farmville birthday cake
With its own upcoming birthday (June 19th) FarmVille is getting in the spirit of celebrating birthdays by releasing some special birthday themed decorations.
You can purchase these birthday themed items in the FarmVille Market with farm cash only and there is no expiration date. As these are farm cash items, they are also sendable meaning that you can send them to your FarmVille neighbors and friends as a special birthday surprise.
Birthday Cake – 9 FV$
Animal Balloons – 7 FV$
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
Monday, February 13, 2012
FarmVille Changes Wheat Crop
Update: Due to technical issues, the Wheat Crop was not actually changed tonight. However, the changed mentioned below will be the anticipated changes made to the Wheat Crop as released by Zynga/FarmVille.
"Please note: Due to technical issues, this feature is not yet available. We sincerely apologize for any confusion or frustration this may have caused you. We will do our best to get this feature to you in the near future." (Official FarmVille Forum)
As mentioned via Monday's (June 14th) official FarmVille Podcast, changes have been made to the Wheat crop.
Because Wheat will be a key crop to the upcoming release of Crafting Cottages, FarmVille decided to lower the harvest time and Crop Mastery for Wheat.
Here is the new specifications for Wheat seeds:
Wheat
Hours: 12
XP: 1
Cost: 13 coins
Yield: 61 coins
Crop Mastery: 500, 1500, 3000
In addition, Whither for Wheat is being turned off until June 21st, this is to allow people to adjust to the new time line.
How do you feel about the new Changes made to the Wheat crop?
"Please note: Due to technical issues, this feature is not yet available. We sincerely apologize for any confusion or frustration this may have caused you. We will do our best to get this feature to you in the near future." (Official FarmVille Forum)
As mentioned via Monday's (June 14th) official FarmVille Podcast, changes have been made to the Wheat crop.
Because Wheat will be a key crop to the upcoming release of Crafting Cottages, FarmVille decided to lower the harvest time and Crop Mastery for Wheat.
Here is the new specifications for Wheat seeds:
Wheat
Hours: 12
XP: 1
Cost: 13 coins
Yield: 61 coins
Crop Mastery: 500, 1500, 3000
In addition, Whither for Wheat is being turned off until June 21st, this is to allow people to adjust to the new time line.
How do you feel about the new Changes made to the Wheat crop?
FarmVille Silo Home & Wind Turbine
In addition to new coin purchasable animals, FarmVille has added two new expensive items- the Silo Home and the Wind Turbine.
If you are a high level farmer and looking for something to spend your coins on then you may want to consider this new building and decoration.
Silo Home – Level 65 required to unlock, costs 1,000,000 coins (1 million coins)
Wind Turbine – 1,500,000 coins (yes that is 1.5 million coins)
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
If you are a high level farmer and looking for something to spend your coins on then you may want to consider this new building and decoration.
Silo Home – Level 65 required to unlock, costs 1,000,000 coins (1 million coins)
Wind Turbine – 1,500,000 coins (yes that is 1.5 million coins)
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
FarmVille Black Stallion Mystery
Earlier today, June 15th, and prior to updates, FarmVille released the Black Stallion to the FarmVille Market for only a few minutes. It seems that this limited and unannounced release was unintentional and accidental.
Those farmers that were lucky enough to snag the Black Stallion were able to purchase it for reportedly 40,000 coins.The Black Stallion is able to be placed in the Horse Stable and some farmers are already yielding foals.
Currently, the Black Stallion is not available for purchase, but hopefully will be soon in the near future.
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
Those farmers that were lucky enough to snag the Black Stallion were able to purchase it for reportedly 40,000 coins.The Black Stallion is able to be placed in the Horse Stable and some farmers are already yielding foals.
Currently, the Black Stallion is not available for purchase, but hopefully will be soon in the near future.
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
YoVille: New Summer Theme?
yoville summer theme
Hope you all are ready for Summer! Summer will kick off sometime this week in Yoville. The Hollywood Theme will be coming to an end with this last release. Platinum Ninja has posted on YoVille.com. Read her Official Blog after the jump.
Hey Guys,
We wanted to give everyone a heads up that the Hollywood Theme will be coming to an end later today with the Hollywood' Theme's last release of items. Hopefully you all are having fun decorating your homes and are getting creative with your Hollywood Sets and Hollywood Home Items! There were some pretty homes and sets that we saw posted on the forums with this release of items and we can't wait to see what you guys come up with next! Here is a sneak peek of some of the Hollywood Set items coming soon.
yoville moon landing
For those of you who were wondering we do not have any immediate plans to remove this Hollywood Theme from the Furniture Store. We will keep you updated if there are any changes to this but for now we plan to have this theme in the store for purchase for a while.
Later this week expect to see a new Summer inspired Theme to hit YoVille! Summer is almost officially here so it's time to celebrate it and have some fun in the sun! So stay tuned! Well that's about all folks make sure to keep your eyes out for more the rest of the Hollywood Sets coming hopefully later today the kick off of a new Summer theme later this week.
Thanks
Platinum Ninja
Tell us what you think in comments.
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
Hope you all are ready for Summer! Summer will kick off sometime this week in Yoville. The Hollywood Theme will be coming to an end with this last release. Platinum Ninja has posted on YoVille.com. Read her Official Blog after the jump.
Hey Guys,
We wanted to give everyone a heads up that the Hollywood Theme will be coming to an end later today with the Hollywood' Theme's last release of items. Hopefully you all are having fun decorating your homes and are getting creative with your Hollywood Sets and Hollywood Home Items! There were some pretty homes and sets that we saw posted on the forums with this release of items and we can't wait to see what you guys come up with next! Here is a sneak peek of some of the Hollywood Set items coming soon.
yoville moon landing
For those of you who were wondering we do not have any immediate plans to remove this Hollywood Theme from the Furniture Store. We will keep you updated if there are any changes to this but for now we plan to have this theme in the store for purchase for a while.
Later this week expect to see a new Summer inspired Theme to hit YoVille! Summer is almost officially here so it's time to celebrate it and have some fun in the sun! So stay tuned! Well that's about all folks make sure to keep your eyes out for more the rest of the Hollywood Sets coming hopefully later today the kick off of a new Summer theme later this week.
Thanks
Platinum Ninja
Tell us what you think in comments.
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
Friday, February 10, 2012
FarmVille Swiss Alps Buildings: Hotel Switzerland, Swiss Clock Shop & Swiss Tower
Tonight FarmVille released the Hotel Switzerland, Swiss Clock Shop, and Swiss Tower as part of their limited edition Swiss Alps theme.
These buildings can be purchased with farm cash during the next days only and after which will be retired items.
FarmVille Hotel Switzerland, Swiss Clock Shop, and Swiss Tower
FarmVille Swiss Alps Buildings (Released July 15th 2010):
* Hotel Switzerland – 60 FV$
* Swiss Clock Shop – 42 FV$
* Swiss Tower – 34 FV$
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
These buildings can be purchased with farm cash during the next days only and after which will be retired items.
FarmVille Hotel Switzerland, Swiss Clock Shop, and Swiss Tower
FarmVille Swiss Alps Buildings (Released July 15th 2010):
* Hotel Switzerland – 60 FV$
* Swiss Clock Shop – 42 FV$
* Swiss Tower – 34 FV$
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
FarmVille Unreleased Crane: Preview Image and Animation
FarmVille Unreleased Crane
Thank you to FarmVille Freak J-Chaves for finding this unreleased FarmVille Crane!
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
Thank you to FarmVille Freak J-Chaves for finding this unreleased FarmVille Crane!
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
FarmVille Cascadian Farm Crop: Organic Blueberries
The Cascadian Farm sponsored crop, Organic Blueberries has been released!
Keep in mind this limited edition crop can be mastered. The first organic crop can be planted until July 26th at midnight.
Organic Blueberries:
Cost: 20 coins
Sells for: 80 coins
Harvest Time: 4 hours
Xp: 2
Mastery:
First Star: 200
Second Star: 400
Third Star: 600
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
Keep in mind this limited edition crop can be mastered. The first organic crop can be planted until July 26th at midnight.
Organic Blueberries:
Cost: 20 coins
Sells for: 80 coins
Harvest Time: 4 hours
Xp: 2
Mastery:
First Star: 200
Second Star: 400
Third Star: 600
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
Sneak preview: Playdom's next game is Market Street
Tonight we discovered something new and exciting - a brand new upcoming game from Playdom titled Market Street. Right now, you can only see the game's application fan page and not actually play the game itself. While we didn't get a chance to play the game, it appears to be a shopping and store management game along the same lines as Mall World and Fashion World. Here is the description of Market Street according to the game's Facebook page:
Hire your friends, stock your displays, fire the slackers. Build the world's most successful retail store in Market Street!
Love the game? Use the Reviews tab above to give us a 5 star rating!
Even though you can't actually play the game yet, we're sure that it will be coming out soon as it looks like Playdom is prepping for a big release. It looks bright and colorful and fun, and we can't wait to give it a try!
Become a fan of the Market Street fan page to be alerted when the game has officially gone live.
Hire your friends, stock your displays, fire the slackers. Build the world's most successful retail store in Market Street!
Love the game? Use the Reviews tab above to give us a 5 star rating!
Even though you can't actually play the game yet, we're sure that it will be coming out soon as it looks like Playdom is prepping for a big release. It looks bright and colorful and fun, and we can't wait to give it a try!
Become a fan of the Market Street fan page to be alerted when the game has officially gone live.
New study predicts we'll spend 1.5 billion in social games by 2014
While the real-life economy continues to tank, the virtual economy for games on social networks is booming. A new study from Screen Digest says that FarmVille junkies and their ilk have been fueling this relatively new economy by opening their wallets and buying one-to-10 dollar items with wild abandon. In 2009, social gamers spend $639 million and those numbers are expected to grow to 1.5 billion in 2014.
While playing games on a social network has turned non-gamers into virtual farmers, mobsters, etc, this explosive economy has also come at the expense of the rest of the portal-driven casual games business, which has a big cross-over audience. This must be at least part of the reason casual gaming companies like Big Fish and PopCap have worked to get their games on Facebook over the past year, and I'm sure we'll hear more about this in the not-too-distant future.
The study also predicts that spending on social network games will start to slow down this year, forcing publishers to look at social networks outside of Facebook to expand their empire and -- the part I like the most -- force publishers to create better (as in better quality) games. If that translates into companies releasing more creative games on Facebook, well, that's something I can get behind.
While playing games on a social network has turned non-gamers into virtual farmers, mobsters, etc, this explosive economy has also come at the expense of the rest of the portal-driven casual games business, which has a big cross-over audience. This must be at least part of the reason casual gaming companies like Big Fish and PopCap have worked to get their games on Facebook over the past year, and I'm sure we'll hear more about this in the not-too-distant future.
The study also predicts that spending on social network games will start to slow down this year, forcing publishers to look at social networks outside of Facebook to expand their empire and -- the part I like the most -- force publishers to create better (as in better quality) games. If that translates into companies releasing more creative games on Facebook, well, that's something I can get behind.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
YoVille Collections Mystery Box: Here's How It Works
YoVille Pink Puzzle Piece
YoVille Animated ElkThis is an official post by Zynga's Platinum Ninja.
We wanted to give you all a heads up that there will be a new Collections Puzzle item coming soon to YoVille! What is it you ask? It's going to be an Animated Elk! He is super cute and he will animate! How awesome is that! He'll go perfect in your Camp Yo. Let's review how this will work and how get your hands on this elk.
How to get Puzzle Pieces for this New Collection?
To receive puzzle pieces for this specific item you will have to open up a Collections Mystery Box. Your friends can send these boxes to you through the Free Gift Page. You'll be needing pink puzzle pieces to build this specific Elk Item so try to collect as many as you can!
YoVille Collections Mystery BoxBy opening this Mystery Collections Box you will get a chance to get pink puzzle piece. Currently the Collections Mystery Box has many different puzzle piece colors including orange, purple and red and will soon include pink so it will be jam packed with puzzle pieces galore! Opening a Collections Mystery Box it will be random which color of puzzle piece that you will receive, so the more you open the better chances you have at getting some pink pieces! Once you collect each puzzle pink piece to complete the puzzle you will be able to redeem the Animated Elk.
This will pretty much work exactly like many of our other Collection Items! Make sure to have your friends send you as many Mystery Collection Boxes as they can and be a good friend and send some in return to up your chances on collecting all the pink pieces!
YoVille Collections Inventory
Don't forget to check on your Collections status and number of pieces collected so far by visiting your Inventory and then clicking on the Collections Tab. You will also be able to redeem your collections pieces from here so don't forget to use this helpful tool.
Stay tuned for this new collections item coming soon to YoVille! We'll keep you updated on when this is available in game.
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
YoVille Animated ElkThis is an official post by Zynga's Platinum Ninja.
We wanted to give you all a heads up that there will be a new Collections Puzzle item coming soon to YoVille! What is it you ask? It's going to be an Animated Elk! He is super cute and he will animate! How awesome is that! He'll go perfect in your Camp Yo. Let's review how this will work and how get your hands on this elk.
How to get Puzzle Pieces for this New Collection?
To receive puzzle pieces for this specific item you will have to open up a Collections Mystery Box. Your friends can send these boxes to you through the Free Gift Page. You'll be needing pink puzzle pieces to build this specific Elk Item so try to collect as many as you can!
YoVille Collections Mystery BoxBy opening this Mystery Collections Box you will get a chance to get pink puzzle piece. Currently the Collections Mystery Box has many different puzzle piece colors including orange, purple and red and will soon include pink so it will be jam packed with puzzle pieces galore! Opening a Collections Mystery Box it will be random which color of puzzle piece that you will receive, so the more you open the better chances you have at getting some pink pieces! Once you collect each puzzle pink piece to complete the puzzle you will be able to redeem the Animated Elk.
This will pretty much work exactly like many of our other Collection Items! Make sure to have your friends send you as many Mystery Collection Boxes as they can and be a good friend and send some in return to up your chances on collecting all the pink pieces!
YoVille Collections Inventory
Don't forget to check on your Collections status and number of pieces collected so far by visiting your Inventory and then clicking on the Collections Tab. You will also be able to redeem your collections pieces from here so don't forget to use this helpful tool.
Stay tuned for this new collections item coming soon to YoVille! We'll keep you updated on when this is available in game.
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
A Tour Around The New Yoville Campground
YoVille RV Cliff Side
For 20,000 coins you can purchase the Yoville Campground. This property comes with a RV that has your standard living room, bedroom, bathroom, a lake to go swimming in, and a beautiful cliff side view. This site is perfect for camping, fishing, or just a peaceful get away. Photos of the campground are available after the link. Let us know what you think in comments. YoVille Campground Back Yard RV
YoVille Campground Living Room
YoVille Campground Lake
YoVille Campground Front Yard
YoVille Campground Floor Plan
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge
For 20,000 coins you can purchase the Yoville Campground. This property comes with a RV that has your standard living room, bedroom, bathroom, a lake to go swimming in, and a beautiful cliff side view. This site is perfect for camping, fishing, or just a peaceful get away. Photos of the campground are available after the link. Let us know what you think in comments. YoVille Campground Back Yard RV
YoVille Campground Living Room
YoVille Campground Lake
YoVille Campground Front Yard
YoVille Campground Floor Plan
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge
Yoville: Camp Yo Bathroom Items Arrive
YoVille Camp Yo Bathroom - Bathtubs
New Camp Yo Bathroom Items have been added to the YoVille Furniture Store. Items include Camp Yo Bathtubs (8 Yo Cash), Showers (7 Yo Cash), Towels(550 Coins), Sinks(4 Yo Cash) and much more all available in Blue, Brown, Red & Tan.
Prices and Photos after the link. YoVille Camp Yo Bathroom - Toilet Mat and Towel Basket
YoVille Camp Yo Bathroom - RV Door, Floor, Wall
YoVille Camp Yo Bathroom - Bath Mat, Mirror
YoVille Camp Yo Bathroom - Bath Sconce, Toilet Mat
YoVille Camp Yo Bathroom - Sink Counter, Sink
YoVille Camp Yo Bathroom - Toilet, Medicine Cabinet, Shower
YoVille Camp Yo Bathroom - Bath Cabinet, Toilet
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
New Camp Yo Bathroom Items have been added to the YoVille Furniture Store. Items include Camp Yo Bathtubs (8 Yo Cash), Showers (7 Yo Cash), Towels(550 Coins), Sinks(4 Yo Cash) and much more all available in Blue, Brown, Red & Tan.
Prices and Photos after the link. YoVille Camp Yo Bathroom - Toilet Mat and Towel Basket
YoVille Camp Yo Bathroom - RV Door, Floor, Wall
YoVille Camp Yo Bathroom - Bath Mat, Mirror
YoVille Camp Yo Bathroom - Bath Sconce, Toilet Mat
YoVille Camp Yo Bathroom - Sink Counter, Sink
YoVille Camp Yo Bathroom - Toilet, Medicine Cabinet, Shower
YoVille Camp Yo Bathroom - Bath Cabinet, Toilet
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
YoVille New Limited Edition Premium Hair: Tyke and Sleek Hair with Bangs
YoVille Sleek Hair With Bangs
New permanent hairstyles have been released in Yoville Salon. Sleek Hair with bangs for the ladies and Tyke hair for the guys. These are available in black, blonde, brown and red for 18 YoCash or purple for 20 YoCash. Get them while you can there only here for 3 days!
YoVille Tyke Hair
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
New permanent hairstyles have been released in Yoville Salon. Sleek Hair with bangs for the ladies and Tyke hair for the guys. These are available in black, blonde, brown and red for 18 YoCash or purple for 20 YoCash. Get them while you can there only here for 3 days!
