Sitting in your post-Level 100 ivory tree house in FrontierVille with nothing left to do? Well, if you've already exhausted all of your resources for extra XP for the day, here's something productive that will help pass the time: Victory Gardens. Shockingly enough, Zynga didn't think of it first--you pioneers did. Creating your own Victory Garden doesn't have any rigid rules or rewards. This is purely something born of the creativity and generosity of high-level pioneers everywhere (i.e. these are the type you want to be friends with).
Find out how to cultivate your own Victory Garden and help out those more commonly known as 'noobs' after the break.
Wither Protection BoostPlainly speaking, Victory Gardens are tracks of farmland meant only for your lower-level neighbors to harvest. Making one is simple, but there are a few brief prerequisites. First, you're going to need room... a lot of it. This is because the standard Victory Garden contains five of each crop at all times for friends to harvest. In fact, some Victory Gardens even contain five of each animal for harvest, but that's only if you're feeling extra generous. If you'd like, you could even hold just say, a Victory Ranch, if you'd rather not worry about the upkeep.
Which is exactly the second requirement. In order for Victory Gardens to operate effectively they need to be stocked with crops at all times. This way, your newbie friends will always have something to harvest when they drop in for a visit. If you're rolling in dough and would rather not worry about your Victory Garden too much, you could always throw some Wither Protection Boosts on your crops. These Boosts keep any crops currently planted from withering and can be found through turning in the Peas Collection or paying up 40 Horseshoes, or $5.
While this might seem obvious, the last prerequisite is to never harvest from your own or your friends' Victory Gardens. Since tTend Herehe whole point of Victory Gardens is to help our fellow new players out, this would defeat the purpose. That being said, make sure to plant crops and animals for your own use in a spot both far away from your Victory Garden and obviously much smaller than it. Something that can help new players know where to tend and where to steer clear of are the "Tend Here" and "Hands Off" Signs. Buy these from the Market for 2 Horseshoes a piece and put them in the appropriate spots on your homestead to let players know what's OK to touch.
And that's about it. Follow these simple steps and you'll be well on your way to being the most beloved pioneer out there. Well, at least to your newbie entourage.
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
FarmVille loading glitch: Farmers lost in parallel universe
farmville loading glitch
It was just another ordinary FarmVille morning for fvfan26. She went about her chores, harvesting crops, feeding animals, and paying visits to her neighbors. That's when she discovered something was very wrong in the world of FarmVille. Upon arriving at a neighboring farm, she discovered the entire thing had been transported to another dimension! All that was left, was a completely sterile, white land of infinite nothingness. Needless to say, she returned home and carried on with her day.
Other farmers reported this happening to their own neighbors. There were many explanations for the extraordinary event. Some suggested that the farmers may have been lost in the Bermuda Triangle. Others thought they were perhaps shifted to Pandora. Even more were certain their neighbors had ran off to a parallel universe! But after our FarmVille scientists did an investigation, it was found that the farms were simply covered by a large holiday blizzard. Once the ten feet of snow has melted, the farms will be operational again. Fewf!
farmville loading problem
But seriously, FarmVille farmers reported having trouble loading FarmVille this morning due in-game technical updates. Those affected were usually very high level farmers. When neighbors tried to visit the farmers who couldn't load FarmVille, they were greeted by the blank farm pictured above.
Some farmers are still experiencing technical difficulties loading FarmVille. Not to worry , everything will back to normal soon enough, and you can be relieved to know your FarmVille friends aren't lost in another dimension after all. Unfortunately though, all we can do is wait it out. In the mean time, why not check out CityVille?
Image Credit: fvfan26 & GrandmasGotAGun via FarmVille Community Forums
It was just another ordinary FarmVille morning for fvfan26. She went about her chores, harvesting crops, feeding animals, and paying visits to her neighbors. That's when she discovered something was very wrong in the world of FarmVille. Upon arriving at a neighboring farm, she discovered the entire thing had been transported to another dimension! All that was left, was a completely sterile, white land of infinite nothingness. Needless to say, she returned home and carried on with her day.
Other farmers reported this happening to their own neighbors. There were many explanations for the extraordinary event. Some suggested that the farmers may have been lost in the Bermuda Triangle. Others thought they were perhaps shifted to Pandora. Even more were certain their neighbors had ran off to a parallel universe! But after our FarmVille scientists did an investigation, it was found that the farms were simply covered by a large holiday blizzard. Once the ten feet of snow has melted, the farms will be operational again. Fewf!
farmville loading problem
But seriously, FarmVille farmers reported having trouble loading FarmVille this morning due in-game technical updates. Those affected were usually very high level farmers. When neighbors tried to visit the farmers who couldn't load FarmVille, they were greeted by the blank farm pictured above.
Some farmers are still experiencing technical difficulties loading FarmVille. Not to worry , everything will back to normal soon enough, and you can be relieved to know your FarmVille friends aren't lost in another dimension after all. Unfortunately though, all we can do is wait it out. In the mean time, why not check out CityVille?
Image Credit: fvfan26 & GrandmasGotAGun via FarmVille Community Forums
CityVille faces new challenger in Big Business on Facebook
While city simulation games like CityVille and Social City do address how important businesses are to city life, they skimp out on the nitty gritty details. The micro manager in all of us--well, some of us--wants to worry about shipments, goods production, sales and even resource management. This is where Game Insight comes in with Big Business, a city-building Facebook game that gets down and dirty with what's really makes a city work.
Continue reading to find out how Big Business fairs among the nuances of running a city.
Big Business Gameplay
The first thing you'll notice about Big Business is that it runs without a hitch. Nearly every action is fully animated amongst bustling citizens and buildings constantly abuzz with activity. And because of how smooth the game runs, Game Insight made a point at every turn to show it off. This becomes obvious when nearly every action in the game is fully animated, which is a double-edged sword of sorts.
While it's certainly a sight to literally see your town at work, the fact that everything is animated means that almost no action is instant. Because of this, expect to spend more time in Big Business doing routine tasks than in other social games. However, this relaxed gameplay style goes a bit too far by bleeding through everything else in the game. For instance, the game's tutorial tasks you with building a power plant to fuel your city's homes and businesses, which is done instantly. This is far from the reality of the rest of the game where most other buildings will take hours to construct. And while you can speed up the process through coins and City Credits--the game's paid currency--I'd personally rather spend premium currency on cool items than faster, generic ones.
One thing Big Business does exceptionally well is its business ecosystem. If that sounds a bit confusing, what I mean is that every type of building works with the others and if one falls behind, the others lose as well. This makes for an interesting balance between maintaining your city's population through Houses while producing and either selling goods to Supermarkets or transporting to other production facilities for use in more complex goods. Though, all of which cannot be done without Garages and the transport vehicles to support them.
Level Up
Though you won't get by through simply producing and supplying goods; you have plenty more things to worry about. These businesses cannot run for long without Services. These buildings, like the Power Station and Mechanic, provide upkeep for both your business and your citizens. The more your city grows, the more Services you'll need to support it. And yet, it doesn't stop there.
Your buildings, both industrial and residential, are governed by two statistics, Ecology and Happiness. For every building you throw up, your Ecology value will take a hit, which can only be restored by adding more Trees to your city. On top of that, your citizens will become unhappy without enough Entertainment buildings, though at least they don't draw from Ecology. It's maintaining this balance that's far more important in Big Business than making the most cash possible.
By now you should have a pretty good idea of how bogged down players could get under the seemingly endless statistics and lengthy wait times for buildings to construct and actions to complete. Though if micro management is your thing, welcome to the Holy Grail of simulation games.
Click here to play Big Business on Facebook Now>
Continue reading to find out how Big Business fairs among the nuances of running a city.
Big Business Gameplay
The first thing you'll notice about Big Business is that it runs without a hitch. Nearly every action is fully animated amongst bustling citizens and buildings constantly abuzz with activity. And because of how smooth the game runs, Game Insight made a point at every turn to show it off. This becomes obvious when nearly every action in the game is fully animated, which is a double-edged sword of sorts.
While it's certainly a sight to literally see your town at work, the fact that everything is animated means that almost no action is instant. Because of this, expect to spend more time in Big Business doing routine tasks than in other social games. However, this relaxed gameplay style goes a bit too far by bleeding through everything else in the game. For instance, the game's tutorial tasks you with building a power plant to fuel your city's homes and businesses, which is done instantly. This is far from the reality of the rest of the game where most other buildings will take hours to construct. And while you can speed up the process through coins and City Credits--the game's paid currency--I'd personally rather spend premium currency on cool items than faster, generic ones.
One thing Big Business does exceptionally well is its business ecosystem. If that sounds a bit confusing, what I mean is that every type of building works with the others and if one falls behind, the others lose as well. This makes for an interesting balance between maintaining your city's population through Houses while producing and either selling goods to Supermarkets or transporting to other production facilities for use in more complex goods. Though, all of which cannot be done without Garages and the transport vehicles to support them.
Level Up
Though you won't get by through simply producing and supplying goods; you have plenty more things to worry about. These businesses cannot run for long without Services. These buildings, like the Power Station and Mechanic, provide upkeep for both your business and your citizens. The more your city grows, the more Services you'll need to support it. And yet, it doesn't stop there.
Your buildings, both industrial and residential, are governed by two statistics, Ecology and Happiness. For every building you throw up, your Ecology value will take a hit, which can only be restored by adding more Trees to your city. On top of that, your citizens will become unhappy without enough Entertainment buildings, though at least they don't draw from Ecology. It's maintaining this balance that's far more important in Big Business than making the most cash possible.
By now you should have a pretty good idea of how bogged down players could get under the seemingly endless statistics and lengthy wait times for buildings to construct and actions to complete. Though if micro management is your thing, welcome to the Holy Grail of simulation games.
Click here to play Big Business on Facebook Now>
FarmVille cakes!
Looks like the trend of paying homage to your favorite game in dessert form continues. FarmVille recently held a contest and these 15 confections took the grand prize, which was 1,000 Farm Cash and 1 million coins. Not too shabby, eh? Kinda makes you want to see what you can do with a little flour and sugar.
farmville funhouseMy absolute favorite among the winners is this Fun House cake from HDGurl (based on the FarmVille funhouse item to the right) and she says that, yes, every bit of this cake is edible and no fondant or sugar paste was used in the construction.
"This cake was created in about 20-30 hours over the course of several days, and used approximately 4 lbs of modeling chocolate, making it fantastically delicious, and entirely eatable!
