Cash-based online payment system Rixty announced a deal with Facebook that will allow consumers to purchase the social network's virtual currency system Credits in exchange for real cash and coins.

With this partnership, gamers can receive Facebook Credits by bringing cash and coins to more than 20,000 locations across the country that support Rixty's service, including some 10,000 Coinstar machines. They can then spend those Credits in participating social games and apps to purchase virtual goods.

The San Francisco-based firm's payment system offers an alternative to online gamers who would rather not use a credit card, either because they don't own one or because they prefer not to use one online. Rixty's service isn't tied to consumers' names and doesn't require a contract, which it says helps protects users' prvivacy, credit scores, and checking accounts.

"Rixty was founded to let anyone with cash or coins in their pocket engage in the very best online entertainment," says Rixty CEO Ted Sorom. "Facebook Credits, which support a broad spectrum of social games, are a major step in helping us fulfill our founding mission."

He adds, "Whether consumers lack other options like a credit card or a bank account, or prefer the security of cash purchases, Rixty gives cash-based consumers the freedom and convenience they desire when spending online. By making the online world accessible to an entirely new group of users, Rixty has consistently enabled publishers to generate more paying customers, without cutting into their existing revenue streams."

Hi5's outspoken president and chief technology officer Alex St. John says rival social network Facebook is bound to screw up social gaming for a number of reasons, such as failing to properly focus on gaming.

St. John, who founded and headed casual gaming firm WildTangent before joining Hi5 last November, compared Facebook's potential troubles to Yahoo's own problems years ago, claiming that the latter's lack of focus on gaming and monetization allowed other sites that focused on casual titles to eventually usurp the internet company's own casual game offerings.

“WildTangent, Real Networks, and Big Fish are immensely grateful that Yahoo screwed up gaming and gave us their audiences," said the CTO in an interview with Financial Times. "Facebook will do the exact same thing. ... Facebook stumbled onto a really exciting new gaming phenomenon, and they’re going to walk away from it or accidentally screw it up."

Since Hi5's hiring of St. John, the site has had an increased emphasis on gaming, acquiring social games firm Big Six, partnering with PlaySpan for micropayments, creating Facebook-compatible APIs to allow companies to port their Facebook titles to Hi5, and launching a game developer program to attract exclusive titles and studios.

He went on to point out that Facebook is "just scratching the most naive edge of online commerce models", boasting that the commerce platform he built at WildTangent at Big Six, which is now rolling out at Hi5, is "decades ahead in sophistication and capability."

The industry veteran also predicted that popular Facebook games that focus on virality -- which have already seen their audiences shrink dramatically in recent months due to Facebook's changes in its application notification system, will eventually disappear. He signaled out Zynga's Mafia Wars and FarmVille as games suffering due to a lack of substance.

“Zynga is probably going to have a hard time now," said St. John. “Zynga has to figure out how to separate itself from Facebook and it cannot without a social graph. "It has to make a new type of game that doesn’t depend on the social graph, unless it can become a social graph itself, which is very hard to do.”

Berlin-based online games company Frogster announced that it will publish Mythos, the action MMORPG cancelled by now-defunct Flagship Studios and resurrected by HanbitSoft, in Europe with a free-to-play model.

Mythos was initially a project from Hellgate developer Flagship Studios, but that company closed in 2008, and the team members that worked on the instanced-dungeon MMO went on to form Runic Games and release Torchlight -- a single-player dungeon crawling title said to have some influence from Mythos' original vision.

Korean publisher HanbitSoft received the rights to the game and announced in May 2009 that it would continue developing the license at its parent company T3 Entertainment with support from fellow subsidiary and fellow subsidiary Redbana. Since then, the company has "remoulded" the game with a free-to-play payment model.

Frogster says Mythos keeps the "essence of its gameplay", inviting players to hunt down monsters in dungeons in typical hack and slash fashion, exploring either on their own or in groups, and finding rare loot. The European publisher says it's working with HanbitSoft to add new content and features without altering the MMORPG's gaming principles.

The firm also points out that it will release the game in five languages, including German, English, and Turkish -- the last language symbolizing Frogster's entry into the Turkish market. HanbitSoft hasn't yet announced a release date or closed/open beta timeline for Mythos in North America.