YoVille Tyke Hair
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
YoVille: Camp Yo Fishing Clothes and Gear now at the Fashion Store
The Camp Yo Clothes we told you about have arrived at YoVille. You will find everything you need to go fishing from vest for 850 coins to fishing poles for 11 YoCash. While your there check out the Yo Scout Uniforms available for 1300 coins and Badges for 7 Yo cash. Accessories include a hand held s'more, insect repellent, and a hatchet.
Prices and photos after the link.
YoVille Fishing Rod, Fishing Hat
YoVille Camp Yo: Fishing Boots, S'more, Scout Uniforms
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
Prices and photos after the link.
YoVille Fishing Rod, Fishing Hat
YoVille Camp Yo: Fishing Boots, S'more, Scout Uniforms
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Horses finally go clippity-clop into Ranch Town
Ranch Town horses
We don't talk about Ranch Town too often here on Games.com - The Blog!, but that isn't because no one is playing it. Ranch Town has over 700,000 monthly players, which might be modest but isn't too shabby. Today, horses were released in Ranch Town for the first time. Unlike some games, the animals in Ranch Town aren't just for decoration - these ones actually have added benefits such as producing more ingredients that can be used in the game. Here are the new horses:
Palomino - Produces 12 Steam Points every 4 minutes
Bay - Produces 13 Steam Points every 7 minutes
Pinto - Produces 10 Steam Points every 10 minutes
Steam Points in Ranch Town are used to power machines in the game, such as the Cheese Maker, the Butter Maker, and the Soil Processor. These horses all require Meteor Credits, which cost money to buy. It's interesting that it has taken this long for a game about ranches to finally have horses. It seems like development has slowed quite a bit in Ranch Town, however, as it's not quite the smash hit that Meteor was probably hoping for.
We don't talk about Ranch Town too often here on Games.com - The Blog!, but that isn't because no one is playing it. Ranch Town has over 700,000 monthly players, which might be modest but isn't too shabby. Today, horses were released in Ranch Town for the first time. Unlike some games, the animals in Ranch Town aren't just for decoration - these ones actually have added benefits such as producing more ingredients that can be used in the game. Here are the new horses:
Palomino - Produces 12 Steam Points every 4 minutes
Bay - Produces 13 Steam Points every 7 minutes
Pinto - Produces 10 Steam Points every 10 minutes
Steam Points in Ranch Town are used to power machines in the game, such as the Cheese Maker, the Butter Maker, and the Soil Processor. These horses all require Meteor Credits, which cost money to buy. It's interesting that it has taken this long for a game about ranches to finally have horses. It seems like development has slowed quite a bit in Ranch Town, however, as it's not quite the smash hit that Meteor was probably hoping for.
Facebook games: Are you embarassed to tell people you play them?
You come home from work and the first thing you do is log in and check your farm. You set alarms for yourself so that you remember to come back and check on your crops. You buy gift cards from Target so that you can buy credits in your favorite game without anyone seeing the purchase on your credit card statement. Maybe you ask your friends to check on your cafe while you're on vacation, or you download spreadsheets full of Facebook game cheats to get a leg up on your friends. You're probably like me - Facebook games are a big part of your free time.
Facebook games don't have the best reputation. FarmVille has basically made it so that everyone assumes that if you play games on Facebook, you're going to spam all of your friends constantly with invites and wall posts and gifts. People are losing their jobs or ruining their financial security because they're buying Farm Cash and spending so much time in FarmVille. Almost everyone has heard of FarmVille, (after all, it's the biggest game of all time) and no one likes to admit that they have a farm.
If you played a game like Modern Warfare, World of Warcraft, or Civilization V, it's not embarrassing to talk about how you play it. Gamer cred only exists if you're not talking about Facebook games. This kind of snobbery among gamers is caused by a generalization that Facebook games aren't really games, and Facebook gamers aren't really gamers. We know that's not true, of course, but do you stick up for yourself or back down?
Facebook games don't have the best reputation. FarmVille has basically made it so that everyone assumes that if you play games on Facebook, you're going to spam all of your friends constantly with invites and wall posts and gifts. People are losing their jobs or ruining their financial security because they're buying Farm Cash and spending so much time in FarmVille. Almost everyone has heard of FarmVille, (after all, it's the biggest game of all time) and no one likes to admit that they have a farm.
If you played a game like Modern Warfare, World of Warcraft, or Civilization V, it's not embarrassing to talk about how you play it. Gamer cred only exists if you're not talking about Facebook games. This kind of snobbery among gamers is caused by a generalization that Facebook games aren't really games, and Facebook gamers aren't really gamers. We know that's not true, of course, but do you stick up for yourself or back down?
FrontierVille Boosts can help your harvest, revive withered crops - for a price
FrontierVille boosts have made their debut in the Market (after appearing briefly a few weeks ago), and these are designed to help make all of your harvesting easier -- for a premium. These items cost anywhere between 10-100 Horseshoes (roughly $1 to $10).
If you've played FarmVille most of the boosts will seem pretty familiar, and while I'd probably avoid buying most of these, I do like the idea of the Wither Protection boost -- I can't count how many times I've planted crops on my frontier, then forget and come back to find a bunch of withered plants.
Here's the complete list of FrontierVille boosts currently available:
Fruit Ready
Cost: 80 horseshoes
Effect: Instantly make all fruit trees ready to harvest
Animal Ready
Cost: 100 Horseshoes
Effect: Instantly make all animals ready to harvest
Fruit Harvest
Cost 36 Horseshoes
Effect: Instantly harvest all fruit trees
frontierville tips on games.com
Animal Harvest
Cost: 20 Horseshoes
Effect: Instantly harvest all animals
Unwither Crop
Cost: 20 Horseshoes
Effect: Unwither all crops
Wither Protection
Cost: 10 Horseshoes
Effect: Crops planted while this is in effect will never wither
If you've played FarmVille most of the boosts will seem pretty familiar, and while I'd probably avoid buying most of these, I do like the idea of the Wither Protection boost -- I can't count how many times I've planted crops on my frontier, then forget and come back to find a bunch of withered plants.
Here's the complete list of FrontierVille boosts currently available:
Fruit Ready
Cost: 80 horseshoes
Effect: Instantly make all fruit trees ready to harvest
Animal Ready
Cost: 100 Horseshoes
Effect: Instantly make all animals ready to harvest
Fruit Harvest
Cost 36 Horseshoes
Effect: Instantly harvest all fruit trees
frontierville tips on games.com
Animal Harvest
Cost: 20 Horseshoes
Effect: Instantly harvest all animals
Unwither Crop
Cost: 20 Horseshoes
Effect: Unwither all crops
Wither Protection
Cost: 10 Horseshoes
Effect: Crops planted while this is in effect will never wither
What a Facebook phone could mean for social gaming
TechCrunch has reported that Facebook is secretly working on a mobile phone device, having staffed up a team of elite engineers to work on the potential project that could bring a cellular phone with Facebook capabilities right into your pocket. While this rumor hasn't yet be confirmed, we can't help but wonder what this could mean for social gaming.
If Facebook creates a phone, it would most likely mean the creation of a Facebook-engineered mobile operating system that works on whichever hardware manufacturer Facebook strikes a deal with, similar to how Google's Android operating system works on different devices. Facebook is already a platform, meaning that companies are operating upon it with the use of APIs, interconnectivity, and applications. A mobile device would definitely not be out of the question, since Facebook already is intimately familiar with running and monetizing applications.
What could this mean for our favorite games? First of all, if gaming on Facebook is a priority for the company, one would reasonably expect that this phone would support Adobe Flash, since almost all of the top revenue-generating Facebook games require the Flash player in order to work. The alternative move would be offering software that would allow Facebook applications that run in Flash to be ported over to work on the new phone. This seems like an unlikely situation.
A Facebook-branded phone would most definitely have Facebook Credits integrated tightly within the system. Instead of purchasing apps with money (such as the Apple account on the iPhone, or Google Checkout on the Android OS), it is likely that Facebook Credits could become the main currency. This means that applications that are currently monetizing through these credits will see a much wider adoption of the currency.
Facebook could easily integrate their ad platform into all applications on the phone. This could mean that we see interstitial ads on our favorite games that require some sort of click-through to access a game. It could also mean that some mobile screen space (which is already at a premium) could be taken over by these ads. Most likely, it would mean little for gaming because Facebook makes a 30% cut off the sale of Facebook Credit purchases which should mean they have interest in driving players to these games with a good flow and experience.
Notifications could be surfaced to game and application developers via an API, meaning that you could receive push notifications or dashboard alerts when in-game milestones are reached. Think of how great it could be to get alerts to your phone when your crops are ready to harvest, or your cookies are ready to come out of the oven, or your energy is replenished. Imagine a tightly woven achievement/badge system that brings social competition directly into the main layer of your phone. Imagine being able to initiate game experiences with your Facebook friends that could be played both on the phone or within a browser. You could even accept your gifts or neighbor invites easily directly on your phone. The possibilities are endless.
While we certainly hope that the Facebook phone would allow us to play our favorite Facebook games on the fly, there are definitely many technological barriers that stand in the way. The odds of all Facebook games working without a hindered user experience is quite unlikely, and the odds that Facebook game developers will jump right into the porting process to have their games work on the phone are also uncertain. Even so, we can't help but imagine a Facebook app store filled with free and paid games to play while we're not at a computer.
If Facebook creates a phone, it would most likely mean the creation of a Facebook-engineered mobile operating system that works on whichever hardware manufacturer Facebook strikes a deal with, similar to how Google's Android operating system works on different devices. Facebook is already a platform, meaning that companies are operating upon it with the use of APIs, interconnectivity, and applications. A mobile device would definitely not be out of the question, since Facebook already is intimately familiar with running and monetizing applications.
What could this mean for our favorite games? First of all, if gaming on Facebook is a priority for the company, one would reasonably expect that this phone would support Adobe Flash, since almost all of the top revenue-generating Facebook games require the Flash player in order to work. The alternative move would be offering software that would allow Facebook applications that run in Flash to be ported over to work on the new phone. This seems like an unlikely situation.
A Facebook-branded phone would most definitely have Facebook Credits integrated tightly within the system. Instead of purchasing apps with money (such as the Apple account on the iPhone, or Google Checkout on the Android OS), it is likely that Facebook Credits could become the main currency. This means that applications that are currently monetizing through these credits will see a much wider adoption of the currency.
Facebook could easily integrate their ad platform into all applications on the phone. This could mean that we see interstitial ads on our favorite games that require some sort of click-through to access a game. It could also mean that some mobile screen space (which is already at a premium) could be taken over by these ads. Most likely, it would mean little for gaming because Facebook makes a 30% cut off the sale of Facebook Credit purchases which should mean they have interest in driving players to these games with a good flow and experience.
Notifications could be surfaced to game and application developers via an API, meaning that you could receive push notifications or dashboard alerts when in-game milestones are reached. Think of how great it could be to get alerts to your phone when your crops are ready to harvest, or your cookies are ready to come out of the oven, or your energy is replenished. Imagine a tightly woven achievement/badge system that brings social competition directly into the main layer of your phone. Imagine being able to initiate game experiences with your Facebook friends that could be played both on the phone or within a browser. You could even accept your gifts or neighbor invites easily directly on your phone. The possibilities are endless.
While we certainly hope that the Facebook phone would allow us to play our favorite Facebook games on the fly, there are definitely many technological barriers that stand in the way. The odds of all Facebook games working without a hindered user experience is quite unlikely, and the odds that Facebook game developers will jump right into the porting process to have their games work on the phone are also uncertain. Even so, we can't help but imagine a Facebook app store filled with free and paid games to play while we're not at a computer.
YoVille: English Cottage Theme coming soon, you choose the wardrobe!
Zynga will soon be ending the snazzy Romantic Theme in YoVille for something a little more cozy: the English Cottage Theme. According to a sneak peek released on the YoVille blog, this theme will capture the comforts of autumn before the our favorite fall month, October.
Better yet, Zynga wants you to choose the wardrobe to go with this theme, which will only be around for about two weeks before the month-long Halloween festivities begin. The team has opened up a survey on what you think will best accompany the homey feeling of the English Cottage. Do you want to keep it simple with traditional fall wear or go all out with the "English" hook and dip your feet into a kilt? It's all up to you (do the kilts come with face paint?)!
Better yet, Zynga wants you to choose the wardrobe to go with this theme, which will only be around for about two weeks before the month-long Halloween festivities begin. The team has opened up a survey on what you think will best accompany the homey feeling of the English Cottage. Do you want to keep it simple with traditional fall wear or go all out with the "English" hook and dip your feet into a kilt? It's all up to you (do the kilts come with face paint?)!
Friday, February 3, 2012
Zynga CEO Mark Pincus says that its games are like J.J. Abrams' Lost
Zynga CEO Mark Pincus
In a recent interview with Technology Review, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus (pictured above) compared the structure of his studio's games to how the plot of Lost, one of the most talked about series on TV, was put together.
"I spent time talking to people like J.J. Abrams, who was one of the creators of Lost, because I thought there were so many similarities between the way he structured Lost, and its plot and character evolution, and the way that we try to structure games," Pincus said.
Pincus elaborates, saying that both Lost and Zynga games like FrontierVille contain several story arcs at once. Lost contained smaller plot lines such as character back stories and relationships juxtaposed by the grandiose story lines like the Smoke Monster and The Others. Comparatively, "A long arc of aspiration in FrontierVille might be finding your spouse or unlocking the Gold Rush territory, and a short arc that you need to do to achieve the long arc is something like building a cabin that then requires other short arcs like cutting down trees," Pincus explained.
When asked how Zynga hooks in players like Abrams' show kept viewers' glued to the TV every week, Pincus claimed that his studio's goal is to master the five-minute session gameplay model (sound familiar?) to provide those that claim to "not have the time" a reason to play. Oddly enough, the head of Zynga claimed hen doesn't like seeing players who devote long periods of time to Zynga games, but what about money? Regardless of the Zynga gameplay model, let's just hope FrontierVille doesn't end like Lost did.
In a recent interview with Technology Review, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus (pictured above) compared the structure of his studio's games to how the plot of Lost, one of the most talked about series on TV, was put together.
"I spent time talking to people like J.J. Abrams, who was one of the creators of Lost, because I thought there were so many similarities between the way he structured Lost, and its plot and character evolution, and the way that we try to structure games," Pincus said.
Pincus elaborates, saying that both Lost and Zynga games like FrontierVille contain several story arcs at once. Lost contained smaller plot lines such as character back stories and relationships juxtaposed by the grandiose story lines like the Smoke Monster and The Others. Comparatively, "A long arc of aspiration in FrontierVille might be finding your spouse or unlocking the Gold Rush territory, and a short arc that you need to do to achieve the long arc is something like building a cabin that then requires other short arcs like cutting down trees," Pincus explained.
When asked how Zynga hooks in players like Abrams' show kept viewers' glued to the TV every week, Pincus claimed that his studio's goal is to master the five-minute session gameplay model (sound familiar?) to provide those that claim to "not have the time" a reason to play. Oddly enough, the head of Zynga claimed hen doesn't like seeing players who devote long periods of time to Zynga games, but what about money? Regardless of the Zynga gameplay model, let's just hope FrontierVille doesn't end like Lost did.
Pet Society to introduce Playfish Cash conversion method for coins Oct. 21
In a recent post to the Pet Society Facebook page, Playfish announced that the way players will find coins in the game is changing this Thursday, Oct. 21. You'll no longer be able to buy coins directly with your credit card, PayPal account or other methods, but soon you will have to convert existing Playfish Cash into coins at a specific rate:
5 Playfish Cash = 750 coins
10 Playfish Cash = 1500 coins
30 Playfish Cash = 4500 coins
Fortunately, all the old-fashioned ways of collecting coins like visiting friends, selling items back to the store and spinning the Daily Lottery Wheel aren't going anywhere. While it seems that Playfish is trying to simplify things, you currently can only buy Playfish Cash in packages of 55 for $10 and up. While you could always pay via Facebook Credits to get smaller packages of Playfish Cash, that's even further from a direct purchase than before. But we like to look on the cheaper brighter side of life.
Our best guess as to why Playfish is making the switch is simply to get players buying more packages of Playfish Cash than simply coins, which could in turn lead to more items and boosts bought with your leftover virtual dollars. Pretty sneaky, sis.
5 Playfish Cash = 750 coins
10 Playfish Cash = 1500 coins
30 Playfish Cash = 4500 coins
Fortunately, all the old-fashioned ways of collecting coins like visiting friends, selling items back to the store and spinning the Daily Lottery Wheel aren't going anywhere. While it seems that Playfish is trying to simplify things, you currently can only buy Playfish Cash in packages of 55 for $10 and up. While you could always pay via Facebook Credits to get smaller packages of Playfish Cash, that's even further from a direct purchase than before. But we like to look on the cheaper brighter side of life.
Our best guess as to why Playfish is making the switch is simply to get players buying more packages of Playfish Cash than simply coins, which could in turn lead to more items and boosts bought with your leftover virtual dollars. Pretty sneaky, sis.
Braaains on Facebook: It's zombie vs. zombie in this promising new game
Zombies beware! Social gamers are coming for your Braaains! Well, at the least, we're coming for what's left of your brains. From shows like Supernatural to AMC's upcoming comic adaptation The Walking Dead, it's clear that everyone is gearing up for the zombie apocalypse – including, Broken Bulb Studios.
Braaains, the new Facebook game from Broken Bulb, gives gamers the chance to amass armies of zombies and wage war on Facebook friends and enemies. While the game is still in its infancy, Braaains' Mafia Wars style gameplay will surely grab zombie fans instantly.
