FarmVille: Wandering Sheep or Goat found with no name

FarmVille Freak Bruno's No Name Sheep/Goat
Last week the Mouflon Sheep was added to FarmVille as a new lost and wandering animal. Many people thought this sheep was a goat, but its original name was was in fact "Mouflon Sheep". Not only is their species confusing, but the sheep/goat is now nameless.
FarmVille No Name Goat/Sheep Message
What do you think this animal's name should be?

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille: New Horses, Pony, Foals, Cows and Calf

farmville new horses pony foals cows and calf
In a much anticipated update last night the FarmVille Nursery was upgraded. Farmers now have the ability to produce brand new adult Horses and Cows. Keep in mind if you are lucky enough to produce a new adult animal, you will be able to give away the corresponding calf or foal to your neighbors.

In total, there are 8 new animals that can be produced by or as a bonus of growing up your foals and calves.

Note: When the first enhancement occurred last night, all of the new animals were on the Free Gifting page, but were very quickly taken down. The Groovy Cow was only available for a short period of time through Free Gifting. (More details on that to come)
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille Unreleased Blue Jay

Thank you to FarmVille Freak Martijn for finding this unreleased FarmVille Blue Jay!

Remember you saw it here first on FarmVille Freak and don't forget to share this with all your friends!

Click the link below to see it in motion.

Source:

    FarmVille Unreleased Blue Jay – Zynga FarmVille Image | Animation


This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille FarmVille Upcoming Co-Op Jobs: Hottest Chili in Town & Peanut Butter Jelly Time

farmville peanut butter and jelly
It has been told to us by FarmVille Freak Martijn that the two new upcoming Co-Op Jobs that Lexi talked about today in her podcast will be Hottest Chili in Town and Peanut Butter Jelly Time.

The Hottest Chili in Town Co-Op job will require you to grow Rice, Peppers, and Soybeans. While the Peanut Butter Jelly Time Co-Op Job will require you to grow Peanuts and Strawberries.

Remember FarmVille Freaks, these are all speculations. We also wonder why the Hottest Chili in Town ingredients are the same as the Stirring Things Up Co-Op Job. We shall see hopefully soon!

Are you excited about the new additions to the Co-Op Jobs?

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille's new animal mystery crate -- find out what's inside *spoiler*

FarmVille's Animal Mystery Crate returns by popular demand with a slew of new critters inside. These crates will be available for the next 7 days and can be purchased in the in-game Market for 20 FarmVille cash (roughly $4).

Here is a list of animals that you'll find inside these new mystery crates *Spoiler*

    Red Panda
    Black Yak
    Blue jay
    Pygmy Goat
    Female Mandarin duck

farmville red panda animal mystery crate     farmville black yak    
       

What animals did you get so far? If you have pics, please send them to editors@games.com, and we'll feature them here.

PetVille holding a 20% off sale through June 28

PetVille coin and Pet Cash sale
Zynga have announced a pleasant weekend surprise for PetVille players - all coin and Pet Cash packages are now 20% off until June 28th. This means you have three days to stock up on all of those coins and cash you've been holding back on, and get more for your money. I have been having my eye on some of the new wedding themed items, so this makes the purchase even more appealing. The new prices are as follows:

60 Pet Cash: $5.00 $4.00
130 Pet Cash: $10.00 $8.00
280 Pet Cash: $20.00 $16.00
700 Pet Cash: $50.00 $40.00
1600 Pet Cash: $100.00 $80.00
2400 Pet Cash: $150.00 $120.00

6,000 coins: $5.00 $4.00
16,000 coins: $10.00 $8.00
50,000 coins: $20.00 $16.00
160,000 coins: $50.00 $40.00
380,000 coins: $100.00 $80.00
620,000 coins: $150.00 $120.00

Are you planning to purchase some Pet Cash or coins? You better log in before June 29th, because this sale will end in three days.

Treasure Isle animals no longer grant coins for petting

With all of the latest updates to Treasure Isle, including the release of the highly anticipated Fire God Mountain, a stealth change was deployed to the popular treasure game. A few short weeks ago, Treasure Isle made all animals pettable or interactable in exchange for coins. While a few players were thankful for another opportunity to earn coins in Treasure Isle, most players were overwhelmingly upset with the feature. According to a poll on the official forums, over 77% of voters hated the new feature because they felt it was cluttered and messy. For those who had many animals, having each harvestable animal donned with a big exclamation point was quite the eyesore.

Everyone can rejoice now, because this feature has been removed. Animals are no longer interactable for coins, and that makes me one happy player. Fire God Mountain gives out 10,000 coins per successful run, and that's just as much coin as I need to keep trucking through the maps.

Treasure Isle Fire God Mountain: Everything you need to know

Treasure Isle's Fire God Mountain has brought a whole new style and element of gameplay to everyone's favorite treasure game - mystery, tactics, competition, and suspense. It's a bit more complex than the rest of the game; once you enter the volcano the entire game changes. Even the interface changes to a dark shade of black and becomes more threatening and ominous. We're sure you have questions, so Games.com - The Blog has your answers in this definitive Fire God Mountain guide. Let's begin.

What is the Fire God Mountain?

Fire God Mountain is a special set of maps that are in a scary volcano surrounded by lava, imps, and other exciting surprises. When you're in the volcano, the entire game changes. Instead of trying to clear the whole map in search of all of the treasure - each map has only ONE treasure. The objective is to find the treasure in the least amount of digs possible. Using the hot and cold mechanism is the way to know if you're close to the treasure. A leaderboard tracks your progression compared to your friends, and you get more coins if you find the treasure early. Once you have found the treasure, you progress to the next map. There are 14 levels of the volcano, each one deeper than the next.

How to get to Fire God Mountain

The very first thing that everyone always wants to know is how to actually get to the volcano. Where is the Fire God Mountain? To enter the Fire God Mountain, you first need to have 5 SPF, which are an item that you can get from friends or buy from the Store. To actually find the volcano, open up your travel map and go to the Tiki Isles. From there, you will see the volcano in the top middle of the overland map. Click on it, and if you have the required amount of SPF-3000 you will be allowed in.

How to get SPF-3000 in Treasure Isle

Everyone starts out with 5 SPF, which makes entering the volcano for the first time easy as can be. You only need to pay to enter the first time that you log in to the volcano. Once you beat all levels of the volcano, you will have to pay more SPF in order to gain access again.
Treasure Isle SPF-3000

SPF-3000 has the following prices in the store:

1 SPF-3000: 3 Treasure Cash
8 Pack - 30 Treasure Cash
32 Pack - 50 Treasure Cash

Fire God Mountain Rewards

In addition to getting oodles of coins for completing the Fire God Mountain, you can also receive other items. This includes collection items such as the Volcanologist set which awards a Volcano Flag, special decorations for your home island, Treasure Cash, a permanent increase to your maximum energy, mangoes, and other rare items. You also get a trophy to display on your home island showing your score when you complete the island.

Other Fire God Mountain Tips and Hints


    If the game tells you the treasure is "Nearby" after you dig, that means it is 2 tiles away. If it says "Really Close", that means that it is 1 tile away.
    Make sure to eat your fruit
    When you're searching for the treasure, click once and if you don't see a hint, click in an area far away. Keep clicking in areas that are not close to each other until you get a hint and can better track down the treasure.
    Ask for fruit whenever you can. Lava mangoes regenerate more energy in volcanoes, so they are a great help in progressing through the volcano.
    Replay the maps over and over again for coins. You will earn 10,000 coins for each time you finish the volcano.