...This cake was near impossible to scale because of the lack of pictures with any angles, this was obviously because it is not a real structure. I think the challenge of that simple fact made the Fun House the obvious choice to create.
The "base" of this cake is two home-baked 9X13 chocolate fudge cakes, filled with chocolate raspberry mousse. The top 3D structures are made of rice krispy treats and melted chocolate chips as "glue".
Every figure was hand sculpted out of modeling chocolate (mixture of basically chocolate and corn syrup), & rice crispies... and the Caramel Apples have... of course... CARAMEL on them! Support for the signs, and barn were wooden skewers."
Also, a hats off to the 'Falling Leaves' cupcakes by Monica Groeger, the 'Gnome' cupcakes by mommagoes and the 'Happy Thanksgiving??' cake, by Silver Kathy, with a pig, sheep and cow sitting down at a feast. To see these FarmVille-themed sweets and more, click through the gallery below.
farmville funhouseMy absolute favorite among the winners is this Fun House cake from HDGurl (based on the FarmVille funhouse item to the right) and she says that, yes, every bit of this cake is edible and no fondant or sugar paste was used in the construction.
"This cake was created in about 20-30 hours over the course of several days, and used approximately 4 lbs of modeling chocolate, making it fantastically delicious, and entirely eatable!
...This cake was near impossible to scale because of the lack of pictures with any angles, this was obviously because it is not a real structure. I think the challenge of that simple fact made the Fun House the obvious choice to create.
The "base" of this cake is two home-baked 9X13 chocolate fudge cakes, filled with chocolate raspberry mousse. The top 3D structures are made of rice krispy treats and melted chocolate chips as "glue".
Every figure was hand sculpted out of modeling chocolate (mixture of basically chocolate and corn syrup), & rice crispies... and the Caramel Apples have... of course... CARAMEL on them! Support for the signs, and barn were wooden skewers."
Also, a hats off to the 'Falling Leaves' cupcakes by Monica Groeger, the 'Gnome' cupcakes by mommagoes and the 'Happy Thanksgiving??' cake, by Silver Kathy, with a pig, sheep and cow sitting down at a feast. To see these FarmVille-themed sweets and more, click through the gallery below.
FarmVille Unwither Ring goes bye-bye at the stroke of midnight (EST)
Newsflash! The semi-controversial FarmVille Unwither Ring will no longer be available to buy at the stroke of midnight tonight (EST). So if you were planning to spend the 250 Farm Cash to buy one of these for a loved one (that includes yourself) this holiday season, you better whip out that credit card and get on it.
farmville unwither ring
This is the second appearance of the Unwither Ring in FarmVille, and for the uninitiated, if you own this ring, your crops will never wither. Ever. Which, by virtual farming standards, is nothing short of a miracle. No more setting timers to remember to harvest your crops and no more losing your precious coins when your crops die. You just plant crops, they grow and then they patiently wait for you to come back and harvest them for coins, crop mastery points and XP.
I sincerely doubt this will be the last time that the ring makes an appearance in the FarmVille Market, but if you don't buy now you will (1.) miss out on giving your near and dearest the most awesome FarmVille gift and (2.) might be waiting another six months (or more) to get your next chance to buy the One True Ring.
farmville unwither ring
farmville unwither ring
This is the second appearance of the Unwither Ring in FarmVille, and for the uninitiated, if you own this ring, your crops will never wither. Ever. Which, by virtual farming standards, is nothing short of a miracle. No more setting timers to remember to harvest your crops and no more losing your precious coins when your crops die. You just plant crops, they grow and then they patiently wait for you to come back and harvest them for coins, crop mastery points and XP.
I sincerely doubt this will be the last time that the ring makes an appearance in the FarmVille Market, but if you don't buy now you will (1.) miss out on giving your near and dearest the most awesome FarmVille gift and (2.) might be waiting another six months (or more) to get your next chance to buy the One True Ring.
farmville unwither ring
Friday, January 13, 2012
FarmVille Winter Sneak Peek: Hot Springs, Penguin Fishing Hole, Ice Cow & More
It looks as though Zynga will be looking to continue celebrating Winter in FarmVille through the entire winter season (that is, even after the holidays as passed), as we've come across some new unreleased images of four new items that we believe will be coming to the game in the near future.
The four items, listed from left to right in the image above are: Monkey Hot Springs, Penguin Fishing Hole, Ice Cow, and Ice Duck.
Remember, the final names of these items are still up in the air (these may just serve as placeholders), and there is no actual guarantee as to whether these items will officially be released in the game, so keep that in mind. Additionally, we're not sure how these items will make an appearance. Will they be part of an upcoming Mystery Game? Will they be free gifts, premium items in the store, or Mystery Gift prizes? Only time will tell, but we'll be sure to give you all of the details once we have them.
The four items, listed from left to right in the image above are: Monkey Hot Springs, Penguin Fishing Hole, Ice Cow, and Ice Duck.
Remember, the final names of these items are still up in the air (these may just serve as placeholders), and there is no actual guarantee as to whether these items will officially be released in the game, so keep that in mind. Additionally, we're not sure how these items will make an appearance. Will they be part of an upcoming Mystery Game? Will they be free gifts, premium items in the store, or Mystery Gift prizes? Only time will tell, but we'll be sure to give you all of the details once we have them.
FarmVille Animal Sneak Peek: Brown Gypsy Horse, Brown Gypsy Foal, Baby Penguin
If you're an animal collector in FarmVille, I've got some great new unreleased item images to share with you! These animals are, from left to right in the image above: Brown Gypsy Horse, Brown Gypsy Foal, and Baby Penguin.
Not to be confused with the black and white, regular Gypsy Horse released at the end of November as part of the Winter Holiday theme of items, this Brown Gypsy Horse will be an entirely different animal, able to be placed inside the Horse Stable and bred with a Stallion to produce the adorable Brown Gypsy Foal also seen above. We're guessing that if the Brown Gypsy Horse doesn't make an appearance in a Mystery Game soon, that it will be available in the store for Farm Cash.
Meanwhile, the Baby Penguin is equally interesting, if not even more so. Since Penguins have been available in the game since even last year, this begs the question - Could Zynga be looking to create a Penguin "home" of some kind, through which these Baby Penguins would be bred? Or will it simply be released as a regular animal release in the store? Only time will tell, but personally, I'm hoping for another animal storage building (especially if it means I get to have all of those cute, fluffy Baby Penguins running around on my farm!).
Remember, there is no guarantee that these items will be officially released within the game, so keep that in mind. Keep checking back with us though, as we'll make sure to give you guys all of the information about these new animals if and when they are released.
Not to be confused with the black and white, regular Gypsy Horse released at the end of November as part of the Winter Holiday theme of items, this Brown Gypsy Horse will be an entirely different animal, able to be placed inside the Horse Stable and bred with a Stallion to produce the adorable Brown Gypsy Foal also seen above. We're guessing that if the Brown Gypsy Horse doesn't make an appearance in a Mystery Game soon, that it will be available in the store for Farm Cash.
Meanwhile, the Baby Penguin is equally interesting, if not even more so. Since Penguins have been available in the game since even last year, this begs the question - Could Zynga be looking to create a Penguin "home" of some kind, through which these Baby Penguins would be bred? Or will it simply be released as a regular animal release in the store? Only time will tell, but personally, I'm hoping for another animal storage building (especially if it means I get to have all of those cute, fluffy Baby Penguins running around on my farm!).
Remember, there is no guarantee that these items will be officially released within the game, so keep that in mind. Keep checking back with us though, as we'll make sure to give you guys all of the information about these new animals if and when they are released.
FarmVille: The Case of the Missing Holiday Ducks
A new mystery has appeared in the land of FarmVille, concerning an item that was assumed to be released with last night's FarmVille update, but either wasn't, or jumped out of the store just as soon as it entered. The item is the Holiday Ducks decoration (a set of ducks standing underneath mistletoe that apparently kiss). As this entire ordeal has spawned user outrage and confusion, we thought we'd take a minute to shed some light on the current state of affairs concerning when and if this item will ever be coming back to the store.
As of last night's update, the Holiday Ducks are nowhere to be found in the game, which is especially odd, considering that a recently added FarmVille loading screen, and the in-game marketplace (pictured) both contain images of the item. So, at least we know that the Holiday Ducks are real.
Multiple threads have appeared on the official FarmVille forums concerning these missing animals, with some users reporting that the Ducks were available in the store for a very brief period yesterday evening, before mysteriously vanishing without a trace. Furthermore, Zynga even announced that the Holiday Ducks were available in the store for 15 Farm Cash. We've read user reports of finding the ducks for 15 or 20 Farm Cash, but we have no visual proof of their existence - they disappeared that quickly.
This becomes even more of an issue when we take a look at the time limit for the other Winter Holiday items that are currently available in the store. Even those items that were released last night will only be available for 9 days, and every day that the ducks remain MIA is apparently another day that users won't have to purchase them, if and when they reappear.
Where did they go? Honestly, we don't know at this point. As of this writing, they are nowhere to be found in the game's store, and they aren't on the free gifts page. We've contacted Zynga for comment, and will be sure to let you know if and when this situation changes. We're assuming that this the disappearance of the ducks was due to an in-game glitch of some kind, but we'll continue to keep digging for information in case something else is going on.
As of last night's update, the Holiday Ducks are nowhere to be found in the game, which is especially odd, considering that a recently added FarmVille loading screen, and the in-game marketplace (pictured) both contain images of the item. So, at least we know that the Holiday Ducks are real.
Multiple threads have appeared on the official FarmVille forums concerning these missing animals, with some users reporting that the Ducks were available in the store for a very brief period yesterday evening, before mysteriously vanishing without a trace. Furthermore, Zynga even announced that the Holiday Ducks were available in the store for 15 Farm Cash. We've read user reports of finding the ducks for 15 or 20 Farm Cash, but we have no visual proof of their existence - they disappeared that quickly.
This becomes even more of an issue when we take a look at the time limit for the other Winter Holiday items that are currently available in the store. Even those items that were released last night will only be available for 9 days, and every day that the ducks remain MIA is apparently another day that users won't have to purchase them, if and when they reappear.
Where did they go? Honestly, we don't know at this point. As of this writing, they are nowhere to be found in the game's store, and they aren't on the free gifts page. We've contacted Zynga for comment, and will be sure to let you know if and when this situation changes. We're assuming that this the disappearance of the ducks was due to an in-game glitch of some kind, but we'll continue to keep digging for information in case something else is going on.