“The premature dropping of Mythos before its release was a real loss for the genre," says Frogster Online Gaming's CEO Andreas Weidenhaupt. "That’s why we’re really pleased to finally bring the game to Europe. We’re not just going to meet the expectations of the game’s fans - we’re going to surpass them!"

Electronic Arts subsidiary BioWare Mythic (previously Mythic Entertainment), developer of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, has taken over publishing, operating, subscription service rights for the MMORPG in Europe from GOA.

GOA, which operates a portal for free-to-play MMOs, has managed Warhammer Online in Europe since its worldwide launch in September 2008. BioWare Mythic and EA published the subscription-based game, an online title inspired by Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy setting, in North America.

As the game exchanges hands, BioWare Mythic expects to suspend access to Warhammer Online's European servers for 48 to 72 hours as new servers are brought online. It will migrate users' characters and account information to the new servers.

The firm notes that it will give all current and former European subscribers 14 free days of gameplay, returning to standard billing rates afterward. It's also allowing new players to create a free endless trial account with a level 10 limitation.

This announcement follows several months after GOA shut down its European operations for another subscription-based game developed by BioWare Mythic, nine-year-old MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot. The EA studio stepped in to take over publishing duties for that title, too, last January.

GOA has closed its servers for several other titles recently, such as UTV True Games' Warrior Epic and Kart n' Crazy -- the company said this allowed it to focus on other titles like Pangya, League of Legends, and Warhammer Online. It also cancelled plans to publish UTV True Games' Mytheon in Europe, though Gamigo has since picked up those rights.

"We thank GOA for the tremendous job they did launching WAR in Europe and serving this dynamic community for the past two years,” says Bioware Mythic general manager Eugene Evans. "Today, we’re excited to have the opportunity for BioWare Mythic to directly care for WAR players throughout Europe."

He adds, "We are committed to providing the highest possible level of service and maintaining the glory of epic Realm vs. Realm battles for all European players.”"

Offer-based ad network Offerpal Media announced that social game developers can now take advantage of its alternative payment services in their titles distributed through the Yahoo! Application Platform (Y!AP).

Y!AP is an open application platform available to developers around the world who want to build and deploy apps through Yahoo! properties such as the company's homepage, MyYahoo!, Yahoo! Toolbar, and Yahoo! Pulse. The internet services firm says its properties reach more than 600 million users every month.

With Offerpal's alternative payment engine now available to Y!AP developers, players can earn free virtual currency for Y!AP games by participating in thousands of free trials, discounts, surveys, brand engagement activities (e.g. commercials), and more, similar to offer-based ads available on Facebook and other social networks.

Offerpal also provides several options for direct payments, such as "mobile billing, prepaid debit cards, electronic wallets, microtransaction solutions, and other worldwide, cash-based payment methods". Its services include fraud prevention capabilities, real-time reporting and analytics, currency fulfillment, optimization and targeting technologies, and more, too.

"We are thrilled to be working with Yahoo! to help developers more easily and effectively monetize their applications on the Yahoo! Application Platform," says Offerpal Media CEO George Garrick.

Garrick continues, "As the leading monetization engine of choice for thousands of games and applications across the open web, multiple platforms, and mobile channels, we see Yahoo! as a powerful channel to further extend our reach to one of the largest and most active communities on the Web."

In an attempt to "promote constructive conversations" and curb "flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness," Blizzard will require users to use their real names when posting to forums on the company's Battle.net community site.

During the StarCraft II beta test phase, Blizzard introduced a "Real ID" feature, allowing players to add each other to their in-game friends list through a mutual agreement system that displays their real names alongside their Battle.net account names. According to a Blizzard employee post on the Battle.net forums today, that Real ID system will remain optional within games, but will be mandatory for both users and Blizzard employees when posting on the forums.

That requirement will be rolled out to the StarCraft II forum as the game approaches release later this month, and will extend to World of Warcraft as that game nears its ship date, expected later this year. Blizzard says "certain classic forums" will remain unchanged.

