Buy a certain virtual crop in Farmville or building in Cityville and – with the help of Save the Children and the Red Cross – your money goes to Japan earthquake relief, EngageDigital.com reports. "Social games can deploy charity items rapidly in response to disasters." Zynga (via its Farmville and Cityville games) started in mid-March. Sony Online Entertainment started its relief effort in late … [Read more...] about Gaming for the Japan relief effort
Free Realms
Heads up on Free Realms chat
Chat has always been a problematic piece of the Internet where child safety's concerned - some would say that's putting it mildly! So it's a bit surprising that Sony included chat in its new Free Realms virtual world for kids. Online game specialist and blogger Jaime Skelton registered her surprise about this in Examiner.com, saying that Sony's parental controls allowed parents to restrict what … [Read more...] about Heads up on Free Realms chat
Sony’s new virtual world & parent guide
Is Sony's Free Realms, now in beta testing, a virtual world or a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG)? The latter is what Sony calls it, but I think it's both. Available online through a Web browser, the free version is more virtual world (with eight environments to choose from) which includes mini games in 14 categories (e.g., cooking, kart racing, mining, demolition derby, and … [Read more...] about Sony’s new virtual world & parent guide