Continuing their Game Developers Conference 2010 free video lecture series, organizers have debuted well-received lectures from Amy Jo Kim (on meta-game design) and Bob Bates (on 'living a creative life' in games.)

The two new lectures, both highly rated by GDC attendees, are part of a free update published at the GDC Vault website, and feature video technology that allows users to simultaneously view a presenter's slides alongside video and audio of their presentation.

The first talk to be made freely available in this set is 'Meta-Game Design: Reward Systems that Drive Engagement', originally presented at the Social & Online Games Summit by Shufflebrain co-founder and veteran social game/community designer Amy Jo Kim.

Kim, whose clients have included Electronic Arts, Sony, Disney, eBay, MTV, Square Enix and Harmonix, presents an in-depth look at 'metagame design', that is, "the practice of applying game-like reward and feedback systems to non-game applications for the purpose of driving loyalty and engagement".

In the 30 minute talk, the designer and consultant examines games like FarmVille and websites like Stack Overflow to see how clever incentivizing can make -- or break -- your product, whether it sits in the game space, web space, or somewhere in between.

CCP's space-faring MMORPG EVE Online is known for what some may term mildly as "accessibility issues." But while many game developers are clamoring to attract a wide base of users through better accessibility, CCP is focused more on nurturing an existing hardcore fanbase.

By doing this, Reykjavik, Iceland-based CCP has been able to maintain an EVE subscriber base of around 300,000. MMORPG released in 2003 and has had several expansions to give players a reason to keep subscribing month after month.

The company has taken steps to make the game a bit more appealing to new players, but at its heart, EVE Online is an unabashed hardcore MMORPG in a world where the buzz word is "accessibility."

Here, the CCP senior producer Torfi Olafsson talks about the importance of nurturing that hardcore fanbase, and how the game's "learning curve is a necessary evil if you want to provide the game that delivers such a broad range of experience."

He also comments on CCP's fight against real money trading in EVE -- an operation CCP called "Unholy Rage."

German online games publisher and developer Bigpoint revealed its acquisition of Berlin-based game developer Radon Labs, and opened a new office in Berlin. Financial terms for the studio purchase were not disclosed.

Founded in 1995, Radon Labs recently filed for bankruptcy due to "financial concerns." Bigpoint, which is headquartered in Hamburg, intends to keep the more than 35 employees from the studio (its official site lists a headcount of 90+ prior to the acquisition), including managing directors Bernd Beyreuther and Andre Blechschmid.

Radon Labs has developed over 20 PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Nintendo DS titles, and is best known for its Drakensang franchise (pictured), a fantasy RPG series that's seen two PC releases so far. Bigpoint and the developer expect to release Dranensang 3 some time in 2011.

With its purchase of Radon Labs, Bigpoint also announced its opening of a new office in Germany's capital, a decision that stemmed from last year's acquisition of eLOFD GmbH (XBlaster, Gunbound). Beyreuther and Blechschmid are tasked with directing the new Bigpoint Berlin GmbH branch, which will continue to work on browser-based games.

Bigpoint has enjoyed much growth this year, having opened another new office in San Francisco just a couple months ago. The company, which offers dozens of free-to-play, browser-based games -- developed both internally and externally -- through its online portal, has expanded from 340 employees last March to now 500 employees worldwide. It has more acquisitions in mind, too.

"Under Bernd and Andre's leadership, Radon Labs became one of Germany's top three development studios," says Bigpoint CEO and founder Heiko Hubertz. "We're excited to add their highly qualified workforce to Bigpoint as we continue to push the limits of what's possible in online gaming."

"He adds, This acquisition is also greater proof that the market continues to consolidate. As such, we plan to purchase additional studios, both in Germany and abroad, to support our long-term growth strategy."

MMO community management services provider Alchemic Dream announced a partnership with localization/quality assurance firms Laboratoires Bug-Tracker and Monde Media Solutions to form a Virtual Universe Consortium, an association sharing resources and knowledge for serving online game developers and publishers.

The consortium looks to provide a one-stop-shop for services like "cultural adaption, localization and translation, improved community management, increased customer retention through outstanding customer support, and role-playing events and community entertainment."

The three Canadian companies also hope to allow design teams to concentrate on their development cycle while the consortium handles matters such as "monetization implantation and analysis, deep game-play and focus group analysis, robust load & stress testing, functionality and compatibility testing, and automation testing."

"We are re-inventing the B2B service model by supporting and representing multicultural e-communities for the publishers and developers," says Alchemic Dream president and CEO Aurélien Merville. His firm, which counts companies like Cryptic Studios and Codemasters Online among its clients, says that online game companies will benefit from the consortium's multicultural localization and quality management setup.