It's Official: CityVille dethrones FarmVille as Zynga's top Facebook game
Alright, so it didn't exactly happen yesterday, but CityVille has soared high above FarmVille's 56.8 million players with a massive (for these days) 61.7 million monthly players. It did what many thought was the impossible in just 22 days, according to Inside Social, and it took good old FarmVille four months to reach that size back in the day. While we've already explored what might have contributed to the game's blindingly fast rise to Zynga supremacy, it's impossible to tell how long this will last.
It will take at least another month for CityVille's numbers to stabilize--or at least slow down, for Pete's sake. These numbers are purely an accumulation of the amount of players who have logged into the game at least once in the past three weeks. Whether the game can hold the interest of its nearly 62 million players for a lengthy period of time has yet to be seen. However, if the game keeps growing at this rate, it could easily meet FarmVille's former glory of 84 million monthly players by 2011. Until then, Mark Pincus and the CityVille team can enjoy their early Christmas gift Scrooge McDuck style.
It will take at least another month for CityVille's numbers to stabilize--or at least slow down, for Pete's sake. These numbers are purely an accumulation of the amount of players who have logged into the game at least once in the past three weeks. Whether the game can hold the interest of its nearly 62 million players for a lengthy period of time has yet to be seen. However, if the game keeps growing at this rate, it could easily meet FarmVille's former glory of 84 million monthly players by 2011. Until then, Mark Pincus and the CityVille team can enjoy their early Christmas gift Scrooge McDuck style.
Mafia Wars FrontierVille Beaver Pelt Promo: Everything you need to know
Mafia Wars Beaver Pelts
Looking for some easy items to come by in Mafia Wars? Well, Zynga has introduced another of its infamous cross-promotions in the game involving FrontierVille. This time around, all you need to do is take a trip over to your New York properties and click on any of the four buildings that produce items, which includes the brand new Private Zoo.
Chop Shop FrontierVille Promo
From there, you'll see some brand new items on the first page, but they each require a unique part that you won't find on the streets of New York, but way out West on the frontier. Click on the "Get Part" button with the FrontierVille logo attached to get started.
Follow us after the break to find out how to nab these limited edition items.
A Day in the Life of a Beaver
Clicking the "Get Part" button will transport you to your FrontierVille game. Upon loading the game, you will instantly be greeted with a new Goal titled "A Day in the Life of a Beaver I." Thankfully, this Goal can be completed in minutes, especially if you're already a seasoned pioneer. You'll need to have or collect 15 Wood, clear one Stump from the homestead and have or purchase two Fences from the Market. As for that final requirement, you must clear one full tree and remove its Stump to get credit for it. In other words, old Stumps lying around on the homestead will not count. Once completed, enjoy 50 XP and 250 coins.
A Day in the Life of a Beaver II
The second Goal in this series, "A Day in the Life of a Beaver II," is simple enough. Just click on "Claim Reward" to be launched back into your New York Property page in Mafia Wars one Beaver Pelt richer. Then, enter any one of your production properties and notice that a "Build" button has replaced that "Get Part" button. Just click and you got yourself a nice weapon, vehicle, armor or animal with a permanent stat increase. That's right, all of the items in this promotion will permanent boost one of your stats, just see for yourself below. (If you want the rest of these promotional items, then follow these easy steps in all four production Buildings--the mission will be exactly the same.)
Bearskin Cloak
Venture Axe
Big Horn Sheep
As you can probably already tell, all of these items have the same exact stats on them. However, each provide a unique, permanent boost to either your Defense, Attack or Energy, making them well worth the effort for min/max players.
Looking for some easy items to come by in Mafia Wars? Well, Zynga has introduced another of its infamous cross-promotions in the game involving FrontierVille. This time around, all you need to do is take a trip over to your New York properties and click on any of the four buildings that produce items, which includes the brand new Private Zoo.
Chop Shop FrontierVille Promo
From there, you'll see some brand new items on the first page, but they each require a unique part that you won't find on the streets of New York, but way out West on the frontier. Click on the "Get Part" button with the FrontierVille logo attached to get started.
Follow us after the break to find out how to nab these limited edition items.
A Day in the Life of a Beaver
Clicking the "Get Part" button will transport you to your FrontierVille game. Upon loading the game, you will instantly be greeted with a new Goal titled "A Day in the Life of a Beaver I." Thankfully, this Goal can be completed in minutes, especially if you're already a seasoned pioneer. You'll need to have or collect 15 Wood, clear one Stump from the homestead and have or purchase two Fences from the Market. As for that final requirement, you must clear one full tree and remove its Stump to get credit for it. In other words, old Stumps lying around on the homestead will not count. Once completed, enjoy 50 XP and 250 coins.
A Day in the Life of a Beaver II
The second Goal in this series, "A Day in the Life of a Beaver II," is simple enough. Just click on "Claim Reward" to be launched back into your New York Property page in Mafia Wars one Beaver Pelt richer. Then, enter any one of your production properties and notice that a "Build" button has replaced that "Get Part" button. Just click and you got yourself a nice weapon, vehicle, armor or animal with a permanent stat increase. That's right, all of the items in this promotion will permanent boost one of your stats, just see for yourself below. (If you want the rest of these promotional items, then follow these easy steps in all four production Buildings--the mission will be exactly the same.)
Bearskin Cloak
Venture Axe
Big Horn Sheep
As you can probably already tell, all of these items have the same exact stats on them. However, each provide a unique, permanent boost to either your Defense, Attack or Energy, making them well worth the effort for min/max players.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Facebook updates formula for active users, player numbers plummet
Just before the weekend, Facebook threw everyone for a loop with a new approach to calculating just how "active" monthly active users are of its thousands of apps, namely social games. And as a result, the numbers of monthly active players of just about every Facebook game and developer have dropped significantly. And we say "significantly" because of Facebook's reasoning behind the change.
"Given that most apps work this way, we're changing our active user figures for Apps on Facebook to publicly report the number of users that authenticate with the app," Facebook's Rushi Desai writes. "We believe this shift from "visitors" to "authenticated users" more accurately reflects the usage of an application, and it brings our measurement methodology for apps into alignment with how we measure engagement on Facebook."
What Facebook is essentially saying is that it is no longer counting the users who visit an app or game's Canvas, but refuse to authenticate the app and leave the page before ever entering the game. Instead, Facebook will now only count the amount of users that actively log into the app or game per month.
CityVille MAU
The company goes on to say that the one-time drop will result in a perceived decline in the number of active users of its many social games and apps, but the number of users actually engaging with the apps is unchanged. But that's just it: Regardless of whether the same rough portion of players have been "actively engaging" with games like CityVille this month, this still means that nearly 20 million people merely visited the app in the last month and did not play the game. And that goes for not just CityVille, but Facebook games across the board.
This is certainly a positive change for all, as it promotes a more accurate measure of just how many players are actually playing these still-massive social games. However, the change reveals how many players are actually logging into these games every month as opposed to merely visiting. And no matter how you slice it, the numbers are smaller than previously imagined.
"Given that most apps work this way, we're changing our active user figures for Apps on Facebook to publicly report the number of users that authenticate with the app," Facebook's Rushi Desai writes. "We believe this shift from "visitors" to "authenticated users" more accurately reflects the usage of an application, and it brings our measurement methodology for apps into alignment with how we measure engagement on Facebook."
What Facebook is essentially saying is that it is no longer counting the users who visit an app or game's Canvas, but refuse to authenticate the app and leave the page before ever entering the game. Instead, Facebook will now only count the amount of users that actively log into the app or game per month.
CityVille MAU
The company goes on to say that the one-time drop will result in a perceived decline in the number of active users of its many social games and apps, but the number of users actually engaging with the apps is unchanged. But that's just it: Regardless of whether the same rough portion of players have been "actively engaging" with games like CityVille this month, this still means that nearly 20 million people merely visited the app in the last month and did not play the game. And that goes for not just CityVille, but Facebook games across the board.
This is certainly a positive change for all, as it promotes a more accurate measure of just how many players are actually playing these still-massive social games. However, the change reveals how many players are actually logging into these games every month as opposed to merely visiting. And no matter how you slice it, the numbers are smaller than previously imagined.
AddictingGames on iPhone is the top free App Store app after 48 hours
Nickelodeon Games and AddictingGames look like they're on a roll, as the AddictingGames (AG) iPhone app became the number one free app on the App Store within just 48 hours of its launch. The app, which is more like a suite of games, packs 18 of the game portal's best games--well, those that work best with touch controls.
The company looks to constantly update the AG app with new games, and already three new games are slated to hit the app on Oct. 20 in a Halloween-themed update. The app features Facebook Connect integration, which allows players to share their high scores and achievements. Players can also share games they've discovered in the app, which should come more in handy as the list of available games grows.
The iOS version of AddictingGames comes just months after Nickelodeon Games released a Facebook app for its stable of 4,000 games this past spring to a healthy 1.3 million monthly players. Included in the AG iPhone app (we've been told that an iPad-optimized version is on the way) are games like Catopult, Achoo! and a game developed exclusively for iOS: Potty Copter.
Now, whether AddictingGames can hold the top spot for the rest of the month (and for when we highlight the top 10 free iOS and Android games) will be even more impressive. The app's Facebook-driven social features are still taking shape, but you can see whether we dug AG on iPhone in our preview right here.
The company looks to constantly update the AG app with new games, and already three new games are slated to hit the app on Oct. 20 in a Halloween-themed update. The app features Facebook Connect integration, which allows players to share their high scores and achievements. Players can also share games they've discovered in the app, which should come more in handy as the list of available games grows.
The iOS version of AddictingGames comes just months after Nickelodeon Games released a Facebook app for its stable of 4,000 games this past spring to a healthy 1.3 million monthly players. Included in the AG iPhone app (we've been told that an iPad-optimized version is on the way) are games like Catopult, Achoo! and a game developed exclusively for iOS: Potty Copter.
Now, whether AddictingGames can hold the top spot for the rest of the month (and for when we highlight the top 10 free iOS and Android games) will be even more impressive. The app's Facebook-driven social features are still taking shape, but you can see whether we dug AG on iPhone in our preview right here.
First Elvis, now John Belushi to be revived in a Facebook game, too?
John Belushi
We couldn't make this stuff up if we tried, folks. And--get this--John Belushi will be featured in the same social game as Elvis, old cars and apparently soap opera stars (or something like that). Entertainment Games announced that, thanks to the license agreement it scored with CMG Worldwide, John Belushi will star in its first, mysterious "retro-based social game."