First Look: Fashion World makes shopping a social experience

Fashion World is a new game on the Facebook gaming scene that has captured the attention of over 1 million people in just a short month. Released in early June by Metrogames (the company in which Playdom invested 5 million dollars earlier this year), this clothes creation game is essentially a hybrid of Cafe World or Restaurant City combined with Mall World. In Fashion World, the player owns their own store. Instead of just buying the clothing and accessories from a catalog such as Mall World, players in Fashion World have to sew and create their own items. This is the part that feels very much like a baking game, because each item needs to go through a quick clicking process to get started: sewing, cutting, putting buttons on, etc.

Creating new clothing items to sell in your store is as easy as clicking on the sewing machine provided for you and then selecting an article of clothing you wish to create. Each article of clothing takes a different length of time to complete, anywhere from 5 minutes to several days. The longer it takes to create, the more coins and XP you will get for producing it. After your item has been finished, you then have to click on it and transfer it to a rack in your store. Once it is on a rack, there is a limited quantity that can either be purchased by computer-generated shoppers, or your friends.

One thing that sets Fashion World apart is the shopping experience being more social. When you visit a neighbor's store, you can see all of the clothing and accessories they are selling on their racks. You can then click on the clothing and buy directly from your friends. Any clothing that you buy from your friends will be added to your inventory and can be worn by your avatar (or sold again). This gives players the option to collect clothing, mix and match attire, and choose whether they wish to shop for their clothing or create it themselves. One thing is for sure, creating clothing and knowing that your friends can shop in your store is a very virtual world experience that doesn't have many comparisons to other Facebook games.


Over all, Fashion World plays very simply, much like all the other Facebook games. A brief tutorial walks you through the main game loop and gives you just enough to get you started and leave you interested enough to keep exploring. A quick perusal through the store shows that players can decorate using all sorts of interior design techniques, including buying decorations and changing out the walls and carpet. Stores can be expanded using either Facebook Credits or coins (if you have enough neighbors)



On the exterior, Fashion World is very pleasant to look at. It's bright and colorful, whimsical, and resembles many other games. I personally feel this is the best fashion-themed game so far, with the ability to buy and shop at your friend's houses, and a more involved clothing creation process. At just over 1 million monthly actives this month alone, Fashion World is a game that we're going to be keeping a close eye on. It seems like Metrogames was a good investment for Playdom, and we can't wait to see what comes next.

Play Fashion World on Facebook >

Breaking: Zynga to close Roller Coaster Kingdom on June 29

Players who log into Zynga's game Roller Coaster Kingdom today may be granted with a popup message alerting them that the game will be closing its doors on June 29th 2010. At its peak, Roller Coaster Kingdom had around 15 million monthly active players back in November 2009, but over the months have slid down to just over 1 million players per month. The text of the closing message is as follows:

    We regret to inform you that Roller Coaster Kingdom will be closing its doors on June 29 2010. The new bloodthirsty managers who are taking over want the entire park for themselves! Someone should tell these boys to get lost!

    The new managers hope you will share their taste in fun, and encourage you to check out Vampire Wars! Click Accept to Play!


Anyone who plays Roller Coaster Kingdom may not be surprised that it will be closing; people have been asking if the game is dead since February. Many players state that the game has gone downhill because it has had little developer feedback in the past few months. While 1 million monthly active players may be a low number on Zynga's terms, most game developers on Facebook will not even come close to that kind of traffic. It's apparent that the revenue coming in from Roller Coaster Kingdom wasn't paying the bills to continue supporting the game.

Interestingly, it appears that Zynga are heavily pushing players over to Vampire Wars, a game that isn't doing spectacular either. At one point, Vampire Wars was up over 4 million players, but is now hovering around 2 million. If you had purchased Coaster Cash, the above message in Roller Coaster Kingdom will offer you Favor Points in Vampire Wars for clicking "Accept".

This is the first game that Zynga has sunsetted, and June 29th will be a disappointing day for the 60,000+ people who were playing it every day.

Nielsen: Online games now more popular than e-mail

Look out e-mail... there's a new No. 2 in town. That's according to Nielsen's newest "What Americans Do Online" report, which shows online games pushing aside e-mail as the second-most-popular use of online time

Games now represent just over 10 percent of all time spent online, according to Nielsen, a number that is itself a 10 percent increase from Nielsen's June 2009 report. Use of e-mail, the previous No. 2 online timesink, fell by over a quarter and now represents only 8.3 percent of total online time.

The winner and still champion of online time-wasting, of course, is social networks. Usage of sites like Facebook and MySpace shot up over 40% from last year's already dominant position, and the networks now collectively represent over 1/5th of all time spent online.

While the Nielsen report doesn't break social games away from time spent on social networks and online games generally, it's safe to assume that the skyrocketing popularity of such games in the past year has helped drive growth in both areas. Online videos and movies were the only other area measured in Nielsen's report to see a significant increase over the year.

YoVille: Silver Chests and Silver Keys return as limited free gifts

YoVille Silver Chests and Silver Keys
Remember the silver chests and keys? Well, these two items are back. Check the free gifts page now and start sending keys and chests to you friends. These chests will earn you both coins and YoCash and will be available for a limited time only. Get them while you can! Thank you Angiebaby2005 for the tip!

This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.

Chronicles of Spellborn: Has Playdom pulled the plug on this free MMO?

Rumors are running rampant that Playdom (now owned by Disney) has pulled the plug on the free-to-play MMO Chronicles of Spellborn. One reader named Debbilicious says that the servers for the game were turned off today, and so far -- there's no sign of them coming back to life:

    "I am a player on The Chronicles of Spellborn MMORPG. It was developed by Spellborn NV and was run by Acclaim until Acclaim reportedly sold it to Playdom. Since that happened the players and the game have been ignored and we have been trying to contact someone who can take responsibility and help us with various ingame issues. We recently found out that Disney has bought Playdom and we are worried that our game will be removed from the internet. This is a unique and wonderful MMORPG and we do not wish to lose it. We also have a couple of players who are interested in taking over the rights and running of the game.

    Today both servers went off.


The forum is buzzing with speculation that someone has pulled the plug on this awesome game, without even having the respect to warn us first. It's disgraceful to say the least and now I am hoping that Disney will respond to my e-mails. I have struggled to find the correct people to discuss this with and appeal to whoever reads this to help us and pass this on to the relevant department."
We've contacted Playdom to see if this is just a prolonged outage, or if Chronicles of Spellborn is gone for good.

Chronicles of Spellborn was originally launched under Acclaim Games, which was purchased by social gaming publisher Playdom in May 2010. Last week, Disney, in turn, acquired Playdom for half-a-billion dollars.

With all of the crazy acquisions and mergers in the social gaming space, closing games with little or no communication to the players seems to be happening with more frequency. This is especially problematic for those who have sunk significant funds into the game, buying virtual goods to enhance their experience. In the end, that leaves players disenfranchised and less willing to invest time and money into a game that might disappear without advance notice.

