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The tool lets kids shop online but gives parents final say on approving the purchase by setting conditions or alerts on the child's profile. Virtual Piggy said its technology lets youngsters "play, transact and socialize in a secure online environment guided by parental permission, oversight and control." 

"Sam Glassenberg, CEO of Funtactix, which develops social games for major motion pictures like The Hunger Games, said the in-game ad market presents both huge opportunities and new risks for brands and agencies. He cited statistics from NPD and said that there are almost 200 million online gamers out there who play games for an average of 13 hours a week. Yet, the majority of ad spend still goes to TV or banner ads and only a fraction to games, he noted. "How are we going to close that gap?" he asked. The discussion was organized by SponsorPay, a Berlin-based engagement advertising company whose application rewards users that watch an ad with virtual currency and other goodies. SponsorPay is one of a handful of companies out there including SocialVibe, Flurry and WildTangent seeking to help games developers monetize their product and brand advertisers engage consumers with such ads. Games entrepreneur Wilson Kriegel, formerly with Zynga, addressed this potential by discussing his involvement with mega-hit Draw Something, an online drawing game developed at his former company OMGPop, which Zynga acquired in March. The game allows people to draw things and share them with their friends. Since its launch early in 2012, it has seen over 90 million installs, 10 billion drawings created and was a top trending topic on Twitter.  Companies including McDonald's, Disney and Sprint have incorporated their ads into the game. Kriegel said that ad features including in-game banners, game features and in-game call to actions seen a clickthrough rate of 1 percent to 10 percent-unheard of in an industry where average CTRs are 0.7 percent."

Evolution and growth of gamification. "A world beyond badges: Badges will increasingly become less and less important, and the rise of true virtual currencies will become more prominent to offer users more than vanity accomplishments in the form of badges."

Article discussing the deal RockYou made with Facebook to make Facebook credit the exclusiv payment option for it's social games and apps.

Offline virtual currency in Macon, GA

Press Passes = virtual currency awarded to people for documenting breaking news with the meporter app.

So nice when virtual currencies play together.

Visa gets in the virtual goods game. PlaySpan creates the system for game companies to issue virtual currencies and create digital goods markets for social games. 

Vendor for virtual goods, currency, etc., platform dev and management. 

This guy thinks FB is going to get into the virtual wallet business.

May be worth getting TrialPay in here based on a couple of findings over the past couple of days.

need some drugs? have some bitcoins? go to Silk Road

Overview of Facebook's new transactional advertising partnership with TrialPay