When's the last time you used the Trading Post? We thought so. Thankfully, FrontierVille Info has discovered that FrontierVille's potentially most useless building has been updated to accept excess Goal items from Valentine's Day, Groundhog Day and Wedding Chapel Goals. Unfortunately, you won't get much in return for your trade-ins, but a few coins and some scraps of Food are always welcome. Especially if you're working on that fools errand more commonly known as the Canning Master Goals.
[Image Credit: FrontierVille Info]
Have you made use of the new acceptable trade-ins? What do you think of the returns on these old items?
Friday, December 30, 2011
FarmVille Scam Alert: Love Potion News Feed posts are phony
Love Potion Scam
That Love Potion you're getting from the News Feed offer roaming around isn't real potion--it's red food dye! Jokes aside, FarmVille Freak has discovered yet another FarmVille scam offering free Love Potions. Read: They are not real. In fact, this scam is fairly obvious. Look closely at the text on the post and you'll notice the words "via Love Potion," which is a dead giveaway considering normal posts read, "via FarmVille." (Though, more intelligent scammers take this into account as well.)
Clicking on the post opens a pop-up, though the only way to close it is to press "Publish." Who knows what is beneath that button, just waiting to be released into your files. So, do yourself a favor and avoid suspicious News Feed posts at all costs. While you're at it, do your friends a favor and tell your friends about this. The more who know, the less power they have. Boy, that sounded like a motivational speech--play ball!
[Image Credit: FarmVille Freak]
Have you seen this scam floating around? What do you do whenever you see a suspicious post?
That Love Potion you're getting from the News Feed offer roaming around isn't real potion--it's red food dye! Jokes aside, FarmVille Freak has discovered yet another FarmVille scam offering free Love Potions. Read: They are not real. In fact, this scam is fairly obvious. Look closely at the text on the post and you'll notice the words "via Love Potion," which is a dead giveaway considering normal posts read, "via FarmVille." (Though, more intelligent scammers take this into account as well.)
Clicking on the post opens a pop-up, though the only way to close it is to press "Publish." Who knows what is beneath that button, just waiting to be released into your files. So, do yourself a favor and avoid suspicious News Feed posts at all costs. While you're at it, do your friends a favor and tell your friends about this. The more who know, the less power they have. Boy, that sounded like a motivational speech--play ball!
[Image Credit: FarmVille Freak]
Have you seen this scam floating around? What do you do whenever you see a suspicious post?
EA, Hasbro declare April 7 Global Monopoly Day, seek Guinness record
Global Monopoly Day
Forget Friday or even Hump Day. The best day of your life is about to happen ... tomorrow. Alright, so that's a bit of a stretch, but what EA and Hasbro have planned is super cool nonetheless. Both EA and Hasbro have announced that tomorrow, April 7, will be known as Global Monopoly Day. (Does this mean we get a day off work to play Monopoly? No? Dammit!) The event is to set a Guinness World Record with EA and Playfish's brand new Facebook game: Monopoly Millionaires. The goal? To set the record for the highest amount of people simultaneously playing the game. Oh, and they're throwing in chances to win from over $20 thousand in prizes for tomorrow's lucky players.
So, what's Hasbro doing here? Well, Hasbro has been producing the board game since it bought Parker Brothers, its original creator, in the early 1990s. You could say that the company has a vested interest in how high EA and Playfish set the record. Official Guinness adjudicators will monitor the game from 12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. tomorrow to make it all, you know, official.
What makes things even more official is the $5 thousand in cash prizes up for grabs joined by $5 thousand in Visa gift cards, Apple products and more. To enter the contest, just play the game tomorrow and you'll be entered automatically. (You can also RSVP for the event right here.) To meet fellow Monopoly fans in person, EA has organized meetups all over the globe for you thimble-pushers to enjoy. Now, don't worry: Getting in jail won't disqualify you from a chance at prizes, but it's still annoying.
Will you be participating in setting the record tomorrow? What do you hope to win most from the contest?
Forget Friday or even Hump Day. The best day of your life is about to happen ... tomorrow. Alright, so that's a bit of a stretch, but what EA and Hasbro have planned is super cool nonetheless. Both EA and Hasbro have announced that tomorrow, April 7, will be known as Global Monopoly Day. (Does this mean we get a day off work to play Monopoly? No? Dammit!) The event is to set a Guinness World Record with EA and Playfish's brand new Facebook game: Monopoly Millionaires. The goal? To set the record for the highest amount of people simultaneously playing the game. Oh, and they're throwing in chances to win from over $20 thousand in prizes for tomorrow's lucky players.
So, what's Hasbro doing here? Well, Hasbro has been producing the board game since it bought Parker Brothers, its original creator, in the early 1990s. You could say that the company has a vested interest in how high EA and Playfish set the record. Official Guinness adjudicators will monitor the game from 12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. tomorrow to make it all, you know, official.
What makes things even more official is the $5 thousand in cash prizes up for grabs joined by $5 thousand in Visa gift cards, Apple products and more. To enter the contest, just play the game tomorrow and you'll be entered automatically. (You can also RSVP for the event right here.) To meet fellow Monopoly fans in person, EA has organized meetups all over the globe for you thimble-pushers to enjoy. Now, don't worry: Getting in jail won't disqualify you from a chance at prizes, but it's still annoying.
Will you be participating in setting the record tomorrow? What do you hope to win most from the contest?
Former Factor 5 founder opens social game studio, TouchFactor
As the flock circles onward, another joins its fluffy if dangerous ranks. Julian Eggebrecht founded Factor 5 back in 1987--the studio behind critical hits like Star Wars: Rogue Squadron and flops like Lair--but has now opened TouchFactor. The new San Francisco-based company has taken at least five designers and developers who worked in Factor 5's US office before it closed in 2009, Gamasutra reports.
While no games have been announced at this point, this message is posted on the company's Linkedin profile: "TouchFactor is committed to building social games that bring people together on all mass market platforms. We make social games that are free to play, accessible to everyone and create memorable long lasting experiences for our fans." However, we'd imagine that Eggebrecht has kept ties strong with Mr. Lucas. If true, TouchFactor could create the first full-blown Star Wars game on Facebook. Oh, a hopelessly optimistic, aspiring Jedi (nerd) in his 20s can dream.
[Image Credit: Gamasutra]
What are your thoughts on yet another industry veteran joining the social games movement? Would you like to see a Star Wars Facebook game from TouchFactor?
While no games have been announced at this point, this message is posted on the company's Linkedin profile: "TouchFactor is committed to building social games that bring people together on all mass market platforms. We make social games that are free to play, accessible to everyone and create memorable long lasting experiences for our fans." However, we'd imagine that Eggebrecht has kept ties strong with Mr. Lucas. If true, TouchFactor could create the first full-blown Star Wars game on Facebook. Oh, a hopelessly optimistic, aspiring Jedi (nerd) in his 20s can dream.
[Image Credit: Gamasutra]
What are your thoughts on yet another industry veteran joining the social games movement? Would you like to see a Star Wars Facebook game from TouchFactor?
FrontierVille Beehive: Everything you need to know
The next time you play FrontierVille, be on the lookout for a "Swarm of Bees" on your Homestead. You'll know they're there, as there will be a giant yellow, animated arrow pointing down at them. These bees trigger the launch of a new building, and a new feature on your Homestead called the Beehive. Click on this bee swarm, and you'll be told that you'll need to build a Beehive to house these new friends. Doing so will allow your crops to get a boost, via free Crop Boosts that you can earn each and every day. If you recall, Crop Boosts are those items that allow you to speed up the growth of your crops so that you don't have to wait as long to harvest them.
You'll be given the small base to your Beehive for free, and you'll simply need to whack it four times, each time costing four wood (or 16 wood in total), to complete the base. You'll then need to collect a series of building ingredients to finish the Beehive, with two of these items being new to the structure. Don't be alarmed if you see tons of bonus items appearing on your Homestead as you whack the frame - not only will you receive experience point bonuses as normal, but you'll also likely receive two of the six ingredients that you need to finish the initial construction of your new animal building.
Meet us behind the break for a complete look at what it takes to put this Beehive together. All told, you'll need to have two each of Hammers, Nails, Hand Drills, and Paint Buckets, while you only need one Comb Frame and one Brood Box - the two items you'll likely receive when whacking the Beehive's frame at the start.
Once your Beehive is built, you can either collect the daily bonus from the structure, or immediately go to work on upgrading it to levels 2-6, each of which offers you more free Crop Boosts each time you collect the Daily Bonus. For instance. If you leave it at level 1, you'll simply receive anywhere from 1-3 Clover Crop Boosts each day you collect the Daily Bonus. Upgrade to level 2, and you'll receive 1-3 Clover and Tomato Crop Boosts. Each level you upgrade gives you another type of Crop Boost to receive, to the point where you'll eventually be able to receive up to six types of Boosts each and every day. You can check out the full chart below to see just which crops come with which level, and you can voluntarily stop upgrading at any time.
To upgrade your Beehive, you'll need to click on the structure and then click on "Upgrade Beehive." You'll need to collect more and more of each type of building ingredient for each level that you upgrade. For instance, to upgrade to level 2, you'll need to collect 3 Hammers, Nails, Hand Drills, and Paint Buckets, along with 2 Comb Frames and Brood Boxes. If you don't have these items on hand, you can click on the "Ask friends" button to send out individual requests for your friends to help you out.
From there, just claim your Beehive's Daily Bonus as you would that of any other building, and watch your free boosts appear. Note that you can receive Horse XP from claiming the Daily Bonus, so make sure you're riding your Horse if you're looking for all ways possible to level him/her up.
As of this writing, there doesn't appear to be a mission series associated with the Beehive, but we'll let you know if that changes in the future.
Check out the rest of our FrontierVille Cheats & Tips right here.
What do you think of this small Beehive building? Will you work on leveling it up completely, or do you not even want it on your land?
You'll be given the small base to your Beehive for free, and you'll simply need to whack it four times, each time costing four wood (or 16 wood in total), to complete the base. You'll then need to collect a series of building ingredients to finish the Beehive, with two of these items being new to the structure. Don't be alarmed if you see tons of bonus items appearing on your Homestead as you whack the frame - not only will you receive experience point bonuses as normal, but you'll also likely receive two of the six ingredients that you need to finish the initial construction of your new animal building.
Meet us behind the break for a complete look at what it takes to put this Beehive together. All told, you'll need to have two each of Hammers, Nails, Hand Drills, and Paint Buckets, while you only need one Comb Frame and one Brood Box - the two items you'll likely receive when whacking the Beehive's frame at the start.
Once your Beehive is built, you can either collect the daily bonus from the structure, or immediately go to work on upgrading it to levels 2-6, each of which offers you more free Crop Boosts each time you collect the Daily Bonus. For instance. If you leave it at level 1, you'll simply receive anywhere from 1-3 Clover Crop Boosts each day you collect the Daily Bonus. Upgrade to level 2, and you'll receive 1-3 Clover and Tomato Crop Boosts. Each level you upgrade gives you another type of Crop Boost to receive, to the point where you'll eventually be able to receive up to six types of Boosts each and every day. You can check out the full chart below to see just which crops come with which level, and you can voluntarily stop upgrading at any time.
To upgrade your Beehive, you'll need to click on the structure and then click on "Upgrade Beehive." You'll need to collect more and more of each type of building ingredient for each level that you upgrade. For instance, to upgrade to level 2, you'll need to collect 3 Hammers, Nails, Hand Drills, and Paint Buckets, along with 2 Comb Frames and Brood Boxes. If you don't have these items on hand, you can click on the "Ask friends" button to send out individual requests for your friends to help you out.
From there, just claim your Beehive's Daily Bonus as you would that of any other building, and watch your free boosts appear. Note that you can receive Horse XP from claiming the Daily Bonus, so make sure you're riding your Horse if you're looking for all ways possible to level him/her up.
As of this writing, there doesn't appear to be a mission series associated with the Beehive, but we'll let you know if that changes in the future.
Check out the rest of our FrontierVille Cheats & Tips right here.
What do you think of this small Beehive building? Will you work on leveling it up completely, or do you not even want it on your land?
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
FarmVille Royal Wedding Party: Everything you need to know
While Enchanted Love decorations, animals, and buildings in FarmVille is one thing, you didn't really think Zynga was going to let the real-world Royal Wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton slip by without a grand event, did you? Of course not! That has been made clear this evening, as the "Royal Wedding Party" event has officially launched, allowing you to ask your friends to join in the party and earn some neat prizes.
To start, you'll see the pop-up above in your game when the Royal Wedding Party update has rolled around to your game. From there, you'll receive the Wedding Tent item for free. This Wedding Tent can be thought of as a more sophisticated version of the Party Barn released during the game's New Year's celebration, in that it's main purpose is to allow you a place to "store" your neighbors that come to your Royal Wedding Party.
Once you place the Wedding Tent, you'll need to start inviting your friends to come to the party - after all, what's a good wedding without tons of friends to share in the joyous occasion? From now until May 12 (when the "Royal Couple" arrives), you'll be able to collect up to 32 different guests in your party, and will unlock four different items along the way.
The breakdown of prizes is as follows:
4 Guests - Lover's Arch (a balloon archway)
8 Guests - Royal Crystal Tree (think the Wedding Tree but gold)
16 Guests - unlock the Majestic Roses crop in your market
32 Guests - Royal Steed
Note: the Majestic Roses take one full day to grow, and can be harvested for 145 coins per square. You'll gain 3 XP for each square you plant. They look exactly like the English Roses, although they're cream in color, rather than pink.
To add more friends to your party, you'll need to click on the "Invite Friends" button at the bottom of the above pop-up (click on the Wedding Tent and click on "Go to Party" to see this window), and then send individual requests to those FarmVille neighbors that you think would be most likely to help you.
As your guests RSVP, their avatars will show up alongside the red carpet inside your Wedding Tent, so you'll be able to keep track of exactly who has accepted and who hasn't. Once you reach each prize limit, your prize will automatically be added to your Gift Box, or will be available in the market, in the case of the Majestic Roses crop. Again, after May 12, you won't be able to add any more guests to your party, so your best bet is to add friends quickly, while this event is still at the top of their minds. After May 12, the Wedding Tent will also become "storable," so you can reclaim that area on your farm after the event is finished.
Check out the rest of our FarmVille Cheats & Tips right here.
What do you think of the Royal Wedding Party event? Had you hoped that Zynga would come up with something more creative to celebrate this real-world love story?
To start, you'll see the pop-up above in your game when the Royal Wedding Party update has rolled around to your game. From there, you'll receive the Wedding Tent item for free. This Wedding Tent can be thought of as a more sophisticated version of the Party Barn released during the game's New Year's celebration, in that it's main purpose is to allow you a place to "store" your neighbors that come to your Royal Wedding Party.
Once you place the Wedding Tent, you'll need to start inviting your friends to come to the party - after all, what's a good wedding without tons of friends to share in the joyous occasion? From now until May 12 (when the "Royal Couple" arrives), you'll be able to collect up to 32 different guests in your party, and will unlock four different items along the way.
The breakdown of prizes is as follows:
4 Guests - Lover's Arch (a balloon archway)
8 Guests - Royal Crystal Tree (think the Wedding Tree but gold)
16 Guests - unlock the Majestic Roses crop in your market
32 Guests - Royal Steed
Note: the Majestic Roses take one full day to grow, and can be harvested for 145 coins per square. You'll gain 3 XP for each square you plant. They look exactly like the English Roses, although they're cream in color, rather than pink.
To add more friends to your party, you'll need to click on the "Invite Friends" button at the bottom of the above pop-up (click on the Wedding Tent and click on "Go to Party" to see this window), and then send individual requests to those FarmVille neighbors that you think would be most likely to help you.
As your guests RSVP, their avatars will show up alongside the red carpet inside your Wedding Tent, so you'll be able to keep track of exactly who has accepted and who hasn't. Once you reach each prize limit, your prize will automatically be added to your Gift Box, or will be available in the market, in the case of the Majestic Roses crop. Again, after May 12, you won't be able to add any more guests to your party, so your best bet is to add friends quickly, while this event is still at the top of their minds. After May 12, the Wedding Tent will also become "storable," so you can reclaim that area on your farm after the event is finished.
Check out the rest of our FarmVille Cheats & Tips right here.
What do you think of the Royal Wedding Party event? Had you hoped that Zynga would come up with something more creative to celebrate this real-world love story?
Earn 1 free FarmVille Farm Cash in MTV O Music Awards promotion
O Music Awards promotion
To celebrate this beautiful Friday, Zynga has released another free Farm Cash promotion in FarmVille. This time, it's thanks to a promotion for MTV's new, Internet-hip music awards show, the O Music Awards. The "O" there stands for online, but you probably wouldn't know that because you're not even hip enough. Moving right along, clicking on the link with the MTV O Awards logo on it (which sounds more like it would stand for the Oprah Awards) will cause a pop-up to appear.
Then it's time to answer another simple survey, and this time it makes the O Awards actually seem... interesting? Either way, answering the questions will eventually cause a message to appear that reads "You've earned your Farm Cash." Click on the blue "X" and the window will close, and you will be one Farm Cash richer. Not too bad of a start on a Friday, hm?
