Lady Gaga has finally seen the Lady Goo Goo music video that garnered millions of views on YouTube, and she didn't like it. Developer Mind Candy announced that Lady Gaga slapped the Moshi Monsters creator with an injunction over "The Moshi Dance," preventing the song's release as a single on iTunes through Mind Candy's new Moshi Music division.
Lady Gaga's lawyers were granted the injunction during an Oct. 10 hearing at the New Rolls building in London, England. More specifically, the injunction keeps Mind Candy from "promoting, advertising, selling, distributing or otherwise making available to the public The Moshi Dance OR any musical work or video which purports to be performed by a character by the name of Lady Goo Goo, or which otherwise uses the name Lady Goo Goo or any variant thereon," according to a release.
Mind Candy says that the lawyer's basis for the injunction was that kids may not be able to tell the difference between the cartoon Lady Goo Goo and the very real Lady Gaga. "This court ruling is a huge disappointment," Mind Candy founder and CEO Michael Acton Smith said in a release. "It's pretty obvious that kids will be able to tell the difference between the two characters. The shame is that millions of kids fell in love with Lady Goo Goo's debut single on YouTube and now won't be able to enjoy her musical exploits. It was all done in the name of fun and we would have thought that Lady Gaga could have seen the humour behind this parody."
Well, we can certainly understand Mind Candy's reasoning: There is no way kids would mistake this terribly annoying song (this writer is also much older than seven) for the real Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" (also fairly unbearable). However, it's clear that Mind Candy looked to turn a profit from the parody, which is right about when the lawyers swoop down in any situation. In other news, Moshi Monsters has over 50 million players with plans for yet another Nintendo DS game--they're doing just fine.
Were you a fan of Lady Goo Goo's "The Moshi Dance"? Do you think Lady Gaga's lawyers were right in ordering for an injunction against Mind Candy over the parody?
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Monday, December 12, 2011
Cafe World Remy's Menu Goals: Everything you need to know
Way back in May of this year, we were introduced to a chef named Remy in Cafe World. Well, calling Remy a fully-fledged chef is a bit of a stretch - he's more of a Sous Chef. However, in the months since being introduced to you through Sous Chef goals, Remy has been studying every book he can find, and has come up with some ideas for new dishes. If you're willing to help him through a new eight-part goal series, those dishes can be yours.
Note: This looks like yet another goal series where the dishes you'll need to cook will be different from those listed here. In the end, your total cooking time across all goals should balance out, however.
Remy's Menu 1
Ask for 5 Remy's Menus
Serve 15 Veggie Sushi
Serve 15 Gem Cakes
Asking for Remy's Menus can be done once every four hours via a general news item posted on your wall.
Remy's Menu 2
Ask for 6 Jalapeno Peppers
Serve 25 Filipino Paellas
Ask for 8 Ripe Bananas
Regardless of the dishes you're required to cook here, you should be asked to collect the same ingredients, in the same quantities. Why? Well, they go into a new "Jalapeno Banana Mash" recipe that you'll receive for finishing this goal.
Remy's Menu 3
Ask for 7 Cooking Magazines
Serve 12 Luigi's Linguini
Serve 20 Creamy Corn Soup
Again, you'll need to ask for the Cooking Magazines regardless, but you may have to cook different kinds of soup, or even different dishes entirely to finish this one off.
Remy's Menu 4
Ask for 7 Plump Eggplants
Serve 30 Antipasto
Ask for 8 Bags of Corn Meal
After asking for these two ingredients, you'll receive another recipe: Eggplant Enchiladas. With this and Jalapeno Banana Mash, I have to give Remy one thing - his dishes certainly are creative.
Remy's Menu 5
Serve Ginger Ale 12 Times
Serve 18 Watermelon Gazpacho
Master Jalapeno Banana Mash to level 1
Ginger Ale is available to serve from your Drink Bar (on the Basics tab of the menu), and it costs 22 energy to create a single batch. You'll receive six servings in each batch, so at least this goal comes out evenly.
Remy's Menu 6
Master Eggplant Enchiladas to Level 1
Serve 20 Taste Lab dishes with White Rice
Spice 5 of your Dishes
It doesn't seem to matter which type of spice you use, so feel free to use Salts and Peppers if you have a ton of those lying around. As for the White Rice / Taste Lab requirement, this requires you to have completed the DishMaster to unlock Signature Dishes. White Rise is a base ingredient in new recipes, so if you create just a single dish containing White Rice and then serve it 20 times, you'll finish this task.
