Their Battlestations application on the Facebook platform (and recently Friendster social network) is one of the most engaging and popular applications, incorporating flash animation and immersive gameplay. Besides featuring multiplayer features including player-versus-player gameplay, it also includes clan warfare and boasts an active Facebook forum.

I invited Leonard on the Friday Podcast and we discussed:

• How to develop a winning concept for your Facebook application
• Development strategies, especially going down the FBML (Facebook markup language) route versus developing in an iFrame environment
• Monetization options for Facebook developers
• Developing an active in-game economy, offering premium in-game items and growth strategies

Check out the Friday Podcast below:

You can also check out: Battlestations

In a post on Facebook, Leonard reproduced the suspension notice:

Hi Leonard,

Brett
User Operations
Facebook

—

This doubtless caused on uproar on Tyler’s facebook application BattleStations where Leonard is active in game development and on the discussion boards (as well as being the public face of BattleStations).

His “infraction”?

Posting a link (accompanying a movie review) to a trailer for “Wanted” on a discussion board.

Apparently, Facebook is getting pretty serious with it’s ‘walled garden’ concept – that you should do all your stuff within the Facebook.com domain.

If you haven’t had a chance to look at the Facebook “terms of service” that Brett was refering to, click on the “Terms” link at the bottom of each Facebook page.

A number of the terms look pretty nefarious. For example:

• “harvest or collect email addresses or other contact information of other users from the Service or the Site by electronic or other means for the purposes of sending unsolicited emails or other unsolicited communications;“

“Unsolicited” is a relative term. Even if you’re marketing and building a prospect database, all it takes is one allegation and your facebook marketing efforts can be derailed. I am a member of FB groups where I receive almost daily updates. At what point do these become “unsolicited”?

• “use automated scripts to collect information from or otherwise interact with the Service or the Site;“

Again, your FB app could be construed as collecting information (I think we call this “analytics”). Seems a little too broad-based for my liking.

• “upload, post, transmit, share, store or otherwise make available any videos other than those of a personal nature that: (i) are of you or your friends, (ii) are taken by you or your friends, or (iii) are original art or animation created by you or your friends;”

Those “funny videos” off TV or cable or satellite you uploaded could get you into trouble.

• “upload, post, transmit, share or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, solicitations, promotional materials, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or any other form of solicitation;“

This step protected FB users from “MySpace Bulletin bombing”. At the same time, I think affiliates and product owners providing a relevant service could get caught in the crossfire.

upload, post, transmit, share, store or otherwise make available content that, in the sole judgment of Company, is objectionable or which restricts or inhibits any other person from using or enjoying the Site, or which may expose Company or its users to any harm or liability of any type.

“Objectionable” is going to be a fairly subjective criteria, especially if it hasn’t been explicitly spelled out. Would Google’s OpenSocial API be considered ‘objectionable’ if FB users jumped ship to MySpace or LinkedIn because those platforms gave a higher Quality of Service?

In other words, would an API providing cross platform compatibility and leaking traffic from FB to another social network be seen as “objectionable”?

At the moment, aside from pretty broad reaching legal terms drafted by FB’s legal department, the transparency for Facebook developers and users remains an unknown until these boundaries are breached.

The panelists included:

• Bernard Leong (Thymos Capital partner, and session moderator)
• Leonard Lin (TYLER Projects managing partner – developer of Facebook application BattleStations!)
• Kien Lee (Senatus founder – an investment holding company which owns more than 100 Facebook applications)
• and myself (through my work on the $uperRewards monetization system for Facebook applications)

Facebook Application Monetization Panel: Leonard Lin, myself, Bernard Leong, Kien Lee

I had my MP3 recorder capture most of our panel discussion and you can access the recording below.

For more coverage, check out:

• ThinkingNectar’s live blogging post of the panel discussion
• Nicole’s live blogging post of the panel discussion

The event is sponsored by Microsoft and the National University of Singapore.

Here’s a snippet of the panel:

If you didn’t already know, a number of the hottest Facebook Applications are coming out of Singapore, including BattleStations! which I play, developed by Singapore’s TYLER Projects (co-founder Leonard Lin will also be on the panel).

Here’s a screenshot from BattleStations:

In addition to the technical requirements to developing a Facebook application, I think the concept, game logic and game balance are critical to the success of the application. I’ll do a comprehensive follow up post before the event.

If you’re in Singapore and would like to attend the event, you can check out the:

• Facebook Developer Garage RSVP page
• Facebook Developer Garage Wiki

The event is free to participants and dinner is included. Be sure to RSVP soon.