[Source and Image Credit: FarmVille Freak]
Have you taken advantage of this offer yet? How are you going to make your Friday awesome?
To celebrate this beautiful Friday, Zynga has released another free Farm Cash promotion in FarmVille. This time, it's thanks to a promotion for MTV's new, Internet-hip music awards show, the O Music Awards. The "O" there stands for online, but you probably wouldn't know that because you're not even hip enough. Moving right along, clicking on the link with the MTV O Awards logo on it (which sounds more like it would stand for the Oprah Awards) will cause a pop-up to appear.
Then it's time to answer another simple survey, and this time it makes the O Awards actually seem... interesting? Either way, answering the questions will eventually cause a message to appear that reads "You've earned your Farm Cash." Click on the blue "X" and the window will close, and you will be one Farm Cash richer. Not too bad of a start on a Friday, hm?
[Source and Image Credit: FarmVille Freak]
Have you taken advantage of this offer yet? How are you going to make your Friday awesome?
Bejeweled creator PopCap buys ZipZapPlay, blitzes into social games
The creator of your favorite bite-sized Facebook distractions, PopCap, has acquired San Francisco-based ZipZapPlay for an undisclosed amount. For those who were doubtful whether the Seattle-based casual games giant was serious about social, you can stop now. (Seriously, both Zuma Blitz and Bejeweled Blitz have weekly video webcasts for the players--it's serious.) ZipZapPlay is best known for Facebook cooking sim Baking Life, which draws in a vast majority of the company's 2.3 million monthly players, according to AppData.
In the acquisition, PopCap gains ZipZapPlay's development team, their studio in San Francisco and two Facebook games: Baking Life and Happy Habitat. Founders Curt Bererton, CEO, and Mathilde Pignol, CCO), will continue to direct game design and development at the studio, which will operate independently of PopCap and report to VP of Social Games Development Jon David. John Vechey, PopCap co-founder and VP of Corporate Strategy and Development, reveals PopCap's intention in the space in a press release.
The team at ZipZapPlay is one of the best in the social games space, and combined with our existing group in Seattle gives us the opportunity to dramatically expand our development resources. While the acquisition creates immediate cross-promotional and operations benefits, this is a strategic move with huge long-term potential; we believe ZipZapPlay can help us further evolve and expand the definition of social games.
With the help of ZipZapPlay's 17-member strong team, PopCap hopes to have four or five games available on Facebook by the end of the year. If anything, we'll see at least one social game come from the collaboration this year. While no details on any new games are available, we imagine they'll embody PopCap's emphasis on daily players rather than monthly players. Because as of right now, that's what's keeping this company in the ring with the likes of Zynga, Playfish and now Wooga. While we're optimistic of the whole ordeal, we won't be sold until we see Plant Vs. Zombies on Facebook, so get to it, guys! (But we'll settle for Peggle as well.)
In the acquisition, PopCap gains ZipZapPlay's development team, their studio in San Francisco and two Facebook games: Baking Life and Happy Habitat. Founders Curt Bererton, CEO, and Mathilde Pignol, CCO), will continue to direct game design and development at the studio, which will operate independently of PopCap and report to VP of Social Games Development Jon David. John Vechey, PopCap co-founder and VP of Corporate Strategy and Development, reveals PopCap's intention in the space in a press release.
The team at ZipZapPlay is one of the best in the social games space, and combined with our existing group in Seattle gives us the opportunity to dramatically expand our development resources. While the acquisition creates immediate cross-promotional and operations benefits, this is a strategic move with huge long-term potential; we believe ZipZapPlay can help us further evolve and expand the definition of social games.
With the help of ZipZapPlay's 17-member strong team, PopCap hopes to have four or five games available on Facebook by the end of the year. If anything, we'll see at least one social game come from the collaboration this year. While no details on any new games are available, we imagine they'll embody PopCap's emphasis on daily players rather than monthly players. Because as of right now, that's what's keeping this company in the ring with the likes of Zynga, Playfish and now Wooga. While we're optimistic of the whole ordeal, we won't be sold until we see Plant Vs. Zombies on Facebook, so get to it, guys! (But we'll settle for Peggle as well.)
Upgrading the FrontierVille Horse Corral: Everything you need to know
Soon enough, it'll be time for you to improve your Corral, and take your horses to new heights with increased stats. Regardless of whether we know what those stats do, you might want to consider upgrading the FrontierVille Horse Coral as it might have implications for the Oregon Trail expansion.
This new feature will come with a series of Goals, which you can find here, but you will need to build the upgraded Corral as well. Before we go any further, please note that to have access to this feature, you must be at least Level 22 and have already completed the original Horse Corral. Once that's finished come on back and click on the Horse Corral. Join us behind the break to find out exactly what you need to start training those super horses.
FrontierVille Horse Corral Upgrade Menu
After choosing the upgrade option, a new window should appear, displaying these six items:
15 Fence Beams
15 Saddle Rack
15 Lead Rope
10 Horse Salt Licks
10 Hay Nets
10 Mounting Block
The first three items can be gathered through asking friends directy, while the last three are acquired through News Feed posts. Once this is through, you'll have your very own Level 2 Horse Corral. Take a look inside and you'll find plenty of new Horses to buy, most of which for Horseshoes, and a free one if you add three new friends to your game.
Horse Corral Shop
From inside the new Corral, you can assign Skill Points to your horses when they level up, though it's unsure what effects these stats will have on your horses. So, until then, just enjoy have a fancier building around and speculating away with us.
This new feature will come with a series of Goals, which you can find here, but you will need to build the upgraded Corral as well. Before we go any further, please note that to have access to this feature, you must be at least Level 22 and have already completed the original Horse Corral. Once that's finished come on back and click on the Horse Corral. Join us behind the break to find out exactly what you need to start training those super horses.
FrontierVille Horse Corral Upgrade Menu
After choosing the upgrade option, a new window should appear, displaying these six items:
15 Fence Beams
15 Saddle Rack
15 Lead Rope
10 Horse Salt Licks
10 Hay Nets
10 Mounting Block
The first three items can be gathered through asking friends directy, while the last three are acquired through News Feed posts. Once this is through, you'll have your very own Level 2 Horse Corral. Take a look inside and you'll find plenty of new Horses to buy, most of which for Horseshoes, and a free one if you add three new friends to your game.
Horse Corral Shop
From inside the new Corral, you can assign Skill Points to your horses when they level up, though it's unsure what effects these stats will have on your horses. So, until then, just enjoy have a fancier building around and speculating away with us.
Two FarmVille Sheep patterns illegal no more: Chameleon Ewe, Rainbow Ram
Chameleon Ewe
It's amazing what a little feedback can do, eh? Zynga has made it so two more previously illegal Sheep Breeding patterns are now legit in FarmVille. This means that anyone who received either of these illegally bred Sheep patterns through legal means like News Feed sharing can now breed those Sheep to create more with the same patterns. First is the Rainbow Ram, which will randomly cause your Sheep to be covered in multi-colored dots. The second, Chameleon Ewe, is far cooler, causing your Sheep to randomly change color. Unfortunately, if you didn't already receive one of these Sheep when they were illegal, you'll either have to pay up 20 Farm Cash for each pattern or wait until a generous friend decides to share either of them. Oh, well, you snooze, you lose.
[Source and Image Credit: FarmVille Freak]
Do you already have access to these patterns, or will you be buying them? What do you think of Zynga repealing its stance on illegal breeding, bit by bit?
It's amazing what a little feedback can do, eh? Zynga has made it so two more previously illegal Sheep Breeding patterns are now legit in FarmVille. This means that anyone who received either of these illegally bred Sheep patterns through legal means like News Feed sharing can now breed those Sheep to create more with the same patterns. First is the Rainbow Ram, which will randomly cause your Sheep to be covered in multi-colored dots. The second, Chameleon Ewe, is far cooler, causing your Sheep to randomly change color. Unfortunately, if you didn't already receive one of these Sheep when they were illegal, you'll either have to pay up 20 Farm Cash for each pattern or wait until a generous friend decides to share either of them. Oh, well, you snooze, you lose.
[Source and Image Credit: FarmVille Freak]
Do you already have access to these patterns, or will you be buying them? What do you think of Zynga repealing its stance on illegal breeding, bit by bit?
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Empires & Allies Cheats & Tips: Delete Roads to save space
Guess what? Just like in Zynga's CityVille, where you can open businesses without technically attaching them to Roads, you can do the same thing in Empires & Allies. Here, though, you don't even need sidewalks! You've already seen just how many buildings you'll need to construct on your tiny island parcel from our look at just the first 10 missions in the game, and it only gets worse from there.
The fact of the matter is - Roads are big, and they take up space you may not be willing to spare. The good thing is, you can delete them entirely (if you so choose) to earn back that much-needed space for additional Barracks, Lumber Mills and so on. While this is a bit of a double-sided scenario, as those Roads also give you free space on which you can place units to protect your buildings, you can achieve the same outcome by simply placing Troops at the corners of your buildings, deleting Roads that connect buildings as they simply aren't necessary. You can see my own island at the top of this post - I've surrounded by Lumber Mills with tons of troops, and don't have a single piece of Road clogging up the space.
Since you don't have citizens wandering your streets like in CityVille, why not entertain the thought of deleting Roads altogether, and then save your coins that you would have spent on expanding to pay for better units?
Check out the rest of our Empires & Allies cheats and tips right here.
Have you deleted Roads from your Empire? Are there any other tips your neighbors should know?
The fact of the matter is - Roads are big, and they take up space you may not be willing to spare. The good thing is, you can delete them entirely (if you so choose) to earn back that much-needed space for additional Barracks, Lumber Mills and so on. While this is a bit of a double-sided scenario, as those Roads also give you free space on which you can place units to protect your buildings, you can achieve the same outcome by simply placing Troops at the corners of your buildings, deleting Roads that connect buildings as they simply aren't necessary. You can see my own island at the top of this post - I've surrounded by Lumber Mills with tons of troops, and don't have a single piece of Road clogging up the space.
Since you don't have citizens wandering your streets like in CityVille, why not entertain the thought of deleting Roads altogether, and then save your coins that you would have spent on expanding to pay for better units?
Check out the rest of our Empires & Allies cheats and tips right here.
Have you deleted Roads from your Empire? Are there any other tips your neighbors should know?
Empires & Allies Cheats & Tips: Quickly see what your neighbors have for sale
As you make it to level 10 and beyond in Empires & Allies, you might be left with quests that asks you to purchase certain materials from your friends' markets (buildings you can use to sell excess Metals, Oil and so on), or you may simply want to purchase some extra Oil to always have a full supply (as one example). But, do you really want to visit each and every one of your friends to see what they're selling?
Sure, the game loads fairly quickly, but what if you have already accumulated dozens of neighbors? Visiting each one would definitely be a time consuming process, but luckily there's a streamlined way to see who is selling what, and when. All you'll need to do is click on the "My Neighbors" tab above the Empires & Allies gameplay area. From there, you'll see a list of all of your current neighbors in the game, along with a section that shows you visually what each friend has for sale.
As you can see above, I currently have the option of buying Oil or Gold from two friends. I would then simply look at which friend is selling the Oil or Gold and then manually visit them back in the game. Sure, it would be great if Zynga released an overall marketplace, like the Bushels marketplace in FarmVille, that lets you shop from all friends at once, but for now, keep this tip in mind to save yourself time when looking for extra materials.
Check out the rest of our Empires & Allies Cheats and Tips right here.
Did you already know you could look at the My Neighbors tab to see what your neighbors are selling? Will you use this method in the future?
Sure, the game loads fairly quickly, but what if you have already accumulated dozens of neighbors? Visiting each one would definitely be a time consuming process, but luckily there's a streamlined way to see who is selling what, and when. All you'll need to do is click on the "My Neighbors" tab above the Empires & Allies gameplay area. From there, you'll see a list of all of your current neighbors in the game, along with a section that shows you visually what each friend has for sale.
As you can see above, I currently have the option of buying Oil or Gold from two friends. I would then simply look at which friend is selling the Oil or Gold and then manually visit them back in the game. Sure, it would be great if Zynga released an overall marketplace, like the Bushels marketplace in FarmVille, that lets you shop from all friends at once, but for now, keep this tip in mind to save yourself time when looking for extra materials.
Check out the rest of our Empires & Allies Cheats and Tips right here.
Did you already know you could look at the My Neighbors tab to see what your neighbors are selling? Will you use this method in the future?
FrontierVille: Land expansions discounted; expand now for cheap
If you've yet to upgrade your FrontierVille homestead to either the 35 x 35 or 37 x 37 size, you can now purchase these third and fourth land expansion missions for 30% off the normal price (the original price was 1,000 coins for early adopters). Unfortunately, this doesn't change the requirements for each land expansion's set of missions, but any time we can save some coins in FrontierVille, I'll gladly jump on board.
For a complete guide to completing each land expansion, check out our guides:
35 x 35 Land Expansion Missions
37 x 37 Land Expansion Missions
Remember, once you reach these two levels, you can move right ahead into the 39 x 39 Colossal Land Expansion that just launched this week.
What have you done with all of your expansions in FrontierVille? Do you use them to grow crops? Hold buildings or extra decorations? Raise a debris garden?
For a complete guide to completing each land expansion, check out our guides:
35 x 35 Land Expansion Missions
37 x 37 Land Expansion Missions
Remember, once you reach these two levels, you can move right ahead into the 39 x 39 Colossal Land Expansion that just launched this week.
What have you done with all of your expansions in FrontierVille? Do you use them to grow crops? Hold buildings or extra decorations? Raise a debris garden?
FarmVille: Giant Boom and Wild Service Trees appearing from Mystery Seedlings
Here's something interesting for your Sunday morning: Not only have FarmVille players begun receiving Wild Service Trees from Mystery Seedlings (something we expected to happy based on recent unreleased images), but you can also now earn a Giant Boom Tree from a Mystery Seedling as well. I have to admit this one is a surprise, as we had no evidence that Zynga had even created a giant version of this already released tree!
We can expect, then, that the Giant Boom Tree will accompany the Wild Service Tree when it (presumably) launches in the market this evening, but that also leaves us with a question: Will a Giant Gorse Tree also launch? Either way, we'll make sure to let you know exactly what does launch in the game tonight, so keep checking back!
Have you received either a Wild Service or Giant Boom Tree from Mystery Seedlings on your farm, or those claimed by friends?
We can expect, then, that the Giant Boom Tree will accompany the Wild Service Tree when it (presumably) launches in the market this evening, but that also leaves us with a question: Will a Giant Gorse Tree also launch? Either way, we'll make sure to let you know exactly what does launch in the game tonight, so keep checking back!
Have you received either a Wild Service or Giant Boom Tree from Mystery Seedlings on your farm, or those claimed by friends?
FarmVille: Special delivery boxes disappearing? Empty out your Gift Box
Are you a FarmVille item collector? I know I am. I constantly have a Gift Box that's as close to the 500 item limit as possible, filled with everything from extra Bottles and Love Potions to (now) all six different building materials. I have over 100 Mystery Seedlings, enough Watering Cans to survive a virtual apocalypse, and various quest items for every future quest I know I'll come upon in the English Countryside. Add this to the random ducklings, animals, trees and decorations and you have...well, you have a lot of items!
Now, while the item limit in the Gift Box is technically 500, there are ways of going over that limit. Did you know, however, that doing so can actually end up hurting you in the long run? If your Gift Box is over 500 items, and you happen to own a stockpile of Special Delivery Boxes, you might have noticed that miraculously, without warning, those Boxes start to disappear - perhaps 10 here, 25 there, or even random numbers. Did you notice that those Special Delivery Boxes only go away when logging into the game, and not while actually playing? It turns out that for users that have over 500 items, this is the first item to go, as Zynga has developed a system to track "hoarders" and figuratively punish them automatically, without warning, removing excess items from Gift Boxes that have exceeded the 500 item limit.
Is this fair? On the one hand, I suppose it is just Zynga's way of enforcing their light rules, but on the other, the validity of a Gift Box item limit is a discussion in and of itself (I happen to be of the mindset that we should be able to hold as much as we'd like, a la FrontierVille, but again, that's another story). For now, until (if) we ever receive an upgrade to our Gift Box space, make sure to keep yourself under 500 items in your Gift Box each time you log out to stop yourself from losing items when you return. Hopefully we won't have to put up with this for much longer. Stay strong farmers. Stay strong.
Have you lost any items other than Special Delivery Boxes because you exceeded the item limit? Should there be an item limit at all?
Now, while the item limit in the Gift Box is technically 500, there are ways of going over that limit. Did you know, however, that doing so can actually end up hurting you in the long run? If your Gift Box is over 500 items, and you happen to own a stockpile of Special Delivery Boxes, you might have noticed that miraculously, without warning, those Boxes start to disappear - perhaps 10 here, 25 there, or even random numbers. Did you notice that those Special Delivery Boxes only go away when logging into the game, and not while actually playing? It turns out that for users that have over 500 items, this is the first item to go, as Zynga has developed a system to track "hoarders" and figuratively punish them automatically, without warning, removing excess items from Gift Boxes that have exceeded the 500 item limit.