Players protest Zynga's abrupt Street Racing shutdown

Apparently Zynga wasn't done shutting down games after bringing down the hammer on Roller Coaster Kingdom and Ponzi, Inc. last month. Today, Zynga's Street Racing leaves Facebook for that great social network in the sky.

Zynga is offering refunds for in-game purchases made in the last 90 days, much as it has for its other defunct games, plus a 100 Credit bonus for the inconvenience. But this hasn't pacified some of Street Racing players, over 100 of whom have signed an online petition begging for the game to be continued. "If they shut it down then i suggest people sue them for theft..!!" wrote one excitable poster. "i feel that i should just quit all these... whats the point when you are jsut [sic] gonna shut down the game after a few years anyway..." wrote another discouraged player.

Zynga initially announced the move two weeks ago with an image (above) suggesting that Street Racing fans try out Frontierville, a game that couldn't have much less in common with the street racing sim. That image was later replaced with a new image that removes the specific reference to Frontierville.

Street Racing's numbers have been flagging recently, and while its current player base of 400,000 monthly users isn't nothing, it's well short of the 3 million monthly players the game once claimed, and the tens of millions Zynga's biggest games enjoy.

FarmVille Crafting Buildings Video Guide: Channel Management

With the introduction of Crafting Buildings, some FarmVille Freaks are becoming quite the crafting entrepreneurs.

FarmVille Freak Wilfried shared with us a "Channel Management of Crafting Buildings" video guide. If you are a Crafting Building enthusiast, check out the detailed video below for some handy tips.

Says FarmVille Freak Wilfried,

    Hi FarmGoddess,

    I'm very interested in the economical part of FarmVille which is also the reason why I'm a big fan of the newly introduced Crafting Cottages. I analyzed the recipes of all the cottages and regarding the limitations like the number of storable bushels I came up with a strategy to keep the cottages working 24/7, leveling up quickly, managing the supply chain efficiently. I put together a video, 'Channel Management of Crafting Cottages inside FarmVille' about it and thought it may be interesting to share it with FarmVille Freak." – FarmVille Freak Wilfried

What are some tips with Crafting Buildings that you have found helpful for maximizing your profit or productivity?

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

Treasure Isle releases second collection of Asian Isles maps

Treasure Isle not only released the new buildable Dragon Sailboat this weekend, but players were surprised with a new collection of Asian Isles maps. The Mythical Voyages map contains just four islands, however there are a couple of them that are quite large. Players are even reporting that the Supersecret Base map uses over 2000 energy, but gives out more than 90 treasures on average. Wow! Take a peek at the new map details:

Under Attack - 500 coins
Ravaged Land - 7,000 coins
Tiny City - 10,000 coins
Supersecret Base - 18 Island Cash

We're so behind on maps that we're still working on the last Asian Isles set, but you can never have too much gameplay to go through! We appreciate the fast pace of new challenges in Treasure Isle, that's for sure.

What about you? Have you finished these new maps yet?

Mafia Wars Mumbai Chapter 3 opens, only 5 days left to take over Bollywood

Mafia Wars Mumbai Chapter 3 has officially opened, and as of this post, you only have five days left to become king of Bollywood.

Like the other chapters, there are four jobs and each requires a bunch of Bollywood film reels to get them done. Once you complete all of the jobs, you will get the Slumdog Billionaire, 86 A, 115 D.

mafia wars chapter 3 box office bombay

Treasure hoarders in Pirates Ahoy get more storage space... for a price

Pirates Ahoy Pirates Warehouse In-game
It's okay to be a hoarder in Pirates Ahoy (in the real world, not so much)! It's almost as if Pirates Ahoy creator Playfish wants you to be a hoarder since it has added the Pirate Warehouse to the list of available buildings to place on your island. However, you gotta' pay up if you want to gawk at more of your shinies.

Find the new Pirate Warehouse by going to your island and clicking the "Build" button. It's a huge mallet, so you can't possiblyPirates Ahoy Pirate Warehouse miss it. Then, click that big and shiny "New" tab and the "Buildings" tab underneath to find the neat, not-so-little warehouse.

It gives user 20 more inventory spaces for Pete's sake! Unfortunately, this comes at the price of 10 Playfish Cash. Now, there's no need to start any argument over whether this is worth the dough, because an item like this should be considered a luxury. Good inventory management mixed with the ability to let go could easily circumvent the need for something like this. But, if you're the type who likes to have more things to look at (or hold to make some extra coins off of later), by all means get to your island and grab this--with suitable form of payment in hand, of course.

Catering in Cafe World just got a whole lot easier

Cafe World Catering Logo
Zynga has just announced that starting your catering business in Cafe World is finally much easier. Now getting your money-maker off the ground takes 10 fewer parts than before and, according to Zynga, your orders are now easier to complete.

The company also decided that the time to complete your second was too short for new players, so they increased the dead line to six days. It usually takes more than that time for small catering businesses to turn around an order in the real world, so you can probably handle this one. Check after the break for a short guide on how to get started.
Your first catering order in Cafe World
First of all, your cook needs to be free of all tasks before you attempt to get your business started. Once that's complete, click the truck icon on your screen just above the cake to get started. Here's what you need to get this show on the road:

    Nine pieces of advice
    Eight recommendations
    Eight VIP Clients


You can ask your friends for all of these things individually or you can pay up 2 Cafe Cash for each of the mission's 25 total requirements. Unless you want to pony up 50 Cafe Cash (there is a Labor Day sale going on), we suggest you start gettingThe catering order icon in Cafe World a bit more social.

After completing this, you can get on to your first order, which is pretty simple. A fellow named Dale, quite simply, wants your leftovers. After completing the "Start Your Catering Business" mission, the option "Sell to Dale" should appear when hovering over your existing servings of food. You'll need to sell him 120,960 servings of leftovers.

Sound just a tad daunting? Fret not, because he'll take anything that's fresh and doesn't give you a deadline. So, no pressure... literally. After this comes your second order, the Dinner Party, which we'll leave up to you to discover. Don't worry, you'll be fine now that you have a whole six days to complete it and Zynga increased the amount of friends you can recruit for the order from seven to 14 people. So, get to making those leftovers (that doesn't sound appetizing, does it?) and make some dough.

Redeem a FarmVille game card, get a free Valeducktorian

FarmVille has just announced a brand new limited time promotion for anyone who redeems a game card in the next week. Simply purchase a game card of any value from a 7/11 or another store such as Best Buy, Walmart, or Gamestop. Then, login and redeem your game card. If you do this before 11:59 EST on September 13th, you will earn a free back-to-school Valeducktorian. Pretty neat, huh?

We don't know what the stats are on the duck, or what the sell price is. We will let you know as soon as we find out!

Do you have the exclusive Valeducktorian? Give us the details in the comments below!

Ubisoft goes for the kill with Assassin's Creed Facebook game

As a companion to Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood set to release November 16,Ubisoft will soon launch Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy for Facebook. The French developer behind the more recent Prince of Persia games is releasing the game in a few days to serve as a tool to fuel excitement for the new console iteration of Assassin's Creed. Beyond that, the Facebook game will also help players along as they progress in the console game. Players will earn points in one game to spend in the other, according to what Ubisoft vice president of digital publishing Chris Early said last night at a press event in San Francisco.