When it finally unleashes what sounds like a social game nostalgia bomb, it will be available on Facebook, Google+, mobile phones and simply in the browser. According to a release, we're quite close to the release of the still unnamed social game, which is said to focus heavily on story and will be built on the Heyday platform, which Entertainment Games acquired earlier this year.
"Everyone remembers the comic genius of John Belushi," Entertainment Games president Gene Mauro said in a release. "He brought laughter to the world, and it's truly exciting to cast him in new roles and feature him on virtual goods in our new social game. We're honored to be associated with CMG Worldwide and John Belushi and look forward to announcing more of our game's celebrity cast members as we approach our product launch."
The Langhorne, Penn.-based company is certainly taking the branded games strategy to a whole new level. Rather than focusing on a particular brand (or even a single celebrity, for that matter), Entertainment Games looks to harness the pull of a slew of old-time celebrities. That said, at least we know the audience that the company is going for with this release. I'm looking at you, baby boomers.
We couldn't make this stuff up if we tried, folks. And--get this--John Belushi will be featured in the same social game as Elvis, old cars and apparently soap opera stars (or something like that). Entertainment Games announced that, thanks to the license agreement it scored with CMG Worldwide, John Belushi will star in its first, mysterious "retro-based social game."
When it finally unleashes what sounds like a social game nostalgia bomb, it will be available on Facebook, Google+, mobile phones and simply in the browser. According to a release, we're quite close to the release of the still unnamed social game, which is said to focus heavily on story and will be built on the Heyday platform, which Entertainment Games acquired earlier this year.
"Everyone remembers the comic genius of John Belushi," Entertainment Games president Gene Mauro said in a release. "He brought laughter to the world, and it's truly exciting to cast him in new roles and feature him on virtual goods in our new social game. We're honored to be associated with CMG Worldwide and John Belushi and look forward to announcing more of our game's celebrity cast members as we approach our product launch."
The Langhorne, Penn.-based company is certainly taking the branded games strategy to a whole new level. Rather than focusing on a particular brand (or even a single celebrity, for that matter), Entertainment Games looks to harness the pull of a slew of old-time celebrities. That said, at least we know the audience that the company is going for with this release. I'm looking at you, baby boomers.
Asura's Wrath maker says mobile social games are 'all rubbish'
At least they're "junk" in Japan, according to Hiroshi Matsuyama (pictured), CEO of Fukuoka, Japan-based developer CyberConnect 2. During an interview with Gamasutra, the chief overseeing upcoming traditional console games like Asura's Wrath for publisher Capcom and a Naruto game for Namco Bandai, said, "Another thing that I dislike is social games. Everybody is talking about social this, and social that. Even Bandai Namco. I don't like that."
However, don't think that Matsuyama's ire for social games is uninformed--the guy has reached Level 250 in DeNA's Kaito Royale for smartphones. "They're not fun at all. But, I have to play it," Matsuyama told Gamasutra. "The reality is that it has over 3 million users, and it's true that they're making money. I need to be aware of those businesses, so of course I play them. GREE's Dragon Collection. I've played that, too. [Matsuyama pulls out two smartphones] This is my iPhone, and this is my Android phone, and I play these games on both of these phones -- but they're all rubbish."
Ouch, Matsuyama. Keep in mind, however, the CyberConnect 2 president is referring specifically to Japanese mobile social games. Though, Matsuyama name dropped Infinity Blade for iOS (and soon on Mobage) as a favorite mobile game of his. Regardless, Matsuyama appears to think that, frankly, both Gree and DeNA have work to do before their games are suitable.
This point of view certainly isn't unique to Japan, as designers far and wide in the U.S. have called social games out for shallow gameplay, predatory design or just not being social enough. It seems that, regardless of the fact that social games are making a killing, they have a long way to go before earning the respect of traditional game designers. That is, of course, as their colleagues leave in droves for the social games scene.
However, don't think that Matsuyama's ire for social games is uninformed--the guy has reached Level 250 in DeNA's Kaito Royale for smartphones. "They're not fun at all. But, I have to play it," Matsuyama told Gamasutra. "The reality is that it has over 3 million users, and it's true that they're making money. I need to be aware of those businesses, so of course I play them. GREE's Dragon Collection. I've played that, too. [Matsuyama pulls out two smartphones] This is my iPhone, and this is my Android phone, and I play these games on both of these phones -- but they're all rubbish."
Ouch, Matsuyama. Keep in mind, however, the CyberConnect 2 president is referring specifically to Japanese mobile social games. Though, Matsuyama name dropped Infinity Blade for iOS (and soon on Mobage) as a favorite mobile game of his. Regardless, Matsuyama appears to think that, frankly, both Gree and DeNA have work to do before their games are suitable.
This point of view certainly isn't unique to Japan, as designers far and wide in the U.S. have called social games out for shallow gameplay, predatory design or just not being social enough. It seems that, regardless of the fact that social games are making a killing, they have a long way to go before earning the respect of traditional game designers. That is, of course, as their colleagues leave in droves for the social games scene.
MapleStory Adventures hits home on Facebook in new content update
Remain calm: Nexon hasn't added the chance for home wreckers to ruin things just yet--only homes. The Korean developer of MapleStory Adventures, the Facebook edition of its hit online game, has allowed players to shack up in their very own homes. This major content update brings multifaceted living spaces to the game's 1.7 million monthly players, which players can visit daily.
At any point during play, you can now press the "Go Home" button on the right hand side of your screen to enter your house. From here, you can craft various items and enchant your own equipment to upgrade its effectiveness. The home space also features a peach tree that you can pick daily for extra experience, and a mail box to collect daily bonus items from.
Players can visit each friends' five times daily and help them reduce item crafting times or harvest their peach trees. But even for just visiting, players will score an experience bonus. Along with the homes, Nexon seems to have added a Heart Level, which we imagine works like Reputation does in most Facebook games. The update certainly helps MapleStory Adventures feel more like a full game like its predecessor. Now, for those additional class choices--I've got dibs on the Archer.
At any point during play, you can now press the "Go Home" button on the right hand side of your screen to enter your house. From here, you can craft various items and enchant your own equipment to upgrade its effectiveness. The home space also features a peach tree that you can pick daily for extra experience, and a mail box to collect daily bonus items from.
Players can visit each friends' five times daily and help them reduce item crafting times or harvest their peach trees. But even for just visiting, players will score an experience bonus. Along with the homes, Nexon seems to have added a Heart Level, which we imagine works like Reputation does in most Facebook games. The update certainly helps MapleStory Adventures feel more like a full game like its predecessor. Now, for those additional class choices--I've got dibs on the Archer.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
FarmVille Ducklings: Everything you need to know
After many promises and a little bit of impatient waiting (ok, a lot of impatient waiting), FarmVille farmers are now being treated to the release of ducklings in the game. As promised by Zynga at the release of the Duck Pond, these ducklings will be available to receive when harvesting your Duck Pond, in a similar manner to finding Mystery Eggs when harvesting your Chicken Coop. The special thing here is that these ducklings will grow up, and they'll grow into adult forums of all new kinds of ducks.
To put this all into perspective, when you harvest your Duck Pond, you have a chance of finding a duckling. As of right now, it appears that only brown and yellow ducklings have been released into circulation, and you won't be able to see the rest of the duckling feature until you actually receive a Duckling on your farm. Once you do, though, you'll need to go about raising your duckling, to see what kind of mature duck it will grow into.
You'll need the help of your friends to grow these ducklings, so meet us behind the break to see how you can help your friends (and help yourself) earn some of these exclusive new ducks. Just as when finding a Mystery Egg in your Chicken Coop, you'll only find a duckling at random, and aren't guaranteed to receive one each and every time you harvest from your Duck Pond. Once you do receive a duckling however, you'll be able to post a news item to your feed, sharing a duckling with your friends. You also keep one for yourself.
As of this writing, in order to grow the duckling, you must keep it out of your Duck Pond. That is, place it outside the Duck Pond, on the regular ground, until you have a chance to help it grow. You'll then be told that you need to ask seven neighbors (that is, seven different players) to help you take care of your duckling. You'll need to click on the "Ask for Help" button inside the duckling window that appears for each duckling, which will allow you to send individual gift requests to your friends, asking them for help in growing your duckling. You'll have six days to get the help you need, and once you gain all the help you require, you'll actually be able to choose which kind of duck you want that particular duckling to turn into as an adult.
There are different kinds of adult ducks, based on the kind of duckling you started out with. That is, brown ducklings can grow into a different variety of adult ducks than yellow ducklings can. While those are the only two varieties of ducklings available as of right now, it's presumable that if and when more ducklings are added to the game, new adult versions would be added as well.
Once you finish growing your duckling into an adult, you'll be able to share another prize with your friends, and specifically the neighbors that helped you grow your duckling into an adult in the first place. A general news post shares a duckling with your neighbors, while an individual wall post can be made on the particular helpers' walls, giving them a reward that is apparently specific to the type of duck you chose.
There is already a very active forum thread on the official FarmVille forums, discussing the feature and the kinds of rewards you can win, and we'll be sure to update you when more news about this feature launches. Remember, you're not guaranteed to receive a duckling upon harvesting your Duck Pond, but don't lose faith - we're sure you'll get one in time!
To put this all into perspective, when you harvest your Duck Pond, you have a chance of finding a duckling. As of right now, it appears that only brown and yellow ducklings have been released into circulation, and you won't be able to see the rest of the duckling feature until you actually receive a Duckling on your farm. Once you do, though, you'll need to go about raising your duckling, to see what kind of mature duck it will grow into.
You'll need the help of your friends to grow these ducklings, so meet us behind the break to see how you can help your friends (and help yourself) earn some of these exclusive new ducks. Just as when finding a Mystery Egg in your Chicken Coop, you'll only find a duckling at random, and aren't guaranteed to receive one each and every time you harvest from your Duck Pond. Once you do receive a duckling however, you'll be able to post a news item to your feed, sharing a duckling with your friends. You also keep one for yourself.
As of this writing, in order to grow the duckling, you must keep it out of your Duck Pond. That is, place it outside the Duck Pond, on the regular ground, until you have a chance to help it grow. You'll then be told that you need to ask seven neighbors (that is, seven different players) to help you take care of your duckling. You'll need to click on the "Ask for Help" button inside the duckling window that appears for each duckling, which will allow you to send individual gift requests to your friends, asking them for help in growing your duckling. You'll have six days to get the help you need, and once you gain all the help you require, you'll actually be able to choose which kind of duck you want that particular duckling to turn into as an adult.
