Virtual Goods Wrap-Up For The Week Of May 8

Welcome to the
Virtual Goods News Wrap-Up for the week of May 8, 2009. The Wrap-Up
is where VGN spotlights stories that we didn't get to cover
individually, but still make for interesting reading about the virtual
goods industry.

Virtual Currencies Gain In Popularity

While nothing here would be news to the loyal VGN reader, this article has done a lot to make the tech world sit up and take notice of how well virtual currency can monetize. It's also a good basic article in terms of explaining how virtual currency works and what makes it different from something like a poker chip.

Ex-Employee Sues Zynga For Discrimination, Wrongful Termination

A fairly simple story that flags up the broader issue of how rapidly-growing start-up Zynga allegedly treats its employees. Be sure to stay around for the comments, which include both glowing and hateful accounts of what it's like to work at Zynga. 

From Pet Penguins To Flamethrowers: The Biggest Sellers In The Virtual World

An interesting paidContent.org look at what the top-selling virtual goods are in a variety of different virtual worlds and online games. The look at Tencent's pet penguin is probably the most interesting, since examples of what big-spending Chinese users actually buy in their software are hard to come by. 

Late To The iPhone, Trip Hawkins' Digital Chocolate Falls In Love With It

An Venture Beat interview from the middle of last month, but still worth checking out. There's not a lot of talk about virtual goods but what Hawkins does have to say is pretty interesting, as are his comments on scaling and cross-platform publishing.

News Corp Sees Big Drop In MySpace Ad Revenue

MySpace monetized through ads better than any other social network, but a softening ad market is leaving its revenue streams vulnerable. What isn't clear is how MySpace is going to address the shortfall after its CEO changeover.

Quick Stat: MapleStory Passes 92M Users

As part of the festivities celebrating its fourth anniversary, MapleStory announced its userbase had grown to 92 million users with 6 million in North America. Last time we checked in with MapleStory in early February Nexon was claiming 87 million users for the game, so it's picked up an extra 5 million just in the past two months.

The9 To Launch World Of Fight After Losing Warcraft License

After losing the official World of Warcraft license to competitor NetEase, The9 has chosen to strike back at Blizzard by launching an incredibly similar-looking game called World of Fight. It's not known how the game intends to monetize, but it will be interesting to see Worlf of Fight is enough to keep The9 in business.

Update On Chinese Gold Farming

VERN takes a look at the mechanics and culture associated with the largely Chinese-operated grey market RMT phenomenon. It mostly confirms facts from Eurogamer's earlier investigation into the subject, but the presentation here is nicely focused.

YoVille Raises $20K for SPCA With Branded Virtual Goods

Virtual goods charity promotions are getting more commonplace, and Yo!Ville's has performed well by those standards. The charity goods were virtual dog and cat pets wearing SPCA vests that users could adopt.

Join us for App Conference – October 18-19, 2012 in Santa Clara