Braaains' begins with a quick tutorial to get you started on your way to total zombie domination. You start by exhuming a bare bones zombie from the graveyard. Although the tutorial points out your first zombie to select, you can choose your zombie based off of personality (Depressed, Raging, Schizo, etc), date of death and title (which is more like an army Rank). Each zombie also has a phonetic name based off of typical zombie ramblings like Raaagh Aagraaggh and Mraaagh Raaagh. None of these names or personality traits seem to affect actual gameplay. There 21 zombies to choose from all with the same vitals and cost. The only real change happens with subsequent zombie additions to your army in which case the price tag goes up substantially. Hopefully, Broken Bulb will add more diversity to this process in future updates.
braaains on Facebook
After you've selected your zombie, you can go back to the world map. Here you will find eight other locations: the Stolen Sheriff Van, Warehouse, Hospital, Clothing Shop, Enhancers, Weapon Shop, Science Shop and the Mad Scientist. The Warehouse is used to upgrade various stats: Strength, Health, Agility and Defense. The Stolen Sheriff Van takes you to street fights with AI and other Facebook gamers. Most of the other locations are used to buy offensive and defensive enhancements.
The fight sequences are auto-simulated events animations based on your stats and the stats of your opponent. Gamers can skip these animations. If you win, you can immediately post the win to your Facebook Wall. You will also see an ongoing rundown of your in-game activities in the news feed below the game screen. After battles, you gain experience and coins, which can both be shared with friends. If you share your spoils of war, your friends will receive an additional coin bonus. Unfortunately, sometimes the sharing doesn't actually work; a task as simple as adding a friend appears to be bugged. When you send a friend request, the person on the receiving side will probably not receive the invite. Adding friends or allies isn't a major deal right now. Unlike Mafia Wars, having several allies doesn't help you out in battle. Success in battle focuses primarily on your own zombie army.
As you go up levels, you will collect brain tokens. You also gain brains for unlocking achievements. These can be used to upgrade your zombie army and buy more items. In this game, upgrading your zombies is called training, which you do in the Warehouse. You can also equip your minions with weapons or clothing for defense. You should note that the weapons are obscure. Starter weapons range from household items to mechanics tools, like the garden rake or the tire iron. The meat log is more powerful than a dirt spade, while a cheese wheel is more powerful than both of them combined.
Right now, Braaains still has some significant updates to make before it will grab the attention of the broader social gaming fan base. For starters, frequent cartoony pop-up error messages will alienate more than a few gamers.
Also, Broken Blub needs to work on adding in the team atmosphere to this game. While I couldn't use my allies in a fight, I could always choose to fight my allies. Sending gifts is limited to one item per person per day. However, there's no real way of knowing if a friend sent you an item. One time I actually received the item that was supposed to be given, or at least I think I did, but there was no alert so I had no idea who it came from. Another time I sent a friend a cheese wheel, and they never received it. When I tried to send the item again, I was unable to because they had already received a gift from me. So, where did the cheese go?
Braaains could have a promising future if Broken Bulb is able to work through some of the quirky mechanics and really focus on adding in more social activities.
Braaains, the new Facebook game from Broken Bulb, gives gamers the chance to amass armies of zombies and wage war on Facebook friends and enemies. While the game is still in its infancy, Braaains' Mafia Wars style gameplay will surely grab zombie fans instantly.
Braaains' begins with a quick tutorial to get you started on your way to total zombie domination. You start by exhuming a bare bones zombie from the graveyard. Although the tutorial points out your first zombie to select, you can choose your zombie based off of personality (Depressed, Raging, Schizo, etc), date of death and title (which is more like an army Rank). Each zombie also has a phonetic name based off of typical zombie ramblings like Raaagh Aagraaggh and Mraaagh Raaagh. None of these names or personality traits seem to affect actual gameplay. There 21 zombies to choose from all with the same vitals and cost. The only real change happens with subsequent zombie additions to your army in which case the price tag goes up substantially. Hopefully, Broken Bulb will add more diversity to this process in future updates.
braaains on Facebook
After you've selected your zombie, you can go back to the world map. Here you will find eight other locations: the Stolen Sheriff Van, Warehouse, Hospital, Clothing Shop, Enhancers, Weapon Shop, Science Shop and the Mad Scientist. The Warehouse is used to upgrade various stats: Strength, Health, Agility and Defense. The Stolen Sheriff Van takes you to street fights with AI and other Facebook gamers. Most of the other locations are used to buy offensive and defensive enhancements.
The fight sequences are auto-simulated events animations based on your stats and the stats of your opponent. Gamers can skip these animations. If you win, you can immediately post the win to your Facebook Wall. You will also see an ongoing rundown of your in-game activities in the news feed below the game screen. After battles, you gain experience and coins, which can both be shared with friends. If you share your spoils of war, your friends will receive an additional coin bonus. Unfortunately, sometimes the sharing doesn't actually work; a task as simple as adding a friend appears to be bugged. When you send a friend request, the person on the receiving side will probably not receive the invite. Adding friends or allies isn't a major deal right now. Unlike Mafia Wars, having several allies doesn't help you out in battle. Success in battle focuses primarily on your own zombie army.
As you go up levels, you will collect brain tokens. You also gain brains for unlocking achievements. These can be used to upgrade your zombie army and buy more items. In this game, upgrading your zombies is called training, which you do in the Warehouse. You can also equip your minions with weapons or clothing for defense. You should note that the weapons are obscure. Starter weapons range from household items to mechanics tools, like the garden rake or the tire iron. The meat log is more powerful than a dirt spade, while a cheese wheel is more powerful than both of them combined.
Right now, Braaains still has some significant updates to make before it will grab the attention of the broader social gaming fan base. For starters, frequent cartoony pop-up error messages will alienate more than a few gamers.
Also, Broken Blub needs to work on adding in the team atmosphere to this game. While I couldn't use my allies in a fight, I could always choose to fight my allies. Sending gifts is limited to one item per person per day. However, there's no real way of knowing if a friend sent you an item. One time I actually received the item that was supposed to be given, or at least I think I did, but there was no alert so I had no idea who it came from. Another time I sent a friend a cheese wheel, and they never received it. When I tried to send the item again, I was unable to because they had already received a gift from me. So, where did the cheese go?
Braaains could have a promising future if Broken Bulb is able to work through some of the quirky mechanics and really focus on adding in more social activities.
Digital Chocolate's lead social designer asks, 'Is social broken?'
Aki Järvinen, lead social designer for MMA Pro Fighter creator Digital Chocolate, questions whether the social aspect of social games is broken in a guest post on Gamasutra. While this question isn't exactly a new one, Järvinen deeply explores several modes of social experience in Facebook games and stakes claim to the idea that, "Social games mainly work as distractions rather than playful social interactions."
He explains that because social games aren't played with others immediately in real time that their social qualities are constrained, which is why the most social thing about Facebook games are the the opportunities to share information via News Feed posts. But isn't that exactly what Facebook has been suppressing for months?
If social games are to truly embrace their name, Järvinen suggests that somehow more immediate bonding experiences are introduced into the genre without taking away from what these are all about: the quick fix. This seems to be exactly what games like YoVille and Happy Pets hope to accomplish with their live chat features. Järvinen also nods to FrontierVille for inching closer towards this goal through giving us players serious incentive (think of your Reputation Level) to visit friends and collaborate on Goals.
In his dissertation, Järvinen comes to the conclusion that we might actually be satisfied with the somewhat artificial level of social interaction in our Facebook games, saying, "it might very well be that when we scratch the surface of social in social games we will, and we should find, more surface."
He explains that because social games aren't played with others immediately in real time that their social qualities are constrained, which is why the most social thing about Facebook games are the the opportunities to share information via News Feed posts. But isn't that exactly what Facebook has been suppressing for months?
If social games are to truly embrace their name, Järvinen suggests that somehow more immediate bonding experiences are introduced into the genre without taking away from what these are all about: the quick fix. This seems to be exactly what games like YoVille and Happy Pets hope to accomplish with their live chat features. Järvinen also nods to FrontierVille for inching closer towards this goal through giving us players serious incentive (think of your Reputation Level) to visit friends and collaborate on Goals.
In his dissertation, Järvinen comes to the conclusion that we might actually be satisfied with the somewhat artificial level of social interaction in our Facebook games, saying, "it might very well be that when we scratch the surface of social in social games we will, and we should find, more surface."
Mafia Wars Italy trailer shows an 'Old Country, New Mafia'
Now that you've finally shut that Don Romo up, Zynga has released the official trailer for Mafia Wars: Italy. Set to release by the end of October, Italy, unlike the recent Dublin Challenge Mission, will be the next full-blown city for you digital gangsters to wreak havoc upon.
The trailer is filled with animated, illegible script that we imagine establishes the plot for this new city, but imagery speaks much louder than words we can't make out in the first place. If the super violent trailer is any indication, expect lots of hits, street fights and high speed chases... on garbage trucks? Oh, and expect lots of explosions too, because we all know it just isn't Mafia Wars without explosions.
The trailer is filled with animated, illegible script that we imagine establishes the plot for this new city, but imagery speaks much louder than words we can't make out in the first place. If the super violent trailer is any indication, expect lots of hits, street fights and high speed chases... on garbage trucks? Oh, and expect lots of explosions too, because we all know it just isn't Mafia Wars without explosions.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
'Facebook Addiction' author Nnamdi Osuagwu discusses a tragic phenomenon [Interview]
While it's far from official, you've probably already figured out from this year's headlines that Facebook gaming addiction could be very real. This type of 'addiction' is extremely recent and while 19 percent of Facebook gamers admit to being addicted, it's not exactly being treated like one.
We turn to Nnamdi Osuagwu, IT consultant and author of "Facebook Addiction: The Life and Times of Social Networking Addicts," (a novel that explores our rampant digital culture and incessant need to update our status and check in on our friends by melding fact with fiction) to see if he can give us any answers.
Facebook AddictionWith cases emerging of violent and negligent crimes as a result of Facebook gaming, the threat seems very real. However, Facebook addiction, like gaming addiction has yet to be classified as an official disease or disorder by the American Medical Association. Why do you think this is?
[Experts in] medicine, generally, are late adapters to technology. Not in terms of medical devices or things of that nature, but online technology. Maybe this is just the outside looking in because some doctors are now getting on Twitter and health services are now figuring out ways to integrate social media into their organizations.
So, if they're late adapters on that scale, you can assume on another scale of looking at online issues like gaming addictions and things like that they'll be late adapters in terms of recognizing that as a threat. In order for them to recognize it as an issue, unfortunately more cases have to surface. That's the nature of the beast when you're dealing with medicine.
Dr. Hilarie Cash, who runs an Internet addiction program called reSTART, says Facebook games are designed to be addictive. Would you agree with that?
Being on the development side, I wouldn't say they're designed to be addictive. They're designed to keep people on as long as possible. That helps you advertise, that helps you track your analytics, increases in usage, stuff like that. Saying that they're specifically designed to be addictive sounds somewhat malicious; like, they have malicious intent when they build these systems. That's like saying Facebook or Twitter is designed to be addictive when we see different people using it in various ways.
It's technology, and I think online technology is designed to keep people using it for as long as possible. That's why we build it. She's obviously looking at it from the mental side; that's her background. I could understand her feelings about them being designed to be addictive, but I don't think we're building these systems that way. There are a lot of different things in projects that I may build, but I never think about it with malicious intent nor am I trying to harm somebody. I just think about how we keep people using it, how we can be of the best service. To say whether that's designed to be addictive, I don't know.
In your opinion, how do we go about stopping or treating Facebook gaming addiction? Is it even treatable?
I'm a firm believer in a person finding what they want to do in life and going towards that. With anything that you spend a lot of time doing, I think it should be geared towards the dream you have. So, if you're spending the majority of your time on Facebook, and you're not trying understand it or if you want to build your own game some day, you're just sucking up time. In terms of treating it, it's a tough call. A lot of times in medicine, they treat the symptoms of something.
To bring it back to gaming addiction, it is an issue. Not just in Facebook games, but games in general-games where either you have to spend a lot of time in or games in which you can become someone else-what's the underlying issue? That might be a way of trying to solve the problem. I'm no psychiatrist, but I would want to find out why you feel the need to spend 10 to 12 hours a day on this particular game. What about the other things that are going on in your life?
What exactly drove you to write a novel on Facebook addiction?
I wrote the book because I have a background in computer science.The idea hit me one day when I was online watching my friends interact. Twitter was out, but it wasn't as popular when I started to think about the idea of writing a book about people who update their status continuously throughout the day-similar to how you send a tweet.
I started to think of the comparisons between Facebook addiction and alcohol or drugs and that's how I came up with "Facebook Addiction." The goal was to write a fictional book based on that, but I wanted the reader to really feel it, to essentially identify with some of the characters. So, I just wrote it like it was real, like these people are really suffering.
Your novel characterizes traits of Facebook addicts. What are some signs of Facebook addiction?
I think when it starts to negatively impact your life. I'm not an addiction expert, but from other projects like my first novel, "Ice Cream Melts," where the goal was get real-life 'ice cream melts' stories, which are the transitions from a high point to a low point. So, I did interviews with people that had addictions. And one of the things they always say is, 'It started off small, and I really noticed it when it started to negatively impact my life.'
So, I think when Facebook starts to seriously cause issues in your life, whether you're having issues at work or neglecting your current responsibilities or that you just have to be on it. When you just see it impacting relationships with other people, I think you might want to question your Facebook usage.
We turn to Nnamdi Osuagwu, IT consultant and author of "Facebook Addiction: The Life and Times of Social Networking Addicts," (a novel that explores our rampant digital culture and incessant need to update our status and check in on our friends by melding fact with fiction) to see if he can give us any answers.
Facebook AddictionWith cases emerging of violent and negligent crimes as a result of Facebook gaming, the threat seems very real. However, Facebook addiction, like gaming addiction has yet to be classified as an official disease or disorder by the American Medical Association. Why do you think this is?
[Experts in] medicine, generally, are late adapters to technology. Not in terms of medical devices or things of that nature, but online technology. Maybe this is just the outside looking in because some doctors are now getting on Twitter and health services are now figuring out ways to integrate social media into their organizations.
So, if they're late adapters on that scale, you can assume on another scale of looking at online issues like gaming addictions and things like that they'll be late adapters in terms of recognizing that as a threat. In order for them to recognize it as an issue, unfortunately more cases have to surface. That's the nature of the beast when you're dealing with medicine.
Dr. Hilarie Cash, who runs an Internet addiction program called reSTART, says Facebook games are designed to be addictive. Would you agree with that?
Being on the development side, I wouldn't say they're designed to be addictive. They're designed to keep people on as long as possible. That helps you advertise, that helps you track your analytics, increases in usage, stuff like that. Saying that they're specifically designed to be addictive sounds somewhat malicious; like, they have malicious intent when they build these systems. That's like saying Facebook or Twitter is designed to be addictive when we see different people using it in various ways.
It's technology, and I think online technology is designed to keep people using it for as long as possible. That's why we build it. She's obviously looking at it from the mental side; that's her background. I could understand her feelings about them being designed to be addictive, but I don't think we're building these systems that way. There are a lot of different things in projects that I may build, but I never think about it with malicious intent nor am I trying to harm somebody. I just think about how we keep people using it, how we can be of the best service. To say whether that's designed to be addictive, I don't know.
In your opinion, how do we go about stopping or treating Facebook gaming addiction? Is it even treatable?
I'm a firm believer in a person finding what they want to do in life and going towards that. With anything that you spend a lot of time doing, I think it should be geared towards the dream you have. So, if you're spending the majority of your time on Facebook, and you're not trying understand it or if you want to build your own game some day, you're just sucking up time. In terms of treating it, it's a tough call. A lot of times in medicine, they treat the symptoms of something.
To bring it back to gaming addiction, it is an issue. Not just in Facebook games, but games in general-games where either you have to spend a lot of time in or games in which you can become someone else-what's the underlying issue? That might be a way of trying to solve the problem. I'm no psychiatrist, but I would want to find out why you feel the need to spend 10 to 12 hours a day on this particular game. What about the other things that are going on in your life?
What exactly drove you to write a novel on Facebook addiction?
I wrote the book because I have a background in computer science.The idea hit me one day when I was online watching my friends interact. Twitter was out, but it wasn't as popular when I started to think about the idea of writing a book about people who update their status continuously throughout the day-similar to how you send a tweet.
I started to think of the comparisons between Facebook addiction and alcohol or drugs and that's how I came up with "Facebook Addiction." The goal was to write a fictional book based on that, but I wanted the reader to really feel it, to essentially identify with some of the characters. So, I just wrote it like it was real, like these people are really suffering.
Your novel characterizes traits of Facebook addicts. What are some signs of Facebook addiction?
I think when it starts to negatively impact your life. I'm not an addiction expert, but from other projects like my first novel, "Ice Cream Melts," where the goal was get real-life 'ice cream melts' stories, which are the transitions from a high point to a low point. So, I did interviews with people that had addictions. And one of the things they always say is, 'It started off small, and I really noticed it when it started to negatively impact my life.'
So, I think when Facebook starts to seriously cause issues in your life, whether you're having issues at work or neglecting your current responsibilities or that you just have to be on it. When you just see it impacting relationships with other people, I think you might want to question your Facebook usage.
Win a Trip to Las Vegas by Playing Games.com Poker on Facebook
Games.com is sending one lucky winner on an all expenses paid trip for two to Las Vegas! All you need to do is sign up and play one hand of Games.com Poker on Facebook. That's all you need to do for a chance to win an all expenses paid trip for five days. Play often as each hand played will count as an additional entry into the sweepstakes.
Play Games.com Poker on Facebook and win!
Play Games.com Poker on Facebook and win!
FrontierVille Second Kid Goals: Everything you need to know
The Cabbage Patch Goals were a dead giveaway, weren't they? Not to mention that we so called it earlier this week. The new feature in FrontierVille is even more little buggers to make your digital life on the homestead that much busier. And that's even the half of it. While this series of Goals is titled "Second Kid," there are four more series of Kids Goals available. That makes for six little brats!