Is this fair? On the one hand, I suppose it is just Zynga's way of enforcing their light rules, but on the other, the validity of a Gift Box item limit is a discussion in and of itself (I happen to be of the mindset that we should be able to hold as much as we'd like, a la FrontierVille, but again, that's another story). For now, until (if) we ever receive an upgrade to our Gift Box space, make sure to keep yourself under 500 items in your Gift Box each time you log out to stop yourself from losing items when you return. Hopefully we won't have to put up with this for much longer. Stay strong farmers. Stay strong.
Have you lost any items other than Special Delivery Boxes because you exceeded the item limit? Should there be an item limit at all?
Friday, December 23, 2011
FarmVille Parisian items celebrate a happy Bastille Day
Ok, so Bastille Day may not actually be until July 14, but FarmVille is celebrating this French holiday early with the release of a small Parisian theme of items in the market. If you're unfamiliar with Bastille Day, it celebrates the storming of the Bastille (a French prison) and the start of the French Revolution. But for our purposes, it signifies a set of cheery new trees, animals, buildings and decorations being available in the game's store!
These items may have been released on an "off" update day (remember, Zynga normally pushes out updates on Wednesday and Sunday), but they'll all be available in the store for the full two-week time limit. Here's what's available:
Trees:
Holly Oak Tree - 5 Farm Cash
Cork Oak Tree - 10 Farm Cash
As you might have guessed, the Holly Oak Tree spawns Cork Oak Trees from Mystery Seedlings, so feel free to skip out on purchasing this more expensive tree in favor of finding one for free.
Animals:
French Flag Sheep - 20 Farm Cash
Remember, since this cute little sheep isn't labeled specifically as a Ram, that means the flag pattern is for this sheep only, rather than something that can be passed on to Lambs.
Buildings:
Le Bistro - 42 Farm Cash
Unfortunately, there's no sale price in effect here. The price is a high one, and it's as simple as that.
Decorations:
French Balloon Arch - 20,000 coins
Parisian Waiter - 15 Farm Cash
Fleur de Lis - 12 Farm Cash
For these items, the Parisian Waiter is actually a new gnome, while the Fleur de Lis is a new fountain (and quite a lovely one, at that). Unfortunately, the French Balloon Arch is the only item available for those on a budget, but at least the Fleur de Lis fountain (my personal favorite of this release) isn't overly expensive, considering just how pretty it actually is.
Either way, it will be interesting to see if this spontaneously released theme receives more items in tomorrow's expected store update, and you can be sure we'll let you know if it does.
Would you be disappointed if these were the only Parisian items released in this theme? What other French-themed items do you think Zynga should release in honor of Bastille Day?
These items may have been released on an "off" update day (remember, Zynga normally pushes out updates on Wednesday and Sunday), but they'll all be available in the store for the full two-week time limit. Here's what's available:
Trees:
Holly Oak Tree - 5 Farm Cash
Cork Oak Tree - 10 Farm Cash
As you might have guessed, the Holly Oak Tree spawns Cork Oak Trees from Mystery Seedlings, so feel free to skip out on purchasing this more expensive tree in favor of finding one for free.
Animals:
French Flag Sheep - 20 Farm Cash
Remember, since this cute little sheep isn't labeled specifically as a Ram, that means the flag pattern is for this sheep only, rather than something that can be passed on to Lambs.
Buildings:
Le Bistro - 42 Farm Cash
Unfortunately, there's no sale price in effect here. The price is a high one, and it's as simple as that.
Decorations:
French Balloon Arch - 20,000 coins
Parisian Waiter - 15 Farm Cash
Fleur de Lis - 12 Farm Cash
For these items, the Parisian Waiter is actually a new gnome, while the Fleur de Lis is a new fountain (and quite a lovely one, at that). Unfortunately, the French Balloon Arch is the only item available for those on a budget, but at least the Fleur de Lis fountain (my personal favorite of this release) isn't overly expensive, considering just how pretty it actually is.
Either way, it will be interesting to see if this spontaneously released theme receives more items in tomorrow's expected store update, and you can be sure we'll let you know if it does.
Would you be disappointed if these were the only Parisian items released in this theme? What other French-themed items do you think Zynga should release in honor of Bastille Day?
FarmVille Sneak Peek: Super Crops coming soon?
If you've been playing FarmVille since early 2010, you may remember the initial introduction of the "Super" crop to FarmVille. At the time, we were allowed to grow just Super Pumpkins, which at the time were a fast way to earn extra coins and experience points, as they only took four hours to grow. Fast forward more than a year, and four hours seems like a heck of a long time for something that's supposed to be "super." Perhaps that's why Zynga's apparently attempting to re-capture the super crop flame with a whole new line of super, masterable crops.
Don't be alarmed - these crops are just seemingly beefed up versions of crops we've all been used to for a while now: grapes, watermelon, cotton, and so on. Each comes with a newly designed gold mastery sign, making them stand out from the rest (after all, since the crops are simply bigger versions of their former selves, the same mastery sign - in theory - couldn't be used twice). There's no word yet as to how or when these crops will be available, but we can imagine they might come from experiments in the Greenhouse, or even as Crafting Silo crops, as we're still not entirely sure what Zynga has planned for that upcoming new feature.
Either way, make sure to keep checking back with us, as we'll make sure you're the first to know when these crops are released in the game; that is, once we know first.
[Image Credit: FarmVille Pro]
What do you think of these Super Crops? Do you like the idea of having a second version of all of the original crops to master all over again, or would you welcome the challenge?
Don't be alarmed - these crops are just seemingly beefed up versions of crops we've all been used to for a while now: grapes, watermelon, cotton, and so on. Each comes with a newly designed gold mastery sign, making them stand out from the rest (after all, since the crops are simply bigger versions of their former selves, the same mastery sign - in theory - couldn't be used twice). There's no word yet as to how or when these crops will be available, but we can imagine they might come from experiments in the Greenhouse, or even as Crafting Silo crops, as we're still not entirely sure what Zynga has planned for that upcoming new feature.
Either way, make sure to keep checking back with us, as we'll make sure you're the first to know when these crops are released in the game; that is, once we know first.
[Image Credit: FarmVille Pro]
What do you think of these Super Crops? Do you like the idea of having a second version of all of the original crops to master all over again, or would you welcome the challenge?
CityVille Go Green Goals: Everything you need to know
Now that you can reach Level 90 in CityVille, it's time to take that smog-smothered metropolis of yours and give it a green hue. Zynga has pushed the Go Green Goals to the game, and there are some attractive rewards to get your mitts on. However, you must be at least Level 80 to access these new Goals, sorry newbies.
1. Emission Impossible:
Place Windmill
Get 25 Petitions for a Wind Farm
Reward: Garden Shop
2. Nip It In The Bud:
Collect from your Garden Shop 10 times
Harvest 240 Tomatoes
Collect from 25 Trains
Reward: Unlock Recycling Plant
3. Reuse The Force:
Collect 40 Shipping Routes from Sydney
Collect from 80 Neighbor Residences
Collect from any Recycling Plant 1 time
Reward: Unlock Eco House
Garden House Recycling Plant Eco House Eco Skyscraper
4. The Sky's The Limit!:
Collect from 80 Neighbor businesses
Collect from any level 3 City Hall 3 times
Ask friends for 25 Solar Panels
Reward: Unlock Eco Skyscraper
[Source and Image Credit: CityVille Info]
Have you started these max-level Goals yet in CityVille? What tips do you have for completing them even faster?
1. Emission Impossible:
Place Windmill
Get 25 Petitions for a Wind Farm
Reward: Garden Shop
2. Nip It In The Bud:
Collect from your Garden Shop 10 times
Harvest 240 Tomatoes
Collect from 25 Trains
Reward: Unlock Recycling Plant
3. Reuse The Force:
Collect 40 Shipping Routes from Sydney
Collect from 80 Neighbor Residences
Collect from any Recycling Plant 1 time
Reward: Unlock Eco House
Garden House Recycling Plant Eco House Eco Skyscraper
4. The Sky's The Limit!:
Collect from 80 Neighbor businesses
Collect from any level 3 City Hall 3 times
Ask friends for 25 Solar Panels
Reward: Unlock Eco Skyscraper
[Source and Image Credit: CityVille Info]
Have you started these max-level Goals yet in CityVille? What tips do you have for completing them even faster?
Rocket Ninja's Neil Haldar: 3D will separate the wheat from the chaff on Facebook
Games with 3D graphics are nothing new--you know that. But Facebook games with 3D graphics are, according to Rocket Ninja executive producer Neil Haldar (pictured). The company recently unleashed Shr3d, a 3D graphics engine for Flash (the platform on which almost all Facebook games are created) that requires no extra downloads.
We dug the company's first game using the technology, Wrestler: Unstoppable, but is begs a few questions. How will 3D change social games? More importantly, are social gamers ready for 3D? We sat down with Haldar recently to hash out the future of 3D in Facebook games--check it out:
Why did Rocket Ninja decide to create their own 3D Flash games engine?
Well, the way the company got started was we were really looking at ways of how to originally get into the web-based MMOs (massively multiplayer online games) space. And one of the ways the company was looking to innovate there was to remove the requirement of a significant download.
So, we started it as web-based, tried to make it as open as possible and get into the platform that is most ubiquitous and has the most number of users. [Ed. Note: Haldar is referring to the Adobe Flash Player used to display almost all Facebook games.] Second, we absolutely held up to our belief that we need to be a download-free experience in 3D.
The 3D part is important, because we wanted to deliver a different kind of gaming experience to those web browsers. It's pretty easy for an awful lot of people to throw some Flash together, make a lot of 2D stuff and have it run across a screen, but 3D requires a lot of skill and know-how. And that's what really sets us apart-as game developers, how can we express fun and entertainment inside of a web browser.
Why did you decide with your first project to add the 3D element to an existing game rather than create your own game?
The answer to that is in two parts. The first is, as you know, we started off building our own game on Facebook that was intended to be a test, and much like everyone it was a fish game called Ocean Kingdom. We learned a lot of what it takes to acquire a user, give them tools to be viral with their friends, to have them keep playing the game and eventually, you know, shake a couple coins out of them.
We learned that it's much harder to start off from scratch, especially when we need to ask the player to trust us when it comes to game content type. But also in terms of, 'Hey, I'm also bringing you 3D-trust me! 3D is much more fun, trust me!' when the whole world out there is 2D. To solve some of these things we realized that we could help accelerate other developers' games. A lot of developers are realizing that the jig is up [Ed.Note: due to Facebook's many changes in 2010.]. Things like that we think we can solve for a lot of other developers.
The second part is that, as we were thinking about the kinds of games and the kinds of community systems that best benefit from the expertise and technology that we have, this Wrestler game was a great opportunity for us. And the longer we looked at it, the more we were convinced that this would be a great acceleration product for us-something we could lend better game design to. If we could enable 3D with audio and sound to make the game experience more compelling, people would probably play the game more, and we might be able to shake a couple extra nickels and pennies out of them.
Wrestler: Unstoppable
Now, you're talking about providing these services to other developers, but are there plans to release future Rocket Ninja games developed in house?
There are a lot of really talented developers out there, and at the same time there are a lot of genius game designers and programmers that originally put the 3D engine together. You know, our experience with Wrestler was that, 'Yes, we did accelerate someone else's game, we really sort of adopted it and made it our own.' So, with the passion that the original developer had for that, they joined us as our employee full time.
We sort of blurred the lines of developing a game in house or accelerated someone else's game. These are the games that I would want to play, because I think it's a game that an awful lot of other people would want to play, but the question is: Why haven't they? If we can answer that 'why' with the tools we have in our arsenal, then that's probably a great candidate for us to add to the fold.
Now, do you think that 3D is the next answer to that 'Why?' and if so, how is 3D going to change how social games are played? Because I've yet to see many 3D Facebook games that make liberal use of the 3D space.
I know there aren't many 3D games on Facebook, but they are coming. The next major release of Adobe Flash will have incorporated technology called 'Molehill.' [This] is essentially Adobe's answer to 3D-high-quality 3D experiences within Flash. So, how does that help with the gameplay? I've been making games for a long time, and generally with every platform what happens when you make the jump from 2D the 3D is that the user is so excited about manipulating 3D objects that the emotional connection between the consumer and the game just grows leaps and bounds.
The transition to 3D is going to be very real-it's going to separate the wheat from the chaff amongst developers on social networks. When you unleash 3D onto a platform [like Facebook] that's originally been 2D, I think you're going to see an awful lot of new kinds of games coming out of that.
Shr3d EngineI've seen some social games that use 3D, but the social features take a back burner to the novelty of 3D. So, how do we change the average middle-aged mother's expectations of social games?
When you take a look at Wrestler, it's not just a social game originally built in 2D, but it has an enormous, thriving social community within the game. We allow players to play with total strangers through loose organizations. That's different than your peanut butter and jelly 2D game on Facebook. The availability of 3D will ultimately make the gaming experience much more interesting for the end user-even for grand mom. It's like the isle of Facebook gaming is full of accidental gamers.
Eventually those gamers will have greater, more sophisticated tastes. They too want different kinds of scenarios-they too want deeper pieces of entertainment to interact with. We're sort of on that cusp, and the ability for us to provide [download-free] 3D now puts us a little ahead of the pack. More importantly, it allows us to trail blaze and understand, 'What does happen when we have grand mom playing a 3D game on Facebook?' Will it change how they buy things, how they play the game, are they less social or are they more social? We're now sifting through the data to find out what that future world on Facebook looks like.
Do you think 3D necessarily leads to complexity?
No. I think there's a desire by younger developers to make 3D for 3D's sake. We think the tact of 3D should be easy to approach-navigation of 3D space is difficult for your casual consumer. So, we're not asking you to navigate 3D worlds or play first-person shooters. The 3D we have right now is pretty big, but it's simplistic using a 2D interface to interact with 3D objects. That's the right approach for starters.
Without the 3D tool set, we could not begin to approach solving interesting gameplay problems without adding to a quagmire of 2D complexity. I take a look at how FarmVille runs at it height versus Empires & Allies just 18 months later, and there are probably one hundred times as many things on my screen trying to grab my attention.
Are there any more projects you can talk about using the Shr3d engine?
Oh yeah, we certainly do. We have ongoing discussions with a bunch of different developers trying to figure out whether we can make ends meet or whether there are other games out there that belong in our acceleration pipeline. First and foremost we're a games company-you're not going to see us making medial device imaging or some crap like that. We do not intend to license our technology to anybody. Everything done to games with our technology will be something we do ourselves. Whether we built it in house or whether we accelerated somebody else's and made it our own has yet to be seen
[Image Credits: Neil Haldar, Rocket Ninja]
Do you think 3D has a place in Facebook games? How do you think 3D will change how social games are played, and will the average FarmVille player hop on board
We dug the company's first game using the technology, Wrestler: Unstoppable, but is begs a few questions. How will 3D change social games? More importantly, are social gamers ready for 3D? We sat down with Haldar recently to hash out the future of 3D in Facebook games--check it out:
Why did Rocket Ninja decide to create their own 3D Flash games engine?
Well, the way the company got started was we were really looking at ways of how to originally get into the web-based MMOs (massively multiplayer online games) space. And one of the ways the company was looking to innovate there was to remove the requirement of a significant download.
So, we started it as web-based, tried to make it as open as possible and get into the platform that is most ubiquitous and has the most number of users. [Ed. Note: Haldar is referring to the Adobe Flash Player used to display almost all Facebook games.] Second, we absolutely held up to our belief that we need to be a download-free experience in 3D.
The 3D part is important, because we wanted to deliver a different kind of gaming experience to those web browsers. It's pretty easy for an awful lot of people to throw some Flash together, make a lot of 2D stuff and have it run across a screen, but 3D requires a lot of skill and know-how. And that's what really sets us apart-as game developers, how can we express fun and entertainment inside of a web browser.
Why did you decide with your first project to add the 3D element to an existing game rather than create your own game?
The answer to that is in two parts. The first is, as you know, we started off building our own game on Facebook that was intended to be a test, and much like everyone it was a fish game called Ocean Kingdom. We learned a lot of what it takes to acquire a user, give them tools to be viral with their friends, to have them keep playing the game and eventually, you know, shake a couple coins out of them.
We learned that it's much harder to start off from scratch, especially when we need to ask the player to trust us when it comes to game content type. But also in terms of, 'Hey, I'm also bringing you 3D-trust me! 3D is much more fun, trust me!' when the whole world out there is 2D. To solve some of these things we realized that we could help accelerate other developers' games. A lot of developers are realizing that the jig is up [Ed.Note: due to Facebook's many changes in 2010.]. Things like that we think we can solve for a lot of other developers.
The second part is that, as we were thinking about the kinds of games and the kinds of community systems that best benefit from the expertise and technology that we have, this Wrestler game was a great opportunity for us. And the longer we looked at it, the more we were convinced that this would be a great acceleration product for us-something we could lend better game design to. If we could enable 3D with audio and sound to make the game experience more compelling, people would probably play the game more, and we might be able to shake a couple extra nickels and pennies out of them.
Wrestler: Unstoppable
Now, you're talking about providing these services to other developers, but are there plans to release future Rocket Ninja games developed in house?