Sony Online Entertainment and LucasArts are developing Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, a free-to-play virtual world based on the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series airing on Cartoon Network, set to launch online and in retail stores this fall.

While LucasArts published SOE's last MMO based on the George Lucas franchise, Star Wars Galaxies, the San Diego-headquartered studio is both developing and publishing this title. The companies hope to introduce the Jedi, Padawan and Clone Troopers saga to a new generation of Star Wars fans with Clone Wars Adventures.

In this browser-based virtual world, players will be able can pilot starfighters, fight other starships, duel against "icon adversaries" with their custom lightsaber, play minigames like Droid Programming and Speeder Bike Racing, and play an embedded collectible card game featuring characters, creatures, and vehicles from The Clone Wars show.

While Clone Wars Adventures is free, players can purchase a monthly membership with unspecified advantages. They can also buy outfits, items, and accessories through microtransactions with Station Cash, SOE's virtual currency.

As with Free Realms, SOE's tremendously successful free-to-play virtual world with more than 10 million users, Clone Wars Adventures is designed to be a safe online environment for kids and families. It will offer customizable safety options, such as pre-canned chat and playtime settings for younger users.

"Clone Wars Adventures is the ultimate destination for fans of The Clone Wars series and will bring the action and excitement of the show to players online so they can experience The Clone Wars universe firsthand" says SOE president John Smedley.

Smedley adds, "We've worked with LucasArts and Lucasfilm to create a virtual world that is seamlessly integrated with the TV series and a true extension of the show. It's also just flat-out fun to play."

Competing mobile payment platforms Boku and Zong today both announced streamlined payment solutions that don't require user registration or logging in for purchases made in Android apps.

Boku's Payments SDK (software development kit) allows Android developers to integrate the payment company's service into their apps and offer "1-Tap" purchasing through carrier billing in more than 60 countries. The company's 1-Tap purchases do not require consumers to enter credit cards, financial information, a user login, or registration through a third-party site.

While Boku's integration SDK is currently in alpha testing, developers can sign up to participate during the alpha program, so they can receive early access to the SDK before it goes live on the Android platform.

"This is a huge step for the Android development community which, until recently, had no way to easily monetize downloaded apps and generate revenue while maintaining an outstanding user experience," says Boku CTO Erich Ringewald.

He adds, "Boku is the largest and first global carrier payment platform with an Android SDK for in-app purchases. With our in-app Android payment solution we are bringing increased conversion to merchants, and a seamless, secure purchase experience to consumers."

Zong's "One-Click" payment service is similar in that it doesn't ask users to register or login first, as it's designed to automatically verify the user, bill their mobile phone account, and return them to their application or game with minimal delay.

The firm's service is currently in a private beta phase, and Android developers can receive request an invitation to download its Android SDK. Zong says it will work with approved developers to make sure that the software is integrated in a way that "optimizes the user experience and meets the developer’s needs."

"Mobile developers have customarily focused on the iPhone because it has been difficult to monetize applications on Android," says Zong CEO David Marcus. But now with over 100,000 new Android handsets activated daily, the market opportunity is growing rapidly and with an easy payment tool, developers will now be able to easily generate revenue from that market."

Marcus adds, “Zong already boosts revenues for many merchants of online goods and services and now we intend to bring the same benefits to handsets.”

UK developer Mind Candy revealed that its free-to-play online game Moshi Monsters has surpassed 20 million registered players, and announced a licensing deal with Penguin Group to publish a series of books based on the monster-themed world.

Moshi Monsters reached this 20 million user milestone just two and a half months after it hit the 15 million mark. Mind Candy says it's attracting over 150,000 new players each day and receives more than six million monthly unique visitors, too. The kid-targeted online game launched in April 2008.

The first book to come out of this publishing deal with Penguin will explore Moshlings, the collectible creatures that players adopt and care for in the game. The book will not only explore their back-story, habitats, quirks, and other information, but will also contain a unique code that children can enter at the Moshi Monsters website to unlock a secret Moshling.

Penguin and Mind Candy intend to release two Moshi Monsters books worldwide in 2010, and another five in 2011. This isn't the first time Mind Candy has experimented with a physical product for Moshi Monsters; several years ago, the company played with the idea of cell phone charms that also included unlock codes for virtual Moshlings.

"Moshi Monsters grew tenfold in 2009 and we feel now is the right time to begin expanding the property offline," says Mind Candy CEO Michael Acton Smith. "Books will be one of the key categories for the brand and we felt Penguin would be the perfect partner to help us expand the property."