After you let that sink in--and complete the Cabbage Patch Goals--step right up to make that second baby. Here's what you'll need to do in all four missions: These Goals are going to require that you be pretty far along in the game. I hate to say it, but newer players shouldn't bother tackling these Goals.
Oh, Baby?
-Feed 10 Sheep
-Have 200 Wood (will be used)
-Have 20 Cloth (reward for visiting neighbors)
Kids are People Too!
-Feed 20 Sheep
-Have One Wool Socks (Sheep Collection Item)
-Have One Milk
Which Name?
-Accept help from one Neighbor
-Get Two Daily Bonuses from the Cabin
-Get Ten Baby Names (most likely an item request)
The Blessed Event!
-Harvest 10 Cabbage
-Have One Crib
-Buy Alphabet Blocks from the Market
Complete all four of these missions and your second crying, snotty ball of joy is all yours. Enjoy it while it's still cute. They start talking after a while, you know. Have fun with that. Also, completing this Goal unlocks the "Third Kid" Goal series. You know, if you're feeling extra masochistic these days.
After you let that sink in--and complete the Cabbage Patch Goals--step right up to make that second baby. Here's what you'll need to do in all four missions: These Goals are going to require that you be pretty far along in the game. I hate to say it, but newer players shouldn't bother tackling these Goals.
Oh, Baby?
-Feed 10 Sheep
-Have 200 Wood (will be used)
-Have 20 Cloth (reward for visiting neighbors)
Kids are People Too!
-Feed 20 Sheep
-Have One Wool Socks (Sheep Collection Item)
-Have One Milk
Which Name?
-Accept help from one Neighbor
-Get Two Daily Bonuses from the Cabin
-Get Ten Baby Names (most likely an item request)
The Blessed Event!
-Harvest 10 Cabbage
-Have One Crib
-Buy Alphabet Blocks from the Market
Complete all four of these missions and your second crying, snotty ball of joy is all yours. Enjoy it while it's still cute. They start talking after a while, you know. Have fun with that. Also, completing this Goal unlocks the "Third Kid" Goal series. You know, if you're feeling extra masochistic these days.
ESPNU College Town and SportsNation throw a pool party on campus
ESPNU SportsNation Pool Party
SportsNation Pool PartyIn the middle of November, the last thing we're thinking about is hopping into a swimsuit and going to a pool party. But that won't stop us from joining ESPN's SportsNation in ESPNU College Town. Colin and Michele of the popular sports program run by the fans have enrolled in ESPNU in a big way with the SportsNation Pool Party item.
All players need to do is log into their game and click the SportsNation link in the news section, which will take them to the SportsNation fan page. From there, follow the promo link from the appropriate News Feed post and, just like that, the brand new building will appear in your gift inventory. Or you can enter the code "SportsNation" after clicking the "Promo" tab just above the game screen.
Plopping the Pool Party somewhere will net your campus 1,250 Happiness, which is to be expected when a pool party sponsored by ESPN falls from the sky. And if you look closely enough, you might find Colin busy promoting the shindig with a big red sign--he's not too happy about it, either. If only this kind of stuff happened when I was in college.
SportsNation Pool PartyIn the middle of November, the last thing we're thinking about is hopping into a swimsuit and going to a pool party. But that won't stop us from joining ESPN's SportsNation in ESPNU College Town. Colin and Michele of the popular sports program run by the fans have enrolled in ESPNU in a big way with the SportsNation Pool Party item.
All players need to do is log into their game and click the SportsNation link in the news section, which will take them to the SportsNation fan page. From there, follow the promo link from the appropriate News Feed post and, just like that, the brand new building will appear in your gift inventory. Or you can enter the code "SportsNation" after clicking the "Promo" tab just above the game screen.
Plopping the Pool Party somewhere will net your campus 1,250 Happiness, which is to be expected when a pool party sponsored by ESPN falls from the sky. And if you look closely enough, you might find Colin busy promoting the shindig with a big red sign--he's not too happy about it, either. If only this kind of stuff happened when I was in college.
Restaurant City's Bollywood theme now available in store
It seems as though Playfish may have officially changed the release date of new items in Restaurant City from Thursday to a day earlier, as, for the third week in a row, we've seen the release of the game's newest items on Wednesday evening, this time in a Bollywood theme.
Meet us behind the break for a look at the newly available Indian items.
As for this week's new items, we're being taken to Bollywood, to the set of our very own Bollywood film, with items celebrating the Slumdog Millionaire in all of us. Some of the items are fairly basic, like the standard Indian Chair or Table, while others come in a much more elaborate form, including golden accents, bright colors, and tons of fun patterns. You can purchase items for both Playfish Cash or in-game coins.
Premium items include lavishly decorated elephants, fit for a royal caravan, a mystical, sparkling statue, a fiery Indian Wallpaper, and a female dance troupe figure set, which fits perfectly with the Bollywood (Indian musical) theme.
Meanwhile, many standard items are also available to purchase with your hard-earned coins. These include plenty of decorative items (male dance troupes, food and flower pots, a spice rack, a tall vase and even a Tuk-Tuk, or Rickshaw-like vehicle. You can add intricately carved doors and windows to your restaurant, along with paintings that celebrate the best in Bollywood's over-the-top musicals.
This theme may not look like much when just viewing the individual pieces (which can be done either by jumping into your restaurant now, or taking a look at the official Restaurant City blog), but when combined, it is actually a really pretty item set that we're sure your virtual customers will love.
Meet us behind the break for a look at the newly available Indian items.
As for this week's new items, we're being taken to Bollywood, to the set of our very own Bollywood film, with items celebrating the Slumdog Millionaire in all of us. Some of the items are fairly basic, like the standard Indian Chair or Table, while others come in a much more elaborate form, including golden accents, bright colors, and tons of fun patterns. You can purchase items for both Playfish Cash or in-game coins.
Premium items include lavishly decorated elephants, fit for a royal caravan, a mystical, sparkling statue, a fiery Indian Wallpaper, and a female dance troupe figure set, which fits perfectly with the Bollywood (Indian musical) theme.
Meanwhile, many standard items are also available to purchase with your hard-earned coins. These include plenty of decorative items (male dance troupes, food and flower pots, a spice rack, a tall vase and even a Tuk-Tuk, or Rickshaw-like vehicle. You can add intricately carved doors and windows to your restaurant, along with paintings that celebrate the best in Bollywood's over-the-top musicals.
This theme may not look like much when just viewing the individual pieces (which can be done either by jumping into your restaurant now, or taking a look at the official Restaurant City blog), but when combined, it is actually a really pretty item set that we're sure your virtual customers will love.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
FarmVille: Gift box capacity increasing to 500
FarmVille Gift Box 500
Good news for you farmers with a packed gift box - more space is coming soon! An increased FarmVille gift box capacity is slowly rolling its way out to all FarmVille players, and many of you might already see this feature released in your game. Previously, the highest capacity for gifts was only 200, so this is a huge upgrade that more than doubles your available space for gift storage.
This increased space probably has its ups and downs. First, it means that you'll have more pages of gifts, and we all know that paging through gifts to find the one you want is already a little bit of a pain. It could also mean that whatever FarmVille has up its sleeve for this holiday season means sending and receiving a lot of gifts. That could be a good or a bad thing, but it is the season for gifting after all. This is a pretty great holiday present from Zynga, and we're definitely not going to complain about the extra space!
Good news for you farmers with a packed gift box - more space is coming soon! An increased FarmVille gift box capacity is slowly rolling its way out to all FarmVille players, and many of you might already see this feature released in your game. Previously, the highest capacity for gifts was only 200, so this is a huge upgrade that more than doubles your available space for gift storage.
This increased space probably has its ups and downs. First, it means that you'll have more pages of gifts, and we all know that paging through gifts to find the one you want is already a little bit of a pain. It could also mean that whatever FarmVille has up its sleeve for this holiday season means sending and receiving a lot of gifts. That could be a good or a bad thing, but it is the season for gifting after all. This is a pretty great holiday present from Zynga, and we're definitely not going to complain about the extra space!
FarmVille Sneak Peek: Candy Cane Cow, Calf, Black Mini Stallion and Foal
FarmVille Candy Cane Cow, Candy Cane Calf, Black Mini Stallion, Black Mini Foal
It's time for another edition of FarmVille Sneak Peek, where we give you the scoop on the latest unreleased items that are hopefully headed to a game near you. This edition brings you the new Candy Cane Cow and Candy Cane Calf, and also the Black Mini Stallion and Black Mini Foal.
As usual, we have no idea if these will actually make it into FarmVille or not - however if they show up here it's a pretty good indication that you'll be seeing these available for purchase sometime in the near future. The Candy Cane Cow is just in time for the holiday and matches the other Candy Cane items we've been seeing.
It's time for another edition of FarmVille Sneak Peek, where we give you the scoop on the latest unreleased items that are hopefully headed to a game near you. This edition brings you the new Candy Cane Cow and Candy Cane Calf, and also the Black Mini Stallion and Black Mini Foal.
As usual, we have no idea if these will actually make it into FarmVille or not - however if they show up here it's a pretty good indication that you'll be seeing these available for purchase sometime in the near future. The Candy Cane Cow is just in time for the holiday and matches the other Candy Cane items we've been seeing.
FarmVille Sneak Peek: Unreleased Snow Lady
Want to know what you can find this holiday season in FarmVille, and too impatient to wait and see. Don't worry, we've got you covered with our details on the latest unreleased items in your favorite farming game. Tonight we've received a tip about a FarmVille Snow Lady that will most likely hit the market soon.
This Snow Lady does an adorable little dance, so she will be more than just a simple decoration for your farm. We're sure she has a mate somewhere, and perhaps there will be more dancing snow people available? We'll have to wait and see what holiday items are released in FarmVille this season.
Don't forget, there is no guarantee that the Snow Lady will show up in FarmVille, but we're pretty sure you can count on it given that the art has been made already.
This Snow Lady does an adorable little dance, so she will be more than just a simple decoration for your farm. We're sure she has a mate somewhere, and perhaps there will be more dancing snow people available? We'll have to wait and see what holiday items are released in FarmVille this season.
Don't forget, there is no guarantee that the Snow Lady will show up in FarmVille, but we're pretty sure you can count on it given that the art has been made already.
It Girl travels to France with new Paris location unlocked
In a long overdue location unlock, Crowdstar's It Girl has finally released the first set of Paris stores. These new French stores allow you to buy new looks, go to new parties, unlock new collections, and explore new areas and deck out your avatar like a Parisian girl. The only main issue with this is that you have to be level 45 because you can gain access to the new area. Because of this, we don't have too much details to provide you - but if you are lucky enough to be high enough in level to access Paris, you can share details in the comments!
Along with the new location, there are three new couture limited edition items that are available to players of all levels. The new items are the Tres Chic Parisian Dress for 51 Facebook Credits, the Frenchie Zig Zag Booties for 55 Facebook Credits, and the Parisian Beret Hair for 39 Facebook Credits. This is the first time we have seen a hair item in the limited edition couture store.
All in all, it looks like It Girl's trip to Paris is elegant, and if you're high in level you should enjoy this new unlocked location.
Along with the new location, there are three new couture limited edition items that are available to players of all levels. The new items are the Tres Chic Parisian Dress for 51 Facebook Credits, the Frenchie Zig Zag Booties for 55 Facebook Credits, and the Parisian Beret Hair for 39 Facebook Credits. This is the first time we have seen a hair item in the limited edition couture store.
All in all, it looks like It Girl's trip to Paris is elegant, and if you're high in level you should enjoy this new unlocked location.
Paradise Life: New game feels a bit too familiar to be a paradise
Paradise Life
Ice Break Games seem to be creating better and better games with each effort. Their first title, Ranch Life, never really took off. Their second game, Cafe Life, currently has almost 2.7 million monthly players. Now they're trying again with Paradise Life, a game that feels just a little too familiar to Zynga's FrontierVille to be declared an innovative success for social games.
Paradise Life is literally FrontierVIlle on an island setting. You have your own island, and on it you have to clear the growth, harvest plants, build structures, fish from ponds, and even defeat villains in the exact same way as FrontierVille. You have your energy meter which controls all actions within the game, your food meter which allows you to buy meals from the store (which convert into energy), favor points (such as reputation in FrontierVille) that are awarded for helping on your friend's islands, a questing system the follows the template FrontierVille has created, family members and the ability to unlock them, collections, wishlists, you name it. In fact, some of the interfaces are so similar that it's a blatant copy of Zynga's hit wild west game.
Paradise Life
Zynga have received such a bad reputation in the past for cloning other games by smaller developers and making them into huge successes. It's actually kind of ironic to see the same thing happening right back at Zynga to FrontierVille, which was Zynga's first original design. However, it remains to be seen if Paradise Life will prove to be a success for Ice Break Games, as it doesn't appear to do anything to better Zynga's design. Zynga's success has come from taking the ideas that other people come up with and making them more polished and better suited to a social game audience. Paradise Life is clearly an identical clone with a fresh island setting.
Don't get us wrong, the game is cute and well done. It's polished more than Cafe LIfe, and feels really great to play. The avatars are very cute, the colors are bright and inviting, and it's so much of an exact copy of FrontierVille that we're sure it will see some residual success because of that. However where games like Ravenwood Fair have iterated on a successful design like FrontierVille and made a new unique fresh-feeling game, we can't help but feel like Paradise LIfe brings very little of worth to our selection of games to play.
Ice Break Games seem to be creating better and better games with each effort. Their first title, Ranch Life, never really took off. Their second game, Cafe Life, currently has almost 2.7 million monthly players. Now they're trying again with Paradise Life, a game that feels just a little too familiar to Zynga's FrontierVille to be declared an innovative success for social games.
Paradise Life is literally FrontierVIlle on an island setting. You have your own island, and on it you have to clear the growth, harvest plants, build structures, fish from ponds, and even defeat villains in the exact same way as FrontierVille. You have your energy meter which controls all actions within the game, your food meter which allows you to buy meals from the store (which convert into energy), favor points (such as reputation in FrontierVille) that are awarded for helping on your friend's islands, a questing system the follows the template FrontierVille has created, family members and the ability to unlock them, collections, wishlists, you name it. In fact, some of the interfaces are so similar that it's a blatant copy of Zynga's hit wild west game.
Paradise Life
Zynga have received such a bad reputation in the past for cloning other games by smaller developers and making them into huge successes. It's actually kind of ironic to see the same thing happening right back at Zynga to FrontierVille, which was Zynga's first original design. However, it remains to be seen if Paradise Life will prove to be a success for Ice Break Games, as it doesn't appear to do anything to better Zynga's design. Zynga's success has come from taking the ideas that other people come up with and making them more polished and better suited to a social game audience. Paradise Life is clearly an identical clone with a fresh island setting.
Don't get us wrong, the game is cute and well done. It's polished more than Cafe LIfe, and feels really great to play. The avatars are very cute, the colors are bright and inviting, and it's so much of an exact copy of FrontierVille that we're sure it will see some residual success because of that. However where games like Ravenwood Fair have iterated on a successful design like FrontierVille and made a new unique fresh-feeling game, we can't help but feel like Paradise LIfe brings very little of worth to our selection of games to play.
Friday, January 13, 2012
FarmVille: Second wave of Holiday Tree prizes now available
As we told you last week, the FarmVille Holiday Tree is now available, and friends and family everywhere have turned their eyes squarely to the endeavor of collecting presents - lots, and lots, and lots of presents. At launch, there were but six prizes available to earn by redeeming some of your stockpile of presents (if you don't include the many contents of the Winter Whimsy box), and today, we see FarmVille increasing the prize variety by six.
Now, if you look inside your Holiday Tree (click on the tree and click "Look Inside" on the small menu that appears), you'll see that instead of just being able to trade your presents in for the first six items, that there is now a "Page 2." This Page 2 has some of the items that you were able to earn via the Winter Whimsy box (like the Ice House or Tinsel Tree), but it also has items that were given away during the Festive Tree quest set (like the Frozen Fantasy statue).
All told, these new items cost more presents, but are more elaborate, or at least more exclusive, so it seems to make up for the increased cost. The six items are:
Sneezy Sheep - 75 Presents
Tinsel Tree - 100 Presents
Frozen Fantasy - 125 Presents
Ice House - 150 Presents
Kodiak Cub - 200 Presents
Arctic Fox - 275 Presents
Don't worry though - if you had yet to gather enough presents to have a chance at the six items released at first, these items are still there for your redemption pleasure. For those that have enough Ice Cubes or Winter Whimsy boxes, however, these prizes will give you plenty more to collect for.
Now, if you look inside your Holiday Tree (click on the tree and click "Look Inside" on the small menu that appears), you'll see that instead of just being able to trade your presents in for the first six items, that there is now a "Page 2." This Page 2 has some of the items that you were able to earn via the Winter Whimsy box (like the Ice House or Tinsel Tree), but it also has items that were given away during the Festive Tree quest set (like the Frozen Fantasy statue).
All told, these new items cost more presents, but are more elaborate, or at least more exclusive, so it seems to make up for the increased cost. The six items are:
Sneezy Sheep - 75 Presents
Tinsel Tree - 100 Presents
Frozen Fantasy - 125 Presents
Ice House - 150 Presents
Kodiak Cub - 200 Presents
Arctic Fox - 275 Presents
Don't worry though - if you had yet to gather enough presents to have a chance at the six items released at first, these items are still there for your redemption pleasure. For those that have enough Ice Cubes or Winter Whimsy boxes, however, these prizes will give you plenty more to collect for.
Farmer's Hero for iPhone: Nifty FarmVille tool or malicious cheat?