There are a lot of really talented developers out there, and at the same time there are a lot of genius game designers and programmers that originally put the 3D engine together. You know, our experience with Wrestler was that, 'Yes, we did accelerate someone else's game, we really sort of adopted it and made it our own.' So, with the passion that the original developer had for that, they joined us as our employee full time.
We sort of blurred the lines of developing a game in house or accelerated someone else's game. These are the games that I would want to play, because I think it's a game that an awful lot of other people would want to play, but the question is: Why haven't they? If we can answer that 'why' with the tools we have in our arsenal, then that's probably a great candidate for us to add to the fold.
Now, do you think that 3D is the next answer to that 'Why?' and if so, how is 3D going to change how social games are played? Because I've yet to see many 3D Facebook games that make liberal use of the 3D space.
I know there aren't many 3D games on Facebook, but they are coming. The next major release of Adobe Flash will have incorporated technology called 'Molehill.' [This] is essentially Adobe's answer to 3D-high-quality 3D experiences within Flash. So, how does that help with the gameplay? I've been making games for a long time, and generally with every platform what happens when you make the jump from 2D the 3D is that the user is so excited about manipulating 3D objects that the emotional connection between the consumer and the game just grows leaps and bounds.
The transition to 3D is going to be very real-it's going to separate the wheat from the chaff amongst developers on social networks. When you unleash 3D onto a platform [like Facebook] that's originally been 2D, I think you're going to see an awful lot of new kinds of games coming out of that.
Shr3d EngineI've seen some social games that use 3D, but the social features take a back burner to the novelty of 3D. So, how do we change the average middle-aged mother's expectations of social games?
When you take a look at Wrestler, it's not just a social game originally built in 2D, but it has an enormous, thriving social community within the game. We allow players to play with total strangers through loose organizations. That's different than your peanut butter and jelly 2D game on Facebook. The availability of 3D will ultimately make the gaming experience much more interesting for the end user-even for grand mom. It's like the isle of Facebook gaming is full of accidental gamers.
Eventually those gamers will have greater, more sophisticated tastes. They too want different kinds of scenarios-they too want deeper pieces of entertainment to interact with. We're sort of on that cusp, and the ability for us to provide [download-free] 3D now puts us a little ahead of the pack. More importantly, it allows us to trail blaze and understand, 'What does happen when we have grand mom playing a 3D game on Facebook?' Will it change how they buy things, how they play the game, are they less social or are they more social? We're now sifting through the data to find out what that future world on Facebook looks like.
Do you think 3D necessarily leads to complexity?
No. I think there's a desire by younger developers to make 3D for 3D's sake. We think the tact of 3D should be easy to approach-navigation of 3D space is difficult for your casual consumer. So, we're not asking you to navigate 3D worlds or play first-person shooters. The 3D we have right now is pretty big, but it's simplistic using a 2D interface to interact with 3D objects. That's the right approach for starters.
Without the 3D tool set, we could not begin to approach solving interesting gameplay problems without adding to a quagmire of 2D complexity. I take a look at how FarmVille runs at it height versus Empires & Allies just 18 months later, and there are probably one hundred times as many things on my screen trying to grab my attention.
Are there any more projects you can talk about using the Shr3d engine?
Oh yeah, we certainly do. We have ongoing discussions with a bunch of different developers trying to figure out whether we can make ends meet or whether there are other games out there that belong in our acceleration pipeline. First and foremost we're a games company-you're not going to see us making medial device imaging or some crap like that. We do not intend to license our technology to anybody. Everything done to games with our technology will be something we do ourselves. Whether we built it in house or whether we accelerated somebody else's and made it our own has yet to be seen
[Image Credits: Neil Haldar, Rocket Ninja]
Do you think 3D has a place in Facebook games? How do you think 3D will change how social games are played, and will the average FarmVille player hop on board
EA won't poo-poo on PopCap, CEO Riccitiello promises
Phew--EA had us worried for a second. (But keep on your toes.) After announcing that it bought casual and social games icon PopCap for a cool $650 million and some change, gamers and the press alike worried how this would affect the Seattle-based independent developer. But according to EA CEO John Riccitiello, there's no need to worry--PopCap will be treated as a "if it's not broke" situation, according to Shacknews.
For anyone who is concerned that EA will suck the creative energy out of PopCap like one of its plant-eating zombies, don't worry, but some changes will be made. "Some of their most important designers and creators and producers are stuck to perpetually working on language localization, individual handset adaptations, individual carrier adaptations," Riccitiello said during an investors call. "It's a lot of work... It's very unproductive work for great designers." This looks to be one of wrongs EA looks to right with the acquisition.
Regardless of whether you believe Riccitiello, one thing is for sure: EA means serious business when it comes to mobile and social gaming. However, whether PopCap will be enough for the company to compete with the likes of Zynga is, of course, up in the air. And considering the companies' collective players on Facebook combined just surpasses a single Zynga game, Empires & Allies, the duo certainly has lots of work to do.
[Via Touch Arcade]
[Image Credit: That's It Guys]
How do you think the acquisition will affect PopCap's day-to-day? Will EA have a fighting chance against Zynga now that it owns the creator of Bejeweled?
For anyone who is concerned that EA will suck the creative energy out of PopCap like one of its plant-eating zombies, don't worry, but some changes will be made. "Some of their most important designers and creators and producers are stuck to perpetually working on language localization, individual handset adaptations, individual carrier adaptations," Riccitiello said during an investors call. "It's a lot of work... It's very unproductive work for great designers." This looks to be one of wrongs EA looks to right with the acquisition.
Regardless of whether you believe Riccitiello, one thing is for sure: EA means serious business when it comes to mobile and social gaming. However, whether PopCap will be enough for the company to compete with the likes of Zynga is, of course, up in the air. And considering the companies' collective players on Facebook combined just surpasses a single Zynga game, Empires & Allies, the duo certainly has lots of work to do.
[Via Touch Arcade]
[Image Credit: That's It Guys]
How do you think the acquisition will affect PopCap's day-to-day? Will EA have a fighting chance against Zynga now that it owns the creator of Bejeweled?
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Adventure World on Facebook: This massive game makes size matter
Is it possible to create a new genre of social game? Who knows, but that's exactly what Zynga Boston, formerly known as Conduit Labs, aims to do with its very first Zynga game: Adventure World. Announced just recently, Zynga Boston Lead Game Designer Seth Sivak took us on a hands-off tour through the game--a long, detailed tour of Zynga's largest game to date. Coined as a "social adventure game" by Sivak, Adventure World throws players into exploration age of the 1930s in search of El Dorado.
Heavily inspired by old adventure comics and design quirks of the time, Adventure World has players searching across five massive environments for the Lost City of Gold, which players will ultimately arrive at. (Though, based on the size of these levels and what it takes to trek through them, that won't be for awhile.)
And while basic navigation through the game doesn't venture far from staples like The Pioneer Trail or the original FrontierVille, it's the nuances that make this first effort truly unique from Zynga's previous releases.
For one, Adventure World, complete with pseudo-3D , cel-shaded characters, was built using a brand new engine overlaying the Flash player almost all Facebook games are displayed through, using tech borrowed from Conduit Labs. Two, the environment reacts to you, and more often than not poses a threat. Traps litter every map in Adventure World, and they have a funny way of letting you know of their presence.
Gallery: Adventure World on Facebook
As Sivak walked us through a lush, massive jungle (one of the game's first environments), he stumbled over a trap of wooden spikes that drained his Energy. However, he noticed a small lever next to the trap that could have been interacted with. Later, he approached a similar trap with more caution, disarming it by pressing the lever, which rewarded him with lots of bonuses.
Throughout your time in Adventure World, the game will teach you its many gameplay hooks slowly but surely, which is a far cry from the extremely literal approach of the company's other games. Basically, instead of the game demanding that you complete certain tasks a specific way like previous Zynga games, Adventure World wants you to pay attention to detail and learn from it. This tactic will come in handy across the game's litany of puzzles, too.
Adventure World in Action
Sivak called this a "Rule of Three," meaning the game presents an obstacle once for you to encounter, and twice more with slight variety to show you that there's more at play here than just tiles. In fact, certain puzzles have you applying pressure to tiles to cause stairs to raise or doors to lift, all of which adds life to a game that otherwise wouldn't look much different than Zynga's previous work.
We did mention the word "social" somewhere up there, right? Ah yes, this is a "social adventure game," and Zynga Boston is looking at a few interesting ways to foster social play. Through your time in Adventure World, you will see silhouettes of potential friends that can join you in times of need. While it's not mandatory, making use of your friends (asynchronously, of course) is highly encouraged.
This is thanks to Tools, or objects that players will acquire in their travels like machetes to cut down brush or grappling hooks to climb high walls. However, your Tools will level up with your adventurer at your discretion, as your only given so many points per level to apply to your Tools. Since it's much wiser to focus on powering up just one or two Tools, your friendships become far more useful both ways for specific situations. Finally, the game will reward you for using friends more often than others, increasing the bonuses they provide with each visit, which serves to organically create a tight group of friends (12 maximum, it seems) to play with.
Adventure World El Dorado
For a point of reference to the game's actual size in terms of content and literal real estate, Sivak told us that the game is 40 times larger than FarmVille. More specifically Zynga Boston packed over 1,000 distinct art assets, over 10,000 avatar combinations and 200 quests across 30 maps in Adventure World.
However, this game has no territory to maintain--just a linear story told through quests and cutscenes, and an adventure to trek through with your friends. (In fact, Sivak revealed to us that the game draws influence from the classic Legend of Zelda series, which certainly shines through in the puzzles.) And while there is no direct replay option planned, Zynga Boston plans to make certain scenarios re-playable, and will add more adventure content later down the line.
While the game won't release for a few weeks, we're already excited to get our hands on what looks to be one huge Facebook game in more ways than just the size of its jungles, mountains, volcanoes and ancient golden cities. Wow, that does sound like a lot, doesn't it?
Click here to "Like" the Adventure World Facebook fan page to learn more Now >
What do you think of Adventure World based on what it sounds/looks like? Do you think Adventure will hit a fever pitch, as most Zynga games are wont to do?
Heavily inspired by old adventure comics and design quirks of the time, Adventure World has players searching across five massive environments for the Lost City of Gold, which players will ultimately arrive at. (Though, based on the size of these levels and what it takes to trek through them, that won't be for awhile.)
And while basic navigation through the game doesn't venture far from staples like The Pioneer Trail or the original FrontierVille, it's the nuances that make this first effort truly unique from Zynga's previous releases.
For one, Adventure World, complete with pseudo-3D , cel-shaded characters, was built using a brand new engine overlaying the Flash player almost all Facebook games are displayed through, using tech borrowed from Conduit Labs. Two, the environment reacts to you, and more often than not poses a threat. Traps litter every map in Adventure World, and they have a funny way of letting you know of their presence.
Gallery: Adventure World on Facebook
As Sivak walked us through a lush, massive jungle (one of the game's first environments), he stumbled over a trap of wooden spikes that drained his Energy. However, he noticed a small lever next to the trap that could have been interacted with. Later, he approached a similar trap with more caution, disarming it by pressing the lever, which rewarded him with lots of bonuses.
Throughout your time in Adventure World, the game will teach you its many gameplay hooks slowly but surely, which is a far cry from the extremely literal approach of the company's other games. Basically, instead of the game demanding that you complete certain tasks a specific way like previous Zynga games, Adventure World wants you to pay attention to detail and learn from it. This tactic will come in handy across the game's litany of puzzles, too.
Adventure World in Action
Sivak called this a "Rule of Three," meaning the game presents an obstacle once for you to encounter, and twice more with slight variety to show you that there's more at play here than just tiles. In fact, certain puzzles have you applying pressure to tiles to cause stairs to raise or doors to lift, all of which adds life to a game that otherwise wouldn't look much different than Zynga's previous work.
We did mention the word "social" somewhere up there, right? Ah yes, this is a "social adventure game," and Zynga Boston is looking at a few interesting ways to foster social play. Through your time in Adventure World, you will see silhouettes of potential friends that can join you in times of need. While it's not mandatory, making use of your friends (asynchronously, of course) is highly encouraged.
This is thanks to Tools, or objects that players will acquire in their travels like machetes to cut down brush or grappling hooks to climb high walls. However, your Tools will level up with your adventurer at your discretion, as your only given so many points per level to apply to your Tools. Since it's much wiser to focus on powering up just one or two Tools, your friendships become far more useful both ways for specific situations. Finally, the game will reward you for using friends more often than others, increasing the bonuses they provide with each visit, which serves to organically create a tight group of friends (12 maximum, it seems) to play with.
Adventure World El Dorado
For a point of reference to the game's actual size in terms of content and literal real estate, Sivak told us that the game is 40 times larger than FarmVille. More specifically Zynga Boston packed over 1,000 distinct art assets, over 10,000 avatar combinations and 200 quests across 30 maps in Adventure World.
However, this game has no territory to maintain--just a linear story told through quests and cutscenes, and an adventure to trek through with your friends. (In fact, Sivak revealed to us that the game draws influence from the classic Legend of Zelda series, which certainly shines through in the puzzles.) And while there is no direct replay option planned, Zynga Boston plans to make certain scenarios re-playable, and will add more adventure content later down the line.
While the game won't release for a few weeks, we're already excited to get our hands on what looks to be one huge Facebook game in more ways than just the size of its jungles, mountains, volcanoes and ancient golden cities. Wow, that does sound like a lot, doesn't it?
Click here to "Like" the Adventure World Facebook fan page to learn more Now >
What do you think of Adventure World based on what it sounds/looks like? Do you think Adventure will hit a fever pitch, as most Zynga games are wont to do?
Google+ Games hit the iPad, thanks to iSwifter update
If you're willing to pay to play a free Facebook game on your iPad, then enjoy the ability to pay to play free Google+ Games, too. VentureBeat reports that iSwifter, the nifty iPad app that allows users to play Flash-based Facebook games on the device, just opened itself up to the growing stable of games on Google+ in update 4.1.
Available for free in the App Store (though, the app itself charges a subscription fee), the update essentially allows players to access the Google+ games in a mock browser that streams the information from the Flash-based games. This is, of course, because iOS devices are notorious for their lack of Flash support.
"The iSwifter platform's "instant-on" streaming capability makes it pretty quick and easy to add new games," iSwifter founder Rajat Ali told VentureBeat. And we're gonna go off on a limb and say that Ali's words mean this is just the beginning for iSwifter.
Crime City in iSwifter for iPad
Well, until Project Spartan, the rumored not-so-secret effort to bring a full-featured, game and app-rich Facebook to mobile browsers, releases. But considering the app has garnered over 500,000 paying players since its release, we're sure iSwifter has some tricks up its sleeves to maintain relevant as the industry shifts.
Click here to download iSwifter for iPad Now >
[Image Credit: Apple]
Would you ever pay a fee in order to play your favorite Facebook or Google+ Games on the go? Do you think iSwifter will survive once projects like Project Spartan goes public?
Available for free in the App Store (though, the app itself charges a subscription fee), the update essentially allows players to access the Google+ games in a mock browser that streams the information from the Flash-based games. This is, of course, because iOS devices are notorious for their lack of Flash support.
"The iSwifter platform's "instant-on" streaming capability makes it pretty quick and easy to add new games," iSwifter founder Rajat Ali told VentureBeat. And we're gonna go off on a limb and say that Ali's words mean this is just the beginning for iSwifter.
Crime City in iSwifter for iPad
Well, until Project Spartan, the rumored not-so-secret effort to bring a full-featured, game and app-rich Facebook to mobile browsers, releases. But considering the app has garnered over 500,000 paying players since its release, we're sure iSwifter has some tricks up its sleeves to maintain relevant as the industry shifts.
Click here to download iSwifter for iPad Now >
[Image Credit: Apple]
Would you ever pay a fee in order to play your favorite Facebook or Google+ Games on the go? Do you think iSwifter will survive once projects like Project Spartan goes public?
Fight HIV and AIDS with TeePee Games by playing Facebook games
It's another games for good moment as TeePee Games, a British games portal, partners with the Mercury Phoenix Trust to celebrate the life of legendary Queen frontman Freddie Mercury and fight HIV/AIDS. The event, titled "Freddie For a Day" occurs yearly, on Mercury's September 5th birthday.
So what does this partnership entail? Well, the event is strictly a means to raise awareness, but TeePee Games is promising to donate 20 percent of whatever profits they make on the 5th to the Mercury Phoenix Trust.
The amount of money is entirely dependent on how many people log in and play games at TeePee Games between the hours of midnight to 11:59 p.m. of British Summer Time. If you live outside of the UK, you can click here to find out when you should be playing to be counted towards this charity event.
TeePee Games landed on Facebook last November after being funded $500K to create an app to help online, Facebook, and mobile players find free games they'd like. Fast forward to now, the app drew in an all-time monthly high of less than 125K users.
With each Facebook games update making it more and more obsolete, the TeePee Games App has been falling in numbers ever since. Earlier this February, the company even dangled a free iPad to entice people to sign up as beta testers.
Freddie Mercury Gerry the Gopher
We'll find out by Monday if this event could be a potential numbers boost for them, though the company's CEO, Tony Pearce, claims, "We're all huge Queen fans in the office." They even decked out their Gerry the Gopher mascot in a Freddie Mercury getup.