Remy's Menu 7
Ask for 8 Maple Bacon
Serve 30 Crackling Peking Ducks
Ask for 9 Cartons of Eggs
For finishing this goal, you'll receive perhaps the most ...interesting dish yet: Bacon Meringue Pie. Yum? Whether this truly tastes good or not, you'll need to serve this dish for the final goal, so let's get started.
Remy's Menu 8
Master Jalapeno Banana Mash to Level 2
Master Eggplant Enchiladas to Level 2
Serve Bacon Meringue Pie 14 Times
Again, by the time you reach the end of this particular goal series, your total cooking time should have evened out across all players, regardless of which particular dishes you were asked to cook throughout. That is, if you cooked a 30 minute dish for one goal, and your friend had to cook a two-hour dish, you will have to cook a longer dish later on to make up for it. We apologize that there's no way for us to predict each user's own dishes, but if Zynga ever decides to stop relying on such a "random" goal setup, we'll definitely let you know.
What do you think of these eight "Remy's Menu" goals, and the dishes you win within?
Note: This looks like yet another goal series where the dishes you'll need to cook will be different from those listed here. In the end, your total cooking time across all goals should balance out, however.
Remy's Menu 1
Ask for 5 Remy's Menus
Serve 15 Veggie Sushi
Serve 15 Gem Cakes
Asking for Remy's Menus can be done once every four hours via a general news item posted on your wall.
Remy's Menu 2
Ask for 6 Jalapeno Peppers
Serve 25 Filipino Paellas
Ask for 8 Ripe Bananas
Regardless of the dishes you're required to cook here, you should be asked to collect the same ingredients, in the same quantities. Why? Well, they go into a new "Jalapeno Banana Mash" recipe that you'll receive for finishing this goal.
Remy's Menu 3
Ask for 7 Cooking Magazines
Serve 12 Luigi's Linguini
Serve 20 Creamy Corn Soup
Again, you'll need to ask for the Cooking Magazines regardless, but you may have to cook different kinds of soup, or even different dishes entirely to finish this one off.
Remy's Menu 4
Ask for 7 Plump Eggplants
Serve 30 Antipasto
Ask for 8 Bags of Corn Meal
After asking for these two ingredients, you'll receive another recipe: Eggplant Enchiladas. With this and Jalapeno Banana Mash, I have to give Remy one thing - his dishes certainly are creative.
Remy's Menu 5
Serve Ginger Ale 12 Times
Serve 18 Watermelon Gazpacho
Master Jalapeno Banana Mash to level 1
Ginger Ale is available to serve from your Drink Bar (on the Basics tab of the menu), and it costs 22 energy to create a single batch. You'll receive six servings in each batch, so at least this goal comes out evenly.
Remy's Menu 6
Master Eggplant Enchiladas to Level 1
Serve 20 Taste Lab dishes with White Rice
Spice 5 of your Dishes
It doesn't seem to matter which type of spice you use, so feel free to use Salts and Peppers if you have a ton of those lying around. As for the White Rice / Taste Lab requirement, this requires you to have completed the DishMaster to unlock Signature Dishes. White Rise is a base ingredient in new recipes, so if you create just a single dish containing White Rice and then serve it 20 times, you'll finish this task.
Remy's Menu 7
Ask for 8 Maple Bacon
Serve 30 Crackling Peking Ducks
Ask for 9 Cartons of Eggs
For finishing this goal, you'll receive perhaps the most ...interesting dish yet: Bacon Meringue Pie. Yum? Whether this truly tastes good or not, you'll need to serve this dish for the final goal, so let's get started.
Remy's Menu 8
Master Jalapeno Banana Mash to Level 2
Master Eggplant Enchiladas to Level 2
Serve Bacon Meringue Pie 14 Times
Again, by the time you reach the end of this particular goal series, your total cooking time should have evened out across all players, regardless of which particular dishes you were asked to cook throughout. That is, if you cooked a 30 minute dish for one goal, and your friend had to cook a two-hour dish, you will have to cook a longer dish later on to make up for it. We apologize that there's no way for us to predict each user's own dishes, but if Zynga ever decides to stop relying on such a "random" goal setup, we'll definitely let you know.
What do you think of these eight "Remy's Menu" goals, and the dishes you win within?