At Games.com - The Blog!, we don't support cheating in Facebook games. However, we do want to cover everything there is to know about FarmVille and other top Facebook games. We don't want you to feel out of the loop on the latest tools and tricks for FarmVille. Farmer's Hero is an iPhone (and therefore iPod Touch and iPad) application that makes it easier to collect feed bonuses for FarmVille. What exactly does this mean?
The application requires you to sign in with your Facebook account. It then monitors all of the feed posts that your friends post on their wall and pulls out the ones that include bonuses. This means free bushels, fuel, pollinated seeds, and lost adoptable animals, among more. Farmer's Hero can automatically retrieve this for you as if you clicked them yourself, without requiring the tedium of clicking on each individual post.
Some people consider this cheating, because the application basically automates the process of interacting with feed posts. Every time Farmer's Hero claims something from a wall post, it means one less person can use it. This is more than frustrating if you're a legitimate player and every time you click on a wall post one second after it's posted you're greeted by a "this item has already been claimed" message.
Still, clicking manually on feed items doesn't require skill. It's a boring game of hunting and pecking, and Farmer's Hero makes it so that you no longer have to do this. Another application that does something similar is the controversial Gamer's Unite application.
The application requires you to sign in with your Facebook account. It then monitors all of the feed posts that your friends post on their wall and pulls out the ones that include bonuses. This means free bushels, fuel, pollinated seeds, and lost adoptable animals, among more. Farmer's Hero can automatically retrieve this for you as if you clicked them yourself, without requiring the tedium of clicking on each individual post.
Some people consider this cheating, because the application basically automates the process of interacting with feed posts. Every time Farmer's Hero claims something from a wall post, it means one less person can use it. This is more than frustrating if you're a legitimate player and every time you click on a wall post one second after it's posted you're greeted by a "this item has already been claimed" message.
Still, clicking manually on feed items doesn't require skill. It's a boring game of hunting and pecking, and Farmer's Hero makes it so that you no longer have to do this. Another application that does something similar is the controversial Gamer's Unite application.
FrontierVille Timed Mission Storage Space II now available
Last week, we brought you the news surrounding the new FrontierVille Storage Shed expansion. At the time, this was just a single timed mission, that would allow you to expand your Storage Shed to have five extra storage slots. We knew that two other missions would be coming behind this original launch, but we didn't know exactly when those missions would launch in full.
Luckily, partners, you can now expand five additional spaces via this afternoon's launch of the Storage Space II mission, a timed mission that must be started on your account before December 21, and completed within three days thereafter.
The mission has three steps, which are to:
Have or Craft 6 Sawhorses
Have or Obtain 15 Nails
Get 15 Cardboard Boxes
Interestingly, the leaked information concerning this mission before its release has now been proven incorrect, as you need to have 15 nails, rather than six, as was first believed. Either way, you'll earn these by asking friends via individual gift requests. The Cardboard boxes are gathered by posting general wall posts asking for your friends to help you, and you'll have to create the Sawhorses within your barn.
A single Sawhorse can be created using 5 Planks and 2 Tools. Remember, Tools can be earned by having your friends hire you on their homesteads, and then posting the Tools as a wall bonus afterwards. Planks are created in the Wagon, using 7 pieces of wood and 250 coins for each Plank.
Unless you already had a few Sawhorses or lots of Tools on hand, you may find this quest to be a bit difficult, especially considering the three day time limit. However, with a little effort, and perhaps some persuading of friends to hire you, you too can add five more storage spaces to your Storage Shed. In addition, you'll earn 300 XP and 500 coins for finishing the quest.
Luckily, partners, you can now expand five additional spaces via this afternoon's launch of the Storage Space II mission, a timed mission that must be started on your account before December 21, and completed within three days thereafter.
The mission has three steps, which are to:
Have or Craft 6 Sawhorses
Have or Obtain 15 Nails
Get 15 Cardboard Boxes
Interestingly, the leaked information concerning this mission before its release has now been proven incorrect, as you need to have 15 nails, rather than six, as was first believed. Either way, you'll earn these by asking friends via individual gift requests. The Cardboard boxes are gathered by posting general wall posts asking for your friends to help you, and you'll have to create the Sawhorses within your barn.
A single Sawhorse can be created using 5 Planks and 2 Tools. Remember, Tools can be earned by having your friends hire you on their homesteads, and then posting the Tools as a wall bonus afterwards. Planks are created in the Wagon, using 7 pieces of wood and 250 coins for each Plank.
Unless you already had a few Sawhorses or lots of Tools on hand, you may find this quest to be a bit difficult, especially considering the three day time limit. However, with a little effort, and perhaps some persuading of friends to hire you, you too can add five more storage spaces to your Storage Shed. In addition, you'll earn 300 XP and 500 coins for finishing the quest.
CityVille: Tower Eats franchise is enormous and expensive
CityVille franchises are a neat aspect of the game, because it's great to have a physical representation in your city of how many businesses you are running in your friend's cities. One of the more daunting franchises in the game is the Tower Eats franchise. Why? Because it costs 800,000 coins to open up a Tower Eats franchise. Yikes.
I spend my money way too quickly in CityVille, so there is no way I'm affording one of these anytime soon. However, after seeing how gigantic the building is, it's making me want to save up! Click on the image to the right to see the Tower Eats franchise when compared with other buildings. It is by far the largest building you can get right now for your city.
Of course, this feat won't come easy. You have to earn a lot of coins to unlock this sucker.
I spend my money way too quickly in CityVille, so there is no way I'm affording one of these anytime soon. However, after seeing how gigantic the building is, it's making me want to save up! Click on the image to the right to see the Tower Eats franchise when compared with other buildings. It is by far the largest building you can get right now for your city.
Of course, this feat won't come easy. You have to earn a lot of coins to unlock this sucker.
Facebook Friend Guide: How to find neighbors to play games with
Playing Facebook games is a lot more fun when you have friends who are playing alongside you. Couple this with the fact that many games incentivize you for having more neighbors, and it can make for a pretty terrible gaming experience if none of your friends want to play. Facebook isn't really designed to allow you to meet new people; Facebook's core intentions were to connect you with the people and acquaintances that you already know. This can make it challenging to find new friends to game with on Facebook, so we have a few tips that will help you get more friends on Facebook to play games with you.
Official game message boards
One of the best places to find other people to game with is on the game's official message boards which are maintained by the developer. On these forums, you can register and post in "add me" threads where other players will find them. If you go this route, remember to include a link to your Facebook profile otherwise they will not be able to add you as a friend. You also should ask them to put in the friend request what game(s) they play, so that you know who they are when they add you as a friend. You should be able to look through the threads and find friends to add as well.
On the wall of the game's fan page
If you go to the fan page for the game that you wish to find friends for, you can comment on the status messages, wall, and review page with "add me". You will see many other people doing this as well, so you can feel free to add them as friends. This is probably the fastest way to find friends. Sometimes, simply clicking "like" on a game's wall post is enough to cause a barrage of friend requests to fly in from all angles.
In "Add Me" groups
Most games (at least the popular ones) on Facebook have various "Add Me" groups that you can join to find other people to play that game with. You will have to join the group, but once you have joined you have unlocked a ton of people who play the game game as you. It's a nice way to exchange tips and tricks on the games too. See FarmVilleAddMe for an example of this.
On Games.com!
Another perfect way to find friends to game with is by commenting on this post! Leave a comment with your Facebook profile link and tell others what games you play. There's a good chance you'll find plenty of friends this way!
General Tips and Warnings:
Remember that if you post on forums and external sites, you will have to delete your posts in the future if you want people to stop adding you as a friend.
When you're adding strangers, it's best to make a special Facebook list/group for them and do not share any personal information or non-gaming status messages with them.
It is possible that spammers will add you, so use careful consideration when accepting friend requests.
Do you have any other tips for finding friends on Facebook?
Official game message boards
One of the best places to find other people to game with is on the game's official message boards which are maintained by the developer. On these forums, you can register and post in "add me" threads where other players will find them. If you go this route, remember to include a link to your Facebook profile otherwise they will not be able to add you as a friend. You also should ask them to put in the friend request what game(s) they play, so that you know who they are when they add you as a friend. You should be able to look through the threads and find friends to add as well.
On the wall of the game's fan page
If you go to the fan page for the game that you wish to find friends for, you can comment on the status messages, wall, and review page with "add me". You will see many other people doing this as well, so you can feel free to add them as friends. This is probably the fastest way to find friends. Sometimes, simply clicking "like" on a game's wall post is enough to cause a barrage of friend requests to fly in from all angles.
In "Add Me" groups
Most games (at least the popular ones) on Facebook have various "Add Me" groups that you can join to find other people to play that game with. You will have to join the group, but once you have joined you have unlocked a ton of people who play the game game as you. It's a nice way to exchange tips and tricks on the games too. See FarmVilleAddMe for an example of this.
On Games.com!
Another perfect way to find friends to game with is by commenting on this post! Leave a comment with your Facebook profile link and tell others what games you play. There's a good chance you'll find plenty of friends this way!
General Tips and Warnings:
Remember that if you post on forums and external sites, you will have to delete your posts in the future if you want people to stop adding you as a friend.
When you're adding strangers, it's best to make a special Facebook list/group for them and do not share any personal information or non-gaming status messages with them.
It is possible that spammers will add you, so use careful consideration when accepting friend requests.
Do you have any other tips for finding friends on Facebook?
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Bossa Studios's Facebook debut, Monstermind, will crush your dreams
But in a good way, we promise. Like the U.S., folks in the UK are super cereal (isn't that what kids are saying these days?) about the social games movement. The Guardian reports that Shine TV has acquired London-based social game startup Bossa Studios for an undisclosed amount.
Elisabeth Murdoch's TV production company (recently bought out by daddy's News Corp) has reportedly been eying social gaming for a long time. And what do you know--her timing could not have been better.
According to The Guardian, 11-month-old Bossa Studios looks to unveil its first project, Monstermind (pictured), next week on Facebook. However, it looks like the game is available now on Facebook, though in an "open beta." (For all intents and purposes, the game is live and available for all to play.)
"We have long identified social gaming as a critical component to this strategy, and in Bossa Studios we discovered an entrepreneurial, creative team that shared our passion for creative excellence," Miss Murdoch told The Guardian. "They have bold ideas for this space which we naturally welcome and will be a significant addition to the Shine Group."
Monstermind looks to be a fresh take on the city-building genre that CityVille has done so well to popularize. Well, fresh in the sense that, in addition to building cities, you can sic giant monsters to crush your friends' towns. The game features nearly full 3D visuals and an art style that screams "The Blob meets Sim City." Check out the game's trailer below to see what we mean.
Elisabeth Murdoch's TV production company (recently bought out by daddy's News Corp) has reportedly been eying social gaming for a long time. And what do you know--her timing could not have been better.
According to The Guardian, 11-month-old Bossa Studios looks to unveil its first project, Monstermind (pictured), next week on Facebook. However, it looks like the game is available now on Facebook, though in an "open beta." (For all intents and purposes, the game is live and available for all to play.)
"We have long identified social gaming as a critical component to this strategy, and in Bossa Studios we discovered an entrepreneurial, creative team that shared our passion for creative excellence," Miss Murdoch told The Guardian. "They have bold ideas for this space which we naturally welcome and will be a significant addition to the Shine Group."
Monstermind looks to be a fresh take on the city-building genre that CityVille has done so well to popularize. Well, fresh in the sense that, in addition to building cities, you can sic giant monsters to crush your friends' towns. The game features nearly full 3D visuals and an art style that screams "The Blob meets Sim City." Check out the game's trailer below to see what we mean.
FarmVille meets Indiana Jones for real in Adventure World soon
Adventure World: An Indiana Jones Game
Since Adventure World's release last week, many media outlets dubbed it "FarmVille meets Indiana Jones." It seems that Zynga took those allusions to heart, as the company has teamed up with Lucasfilm to make good on those hit-generating remarks. Zynga just announced that Indiana Jones will soon make his way into Adventure World this October.
In fact, it appears that the game will be completely rebranded with the Indiana Jones name, according to the above image. The teaser depicts the familiar Adventure World logo, but now reads, "Adventure World: An Indiana Jones Game." To us at least, this implies that Zynga Boston's debut game will incorporate the Indiana Jones brand throughout (and perhaps permanently). The wording of Zynga's announcement certainly steers us toward this conclusion:
Zynga is proud to announce that we're teaming up with Lucasfilm to bring Indiana Jones - the KING of lost idol hunting, bull whipping, holy grail-ing and flying (but not landing) - to your favorite adventure game. Adventure World: An Indiana Jones Game will be coming soon to a browser near you.
If this is, in fact, the case, Adventure World would be the first Zynga game built entirely around a single brand, rather than the one-off promotions we see from brands like McDonald's in FarmVille and recently Best Buy in CityVille. Considering the massively ambitious game hasn't been doing so hot its first week out of the gate, this could be second wind it needs.
Since Adventure World's release last week, many media outlets dubbed it "FarmVille meets Indiana Jones." It seems that Zynga took those allusions to heart, as the company has teamed up with Lucasfilm to make good on those hit-generating remarks. Zynga just announced that Indiana Jones will soon make his way into Adventure World this October.
In fact, it appears that the game will be completely rebranded with the Indiana Jones name, according to the above image. The teaser depicts the familiar Adventure World logo, but now reads, "Adventure World: An Indiana Jones Game." To us at least, this implies that Zynga Boston's debut game will incorporate the Indiana Jones brand throughout (and perhaps permanently). The wording of Zynga's announcement certainly steers us toward this conclusion:
Zynga is proud to announce that we're teaming up with Lucasfilm to bring Indiana Jones - the KING of lost idol hunting, bull whipping, holy grail-ing and flying (but not landing) - to your favorite adventure game. Adventure World: An Indiana Jones Game will be coming soon to a browser near you.
If this is, in fact, the case, Adventure World would be the first Zynga game built entirely around a single brand, rather than the one-off promotions we see from brands like McDonald's in FarmVille and recently Best Buy in CityVille. Considering the massively ambitious game hasn't been doing so hot its first week out of the gate, this could be second wind it needs.
Diamond Dash maker: Social games 'will evolve again in the next years'
Frankly, they kind of have no choice. That's general idea Wooga studio head Henric Suuronen (pictured) seems to have put forward in an in-depth interview with Gamasutra. And it would be wise to listen--the Berlin, Germany-based Facebook game creator is third behind Zynga and EA (now that PopCap's numbers have been integrated), according to AppData.
During the interview, Suuronen gave Gamasutra a detailed explanation of where Facebook games have been, what it takes to create them from a design perspective and, most importantly, where they're going. Specifically speaking to social mechanics in Facebook games, Suuronen said to Gamasutra:
"Now moving four years forward, you have games like CityVille, Pioneer Trail from Zynga, Kabam games, Digital Chocolate games, and Zombie Lane -- great game -- and now Magic Land," Suuronen told Gamasutra. "So it has really evolved. So why would the progression stop here? So I think it will evolve, as it has done from four years ago with Jetman and Scrabulous and Tower Bloxx. So it will evolve again in the next years."
The hit maker behind Diamond Dash recently released its seventh game on Facebook, Magic Land, which enjoys a healthy 3.4 million monthly players and over 330,000 daily players. According to Suuronen, Wooga's latest game had the most man hours thrown into it, a trend he seems to believe will continue. "The whole myth of the minimum viable product -- it's gone," Suuronen told Gamasutra. "It's something that you say to investors to sound cool."
Sure, Suuronen believes that players will eventually get tired of the standard social gaming mechanics of sharing gifts and helping asynchronously. However, the Wooga studio head also points out that the harsh reality of designing Facebook games to get players to pay up isn't going anywhere, and some traditional designers have trouble coming to grips with that.
Considering social games are expected to make $1 billion this year alone (and cash in even more from there), traditional designers and companies better wise up quick if they want to fit in the next big money machine. Read Suuronen's full interview with Gamasutra here, in which he predicts how you might be enticed to pay up in the future.
During the interview, Suuronen gave Gamasutra a detailed explanation of where Facebook games have been, what it takes to create them from a design perspective and, most importantly, where they're going. Specifically speaking to social mechanics in Facebook games, Suuronen said to Gamasutra:
"Now moving four years forward, you have games like CityVille, Pioneer Trail from Zynga, Kabam games, Digital Chocolate games, and Zombie Lane -- great game -- and now Magic Land," Suuronen told Gamasutra. "So it has really evolved. So why would the progression stop here? So I think it will evolve, as it has done from four years ago with Jetman and Scrabulous and Tower Bloxx. So it will evolve again in the next years."
The hit maker behind Diamond Dash recently released its seventh game on Facebook, Magic Land, which enjoys a healthy 3.4 million monthly players and over 330,000 daily players. According to Suuronen, Wooga's latest game had the most man hours thrown into it, a trend he seems to believe will continue. "The whole myth of the minimum viable product -- it's gone," Suuronen told Gamasutra. "It's something that you say to investors to sound cool."
Sure, Suuronen believes that players will eventually get tired of the standard social gaming mechanics of sharing gifts and helping asynchronously. However, the Wooga studio head also points out that the harsh reality of designing Facebook games to get players to pay up isn't going anywhere, and some traditional designers have trouble coming to grips with that.
Considering social games are expected to make $1 billion this year alone (and cash in even more from there), traditional designers and companies better wise up quick if they want to fit in the next big money machine. Read Suuronen's full interview with Gamasutra here, in which he predicts how you might be enticed to pay up in the future.
Playfish founder: We have redefined social games with The Sims Social
The Sims Social is just an arm's reach from being the number one game on Facebook, so this kind of logic is expected. In an interview with MCV, Playfish founder and co-GM Kristian Segerstrale said, "In bringing one of EA's most popular game franchises to Facebook, Playfish and The Sims team have redefined the meaning of social in video games."