[Source: PR Fire]
Have you ever tried the TeePee Games Facebook app? If so, what do you think, and do you plan on participating in this charity event?
So what does this partnership entail? Well, the event is strictly a means to raise awareness, but TeePee Games is promising to donate 20 percent of whatever profits they make on the 5th to the Mercury Phoenix Trust.
The amount of money is entirely dependent on how many people log in and play games at TeePee Games between the hours of midnight to 11:59 p.m. of British Summer Time. If you live outside of the UK, you can click here to find out when you should be playing to be counted towards this charity event.
TeePee Games landed on Facebook last November after being funded $500K to create an app to help online, Facebook, and mobile players find free games they'd like. Fast forward to now, the app drew in an all-time monthly high of less than 125K users.
With each Facebook games update making it more and more obsolete, the TeePee Games App has been falling in numbers ever since. Earlier this February, the company even dangled a free iPad to entice people to sign up as beta testers.
Freddie Mercury Gerry the Gopher
We'll find out by Monday if this event could be a potential numbers boost for them, though the company's CEO, Tony Pearce, claims, "We're all huge Queen fans in the office." They even decked out their Gerry the Gopher mascot in a Freddie Mercury getup.
[Source: PR Fire]
Have you ever tried the TeePee Games Facebook app? If so, what do you think, and do you plan on participating in this charity event?
OpenFeint looks more like Facebook with GameFeed update on iOS
There are some things that Facebook just does right, and it shows in every social network since. The 115 million player-strong mobile social gaming network, OpenFeint, got the hint, too. The company of the same name just released the GameFeed to its iOS SDK (software development kit), TechCrunch reports.
This will allow mobile game creators to include OpenFeint's GameFeed into their iOS games along with all the other social game-like features OpenFeint offers.The GameFeed will appear as a news ticker of sorts in the OpenFeint hub of games that support it, providing players with updates on their friends profiles and progress in other games like achievements.
While the GameFeed has been available to Android game creators since around June, this sure does sound a lot like the Games Ticker on Facebook. (At least it does on paper, anyway.) According to TechCrunch, OpenFeint claims that during beta tests with 24 people, GameFeed increased sessions-per-user by 25 percent, and that some developers are experiencing a 60 percent in sessions-per-user.
OpenFeint GameFeed
This seems to imply that the existence of the GameFeed increases players' tendency to return to their games multiple times. Surely, this technology will come in handy for Japanese mobile game publisher Gree's upcoming global mobile social games network, powered by OpenFeint.
Have you ever played an iPhone game using OpenFeint? What do you think of the live news feed approach to (mobile) social gaming these days?
This will allow mobile game creators to include OpenFeint's GameFeed into their iOS games along with all the other social game-like features OpenFeint offers.The GameFeed will appear as a news ticker of sorts in the OpenFeint hub of games that support it, providing players with updates on their friends profiles and progress in other games like achievements.
While the GameFeed has been available to Android game creators since around June, this sure does sound a lot like the Games Ticker on Facebook. (At least it does on paper, anyway.) According to TechCrunch, OpenFeint claims that during beta tests with 24 people, GameFeed increased sessions-per-user by 25 percent, and that some developers are experiencing a 60 percent in sessions-per-user.
OpenFeint GameFeed
This seems to imply that the existence of the GameFeed increases players' tendency to return to their games multiple times. Surely, this technology will come in handy for Japanese mobile game publisher Gree's upcoming global mobile social games network, powered by OpenFeint.
Have you ever played an iPhone game using OpenFeint? What do you think of the live news feed approach to (mobile) social gaming these days?
Activision Blizzard 'methodically investing in mobile and social gaming'
Can this love-hate relationship between veteran games publisher Activision Blizzard and Facebook games end now? VentureBeat reports that, during an analyst meeting, Activision CFO Thomas Tippl said that the company is "methodically investing in mobile and social gaming projects." Tippl also went into how the publisher could make a whopping $1.25 billion from new projects that seek new, non-traditional sources of revenue like micro-transactions and in-game purchases. You know, like Facebook and mobile social games?
However, there seems to be a major disconnect in the company's overall ideology between executives, unless Activision is simply telling the right folks what they want to hear. Recently, Activision Publishing boss Eric Hirshberg said, "Valuations of some of the companies in that space are out of whack," to Bloomberg at this year's Gamescom event in Cologne, Germany. In the very same interview, Hirshberg hinted that the Call of Duty (pictured) pusher is looking into social games.
And before then, Hirshberg said during the 13th Annual Pacific Crest Global Technology Leadership Forum that, "Call of Duty has more players who pay-to-play online than any Facebook game, and our players pay more per player on average than any Facebook game."
What's even better is that before Hirshberg came to hardcore gaming's defense, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick outright revealed that "a lot of work is being done on Facebook games" within the company. Now, it's completely fine for traditional publishers to get into new distribution models than your tried, true and tired retail stores--just look at, well, everybody else.
However, it seems that at least some Activision Blizzard folks are entering Facebook and mobile games kicking and screaming, based on what Hirshberg has been saying compared to his colleagues. (Though, neither Kotick nor Tippl sound particularly thrilled about the whole ordeal, either.)
That said, the publisher would definitely benefit from a more unified--and a little more chipper, eh?--message if it wants to convince Facebook and mobile gamers to hop on board. And based on the way Activision Blizzard has been talking about its social game efforts, we just can't wait to see these games.
Are you excited or worried to hear that Activision Blizzard is getting into social games "officially?" How do you think the company will fare with the likes of EA and Zynga.
However, there seems to be a major disconnect in the company's overall ideology between executives, unless Activision is simply telling the right folks what they want to hear. Recently, Activision Publishing boss Eric Hirshberg said, "Valuations of some of the companies in that space are out of whack," to Bloomberg at this year's Gamescom event in Cologne, Germany. In the very same interview, Hirshberg hinted that the Call of Duty (pictured) pusher is looking into social games.
And before then, Hirshberg said during the 13th Annual Pacific Crest Global Technology Leadership Forum that, "Call of Duty has more players who pay-to-play online than any Facebook game, and our players pay more per player on average than any Facebook game."
What's even better is that before Hirshberg came to hardcore gaming's defense, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick outright revealed that "a lot of work is being done on Facebook games" within the company. Now, it's completely fine for traditional publishers to get into new distribution models than your tried, true and tired retail stores--just look at, well, everybody else.
However, it seems that at least some Activision Blizzard folks are entering Facebook and mobile games kicking and screaming, based on what Hirshberg has been saying compared to his colleagues. (Though, neither Kotick nor Tippl sound particularly thrilled about the whole ordeal, either.)
That said, the publisher would definitely benefit from a more unified--and a little more chipper, eh?--message if it wants to convince Facebook and mobile gamers to hop on board. And based on the way Activision Blizzard has been talking about its social game efforts, we just can't wait to see these games.
Are you excited or worried to hear that Activision Blizzard is getting into social games "officially?" How do you think the company will fare with the likes of EA and Zynga.
FarmVille Pic of the Day: Welcome to the Isles of DaTigga
Like Sam Coleridge would say, it's water, water everywhere at DaTigga's FarmVille farm. With ombra231's recent "Italia" entry, it looks like using blue hay bales as water has really caught on in the landscaping community.
Zynga also released six new premium backgrounds last month, known as landscapes or themes, for 50 Farm Cash each (with the exception of the New England Beach theme, which costs 1,000 Coins). DaTigga used the palm trees-strewn beach theme, which quite suits the island design, making the farm resemble an oasis sea in a desert ocean.
While this farm appears epic and impressive at first glance, it's not the most creative by far. In fact, this is the third time we've seen the use of limited edition Mayflower Ships (from the 2010 Thanksgiving Basket) for a water-themed farm.
Are water-themed farms making you feel blue? Or can you never get enough of them? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment
If you have an AWESOME FarmVille farm that you want to see featured on Games.com, please email a picture to editors@games.com, Include a few words about the inspiration for your design and maybe a few tips for people who need an assist!
Zynga also released six new premium backgrounds last month, known as landscapes or themes, for 50 Farm Cash each (with the exception of the New England Beach theme, which costs 1,000 Coins). DaTigga used the palm trees-strewn beach theme, which quite suits the island design, making the farm resemble an oasis sea in a desert ocean.
While this farm appears epic and impressive at first glance, it's not the most creative by far. In fact, this is the third time we've seen the use of limited edition Mayflower Ships (from the 2010 Thanksgiving Basket) for a water-themed farm.
Are water-themed farms making you feel blue? Or can you never get enough of them? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment
If you have an AWESOME FarmVille farm that you want to see featured on Games.com, please email a picture to editors@games.com, Include a few words about the inspiration for your design and maybe a few tips for people who need an assist!
Pioneer Trail: Horseshoes 40% off for one-hour only!
Quick, pioneers! Count your Facebook Credits and pennies! Horseshoes on are on sale in the Pioneer Trail for the next hour only! And the sale is actually fairly decent - 40% off all Horseshoe packages for a limited time.
Limited time? What am I saying - you've got less than 60 minutes people! It's not everyday that we see a Horseshoe sale in Pioneer Trail (in fact, it's incredibly rare), but with so many items costing Horseshoes, it never hurts to have some lying around, right? To put all of this into perspective, the cheapest package available will cost you around $6.50 and will earn you 75 Horseshoes.
Now, if you wanted to splurge, you certainly could do that as well, as the largest package of 2,100 Horseshoes (seriously, who even needs that many?) is on sale for $130. Sure, that's still a lot of real world dough, but when compared to the original price tag of $216, the savings aren't anything to sneeze at.
As one final note, coin packages are also 40% off, but this sale seems to last longer than just one hour - through the rest of the day, it seems, or even longer, depending on when Zynga decides to flip the switch and turn the sale off. Again, these are coin packages, meaning that you'd be paying for something you could earn for free just by playing the game, but I'll leave your purchasing decisions up to you.
What are you waiting for?! If you've ever wanted to purchase some Horseshoes in Pioneer Trail, now is definitely the time!
Will you purchase any Horseshoes during this (very) limited time sale?
Limited time? What am I saying - you've got less than 60 minutes people! It's not everyday that we see a Horseshoe sale in Pioneer Trail (in fact, it's incredibly rare), but with so many items costing Horseshoes, it never hurts to have some lying around, right? To put all of this into perspective, the cheapest package available will cost you around $6.50 and will earn you 75 Horseshoes.
Now, if you wanted to splurge, you certainly could do that as well, as the largest package of 2,100 Horseshoes (seriously, who even needs that many?) is on sale for $130. Sure, that's still a lot of real world dough, but when compared to the original price tag of $216, the savings aren't anything to sneeze at.
As one final note, coin packages are also 40% off, but this sale seems to last longer than just one hour - through the rest of the day, it seems, or even longer, depending on when Zynga decides to flip the switch and turn the sale off. Again, these are coin packages, meaning that you'd be paying for something you could earn for free just by playing the game, but I'll leave your purchasing decisions up to you.
What are you waiting for?! If you've ever wanted to purchase some Horseshoes in Pioneer Trail, now is definitely the time!
Will you purchase any Horseshoes during this (very) limited time sale?
CityVille Pasteurizing Plant does a body (and city) good
Continuing in the Farm theme of items that have made their way to pasture in CityVille, the new Pasteurizing Plant community building will give you a chance to produce healthy milk for your citizens, while also giving your town's maximum population cap a substantial boost. How substantial? How does 2,000 citizens sound?
Unfortunately, the good news stops there, as this cleverly themed building (complete with cow and pickup truck) costs 75 City Cash. On top of that, it will only be available in the game for a limited time - six days, to be exact. However, should you choose to purchase one, you'll be able to boost your profits from the building by placing Farm themed decorations nearby, like the Hay Bales released previously, or the Moo Maze (made of Hay Bales) that was released just this afternoon. In this way, at least your Pasteurizing Plant will make you a ton of coins over time, even if it can't pay you back any of your City Cash.
Again, the Pasteurizing Plant is a limited time item, that will only be available in the game's store for the next six days; shop now if you're interested in owning one, before the cows go home.
Will you purchase a Pasteurizing Plant for your town in CityVille, or is the Farm theme a bit underwhelming, all things considered?
Unfortunately, the good news stops there, as this cleverly themed building (complete with cow and pickup truck) costs 75 City Cash. On top of that, it will only be available in the game for a limited time - six days, to be exact. However, should you choose to purchase one, you'll be able to boost your profits from the building by placing Farm themed decorations nearby, like the Hay Bales released previously, or the Moo Maze (made of Hay Bales) that was released just this afternoon. In this way, at least your Pasteurizing Plant will make you a ton of coins over time, even if it can't pay you back any of your City Cash.
Again, the Pasteurizing Plant is a limited time item, that will only be available in the game's store for the next six days; shop now if you're interested in owning one, before the cows go home.
Will you purchase a Pasteurizing Plant for your town in CityVille, or is the Farm theme a bit underwhelming, all things considered?
CityVille: Go organic with Produce Paradise and other farm-themed items
If you liked the first set of farm-themed items to launch in CityVille, why not take a look at this second set that was released just today? On top of the new Pasteurizing Plant Community Building that we told you about earlier today, there is also a new pair of businesses, along with a new limited edition crop and other goodies to choose from. As usual, these items are only going to be available for a limited time, so you'll want to shop as fast as you can to not miss your chance. But first, let's take a look at each of these new items in-depth.
Produce Paradise (Business)
Costs: 12,500 coins
Requires: 253 Goods
Earnings: 1413 coins
Tractor Shop (Business)
Costs: 30 City Cash
Requires: 140 Goods
Earnings: 876 coins
Moo Maze (Decoration)
Costs: 35 City Cash
Offers: 24% bonus payout to businesses; additional 24% bonus to Farm items
Sugar Beets (Crop)
Costs: 4 City Cash per square
Growth Time: Instant
Produces: 360 Goods per square
First Star of Mastery: 3 harvests
On top of this, keep in mind that you can also purchase a Farm Mystery Crate for 45 City Cash, that will give you one of the homes or the community building released previously, and that one of those items - the Antebellum Home - is now available as a standalone purchase (for the next five days) for 75 City Cash.
As for these newly released items, all but the Produce Paradise business have been labeled as being available for just the next six days, while Produce Paradise says "Limited Time." This could just be a "typo" on Zynga's part, so I wouldn't take for granted that this particular business will stick around once the others have left. It's better to shop now than be upset you didn't later, right?
Will you purchase any of these new Farm-themed items in CityVille? What sort of item theme would you like to see released next?
Produce Paradise (Business)
Costs: 12,500 coins
Requires: 253 Goods
Earnings: 1413 coins
Tractor Shop (Business)
Costs: 30 City Cash
Requires: 140 Goods
Earnings: 876 coins
Moo Maze (Decoration)
Costs: 35 City Cash
Offers: 24% bonus payout to businesses; additional 24% bonus to Farm items
Sugar Beets (Crop)
Costs: 4 City Cash per square
Growth Time: Instant
Produces: 360 Goods per square
First Star of Mastery: 3 harvests
On top of this, keep in mind that you can also purchase a Farm Mystery Crate for 45 City Cash, that will give you one of the homes or the community building released previously, and that one of those items - the Antebellum Home - is now available as a standalone purchase (for the next five days) for 75 City Cash.
As for these newly released items, all but the Produce Paradise business have been labeled as being available for just the next six days, while Produce Paradise says "Limited Time." This could just be a "typo" on Zynga's part, so I wouldn't take for granted that this particular business will stick around once the others have left. It's better to shop now than be upset you didn't later, right?
Will you purchase any of these new Farm-themed items in CityVille? What sort of item theme would you like to see released next?
CityVille: Skip the farming; just purchase your Goods with City Cash
Ok, so maybe you really shouldn't purchase your all of your Goods with City Cash, as that would get mighty expensive, mighty fast. Still, for the CityVille player will tons of City Cash to burn, that option is now indeed available - five options, in fact. That's right, you can now skip the farming and shipping rackets in your town altogether, and purchase anywhere from 500 to 10,000 Goods in bulk, right from the store.
As you might expect, this ability is found by clicking on the Goods box within the game's store. From there, you'll see your six options, which range from fairly inexpensive to wallet-busting.
500 Goods - 6 City Cash
1000 Goods - 11 City Cash
2500 Goods - 26 City Cash
5000 Goods - 50 City Cash
10000 Goods - 95 City Cash
Again, this purchase price is strictly for Goods, which you'll then use to supply your businesses. They are still one-time-use objects, meaning once you've spent through them all, you'll either have to head back to the traditional methods of earning more Goods, or spend even more City Cash to carry on. Like I said, this particular short-cut has the potential of becoming terribly expensive, so you'll want to make sure and think long and hard before actually "pulling the trigger" on a purchase. Just how much City Cash is convenience worth? I guess with these Goods bundles, we (or at least Zynga) will find out.
Will you purchase Goods directly from the store with City Cash, or do you think doing so would be a waste? What sorts of one-time-use items would you pay premium currency for?
As you might expect, this ability is found by clicking on the Goods box within the game's store. From there, you'll see your six options, which range from fairly inexpensive to wallet-busting.