There are different kinds of adult ducks, based on the kind of duckling you started out with. That is, brown ducklings can grow into a different variety of adult ducks than yellow ducklings can. While those are the only two varieties of ducklings available as of right now, it's presumable that if and when more ducklings are added to the game, new adult versions would be added as well.
Once you finish growing your duckling into an adult, you'll be able to share another prize with your friends, and specifically the neighbors that helped you grow your duckling into an adult in the first place. A general news post shares a duckling with your neighbors, while an individual wall post can be made on the particular helpers' walls, giving them a reward that is apparently specific to the type of duck you chose.
There is already a very active forum thread on the official FarmVille forums, discussing the feature and the kinds of rewards you can win, and we'll be sure to update you when more news about this feature launches. Remember, you're not guaranteed to receive a duckling upon harvesting your Duck Pond, but don't lose faith - we're sure you'll get one in time!
FarmVille Duckling Prizes: Everything you need to know
While we've already given you a complete run-down on how to receive the new ducklings that have been released in FarmVille this evening, we've also compiled the complete list of prizes that you can receive from each kind of duckling. As we told you before, you have a chance of finding either a brown or a yellow duckling when harvesting your Duck Pond, and depending on which kind of duckling you receive, the adult ducks that it can grow into will be different.
In both cases, you'll be able to choose the kind of duck you want your duckling to grow into (there are seven options to choose from, and brown and yellow ducklings do share a few prizes), but there's a catch - depending on how long it takes you to grow your duckling into an adult, you'll have either more or less of these seven ducks to choose from when finished. That is, the longer it takes you to raise your ducklings (that longer it takes you to ask seven friends for help), the less adult ducks you can choose from, and vice versa.
Finish raising the duck in less than 24 hours, and you'll receive a choice of all seven ducks for that duckling. Raise the duckling in a time between 5 and 6 days, however, and you'll only have a single duck to choose from.
To see the complete list of prize ducks available for each color of duckling, meet us behind the break.
If you are growing a Yellow Duckling into an adult, you'll have the following ducks to choose from (note: most of these have been previewed in a FarmVille Sneak Peek here in the past, so they will likely look familiar):
Indian Runner Duck
Cayuga Duck
Goldeneye Duck
Red-Billed Duck
Scoter Duck
Peking Duck
Ugly Duckling
If you are growing a Brown Duckling into an adult, you'll have these ducks available as prizes (note that some of these are like-prizes from growing the Yellow Duckling):
Black Swan
Wood Duck
Muscovy Duck
Indian Runner Duck
Cayuga Duck
Goldeneye Duck
Red-Billed Duck
As there are different time limits required for each of these duck prizes, your best bet would be to grow each duckling you find as quickly as you possibly can, so as to ensure that you'll have the full selection of seven ducks to choose from when it comes time to transform that duckling into an adult. This will also ensure that you have to do as little work as possible in collecting one of each kind of new duck available, as you won't have to worry about duplicating ducks due to your running out of time.
In both cases, you'll be able to choose the kind of duck you want your duckling to grow into (there are seven options to choose from, and brown and yellow ducklings do share a few prizes), but there's a catch - depending on how long it takes you to grow your duckling into an adult, you'll have either more or less of these seven ducks to choose from when finished. That is, the longer it takes you to raise your ducklings (that longer it takes you to ask seven friends for help), the less adult ducks you can choose from, and vice versa.
Finish raising the duck in less than 24 hours, and you'll receive a choice of all seven ducks for that duckling. Raise the duckling in a time between 5 and 6 days, however, and you'll only have a single duck to choose from.
To see the complete list of prize ducks available for each color of duckling, meet us behind the break.
If you are growing a Yellow Duckling into an adult, you'll have the following ducks to choose from (note: most of these have been previewed in a FarmVille Sneak Peek here in the past, so they will likely look familiar):
Indian Runner Duck
Cayuga Duck
Goldeneye Duck
Red-Billed Duck
Scoter Duck
Peking Duck
Ugly Duckling
If you are growing a Brown Duckling into an adult, you'll have these ducks available as prizes (note that some of these are like-prizes from growing the Yellow Duckling):
Black Swan
Wood Duck
Muscovy Duck
Indian Runner Duck
Cayuga Duck
Goldeneye Duck
Red-Billed Duck
As there are different time limits required for each of these duck prizes, your best bet would be to grow each duckling you find as quickly as you possibly can, so as to ensure that you'll have the full selection of seven ducks to choose from when it comes time to transform that duckling into an adult. This will also ensure that you have to do as little work as possible in collecting one of each kind of new duck available, as you won't have to worry about duplicating ducks due to your running out of time.
FrontierVille Care Packages: Let's try this again, Zynga
They're back, pioneers. Care Packages, your most favorite (or most hated depending on your situation) item, has returned to FrontierVille. Much like Special Deliveries in FarmVille, Care Packages will always contain an item you need (either for a building or Goal) once opened. FrontierVille Info reports that the smart boxes have returned to the game, but they're not exactly a free gift like they were before.
Only after visiting a friend and completing all five daily tasks there will you be prompted to send that friend a Care Package. However, I've yet to see the items in my game, so we imagine that Zynga is slowly rolling them back out to players. The idea behind this system appears to be to entice more players to visit one another more often. And with an item you'll always be guaranteed to need at stake, Zynga might be onto something.
Only after visiting a friend and completing all five daily tasks there will you be prompted to send that friend a Care Package. However, I've yet to see the items in my game, so we imagine that Zynga is slowly rolling them back out to players. The idea behind this system appears to be to entice more players to visit one another more often. And with an item you'll always be guaranteed to need at stake, Zynga might be onto something.
FarmVille possibly hacked, Facebook responds to other security issues
Hacker
For those who aren't normally lurking the FarmVille forums, they've been in an uproar over a FarmVille player known as Ekşın Man. According to several forum users, this player has been posting messages on their Walls via the FarmVille app, but none of them are actually friends with him. Most of his posts read, "Can you hear me again? FarmVille players? Yeees, greetingz from Turkey to you too. Farmville oyuncuları çileklerinizi toplayın low."
That last bit translates roughly to "Farmville players gather strawberries low URLs." Unfortunately, we haven't an idea in the slightest as to what Ekşın Man is referring to. FarmVille Freak questions whether the game has been hacked by this presumably Turkish player. In a poll conducted by the site, over 51 percent of readers suspect FarmVille has been hacked. It appears that Zynga has yet to comment on the issue.
Elsewhere, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's page on the website was also hacked yesterday. After promptly taking the page down, the security team at Facebook has added some enhanced security measures to the platform including social captchas and the option to run access Facebook through HTTPS at all times. First, these social captchas will replace the usual warped-letter prompts seen when posting on forums or submitting payment information to websites.
Instead, you will now be asked to identify friends in a series of photos in order to log in when Facebook detects suspicious account activity. Second, HTTPS is a more secure version of the normal "HTTP" connection at the beginning of most web addresses. Soon, users will have the option of always connecting to Facebook this way, TechCrunch reports. Until we hear word from Zynga concerning this potential hack, our best advice is to block posts coming from Ekşın Man if he has appeared on your Wall.
For those who aren't normally lurking the FarmVille forums, they've been in an uproar over a FarmVille player known as Ekşın Man. According to several forum users, this player has been posting messages on their Walls via the FarmVille app, but none of them are actually friends with him. Most of his posts read, "Can you hear me again? FarmVille players? Yeees, greetingz from Turkey to you too. Farmville oyuncuları çileklerinizi toplayın low."
That last bit translates roughly to "Farmville players gather strawberries low URLs." Unfortunately, we haven't an idea in the slightest as to what Ekşın Man is referring to. FarmVille Freak questions whether the game has been hacked by this presumably Turkish player. In a poll conducted by the site, over 51 percent of readers suspect FarmVille has been hacked. It appears that Zynga has yet to comment on the issue.
Elsewhere, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's page on the website was also hacked yesterday. After promptly taking the page down, the security team at Facebook has added some enhanced security measures to the platform including social captchas and the option to run access Facebook through HTTPS at all times. First, these social captchas will replace the usual warped-letter prompts seen when posting on forums or submitting payment information to websites.
Instead, you will now be asked to identify friends in a series of photos in order to log in when Facebook detects suspicious account activity. Second, HTTPS is a more secure version of the normal "HTTP" connection at the beginning of most web addresses. Soon, users will have the option of always connecting to Facebook this way, TechCrunch reports. Until we hear word from Zynga concerning this potential hack, our best advice is to block posts coming from Ekşın Man if he has appeared on your Wall.
Angry Birds on Facebook 'wouldn't make a lot of sense'
Angry Birds
Well, at least it wouldn't according to Facebook's brand new director of gaming partnerships Sean Ryan. During a panel at the Inside Social Apps conference in San Francisco, Calif., the new hire made some bold statements about what works on Facebook just three weeks into his new gig, according to TechCrunch. When asked to elaborate on why the ubiquitous Angry Birds wouldn't work on the platform in comparison to CityVille, Ryan said:
We don't bring anything to the table but it's still a great game. If you have a social game, we believe you should build it for us, that's what we do. If you have a single player game, it's not clear why you should build it for us, you should probably build it for other people. Folks like PopCap have been able to brilliantly take a downloadable game, which was Bejeweled and after a lot of work turned it into a social game. So you can do it, but there's not much point.
Plainly speaking, developers probably shouldn't bother porting single-player games to Facebook, but nothing is stopping them. I'm sure Angry Birds developer Rovio could figure something out. (Just look at what Frima did with Pocket God.)
When asked during the panel about what game he'd most like to see ported to Facebook, Ryan replied, "Civilization ... it's one of the best multiplayer games ever, and it's not yet on Facebook. Whenever there's a true multiplayer game that involves a lot of social interaction it arguably should be on our platform, because that's what we do." Mr. Ryan, we're happy to inform you that your dreams have already come true! In fact, they did almost a month ago. Come to think of it, you should probably give Sid Meier a ring.
[Image Credit: Video Games Blogger]
How do you think Angry Birds would do on Facebook? What single-player game do you want to see most on Facebook?
