More Like 'Team FarmVille 2': Portal creator sets Steam Trading loose

by Joe Osborne, Posted Sep 6th 2011 5:05PM

If you hadn't noticed, Portal creator Valve's Steam service and store is slowly becoming more and more like ... FarmVille. I know, it sounds strange, but true. The maker of some of the most hardcore, intense shooter games of all time like Half Life and Team Fortress has released the final version of Steam Trading. This new feature was released in a beta test last month, but now is ready for everyone. Better yet, the feature is available for two more games, at that: Portal 2 and Sega's Spiral Knights.

This feature allows Steam users to trade and gift items to their friends regardless of whether they're logged into their game of choice. Now, players can trade items or (new, never-played) games with friends for whatever they feel is an equal exchange. For instance, a Team Fortress 2 player can trade the hat she found while playing with a friend who has a nifty shield that she wants for her Spiral Knight.

However, players must be friends over Steam (or be in a Group Chat) to trade or give items to one another. Hmm, that sounds vaguely familiar, no? From offering free-to-play multiplayer games earlier this year like Spiral Knights to now allowing players to give each other items through a friends list, Steam has slowly become more and more like Facebook as a games platform. While its far from Facebook and its games, and likely always will be, the influence is undeniable. All we're waiting for is the day it takes Energy to fire bullets in Team Fortress 2. (Fat chance ... we hope.)

[Via Kotaku]

Are you excited to be able to trade with friends in some of your Steam games? Do you think Steam is showing its affinity for the Facebook style of gaming? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

Bookmark this site!

Tags: facebook games, facebook gaming, portal, portal 2, social games, social gaming, spiral-knights, steam, steam trading, steam trading live, Team Fortress 2, tf2, valve, valve releases steam trading, valve steam, valve steam trading

View the original article here

"Trading Spouses" Teaches Relationship Building Through Cooking

Last night I watched a television show. It was rather hilarious and disturbing at the same time.

I was actually talking to my mother when I first heard about it. I called her to chat and she told me she was watching this show called 'Trading Spouses'. Isn't that name terrible?

I couldn't believe my Mom was watching such a thing.

But, after she told me about it, it sounded hilarious, so I decided to check it out when it came on in my time zone (we have a four hour time difference). And she was right, it was hilarious. So, I watched it with my husband last night.

Now, I'm not a big reality show fan. So, I'll get to the point in a second.

So, anyway, last night's show was about two husbands that traded places. The one was a New York City lawyer who lived in Manhattan ' and he changed places with a low income worker who lived in the country in Georgia.

(Okay, and just to clarify for those of you whose minds might be going elsewhere ' there was no hanky panky going on')

So, you can imagine the difference in life style!

The country guy had his very first plane ride to get to New York, and he was blown away by the speed of life. The rich man's kids were great; but his wife was a witch. Shocked that he was never at a restaurant that required dressing up, bragging about their beach home being worth $2-3 million, freaking out when someone walked into the kitchen with sand on their shoes, and nagging and pushing the son about getting his bar mitzvah speech right ' especially since the affair was costing about as much as a wedding.

They city guy was in culture shock too. The house was run down and messy; and the kids were NIGHTMARES! They were totally out of control.

Unfortunately, I have seen kids that bad before in real life ' but it's been awhile. They were hitting, fighting, ignoring their mom, telling the man to 'shut up' ' can you believe it? And this was good behavior in front of the television crew and visitors? It was really awful.

So, here were two examples of BAD family relationships. A rich family with kids that behaved - but they couldn't enjoy their family life because it was to much 'go, go go' with a Mom that was wound up so tight that she'd wring the enjoyment out of everything. And a low income family with a family life ' but one that sucked because the Mom couldn't stand to be around her kids.

Oh ' and you know what the Mom said about her bratty kids? She said that she 'tried everything'. She tried sitting down and talking with them, she tried taking away toys, she tried sitting them in time-out. She tried it all, but nothing worked. Hmmmmm. Seems she left out THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE! The controlled, loving, whack across the caboose.

When are parents going to 'get it' that loving, proper, consistent discipline when they're young means that they'll be controlled, loving, children that behave when they are 6, 7, and up.

AND ' children can't be happy if they aren't disciplined. You can see it on their faces. Whiney, out-of-control children are miserable. And so is everyone around them, for that matter.

When's the last time that you've seen a miserable, well disciplined child? You haven't. I mean, there are a few moments of bad attitude or whatever that quickly goes away with correction; but they are basically happy, content, and secure.

So, anyway, back to my story.

Each family was getting $50,000 for the trade. But the catch was that the visiting spouse made the decision of how the other family would spend their $50,000. The rich man's answer to fix the low income family? Buy the house, remodel it ' basically improve material possessions.

The country man's answer to fix the wealthy family? Family relationship counseling, cooking lessons, and family vacation time.

And you guessed it ' the rich wife flipped out ' she was planning on using the $50,000 to pay for her son's bar mitzvah!!

But, I'll say one thing. The country man was right on for what that family needed. Less focus on 'things' and more focus on 'relationships'.