500 Goods - 6 City Cash
1000 Goods - 11 City Cash
2500 Goods - 26 City Cash
5000 Goods - 50 City Cash
10000 Goods - 95 City Cash
Again, this purchase price is strictly for Goods, which you'll then use to supply your businesses. They are still one-time-use objects, meaning once you've spent through them all, you'll either have to head back to the traditional methods of earning more Goods, or spend even more City Cash to carry on. Like I said, this particular short-cut has the potential of becoming terribly expensive, so you'll want to make sure and think long and hard before actually "pulling the trigger" on a purchase. Just how much City Cash is convenience worth? I guess with these Goods bundles, we (or at least Zynga) will find out.
Will you purchase Goods directly from the store with City Cash, or do you think doing so would be a waste? What sorts of one-time-use items would you pay premium currency for?
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Hey, if Angry Birds can do it: Fruit Ninja gets its very own plush toys
Look, if the creator of Angry Birds can put out a cookbook for Pete's sake, then Fruit Ninja can get its own official plush toys. Here's the thing, Halfbrick: Rovio has a cast of adorable characters with which to make plush toys. You have ... an old guy and some fruit--not exactly ready to leap off the shelves. Nevertheless, the Fruit Ninja maker has released two official plush toys.
The first is a plush version of the sensei you see in the game daily (we know it's daily) for $15.99. The second? A watermelon with eyes and a headband that's split in half for $14.99. Wait a second, the watermelon has eyes and a headband! That looks freaking adorable, now take us to where we put the magic numbers in. Now that we're out 15 bucks, it looks like Fruit Ninja has finally "arrived". (You can also buy both in a bundle for $29--some deal, huh?)
Well, we'd take the fact that Halfbrick plans to open a studio dedicated entirely to the Fruit Ninja sequel as evidence of that. But really, we're smelling a trend here: Not only is Rovio in on the plush toys now, but so is Zynga with more FarmVille plush toys than we can afford shake a stick at. And if Fruit Ninja has arrived, where are our customizable Sims plush toys?
[Via TechCrunch]
Would you buy either Fruit Ninja plush toy? What Facebook or mobile game franchise do you think deserves its own plush toys now?
The first is a plush version of the sensei you see in the game daily (we know it's daily) for $15.99. The second? A watermelon with eyes and a headband that's split in half for $14.99. Wait a second, the watermelon has eyes and a headband! That looks freaking adorable, now take us to where we put the magic numbers in. Now that we're out 15 bucks, it looks like Fruit Ninja has finally "arrived". (You can also buy both in a bundle for $29--some deal, huh?)
Well, we'd take the fact that Halfbrick plans to open a studio dedicated entirely to the Fruit Ninja sequel as evidence of that. But really, we're smelling a trend here: Not only is Rovio in on the plush toys now, but so is Zynga with more FarmVille plush toys than we can afford shake a stick at. And if Fruit Ninja has arrived, where are our customizable Sims plush toys?
[Via TechCrunch]
Would you buy either Fruit Ninja plush toy? What Facebook or mobile game franchise do you think deserves its own plush toys now?
If Pawn Stars works on Facebook, Storage Wars will feel right at home
What the hey, let's throw Parking Wars on their too while we're at it--oh, never mind. It's official, folks: Now that Storage Wars has made it to Facebook after just a single season on A&E, reality TV has staked its claim in social gaming. The game based on the popular--though, we can't understand why--TV show hits Facebook today as the second season premieres tonight on A&E. (With Pawn Stars still kicking, this is A&E's second Facebook game.)
In Storage Wars on Facebook, players join animated versions of characters from the show in high-stakes bidding wars on things in folks' storage units. Players travel around the world in-game to bid on various relics with virtual cash in order to earn more digital bucks to bid on more things. It sounds like a boring vicious cycle, but ultimately players will go all-in for Wanted Treasures that come with huge profits.
"Storage Wars fans have shown that they are eager to get in on the bidding action themselves and our new game for Facebook lets them do just that," said A+E Networks SVP of Games Kris Soumas in a release. "We've put the same emphasis on developing a fun and addictive game experience that A&E brings to its program development."
Gallery: Storage Wars on Facebook
Based on these first screen shots, the game looks to pack numerous storage units with items to bid for inside. More importantly, however, players are guided through the game with none other than quests, or folks craving for Wanted Treasures. But what about our Wanted Treasure, Mario Kart on Facebook?
Click here to play Storage Wars on Facebook Now >
Are you a fan of Storage Wars on A&E? What do you think of the rampant growth of branded games on Facebook?
In Storage Wars on Facebook, players join animated versions of characters from the show in high-stakes bidding wars on things in folks' storage units. Players travel around the world in-game to bid on various relics with virtual cash in order to earn more digital bucks to bid on more things. It sounds like a boring vicious cycle, but ultimately players will go all-in for Wanted Treasures that come with huge profits.
"Storage Wars fans have shown that they are eager to get in on the bidding action themselves and our new game for Facebook lets them do just that," said A+E Networks SVP of Games Kris Soumas in a release. "We've put the same emphasis on developing a fun and addictive game experience that A&E brings to its program development."
Gallery: Storage Wars on Facebook
Based on these first screen shots, the game looks to pack numerous storage units with items to bid for inside. More importantly, however, players are guided through the game with none other than quests, or folks craving for Wanted Treasures. But what about our Wanted Treasure, Mario Kart on Facebook?
Click here to play Storage Wars on Facebook Now >
Are you a fan of Storage Wars on A&E? What do you think of the rampant growth of branded games on Facebook?
The dust finally settles on Zynga, MegaCity maker Vostu's legal battle
Court Settlement
This year's proverbial title bout of social game legal disputes has finally come to a close. And walking away from the dust as it settles is Zynga, as Vostu unfortunately limps away in the opposite direction. Hyperbole aside, the two social game makers have settled their multiple disputes in both US and Brazil courts, and sounds like Vostu ended up having to pay. Here's the statement provided to us by both companies:
Zynga and Vostu have settled the copyright lawsuits and counterclaims against each other in the United States and Brazil. As part of the settlement, Vostu made a monetary payment to Zynga and made some changes to four of its games. The parties are pleased to have settled their disputes and to now put these matters behind them.
Unfortunately, it sounds as if Vostu lost out on this one. As for exactly what changes are to be made to four of Vostu's games, neither company could comment. Our guess is that changes will be made to four of the games involved in Zynga's initial lawsuit (filed way back in June of this year)--MegaCity, PetMania, CafeMania, and Mini Fazenda--to reduce their similarities to their Zynga-made counterparts.
CityVille vs MegaCity
Vostu Poker was also part of Zynga's lawsuit, but it's our guess that this game will be left unchanged, because, well, it's poker. While Zynga seems to have won this war, the company is no stranger to copyright disputes. Just recently, the developer opted to thwart Night Owl Games's attempts at creating either a game or game level called DungeonVille based on use of the 'Ville suffix. But that isn't to say the FarmVille maker hasn't had some issues of its own.
What changes do you think will need to made to Vostu's games in order to honor the settlement? Who do you think should have won this dispute?
This year's proverbial title bout of social game legal disputes has finally come to a close. And walking away from the dust as it settles is Zynga, as Vostu unfortunately limps away in the opposite direction. Hyperbole aside, the two social game makers have settled their multiple disputes in both US and Brazil courts, and sounds like Vostu ended up having to pay. Here's the statement provided to us by both companies:
Zynga and Vostu have settled the copyright lawsuits and counterclaims against each other in the United States and Brazil. As part of the settlement, Vostu made a monetary payment to Zynga and made some changes to four of its games. The parties are pleased to have settled their disputes and to now put these matters behind them.
Unfortunately, it sounds as if Vostu lost out on this one. As for exactly what changes are to be made to four of Vostu's games, neither company could comment. Our guess is that changes will be made to four of the games involved in Zynga's initial lawsuit (filed way back in June of this year)--MegaCity, PetMania, CafeMania, and Mini Fazenda--to reduce their similarities to their Zynga-made counterparts.
CityVille vs MegaCity
Vostu Poker was also part of Zynga's lawsuit, but it's our guess that this game will be left unchanged, because, well, it's poker. While Zynga seems to have won this war, the company is no stranger to copyright disputes. Just recently, the developer opted to thwart Night Owl Games's attempts at creating either a game or game level called DungeonVille based on use of the 'Ville suffix. But that isn't to say the FarmVille maker hasn't had some issues of its own.
What changes do you think will need to made to Vostu's games in order to honor the settlement? Who do you think should have won this dispute?
An Angry Birds 'social' game (and three others) is in the works for 2012
So, we're just going to assume that by "social", Rovio game designer Jaako Iisalo means "Facebook". During the Social Games and Virtual Goods World conference in London, England, the Angry Birds designer told Pocket Gamer that four new Angry Birds games will launch next year. More specifically, one of them will be a "social" game.
And, will you look at that, Angry Birds is already on Google+. Granted, there are versions of the iconic everywhere mobile game on Facebook, but none of which seem legitimate. (One even seems to stream the Google Chrome version of Angry Birds through to Facebook.) While this could just as easily mean an Angry Birds game on a mobile platform with heavier social features, the developer has said in the past that the franchise will hit Facebook.
Honestly, how Angry Birds is available on the Intel AppUp store and in retail stores across Europe before officially on Facebook is beyond us. At any rate, we can likely expect these other three Angry Birds games to tap into new genres, since Rovio has expressed interest in exploring new types of games for its irate avian creatures. And just when you started to grow bored of it.
Would you play Angry Birds on Facebook more than elsewhere? What other genres would you like to see the Angry Birds characters take a part in?
And, will you look at that, Angry Birds is already on Google+. Granted, there are versions of the iconic everywhere mobile game on Facebook, but none of which seem legitimate. (One even seems to stream the Google Chrome version of Angry Birds through to Facebook.) While this could just as easily mean an Angry Birds game on a mobile platform with heavier social features, the developer has said in the past that the franchise will hit Facebook.
Honestly, how Angry Birds is available on the Intel AppUp store and in retail stores across Europe before officially on Facebook is beyond us. At any rate, we can likely expect these other three Angry Birds games to tap into new genres, since Rovio has expressed interest in exploring new types of games for its irate avian creatures. And just when you started to grow bored of it.
Would you play Angry Birds on Facebook more than elsewhere? What other genres would you like to see the Angry Birds characters take a part in?
GreenSpace on Facebook wants you to make the (distant) future tidy
With the way waste management around the globe is going, the Earth probably won't look so hot in a few decades. Canadian social game maker RocketOwl Inc. asks gamers to fast forward a couple hundred years in its new Facebook game GreenSpace. In that time--assuming we've yet to destroy ourselves--our planet will likely be inhabitable if we maintain this track, and it's up to you to reclaim a previously colonized and, of course, dirtied up planet one piece of litter at a time.
GreenSpace has officially exited its open beta period today, and is now available for all to play hopefully bug-free. The game tasks players with managing a colony as they transform it from a heap of trash into a lush, green mountain valley. While GreenSpace's presentation doesn't seem terribly different from games like CityVille, RocketOwl touts the game's animations, artwork and addictive cleaning actions. Fast-paced mini games are also said to play a role in GreenSpace.
GreenSpace in action
"We've been working with players over the past few months to fine-tune the game,"RocketOwl CEO Graeme Barlow said in a statement. "Now that GreenSpace is coming out of beta, the entire team is really excited to see the public reception of the launch. We could not be happier with the final product and hope that you enjoy playing it as much as we've enjoyed putting it together."
GreenSpace strikes us as quite similar to a recent green-themed Facebook game, Guerillapps's Trash Tycoon. Both games revolve around reclaiming a territory from the clutches of clutter, though the latter is attached to real-life organizations looking to do the same in the world around us. Based on the looks of GreenSpace, RocketOwl seems to be dedicated to at least raising awareness of the same issues, but make that call for yourself.
Click here to play GreenSpace on Facebook Now >
Do you think Facebook games are a good place to raise awareness of issues of waste and other "green" concerns? Do you think GreenSpace could do or does a good job of this?
GreenSpace has officially exited its open beta period today, and is now available for all to play hopefully bug-free. The game tasks players with managing a colony as they transform it from a heap of trash into a lush, green mountain valley. While GreenSpace's presentation doesn't seem terribly different from games like CityVille, RocketOwl touts the game's animations, artwork and addictive cleaning actions. Fast-paced mini games are also said to play a role in GreenSpace.
GreenSpace in action
"We've been working with players over the past few months to fine-tune the game,"RocketOwl CEO Graeme Barlow said in a statement. "Now that GreenSpace is coming out of beta, the entire team is really excited to see the public reception of the launch. We could not be happier with the final product and hope that you enjoy playing it as much as we've enjoyed putting it together."
GreenSpace strikes us as quite similar to a recent green-themed Facebook game, Guerillapps's Trash Tycoon. Both games revolve around reclaiming a territory from the clutches of clutter, though the latter is attached to real-life organizations looking to do the same in the world around us. Based on the looks of GreenSpace, RocketOwl seems to be dedicated to at least raising awareness of the same issues, but make that call for yourself.
Click here to play GreenSpace on Facebook Now >
Do you think Facebook games are a good place to raise awareness of issues of waste and other "green" concerns? Do you think GreenSpace could do or does a good job of this?
Look, Activision, do you want to make Facebook games or not?
Seriously, it's not a hard question. And yet, the omnipotent games publisher continues to flip-flop on the subject of social games. In October, Activision Blizzard (Call of Duty ring a bell?) CEO Bobby Kotick told Los Angeles Magazine that, while the company is at a point where it's ready to invest in Facebook games, it doesn't expect much to come of it. Here's an excerpt from Kotick's conversation:
As of October Activision chief executive Bobby Kotick still wasn't ready. "If we can't put a creative foot forward, it's not interesting to us," he told me at the company's headquarters, which is tucked in an office complex on Ocean Park Avenue. In assessing Facebook, Kotick says he's been "trying to figure out what we could do that's different from what's being done. So now that they've gotten a large enough audience and we've done enough analysis of the opportunity, we can commit capital." He adds, however, "We don't have huge expectations."
Um, just curious ... what's the point then? Since then, Kotick spoke with Bloomberg, seeming refreshingly bullish on the prospect of Facebook games. Over the summer--before either interview--the Activision chief admitted that the company was into social games. But shortly after, other executives within the company made points to denounce Facebook gaming. What gives?
Here's the thing: If you're not going to go full bore into the social games space, then you're not going to get anywhere. Just look at EA, for instance. It's cost the company upwards of $2 billion in acquisitions to hit second place on the charts with 56.9 million monthly players, and that's not even close to the industry leader Zynga's 218 million. If Activision doesn't have "huge expectations" of its efforts in Facebook games, why even spend the cash? Hell, the publisher's own former game creators may beat it to the punch.
[Via LA Observed]
Is it even worth it for Activision Blizzard to get into Facebook games at this point? If so, what types of games would you like to see from the games publisher?
As of October Activision chief executive Bobby Kotick still wasn't ready. "If we can't put a creative foot forward, it's not interesting to us," he told me at the company's headquarters, which is tucked in an office complex on Ocean Park Avenue. In assessing Facebook, Kotick says he's been "trying to figure out what we could do that's different from what's being done. So now that they've gotten a large enough audience and we've done enough analysis of the opportunity, we can commit capital." He adds, however, "We don't have huge expectations."
Um, just curious ... what's the point then? Since then, Kotick spoke with Bloomberg, seeming refreshingly bullish on the prospect of Facebook games. Over the summer--before either interview--the Activision chief admitted that the company was into social games. But shortly after, other executives within the company made points to denounce Facebook gaming. What gives?
Here's the thing: If you're not going to go full bore into the social games space, then you're not going to get anywhere. Just look at EA, for instance. It's cost the company upwards of $2 billion in acquisitions to hit second place on the charts with 56.9 million monthly players, and that's not even close to the industry leader Zynga's 218 million. If Activision doesn't have "huge expectations" of its efforts in Facebook games, why even spend the cash? Hell, the publisher's own former game creators may beat it to the punch.
[Via LA Observed]
Is it even worth it for Activision Blizzard to get into Facebook games at this point? If so, what types of games would you like to see from the games publisher?
Monday, December 12, 2011
Atari's Heroes of Neverwinter gets ghoulish and ghastly for Halloween
For a game that's all about slaying the undead and green-skinned beasts in dank dungeons, Halloween comes pretty easy. Atari has updated its flagship Facebook RPG (role-playing game), 1 Comment, with a bevy of Halloween content in celebration of being the third-fastest growing social game on AppData last week.
Namely, the update brings three brand new encounters for players of multiple levels. But Atari threw in a list of new items and bonuses. Oh, and the developer did some redecorating around town to get the feeling right. Here's a look at all the new Halloween content in Heroes of Neverwinter:
Gobble up a free Underdark Cookie, added to each player's Chest of Wonders, which permanently increases one character's maximum hit points!
Find and acquire other potently powerful potables and treats, including Zombie Juice, Potions of Black Cat's Grace, Glyphs of Terror, and more!
Delve into new dungeons to claim rare and wondrous items, including wearable masks (who doesn't want to be a kobold or an ogre for Halloween?), a Skeletal Crossbow, and high level rings!
