Facebook fun and games is big bucks

Only, you don’t get a cut. Beyond your privacy, and often that of your friends, being infringed by various Facebook game apps, what’s ultimately happening is you’re setting yourself up to be the target of a shitload of spam advertising, whether via e-mail, on Facebook pages or elsewhere.

The maker of Farmville and Mafia Wars gets $200 million a year, much of it from cyber-advertisers wanting player information, for example.

And Facebook, which could do more, turns a blind eye. (There’s plenty of additional links off this page.)

Beyond that, the nature of many of the games?

Do you really want to learn about being a cyber-chef at an artificial restaurant when, the way the economy is going, you could be forced to be the real thing at Denny’s, getting customers with bitchy orders, if you’re the fry cook, or ones stiffing you on tips if you’re waiting tables? Or do you want a farm without cow shit smells, or genetically modified corn putting you on the hook to Monsanto?