Chinese online game publisher and operator Shanda Games Limited reports that its revenues for the first quarter ending March 31st reached RMB 1,143.2 million ($167.5 million), a 10 percent year-over-year increase but a 14 percent drop compared to the fourth quarter of 2009.

Shanda's operating income decreased 6 percent year-over-year and 21 percent quarter-over-quarter to RMB 378.1 million ($55.4 million), and its operating margin for the first quarter of 2010 was 33.1 percent, down from 38.5 percent in Q1 2009 and 36 percent in Q4 2009.

The company's MMORPG revenues from titles like The Legend of Mir II, MapleStory, and Ragnarok Online rose to RMB 1,022.9 million ($149.9 million), 8 percent above the amount reported for the same period last year.

Its number of active paying accounts (APA) for MMORPGs increased 2 percent quarter-over-quarter to 9.62 million, while the average monthly revenue per active paying account, or ARPU, fell 2 percent quarter-over-quarter to RMB 35.4 ($5.18).

The Shanghai-based operator's revenues from "advanced casual games" also increased 7 percent over the same period in 2009 and 48 percent over the previous quarter to RMB 93.5 million ($13.7 million). Its APA for those casual games increased 6 percent quarter-over-quarter to 1.07 million, and ARPU jumped up 39 percent quarter-over-quarter to RMB 29 ($4.25).

"Our results for the first quarter were within our expectations as we worked to address the revenue decline resulting from our launch of an expansion pack for Mir II in late 2009," says Shanda Games chairman and CEO Alan Tan.

He adds, "We have a strong pipeline of new games we will introduce in the second half of this year and the first half of 2011, including Dragon Nest, Hades Realm II, and Legend of Immortals. Looking forward, we will continue to build upon our strengths."

"We have the largest and most diversified game portfolio in the industry, strong brand recognition, a multi-channel sourcing strategy built upon a global network of partners, and a longstanding reputation as an industry innovator. With a lineup of high-quality games that we plan to introduce in 2010 and 2011, a top management team, and a deep user base, I remain confident in our long term growth potential."

Developer Petroglyph and publisher UTV True Games have set aside pending litigation to allow their online strategy action RPG Mytheon to launch this July, following an open beta testing phase.

The legal issues began last month, when True Games sued Petroglyph after claiming the developer had failed to comply with contractual obligations to deliver a finished version of the game, first by last November, then by this February.

Petroglyph alleged that True Gamse had expanded the expected scope of the game, demanding a larger-scale MMO experience after the design had already been determined.

At the time, True Games said "the entire multi-million dollar venture is in danger of collapsing" as a result of Petroglyph's actions.

It is not clear whether litigation will continue after the game has been released; despite today's agreement, a statement by Petroglyph general manager Chuck Kroegel suggests the two companies have not entirely found common ground.

"Despite the fact that neither company acknowledged or admitted any wrongdoing, both companies recognized this mutual agreement as the right step," said Kroegel.

In the same statement, UTV True Games founder Jeff Lujan added, "It was important for us to work out these issues and our management teams worked closely together to resolve our differences. Now we can focus 100 percent on Mytheon and its potential to be one of the best and unique entertainment experiences available online."

THQ announced that Company of Heroes Online, a free-to-play online edition of Relic Entertainment's popular real-time strategy PC game Company of Heroes, will debut in North America this fall.

Already available with an open beta in South Korea and China -- the latter version co-developed with Shanghai-based firm Shanda -- the game is similar to the original Company of Heroes, allowing players to command armies in the battlefields of World War II-era Europe, and choose from six Allies/Axis divisions with unique combat styles and Commander Abilities.

While the original single-player game is included with Company of Heroes Online's free download, this new release will place an emphasis on persistence and multiplayer matches (with up to eight players), offering hero units, unlockable special abilities, "army specialization, commander customization, and persistent progression".

Players earn points with each victory, which they can spend on special units and upgrades. And if gamers don't have time to earn points, the free-to-play game allows them to purchase those items with real money. Relic assures its fans, though, that microtransactions will not give some players an advantage.

"The purchases you make are about making the game more convenient for players who want to level up faster," said Relic Entertainment's senior producer Tim Holman, according to a report from VentureBeat. "It doesn’t give you an unfair advantage in a match."

"We are delighted to bring this award-winning franchise to gamers in a whole new way with the online version of the Company of Heroes experience," says THQ's Global Brand Management VP Travis Plane. "Players will benefit from the persistent upgrades and the ability to tailor their armies to really suit their play style making this a unique experience for everyone."