While The Sims Social certainly treads some new ground in how Facebook gamers interact, it's important to remember to chalk up much of the game's runaway success to the brand it's attached to. In just over a month since its release, The Sims Social has skyrocketed to become the second most popular Facebook game to date in both daily and monthly players, AppData reports.
Just last week, EA's (which owns Playfish) proverbial secret weapon ousted Zynga's iconic and ubiquitous FarmVille in daily players, but now the game has even more monthly players than the household name farming simulator with over 43.8 million and counting. The Sims Social has dipped a bit in daily players, but is just about 2.9 million fans away from beating out the might CityVille as the most played Facebook game daily.
"By combining Playfish's expertise and passion for social play with the deep creative heritage of The Sims franchise and the insights of its creators, we feel we've brought something very special to life – and tens of millions of players around the world have responded with extraordinary enthusiasm over the last few weeks," Segerstrale said to MCV.
The founder went on to say that new features to The Sims Social will land in the coming months. And we're sure that if EA wants to host the top Facebook game overall, that those features will have to be even more groundbreaking than before. How's about in-game marriages, eh? (Because we all know how well that's worked elsewhere.)
While The Sims Social certainly treads some new ground in how Facebook gamers interact, it's important to remember to chalk up much of the game's runaway success to the brand it's attached to. In just over a month since its release, The Sims Social has skyrocketed to become the second most popular Facebook game to date in both daily and monthly players, AppData reports.
Just last week, EA's (which owns Playfish) proverbial secret weapon ousted Zynga's iconic and ubiquitous FarmVille in daily players, but now the game has even more monthly players than the household name farming simulator with over 43.8 million and counting. The Sims Social has dipped a bit in daily players, but is just about 2.9 million fans away from beating out the might CityVille as the most played Facebook game daily.
"By combining Playfish's expertise and passion for social play with the deep creative heritage of The Sims franchise and the insights of its creators, we feel we've brought something very special to life – and tens of millions of players around the world have responded with extraordinary enthusiasm over the last few weeks," Segerstrale said to MCV.
The founder went on to say that new features to The Sims Social will land in the coming months. And we're sure that if EA wants to host the top Facebook game overall, that those features will have to be even more groundbreaking than before. How's about in-game marriages, eh? (Because we all know how well that's worked elsewhere.)
Google+ releases API to developers, more social games incoming
Google+ Games is cool with its no-nonsense interface and all, but the sad fact is that it only has 16 games. Compare that to the thousands of Facebook games out there, and it's clear that Google has to do something to compete with that selection. Enter the Google+ API, which was just recently released to developers, and could lead to a plethora of more Google+ Games.
The acronym API is short for Application Programming Interface, meaning it contains the tools for developers to create new applications within a given framework--in this case being Google+. Wired reports that Google will steadily release its developer API, meaning that it will be some time before it's feature-complete. And the features not yet included are, well, kinda vital.
For instance, at the moment developers can only create apps that publish read-only public posts. For instance, if a developer like Zynga released a new social game today on Google+ Games, your friends would not be able to interact with the News Feed posts you create. You all already likely know that this is essentially the bread and butter of Facebook games. It's how things get done in-game aside from directly requesting help from friends.
The reasoning for the omission? According to PC World, Google's Eric Chabot explains that this is because the company would rather improve Google+ over time, rather open up a "vacuum" with too many features at once. I'm not sure adding simple post-sharing interactivity would create a vacuum for the platform, but it's a first step nonetheless. What Google+ Games has to deal with more in its competition with Facebook's wide offering of games is scale. The bell rings on Round 2.
The acronym API is short for Application Programming Interface, meaning it contains the tools for developers to create new applications within a given framework--in this case being Google+. Wired reports that Google will steadily release its developer API, meaning that it will be some time before it's feature-complete. And the features not yet included are, well, kinda vital.
For instance, at the moment developers can only create apps that publish read-only public posts. For instance, if a developer like Zynga released a new social game today on Google+ Games, your friends would not be able to interact with the News Feed posts you create. You all already likely know that this is essentially the bread and butter of Facebook games. It's how things get done in-game aside from directly requesting help from friends.
The reasoning for the omission? According to PC World, Google's Eric Chabot explains that this is because the company would rather improve Google+ over time, rather open up a "vacuum" with too many features at once. I'm not sure adding simple post-sharing interactivity would create a vacuum for the platform, but it's a first step nonetheless. What Google+ Games has to deal with more in its competition with Facebook's wide offering of games is scale. The bell rings on Round 2.
Monday, January 9, 2012
FarmVille Winter Wonderland Decorations: Visitor Center, Bear Fishing, Fireweed, Iced Cliff & More
Along with the release of two new Winter Wonderland themed animals, Zynga has released a set of buildings and decorative items in tonight's FarmVille updates, also belonging to the Winter Wonderland theme. To be specific, there are two new buildings, and four new decorative items to add to your farm, with most costing Farm Cash, as you might have expected.
For the new buildings, you can pick up either a Visitor Center or a Winter Farm House. The Visitor Center costs 15 Farm Cash (not a bad cost really), while the Winter Farm House costs 25 (a more expected price tag in the world of limited edition buildings). You'll receive experience points for purchasing both buildings - 1500 and 2500 points, respectively.
For the decorative items, these four are actually split evenly between those that cost Farm Cash and those that cost coins (thankfully). The two premium items are the Bear Fishing item and the Iced Cliff. The Bear Fishing item is an animated item much like the Penguin Fishing item we saw released earlier in this same theme. It shows a bear standing at the top of a stream, trying to catch fish that are swimming upstream. It costs 20 Farm Cash to purchase and you'll receive 2000 experience points for purchasing it. The other Farm Cash item is the Iced Cliff, which costs just 2 Farm Cash, and is simply an environmental decoration, that will make your farm look like it has a gaping icy trench separating two sections.
For the coin items, you can now pick up either the Totem Pole II or the Fireweed plant. The Totem Pole II costs 50,000 coins, and rewards you with 500 experience points upon a purchase, while the Fireweed costs just 10,000 coins, and it's one of the prettiest items released in some time, if you ask me (then again, I'm partial to all things pink and purple).
All of these items, whether a building or a decoration will be available in the game for the next 13 days - so shop fast if you want a chance at collecting all of these items on your farm before they expire from the store.
Which of these items is your favorite? Will you go on a shopping spree to purchase them all, or are you done collecting winter themed items in the game, and are ready to move onto something else?
For the new buildings, you can pick up either a Visitor Center or a Winter Farm House. The Visitor Center costs 15 Farm Cash (not a bad cost really), while the Winter Farm House costs 25 (a more expected price tag in the world of limited edition buildings). You'll receive experience points for purchasing both buildings - 1500 and 2500 points, respectively.
For the decorative items, these four are actually split evenly between those that cost Farm Cash and those that cost coins (thankfully). The two premium items are the Bear Fishing item and the Iced Cliff. The Bear Fishing item is an animated item much like the Penguin Fishing item we saw released earlier in this same theme. It shows a bear standing at the top of a stream, trying to catch fish that are swimming upstream. It costs 20 Farm Cash to purchase and you'll receive 2000 experience points for purchasing it. The other Farm Cash item is the Iced Cliff, which costs just 2 Farm Cash, and is simply an environmental decoration, that will make your farm look like it has a gaping icy trench separating two sections.
For the coin items, you can now pick up either the Totem Pole II or the Fireweed plant. The Totem Pole II costs 50,000 coins, and rewards you with 500 experience points upon a purchase, while the Fireweed costs just 10,000 coins, and it's one of the prettiest items released in some time, if you ask me (then again, I'm partial to all things pink and purple).
All of these items, whether a building or a decoration will be available in the game for the next 13 days - so shop fast if you want a chance at collecting all of these items on your farm before they expire from the store.
Which of these items is your favorite? Will you go on a shopping spree to purchase them all, or are you done collecting winter themed items in the game, and are ready to move onto something else?
FarmVille Cheats and Tips: Cow and Calf Breeding Guide
Cow Breeding is very similar to FarmVille Horse Breeding, only instead of foals, you breed calves for your neighbors. Remember, you won't be able to keep any of the calves you breed, so make sure you have neighbors that will breed their FarmVille cows into calves for you in return.
To breed a cow and produce a calf, you must have a Dairy Farm with at least one Bull and one cow inside. (For info on adult cows, check out our Nursery Barn Guide.) Though the primary function of the Dairy Farm is to harvest multiple cows at once, it can also produce new calves. When you harvest your Dairy Farm, there is a chance a calf will be made. If you place more of one type of cow in the Dairy Farm, there is a higher chance the calf will be of that type. If you're wondering: What calf will my cow make? Check out our Breeding Charts below.
farmville cow breeding cheats guide calf
The difference between Horse Breeding and Cow Breeding in FarmVille, is the Multiple Breeding Cheat. Unfortunately, Cow Breeding doesn't allow us to use the Multiple Breeding Cheat like Horse Breeding does. So while this makes Cow Breeding much slower, at least it's simple and doesn't require that tedious cheat. For more info on the Multiple Breeding Cheat, click here.
Check out our FarmVille Cow Breeding Guide charts below.
Breeding the Cow, Referee Cow, or Referee Cow 2 with a Bull will result in a regular Calf:
Male Female Offspring
farmville cheats breeding cow calfBull farmville cheats breeding cow calfCow farmville cheats breeding cow calfCalf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfReferee Cow
farmville cheats breeding cow calfReferee Cow 2
Most female cows, when crossed with a Bull, will yield a calf of the same type:
Male Female Offspring
farmville cheats breeding cow calfBull farmville cheats breeding cow calfChocolate Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfChocolate Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfBrown Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfBrown Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfGroovy Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfGroovy Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfHolstein Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfHolstein Calf
Male Female Offspring
farmville cheats breeding cow calfBull farmville cheats breeding cow calfRed Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfRed Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfBOV1NE-09 farmville cheats breeding cow calfGreen Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfNeopolitan Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfNeopolitan Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfLonghorn Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfLonghorn Calf
Male Female Offspring
farmville cheats breeding cow calfBull farmville cheats breeding cow calfBelted Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfBelted Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfPink Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfPink Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfKelly Green Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfKelly Green Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfPink Patch Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfPink Patch Calf
Male Female Offspring
farmville cheats breeding cow calfBull farmville cheats breeding cow calfTuscan Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfTuscan Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfFan Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfFan Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfSimmental Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfSimmental Calf
Valentine Cow Valentine Calf
Male Female Offspring
farmville cheats breeding cow calfBull Purple
Valentine Cow Purple
Valentine Calf
[Images via FarmVille Wiki]
Note: If the cow or calf you're looking for isn't here, odds are that the cow is able to produce a calf of the same type. Unfortunately, once that calf grows up, it will change to a more ordinary cow.
Check out the rest of our FarmVille Breeding Guides or browse our FarmVille Cheats & Tips right here.
To breed a cow and produce a calf, you must have a Dairy Farm with at least one Bull and one cow inside. (For info on adult cows, check out our Nursery Barn Guide.) Though the primary function of the Dairy Farm is to harvest multiple cows at once, it can also produce new calves. When you harvest your Dairy Farm, there is a chance a calf will be made. If you place more of one type of cow in the Dairy Farm, there is a higher chance the calf will be of that type. If you're wondering: What calf will my cow make? Check out our Breeding Charts below.
farmville cow breeding cheats guide calf
The difference between Horse Breeding and Cow Breeding in FarmVille, is the Multiple Breeding Cheat. Unfortunately, Cow Breeding doesn't allow us to use the Multiple Breeding Cheat like Horse Breeding does. So while this makes Cow Breeding much slower, at least it's simple and doesn't require that tedious cheat. For more info on the Multiple Breeding Cheat, click here.
Check out our FarmVille Cow Breeding Guide charts below.
Breeding the Cow, Referee Cow, or Referee Cow 2 with a Bull will result in a regular Calf:
Male Female Offspring
farmville cheats breeding cow calfBull farmville cheats breeding cow calfCow farmville cheats breeding cow calfCalf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfReferee Cow
farmville cheats breeding cow calfReferee Cow 2
Most female cows, when crossed with a Bull, will yield a calf of the same type:
Male Female Offspring
farmville cheats breeding cow calfBull farmville cheats breeding cow calfChocolate Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfChocolate Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfBrown Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfBrown Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfGroovy Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfGroovy Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfHolstein Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfHolstein Calf
Male Female Offspring
farmville cheats breeding cow calfBull farmville cheats breeding cow calfRed Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfRed Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfBOV1NE-09 farmville cheats breeding cow calfGreen Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfNeopolitan Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfNeopolitan Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfLonghorn Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfLonghorn Calf
Male Female Offspring
farmville cheats breeding cow calfBull farmville cheats breeding cow calfBelted Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfBelted Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfPink Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfPink Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfKelly Green Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfKelly Green Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfPink Patch Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfPink Patch Calf
Male Female Offspring
farmville cheats breeding cow calfBull farmville cheats breeding cow calfTuscan Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfTuscan Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfFan Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfFan Calf
farmville cheats breeding cow calfSimmental Cow farmville cheats breeding cow calfSimmental Calf
Valentine Cow Valentine Calf
Male Female Offspring
farmville cheats breeding cow calfBull Purple
Valentine Cow Purple
Valentine Calf
[Images via FarmVille Wiki]
Note: If the cow or calf you're looking for isn't here, odds are that the cow is able to produce a calf of the same type. Unfortunately, once that calf grows up, it will change to a more ordinary cow.
Check out the rest of our FarmVille Breeding Guides or browse our FarmVille Cheats & Tips right here.
Calling all Dead Heads, Grateful Dead Facebook game in the works
Dancing Bears
Find your nearest Dancing Bear and stroke it for good luck. Dead Heads will soon have an official home on Facebook within a Grateful Dead social game that's reportedly in the works. Said to be in development by Curious Sense and to be published by both Rhino Entertainment and Grateful Dead Productions, the game is bound for social networks and mobile devices later this year, according to Brand-m.
Curious Sense told Brand-m that the game will take players through the Grateful Dead universe from the Old West and Space to San Francisco and Giza. The game will feature the band's music and visual style throughout.
"Grateful Dead has always looked for inventive ways to embrace new technology," said David Lemieux, legacy manager for the band brand. "We've found a great partner in Curious Sense. They are lifelong Dead Heads who have some brilliant plans to take our fans on a very cool journey. We can't wait for everyone to check out the fun new toys we are building."
Well, thank heavens for that. With a source material as complex and nuanced as the Grateful Dead discography, I would hope that the developer knew what it was getting into. And considering Curious Sense's experience with companies like Mattel, Hasbro, National Geographic and our very own Aol, it should have a solid chance of making Mr. Garcia proud.
Find your nearest Dancing Bear and stroke it for good luck. Dead Heads will soon have an official home on Facebook within a Grateful Dead social game that's reportedly in the works. Said to be in development by Curious Sense and to be published by both Rhino Entertainment and Grateful Dead Productions, the game is bound for social networks and mobile devices later this year, according to Brand-m.
Curious Sense told Brand-m that the game will take players through the Grateful Dead universe from the Old West and Space to San Francisco and Giza. The game will feature the band's music and visual style throughout.
"Grateful Dead has always looked for inventive ways to embrace new technology," said David Lemieux, legacy manager for the band brand. "We've found a great partner in Curious Sense. They are lifelong Dead Heads who have some brilliant plans to take our fans on a very cool journey. We can't wait for everyone to check out the fun new toys we are building."
Well, thank heavens for that. With a source material as complex and nuanced as the Grateful Dead discography, I would hope that the developer knew what it was getting into. And considering Curious Sense's experience with companies like Mattel, Hasbro, National Geographic and our very own Aol, it should have a solid chance of making Mr. Garcia proud.
Dungeon Overlord on Facebook: Villainy and tedium go hand-in-hand
Dungeon Overlord
Being the band of stalwart adventurers does become a bit stale after awhile, doesn't it? Well, developer Night Owl Games is right there with you in its first social game under Sony Online Entertainment, Dungeon Overlord. In this property management-meets-strategy warfare Facebook game, players assume the role of overlord, leading a fledgling dungeon of goblins, orcs, warlocks and ogres out from under their mountain and into the surface world in hopes of domination. However, being the villain is not even close to as easy as its made out to be in the movies. As much as I hate to use this terribly annoying word, this social game is not for the "casual." Let's just say Saruman had it easy with Isengard, OK?
Find more of our impressions of Dungeon Overlord after the break.
Warlock in research
The game's lengthy tutorial begins inside the bowels of a fiery mountain, directing you to build your minions places to eat, rest, work and research new technologies. Like most property-management games, players must construct buildings in a grid format, but what's interesting is that buildings can expand indefinitely as long as they're connected to the original building. That being said, there's really only a need for one building of each type including farms, taverns, libraries, dens and mines. Each of these buildings either produces a certain unit or provides said units (or yourself) with a necessary resource. It may sound complicated, but it all comes together to make a cohesive system once the ball gets rolling.
For instance, minions cannot work without Food, so it's necessary to have a Tavern. On the other hand, they also need sleep, so you'll need a Den for them to rest in. Without these two buildings, nothing will get done. Like in the mines, for example, where goblins harvest Crystal, Gold and Iron for you to create new buildings, upgrade existing ones, and craft decorations in the Crafting menu with. Crafting is somewhat unique to Dungeon Overlord in the strategy PvP sub-genre. Crafting items, traps for invaders (more on that later) and other decorations requires the same resources as those used to create buildings. However, they're necessary for survival, forcing the use of resources into a conscious decision.
Overworld
Though, there if there is one resource that will dictate your progress more than anything, it's Research. Done by Warlocks in the Library, Research allows players to discover new units to create, new buildings to construct and the ability to Raid other players and villages--the core of Dungeon Overlord. Once you're able to create Orcs, the brunt of your raiding parties, it's time to give the surface world a visit. From here, players can attack villages for resources or even other players' dungeons which will likely have the same defenses as your own.