Actually, he was downright clever. He showed America the #1 way to build family relationships'Cooking together.

Ahem. Ring a bell?

Cooking creates family bonds ' across all ages ' across all abilities. Too bad the country man didn't have more of that wisdom to have disciplined kids too.

So, if you're already ahead of the game with well behaved kids ' don't forget about the relationship side of things. And don't overlook the easiest, most funnest ( he, he), I mean 'fun' way to spend time with you kids ' COOKING!!!!

About the author: Laura Bankston is author of 'Homeschool Cooking in a Box' and the 'Homeschool Cookbook'. She currently home schools her three children, maintains home school support websites, and manages their family-owned service business. For information on her curriculum and free home school support services, please visit http://www.homeschoolcookbook.com

View the original article here

FrontierVille Trading Post updates trade-ins; finally useful again

by Joe Osborne, Posted Apr 6th 2011 4:20PM

When's the last time you used the Trading Post? We thought so. Thankfully, FrontierVille Info has discovered that FrontierVille's potentially most useless building has been updated to accept excess Goal items from Valentine's Day, Groundhog Day and Wedding Chapel Goals. Unfortunately, you won't get much in return for your trade-ins, but a few coins and some scraps of Food are always welcome. Especially if you're working on that fools errand more commonly known as the Canning Master Goals.

[Image Credit: FrontierVille Info]

Have you made use of the new acceptable trade-ins? What do you think of the returns on these old items? Share with us in the comments. Add Comment.
Bookmark this site!

Tags: canning master, frontierville, frontierville info, trading, trading post, update, zynga

View the original article here

Facebook Roundup: White House, Insider Trading, Intifada, Jive, MTV, HipHop, Fish and Baseball

Facebook Sets Sights on Obama Aide Gibbs – Former Obama White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is in talks to work for Facebook to help manage the company’s communications ahead of the rumored 2012 public offering. [Image Via Pete Souza]

Insider Trading Scandal Led to Termination of Facebook Employee – Michael Brown, former corporate development manager for Facebook, abruptly left the company after it was discovered he had engaged in insider trading, reported TechCrunch. Brown purchased Facebook stock on secondary markets, reportedly in September according to TechCrunch, which counts as grounds for immediate termination.

Facebook Grapples With Israel-Palestine Conflict - Facebook recently removed a Page supporting the Third Palestinian Intifada with more than 340,000 Likes after comments devolved into direct calls for violence. This is an example of Facebook’s growing struggle to figure out how to deal with discussions of conflict and controversial political views. Now, an American activist is suing Facebook for $1 billion for not removing the Page fast enough. It needs to balance freedom of speech, human rights, and staying business-friendly.

Jive Software Announces Board Appointments – Jive Software announced new members new joing its board of directors this week, including:Jonathan Heiliger who is the VP of technical operations at Facebook, Charles Robel, former COB of McAfee, David DeWalt who is president of McAfee, and Sundar Pichai who is VP of product management at Google. The company counts Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins as investors, and with the addition of these board seats, Jive Software has amassed a pretty impressive set of advisors.

Facebook Featured on MTV Show “Diary” - Facebook was featured in a half-hour show called “Diary” which included interviews with CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a Facebook engineer. The show presented a very positive impression of the company.

Ifeelgoods Wins Web 2.0 Expo Showcase – Ifeelgoods won the Web 2.0 Expo Startup Showcase this week. The company is a marketing service provider that allows clients to rewards their users with Facebook Credits for performing certain actions. The company has done work with 1800 Flowers and recently signed with Netflix.

Facebook’s HipHop Conversion Very Efficient – Facebook’s Engineering Team wrote a note this week about exactly how efficient the HipHop conversion in early 2010 was for the company, allowing them to reduce average CPU usage by more than 50%.

Facebook Helps Fish Scientists Identify Species – Facebook was at the center of an interesting success story of ichthyologists, or fish scientists, who were able to identify more than 5,000 specimens from Guyana in a week with the help of the social network. Basically, the scientists were in a time crunch to identify these specimens and in 24 hours were able to do 90% of the job with Facebook. Most of those helping out had a Ph.D. in ichthyology.

Facebook and Baseball - Facebook’s data and science team culled some interesting information from baseball fans’ status updates and profiles. Less than 50% of any baseball team’s fans were female. Baseball fans have higher than average numbers of friends, averaging 300, even though the Dodgers and Angels have the least number of friends while the Athletics and Nationals have the highest number of friends.

Cross-town rivalries such as the Dodgers/Angels don’t break friendships. And the Phillies have the most devoted team, which is to say the most fans not fans of any other team. Interesting, but there are many confounding variables here. Take the cross-town rivalries: it’s obvious that users who live in the same city would be more likely to be friends. When it comes to baseball fans being friendly, any user with Likes is a more engaged Facebook user, so it’s natural for them to have more Facebook friends.

  Digg this
Filed in Ad Providers, Ads API, Advertising, Business, Credits, Facebook, Government, International, Jobs, Metrics, Pages, Policy, Politics, Venture Capital

View the original article here