Plants vs. Zombies, unite! PopCap's charity auction enters Week 2

While most sites right now are abuzz with the rumored auctioning of PopCap Games to Electronic Arts ("Auction item number one: PopCap ... the whole thing! Bidding starts at ... $1 billion!"), there's a smaller, equally important one started by PopCap itself.

To recap on PopCap, for every week until July 12th, the company will put a bunch of official, one-of-a-kind games merchandise up on eBay to bidders. All proceeds (the first week's raised $1,700 USD) will benefit the Starlight Children's Foundation in America and SpecialEffect in the United Kingdom.

Since Bejeweled, Plants vs. Zombies is the most well-known and beloved of PopCap's games, so it's great that we're seeing a lot of PvZ merchandise this week.

Following the ceramic Peggle sake set, you can now serve up some delicious breakfast (or braaaaains) with a Plants vs. Zombies ceramic mug and bowl set! Fend off the undead hordes with an official Peashooter costume that was used in the NYC Greenwich Halloween parade! Or get a box diorama of a PvZ Final Wave to display in your home.
Plants vs. Zombies ceramic mug bowl set
This week's auction closes June 28th with more goods on the way. (I'm excited to see what the Zuma-themed ceramic tea set will look like!) Keep up with the releases here: www.ebay.com/popcap.

Games.com Weekly Roundup: Brought to you by the letter 'P' (as in PopCap)

PopCap Plants vs. Zombies diorama
Couldn't get your daily Games.com news fix and want to know what you've missed? Whether it's a major FarmVille guide or the launch of a new Facebook game, the Roundup will bring you up to speed on the most important or popular, or just plain out amazing and weird social gaming stories of the week.

Monday:

    FrontierVille Pioneer Trail Map revealed: come get a look at Beaver Valley
    Now that the legal brouhaha between The Learning Company's "The Oregon Trail" and Zynga's FrontierVille expansion is settled, here's a sneak peak on what's next for the game.
    Activision Blizzard and Social Gaming: Call of Duty: Elite is the first step
    The key point here is that Activision sees social and mobile "as a way to strengthen our core business." Subtly implying that social and mobile are not their core business.
    Rovio's Angry Birds become physics teachers
    Questions like these teach us not to take physics for granted: "Determine the coefficient of restitution and the mass of the angry bird." A lot of science goes into that flick of the finger.
    Want a $10 FarmVille Game Card? Use Bing Rewards
    "Every time you search for something on Bing and click through to a website from the search engine, you will earn a small amount of credits (not to be confused with Facebook Credits). Once you earn 1,176 credits, you can redeem the $10 FarmVille Game Card, which will be sent to your house with free shipping."
    Realm of the Mad God busts out of beta on Chrome Web Store
    This is here because we think it's awesome. Yeah, we can do that. Neener, neener!
    inFAMOUS Anarchy combines CityVille and Mafia Wars on Facebook
    Now you don't need a PS3 to play it! Brought to you by Mob Science and Sony.


Tuesday:

    Professor Layton: Brain-bending game goes social and mobile later this year
    "It's interesting that one of the Nintendo DS' most popular games is headed to mobile. Will this be a wake-up call to Nintendo, whose president recently said that the gaming company is 'not interested' in mobile and Facebook?"
    Lego Universe goes free-to-play this August, who needs plastic bricks?
    Here's what I remember most about Legos. Luckily, you can't stab your feet with the internet.
    PopCap's Bejeweled 3 coming to Nintendo DS, go zen on the go
    Feeling too tethered to Facebook to enjoy Bejeweled Blitz anymore? Get yourself a DS.
    Vatican Wars on Facebook increases desire to attend church - honest!
    I wonder what Pope Benedict XVI has to say about this.
    HotShot on Facebook: Peggle has arrived, but it's not PopCap's game
    "There is no denying that the idea and largely all of PlayQ's inspiration for HotShot came from Peggle and its absence from Facebook."
    Wonderful City Rio brings the CityVille formula across Latin America
    Wonderful City Rio is a CityVille clone, but as clones go, it might actually be more fun than the original.
    FrontierVille: Dancing Bear given away for game's first birthday
    Wow, has it really been a year?


Wednesday:

    Better Business Bureau processed 436 Zynga complaints in 36 months, study says
    I think one of our readers said it best, "How shocking!! A company that has over 200 million monthly users received 436 BBB complaints!!" Also check out the awesome social gaming infographic we scooped the headline from.
    Report: Pottermore will be Harry Potter's online gaming hub [Updated]
    "Author J.K. Rowling has revealed that Pottermore will not be a social game, but an interactive reading experience for Harry Potter fans . . . However, there will be virtual rewards for tasks completed on the site, Mashable reports."
    Rumor: Bejeweled-maker PopCap to sell for over $1 billion
    "EA could be the lucky shopper, but $1 billion is a far cry from the $400 million it paid for Playfish in 2009."


Thursday:

    Empires & Allies receives first round of bug fixes and gameplay updates
    Bugs are the number one gripe of Facebook gamers. So it's great to see Zynga take charge. Now all they need to do is keep at it.
    Earn 2 free FarmVille Farm Cash in Captain America promotion
    Let us get something straight here -- Norton, an anti-virus software provider, is promoting the Captain America movie via FarmVille? But hey, 2 free Farm Cash! Why not?
    Civilization World for Facebook reveals a crazy complex city [Video]
    And we mean that in a good way.
    Plants vs. Zombies, unite! PopCap's charity auction enters Week 2
    BEHOLD! Peashooter head costume! Plants vs. Zombies ceramic mug and bowl set! Wooden box diorama! It's all PvZ love here.
    Sir 'Baby Got Back' Mix-A-Lot launches Facebook trivia game
    Probably the most fascinating thing about this isn't the game itself, but the stalker-ish PR stunt videos personally addressed to our writer, Brandy Shaul, and our EIC, Libe Goad.
    Marc Ecko's Weeds Facebook game (puffs then) passes this month
    "Weeds, the hit show on Showtime revolving around a pot-dealing suburban soccer mom, will have its very own marijuana-making Facebook game this month."
    FarmVille: One click sharing slowly rolling out for faster news posts
    Zynga's just on a roll with these updates, aren't they? Whatever makes it easier to play, makes for a better gaming experience and makes for more gaming.