Also, players will be able to unlock content in the Facebook game that can be explored in the console version and vise versa, Early said. He also mentioned that the company has learned from its previous failures on Facebook like Horse Gaga and Tick Tock and has put quite a lot of investment into this cross platform project, including getting game designers to play along.

Assassin's Creed Project Legacy is Ubisoft's first branded social game and Early, who joined the developer six months prior, is trying to bring the company into the social games market in a huge way. But will branded companion games be enough to compete with the big dogs like Zynga and Playdom? We'll see in a few days.

Mafia Wars Cafe World Promotion sends you back to the kitchen

Mafia Wars Cafe World Promo
Zynga is having a ball with cross promotions recently and its most recent project is for Mafia Wars and Cafe World players. This time around, gaining a level in Cafe World will win you a Kitchen Knife in Mafia Wars with 57 Attack and 27 Defense. However, your online chef will have to be above Level 10 before a level gain will count towards the Kitchen Knife.

To start the promotion, just click the knife icon to the left of the Live Updates icon in Mafia Wars and a pop-up will appear that will take you to Cafe World. Then all you need to do is start playing until you reach Level 11 or higher. When looking at the stats on this item, it's clear that this is meant for somewhat new Mafia Wars and Cafe World players, but by all means go for it if you're the collector type. I would have much rather preferred an electric carving knife (it would at least have more Attack power).

Cafe World is throwing a birthday party in San Francisco and you're invited

On Saturday, October 2, Zynga is throwing a party for Cafe World in the San Francisco Bay Area to celebrate the game's One Year Anniversary. While the company has put quite a lot of festivities into the game, this event will bring online chefs together in the real world to watch live cooking demos by Executive Chef Luis Herrera, alumni of the Culinary Institute of America in New York.

The party will also have cupcake decorating sessions, a Cafe World photo booth and a screen featuring the cafes of those who send pictures while they RSVP. Unfortunately, the details of where the party will be held at are reserved for those who RSVP, which you can do right now by sending an e-mail to cafeworld-feedback@zynga.com. With nearly 22 million fans, someone you know from Cafe World is sure to be at this birthday bash.

FarmVille Crafting Building interface gets a much-needed face lift

FarmVille Crafting Building UI
Some of Zynga's games have fairly complicated or clunky user interfaces (UI), which is why they've made the effort to improve the Crafting Building UI in FarmVille, which should prove helpful with the new Co-Op Crafting Jobs. An already complex feature did not need a complex interface, so the team has streamlined the experience so that almost all of your vital crafting information is on the home screen of each crafting building.

Check behind the cut for the low down on what's been changed (for the better).
FarmVille Recipes Window
As opposed to before when everything was hidden behind a tab or a click-through, this new UI brings everything you need dead center so you can get to work even faster. First, you can get goods from your neighbors right on the home screen in the top left. Next to that is the option to Use Goods for Fuel, while the middle of screen is dedicated to showing you the level of your recipes and what bushels you'll need to continue making them. Lastly on the home screen sits your job progress on the left-hand side, telling you how long until each batch is complete as well as your current Crafting Building Level with the option to upgrade it for Farm Cash.

FarmVille Farmer's Market
When looking for bushels tied to a particular recipe, you'll access the new recipe window that displays how many bushels you have of each requirement and how to get more of them. If you're just looking to get more of an individual bushel or manage your current ones, the Farmer's Market window contains every bushel you have access to with the option to request more or use them for boosts. You can also get goods or use them from this window.

All in all, the new UI looks much snappier than before. Most of your actions can be done in fewer clicks than before, which is the goal of a good interface. Now, how about cleaning up some things in Vampire Wars and Mafia Wars to get the games within one screen?

Happy Pets Experience Idol returns to burn your wallets

CrowStar has brought back the one item that garnered a heated debate in their forums this Spring, along with a nice chunk of money, the Experience Idol in Happy Pets. For 398 Facebook Credits, or nearly $40 USD (it was originally $50), this item will permanently double the experience you earn forever.

But is it worth more than most Nintendo DS games? Can you even quantify something like this in terms of what it's worth next to something else? That's quite a lot of money to put up for something intangible, but if the return on investment is high enough, perhaps it is worth it.

This debate isn't new, however. Some of you may remember when Blizzard, creator of World of WarCraft, released an item in their MMO for $25, the Celestial Steed. As the wait for the item reached a queue of epic proportions, writers, forum-goers and players everywhere cried foul at the developer for asking so much.

When it comes down to it, an item whether it be tangible or digital is only worth what folks like you and I would pay. If Happy Pets players are going to pay $40 or a considerable boost in their favorite game, than CrowStar is going to ask for it if not more. Debating whether something is worth a certain amount of money or time on an objective level when the issue at hand is individual, subjective is just silly. No one can tell you whether a $40 experience boost is worth the money but yourself, just be sure that if do buy the idol, you'll be playing Happy Pets for a long time.

Lunchtime poll: Is FarmVille, Facebook games addictive?

After reporting the news that a FarmVille-addicted mother shook her child to death for interrupting her game, we couldn't help but look back at recent headlines and studies that say FarmVille and other Facebook games are designed to be addictive and that people who are susceptible to addiction are making these games their drugs of choice. We want to hear your take: Are these games addictive or not? Vote in our lunchtime poll.

ESPNU College Town updates adds shorter venue events, higher item resells and more

    Shooting Drills     Football Practice
In Playdom's continued efforts to improve their new hyper-popular sports university game, ESPNU College Town, the team introduced a few venue events with shorter durations for those who play the game in longer sittings. Each event is designed to cost far less than normal events and give much smaller yields, but if done repetitively over say, an hour, should be more beneficial for the frequent player.

Also as a result of the small update, item resell values have jumped to 60 percent of their original cost, giving players much more incentive to sell older items to make room for newer, bigger buildings and decorations. Lastly, Playdom adjusted the prices to upgrade Baseball Field Levels 4 and 5 to make them more accessible to players, which is a small yet welcome addition. It looks like this trend of tweaking the accessibility and enjoyment of their games will be an ongoing trend, which is a very, very good thing.

Ravenwood Fair introduces a new monster -- the Grimm

Ravenwood Fair on Facebook intoduced a slew of new Halloween items and several missions overnight, and we also noticed that there is a new monster lurking in the spooky -- the Grimm. This cloaked figure with scythe randomly appears while you chop down trees and you have to give it a few wallops to banish it from your fair.


ravenwood fair wallop grimm

You can do that by simply clicking on it several times and then watch your heroic avatar give this monster what-for. You'll be rewarded with coins and experience points for your trouble.

Quick Halloween Costume Ideas: FarmVille farmer

halloween costume farmville
October has arrived, and if you're like us, you've already started brainstorming Halloween costume ideas.

Instead of taking the cliched route and dressing like a witch, pirate wench or sexy Sherlock Holmes, try something inspired from one of the most popular games of all time -- dress up as a FarmVille farmer.

Continue reading to find a complete list of items you need for the perfect FarmVille farmer Halloween costume (along with links on where to buy them online).
FarmVille Farmer Halloween Costume Shopping List:
Straw Cowboy Hat
$14
Amazon.com     farmville halloween costume
Red Plaid Shirt
$17
Amazon.com     farmville halloween costume
Blue Denim Overalls
$30
Amazon.com     farmville halloween costume
Black Work Shoes
$95
Amazon.com     farmville halloween costume
Piece of Wheat
(Place in mouth)
Free
Nature     farmville halloween costume
While we can show you what you'll need to look like a FarmVille farmer, we can't help you with your authentic farmer's accent. You're on your own there. Also, remember to personalize your FarmVille farmer Halloween costume to look like your own FarmVille character.

