of our game's life -- a life of new adventures, discoveries, and dangers. Truly, ours is a universe that will never stop expanding and we simply cannot wait for people to experience it with us."