While the game has immense charm, beautiful artwork and runs almost without a hitch in its beta phase, it suffers from the same issue all strategy games do on Facebook: it takes entirely too long to get into the meat of the game. Plain and simple. Building up even your first squad of Orc warriors will likely take hours if not days. However, Dungeon Overlord does keep things interesting and goal-oriented with quests.
Work, work, work
This seemingly never-ending series of tasks will reward you with extra experience points, precious resources and a sense of direction. Just follow the quests and you should be fine, but don't expect to be out of the dungeon and into another player's within a day. This game is clearly not for those who are looking for that quick daily gaming fix.Things become somewhat claustrophobic and tedious in Dungeon Overlord before it gets better, but like we said, being the surly, maniacal villain isn't easy.
Being the band of stalwart adventurers does become a bit stale after awhile, doesn't it? Well, developer Night Owl Games is right there with you in its first social game under Sony Online Entertainment, Dungeon Overlord. In this property management-meets-strategy warfare Facebook game, players assume the role of overlord, leading a fledgling dungeon of goblins, orcs, warlocks and ogres out from under their mountain and into the surface world in hopes of domination. However, being the villain is not even close to as easy as its made out to be in the movies. As much as I hate to use this terribly annoying word, this social game is not for the "casual." Let's just say Saruman had it easy with Isengard, OK?
Find more of our impressions of Dungeon Overlord after the break.
Warlock in research
The game's lengthy tutorial begins inside the bowels of a fiery mountain, directing you to build your minions places to eat, rest, work and research new technologies. Like most property-management games, players must construct buildings in a grid format, but what's interesting is that buildings can expand indefinitely as long as they're connected to the original building. That being said, there's really only a need for one building of each type including farms, taverns, libraries, dens and mines. Each of these buildings either produces a certain unit or provides said units (or yourself) with a necessary resource. It may sound complicated, but it all comes together to make a cohesive system once the ball gets rolling.
For instance, minions cannot work without Food, so it's necessary to have a Tavern. On the other hand, they also need sleep, so you'll need a Den for them to rest in. Without these two buildings, nothing will get done. Like in the mines, for example, where goblins harvest Crystal, Gold and Iron for you to create new buildings, upgrade existing ones, and craft decorations in the Crafting menu with. Crafting is somewhat unique to Dungeon Overlord in the strategy PvP sub-genre. Crafting items, traps for invaders (more on that later) and other decorations requires the same resources as those used to create buildings. However, they're necessary for survival, forcing the use of resources into a conscious decision.
Overworld
Though, there if there is one resource that will dictate your progress more than anything, it's Research. Done by Warlocks in the Library, Research allows players to discover new units to create, new buildings to construct and the ability to Raid other players and villages--the core of Dungeon Overlord. Once you're able to create Orcs, the brunt of your raiding parties, it's time to give the surface world a visit. From here, players can attack villages for resources or even other players' dungeons which will likely have the same defenses as your own.
While the game has immense charm, beautiful artwork and runs almost without a hitch in its beta phase, it suffers from the same issue all strategy games do on Facebook: it takes entirely too long to get into the meat of the game. Plain and simple. Building up even your first squad of Orc warriors will likely take hours if not days. However, Dungeon Overlord does keep things interesting and goal-oriented with quests.
Work, work, work
This seemingly never-ending series of tasks will reward you with extra experience points, precious resources and a sense of direction. Just follow the quests and you should be fine, but don't expect to be out of the dungeon and into another player's within a day. This game is clearly not for those who are looking for that quick daily gaming fix.Things become somewhat claustrophobic and tedious in Dungeon Overlord before it gets better, but like we said, being the surly, maniacal villain isn't easy.
Bejeweled Blitz Live coming to Xbox Live Arcade soon
Today, PopCap officially announced a bit of news that most Bejeweled Blitz fans will be very excited to hear (those that own Xbox 360s anyway). The news is that the incredibly popular Facebook / iPhone / PC game Bejeweled Blitz will soon be making its way to Xbox Live Arcade (soon being sometime in the first half of the year - an exact release date was not given).
Not only will you be able to take part in the now classic 60-second gameplay formula, but new additions are coming to the game in its transition to the home console. There will be new gameplay modes added, including one allowing for up to 16-players to play in a Party Mode simultaneously. A head-to-head Battle mode will also be available via Xbox Live online play.
As you'd expect, Bejeweled Blitz Live will allow you to track your high-scores on real-time leaderboards, that update as you and your friends earn higher scores. In a new twist, an addition called "Friendscore" will allow you to combine your own score with that of your Xbox Live friends that have also played the game, in order to earn an even better spot on the week's high-score table, and on the all-time high score leaderboards.
There was no mention made of whether or not we'd be able to sync our Facebook accounts to this console version of the game, or if other social networking features will be added (sharing your score to Twitter, for instance). It's likely that if these features were to be added, they would have already been announced, or at least hinted at, but we'll keep our hopes up for just a little longer that we'll see some additional social features added before the game launches. Either way, make sure to have your affairs in order before this one launches later this year - you're likely to become even more addicted now that you can play on a huge-screen, right from the comfort of your couch.
Are you excited for Bejeweled Blitz Live to launch on consoles?
Not only will you be able to take part in the now classic 60-second gameplay formula, but new additions are coming to the game in its transition to the home console. There will be new gameplay modes added, including one allowing for up to 16-players to play in a Party Mode simultaneously. A head-to-head Battle mode will also be available via Xbox Live online play.
As you'd expect, Bejeweled Blitz Live will allow you to track your high-scores on real-time leaderboards, that update as you and your friends earn higher scores. In a new twist, an addition called "Friendscore" will allow you to combine your own score with that of your Xbox Live friends that have also played the game, in order to earn an even better spot on the week's high-score table, and on the all-time high score leaderboards.
There was no mention made of whether or not we'd be able to sync our Facebook accounts to this console version of the game, or if other social networking features will be added (sharing your score to Twitter, for instance). It's likely that if these features were to be added, they would have already been announced, or at least hinted at, but we'll keep our hopes up for just a little longer that we'll see some additional social features added before the game launches. Either way, make sure to have your affairs in order before this one launches later this year - you're likely to become even more addicted now that you can play on a huge-screen, right from the comfort of your couch.
Are you excited for Bejeweled Blitz Live to launch on consoles?
Saturday, January 7, 2012
FarmVille Sneak Peek: Golden Apple & Giant Golden Apple Trees
Farmers, it looks like the three limited edition trees (re-released) as part of FarmVille's new Fairy Tale item theme might not be alone in the game for long, as we've come across images of not one, but two new trees that will apparently be coming to the game in the near future.
The two trees are a one-two punch, being the Golden Apple Tree, and the Giant Golden Apple tree. Both will be masterable, as they have accompanying Mastery Signs. While there's no guarantee that both trees will be released in the store to purchase, we'd assume that at least the normally-sized Golden Apple Tree will release for a price around 5-10 Farm Cash, while the Giant Golden Apple Tree will be available to receive as a Mystery Seedling, when placing said Golden Apple Tree into an Orchard.
Again, prices and availability are completely up in the air at this point - these are just our predictions. We'll be sure to let you know if our predictions were right if and when these trees do officially launch in the game.
Would you like have a shining golden tree on your farm, or do you prefer trees that are more realistic?
The two trees are a one-two punch, being the Golden Apple Tree, and the Giant Golden Apple tree. Both will be masterable, as they have accompanying Mastery Signs. While there's no guarantee that both trees will be released in the store to purchase, we'd assume that at least the normally-sized Golden Apple Tree will release for a price around 5-10 Farm Cash, while the Giant Golden Apple Tree will be available to receive as a Mystery Seedling, when placing said Golden Apple Tree into an Orchard.
Again, prices and availability are completely up in the air at this point - these are just our predictions. We'll be sure to let you know if our predictions were right if and when these trees do officially launch in the game.
Would you like have a shining golden tree on your farm, or do you prefer trees that are more realistic?
FarmVille Sneak Peek: AVG Antivirus Promotional Plane coming soon
It looks like Zynga will be teaming up with AVG (a virus protection software) for a promotion in FarmVille in the near future, as we've come across an image and animation for a new AVG Biplane. While we all know that the original Biplane in FarmVille allows you to use instant grow on your crops in trees, we have a feeling this plane will serve a different purpose.
As AVG Antivirus software protects your computer from viruses, it would only make sense that this plane would offer some sort of protection to your farm as well. The most likely scenario is that the AVG Plane will come packaged with a timed wither protection boost - perhaps lasting up to a week, which is how long the effects of other promotional items have lasted in the past.
Of course, the official purpose of this Biplane remains to be seen, but be sure to check out the plane in all of its animated glory below. We'll make sure to let you know when the plane launches in the game, what it does, and how you can get one for your own farm.
What do you think of this cool cross-promotional plane? Will you add one to your farm?
As AVG Antivirus software protects your computer from viruses, it would only make sense that this plane would offer some sort of protection to your farm as well. The most likely scenario is that the AVG Plane will come packaged with a timed wither protection boost - perhaps lasting up to a week, which is how long the effects of other promotional items have lasted in the past.
Of course, the official purpose of this Biplane remains to be seen, but be sure to check out the plane in all of its animated glory below. We'll make sure to let you know when the plane launches in the game, what it does, and how you can get one for your own farm.
What do you think of this cool cross-promotional plane? Will you add one to your farm?
Cafe World Party at the Ski Lodge Catering Order: Everything you need to know
A new catering order has been launched in Cafe World to go along with the current winter weather that many players are experiencing. This isn't a holiday-related catering order, however, just one dealing with throwing a part at an Alpine Ski Lodge - after all, you'll be cold after coming down from the slops, so why not cook a nice warm meal to warm yourself, and your fellow athletes up?
This meal must be started manually by opening your Catering Business menu, scrolling to the very last page, and choosing it. After clicking on the "Get Started" button, you'll trigger a 3 day timer for your catering order, which will see you cooking three dishes and collect three different collectible items with friends. Meet us behind the break for complete details about how to finish this new order.
For the cooking portion of this order, you'll need to cook Homestyle Pot Roast (a two day dish) 50 times, Belgian Waffles (a two hour dish) 50 times, and Powdered French Toast (a 20 minute dish) 50 times. While the Powdered French Toast and Belgian Waffle requirements will likely be fairly easy for yourself and a group of friends to accomplish, your best bet at finishing all 50 Homestyle Pot Roasts within the time limit would be to have a set completely cooked before you even start the catering order, so that you can instantly serve them and start another set cooking. If you can have more than one member of your crew do this, then that's even better.
As for the item collection portion, you'll need to gather 15 items in total - five each of Fondue Forks, Fondue Cheeses, and Fondue Bowls. This is done by either paying 3 Cafe Cash for each individual item (a pricey solution), or by clicking on the "Ask" button for a particular item and sending individual item requests to those Cafe World neighbors that you think would be most likely to help you.
You'll be able to bring 12 of your friends into this order with you, which will hopefully give you a fighting chance at completing it within the three-star time limit of three days. Doing so will reward you with 12 Catering Points, 3200 Cafe Points, 70000 coins, and the Cheese Fondue recipe. This recipe is available to cook for 100 coins, and is available to serve in 10 minutes. You'll receive 20 coins per serving, for a return of 200 coins.
Finishing the order after three days have passed, but before the end of the fifth day will reward you with two stars, 8 Catering Points, 2300 Cafe Points, and 50000 coins. Finally, if you simply finish the order at any time after the first five days of accepting it, you'll receive a single star, 4 Catering Points, 1400 Cafe Points, and 30,000 cafe coins.
Remember to ask your friends for help on this mission, and to join any friends who have currently started the order in order to help them out / receive help from them as well. Good luck if you take it on!
This meal must be started manually by opening your Catering Business menu, scrolling to the very last page, and choosing it. After clicking on the "Get Started" button, you'll trigger a 3 day timer for your catering order, which will see you cooking three dishes and collect three different collectible items with friends. Meet us behind the break for complete details about how to finish this new order.
For the cooking portion of this order, you'll need to cook Homestyle Pot Roast (a two day dish) 50 times, Belgian Waffles (a two hour dish) 50 times, and Powdered French Toast (a 20 minute dish) 50 times. While the Powdered French Toast and Belgian Waffle requirements will likely be fairly easy for yourself and a group of friends to accomplish, your best bet at finishing all 50 Homestyle Pot Roasts within the time limit would be to have a set completely cooked before you even start the catering order, so that you can instantly serve them and start another set cooking. If you can have more than one member of your crew do this, then that's even better.
As for the item collection portion, you'll need to gather 15 items in total - five each of Fondue Forks, Fondue Cheeses, and Fondue Bowls. This is done by either paying 3 Cafe Cash for each individual item (a pricey solution), or by clicking on the "Ask" button for a particular item and sending individual item requests to those Cafe World neighbors that you think would be most likely to help you.
You'll be able to bring 12 of your friends into this order with you, which will hopefully give you a fighting chance at completing it within the three-star time limit of three days. Doing so will reward you with 12 Catering Points, 3200 Cafe Points, 70000 coins, and the Cheese Fondue recipe. This recipe is available to cook for 100 coins, and is available to serve in 10 minutes. You'll receive 20 coins per serving, for a return of 200 coins.
Finishing the order after three days have passed, but before the end of the fifth day will reward you with two stars, 8 Catering Points, 2300 Cafe Points, and 50000 coins. Finally, if you simply finish the order at any time after the first five days of accepting it, you'll receive a single star, 4 Catering Points, 1400 Cafe Points, and 30,000 cafe coins.
Remember to ask your friends for help on this mission, and to join any friends who have currently started the order in order to help them out / receive help from them as well. Good luck if you take it on!
FarmVille Scam Alert: Avoid posts offering Knight Steed Foals
Earlier today, we brought you a FarmVille Scam Alert detailing the supposed giveaway of a Kung Fu Duck in FarmVille. This evening, we've seen another round of fake FarmVille bonus posts being released, this time concerning a free giveaway of a Knight Steed Foal, which would, of course, come from the Knight Steed released in the game just this week as part of the new Fairy Tale theme of items.
This scam is almost entirely convincing, save for one flaw in the post itself. You'll see a post saying that one of your friends just claimed a Knight Steed Foal, and has one to share with you - clicking on the link on the post would supposedly give you that free Knight Steed Foal. The problem is, when clicking this link, you'll actually be taken to the FarmVille Bonus page, where you'll again be asked if you would like to accept this award. Don't do that! This is in no way associated with Zynga or any official FarmVille giveaway.
The major giveaway here that this is a fake post is in the spelling of the animal name, as Knight is incorrectly spelled as "Knigth." Otherwise, the post does look pretty legitimate, including the "Via FarmVille" link at the bottom of the post, which is also found on every accurate post for the game.
The only way you'll actually receive one of these Foals in your game is if you claim one from a friend who has received one from breeding a Knight Steed in their Horse Stable. In this case, though, the post would have no spelling mistakes, and wouldn't take you to another Facebook page - it would simply load FarmVille as normal. As of this writing, there is unfortunately no other way to earn said foal in the game.
Have you seen other fake FarmVille posts on your news feed that you think users should look out for?
This scam is almost entirely convincing, save for one flaw in the post itself. You'll see a post saying that one of your friends just claimed a Knight Steed Foal, and has one to share with you - clicking on the link on the post would supposedly give you that free Knight Steed Foal. The problem is, when clicking this link, you'll actually be taken to the FarmVille Bonus page, where you'll again be asked if you would like to accept this award. Don't do that! This is in no way associated with Zynga or any official FarmVille giveaway.
The major giveaway here that this is a fake post is in the spelling of the animal name, as Knight is incorrectly spelled as "Knigth." Otherwise, the post does look pretty legitimate, including the "Via FarmVille" link at the bottom of the post, which is also found on every accurate post for the game.
The only way you'll actually receive one of these Foals in your game is if you claim one from a friend who has received one from breeding a Knight Steed in their Horse Stable. In this case, though, the post would have no spelling mistakes, and wouldn't take you to another Facebook page - it would simply load FarmVille as normal. As of this writing, there is unfortunately no other way to earn said foal in the game.
Have you seen other fake FarmVille posts on your news feed that you think users should look out for?
FarmVille Valentine's Countdown Day 8: Provencal Pot
Today's latest addition in the FarmVille Valentine's Day 12 Day Countdown has arrived, and this time it is the Provencal Pot. This pretty decoration looks like a roman statue with some multicolored flowers within. Like all of the other Valentine's Countdown items, to obtain the Provencal Pot you need to open up the countdown screen by clicking the cupid heart on the right of your FarmVille screen. You then need to click the "Ask/Share" button to post a wall post that looks like the above on your newsfeed.
You can also click on your friends' wall posts to claim a Provencal Pot of your own. You only have this one day to obtain this decoration for free before it will cost Farm Cash just like all of the previous Valentine's Day collection items. There are only four more days left in this collection, which is the last thing left to go in FarmVille as far as Valentine's decorations goes.
Have you been collecting all of the pieces of the Valentine's Day collection?
You can also click on your friends' wall posts to claim a Provencal Pot of your own. You only have this one day to obtain this decoration for free before it will cost Farm Cash just like all of the previous Valentine's Day collection items. There are only four more days left in this collection, which is the last thing left to go in FarmVille as far as Valentine's decorations goes.
Have you been collecting all of the pieces of the Valentine's Day collection?
Thursday, January 5, 2012
FarmVille Sneak Peek: Butterfly Garden & Leprechaun Hat Pot
It seems as though Zynga is starting to prepare for Spring with these newest unreleased images of items that will be coming to FarmVille in the near future, as both of these new items contain flowers. While one item the Leprechaun Hat Pot could very well be released as part of the current St. Patrick's Day item theme (even as early as this Wednesday), the other item - the Butterfly Garden, looks to be solely in the theme of Spring, with butterflies flying above a fenced in area of what look to be Lilac Daffys and Daffodils.