Let us know what you think of the costume and have a Happy Halloween!

Cafe World's Outdoor Halloween decorations turn your cafe into an eerie eatery

    Spooky Tree     Ghostly Traveler
Now that you've finished the Ghoulish Feast and saved a ton during the Halloween Sale in Cafe World, it's finally time to turn up the scare factor on that cafe of yours. There's a bunch of frightening outdoor decorations available today that will transform your restaurant into an diner of haunted hors d' oeuvres.

    Haunted Roof: 45 Cafe Cash
    Haunted Wall: 2 Cafe Cash
    Skull Door: 3,000 coins
    Haunted Window: 2 Cafe Cash
    Black Pine Tree: 10 Cafe Cash
    Bat Tree: 12 Cafe Cash
    Pumpkin Scarecrow: 10 Cafe Cash
    Ghostly Tree: 5 Cafe Cash
    Pumpkin Candy Sign: 16 Cafe Cash
    Ghostly Traveler: 5,000 coins


For a total of 97 Cafe Cash (not including the multiple walls and windows), or about $18, you could turn your cafe into the next Munster house. However, the cost of each piece of wallpaper and window could jump that price up considerably depending on the size of your cafe. But hey, at least you can fill your outdoor area with Ghostly Travelers and a devilish Skull Door for just a few thousand coins.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in FarmVille, Restaurant City & more

harry potter deathly hallows facebook restaurant city farmville
Tomorrow, Harry Potter is returning to the big screen with the highly acclaimed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I. Sure to be the must-see movie over the Thanksgiving holiday, Harry Potter fever is seizing the world once again. There are real life Quidditch matches being played and people are getting into costume for the premiere. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has even invaded some of our favorite Facebook games. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows content has been released in FarmVille, Restaurant City, Happy Aquarium and more.

Continue reading to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in FarmVille, Restaurant City, and more.

But before we go into the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows game updates, I have to make sure you're as excited as I am for the movie. Above is the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows trailer.

harry potter deathly hallows farmville
Harry Potter in FarmVille

    FarmVille: Agriculture Alchemy Theme Showcase teases the wizard in us
    FarmVille: New Pilgrim, Turkey, and Wizard costumes
    FarmVille's Agricultural Alchemy theme debuts in the marketplace
    New FarmVille Agricultural Alchemy animal and building now available
    FarmVille Agricultural Alchemy Decorations: Long Eared Owl, Wizard Gnome, & Magic Cart



harry potter deathly hallows it girl
Harry Potter in It Girl

    It Girl celebrates Harry Potter movie with new couture clothing



harry potter deathly hallows happy aquarium
Harry Potter in Happy Aquarium

    Happy Aquarium Wizard Items honor Harry Potter, make tanks magical



harry potter deathly hallows restaurant city
Harry Potter in Restaurant City

    Cast a spell with new Restaurant City decorative items



harry potter deathly hallows happy island
Harry Potter in Happy Island

    Happy Island Wizard Week: Collect four LE items to unleash the Dragon


What do you think of these Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows game updates? Are you going to see the movie?

Facebook Credits 'Pay Later' Option: Virtual goods on layaway?

Pay Later
And so the credit crisis begins on Facebook. The social network is currently testing a "Pay Later" for Facebook Credits (FB Credits) purchases while in social games and other apps, though it's not live for everyone just yet, Inside Facebook reports. Players who have yet to purchase FB Credits will be prompted by a new option to pay later when buying virtual currency within social games like FrontierVille, for example. This essentially allows gamers new to using FB Credits to loan out the currency for that shiny new item indefinitely.

Players can even loan out more FB Credits after initially skipping a payment, adding to their debt. Though, on subsequent purchases you're given the option to pay off that balance. However, players can only repay their debt using an automated payment method like a credit card or PayPal account, which is part of the point. The idea behind this new feature seems to be to entice new players to eventually provide Facebook with their credit card information. More importantly, with this program Facebook could transform non-purchasers into instant buyers.

According to Inside Facebook, there is currently no repayment period nor are there any repercussions for remaining in debt. Well, aside from potentially ruining your credit score by racking up hundreds of dollars worth of Horseshoes. But who's to say players won't simply create multiple accounts to loan out virtual goods with, only to later close the accounts? Not to mention that this could spell doom for parents who let their kids game on their Facebook accounts (stop that, will ya?).

FrontierVille: How to sell items from the homestead

    Money...     Money!
Sometimes even the most simple of things can be the most difficult to figure out. Selling items has become a common requirement in FrontierVille Goals. Though, there has been little explanation as to how we go about selling, say, 50 chickens for the recent 27 Comments Timed Goal. Without further delay, here's a short guide on how to sell items in FrontierVille.

Take a look after the break for how to sell items on the frontier.
Market Icon
First things first, you'll need to buy items to sell them, right? So, click the "Market" icon--it's got coins and fruit on it--in the lower right-hand corner. Then, click on any item to buy it, though some require Horseshoes instead of coins, so make sure you have enough to buy the given item.

AnimalMarket
For this tutorial, I bought a chicken. Once an item is purchased you'll be taken back to the homestead where your cursor will be replaced with the item you bought in the Market.

Clicking anywhere on the homestead while that square you see is green will finalize the purchase, but you can move items around if you don't like where they are.

My Tools
Moving items is done by clicking the arrow icon in the bottom right-hand corner just above the Market icon. This icon is actually called "My Tools" and has a breadth of options including the ability to move items, but we're concerned with one thing: making some cash back.

Sellin' a chicken
So, click on what appears to be a wooden bucket full of soap--everyone knows that's synonymous will sales--and your cursor will transform into just that: a big soapy bucket. Now, click on the item you want to sell, which in this case is a chicken, and you'll be prompted by our good old friend Frontier Jack to confirm whether you want to sell the item.

Frontier Jack
Select "Accept" to finalize the sale and, poof, coins will appear on your homestead for you to collect. (Click on the red "X" icon to return your cursor to normal.) Now, go forth and get those timed Goals completed. And don't think about where the chicken went and just focus on the task at hand, trust us.

FrontierVille Thanksgiving celebration coming soon

You smell that? The smell of fresh bread baking or of turkeys roasting - it can only mean one thing. Thanksgiving is coming folks, and fast at that. While we're all stuffing ourselves silly on cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and yams, make sure to frequently take a quick peek into the world of FrontierVille, as an upcoming Thanksgiving celebration in the game will give us something else to be thankful for.

We've seen a couple of preview images being posted on the game's official fan page, and with it comes the announcement that new collections, new missions, and new decorations will be coming to the game "soon." One image in particular shows off six items associated with the entire event. We can see what appears to be gravy, an RSVP in an envelope, some yams, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, and of course, the turkey itself. Whether these will be part of the new missions, or a new collection remains to be seen.

We'd imagine that this Thanksgiving content will most likely launch this weekend, or early next week at the latest, so to coincide with the holiday itself. Be sure to keep checking back with us as the Thanksgiving holiday grows closer, as we'll be able to bring you all of the info surrounding these new features.