Well, at least it wouldn't according to Facebook's brand new director of gaming partnerships Sean Ryan. During a panel at the Inside Social Apps conference in San Francisco, Calif., the new hire made some bold statements about what works on Facebook just three weeks into his new gig, according to TechCrunch. When asked to elaborate on why the ubiquitous Angry Birds wouldn't work on the platform in comparison to CityVille, Ryan said:
We don't bring anything to the table but it's still a great game. If you have a social game, we believe you should build it for us, that's what we do. If you have a single player game, it's not clear why you should build it for us, you should probably build it for other people. Folks like PopCap have been able to brilliantly take a downloadable game, which was Bejeweled and after a lot of work turned it into a social game. So you can do it, but there's not much point.
Plainly speaking, developers probably shouldn't bother porting single-player games to Facebook, but nothing is stopping them. I'm sure Angry Birds developer Rovio could figure something out. (Just look at what Frima did with Pocket God.)
When asked during the panel about what game he'd most like to see ported to Facebook, Ryan replied, "Civilization ... it's one of the best multiplayer games ever, and it's not yet on Facebook. Whenever there's a true multiplayer game that involves a lot of social interaction it arguably should be on our platform, because that's what we do." Mr. Ryan, we're happy to inform you that your dreams have already come true! In fact, they did almost a month ago. Come to think of it, you should probably give Sid Meier a ring.
[Image Credit: Video Games Blogger]
How do you think Angry Birds would do on Facebook? What single-player game do you want to see most on Facebook?
Friday, January 6, 2012
Game of the Day: TextTwist
The Game of the Day is going to test those old spelling skills . TextTwist: Are you word wise? Do you love SCRABBLE? Take the Text Twist challenge! Win points when you unscramble the letters to make new words. TextTwist a classic on Games.com and people play it for hours. Join the craze.
Click --> play TextTwist
Important side note: Just by playing The Game of the Day you will be entered into a monthly drawing to win a FlipCam HD. You don't need to do anything else, just play! The more you play, the more chances you have to win. For more information on the Game of Day check out the official Game of the Day hub.
Click --> play TextTwist
Important side note: Just by playing The Game of the Day you will be entered into a monthly drawing to win a FlipCam HD. You don't need to do anything else, just play! The more you play, the more chances you have to win. For more information on the Game of Day check out the official Game of the Day hub.
FrontierVille Update: Visit Neighbors who visit you the easy way
A new feature has launched in FrontierVille. Hold you horses--it's nothing huge. When a friend visits you in the game and their avatar appears on your homestead, you now have the option to visit them right back before accepting the help. It's no big deal, but it's a much welcomed change over here. Come to think of it, Zynga probably should have included this a long time ago. It seems only natural that we'd want to return the favor, right? Well, be thankful now that it's easier than ever to do just that.
[Via FrontierVille Info]
Have you seen this brand new feature yet? What other optimizations are you waiting for in FrontierVille?
[Via FrontierVille Info]
Have you seen this brand new feature yet? What other optimizations are you waiting for in FrontierVille?
Saints Row on Facebook: Beating Mafia Wars at a different game
When I noticed that Saints Row, the Grand Theft Auto-inspired gang busters game for consoles, was on Facebook, assumptions ran wild. Though, the one rang most loudly was, "Here comes another Mafia Wars." THQ and Punch Entertainment threw us a curve ball with Saints Row: Total Control on Facebook. Admittedly, it looks strikingly similar to Crime City, but what's more surprising the developer didn't play it safe and copy the most popular mobster social game out there. And it makes for a refreshing and mildly fun experience, even if the graphics look like something out of a late '90s flash game.
Let's just address the elephant in the room right away: This game does not look good. The artwork lacks detail much less style and the animations are far from smooth. In fact, there is little motion in this social edition of Saints Row to begin with. Worse off, the music becomes a bother minutes after logging in. Shoddy graphics and animations? Check. Annoying sounds and music? Check. That leaves one hopefully redeeming quality: gameplay.
Saints Row map
Redemption is yours, THQ and Punch Entertainment. Players assume the role of a gang leader in the miscellaneous city of Stilwater. It's your role to dominate neighborhoods by force and assert your ... badassery? Look, I can't say I understand gang mentality, but I can say that, somehow, this game is fun. Perhaps it's the fact that clicking on drive-by shooters to shoot them dead is mindlessly enjoyable. Tuning down your mind is something you'll probably need to do to draw some enjoyment from Saints Row, which can be difficult at times.
Back to the clicking. The majority of your actions boil down to either Thugs, another word for Energy, or weapons. Thugs are spent doing nearly every task and replenish over time, but weapons are required to attack and take over increasingly tougher territories on the isometrically displayed map. Of course, taking down wandering enemy gang members and taking over buildings awards you coins, yet spends Thugs. In other words, Saints Row embodies the eternal balance of risk versus reward--the more you do, the more you spend--of nearly every social game in existence.
Shooting things rules
Players will eventually need to protect and maintain the neighborhoods they control and can hire friends to do it for them. This is the only social feature that's immediately noticeable. There doesn't seem to be any persistent competition between gangs of friends like in Mafia Wars, which is a severe oversight. Shouldn't a game about gangs embody and facilitate gang mentality? Regardless of whether you agree with gang mentality much less understand it, it's safe to assume that this is a feeling players want to experience vicariously when playing a gang game.
Frankly, Saints Row has plenty of shortcomings. While it's certainly differentiated itself from the industry leaders, it misses the point of gang games: competition. Sure, there's a sense of camaraderie in helping friends out. But where are the cutthroat rivalry and ruthless attempts at domination amongst players? Not to mention the presumably unintentional hilarity of your thugs aimlessly shooting at things, which counts as "taking over the neighborhood." There's no reason that a flash game in 2011 shouldn't look better than the first Grand Theft Auto. Despite all this, it'd be lying if I said that aimlessly shooting down passers by and slowly watching the neighborhood map turn purple wasn't fun.
Let's just address the elephant in the room right away: This game does not look good. The artwork lacks detail much less style and the animations are far from smooth. In fact, there is little motion in this social edition of Saints Row to begin with. Worse off, the music becomes a bother minutes after logging in. Shoddy graphics and animations? Check. Annoying sounds and music? Check. That leaves one hopefully redeeming quality: gameplay.
Saints Row map
Redemption is yours, THQ and Punch Entertainment. Players assume the role of a gang leader in the miscellaneous city of Stilwater. It's your role to dominate neighborhoods by force and assert your ... badassery? Look, I can't say I understand gang mentality, but I can say that, somehow, this game is fun. Perhaps it's the fact that clicking on drive-by shooters to shoot them dead is mindlessly enjoyable. Tuning down your mind is something you'll probably need to do to draw some enjoyment from Saints Row, which can be difficult at times.
Back to the clicking. The majority of your actions boil down to either Thugs, another word for Energy, or weapons. Thugs are spent doing nearly every task and replenish over time, but weapons are required to attack and take over increasingly tougher territories on the isometrically displayed map. Of course, taking down wandering enemy gang members and taking over buildings awards you coins, yet spends Thugs. In other words, Saints Row embodies the eternal balance of risk versus reward--the more you do, the more you spend--of nearly every social game in existence.
Shooting things rules
Players will eventually need to protect and maintain the neighborhoods they control and can hire friends to do it for them. This is the only social feature that's immediately noticeable. There doesn't seem to be any persistent competition between gangs of friends like in Mafia Wars, which is a severe oversight. Shouldn't a game about gangs embody and facilitate gang mentality? Regardless of whether you agree with gang mentality much less understand it, it's safe to assume that this is a feeling players want to experience vicariously when playing a gang game.
Frankly, Saints Row has plenty of shortcomings. While it's certainly differentiated itself from the industry leaders, it misses the point of gang games: competition. Sure, there's a sense of camaraderie in helping friends out. But where are the cutthroat rivalry and ruthless attempts at domination amongst players? Not to mention the presumably unintentional hilarity of your thugs aimlessly shooting at things, which counts as "taking over the neighborhood." There's no reason that a flash game in 2011 shouldn't look better than the first Grand Theft Auto. Despite all this, it'd be lying if I said that aimlessly shooting down passers by and slowly watching the neighborhood map turn purple wasn't fun.
Zynga to shut down Mafia Wars: Cuba on March 3 in new story arc
No, we didn't stutter. Mafia Wars: Cuba is going for good in less than a week, so clear out everything you can from there now before it's all gone. According to Zynga, the game's storyline is headed in a new direction and its oldest locale will be the center of it all ... sort of. It's where a new global criminal organization will begin its conquest to become to world's largest drug trafficker, and no one will be safe come March 3.
In fact, you'll be downright kicked out. There is a new set of missions for players Level 18 and above available now with Cuba that involve combating this threat, but we doubt your mobs will succeed. If you need a hint, here is one wearing a chicken suit painted in red:
"A shadowy organization called the Neo-Imperium is secretly working to destabilize the current world order and control all criminal activities throughout the planet. The Neo-Imperium are attempting to overthrow the government and install a puppet leader to establish one of the biggest drug trafficking centers in the world. This is a warning to all Mafia crime bosses that Cuba is no longer safe."
You hear that? That means have fun with these missions now, but come March 2 you better collect from every property and empty your vaults and banks before the Neo-Imperium takes over. In fact, Zynga is hosting 5x Job Mastery right up until the city becomes grayed out in the travel options.
Not to mention a new loot item will drop from now through March 2 that might come in handy against these bullies. Oh, and you'll get an extra 10 percent cash payout if you complete the missions on time. Is that enough of a kick in the butt for you? Before you jump the gun, check out Zynga's full FAQ.
In fact, you'll be downright kicked out. There is a new set of missions for players Level 18 and above available now with Cuba that involve combating this threat, but we doubt your mobs will succeed. If you need a hint, here is one wearing a chicken suit painted in red:
"A shadowy organization called the Neo-Imperium is secretly working to destabilize the current world order and control all criminal activities throughout the planet. The Neo-Imperium are attempting to overthrow the government and install a puppet leader to establish one of the biggest drug trafficking centers in the world. This is a warning to all Mafia crime bosses that Cuba is no longer safe."
You hear that? That means have fun with these missions now, but come March 2 you better collect from every property and empty your vaults and banks before the Neo-Imperium takes over. In fact, Zynga is hosting 5x Job Mastery right up until the city becomes grayed out in the travel options.
Not to mention a new loot item will drop from now through March 2 that might come in handy against these bullies. Oh, and you'll get an extra 10 percent cash payout if you complete the missions on time. Is that enough of a kick in the butt for you? Before you jump the gun, check out Zynga's full FAQ.