"The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players -- however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild," explained a Blizzard employee going by the name Nethaera.

"Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven’t been connected before."

Blizzard says that players of its games "have formed meaningful real-life relationships across borders and oceans," and the company believes that its Real ID system will help facilitate "a new and different kind of online gaming environment -- one that’s highly social, and which provides an ideal place for gamers to form long-lasting, meaningful relationships."

It is not clear how Blizzard plans to enforce the real name requirement. When creating a new Battle.net account, players can choose any first and last name they wish. However, to post in a given game forum, the user account must be tied to a unique CD key for that particular game, meaning most players cannot effectively create multiple forum-enabled accounts without buying redundant copies of games. Blizzard may be relying on that account scarcity to encourage players to ensure their primary account is legitimate. Gamasutra has contacted the company for further comment.

All Points Bulletin and Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds said Wednesday it would lay off a "small number" of workers as the company shifts its focus to support the launch of the MMO APB.

APB, published under EA Partners, is just the second title from the Dundee, Scotland-based company, whose open-world game Crackdown attracted a cult following when it launched on Xbox 360 in 2007.

"Overall staffing levels for APB will increase, with a small number of redundancies expected as the game’s development cycle changes and a second development project is downscaled to provide 100 percent support on APB," the company said in a statement.

The company's website shows it is hiring for 12 positions, including 11 UK-based jobs and one U.S. position. Realtime Worlds says it employs 300 staff across its locations in Scotland and Boulder, CO, where the APB support team resides. Dave Jones, creator of the Grand Theft Auto franchise and Lemmings, founded the studio in 2002.

APB is a third-person massively multiplayer online action game that pits Criminals against Enforcers. The game's main draw is a heavy emphasis on user-generated content, ranging from custom tattoos to a custom death tune that plays in the speakers of a given player's victims.

While APB received lukewarm reviews when it launched in North America and Europe in recent weeks, CEO Gary Dale said, "APB experienced a very smooth launch for an online dedicated game along with a great reception from consumers and we’re immensely proud of the game the team has produced."

He added, "We now have to focus our efforts and resources on running APB as a 24/7 online live operation, creating new content and services for the future and ensuring the best possible experience for the players."

Since World Of Warcraft and StarCraft II creator Blizzard announced that its official forums would phase in mandatory use of its newly announced "Real ID" system, which marks posts with their writers' real-life names, there has been a deluge of heated discussion about the decision, and Blizzard says it is "definitely listening to player feedback."

"[We] will be carefully monitoring how people are using the service," a Blizzard representative told Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra this week. "Real ID is a new and different concept for Blizzard gamers -- and for us as well -- and our goal is to create a social gaming service that players want to use."

The Real ID system remains optional within Blizzard's current games like World of Warcraft and StarCraft II. Players can take advantage of it by adding friends by their Battle.net-associated email account, rather than their public user name.

The system is only planned as a requirement on the Battle.net community forums. StarCraft II's forum will begin using Real ID later this month, and World of Warcraft's will begin as the Cataclysm expansion pack's release approaches.

Happy Aquarium developer CrowdStar appointed four game industry veterans to its management team: Pete Hawley as Product Development VP, Mark Hull as Product Marketing and Community VP, Mike Ouye as Monetization and Merchandising VP, and Robert Einspruch as Business Development director.

Hawley joins the social games studio after spending a year and a half at Electronic Arts as vice president of Product Development there. Prior to that, he led product development at Criterion Games, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, and Lionhead Studios.

Hull has more than 14 years of experience building "mass-market community" and gaming businesses, most recently serving as vice president of Product Management at virtual spaces firm Vivaty. He's headed product management teams at iWin and Yahoo, too.

Mike Ouye spent less than a year at rival social game developer Playdom (Social City, Sorority Life) before joining CrowdStar. And Einspruch has over 15 years of experience in finance, product management, and business development working at companies like Apple, Amazon, and MumboJumbo.

Headquartered just outside San Francisco (previously headquartered in Dublin, Ireland) and founded in 2008, CrowdStar reaches more than 50 million gamers with its popular titles on Facebook like Happy Aquarium, Happy Island, Happy Pets, and Zoo Paradise.