FarmVille Thanksgiving Basket's ultimate prize is the Turkey Costume

While one might have guessed that this would be the outcome, we've learned today that the ultimate prize associated with FarmVille's new Thanksgiving Basket collection feature is the Turkey Costume for your avatar (not to be confused with the Baby Turkey costume currently available to purchase in the market).

However, where you might think that simply filling the basket to 150 Dishes will earn you this prize (since that is the top marking on the table's meter), the prize is actually only unlocked at twice that amount, or 300 Dishes. In addition, this simply becomes a seventh item that you can redeem your Dishes for. It's not an instant-win situation - you will have to trade in a whopping 300 dishes in order to earn this Turkey Costume for your avatar, so if you want to collect the other items as well, you'll need to start asking for lots of of Dishes, and soon; either that, or luck into receiving the free bonuses posted by your friends when they redeem Dishes for these items.

Either way, this costume does seem a bit too expensive when compared to the other items you can earn, but we suppose it does offer users that much more incentive to keep asking for, and sending Dishes. Whether or not it's worth it in the end, however, will ultimately be up to you to decide.

FarmVille Winter Holiday items: Sweet Shop, Pond, Stockings Arch, Winter Teddy & more

Tonight's FarmVille update brought with it not only new trees, animals, and avatar costumes, but it also saw the release of a slew of new decorative and building items in the game. There are eight new items to talk about in all - two buildings, and six decorations.

These decorations offer a combination of items that are entirely new to the game (like the Winter Home pictured above), and those that are re-releases of items from last year's theme, while the two buildings offer even more structures to add to your quaint Holiday Village on your farm.

Meet us behind the break for a full look at these newest items.

First off, let's take a look at the new buildings. They are the Winter Sweet Shop, and the Winter Home. For some of you, these items might seem incredibly familiar, and they should, as we gave you a special sneak peek of them last week.

The Winter Sweet Shop is the more expensive of the two items, simply because it is a premium item. It can be purchased for 30 Farm Cash, and you'll receive 3,000 experience points as a bonus for purchasing it. Meanwhile, the Winter Home costs 360,000 coins. No, this isn't a cheap item, but at least those who aren't willing to spend Farm Cash (or simply don't have that kind of Farm Cash available to spend in the first place) have a chance at this one. You'll gain a similar XP boost of 3,600 points if you go with this item instead.

Moving onto the decorative items, we see the re-release of an item that was first launched in the game during last year's holiday celebration, and the release of an item that is so much like one from last year that it's almost hard to spot the differences. These, of course, are released alongside some entirely new items.

The item from last year is the "Giant Snowflake I," which is available for just 1,500 coins. This snowflake was part of a three piece set last year, so it will be interesting to see if Zynga releases the other two snowflakes (appropriately called II and III) before the Winter Holiday theme ends for this year.

The other, clone-like item that I mentioned above is called the Giant Nutcracker, which is available for 80,000 coins. For those that were playing last year, you'll likely immediately think that this is the "Red Nutcracker" from last year, but don't be fooled! This Giant Nutcracker (pictured at left in the image below) has more elaborate detailing around the crown and beard, is wearing red pants instead of blue, and is a touch smaller in size than last year's version. Still, though, the differences are so minor at a glance that this farmer is going to skip out on purchasing it, since my Red Nutcrackers from last year do the job just fine.

Moving on, there are four entirely new items, in the form of the Winter Pond, Winter Fireplace, Stockings Arch, and Winter Teddy. Three of the four are premium items, with the Winter Pond costing the most at 30 Farm Cash, while the Winter Fireplace and Stockings Arch cost 10 and 5 Farm Cash, respectively. Each of these will reward you with experience points for purchasing them - 3,000, 1,000 or 500, depending on the item you purchase (in that order).

As for the Winter Teddy, this is a large teddy bear item, that's even bigger than your in-game avatar, which is available for 100,000 coins. As usual, you'll earn 10% of the purchase price as an experience reward for purchasing it, meaning that you'll receive 1,000 points in all.

All of these items, whether a building or a decorative item will only be available for the next 12 days. While that may not seem like a long time elsewhere, in the world of FarmVille we expect to see Zynga releasing a slew of new items before the Holidays have had a chance to slip by for another year.

CityVille on Facebook reaches 22 million, rivals real world's largest cities

CityVille FrontierVille Promo
When Zynga recently mentioned that CityVille is the company's fastest growing social game it was no joke. According to Inside Social Games, the game has reached 22 million monthly players as of this morning (in less than two weeks), which would make it a faster growing game than not only FrontierVille, but all Zynga games--including FarmVille-- to date. And if this insane growth is possible after Facebook shut down nearly all viral channels for social games, there is only one question to ask: How?

The Zynga Name
Well, let's start from the beginning. Zynga already has an established reputation for social gaming being connected to FarmVille alone, so that certainly helps. In other words, folks were just waiting for CityVille since we first heard word of it back in August. But it takes more than just a reputation to garner this much of a following so quickly.

Let's take this dissection behind the break and see how CityVille became the fastest-growing Zynga game ever.
CityVille in German
Willkommen bei CityVille
That's "Welcome to CityVille" in German (roughly), one of CityVille's five supported languages and most likely key to the game's rapid growth. Translated into Spanish, French and Italian in addition to German and standard English, CityVille is open to a whole new world of players (literally) without the need for intense localization by remote studios. However, this is also because European culture is much more similar to American culture than, say, Chinese or Japanese culture. If the game were to later be translated into those languages, some more intensive localization would have to go down in order to fall in line with cultural customs--which is already underway for FarmVille in Japan and has been done with Zynga Poker in China. At any rate, being open to a more diverse range of players has almost certainly increased Zynga's reach with CityVille.

Hey You, Come Try This Game!Facebook Game Notifications
While cross promotions for CityVille have just recently been popping up in the Zynga Game Bar above each of its games, it's the in-game promotions that are likely grabbing more of us every day. And although this isn't necessarily a new method, it is effective for sure. I don't know about you, but seeing a massive billboard for another game in my farm certainly piques my interest. With results like this already blowing up, I would expect cross promotions for CityVille to stick around for a long time.

"Bobby Sue just sent you Miscellaneous Item #27 in CityVille."
Yes, viral growth has returned. Well, at least a little bit. Facebook game requests have recently started popping in our Notifications on the home page including anything from help requests to gifts. And since you can send gifts to non-players, these Notifications are likely appearing for the social game pure as well. Not to mention that Zynga's infamous "BegVille" techniques have made a not-so-triumphant return in CityVille, which in a way could be helping the game grow through persistence. It's a bit of a stretch, but being constantly reminded about a game could lead to players mentioning in conversation, spreading the news via word of mouth. Multiply that by a few million people and you've got yourself an inadvertent source of growth.

And if CityVille keeps going at this rate, CityVille will soon overtake Cafe World and later FrontierVille in the list of Zynga's top Facebook games. However, is it possible for the game to come close to FarmVille much less thwart it as the developer's number one game? Well, that's up for you, the players, to decide.