Zynga's CityVille is flawed (and brilliant): The issue of roads
CityVille no roads
Ever visited a friend's city in CityVille and notice something odd. It doesn't look like a city at all. There are rows upon rows of sushi bars on one end of the town while there is a slew of expensive chateaus on the other. (If everyone is living in $1 million homes and eating sushi all day, who is working at the banks and post offices much less the sushi bars?) But continue to suspend your disbelief for a moment and look between these fine, unrealistically placed establishments surrounded by elaborate bushes. Where did all the roads go?
They're gone, because they are worthless in CityVille. Roads cost 10 coins per square and serve no other purpose than to give pedestrians a place to walk between Businesses. However, Sidewalks cost double that, but take up less space and are much, much longer. So, what reason would an illustrious mayor have to place roads in their city rather than sidewalks. That's valuable space wasted that could be used by more homes and businesses. This is a fundamental flaw to CityVille and one of several reasons why players have reached such astronomical levels so quickly.
Cityville roads
It's also why cities in CityVille are so far disconnected from what actual cities look like. Sure, it'd be near impossible with today's technology to transform the intricacies and neuroses of a real city into a videogame much less a social game. But it's oversights like this that make that distinction so glaringly obvious. Cities in CityVille are flawed cities because they fail to take into account even basic concepts like location and redundancy when placing homes and businesses. Surely most of you high-level players had a thought like this cross your mind as you were playing: "What Business makes the most money? That one? OK, let's build a ton of them and surround them with bushes."
This isn't to say that Zynga's Business mechanic is anything short of brilliant. It gets players to think critically and apply concepts, something more gamers, traditional and social alike, need to exercise. But it's oversights (or intentional design) like rendering basic infrastructure tools entirely worthless that make CityVille appear terribly flawed through one lens and clever in others. On one hand, CityVille's lack of functional roads is an insult to gamers' intelligence everywhere. Yet on the other, it's complete genius for helping turn one of the most complex professions, urban planning, into a game that over 95 million players enjoy. Would I like to see more realistic, organic cities? Absolutely. In that case, does the game need anymore complexity? Probably not.
What do you think of the look of cities in CityVille? Would you like to see this part of the game's design change? Do you use roads anyway for aesthetics's sake?
Ever visited a friend's city in CityVille and notice something odd. It doesn't look like a city at all. There are rows upon rows of sushi bars on one end of the town while there is a slew of expensive chateaus on the other. (If everyone is living in $1 million homes and eating sushi all day, who is working at the banks and post offices much less the sushi bars?) But continue to suspend your disbelief for a moment and look between these fine, unrealistically placed establishments surrounded by elaborate bushes. Where did all the roads go?
They're gone, because they are worthless in CityVille. Roads cost 10 coins per square and serve no other purpose than to give pedestrians a place to walk between Businesses. However, Sidewalks cost double that, but take up less space and are much, much longer. So, what reason would an illustrious mayor have to place roads in their city rather than sidewalks. That's valuable space wasted that could be used by more homes and businesses. This is a fundamental flaw to CityVille and one of several reasons why players have reached such astronomical levels so quickly.
Cityville roads
It's also why cities in CityVille are so far disconnected from what actual cities look like. Sure, it'd be near impossible with today's technology to transform the intricacies and neuroses of a real city into a videogame much less a social game. But it's oversights like this that make that distinction so glaringly obvious. Cities in CityVille are flawed cities because they fail to take into account even basic concepts like location and redundancy when placing homes and businesses. Surely most of you high-level players had a thought like this cross your mind as you were playing: "What Business makes the most money? That one? OK, let's build a ton of them and surround them with bushes."
This isn't to say that Zynga's Business mechanic is anything short of brilliant. It gets players to think critically and apply concepts, something more gamers, traditional and social alike, need to exercise. But it's oversights (or intentional design) like rendering basic infrastructure tools entirely worthless that make CityVille appear terribly flawed through one lens and clever in others. On one hand, CityVille's lack of functional roads is an insult to gamers' intelligence everywhere. Yet on the other, it's complete genius for helping turn one of the most complex professions, urban planning, into a game that over 95 million players enjoy. Would I like to see more realistic, organic cities? Absolutely. In that case, does the game need anymore complexity? Probably not.
What do you think of the look of cities in CityVille? Would you like to see this part of the game's design change? Do you use roads anyway for aesthetics's sake?
Thursday, January 5, 2012
FarmVille: English Countryside rollout "on hold" due to bugs
Update: It appears as though the rollout has begun once again, as Lexi has commented that a new bug fix has been implemented. Keep checking your farm to see if the update has rolled out to your game.
As with all major FarmVille updates, Zynga chooses to roll them out to a few players to ensure the stability of the game. That is the case with the English Countryside as well, with this being one the slowest rollouts we've seen yet.
The wait for farmers to travel to England has gotten longer this afternoon, as Community Manager Lexilicious confirms that Zynga has stopped rolling out the feature for the time being, due to the appearance of some apparently unforeseen bugs (these seem to mostly be out of sync errors or invisible quests, although there are likely others) that need to be addressed. Here's the official word:
We have found some bugs that need to be addressed before we continue to roll the feature out. (This is why we do slow releases!) These could take a little while to fix, so I would take a break from refreshing the game.
Luckily, Lexi also goes on to say that this "most likely means a few hours" before the team can look at continuing to release to more people. Ever at the ready to answer questions, Lexi's latest post (posted around 30 minutes ago) confirms that the rollout is still on hold.
We'll make sure to update this space when officially starts rolling the feature back out to users. If you weren't one of the lucky users to receive the update, why not take a look at our complete guide to Duke's Airship goals / the Bon Voyage Party so you can be better prepared for what you'll need to do when you are finally introduced to England.
[Image Credit: Marieti84]
Check out the rest of our English Countryside coverage right here.
Were you one of the lucky players to receive the English Countryside before the pause in the rollout? What do you think of the hotly anticipated expansion?
As with all major FarmVille updates, Zynga chooses to roll them out to a few players to ensure the stability of the game. That is the case with the English Countryside as well, with this being one the slowest rollouts we've seen yet.
The wait for farmers to travel to England has gotten longer this afternoon, as Community Manager Lexilicious confirms that Zynga has stopped rolling out the feature for the time being, due to the appearance of some apparently unforeseen bugs (these seem to mostly be out of sync errors or invisible quests, although there are likely others) that need to be addressed. Here's the official word:
We have found some bugs that need to be addressed before we continue to roll the feature out. (This is why we do slow releases!) These could take a little while to fix, so I would take a break from refreshing the game.
Luckily, Lexi also goes on to say that this "most likely means a few hours" before the team can look at continuing to release to more people. Ever at the ready to answer questions, Lexi's latest post (posted around 30 minutes ago) confirms that the rollout is still on hold.
We'll make sure to update this space when officially starts rolling the feature back out to users. If you weren't one of the lucky users to receive the update, why not take a look at our complete guide to Duke's Airship goals / the Bon Voyage Party so you can be better prepared for what you'll need to do when you are finally introduced to England.
[Image Credit: Marieti84]
Check out the rest of our English Countryside coverage right here.
Were you one of the lucky players to receive the English Countryside before the pause in the rollout? What do you think of the hotly anticipated expansion?
FarmVille English Countryside: First market Animals revealed
Thanks to the helpful users over on the official FarmVille forums, we've found that as of right now, if you're one of the lucky players that has access to the English Countryside, you will be able to purchase five different animals from the English Countryside-specific Marketplace.
User SammyJames posted this screen-shot of the in-game store, and we can see the following animals for sale (and look, some even cost coins!). Note: There are conflicting reports from players as to the prices of the Ewes and Rams. Some report that Ewes cost 10 Farm Cash, while Rams cost 25 Farm Cash, but as this is a picture from a working farm, we'll go with that for now.
Ewe (Navy) - 25 Farm Cash
Ewe (Pastel Pink) - 25 Farm Cash
Ram (Purple Dots) - 30 Farm Cash
Pub Cat - 5,000 coins
English Spot Rabbit - 1,200 coins There is also a 5-Pack of Love Potions available to purchase for 10 Farm Cash, with both these love potions, and the Ewes and Rams being released as part of the Sheep Pen / Breeding feature in the English Countryside itself. You can learn more about Sheep Breeding in our guide.
All told, it's great (at least in my opinion) to already see animals being released in the new expansion for coins. With the option to use a lot of Farm Cash to just get to England in the first place (check out our guide to Duke's Airship Goals / Bon Voyage Party for more), at least you'll have the ability to decorate your farm with two cute animals right out of the gate.
[Image Credit: Sammy James]
Check out the rest of our English Countryside coverage right here.
Have you been lucky enough to travel to England in the game? Will you purchase any of these animals once you get there, or are you saving your coins / Farm Cash for something else?
User SammyJames posted this screen-shot of the in-game store, and we can see the following animals for sale (and look, some even cost coins!). Note: There are conflicting reports from players as to the prices of the Ewes and Rams. Some report that Ewes cost 10 Farm Cash, while Rams cost 25 Farm Cash, but as this is a picture from a working farm, we'll go with that for now.
Ewe (Navy) - 25 Farm Cash
Ewe (Pastel Pink) - 25 Farm Cash
Ram (Purple Dots) - 30 Farm Cash
Pub Cat - 5,000 coins
English Spot Rabbit - 1,200 coins There is also a 5-Pack of Love Potions available to purchase for 10 Farm Cash, with both these love potions, and the Ewes and Rams being released as part of the Sheep Pen / Breeding feature in the English Countryside itself. You can learn more about Sheep Breeding in our guide.
All told, it's great (at least in my opinion) to already see animals being released in the new expansion for coins. With the option to use a lot of Farm Cash to just get to England in the first place (check out our guide to Duke's Airship Goals / Bon Voyage Party for more), at least you'll have the ability to decorate your farm with two cute animals right out of the gate.
[Image Credit: Sammy James]
Check out the rest of our English Countryside coverage right here.
Have you been lucky enough to travel to England in the game? Will you purchase any of these animals once you get there, or are you saving your coins / Farm Cash for something else?
FarmVille LE English Countryside Trees: Dogwood, Hazelnut, Chestnut & More
In what could be a bit of a confusing update, Zynga has released an entire set of limited edition items in the original FarmVille store in a new English Countryside theme. To be clear, these items are part of an entirely separate theme, not relating only to the actual English Countryside expansion, which started rolling out to users today. These items are available to place on your original farm, and function as you would expect.