Social gaming giant and FarmVille developer Zynga is continuing its rapid expansion with the acquisition of Austin-based studio Challenge Games, which will now operate as Zynga Austin.

While Zynga did not disclose financial terms for the acquisition, it revealed that the Austin developer's co-founder and CEO Andrew Busey will now serve as general manager and vice president of the branch. The company will also integrate Challenge Games' team of 35 employees into its workforce.

Founded in 2006, Challenge Games specializes in casual online games built on a virtual goods business model. As Zynga Austin, the developer will continue to further develop its two most popular previously-released titles, collectible card game Warstorm and tycoon game Ponzi, Inc.

This announcement follows just two weeks after Zynga announced its first step into the Asian market with the purchase of Beijing-based Chinese social gaming developer XPD Media. The FarmVille company also has development studios in San Francisco, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Bangalore.

"Austin is an ideal location to extend our studio operations with its rich talent in the games business," says Zynga VP Mike Verdu. "We look forward to building out our Zynga Austin studio with the best and brightest in the industry as we continue to bring social games to more users worldwide."

German online games publisher and developer Bigpoint announced that it's working on The Mummy Online, a free-to-play, browser-based MMORPG centered around Universal Pictures' The Mummy film franchise.

As with the movies starring Brendan Fraser, The Mummy Online is set in Egypt during the first half of the 20th century. Players will take on the role of adventure seekers with customizable talents and skills, exploring environments and meeting characters from the films as they battle against each other and "ancient evil".

Universal Pictures has extended The Mummy property beyond films many times before with novels, theme park attractions, and video games for a variety of platforms, but this will be the first time the franchise has appeared as a massively multiplayer online game.

Schell Games (Pixie Hollow), the Pittsburgh-based studio helmed by Disney Imagineering Virtual Reality Studio's former creative director and The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses author Jesse Schell, is developing the title in multiple languages with the Unity game engine.

"We are excited to adapt this popular film franchise for the global online games market," says Bigpoint CEO and founder Heiko Hubertz. "By leveraging our mastery of browser-based games technology and Universal Pictures' popular entertainment property, Bigpoint is quickly becoming one of the leading publishers of licensed games."

Every other week, we'll examine the fastest growing Facebook games (according to monthly active users), looking at which titles and developers are having the most success attracting new players on the social network.

Mindjolt Games, a portal for more than a thousand casual titles, has seen big user losses like many other top titles since Facebook implemented new changes to its app notification feature; it lost more than eight million gamers in April alone, not long after Platform G purchased the portal.

The casual/social gaming platform's userbase is growing again, though, expanding 12.7 percent as it picked up nearly 1.89 million new players in the past seven days. Currently the #1 "gainer" in our tally this week, Mindjolt Games currently has almost 16.79 million users.

At #2, Electronic Arts/Playfish's city-building sim My Empire, which quietly launched on May 13th, finally picked up steam, driving 1.6 million new users to its page and growing more than 580 percent -- its total monthly active users count is now at 1.89 million.

Name Analyzer by Second Life (presumably not related to Linden Lab's virtual world), which doesn't sound much like a game based on its descriptive title, is at #3 as it gained around 1.37 million new names to analyze. Nightclub City at #4 is more game-like and has 716,506 new patrons, a 33 percent jump that ups its total to 2.86 million.

Meteor Games, the independent studio run by Neopets creators Adam and Donna Powell, are at #5 with Ranch Town as its population doubled to 919,661 with 469,995 new users moving in within the the past week. iWin's #6 Family Feud app based on the TV game show enjoyed 389,559 new players, and is now at 6.26 million contestants.

Games, the simply named portal from GSN sitting at #7, grew 12.8 percent with 322,654 new users for a total of 2.83 million, and Playdom's soccer club management title Bola at #8 has 302,217 new players and a 3.43 million total. The #9 app Phrases 4 Fun again doesn't sound much like a game, and #10 Pool Master racked up 270,054 new users for a total of 1.26 million.

Beyond the top ten chart, we have more non-games and titles like Zynga's YoVille, ZipZapPlay's Baking Life, and Wooga's Monster World. You can see the full list of the top 20 fastest growing Facebook games along with exact monthly active user counts after the break:

3Dchat LLC and Canadian developer Golemlabs Studios announced the beta launch of 3Dchat, which looks to serve as a client-based 3D virtual world game and a "customized social networking environment".