Thwart a sinister Thayan plot in a new three-part adventure series!
Level 1: Bones, Thugs and Sorcery can be found in Neverwinter
Level 5: Trick or Trap can be found in the Ruins of Illefarn
Level 10: Monster Mash can be found in the Neverwinter Woods
Enjoy the sights and sounds of a seasonally revamped town hub, along with a variety of other game updates and improvements!
Atari fixed a litany of bugs found in Heroes of Neverwinter since its launch and released some new features, including clearer visuals while in fullscreen and improvements to the game's interface. Heroes of Neverwinter currently hosts 320,000 monthly players, but is on the up and up with 10,000 players added today, according to AppData. And we bet at least a few hundred of them are dressing up as elves for Halloween. What? Look, this is D&D--it's just deductive reasoning at that point.
Have you tried Heroes of Neverwinter on Facebook yet? What do you think of RPGs on Facebook so far?
Namely, the update brings three brand new encounters for players of multiple levels. But Atari threw in a list of new items and bonuses. Oh, and the developer did some redecorating around town to get the feeling right. Here's a look at all the new Halloween content in Heroes of Neverwinter:
Gobble up a free Underdark Cookie, added to each player's Chest of Wonders, which permanently increases one character's maximum hit points!
Find and acquire other potently powerful potables and treats, including Zombie Juice, Potions of Black Cat's Grace, Glyphs of Terror, and more!
Delve into new dungeons to claim rare and wondrous items, including wearable masks (who doesn't want to be a kobold or an ogre for Halloween?), a Skeletal Crossbow, and high level rings!
Thwart a sinister Thayan plot in a new three-part adventure series!
Level 1: Bones, Thugs and Sorcery can be found in Neverwinter
Level 5: Trick or Trap can be found in the Ruins of Illefarn
Level 10: Monster Mash can be found in the Neverwinter Woods
Enjoy the sights and sounds of a seasonally revamped town hub, along with a variety of other game updates and improvements!
Atari fixed a litany of bugs found in Heroes of Neverwinter since its launch and released some new features, including clearer visuals while in fullscreen and improvements to the game's interface. Heroes of Neverwinter currently hosts 320,000 monthly players, but is on the up and up with 10,000 players added today, according to AppData. And we bet at least a few hundred of them are dressing up as elves for Halloween. What? Look, this is D&D--it's just deductive reasoning at that point.
Have you tried Heroes of Neverwinter on Facebook yet? What do you think of RPGs on Facebook so far?
FarmVille Pic of the Day: SerbianFarmer's magical Halloween forest
Halloween farms are all starting to look alike. Simply having pumpkins, haunted houses, and spooky decorations isn't going to cut it anymore. It takes a little creativity, something extra, to set your Halloween farm above the rest. And that's exactly what SerbianFarmer has done with this remarkable FarmVille design.
Wow-Zow! Take notes folks, because this is an awesome Halloween farm. SerbianFarmer calls this creation the "Magical Forest", a name that really doesn't do this unreal farm much justice. It looks as though a circle of darkness has been burned into an ordinary forest. Particularly creepy is the train tracks that abruptly begin and end, seemingly emerging from another (evil) dimension.
SerbianFarmer's farm isn't complicated, but the incredible creativity definitely makes up for that. In the end I think I can say that SerbianFarmer has created one of the best designs I've ever seen, and the folks over at the FarmVille Forums seem to agree with me. See what they said right here.
What do you think of SerbianFarmer's Magical Forest?
If you have an AWESOME FarmVille farm that you want to see featured on Games.com, please email a picture to editors@games.com, Include a few words about the inspiration for your design and maybe a few tips for people who need an assist!
Wow-Zow! Take notes folks, because this is an awesome Halloween farm. SerbianFarmer calls this creation the "Magical Forest", a name that really doesn't do this unreal farm much justice. It looks as though a circle of darkness has been burned into an ordinary forest. Particularly creepy is the train tracks that abruptly begin and end, seemingly emerging from another (evil) dimension.
SerbianFarmer's farm isn't complicated, but the incredible creativity definitely makes up for that. In the end I think I can say that SerbianFarmer has created one of the best designs I've ever seen, and the folks over at the FarmVille Forums seem to agree with me. See what they said right here.
What do you think of SerbianFarmer's Magical Forest?
If you have an AWESOME FarmVille farm that you want to see featured on Games.com, please email a picture to editors@games.com, Include a few words about the inspiration for your design and maybe a few tips for people who need an assist!
PopCap chills out, brings the zen to Xbox Live Arcade in Bejeweled 3
Say it with me, people: "Om". PopCap has announced that Bejeweled 3 is now available for Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) , Zen Mode and all. The Seattle, Wash.-based developer's hit puzzler is ready for download now for 1,200 Microsoft Points, or $15. Sure, that might sound a little steep compared to how much it costs on iPhone, not to mention that it's (kind of) playable for free online.
But hey, it's definitely cheaper than when the game first released to PC and Mac last year, and consider what you're getting in that (digital) package. Bejeweled 3 sports twice the game modes as Bejeweled 2, and comes packed with "leaderboards for Classic, Lightning, Poker, Butterflies, Ice Storm and Diamond Mine, plus four special gems, five elite badges, and 15 achievements," according to PopCap.
The third numbered release of Bejeweled will hit retail shelves for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo DS on Nov. 15, but this is far from the first time a console has seen the exploding gems, lightning bolts and trippy level transitions. PopCap released an Xbox Live-optimized version of Bejeweled Blitz, called Bejeweled Blitz LIVE, to XBLA earlier this year.
According to the company, about 9 billion hours have been spent collectively playing Bejeweled. Aside from the numbers, PopCap has been on a roll lately. The casual game creator just announced Popcorn Dragon for iPhone, its first mobile game surrounding a new property since the company was acquired by EA earlier this year. Soon, we expect to see PopCap's take on the growing casino genre on Facebook, but not before Zynga tries to beat it to the punch. Until then, let's wait and see if the studio can finally chill out the trigger-happy Call of Duty fans.
Do you plan on picking up Bejeweled 3 on your Xbox 360? What do you hope or expect PopCap to do next with the Bejeweled franchise?
But hey, it's definitely cheaper than when the game first released to PC and Mac last year, and consider what you're getting in that (digital) package. Bejeweled 3 sports twice the game modes as Bejeweled 2, and comes packed with "leaderboards for Classic, Lightning, Poker, Butterflies, Ice Storm and Diamond Mine, plus four special gems, five elite badges, and 15 achievements," according to PopCap.
The third numbered release of Bejeweled will hit retail shelves for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo DS on Nov. 15, but this is far from the first time a console has seen the exploding gems, lightning bolts and trippy level transitions. PopCap released an Xbox Live-optimized version of Bejeweled Blitz, called Bejeweled Blitz LIVE, to XBLA earlier this year.
According to the company, about 9 billion hours have been spent collectively playing Bejeweled. Aside from the numbers, PopCap has been on a roll lately. The casual game creator just announced Popcorn Dragon for iPhone, its first mobile game surrounding a new property since the company was acquired by EA earlier this year. Soon, we expect to see PopCap's take on the growing casino genre on Facebook, but not before Zynga tries to beat it to the punch. Until then, let's wait and see if the studio can finally chill out the trigger-happy Call of Duty fans.
Do you plan on picking up Bejeweled 3 on your Xbox 360? What do you hope or expect PopCap to do next with the Bejeweled franchise?
PS Vita to usher the 'social gaming revolution' stateside next February
Prepare to be revolutionized ... or something like that. Sony's American CEO Jack Tretton announced at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco on Tuesday that the PlayStation Vita will hit the U.S. on Feb. 22. Sony's third handheld gaming console will go for $249, and Tretton wrote in a blog post yesterday, "I can't wait for you to experience this revolutionary handheld system."
Of course, the PS Vita will launch in Canada, Latin America, and Europe on the same day. Games that are in development for the "revolutionary" console include Sony properties like Resistance: Burning Skies and Uncharted Golden Abyss. Those are joined by Capcom's Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed, EA Sports' FIFA, Activision's Call of Duty and more, Tretton wrote.
Sony has played up the console's social features more than its powerful hardware, which, of course, has piqued our interest. The company seems to consider the PS Vita's social gaming features "revolutionary". While some of us may not buy it, the most notable of which is Near, a feature that allows the system to communicate with nearby PS Vita consoles. Through this, players can compete in local multiplayer matches, share in-game gifts (like on Facebook?) and compare players statistics.
We'll see just how revolutionary the PS Vita turns out to be for social gaming this coming February. (You know, just after everyone and their mother dropped serious green on Christmas?) Considering Nintendo was all but forced to slash the price of its brand new 3DS from $250 to coax consumers, we wonder how gamers will react to the $250 price tag.
[Via Mashable]
Do you plan on buying a PlayStation Vita when it launches next year? Do you think Sony could fall into the same trap Nintendo did with its 3DS?
Of course, the PS Vita will launch in Canada, Latin America, and Europe on the same day. Games that are in development for the "revolutionary" console include Sony properties like Resistance: Burning Skies and Uncharted Golden Abyss. Those are joined by Capcom's Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed, EA Sports' FIFA, Activision's Call of Duty and more, Tretton wrote.
Sony has played up the console's social features more than its powerful hardware, which, of course, has piqued our interest. The company seems to consider the PS Vita's social gaming features "revolutionary". While some of us may not buy it, the most notable of which is Near, a feature that allows the system to communicate with nearby PS Vita consoles. Through this, players can compete in local multiplayer matches, share in-game gifts (like on Facebook?) and compare players statistics.
We'll see just how revolutionary the PS Vita turns out to be for social gaming this coming February. (You know, just after everyone and their mother dropped serious green on Christmas?) Considering Nintendo was all but forced to slash the price of its brand new 3DS from $250 to coax consumers, we wonder how gamers will react to the $250 price tag.
[Via Mashable]
Do you plan on buying a PlayStation Vita when it launches next year? Do you think Sony could fall into the same trap Nintendo did with its 3DS?
Order & Chaos Online accounts hacked on both Facebook and mobile
Update: Gameloft has provided us with the following statement:
"The Gameloft Live web version has suffered from a security issue, and about 100 users saw their accounts impacted by this problem. Among those were players of Order & Chaos Online, whose accounts have been affected. All users who have contacted us have seen their account situation restored."
"As less than 1 % of Gameloft Live users access Gameloft Live through the web version, we have decided to close the web version of Gameloft Live. We are taking this situation very seriously, and it is a priority for us to keep players' data protected."
Here we go again. Pocket Gamer reports that French mobile and social game company Gameloft has confirmed that a number of Order & Chaos Online players on both Facebook and mobile devices have had their accounts hacked. Gameloft digital marketing and community manager Callum Rowley told Pocket Gamer that Gameloft is investigating the breach.
The exact number of compromised accounts is unknown as of this writing, but the Gameloft forums are filled with player complaints that urge the company to shut down the game entirely while it resolves the situation. According to Pocket Gamer, the most popular theory for how the hack--which appears to be exclusive to Order & Chaos Online--was possible is that someone used a "sniffer", or a snippet of code that intercepts data sent to a device or network between players.
This way, the hacker can easily read the log-in information of the player with whom he or she chatted or traded with, the direct communications necessary to "sniff out" the personal data. However, this has yet to be confirmed by Gameloft, and is merely a popular theory spreading on the game's forums. As far as we know, up to 50,000 Order & Chaos player accounts could have been compromised on Facebook, as that's what AppData reports is the game's monthly active player base. We've contacted Gameloft for comment.
Are you an Order & Chaos Online player, and has your account been compromised? How do you think Gameloft should handle such a situation?
"The Gameloft Live web version has suffered from a security issue, and about 100 users saw their accounts impacted by this problem. Among those were players of Order & Chaos Online, whose accounts have been affected. All users who have contacted us have seen their account situation restored."
"As less than 1 % of Gameloft Live users access Gameloft Live through the web version, we have decided to close the web version of Gameloft Live. We are taking this situation very seriously, and it is a priority for us to keep players' data protected."
Here we go again. Pocket Gamer reports that French mobile and social game company Gameloft has confirmed that a number of Order & Chaos Online players on both Facebook and mobile devices have had their accounts hacked. Gameloft digital marketing and community manager Callum Rowley told Pocket Gamer that Gameloft is investigating the breach.
The exact number of compromised accounts is unknown as of this writing, but the Gameloft forums are filled with player complaints that urge the company to shut down the game entirely while it resolves the situation. According to Pocket Gamer, the most popular theory for how the hack--which appears to be exclusive to Order & Chaos Online--was possible is that someone used a "sniffer", or a snippet of code that intercepts data sent to a device or network between players.
This way, the hacker can easily read the log-in information of the player with whom he or she chatted or traded with, the direct communications necessary to "sniff out" the personal data. However, this has yet to be confirmed by Gameloft, and is merely a popular theory spreading on the game's forums. As far as we know, up to 50,000 Order & Chaos player accounts could have been compromised on Facebook, as that's what AppData reports is the game's monthly active player base. We've contacted Gameloft for comment.
Are you an Order & Chaos Online player, and has your account been compromised? How do you think Gameloft should handle such a situation?
Saturday, December 10, 2011
FarmVille Plush Ornaments now available in Best Buy stores
Over the past few weeks, we've brought you continued coverage over what could arguably be Zynga's large cross-promotion (in the real world specifically) in FarmVille to date. Where the 7-Eleven summer promotion of 2010 was limited to just locations that actually had 7-Eleven convenience stores, this newest Best Buy promotion for the Christmas holiday season is available to anyone with access to a nearby Best Buy location. Even if a Best Buy is unavailable, you can score these plush toys and gift cards online - it's a win-win!
If you head into your store this week, you'll see that the Plush Ornaments are now available to purchase. The in-store location will likely vary, but if all else fails, check the "novelty" section near the cash registers or just ask an employee for help. As of this writing, a single animal costs $9.99 if purchased separately, or, you can pay $25.99 for a $25 Zynga Game Card and an animal.
Regardless of how you get your hands on one of these plush ornaments, the process will remain the same for redeeming your gifts. First things first, you'll need to figure out which of the eight available animals you've won - this is done by simply opening the barn (if you want to keep it in one piece, "twist" the two sides until they separate) and then opening the foil package. For the sake of argument, my example a duck.
Also within this package is a tiny piece of paper, containing your code, redeemable online for 10 Farm Cash and a virtual version of the animal ornament you've received. To redeem your code, simply head to FarmVille.com/Plush (or the game's basic Game Card page on Facebook) and enter this code as though you're entering a code from a Game Card. Upon entering the code, you can actually choose between 10 Farm Cash and 2,800 coins, but why you would turn down the free Farm Cash is beyond me. After making your choice, you'll receive the Farm Cash (or coins), your free virtual animal and even a Mystery Game Dart, with the latter two being found in your in-game inventory.
Note: If there happens to be a free item promotion for Farm Cash package purchases at the time you redeem your code, you'll also receive that free item.
It should also be noted that if you happen to receive a duplicate animal, or just don't like the animal you receive, you'll unfortunately be unable to return or exchange them at the store. This is likely due to the fact that both items (the Game Card and the Plush Ornament) contain one-time-use codes. If you do happen to receive an animal you don't want, feel free to trade them with friends until you've flushed out your entire collection of eight. Just remember that unless you redeem a code for all eight separate animals within the game, you won't receive the Super Orchard prize at the end.
If you're going to wait until Christmas to purchase these animals, the promotion will still technically be available, but there's no guarantee that your local stores will still have any in stock! My suggestion? Buy them now and save them for the end of December, just in case.
Have you already purchased any of these Plush Ornaments from the Best Buy promotion? Which animal(s) did you receive? Have you received any duplicates so far?
If you head into your store this week, you'll see that the Plush Ornaments are now available to purchase. The in-store location will likely vary, but if all else fails, check the "novelty" section near the cash registers or just ask an employee for help. As of this writing, a single animal costs $9.99 if purchased separately, or, you can pay $25.99 for a $25 Zynga Game Card and an animal.
Regardless of how you get your hands on one of these plush ornaments, the process will remain the same for redeeming your gifts. First things first, you'll need to figure out which of the eight available animals you've won - this is done by simply opening the barn (if you want to keep it in one piece, "twist" the two sides until they separate) and then opening the foil package. For the sake of argument, my example a duck.
Also within this package is a tiny piece of paper, containing your code, redeemable online for 10 Farm Cash and a virtual version of the animal ornament you've received. To redeem your code, simply head to FarmVille.com/Plush (or the game's basic Game Card page on Facebook) and enter this code as though you're entering a code from a Game Card. Upon entering the code, you can actually choose between 10 Farm Cash and 2,800 coins, but why you would turn down the free Farm Cash is beyond me. After making your choice, you'll receive the Farm Cash (or coins), your free virtual animal and even a Mystery Game Dart, with the latter two being found in your in-game inventory.
Note: If there happens to be a free item promotion for Farm Cash package purchases at the time you redeem your code, you'll also receive that free item.