"Mike, Pete, Mark, and Robert share the singular vision of CrowdStar as an agile, creative company gunning to be number one," says CrowdStar CEO Niren Hiro. "Their global and entrepreneurial perspective is a perfect match for CrowdStar as we continue to scale with great games that delight our users."

Massively multiplayer developer Red 5 says is still at work on its untitled project powered by the Offset Engine, despite Intel last week announcing it had canceled the internal technology and game Project Offset.

Irvine, California-based Red 5, founded in 2005 by former Blizzard employees, has kept its debut MMO tightly under wraps, releasing no meaningful information about the game.

In early 2006, the company said it would license the Offset Engine, but noted in a statement to Gamasutra this week that the engine has been "highly modified." Chinese MMO operator The9 took a majority stake in Red 5 earlier this year.

Offset Software's origin is similar to Red 5's, the company having been founded in 2004 by former members of Savage developer S2 Games.

The team -- as well as Project Offset, a graphically ambitious first-person fantasy game -- were acquired by Intel in 2008 to showcase the chip maker's upcoming Larrabee processor. The consumer version of Larrabee itself was recently put on hold; Intel says it will focus on specialized computing uses.

"Red 5 Studios is still at work on our first title," said a Red 5 representative. "The game has not been put on hold or delayed. While we are using a highly-modified version of the Project Offset engine, the closing of the Intel team does not impact our ability to complete our own project. We look forward to releasing more information abouto ur project in the near future."

In early 2010 or late 2009, Red 5 reportedly laid off roughly 30 employees -- around half of its workforce at the time -- and came close to shutting down. Shortly thereafter, the company saw a reprieve in the form of The9's $20 million majority investment.

Viacom subsidiary MTV Networks announced its acquisition of social games developer Social Express, a purchase the company points out is its first step into the burgeoning social gaming space.

MTV Networks is currently developing social games based on original IPs, as well as on existing shows and characters from MTV, Nickelodeon, and other brands -- the company's portfolio includes over 150 channels and 400 digital media properties. It intends to introduce its first social game in the third quarter of 2010.

The firm plans to take advantage of Social Express' experience with this specific gaming segment to launch a publishing platform for independent game developers. MTV did not disclose when it expects to launch the platform or any other details about it, nor did it reveal any financial terms for its acquisition of the studio.

Based in San Francisco and founded last year, Social Express' management team includes former executives and developers from companies such as Apple, AOL, Yahoo, and Zynga. The studio will be integrated into Nickelodeon Digital, and will be positioned as "a key part" to the gaming unit's growth strategy.

The developer's co-founder and CEO Tony Espinoza will now work as Social Gaming vice president and general manager of the Nickelodeon Kids & Family Group, where he will oversee the division's social gaming strategy and development. Neil Souza, co-founder of Social Express and FoulPlay Media, will serve as VP of Technology and Social Games.

MTV Networks notes that its game sites -- AddictingGames.com, Shockwave.com, Nick.com Games, Nick.com Arcade, Neopets, GameTrailers, and Xfire -- attracted more than 22 million unique visitors last May. Other recent gaming initiatives from the Nickelodeon Kids & Family Group include its launches of an iPhone edition and a virtual goods platform for AddictingGames.

"Social gaming is one of the biggest drivers of the explosive growth in social media – it's fun, it's engaging, and it's shareable," says MTV Networks CEO and chairman Judy McGrath.

She adds, "Social Express brings us strong experience and know-how in this burgeoning space, which we'll supercharge with the IP and scale of Nickelodeon and other MTV Networks brands to create great new social gaming experiences for our fans and cool tools for independent developers as well."

Chinese online game developer and publisher The9 Limited has invested $4 million in OpenFeint creator Aurora Feint as the studio prepares to expand its mobile social gaming platform to Android devices.

Aurora Feint was founded in 2007 and is based in Burlingame, California, and it also developed the popular puzzle/RPG iOS series bearing the company's name. Its OpenFeint platform allows developers to implement social and community features, such as leaderboards, friends lists, and achievements, into their smartphone games.