FarmVille Unreleased: My Snowman and Snowball Fights coming soon

My Snowman 1
If you thought the winter festivities in FarmVille would end with the Holiday Tree and the upcoming New Year's Eve Party, think again. Our good friends at FarmVille Freak recently detailed an upcoming Snowman event on their podcast, but it's just now that they've posted images of the unreleased content. It appears that much like in FrontierVille, players in FarmVille will be able to build their very own Snowman.

Find more details and images behind the break.

My Snowman 2
If these preview images are any indication, it will play out similar to several recent building events with players asking one another for gifts in order to complete the Snowman. Yet, there is one small twist. We expect this event to be rolled out in conjunction with something even more exciting: Snowball Fights. According to FarmVille Freak, this is exactly how we will "gift" each other the snow needed to build our Snowmen. A pile of snow will accumulate on our farms from throwing so much of it and with that we'll be able to build an icy, flaky friend.

My Snowman 3
Better yet, it appears that after either accumulating enough snow or giving your Snowman a special item, it will dance for you on the farm. Finally, our very own Frosty the Snowman for the farm--let's just hope this one doesn't melt away. Stay tuned to your farm for when this feature goes live and right here for a detailed guide.

Find the rest of our Holiday 2010 coverage right here.

What do you think of the FarmVille Snowman and Snowball Fights features? Will this get in the way of your Holiday Tree progress or will you juggle both?

CrowdStar's Mighty Pirates: A treasure trove of Facebook gaming

Mighty Pirates Battle
Since Playfish's Pirates Ahoy! all but sunk a few months ago with little to no activity, swashbuckling Facebook gamers have been hankering for a fix to their rampant peg legging. Well, move over Pirates Ahoy! as CrowdStar has met the demand with Mighty Pirates. A pirate game with multiple layers through two different gameplay modes and a sprawling storyline (completed through collecting treasure maps) designed to guide players along, this just might be the answer to our inkling for island hopping.

Find out if Mighty Pirates is the game for you after the break.
Island Exploration
Mighty Pirates operates on two levels: Exploration and Battle. The former is accessed by clicking on any one of the island surrounding your vessel, which will immediately transport your avatar (who will strangely appear in his skivvies) to the island. It's from here that you will have to search under every tree, bush and piece of rock to hopefully find a piece of the treasure map and some resources along the way. But beware, skeletal pirates lurk beneath the sand, and will need to be dealt with if you want to complete the entire island. Depending on the area in which you're digging, it will expend a certain amount of Island Energy, which is only used for exploration. As for the other form of Energy, you'll be spending that by firing off a cannon ball or two.

Now, this is where the real fun begins. To access Battle Mode, all you need to do is click on any of the surrounding ships while on the home screen, but be wary of the opponent's level in comparison to your own. Once in Battle, you'll be trading blows in a turn-based style fight with the enemy. As for your options, there are only three: Fire Cannon, Put out Fire and Improve Weapon Accuracy. The amount of Crew Members you've added to your ship--the amount you can have increases with level--affects the amount of actions you can take in a single turn (they'll also be around to help in Exploration). The main goal of Battle is the destroy the opponent's ship while keeping your own from burning down die to fire damage, which becomes an interesting balance given that fire damage puts a dent into your ship's health points every turn. Winning battles rewards you with experience, coins and sometimes even a treasure map piece.

Battle Mode
While turn based battles with big explosions are certainly enjoyable, what makes warfare more interesting in Mighty Pirates is that every ship you engage in naval combat is an actual player of the game. While these battles don't occur in real time, the player will be updated upon logging in of whether they won or lost a battle. And to tack on even greater risks, you can even steal treasure map pieces from enemies by defeating them (and vise versa), which is certainly an incentive to keep your ship in tip top shape.

As you progress in the game through either Battles or Exploration, you'll gain access to improved parts for your ship such as cannons, hulls and sterns. However, you'll also need resources like Iron and Wood, which can only be found while digging for treasure on various islands. That being said, it's not wise to play to only one of the game's two primary modes. Also, leveling up will allow players to increase their Battle statistics like attack power, defense and accuracy, all of which are necessary but are open to different play styles. Though, a high accuracy rating is pretty much a must-have in battle or you'll end up making more splashes than explosions.

Might Pirates Home Screen
If you end up growing tired of a particular area, you can Set Sail once every eight hours to a new set of islands to explore and ships to battle. Though, we'd recommend at least exploring an entire map first before leaving to another region. Just remember to keep track of your Journal progress so that you move along through the game's story smoothly and you should do just fine. Just watch out for those pesky enemy pirates just waiting to thwart your progress. This brief player vs. player element combined with strategic turn-based battles and exploration make for what could be the next big pirate adventure on Facebook.

Click here to play Might Pirates on Facebook Now>

FarmVille on Film: It's not that easy to Escape the Farm

Just try it, you'll see. Innocent FarmVille player Kelly is suffering in the workplace due to her FarmVille addiction, so she decides to quit. However, this short video, titled "Escape the Farm," makes one thing clear: one does not simply leave the farm. Apparently, a secret organization known as "The Farm" knows when you leave and what they do to players who quit is not pretty. Now, let's just hope Zynga doesn't resort to tactics like this to bring back retired players.

[Via FarmVille Freak]

Have you tried to escape the farm before? Do you see FarmVille any differently after watching this mini-horror?

Raise the Village on iPhone: An inspiring game of making a difference

Social games have proven well over the past year their charitable worth. FarmVille alone has raised millions to erect a school in Haiti in wake of the recent, tragic earthquake disaster. But what if the game and the cause were one in the same? New Charity Era L3C and Intersog have already achieved just that with Raise the Village. A mobile social game that inherently contributes to a social cause, Raise the Village allows players to foster their own Ugandan village while contributing to the growth and sustainability of a real village in Uganda, Kapir Atiira. If you've yet to pay real cash for virtual goods, this could very well be the game that inspires you to take that leap.

Find our full impressions of Raise the Village after the break.

Raise the Village in action
Raise the Village, available on all 3G plus iOS devices including the iPad and iPod Touch for free, tasks players with cultivating a Ugandan village, increasing the Spirit, Health and Mind of its people as well as its population by placing new homes, crop farms and plenty other essentials on an expanding plot of land. Keep in mind that every item and task in the game is directly inspired by what these Ugandan villagers need and do every day. For instance, if you direct a village hut to create soap for your villagers within the iPhone game, Charity Era L3C will literally deliver bars of soap to the people of Kapir Atiira.

This is done through Florin, the game's paid currency. For every action performed or item purchased using Florin, Charity Era L3C will deliver that exact item to the Kapir Atiira, because only the items that the people of Kapir Atiira need appear in the game. In other words, just by playing the game and making purchases you're literally providing aid to this real Ugandan village in need. When items are created using Florin and delivered to Kapir Atiira, the company will send you photos in real time of the aid items being delivered. Bought a few mosquito nets for your digital village? Days later, you'll get a message from the game containing photos of that same delivery being made to Kapir Atiira.

Players are encouraged to compete with one another and compare their villages' Spirit, Mind and Health levels as well as maximum population. In order to find friends to play with, you can use both Facebook Connect and your phone's contact list for that.

Soap Action
Players can also earn Village Points through their actions, which allow them to enjoy many parts of the game without spending their money on Florin. Tasks such as creating buildings and learning how a Ugandan village like Kapir Atiira truly operates can be performed using Village Points. However, there isn't much reason to play Raise the Village if you don't plan on donating outside of learning about the village. And that is the primary hurdle for Raise the Village to clear.

