Daily Wrap: Protestors plan Mafia Wars walkout; Harlequin romance game sweeps us away

In today's Daily Wrap, PO'd virtual mafiosos plan a protest and more studies show that, yes, lots of people like to socialize and play games.

Protesters Plan Mafia Wars Walkout
Mafia Wars players are sick and tired of dealing with the game's bugs and scheduled down times. In protest, one group is planning a 24-hour walkout on the game at midnight Dec. 16 "to hopefully impress ... that we Mafia Wars players need the game to work properly before changes are implemented." We'd rather see these guys go at it mob-style, threatening to break thumbs or send Zynga to "sleep with the fishes."

Big Fish unbridles Harlequin Romance game
Those who have a thing for Harlequin romance novels, will now be able to experience their passion digitally as game developer Big Fish releases Hidden Object of Desire: a hidden object game built in conjunction with the big name romance novel publisher. The game apparently comes with a free novel, which Big Fish's official site warns "contains romantic themes." Romantic, indeed.

Games population surges -- 60% households have game consoles
A new report find that sixty percent of American homes have a video game system, up from 44% from three years ago. Makes sense considering we're in the worst recession since the Great Depression and many are staying in to save cash. Then again, if you consider that 75% of American households have Internet access (Nielsen Online), there's probably many more gamers in the U.S. than this study accounts for. [Venture Beat]

Facebook Consumes 5 Percent of our Collective Internet Time
We all know that the biggest time suck is Facebook, whether catching up with friends (and people you barely know) or trying to get the high score in Bejeweled Blitz. comScore reports that 5.5 percent of all time spent online in November was on the social network. Then, consider the fact that the top Facebook app is FarmVille, and that leads us to assume that a large percent of that five percent is spent plowing virtual crops. [Mashable]

Playdom hires Wall Street Analyst as CFO
Do we smell an IPO in the works for the social gaming company behind such hits as Mobster 2: Vendetta and Sorority Life? That might be the case as the company picks Christa Quarles, former Wall Streeter, as their new CFO. You know, if you follow that kind of thing. [Business Insider]