More than 2,200 games so far have integrated OpenFeint into their iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad games, reaching around 28 million players. Aurora Feint is preparing an update to the platform called OpenFeintX, which uses cloud-based servers to allow developers to add virtual goods to their games without needing to set up their own infrastructure of servers.

The firm plans to extend OpenFeint beyond iOS devices to the Android platform starting this summer with an SDK that offers mobile payments and game discovery features. Several developers and publishers have already signed up to bring OpenFeint-enabled games to Android handsets, including Digital Chocolage, Glu Mobile, Hudson Soft, Astraware, Distinct Dev, usutwo, Pik Pok, and RocketCat Games.

The9's investment in Aurora Feint comes shortly after the Shanghai-based operator injected cash into another California developer. Last March, it revealed its investment of approximately $20 million in ailing studio Red 5, which is currently working on an unannounced massively multiplayer online game.

"We are confident of the prospect for this mobile platform and believe it will play an important role in the future development of global mobile internet," says The9's chairman and CEO Jun Zhu. "The investment in Aurora Feint is an important step of The9's establishment of a mobile gaming platform and is also an integral part of our global strategy."

Every other week, we examine the most popular Facebook games (according to monthly active users), looking at the top titles and developers on the social network to see who's attracting or losing players.

Though many of most popular games continued to lose a not insignificant amount of users this past week, those losses aren't nearly as dramatic as the negative numbers we've seen in the months following Facebook's changes to its application notification system, which cut "app spam" but limited the viral nature of many titles.

For example, Zynga's FarmVille, still the #1 app on Facebook with 63.8 million players, lost almost 1.4 million users in the past two weeks, which is more than most social games have for their total audience. This time last month, though, the farming simulator surrendered almost 9 million users.

The studio's Texas Holdem Poker at #2 fared better, giving up around 125,000 users for a total of 28.5 million virtual poker players. RockYou's non-game Birthday Cards, which was at #3 just two weeks ago, dropped to #8 as it bid farewell to 5.6 million birthday celebrators.

Taking Birthday Cards' place at #3 is Zynga's Treasure Isle, as it managed to climb up a spot despite losing 1.2 million users, now at a total of 20.3 million. Zynga also took the fourth spot on the chart with Cafe World, which only lost 463,221 patrons and has a total of 20.2 million players.

At #5, Mindjolt Games, a portal for more than a thousand casual games, lost 1.3 million players and has a total of 18.1 million. Mafia Wars Game by Zynga comes in at #6, less 760,165 mobsters (perhaps sleeping with FishVille's fishes), its total audience down to 18.1 million users.

Zynga's FrontierVille, which has seen explosive growth since its launch last month, shot up ten spots to #7 after attracting 7.4 million new players in just the past two weeks, as the pioneering simulator now boasts a total user count of 16.8 million.

The developer's PetVille and Electronic Arts/Playfish's Pet Society take up the last two spots of the top ten most popular Facebook games list, with the former at #9 losing almost a million users and at a total of 14.4 million, and the latter at #9 relinquishing 531,116 players with a total of 14.3 million.

You can see the full list of the top 20 Facebook games along with exact monthly active user counts after the break:

Acquisition-happy social games studio Playdom has purchased Metaplace (formerly Areae), the virtual world platform developer co-founded by game industry veteran Raph Koster, gaining access to the firm's tech and expertise.

Raph Koster and John Donham founded the San Diego-based studio in 2006 after leaving Sony Online Entertainment, where they worked on massively multiplayer online titles such as Star Wars Galaxies and EverQuest II. For the last three years, Metaplace has focused on building its social gaming technology and virtual world software platform.

The company closed its flagship Metaplace virtual world property earlier this year due to the platform "not gaining enough traction to be a viable product". Since then, it's released its first social games, Island Life and My Vineyard, which have picked up a total of around 1.2 million monthly active users on Facebook, according to AppData.

With the acquisition, Metaplace's CEO John Donham will head Playdom's new San Diego office, while Koster continues his creative design work with Playdom co-founder and chief product officer Dan Yue. Metaplace's Business Operations VP Jason Hable will move to Playdom's Mountain View office to oversee the company's monetization efforts.