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Quote of the Moment: 'People will get burnt out on' today's social games
Better prepare your last words, CityVille. Alright, so the top Facebook game might have longer than that in it, but Glitch developer and Tiny Speck founder Stewart Butterfield says that games designed like Zynga's best can't last forever. Speck, best known for creating Flickr, made the projection during an in-depth interview with GamesIndustry.biz.
"People will get burnt out on this," Butterfield told GI.biz. "Maybe some of them will last for a very long time, but I feel like the easy successes have been taken already, and that won't work in the long run. I mean, I could be wrong about that, and I hope I am, because that would be a lame future for games."
The social game rookie is speaking to how the majority of, if not all, popular Facebook games are designed: the Energy system. Butterfield thinks that social gamers will eventually grow tired of being forced to either wait to progress in a game after their Energy is spent or put up a buck to keep going. (Only it's slowly becoming more like $5.)
"Just my own reaction, the first time I saw that it was okay, the second time I saw that it was okay, and by whatever time it is now I'm like, 'I get this. It's transparent, and I don't give a shit about having a bigger building here that cost me three dollars.,'" the Glitch maker admitted to GI.biz. In other words, he's tired of the gated progress design in Facebook games. Actually, so should we after four years of putting up with it.
Are you sick of Energy in social games? What should social game makers do to change this system yet remain profitable so that they might keep making games?
"People will get burnt out on this," Butterfield told GI.biz. "Maybe some of them will last for a very long time, but I feel like the easy successes have been taken already, and that won't work in the long run. I mean, I could be wrong about that, and I hope I am, because that would be a lame future for games."
The social game rookie is speaking to how the majority of, if not all, popular Facebook games are designed: the Energy system. Butterfield thinks that social gamers will eventually grow tired of being forced to either wait to progress in a game after their Energy is spent or put up a buck to keep going. (Only it's slowly becoming more like $5.)
"Just my own reaction, the first time I saw that it was okay, the second time I saw that it was okay, and by whatever time it is now I'm like, 'I get this. It's transparent, and I don't give a shit about having a bigger building here that cost me three dollars.,'" the Glitch maker admitted to GI.biz. In other words, he's tired of the gated progress design in Facebook games. Actually, so should we after four years of putting up with it.
Are you sick of Energy in social games? What should social game makers do to change this system yet remain profitable so that they might keep making games?
Game of the Day: Bird Pax
Today's Game of the Day is a unique bird-themed card game. It combines rules from a variety of popular games and mixes them all into one addictive package. It might take some careful strategy and a bit of luck to get through all the levels. But, once you've got a grasp on the Bird Pax basics, you should be able to cruise through.
The rules of Bird Pax are a bit complicated for beginners, so I'll explain here. The object of each round is to earn as many cards as you can. You're always trying to take your opponent to the cleaners. You win cards by having better cards in each match up. The higher the number, the better the card. When cards are played from the same bird family or of the same value, a "Pax" begins. Each player risks 3 cards. The 4th card will determine who wins all the cards currently in play. If you're still a little confused, check out the full instructions in the game. Good luck!
Click here to play Bird Pax!
bird pax game of the day bird pax game of the day
What level were you able to get to in Bird Pax?
The rules of Bird Pax are a bit complicated for beginners, so I'll explain here. The object of each round is to earn as many cards as you can. You're always trying to take your opponent to the cleaners. You win cards by having better cards in each match up. The higher the number, the better the card. When cards are played from the same bird family or of the same value, a "Pax" begins. Each player risks 3 cards. The 4th card will determine who wins all the cards currently in play. If you're still a little confused, check out the full instructions in the game. Good luck!
Click here to play Bird Pax!
bird pax game of the day bird pax game of the day
What level were you able to get to in Bird Pax?
The Sims Social 'Add me' Page
Looking for new friends to play The Sims Social on Facebook with? Write 'ADD ME' in the comments below.
Note: Be sure to do ONE of the following, so other people can friend you on Facebook:
- Log in to our comments system using Facebook Connect then leave a message. [Recommended]
facebook connect comments
- Include a link to your Facebook page in your message
- Include the email you use on your Facebook account in your message.
Note: Be sure to do ONE of the following, so other people can friend you on Facebook:
- Log in to our comments system using Facebook Connect then leave a message. [Recommended]
facebook connect comments
- Include a link to your Facebook page in your message
- Include the email you use on your Facebook account in your message.
This Hess Toy Truck advergame on Facebook is actually ... fun?