One thing to note is that the Butterfly Garden almost looks as though it might be something related to the Spring Garden collection feature that we were given a hint of in the last FarmVille podcast. Perhaps the name has been changed? It is possible that this is an entirely unrelated decoration that also happens to be called a "garden," but we'll let you know what ultimately happens with these two items.
As usual, there is no guarantee that either of these items will officially be released in the game, so keep that in mind.
What do you think of these two new items? Do you think the Butterfly Garden will have a function, or will it simply be a large, elaborate decoration?
One thing to note is that the Butterfly Garden almost looks as though it might be something related to the Spring Garden collection feature that we were given a hint of in the last FarmVille podcast. Perhaps the name has been changed? It is possible that this is an entirely unrelated decoration that also happens to be called a "garden," but we'll let you know what ultimately happens with these two items.
As usual, there is no guarantee that either of these items will officially be released in the game, so keep that in mind.
What do you think of these two new items? Do you think the Butterfly Garden will have a function, or will it simply be a large, elaborate decoration?
Cafe World Feed the Irish Feast Catering Order: Everything you need to know
After what appears to be a bit of a delay, a St. Patrick's Day themed catering order has finally launched in Cafe World. This catering order is called "Feed the Irish Feast," and it will see you catering "an Irish spread for Peter and his new friends!" Peter, of course, is the new character that was introduced in the St. Patrick's Day goals proper, and you will need to have completed those goals before attempting this mission, as it requires you to cook dishes that are only accessible after you unlock them in this mission series.
For a complete look at how to unlock the dishes necessary to complete this order, check out our full guide. Otherwise, meet us behind the break to see what it takes to make this feast a success.
This mission favors cooking more than it does item collection, as you'll need to cook four different dishes in mass quantities in order to complete it. You'll need to cook the Irish Stew 200 times, Corned Beef and Cabbage 55 times, Mince Tartlets 55 times
and Rice Pudding 30 times.
If you'd rather not take the time to cook these dishes, or even wait for your friends to do so, you can skip any of these dishes by spending anywhere from 28 to 36 Cafe Cash per dish to complete them automatically. If you do wish to cook these dishes, you'll be able to make good use of your time waiting for these dishes to cook by collecting the one collectible in this job - 12 Irish Wind Spinners (think a pinwheel, but in green, white, and orange/red). You'll need to click on the "Ask" button to send individual gift requests to your friends in order to finish this step, or purchase the Irish Wind Spinners for 4 Cafe Cash.
You'll be able to bring up to 18 of your friends in on this mission with you, which does offer you more active players on your team than most jobs, but you'll still only have three days to finish the mission for the highest ranking. If you can complete the job in less than three days, you'll earn 12 Catering Points, 3200 Cafe Points, 75000 coins, and a St. Patty's Day Cooler, which is a decorative item that looks like a pot of gold filled with drinks, rather than gold, with a rainbow arched across the top.
Finishing the job within five days will earn you the two-star rating, 8 Catering Points, 2300 Cafe Points and 50,000 coins. You won't earn the special decoration though, so keep that in mind. Finally, finishing the mission at any time past the first five days of accepting it will earn you a single star, 4 Catering Points, 1400 Cafe Points, and 30,000 coins.
There doesn't appear to be a time limit for when you must accept this mission, so feel free to take all of the time you need to complete the St. Patrick's Day goals to unlock the dishes necessary to come back and complete this catering order.
Check out the rest of our St. Patrick's Day 2011 coverage right here.
What do you think of this St. Patrick's Day catering order? Is it too difficult, or do you enjoy a challenge?
For a complete look at how to unlock the dishes necessary to complete this order, check out our full guide. Otherwise, meet us behind the break to see what it takes to make this feast a success.
This mission favors cooking more than it does item collection, as you'll need to cook four different dishes in mass quantities in order to complete it. You'll need to cook the Irish Stew 200 times, Corned Beef and Cabbage 55 times, Mince Tartlets 55 times
and Rice Pudding 30 times.
If you'd rather not take the time to cook these dishes, or even wait for your friends to do so, you can skip any of these dishes by spending anywhere from 28 to 36 Cafe Cash per dish to complete them automatically. If you do wish to cook these dishes, you'll be able to make good use of your time waiting for these dishes to cook by collecting the one collectible in this job - 12 Irish Wind Spinners (think a pinwheel, but in green, white, and orange/red). You'll need to click on the "Ask" button to send individual gift requests to your friends in order to finish this step, or purchase the Irish Wind Spinners for 4 Cafe Cash.
You'll be able to bring up to 18 of your friends in on this mission with you, which does offer you more active players on your team than most jobs, but you'll still only have three days to finish the mission for the highest ranking. If you can complete the job in less than three days, you'll earn 12 Catering Points, 3200 Cafe Points, 75000 coins, and a St. Patty's Day Cooler, which is a decorative item that looks like a pot of gold filled with drinks, rather than gold, with a rainbow arched across the top.
Finishing the job within five days will earn you the two-star rating, 8 Catering Points, 2300 Cafe Points and 50,000 coins. You won't earn the special decoration though, so keep that in mind. Finally, finishing the mission at any time past the first five days of accepting it will earn you a single star, 4 Catering Points, 1400 Cafe Points, and 30,000 coins.
There doesn't appear to be a time limit for when you must accept this mission, so feel free to take all of the time you need to complete the St. Patrick's Day goals to unlock the dishes necessary to come back and complete this catering order.
Check out the rest of our St. Patrick's Day 2011 coverage right here.
What do you think of this St. Patrick's Day catering order? Is it too difficult, or do you enjoy a challenge?
FarmVille: Inactive "mutual friends" pop-ups cause annoyance for farmers
Zynga has launched a new set of pop-ups and wall posts in FarmVille apparently in an attempt to bring players back to the farm (that is, those players that have become inactive because they haven't played the game over an extended period of time).
Now, when visiting a friends' farm, if you have any mutual friends with that person that also plays FarmVille, you will see a pop-up like the one above, asking you to help bring that lost, inactive player back to the game. Clicking on "Accept" shows you a wall post like the one below, where you can post to that neighbor's wall, saying that you miss seeing them playing the game, and speaking for your friend in the process.
As you might expect, the hassle of seeing new pop-ups each time players visit neighbors hasn't been sitting well with friends, and a forum thread has started on the official FarmVille forums to protest its inclusion. While players are annoyed that they have to skip another pop-up just to get back to playing, the entire situation is compacted due to the fact that sometimes, users are being told to post on walls of currently active players, meaning that Zynga's algorithm for determining inactive players is apparently bugged.
Players like DesertRain seem to sum up the concerns nicely:
I don't like it. There's a reason the one person isn't playing and now I am supposed to spam them back into the game? To me this is wrong on so many levels.
DesertRain has a point. Players aren't going to stop playing FarmVille simply because they forget the game exists. There has to be a reason for them to stop playing, whether that be the fact that they simply aren't having any fun, the fact that they don't like a particular feature or way certain in-game elements are handled or so on. That being the case, it will be interesting to see if this method actually works to bring back any players whatsoever, but I guess we'll give Zynga the benefit of the doubt for at least trying.
What do you think of this new system? Do you see a purpose in finding out who your inactive neighbors are? Do you think anyone who receives these wall posts would actually come back to the game?
Now, when visiting a friends' farm, if you have any mutual friends with that person that also plays FarmVille, you will see a pop-up like the one above, asking you to help bring that lost, inactive player back to the game. Clicking on "Accept" shows you a wall post like the one below, where you can post to that neighbor's wall, saying that you miss seeing them playing the game, and speaking for your friend in the process.
As you might expect, the hassle of seeing new pop-ups each time players visit neighbors hasn't been sitting well with friends, and a forum thread has started on the official FarmVille forums to protest its inclusion. While players are annoyed that they have to skip another pop-up just to get back to playing, the entire situation is compacted due to the fact that sometimes, users are being told to post on walls of currently active players, meaning that Zynga's algorithm for determining inactive players is apparently bugged.
Players like DesertRain seem to sum up the concerns nicely:
I don't like it. There's a reason the one person isn't playing and now I am supposed to spam them back into the game? To me this is wrong on so many levels.
DesertRain has a point. Players aren't going to stop playing FarmVille simply because they forget the game exists. There has to be a reason for them to stop playing, whether that be the fact that they simply aren't having any fun, the fact that they don't like a particular feature or way certain in-game elements are handled or so on. That being the case, it will be interesting to see if this method actually works to bring back any players whatsoever, but I guess we'll give Zynga the benefit of the doubt for at least trying.
What do you think of this new system? Do you see a purpose in finding out who your inactive neighbors are? Do you think anyone who receives these wall posts would actually come back to the game?
Game of the Day: Pat Sajak's Lucky Letters
The Game of the Day is hoping you are fan of Vanna. Pat Sajak's Lucky Letters: Pat Sajak invites you to be a contestant on his exciting new computer game show! Keep an eye out for the Lucky Chances where you can double your money (if you are brave). Finish off the game by racing the clock to solve Pat's entire puzzle in the Lightning Round
Click --> Play Pat Sajak's Lucky Letters
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 Pat Sajak's Lucky Letters
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 Fanny versus Bess decorations appear; the heat is on
So, which team are you on? In an obvious (and almost painful) nod to Twilight, Zynga has released both the two Mystery Crates found yesterday and a slew of decorations to FrontierVille in honor of a mini-event of sorts. Except instead of sparkly vampires against eternally shirtless werewolves, it's Fanny versus Bess. It's your job to take a side--if you're willing to put some Horseshoes behind your decision.
Here are all the decorations that were added in light of this strange event:
Bess' Lasso – 4 Horseshoes
Bess' Diorama – 3,800 coins
Bess' Flower – 2,850 coins
Fanny's Desk – 4 Horseshoes
Fanny's books – 3,800 coins
Fanny's flowers – 2,850 coins
Luckily, only two of these items cost Horseshoes. While there isn't any major event tied to these decorations, I'd imagine that something much bigger is cooking. A cage fight? A triathlon, perhaps? Well, whatever is, we'll be all over it.
[Source and Image Credit: FrontierVille Info]
Have you picked any of these decorations in the game yet? Which side are you on--Fanny or Bess?
Here are all the decorations that were added in light of this strange event:
Bess' Lasso – 4 Horseshoes
Bess' Diorama – 3,800 coins
Bess' Flower – 2,850 coins
Fanny's Desk – 4 Horseshoes
Fanny's books – 3,800 coins
Fanny's flowers – 2,850 coins
Luckily, only two of these items cost Horseshoes. While there isn't any major event tied to these decorations, I'd imagine that something much bigger is cooking. A cage fight? A triathlon, perhaps? Well, whatever is, we'll be all over it.
[Source and Image Credit: FrontierVille Info]
Have you picked any of these decorations in the game yet? Which side are you on--Fanny or Bess?
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
The Sims Social: Claim your free Pogo Arcade Machine
While you may already be the proud owner of one or two Arcade Machines in the Sims Social, if you're like me, you'll always be ready for one more - especially if it's free. Such is the case with this new goodie, a Pogo branded Arcade Machine, spotted by BadgeHungry. The single link to claim your reward has apparently been going around for about a week, but hasn't been heavily advertised. It does, however, still work (as of this writing).
To claim your free Pogo Arcade Machine in the Sims Social just make sure you're logged into your Facebook account and click on this link right here. This will take you to Facebook, where you'll be told whether or not your claim attempt was successful. Once in your house, the Pogo Arcade Machine will go into your storage, where you can then freely place it anywhere in your house (or even outside).
As for interactivity, the machine allows you to do two things: Play Games (no energy required), and "Redeem Tokens at Pogo." This link will let you earn 25,000 free tokens on the site, but unfortunately, doesn't come with any free Simoleons back in the Sims Social. But hey, we've walked away with a free Arcade Machine; it's that all we could really ask for?
Have you already claimed your free Pogo Arcade Machine? What other sorts of goodies do you hope come to the Sims Social?
To claim your free Pogo Arcade Machine in the Sims Social just make sure you're logged into your Facebook account and click on this link right here. This will take you to Facebook, where you'll be told whether or not your claim attempt was successful. Once in your house, the Pogo Arcade Machine will go into your storage, where you can then freely place it anywhere in your house (or even outside).
As for interactivity, the machine allows you to do two things: Play Games (no energy required), and "Redeem Tokens at Pogo." This link will let you earn 25,000 free tokens on the site, but unfortunately, doesn't come with any free Simoleons back in the Sims Social. But hey, we've walked away with a free Arcade Machine; it's that all we could really ask for?
Have you already claimed your free Pogo Arcade Machine? What other sorts of goodies do you hope come to the Sims Social?
The Sims Social: Celebrate the last days of summer with new Summer House theme
With the mass popularity of the Sims Social on Facebook, it's no surprise that Playfish / EA are continually adding new decorative items to the game's store, allowing you to personalize your home in new ways. Specifically, this week sees the launch of a "Summer House" theme of items, with items being available for your living room, bedroom and even outdoor areas. There are also plenty of decorative items here to take a look at, so we'll do our best to give you a complete guide to these new items. Check them out!
SolTrain Cubic (Shelving Unit)
Costs: 35 SimCash
Value: $5,150
SolTrain Chair (Buildable item)
Costs: 2,250 coins
Value: $1,800
SolTrain Kingsize (Bed)
Costs: 79 SimCash
Value: $11,700
Sleep Stat: 11
SolTrain Rays (Lamp)
Costs: 3 SimCash
Value: $450
BasketCase Travel (Requires Level 30)
Value: $350
SolTrain UV Lite
Costs: 12 SimCash
Value: $1,750
BasketCase XL (Requires Level 30)
Value: $600
SolTrain UV XL (Lamp)
Costs: 22 SimCash
Value: $3,250
Summer Tones (Painting - requires level 30)
Value: $750
Woody Divider (Requires Level 24)
Value: $1,300
SolTrain BagelUp
Costs: 5 SimCash
Value: $750
Woody Boxout B (Kitchen cabinet - requires Level 26 - Buildable item)
Value: $1,650
Woody Boxout L (Kitchen Cabinet - requires Level 26 - Buildable item)
Value: $1,650
SolTrain Panama (Outdoor Bed)
Costs: 49 Sim Cash
Value: $7,250
SolTrain Snug (Buildable item - requires Level 30)
Value: $2,200
Palm Tree
Costs: 1,750 coins
Value: $1,650
Happiness Stat: 3
Social Stat: 3
SolTrain Parasol
Costs: 59 SimCash
Value: $8,700
SolTrain Swing (Buildable item - requires Level 30)
Value: $4,850
Sleep Stat: 3
UltiMax Top Deck (Stereo)
Costs: 59 SimCash
Value: $8,700
Fun Stat: 5
In addition to all of these items, there's a full set of windows available in the Build menu is a new "Alpine" theme, which consists of a dark tan, almost orange colored frame. Four flooring options are available for either Social Points or (at most) a single SimCash per tile, and the theme is rounded out with a "SolTrain Beach" wallpaper that costs 55 Social Points per square.
As with previously released themes, these Summer House items don't appear to be limited edition; rather, they should be available permanently in the game's store. That being the case, you should be able to save up coins, or Social Points, or have time to purchase SimCash long into the future to create this theme in your home as far into the future as you like. If we see this change, we'll make sure to let you know.
What do you think of these Summer House items in Sims Social? What kinds of items would you like to see released next in the game?
SolTrain Cubic (Shelving Unit)
Costs: 35 SimCash
Value: $5,150
SolTrain Chair (Buildable item)
Costs: 2,250 coins
Value: $1,800
SolTrain Kingsize (Bed)
Costs: 79 SimCash
Value: $11,700
Sleep Stat: 11
SolTrain Rays (Lamp)
Costs: 3 SimCash
Value: $450
BasketCase Travel (Requires Level 30)
Value: $350
SolTrain UV Lite
Costs: 12 SimCash
Value: $1,750
BasketCase XL (Requires Level 30)
Value: $600
SolTrain UV XL (Lamp)
Costs: 22 SimCash
Value: $3,250
Summer Tones (Painting - requires level 30)
Value: $750
Woody Divider (Requires Level 24)
Value: $1,300
SolTrain BagelUp
Costs: 5 SimCash
Value: $750
Woody Boxout B (Kitchen cabinet - requires Level 26 - Buildable item)
Value: $1,650
Woody Boxout L (Kitchen Cabinet - requires Level 26 - Buildable item)
Value: $1,650
SolTrain Panama (Outdoor Bed)
Costs: 49 Sim Cash
Value: $7,250
SolTrain Snug (Buildable item - requires Level 30)
Value: $2,200
Palm Tree
Costs: 1,750 coins
Value: $1,650
Happiness Stat: 3
Social Stat: 3
SolTrain Parasol
Costs: 59 SimCash
Value: $8,700
SolTrain Swing (Buildable item - requires Level 30)
Value: $4,850
Sleep Stat: 3
UltiMax Top Deck (Stereo)
Costs: 59 SimCash
Value: $8,700
Fun Stat: 5
In addition to all of these items, there's a full set of windows available in the Build menu is a new "Alpine" theme, which consists of a dark tan, almost orange colored frame. Four flooring options are available for either Social Points or (at most) a single SimCash per tile, and the theme is rounded out with a "SolTrain Beach" wallpaper that costs 55 Social Points per square.
As with previously released themes, these Summer House items don't appear to be limited edition; rather, they should be available permanently in the game's store. That being the case, you should be able to save up coins, or Social Points, or have time to purchase SimCash long into the future to create this theme in your home as far into the future as you like. If we see this change, we'll make sure to let you know.
What do you think of these Summer House items in Sims Social? What kinds of items would you like to see released next in the game?
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