The Metaplace purchase follows just two and a half weeks after Playdom picked up $33 million in venture capital financing, which added to the $76 million it raised in an earlier round of funding last November. In the past eight months, Playdom has acquired or invested in nine developers.

Those studios include Merscom (The Crazies), Trippert Labs (Fighter Jets), Offbeat Creations (Super Farkle), Three Melons (Bola!), Green Patch (Lil Farm Life), Argentinian firm MetroGames (Music Challenge), Acclaim (Bots), and most recently Hive7 (Knighthood).

"We expect that the Metaplace social game engine will form a key part of our unified back-end technology platform for Playdom's games going forward," says Playdom CTO David Sobeski. "We think the Metaplace engine is a competitive advantage in that it will take other companies years to duplicate its capabilities which will streamline and quicken our game development cycles."

While Blizzard Entertainment's proposed "Real ID" system of displaying real-life names for posts on its forums has some gamers up in arms, free-to-play publisher GamersFirst is taking advantage of the controversy with an anonymity campaign.

Earlier this week, Blizzard announced its Real ID feature as a way to "promote constructive conversations" while deterring "flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness." The system will display its employees' and users' real names alongside their Battle.net account names.

While the system will be optional within Blizzard's games, the feature is mandatory for users as they post on the company's community site. It will begin rolling out Real ID as a requirement on its StarCraft II as that game releases later this month, and on its World of Warcraft forum when the MMO's Cataclysm expansion hits stores later this year.

As one would expect, some outspoken gamers are vehemently against the decision, arguing that it's a violation of their privacy and could result in harassment from others or even stalking. After one Blizzard employee revealed his real name to demonstrate that Real ID "wasn't a big deal", forumers proceeded to post his phone number, home address, family member names, Facebook account, photos, and more.

Seizing an opportunity to promote the anonymity provided in its games and forums as "a safe haven from identity exposure", GamersFirst is running a campaign starting today and ending August 9th that offers new players exclusive features in two of its MMOs, War Rock and Sword 2, by entering the promo code 'StayAnonymous'.

The free-to-play game operator, which counts over 30 million registered users for its MMOs, boasts that it welcomes "free exchange of ideas on forums while preserving the privacy of gamers' real identities and offering solutions for gamers suffering from the recent 'identity crisis'."

While most MMOs, free-to-play and susbcription-based, offer the same anonymity in their games and forums, GamersFirst is one of the first to capitalize on the Real ID dispute by appealing to those users that might potentially abandon Blizzard games in search for an alternative that better protects their privacy.

"In a simulated world, the line between real life and fantasy is easily blurred. For many, that's clearly part of the attraction of MMO's and virtual worlds," says GamersFirst's executive director of Publishing Tracy Spaight. "Race, gender, age and other markers of identity are rendered invisible behind the veil of the internet and the anonymity it confers.

He adds, "While anonymity cuts both ways, we think that player freedom is important. At GamersFirst, we trust our players to use their freedom – to speak their mind, to sound off on game changes, and yes, to rant and blow off steam. It is an unwarranted intrusion to player privacy to force our players to disclose their real world identity."

Facebook announced that it will close its Gift Shop for sending virtual presents to other users, as it focuses on improving other products and introduces the social network's universal virtual currency, Credits.

Launched just before Valentine's Day in February 2007, the Gift Shop allowed users to purchase and send a variety of gifts, such as virtual flowers and cakes, to their friends and family on the social network. Facebook says that the shop's closure will allow it to focus more on improving and enhancing other features like Photos, News Feed, and more.

Though the site will shutter its Gift Shop on August 1st, gifts that users have received will remain visible on their profile pages. They can also continue to use third-party applications with similar virtual gift giving features, such as Hallmark Social Calendar, Pieces of Flair, and someecards.

The social network also notes that while the Gift Shop will no longer be available, its "Gift Credits" system will live on in the form of its in-beta virtual currency system, Facebook Credits, which will allow users to buy virtual goods in social games and apps, such as the third-party titles mentioned above.