But--but that means everything I've learned about advergames is a lie. That's not true. That's impossible! Ahem, anyone else remember getting a toy Hess truck every Christmas from gramps? At least this writer does, but that's not all that makes this brand new Facebook advergame a blast to play. Titled simply Hess Racer Game, the game throws players behind the wheel of digital versions of the 2011 Hess Toy Truck and Race Car.
And--get this--you don't click a single thing to play but the "Play Game" button to start. To guide either the Race Car or Toy Truck across a cityscape, mountain highway or an interstate, use either the "W" and "D" keys or the arrow keys on your keyboard. The goal of the game is to last as long as possible without hitting any cars or guard rails. The game allows you to take just a few hits.
Pressing the space bar activates turbo boost, which nets you more points but reduces your handling. Once your run is through, you can post your results to Facebook (with no confirmation). You'll earn coins from your races that you can spend on collectible, digital cards featuring throw backs to classic toy Hess vehicles from the last 47 years. Players can also challenge their Facebook friends to beat their high score for extra coins.
And once you reach around 30,000 points, boy is this game a challenge. Hess Car Racer, developed by Sticky Studios, is available for free on Facebook, iPhone and iPad right now. (An Android version is coming Dec. 2.) Sure, it's an advergame, but at least it's a fun one.
Click here to play Hess Car Racer on Facebook Now >
How do you feel about advergames on Facebook? Do you remember getting Hess trucks every Christmas as a kid?
And--get this--you don't click a single thing to play but the "Play Game" button to start. To guide either the Race Car or Toy Truck across a cityscape, mountain highway or an interstate, use either the "W" and "D" keys or the arrow keys on your keyboard. The goal of the game is to last as long as possible without hitting any cars or guard rails. The game allows you to take just a few hits.
Pressing the space bar activates turbo boost, which nets you more points but reduces your handling. Once your run is through, you can post your results to Facebook (with no confirmation). You'll earn coins from your races that you can spend on collectible, digital cards featuring throw backs to classic toy Hess vehicles from the last 47 years. Players can also challenge their Facebook friends to beat their high score for extra coins.
And once you reach around 30,000 points, boy is this game a challenge. Hess Car Racer, developed by Sticky Studios, is available for free on Facebook, iPhone and iPad right now. (An Android version is coming Dec. 2.) Sure, it's an advergame, but at least it's a fun one.
Click here to play Hess Car Racer on Facebook Now >
How do you feel about advergames on Facebook? Do you remember getting Hess trucks every Christmas as a kid?
Playfish makes it rain on The Sims Social players on the regular
Again, for no reason at all. On Thursday, Playfish made a fairly groundbreaking change to The Sims Social's Daily Bonus. Now, every fifth consecutive log-in into the game will result in a random amount of free SimCash. Players can win up to 10 SimCash from the new feature, again, every five days. There's no word of this being a promotion or an event--this is a permanent change.
The Playfish community team issued a forum poll to gauge the change's effectiveness, and an impressive 41 percent of 102 voters reported receiving 10 free SimCash as a result of the new Daily Bonus. That's pretty much a guaranteed 10 SimCash every three weeks. Now, we might say that Playfish and EA are doing this "for no reason at all," but sadly it's clear.
The Sims Social may be the second best performing Facebook game to CityVille with 33.4 million monthly players and 5.9 million daily players, but both of those figures have been in decline for almost a month now. In fact, according to AppData, it's only been in the past two days that the drop has leveled off and stabilized. So, you can imagine that a promotion like this is not only to keep things stabilized, but likely to bring daily player numbers back up too. Nothing says "Please come back?" like free stuff.
Are still enjoying The Sims Social? Do you think a promotion like this could work to turn monthly players into daily players again?
The Playfish community team issued a forum poll to gauge the change's effectiveness, and an impressive 41 percent of 102 voters reported receiving 10 free SimCash as a result of the new Daily Bonus. That's pretty much a guaranteed 10 SimCash every three weeks. Now, we might say that Playfish and EA are doing this "for no reason at all," but sadly it's clear.
The Sims Social may be the second best performing Facebook game to CityVille with 33.4 million monthly players and 5.9 million daily players, but both of those figures have been in decline for almost a month now. In fact, according to AppData, it's only been in the past two days that the drop has leveled off and stabilized. So, you can imagine that a promotion like this is not only to keep things stabilized, but likely to bring daily player numbers back up too. Nothing says "Please come back?" like free stuff.
Are still enjoying The Sims Social? Do you think a promotion like this could work to turn monthly players into daily players again?
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