It should also be noted that if you happen to receive a duplicate animal, or just don't like the animal you receive, you'll unfortunately be unable to return or exchange them at the store. This is likely due to the fact that both items (the Game Card and the Plush Ornament) contain one-time-use codes. If you do happen to receive an animal you don't want, feel free to trade them with friends until you've flushed out your entire collection of eight. Just remember that unless you redeem a code for all eight separate animals within the game, you won't receive the Super Orchard prize at the end.
If you're going to wait until Christmas to purchase these animals, the promotion will still technically be available, but there's no guarantee that your local stores will still have any in stock! My suggestion? Buy them now and save them for the end of December, just in case.
Have you already purchased any of these Plush Ornaments from the Best Buy promotion? Which animal(s) did you receive? Have you received any duplicates so far?
FarmVille Penguin Escapade: Everything you need to know
In anticipation of the launch of Winter Wonderland in FarmVille, Zynga has launched a feature called Penguin Escapade - try not to swoon with cuteness as we go through it! I'll have a hard enough time refraining from it myself! You'll know that this feature has rolled around to you when you receive a pop-up like the one at right, asking you to help these penguins travel to Winter Wonderland, while receiving some great prizes in the meantime.
First things first, this feature is split into stages, with three stages being available in all, the first of which asks you to "distract the ticket inspector," so a group of Emperor Penguins can board the Winter Wonderland train. This train sits on the outskirts of your farm, and by hovering over it, you'll see your progress on the current stage, along with your time remaining to complete it.
For this first stage, you'll need to ask five friends to come help you out. This is done via individual gift requests sent to friends. If you can gather the help of five friends within three days, you'll receive a free Emperor Penguin for your troubles.
On November 25, stage 2 of this feature will open up, giving you a chance to disguise some Chinstrap Penguins so that they too can get on board the train. You'll need to ask friends for six disguises and will then receive a Chinstrap Penguin as a gift here as well.
Finally, on November 28, stage 3 will launch, asking you to construct a crate that can hold some Snares Penguins, which are the last ones to board the train. You'll have 12 days to finish this particular step, as it requires you to collect 30 building materials to actually build the crate. You'll need 10 each of Planks, Nails and Saws, all of which are new items, not to be confused with building parts you may already have in your inventory. By finishing this crate, you'll finish the third and final stage of the Penguin Escapade feature, and will receive - you guessed it - a single Snares Penguin as a reward.
All told, you're looking at an event that will likely be far less time consuming than it may initially sound. If your FarmVille neighbors are as excited about this feature, and the Winter Wonderland farm itself, they'll likely help you with very little delay, allowing you to earn these three penguins just as soon as the game will allow.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like we'll be traveling on the train with these penguins back to Winter Wonderland, but we'll make sure to let you know when the new farm launches either way.
Are you excited about completing this Penguin Escapade feature in FarmVille? Which of the three kinds of penguins is your favorite?
First things first, this feature is split into stages, with three stages being available in all, the first of which asks you to "distract the ticket inspector," so a group of Emperor Penguins can board the Winter Wonderland train. This train sits on the outskirts of your farm, and by hovering over it, you'll see your progress on the current stage, along with your time remaining to complete it.
For this first stage, you'll need to ask five friends to come help you out. This is done via individual gift requests sent to friends. If you can gather the help of five friends within three days, you'll receive a free Emperor Penguin for your troubles.
On November 25, stage 2 of this feature will open up, giving you a chance to disguise some Chinstrap Penguins so that they too can get on board the train. You'll need to ask friends for six disguises and will then receive a Chinstrap Penguin as a gift here as well.
Finally, on November 28, stage 3 will launch, asking you to construct a crate that can hold some Snares Penguins, which are the last ones to board the train. You'll have 12 days to finish this particular step, as it requires you to collect 30 building materials to actually build the crate. You'll need 10 each of Planks, Nails and Saws, all of which are new items, not to be confused with building parts you may already have in your inventory. By finishing this crate, you'll finish the third and final stage of the Penguin Escapade feature, and will receive - you guessed it - a single Snares Penguin as a reward.
All told, you're looking at an event that will likely be far less time consuming than it may initially sound. If your FarmVille neighbors are as excited about this feature, and the Winter Wonderland farm itself, they'll likely help you with very little delay, allowing you to earn these three penguins just as soon as the game will allow.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like we'll be traveling on the train with these penguins back to Winter Wonderland, but we'll make sure to let you know when the new farm launches either way.
Are you excited about completing this Penguin Escapade feature in FarmVille? Which of the three kinds of penguins is your favorite?
FarmVille: Double Mastery on now for Thanksgiving celebration
Forget "Double Mastery Weekends." Zynga has announced the launch of "Double Mastery Week" in FarmVille, giving all farmers something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Whether you're a tree farmer, or just like to master each and every crop released in the game, this week is the time to work on just that. For the record, we had expected Double Mastery to turn on this weekend, but these extra few days are definitely appreciated!
From now until Monday, November 28 at 9:00 PM Pacific, you'll be able to earn double the mastery points on each and every tree and crop planted. Unfortunately, we're not given a chance for double mastery on animals, but two out of three is still pretty good! Of course, you can also make this boost even better if you employ the tree rotation setup in Orchards, and use Bushels when harvesting crops, raising each individual square to three Mastery Points per harvest. Talk about fast progress!
With Winter Wonderland quickly approaching, you'll likely want to get as much done in your current farms as possible (I know, I do too), and this is definitely the way to go about it. Just how much you'll actually accomplish will be up to your own dedication to playing this week, including playing on Thanksgiving proper, if you really want to get the most out of it. Just think of it this way - if you're waiting for pies to bake or eggs to boil in the real world, you'll still have a few minutes to login to your farm long enough to use an Arborist and your SuperCombine, right? Why not make the most out of this week and earn some mastery signs along the way?
Check out the rest of our Thanksgiving-themed coverage right here.
What trees or crops will you try to master during this double mastery event in FarmVille?
From now until Monday, November 28 at 9:00 PM Pacific, you'll be able to earn double the mastery points on each and every tree and crop planted. Unfortunately, we're not given a chance for double mastery on animals, but two out of three is still pretty good! Of course, you can also make this boost even better if you employ the tree rotation setup in Orchards, and use Bushels when harvesting crops, raising each individual square to three Mastery Points per harvest. Talk about fast progress!
With Winter Wonderland quickly approaching, you'll likely want to get as much done in your current farms as possible (I know, I do too), and this is definitely the way to go about it. Just how much you'll actually accomplish will be up to your own dedication to playing this week, including playing on Thanksgiving proper, if you really want to get the most out of it. Just think of it this way - if you're waiting for pies to bake or eggs to boil in the real world, you'll still have a few minutes to login to your farm long enough to use an Arborist and your SuperCombine, right? Why not make the most out of this week and earn some mastery signs along the way?
Check out the rest of our Thanksgiving-themed coverage right here.
What trees or crops will you try to master during this double mastery event in FarmVille?
Cafe World Feed the Fall Feast Catering Order: Everything you need to know
As part of the Fall Feast event in Cafe World, which celebrates Thanksgiving by asking you to finish a huge set of goals, you'll also need to complete some Catering Orders to complete the entire event. The first of those catering orders is now available in the game, and it's called "Feed the Fall Feast."
This particular Catering Order asks you to cook just three dishes, rather than four as has seemingly become the norm recently, but you'll still only three days to get it done. You'll need to serve Cranberry Chutney (a two-hour dish) 400 times, Mom's Mashed Potatoes (a four-hour dish) 100 times, and Sweet Potato Pie (an eight-hour dish) 50 times. If those dishes are unfamiliar to you, remember that you'll need to complete Amelia's goals within your game in order to unlock all three of them. If you haven't made it that far in the goals yet, you could always ask your friends to complete these cooking tasks for you (that is, those friends that have unlocked the items), and hopefully they're that generous.
In addition to these cooking tasks, you'll also need to collect 14 Dinner Plates and 14 Folded Napkins by asking your friends to send them to you. Speaking of friends, you can bring up to 12 of your friends in on this order with you, or you can even ask your friends for servings of Cranberry Chutney to speed up that particular cooking task.
If you finish this entire order within three days, you'll receive three stars, 15 Catering Points, 7,500 Cafe Points, 200,000 coins and the Homemade Stuffing recipe. Finishing within five days gives you two stars, 10 Catering Points, 5,000 Cafe Points and 125,000 coins, and finally, if you finish at any point after the first five days of starting this particular order, you'll receive one star, 5 Catering Points, 3,000 Cafe Points and 75,000 coins.
This order doesn't appear to expire from the game, so it looks like you can skip it entirely, if you'd rather focus solely on Amelia's Goals in the Fall Feast event, rather than multi-tasking by also doing this catering order. Just keep in mind that your best chance of finishing it is when all of your friends are completing it as well, which is likely right now. Good luck finishing this one in time, either way.
Check out the rest of our Thanksgiving themed coverage right here.
Will you immediately start working on this Feed the Fall Feast catering order, or will you wait until you've made more of a dent into Amelia's Goals first?
This particular Catering Order asks you to cook just three dishes, rather than four as has seemingly become the norm recently, but you'll still only three days to get it done. You'll need to serve Cranberry Chutney (a two-hour dish) 400 times, Mom's Mashed Potatoes (a four-hour dish) 100 times, and Sweet Potato Pie (an eight-hour dish) 50 times. If those dishes are unfamiliar to you, remember that you'll need to complete Amelia's goals within your game in order to unlock all three of them. If you haven't made it that far in the goals yet, you could always ask your friends to complete these cooking tasks for you (that is, those friends that have unlocked the items), and hopefully they're that generous.
In addition to these cooking tasks, you'll also need to collect 14 Dinner Plates and 14 Folded Napkins by asking your friends to send them to you. Speaking of friends, you can bring up to 12 of your friends in on this order with you, or you can even ask your friends for servings of Cranberry Chutney to speed up that particular cooking task.
If you finish this entire order within three days, you'll receive three stars, 15 Catering Points, 7,500 Cafe Points, 200,000 coins and the Homemade Stuffing recipe. Finishing within five days gives you two stars, 10 Catering Points, 5,000 Cafe Points and 125,000 coins, and finally, if you finish at any point after the first five days of starting this particular order, you'll receive one star, 5 Catering Points, 3,000 Cafe Points and 75,000 coins.
This order doesn't appear to expire from the game, so it looks like you can skip it entirely, if you'd rather focus solely on Amelia's Goals in the Fall Feast event, rather than multi-tasking by also doing this catering order. Just keep in mind that your best chance of finishing it is when all of your friends are completing it as well, which is likely right now. Good luck finishing this one in time, either way.
Check out the rest of our Thanksgiving themed coverage right here.
Will you immediately start working on this Feed the Fall Feast catering order, or will you wait until you've made more of a dent into Amelia's Goals first?
Adventure World Native Negotiations Expedition: Everything you need to know
Continuing our look at Expeditions in Adventure World's Plane Crash mini-series, we now see a group of tribal natives claiming some of the cargo from the downed plane in the Native Negotiations Expedition. Of course, you'll need to go get that cargo back, but you won't be able to earn the cargo without doing something in return for the tribe. First things first, you'll be able to access this new Expedition by having 700 Supplies, along with two each of Food, Fuel and Water. You'll have just five days to finish this particular Expedition, so let's get started.
Allen's Diplomacy Lesson
Give the Friendly Chief the Proper Gift
Convince the Friendly Warrior to give you the Little Gift
Convince the Friendly Mother to give you the Big Gift
Convince the Friendly Child to give you the Proper Gift
For this Expedition, the map is fairly small, but your tasks are not. The gifts are scattered around the map, and are color-coded, with one gift being appropriate for each villager. Three of the villagers are located in the village on the left side of the map (where you start), while the fourth villager is in the top half of the map, near the water on the left-side of this area. You'll need to talk to the appropriate villager before you'll have "permission" to interact with these gifts.
Garden of Eatin'
Ask friends for 10 Carrot Seeds
Plant 10 Carrot Seeds in Good Carrot Spots
Collect Melon Seeds from Wild Melon Vines
Plant 10 Melon Seeds in Good Melon Spots
You'll see small brown mounds of earth in rows around the map. Some of these areas are good for planting carrots, while others are great for planting Melon. You'll need to ask your friends to send you the carrot seeds, and can then plant them in mounds of earth that are specifically for carrots. Meanwhile, the Melon Vines are found on the right side of the map, over the bridge, and often surrounded by debris, traps or snakes. Once you collect 10 Melon Seeds, you'll need to head back across the bridge and plant them in Melon-specific earth mounds.
Serious Snake Situation
Defeat 7 Snakes
Defeat the Golden Serpent
Defeat the Melon-Eater Serpent
You'll likely defeat enough snakes for the first task when simply looking out for Melon Vines. However, the Golden Serpent is on the left side of this area, while the Melon-Eater Serpent is on the far right side. You may need to clear some debris or traps before you can go after them.
When you've completed this Expedition, you'll still need to complete one Expedition in the Plane Crash series - Radio Tower - and we'll bring you a complete guide to doing just that as soon as we can.
Check out the rest of our Adventure World Cheats & Tips right here.
While you're waiting for your energy to recharge, or friends to send you items in Adventure World, let us know what you think of this new Expedition in the comments.
Allen's Diplomacy Lesson
Give the Friendly Chief the Proper Gift
Convince the Friendly Warrior to give you the Little Gift
Convince the Friendly Mother to give you the Big Gift
Convince the Friendly Child to give you the Proper Gift
For this Expedition, the map is fairly small, but your tasks are not. The gifts are scattered around the map, and are color-coded, with one gift being appropriate for each villager. Three of the villagers are located in the village on the left side of the map (where you start), while the fourth villager is in the top half of the map, near the water on the left-side of this area. You'll need to talk to the appropriate villager before you'll have "permission" to interact with these gifts.
Garden of Eatin'
Ask friends for 10 Carrot Seeds
Plant 10 Carrot Seeds in Good Carrot Spots
Collect Melon Seeds from Wild Melon Vines
Plant 10 Melon Seeds in Good Melon Spots
You'll see small brown mounds of earth in rows around the map. Some of these areas are good for planting carrots, while others are great for planting Melon. You'll need to ask your friends to send you the carrot seeds, and can then plant them in mounds of earth that are specifically for carrots. Meanwhile, the Melon Vines are found on the right side of the map, over the bridge, and often surrounded by debris, traps or snakes. Once you collect 10 Melon Seeds, you'll need to head back across the bridge and plant them in Melon-specific earth mounds.
Serious Snake Situation
Defeat 7 Snakes
Defeat the Golden Serpent
Defeat the Melon-Eater Serpent
You'll likely defeat enough snakes for the first task when simply looking out for Melon Vines. However, the Golden Serpent is on the left side of this area, while the Melon-Eater Serpent is on the far right side. You may need to clear some debris or traps before you can go after them.
When you've completed this Expedition, you'll still need to complete one Expedition in the Plane Crash series - Radio Tower - and we'll bring you a complete guide to doing just that as soon as we can.
Check out the rest of our Adventure World Cheats & Tips right here.
While you're waiting for your energy to recharge, or friends to send you items in Adventure World, let us know what you think of this new Expedition in the comments.
FarmVille Arapawa Goat Lonely Animal: Everything you need to know
It's been a while since we've seen a Lonely Animal available in FarmVille, and while this newest version isn't anything particularly special (personally, I find it rather boring in appearance), if you're going for a complete set of mastery signs in your game, you'll want to lure this little fella onto your farm before he disappears (potentially forever)!
As with past Lonely Animals, you'll find this Arapawa Goat hanging out on the outskirts of your farm, on the far right side. There, you'll be able to hover over the animal to see how long he will be there, along with how close you are to luring it into your farm. As of this writing, you have just over a day to gather the help of five friends, and when you add all five to your crew, you'll finally be able to to coax this goat into your farm. Or, into your Gift Box, if we're being technical.
If you don't think you'll be able to add five friends to your crew in time, you can also unlock the animal outright for Farm Cash. Or, should you simply not care about the animal at all, you can also click on it, and then click on the "Ignore It" button to skip the feature altogether.
With Winter Wonderland quickly approaching in FarmVille, it will be interesting to see if any themed Lonely Animals appear, or if this will be the last Lonely Animal we'll see in the game for quite some time. Either way, we'll make sure to let you know.
What do you think of this newest Lonely Animal? Have you already lured it into your farm, or did you skip this one entirely?
As with past Lonely Animals, you'll find this Arapawa Goat hanging out on the outskirts of your farm, on the far right side. There, you'll be able to hover over the animal to see how long he will be there, along with how close you are to luring it into your farm. As of this writing, you have just over a day to gather the help of five friends, and when you add all five to your crew, you'll finally be able to to coax this goat into your farm. Or, into your Gift Box, if we're being technical.
If you don't think you'll be able to add five friends to your crew in time, you can also unlock the animal outright for Farm Cash. Or, should you simply not care about the animal at all, you can also click on it, and then click on the "Ignore It" button to skip the feature altogether.
With Winter Wonderland quickly approaching in FarmVille, it will be interesting to see if any themed Lonely Animals appear, or if this will be the last Lonely Animal we'll see in the game for quite some time. Either way, we'll make sure to let you know.
What do you think of this newest Lonely Animal? Have you already lured it into your farm, or did you skip this one entirely?
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