Facebook game news around the blogosphere

I’ve been so busy posting game reviews and previews lately, I’ve been remiss to share with you my favorite social news stories in the past week.

There have been interesting, inspiring, and plain weird news lately, so here’s a quick wrap-up for those as obsessed about Facebook games as I am.

• Go Nancy Grab of St. Paul, Minnesota. She’s the plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit filed this week against Zynga for the privacy breaches reported in the Wall Street Journal. LOLapps may have been punished, but Zynga get sued. Follow the money, as they say. Zynga’s spokesperson has replied that “the complaint is without merit and we intend to defend against it vigorously.” We’ll keep track but I don’t believe this has the makings of an episode of Law & Order just yet.
• But, this is entertaining. Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, says his company is inspired by the plot structure of the TV show Lost when they structure their games. I’m a little lost thinking about this. Mafia Wars and FrontierVille. . . maybe. But FarmVille? What was the plot twist around the McDonalds balloon I just clicked on last week?
• Again hot off the presses at Games.com. Joe Osborne has a fascinating look back at a timeline of Facebook’s gaming and privacy flaps in the past. I’m on the record as saying you are more safe playing games online than giving your credit card to a waiter at a restaurant (just flying a plane is safer than driving a car). But, when you look at it the way Joe does. . . oy.
• OK, let’s get back be happy! Inside Social Games has an article about A Bit Lucky (makers of Lucky Train) where they discuss how being small is beautiful on Facebook. It’s a good read for those of your tired of hearing about the death of the small social game developer on Facebook.

Joel Brodie