Due to see a full release worldwide in summer 2010 and built on the Gamebryo engine, 3Dchat is filled with different activities meant to engage users and get them interacting with each other, such as "having a drink at the local pub, dancing it up with a bevy of hot singles, or engaging in dancing competitions on the KIX stage".

3Dchat uses a proprietary identity verification service to verify users' identities, which the South Carolina-based company says is a first for virtual worlds. This is accomplished through a setup that works with partners like Aristotle, eBay, PayPal, and others to certify that the identities of users are authentic.

"We wanted to bring some fresh new ideas into the virtual world market, and with this unique combination of virtual world and social networking in 3Dchat, we have absolutely done that," says 3Dchat LLC's CEO Glenn Garritano. "3Dchat is a place where players are free to be themselves and find experiences that fit their interests.

He adds, "The initial release contains only the tip of the iceberg of what’s coming in the near future for 3Dchat users, so stay tuned for a steady stream of announcements regarding great new features and additions to the 3Dchat world."

Turbine Entertainment's flagship MMO, Lord of the Rings Online, will be going free-to-play, the company announced today.

It's a major move for the premium-level online game, which Turbine says will now operate on a pricing model that allows users to play for free and purchase quest packs and items "a la carte" from a new game store. Users can also join a "VIP program" and elect to pay a monthly subscription for unlimited content.

It's a similar model to the one the company rolled out when it took Dungeons and Dragons Online free-to-play last year with the Eberron Unlimited update -- a move it says ultimately boosted the game's revenues 500 percent.

Warner Bros., Turbine's recent acquirer, will continue operating the game in North America, and publisher Codemasters will handle things in Europe.

Warner Bros' online and digital games senior VP Jeff Junge said Lord of the Rings Online "lends itself perfectly" to the free-to-play model, and that the move is part of the company's strategy to reach new audiences by offering more options: "We are focused on expanding our game franchises onto new digital platforms to maximize quality experiences for gamers worldwide and LOTRO’s new model is a great leading example of this," says Junge.

"The popularity of DDO validated the extraordinary demand by gamers for quality entertainment they can experience at their own pace and within their budget," adds Turbine CEO Jim Crowley. "Extending free-to-play to LOTRO will offer another premium game to a broad spectrum of fans."

In an exciting week for new job postings, Gamasutra's jobs board plays host to roles across the world and in every major discipline, including opportunities at BioWare Austin, Junction Point Studios 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:

BioWare Austin: Director Of Studio Operations
"BioWare is hard at work on Star Wars: The Old Republic, our massively multiplayer online game being developed at BioWare Austin. The Director of Operations will develop, manage and drive the operational groups of the BioWare Austin studio (Finance, HR, IT and Facilities) within the BioWare Group of Electronic Arts. You will partner with and support the studio General Manager and Group Operations Officer by providing financial strategies, resource and staffing allocations, growth plans and IT initiatives to ensure that all employees experience a high Quality of Workplace environment."

Many of Facebook's most popular games are continuing to hemorrhage millions of users, with FarmVille alone losing 7.7 million players in the past month, since the social network implemented changes to its app notifications.

Their troubles stem from Facebook's decision three months ago to limit application notifications, which many developers relied on for the viral growth of their titles, in an effort to make interactions with apps "more streamlined, clear, and less spammy for users".

As a result, 23 of the top 25 social games on Facebook (determined by monthly active users) forfeited users in May, and 12 of those saw an exodus of at least one million players. Zynga's FarmVille, the most popular app on the social network, suffered the biggest losses as it surrendered over 7.7 million gamers just last month.

That's even worse than the farming sim's numbers for April, when the game relinquished 4.4 million players. FarmVille is now down to around 69 million monthly active users, a sharp drop from its peak of around 85 million gamers in March.

Other Zynga titles are shedding users by the millions, too: Cafe World lost 5.2 million players, Mafia Wars lost 2.8 milllion, PetVille lost 3.6, FishVille lost 3.6 million, and YoVille lost 1.2 million, according to a report from Inside Social Games.

Zynga isn't the only developer hurt by the app notification changes, as Playfish's Pet Society lost 2 million users, CrowdStar's Happy Aquarium lost 4 million, RockYou's Zoo World lost 2.8 million, Playdom's Social City lost 1.1 million, Country Life lost close to 1.2 million, and Slashkey's Farm Town lost 1.7 million.

The only title in Facebook's top 25 that seemed to gain a significant amount of monthly active players is Mindjolt Games, a portal for more than a thousand casual titles, as it picked up more than 2.8 million users -- making up for its huge loss of almost 8 million gamers in April.