That clarification out of the way, there are four new trees available to purchase in the store, with one being a re-release, and another already being available as a Mystery Seedling for a few days now. The trees are the Dogwood Tree, Pink Dogwood Tree, Chestnut Tree and Hazelnut Tree.
For those that were playing the game back during the Winter Wonderland event, you'll recognize the Chestnut & Hazelnut Trees as ones that was available to purchase from the market for 6 and 14 Farm Cash, respectively, and those prices are retained in this re-release. Remember, if you don't have a Hazelnut Tree, you can just purchase the Chestnut Tree and then hope to get a Hazelnut Tree as a Mystery Seedling from it when placed in an Orchard. Meanwhile, the Dogwood and Pink Dogwood Trees are another pair, with the Dogwood Tree being available for 5 Farm Cash, and the Pink Dogwood Tree being available for 10 Farm Cash. If you didn't receive a Pink Dogwood Tree as a Mystery Seedling while it was randomly available, you should be able to receive one by placing a regular Dogwood Tree into your Orchard.
Whatever the case may be concerning your desire for (or previous ownership of) these trees, you'll have the next month (yes, a full month) to purchase all that you'd like. Zynga has said that they won't be updating the game as frequently until they are sure that the actual English Countryside expansion has released in full, but we'll be sure to let you know (as always) when new items in this theme, or any other theme are released in the store.
Check out the rest of our English Countryside coverage right here.
What do you think of these four trees? Are they all new to your farm, or do you already have Chestnut and Hazelnut Trees?
That clarification out of the way, there are four new trees available to purchase in the store, with one being a re-release, and another already being available as a Mystery Seedling for a few days now. The trees are the Dogwood Tree, Pink Dogwood Tree, Chestnut Tree and Hazelnut Tree.
For those that were playing the game back during the Winter Wonderland event, you'll recognize the Chestnut & Hazelnut Trees as ones that was available to purchase from the market for 6 and 14 Farm Cash, respectively, and those prices are retained in this re-release. Remember, if you don't have a Hazelnut Tree, you can just purchase the Chestnut Tree and then hope to get a Hazelnut Tree as a Mystery Seedling from it when placed in an Orchard. Meanwhile, the Dogwood and Pink Dogwood Trees are another pair, with the Dogwood Tree being available for 5 Farm Cash, and the Pink Dogwood Tree being available for 10 Farm Cash. If you didn't receive a Pink Dogwood Tree as a Mystery Seedling while it was randomly available, you should be able to receive one by placing a regular Dogwood Tree into your Orchard.
Whatever the case may be concerning your desire for (or previous ownership of) these trees, you'll have the next month (yes, a full month) to purchase all that you'd like. Zynga has said that they won't be updating the game as frequently until they are sure that the actual English Countryside expansion has released in full, but we'll be sure to let you know (as always) when new items in this theme, or any other theme are released in the store.
Check out the rest of our English Countryside coverage right here.
What do you think of these four trees? Are they all new to your farm, or do you already have Chestnut and Hazelnut Trees?
FarmVille LE English Countryside Animals: Clydesdale Stallion, Morgan Horse, English Cow & More
A whopping nine animals have been released in the FarmVille marketplace in the new limited edition English Countryside theme. Again, this theme is a bit separate from the English Countryside expansion, and these items are available in your store whether you have received the English Countryside as an update to your farm or not (it is still on a slow rollout). That is, they can be placed on your Home Farm, but are not transferable to your English farm (meaning you'll need to buy two to have them on both farms).
These nine animals consist of those we saw previewed on the Model Farm just this week, and come in the form of cows, chickens, horses, and even a duck and pig. To be fair, not all of these items are new to the game, but if you missed your chance at them the first time around, it's nice to see them back again. To see a complete look at the new animals, meet us behind the break. The nine animals are as follows, including their costs:
Clydesdale Stallion - 40 Farm Cash
Morgan Horse (re-release) - 24 Farm Cash
Old English Hen - 20 Farm Cash
Silkie Chicken (re-release) - 20 Farm Cash
Blue Cow (re-release) - 22 Farm Cash
English Cow - 22 Farm Cash
Red Cow (re-release) - 100,000 coins
Crested Duck - 16 Farm Cash
Tamworth Pig - 16 Farm Cash
As you can see, four of these nine animals have once been available in the game in another way. For reference, the Morgan Horse was released last July as part of the New England theme. The Silkie Chicken was released during the Thanksgiving event in 2010. The Blue Cow was released as part of the Megamind film promotional event back in November, and finally, the Red Cow was a prize in the zLotto event. The former three animals all retain their same prices from their initial release, while the Red Cow of course is new to the store.
Remember, if you purchase the Morgan Horse or any of the cows, you'll have a chance of breeding that animal in its respective animal building to receive a Calf or Foal, where applicable.
You'll have a full month to find enough Farm Cash (or coins) to purchase these animals, as they have been given a very lengthy expiration date in the store. We'll make sure to let you know if more items in this English Countryside theme release in the future, so keep checking back with us.
Check out the rest of our English Countryside coverage right here.
In the meantime, let us know what you think of this release - do you appreciate having English themed items that you can decorate your home farm with? Which ones will you purchase?
These nine animals consist of those we saw previewed on the Model Farm just this week, and come in the form of cows, chickens, horses, and even a duck and pig. To be fair, not all of these items are new to the game, but if you missed your chance at them the first time around, it's nice to see them back again. To see a complete look at the new animals, meet us behind the break. The nine animals are as follows, including their costs:
Clydesdale Stallion - 40 Farm Cash
Morgan Horse (re-release) - 24 Farm Cash
Old English Hen - 20 Farm Cash
Silkie Chicken (re-release) - 20 Farm Cash
Blue Cow (re-release) - 22 Farm Cash
English Cow - 22 Farm Cash
Red Cow (re-release) - 100,000 coins
Crested Duck - 16 Farm Cash
Tamworth Pig - 16 Farm Cash
As you can see, four of these nine animals have once been available in the game in another way. For reference, the Morgan Horse was released last July as part of the New England theme. The Silkie Chicken was released during the Thanksgiving event in 2010. The Blue Cow was released as part of the Megamind film promotional event back in November, and finally, the Red Cow was a prize in the zLotto event. The former three animals all retain their same prices from their initial release, while the Red Cow of course is new to the store.
Remember, if you purchase the Morgan Horse or any of the cows, you'll have a chance of breeding that animal in its respective animal building to receive a Calf or Foal, where applicable.
You'll have a full month to find enough Farm Cash (or coins) to purchase these animals, as they have been given a very lengthy expiration date in the store. We'll make sure to let you know if more items in this English Countryside theme release in the future, so keep checking back with us.
Check out the rest of our English Countryside coverage right here.
In the meantime, let us know what you think of this release - do you appreciate having English themed items that you can decorate your home farm with? Which ones will you purchase?
FarmVille LE English Countryside Items: English Rose Arch, English Barn & More
Tonight's FarmVille update brought with it one new decoration, two new buildings, and a new vehicle in the new English Countryside limited edition theme. To clarify, this theme of items can be purchased for your original farm, and are available to purchase as normal from the store, whether you've decided to travel to the English Countryside expansion or not.
These two buildings are functional, and come in the form of the English Barn and English Tool Shed. The Tool Shed is the cheaper of the two items, costing 100,000 coins, while the English Barn costs 30 Farm Cash. Both of these buildings are in the same dark brown and gray theme that we've seen of the actual English Countryside's buildings, so they really fit the theme well. Remember, the overall storage limit in-game is still 500 items, so even if you purchase these items for your Home Farm, if you already have 500 slots of storage unlocked, you won't receive more. Meanwhile, the new decorative item is the English Rose Arch. It is available to purchase for 100,000 coins, and you'll receive 1000 experience points for purchasing it. We admit that it's odd for Zynga to release just a single decorative item in any theme, but with so many animals and trees being released already, I guess that's enough to keep most farmers busy.
Finally, the new vehicle is the English Plane, which functions just as the normal biplane in the game, meaning that you can use it to instantly grow your trees or crops to their harvest-ready state. If you've never purchased a plane before in FarmVille, you will receive one free application of Instant Grow with your purchase, but if you've already purchased any kind of plane for your land, you will not receive another free Instant Grow for purchasing this one as well. you can buy the English Plane for 30,000 coins.
All of these items will be available in the game's store for the next month. That's a heck of a long time for any theme to be available in FarmVille, which makes us think that this might be all the theme will contain, as Zynga looks to focus on the actual English Countryside expansion as it launches. Either way, if more items release in this or any other theme in FarmVille, we'll make sure you're the first to know, so keep checking back.
Check out the rest of our English Countryside coverage right here.
What do you think of all of these English Countryside items? Will you purchase all of them for your Home Farm, or do you plan to spend all of your coins and Farm Cash on your new English farm?
These two buildings are functional, and come in the form of the English Barn and English Tool Shed. The Tool Shed is the cheaper of the two items, costing 100,000 coins, while the English Barn costs 30 Farm Cash. Both of these buildings are in the same dark brown and gray theme that we've seen of the actual English Countryside's buildings, so they really fit the theme well. Remember, the overall storage limit in-game is still 500 items, so even if you purchase these items for your Home Farm, if you already have 500 slots of storage unlocked, you won't receive more. Meanwhile, the new decorative item is the English Rose Arch. It is available to purchase for 100,000 coins, and you'll receive 1000 experience points for purchasing it. We admit that it's odd for Zynga to release just a single decorative item in any theme, but with so many animals and trees being released already, I guess that's enough to keep most farmers busy.
Finally, the new vehicle is the English Plane, which functions just as the normal biplane in the game, meaning that you can use it to instantly grow your trees or crops to their harvest-ready state. If you've never purchased a plane before in FarmVille, you will receive one free application of Instant Grow with your purchase, but if you've already purchased any kind of plane for your land, you will not receive another free Instant Grow for purchasing this one as well. you can buy the English Plane for 30,000 coins.
All of these items will be available in the game's store for the next month. That's a heck of a long time for any theme to be available in FarmVille, which makes us think that this might be all the theme will contain, as Zynga looks to focus on the actual English Countryside expansion as it launches. Either way, if more items release in this or any other theme in FarmVille, we'll make sure you're the first to know, so keep checking back.
Check out the rest of our English Countryside coverage right here.
What do you think of all of these English Countryside items? Will you purchase all of them for your Home Farm, or do you plan to spend all of your coins and Farm Cash on your new English farm?
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