Playdom is offering $50 for playtesters -- are you man enough for the job?

Playdom Mountain View Map Headquarters
Last Friday morning, Playdom made a post on the gigs section of Craigslist, asking for folks who'd be willing to come into their San Francisco headquarters to play "a recently released game" for $50 USD. To be qualified for the action, you'll need to allow them to videotape you playing, must sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement, be an experienced social gamer, and lastly, (sorry ladies!) be a guy between the age of 18-35. Now we don't know why they specifically want guys, or why they want to film you playing, but we're pretty sure they're not out to start a playtesters reality TV show for casual games. (But they do have a dorky video podcast on YouTube.)

There's also no saying how many guys they want, but the Playdom Usability Research Group does have a screening process, which will involve answering a survey through email. If they think you're the man for the job, they'll get back to you, but they're sure to be swamped with replies. As for the authenticity of this ad, we've yet to verify this. (The last time we saw something like this, Playfish was offering select players an $80 Amazon gift card to host a phone interview while folks played.) But if you have any concerns, you can contact Playdom here.

Judging by these details, we're betting this is a playtest session for their hit game ESPNU College Town, which debuted on Facebook this September. The session is scheduled to take place this coming Thursday, November 4th, during normal business hours and is expected to take an hour.

Social City creator Playdom accepts Facebook Credits exclusively across all games

Just like that, the final domino falls. Playdom is the next company to submit to Facebook's demands for social game and app developers to accept only its virtual currency. As of today, Playdom will only be accepting Facebook Credits as its virtual currency. Fortunately, the company will, of course, still accept credit and debit cards as well as PayPal payments.

If this deal is anything like Facebook's previous three, we imagine Playdom will have to deposit 30 percent of all Facebook Credits sales into the social network's bank account. It also bears mentioning that the unique currencies to Playdom's games like City Bucks in Social City and Campus Cash in ESPNU College Town aren't going anywhere; it's the third-party payment methods that are officially kaput. And thankfully the free offers from Playdom's ad partners for in-game money don't seem to be going anywhere either.

This isn't the first time Facebook has coerced social game companies into using its new currency, which is now available at GameStop and Radio Shack in addition to nearly all major department stores. With CrowdStar the first to go and later Zynga giving in, it was only a matter of time before EA and Playfish accepted the offer too. Finally for Facebook, the company will be reeling in 30 percent of the top four social gaming companies' profits via Facebook Credits. Let that one sink in for a while and you'll understand why Zynga might want out.

What's in a name: Playdom rebrands City of Might as City of Warfare?

Not much, apparently. Fusible reports that Gardens of Time maker Playdom filed for the trademark "City of Warfare" with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Oct. 26. While the website seems to think that the developer is creating a whole new game, we're thinking that Playdom might simply be rebranding its upcoming City of Might as City of Warfare.

Regardless, the game will almost certainly center around the same premise that we caught a glimpse of at this year's E3. When we last saw City of Might, it looked to build a franchise out of Playdom's existing City of Wonder and enter new genres. However, the game appeared to be terribly reminiscent of competitors like Empires & Allies and perhaps more hardcore social strategy games.

The game was expected to launch this summer, but has yet to leave its closed beta test. Since then, Playdom has teased two more games, Galaxy of Wonder and Secret Agent X. The first of which sounds like it will take the familiar City of Wonder gameplay into a new environment, while the latter appears to entertain new gameplay ideas.

Regardless, City of Migh--er, Warfare should be close to release, if the company was willing to show it in action months ago. Fusible mentions that it nailed the Gnome Town trademark right on the nose, only for Playdom to release the game days later, so perhaps we're even closer. The developer also plans to release games focusing on Disney brands--it's about time.

Why do you think Playdom might rebrand City of Might as City of Warfare? Could this game give E&A and other Facebook strategy games a run for their money?