Millionaire City celebrates Green Week with new items, homes

While Digital Chocolate's Millionaire City may be focused on living a fantastic life with all of the luxuries money can buy (the game is called Millionaire City after all), that doesn't mean that your spoiled citizens also shouldn't be looking out for the care and survival of Mother Earth. You don't want your city to crumble under pollution, now do you?

That being the case, they have celebrated Green Week, offering users a chance to add a bit of environmental conservation to their towns, via green technology, organic foods, and even luxury resorts and homes that follow the green theme.

Follow us behind the break to see the full selection of items.

There are currently six items available in this environmentally conscious theme. The first two are available to fairly low level players, and come in the form of a Windmill and Recycling Station.

Other items include 15 day Treehouses and Organic Gardens. To offer your citizens some peace of mind while living in the lap of luxury, they can now reside in Eco Resorts and Eco Luxury Homes, both of which are available to higher level players, requiring a level of at least 22 to start purchasing them.

A new feature has also been launched in the game, allowing users to spend a bit of Gold to unlock access to purchasing items that are currently locked due to their level. That being the case, if you'd like to splurge on some of these items, then treat yourself to a bit of early unlocking by shelling out some of your Gold supply to earn the right to purchase them.

Mafia Wars: Zynga, Digital Chocolate finally settle trademark lawsuit

After Millionaire City creator Digital Chocolate filed suit against Zynga in Aug. 2010 for trademark infringement involving the Mafia Wars brand, the dispute has at last been settled, Gamasutra reports. However, the settlement amount nor the terms have been disclosed. Interestingly enough, the Mafia Wars name still appears to be under Zynga control as the game has yet to undergo any changes.

In the lawsuit filed last year, Digital Chocolate said it released a Mafia Wars mobile game way back in 2004 along with three sequels through 2009, according to Gamasutra. This was three years before Zynga came around and four before the company's Mafia Wars was released. The company says it sent a notice to Zynga in 2009 demanding that it stop using the Mafia Wars moniker.

"Through duplicity and bad faith, Zynga has effectively hijacked the Mafia Wars mark from Digital Chocolate and is aggressively marketing its games under the Mafia Wars mark to Digital Chocolate's substantial detriment," said the firm in documents filed with California's Northern District Court, according to Gamasutra.

Digital Chocolate hit Zynga with several charges including federal/common law trademark infringement, federal/state/common law unfair competition, false designation of origin, and cyber-squatting, Gamasutra reports. However, the company appears largely unscathed--at least it does on the outside. Keep in mind that this is far from the first time Zynga has been the target of a lawsuit.

This gives even better reason to ask this question: Is Zynga constantly the victim of legal attacks because it's simply something that comes with being a mulit-billion company or does it have more to do with its methods? If anything, this goes to show how intense the social games business has become in more ways than one.

[Source: The Recorder]

What do you think went on behind the scenes during this settlement? How does this news make you feel about Zynga's game-creation process?