Social network game developer Zynga unveils 'CityVille

Social network game developer Zynga has unveiled "CityVille," the first globally released online game built by the hot startup behind play hits "FarmVille" and "Mafia Wars."

"CityVille is where Monopoly meets Main Street," said the game's general manager Sean Kelly.

The game challenges a player to build his or her dream city from the ground up and incorporates winning aspects of popular Zynga titles "FrontierVille" and "FarmVille."

"Instead of harvesting crops you're harvesting your neighborhood; instead of clearing your friend's frontier you're working on a friend's franchise," Kelly said, referring to the title as Zynga's most social game to date.

Zynga rocketed to success at Facebook, where people recruited friends to join them in online play and shared game accomplishments at the world's leading social network.

More than 320 million people have played Zynga games since the San Francisco-based company was launched in 2007, according to its founder Mark Pincus.

The number of people playing Zynga games each month tops 225 million, according to the firm.

Test, or beta, versions of "CityVille" will be rolled out worldwide in coming weeks in English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish.

"CityVille" play involves creating thriving cities while balancing the needs of virtual inhabitants and tending to jobs such as running businesses and harvesting crops.

Players in the roles of city managers will also need to cultivate beneficial relationships with neighboring cities.

US warns troops about FB privacy issue

The United States Air Force is warning its troops to be careful when using Facebook and other popular networking sites because some new features could show the enemy exactly where US forces are located in war zones.

In a warning issued on its internal website earlier this month, the Air Force said that "careless use of these services by airmen can have devastating operations security and privacy implications." The message was also sent to senior commanders, who were asked to get the word out to their forces.

The applications, which are offered by a variety of services including Facebook, Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt, can identify a person's location, even pinpoint it on a map.

A key concern is that enemy forces could use such features to track troops in the war zone who have a Blackberry or other smart phone and use those networking services.

Location services have grown in popularity as more people get smart phones that have GPS and other means of determining the user's location.

In most cases, however, users have to go into the program manually and check in or list a location in order for that location to show up.

According to Facebook's practices, for example, users must either download the Facebook application and then check in to a location, or go to the mobile Facebook page to check in.

The default setting for Facebook then allows a user's friends to see the location, but that setting can be manually changed to allow friends of friends or "everyone" to see the location.