Have you ever played a game that you have been so immersed with ? You probably were too addicted that you skipped meals trying to finish a goal or a mission.Have you ever wondered how games as simple as Bejeweled, or as huge as World of Warcraft captivated the hearts and mind of both the young and the old? Well, blame it to game design.These 2 games are very well-designed that once you start playing it, it’s hard to let go.

So how can you say that a game is well-designed. There is at least 3 prerequisites(properties) to well-designed games ,namely:

a) Planned- well-thought-of; plans are usually drafted a number of times before finalization

b) Functional- it works the way it should be ; it should achieve its purpose

c) Tested -ensure everything is going according to plans before implementation Read more…

For a lot of small business who rely on Google ads to bring them customers , this would not be good news. A report says that only 8% of Internet Users Account for 85% of all Clicks. This is an update to the comScore highly publicized “Natural Born Clickers” research, conducted two years ago with Starcom USA and Tacoda.

The Complete report can be found at Media Post

Now this data along with other news abut click fraud on face book , would not sound sweet to ears of those who are paying for google adwords or facebook ads. There was another story on techcrunch Facebook Click Fraud 101.

I think the way to combat the problem is performance based ads.  Companies like google and facebook should get paid only if some transaction happens. The banner ads can help in getting brand awareness but this is good for only big companies or those who have big budgets. A small medium to size business is more interested in getting revenues in order to sustain long enough for the brand to be recognized.

Facebook had been facing challenges from Orkut in India and looks like they want to conquer India.

Facebook has announced its first India-centric developer contest. It is a contest for Indian developers to showcase their web development skills by creating Facebook applications and Facebook connect integrations. The contest (www.facebook.com-/developercontestindia ) began on July 2 and ends on September 11.

• First Place Prize : Four Thousand Dollars U.S. ($4,000.00 USD)
• Second Prize : Two Thousand Dollars U.S. ($2,000.00 USD).
• Third Prize : One Thousand Dollars U.S. ($1,000.00).

It will be interesting to see what are the applications Indian developers can think of. Whether they think in terms of an application which relates to Indian customer or they would copy an successful idea from US or Europe

Good Luck to developers.

Facebook the social networking site , is always adding things and making Facebook more fun . Apart from the fact that come June 13th , you can have your own username which will enable your friends , family to direct to your profile. The other interesting feature is the number #1 crime game on Facebook ” Mafia Wars”..

Mafia wars on Facebook has several cool things . It is a simple text based, number crunch game, that puts in a Mafia with all your friends who play Mafia wars .  You have three categories to choose from
> Mogul,
> Fearless
> Maniac.

Maniac seems good as it recovers energy faster.

The player starts out by doing jobs, with energy, for cash and moves up to buying properties for sustained income. The player then uses this income to buy bigger and better weapons from the inventory screen, which then can give them the upper hand in multiplayer fights.

As the player does more jobs, they earn experience that allows them to go up levels. As a player goes up in levels, they gain more profile points which allows them to become stronger, and to better fight rival Mafia groups.

Its extremely interesting and keeps you hooked  .Well from now on Logging onto Facebook would be great fun each day:) Go on get hooked onto the game….