"While the ability to give gifts will be gone, I am proud of the impact gifts have had on Facebook," says the social network's Games/Credits product manager Jared Morgenstern. "Out of the Gift Shop's 'gift credits' came the virtual currency, Facebook Credits, that now makes it easier for people to buy premium items across the many games and applications on Facebook.

He adds, "So while we're returning one gift, we're replacing it with another, one that will be used to improve the experience of even more people on Facebook."

Just days after World of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment said it would require its customers to use their real names in their online forums, CEO Mike Morhaime has retracted the policy.

The new policy, which was to go into effect on the launch of StarCraft II later this month, caused an uproar among Blizzard's message board community. Blizzard unveiled the policy on Tuesday this week.

"We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums," said Morhaime in a Battle.net forum post. "As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums."

The Real ID feature was meant to "Remov[e] the veil of anonymity typical to online dialog" in an effort to encourage "a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven’t been connected before," Blizzard said earlier this week.

But the large majority of posters were against the move, with many citing privacy issues, and concerns that anyone on the internet could use the full names provided by Real ID as a starting point to find more sensitive information about Blizzard users. The announcement of the measure brought tens of thousands of replies to Blizzard forums, and the studio told Gamasutra that it was definitely listening to player feedback.

While the Real ID feature meant that Blizzard forum users would have to use their real names, players wouldn't have to use real identities in-game when using the Battle.net gaming network. But if they did use Real ID in games like World of Warcraft or StarCraft II, they would have more access to community features like cross-game and cross-realm chat.

Morhaime said Blizzard will take other measures to continue to improve the forum experience, which like most popular message boards can often be plagued by trolls and spammers. "However, when we launch the new StarCraft II forums that include these new features, you will be posting by your StarCraft II Battle.net character name [and] character code, not your real name," he said. "The upgraded World of Warcraft forums with these new features will launch close to the release of Cataclysm, and also will not require your real name."

He also expressed appreciation for the quick and vocal feedback from the game's players. "I want to point out that our connection with our community has always been and will always be extremely important to us. We strongly believe that Every Voice Matters, and we feel fortunate to have a community that cares so passionately about our games. We will always appreciate the feedback and support of our players, which has been a key to Blizzard's success from the beginning."

In a plentiful week for new job postings, sister site Gamasutra's jobs board plays host to roles across the world and in every major discipline, including opportunities at Respawn Entertainment, BioWare Austin 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: World Designer
"BioWare, a member of the incredible family of EA studios, has created some of the world's best-selling titles including the award-winning Baldur's Gate, the Neverwinter Nights series, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Original BioWare-created IPs include the critically acclaimed Mass Effect, the epic fantasy RPG Dragon Age, Jade Empire, and Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. BioWare Austin is hard at work on the massively multiplayer online game, Star Wars: The Old Republic. BioWare Austin is seeking candidates for a Temporary World Designer position."

Digital Extremes: AI Programmer
"With over 100 of the industry's most talented artists, designers and programmers, Digital Extremes works hard to make its employees the best they can be by providing a positive, purpose-filled work atmosphere that in turn, drives creativity and innovation into our games. While honoring our commitment to providing a work environment in which to collaborate and create superior video games, we constantly push the limits through artistic style, sleek code design, and technical efficiency."

The Chinese government is cracking down on sexually-charged online game advertising that features women involved in areas such as pornography or sex scandals, according to China Daily.

The Ministry of Culture will ban online game companies from using sex to sell their products, and also will ban the promotional use of violence and gambling in advertising.

The report noted that one company commissioned an online sex video star Shou Shou to promote its online game, and another enlisted a Japanese adult video actress to promote the game Warrior OL.

A 24-year-old Beijing resident told China Daily, "It is unnecessary to ban the porn star advertisements, because the players do not really care who is the spokesperson of the game." In the same report, Wu Jun, VP of Warrior OL developer 9you.com, said he welcomed the new policy.

China's ban on sexually-themed online game advertising is part of new online game regulations revealed in late June. The regulations are effective August 1, and are aimed at protecting users from "unwholesome" content.

Analysts project the Chinese gaming market could hit $11 billion by 2012. There are around 69 million online gamers active in the region, with internet penetration of about 27 percent. An estimated 230 million Chinese are expected to be playing online by 2012.