While the gameplay is smooth and its presentation is top notch for a game designed to run on nearly all iOS devices, it's sad to say that Raise the Village is one of the first social games where payment is almost required for full enjoyment of the game. But when the purchases revolve around fostering a real-life, impoverished village community, is that really a bad thing? Is that too much pressure for the average social gamer? While those questions will be up for debate for some time, it can't be argued that Raise the Village is one of the most well conceived, planned and presented social games on the iPhone and is hopefully the start of a growing trend.

CityVille: Changes to interface make the game more hassle-free!

By now, most of us have gotten pretty used to the gameplay in CityVille, and by extension, we've also gotten used to the design problems (however few, or minor) that have been present in the user interface. Two of these problems have been fixed by Zynga, as they have announced via the game's official forums that the technical side of gameplay has now been streamlined to be more user, or at least "patience" friendly.

First and foremost, you'll no longer receive a pop-up every time you collect a collectible from a building, when that collectible is going into a collection that has already been completed, but has yet to be turned in. That is, if you're saving up all of your "Peaceful Living Collection" items, because you simply don't need any more free White Picket Fences, you'll no longer be bothered by a pop-up that must be clicked on, alerting you that you've completed the collection again and again. This will greatly help those that like to max out their Bonus Meters, as you won't have to stop clicking on Bonus items long enough to close the window, and therefore won't be as likely to lose your streak without hitting the "Masterful" level in the meter.

Another big change comes with the new ability to now use Battery (read: Energy) items from your inventory in rapid succession, without having to wait for the inventory to close, and open the inventory all over again. Essentially, this will save you from having to reopen and close the inventory ad nauseum, which makes recharging your energy that much easier when doing so with gifts accepted from friends.

Two other changes worth mentioning come with quests and other in-game items, not associated with the gameplay menus. They see a change in the Cinema Quest line, that removes a bug that would stop the Cinema from being available to purchase even after unlocking it in the previous quest, and an addition of Support and Forum links to the game page, so that all players now have instant access to Zynga's support site and the official forums, should they experience problems while playing CityVille.

FarmVille: Get ready for a New Years Double Mastery Weekend!

Are you ready for another Double Mastery Weekend in FarmVille? I hope you are, because starting at 9:00 PM PST time tonight, Zynga will be flipping the switches on another installment of Double Mastery Weekend, in honor of the New Year holiday.

This means that any time you harvest crops from 9:00 PM PST this evening, until the event ends at 9:00 PM PST on January 2 (Sunday), you'll earn an extra mastery point. If you don't use a bushel while harvesting, this means you'll earn 2 mastery points for every single crop your harvest. Remember, though, this effect will stack with crop bushels, meaning that when one is used, you'll earn three - count them, three - points of mastery for each individual square of a crop that you harvest, so long as you do so before it withers.

This is a great opportunity for all of us to master some of those higher level crops that take more than 1,000 harvests per some star levels, as you'll cut your farming time down to a third of its original length! How great is that?! Make sure to take advantage of this great opportunity while it's available this weekend.

FrontierVille: Timed Missions will expire tonight if you don't accept them now!

If you've been holding off on accepting one of the many Timed Missions we've seen released in FrontierVille over the recent weeks and months, now is definitely the time to do so, as when the year of 2010 comes to an end this evening, it will take with it your ability to accept four Timed Missions in the game. Say goodbye to the mission, but also say goodbye to any exclusive prizes that you could earn if you had accepted them.

The expiring missions are the Playtime!, Mutton Bustin', Hoedown, and Barbecue Party missions. We have complete guides on how to finish each and every one of these missions, so don't feel overwhelmed if you've yet to start any of them. Remember, depending on the mission, you'll have varying amounts of time (2 - 5 days) to complete these missions once you accept them. There are tons of rewards to earn here, like Experience Points, Coins, and even some decorative items, including the musical Fiddle, which is otherwise only available as a Horseshoe item.

Check out the guides to complete these four missions below, and good luck to all those that attempt to take them on in a mad dash to the finish!

Playtime! Mission Guide
Hoedown Mission Guide
Barbecue Party Mission Guide
Mutton Bustin' Mission Guide

Cafe World: The Saga of the New Years Goals continues, but this time with free iPads!

Heya Chefs! We've been taking an in-depth look at how Zynga will be ringing in the New Year in Cafe World throughout this week, and at simply how much work needs to be done in an assumed short amount of time. Many users (myself included) are questioning whether or not it will even be worth it to complete the eight New Years Party Goals, even if we miss out on four exclusive recipes in the process, just because of how many things we need to collect, mostly with friends' help.

Zynga is looking to get players back into the gaming spirit, however, as they have offered some amazing real world incentive for users to finish the eight missions. They are now holding a contest, where each person that finishes all eight goals will automatically be entered to win one of 5 iPads, 5 iPod Touches, and 5 Flip Cameras! How's that for incentive!?

These are some fantastic prizes, worth hundreds of dollars in the real world, and they definitely work to create a shining light at the end of the very long tunnel that is these New Years Goals. However, if you can do so before January 10, you'll be entered for your chance to win!

What's in a name: Playdom rebrands City of Might as City of Warfare?

Not much, apparently. Fusible reports that Gardens of Time maker Playdom filed for the trademark "City of Warfare" with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Oct. 26. While the website seems to think that the developer is creating a whole new game, we're thinking that Playdom might simply be rebranding its upcoming City of Might as City of Warfare.

Regardless, the game will almost certainly center around the same premise that we caught a glimpse of at this year's E3. When we last saw City of Might, it looked to build a franchise out of Playdom's existing City of Wonder and enter new genres. However, the game appeared to be terribly reminiscent of competitors like Empires & Allies and perhaps more hardcore social strategy games.

The game was expected to launch this summer, but has yet to leave its closed beta test. Since then, Playdom has teased two more games, Galaxy of Wonder and Secret Agent X. The first of which sounds like it will take the familiar City of Wonder gameplay into a new environment, while the latter appears to entertain new gameplay ideas.

Regardless, City of Migh--er, Warfare should be close to release, if the company was willing to show it in action months ago. Fusible mentions that it nailed the Gnome Town trademark right on the nose, only for Playdom to release the game days later, so perhaps we're even closer. The developer also plans to release games focusing on Disney brands--it's about time.

Angry Birds flies (and crashes) past half a billion downloads [Video]

The Angry Birds games are, for all intents and purposes, a cultural phenomenon at this point. And that's chalked up to more than just how many times the games have been downloaded--the things are dang near everywhere. Rovio CMO Peter Vesterbacka announced at Slush 2011 in Finland that its flagship game series has been downloaded over 500 million times.

And, according to TechCrunch, the game reportedly experienced 100 million of those downloads in the past two weeks alone. As of earlier this month, the game enjoys over 130 million monthly players and over 30 million daily players. To put things into perspective, the equivalent of over half of Zynga's monthly player base across all of its games is playing a single game.

Rovio is doing everything in its power to keep the money-printing franchise relevant. Everything from Angry Birds plush toys to t-shirts and a cookbook have been released. (Let's not forget about the feature film that's slated for 2014.) And to celebrate, Rovio created this nifty video showing off how awesome it is. The red bird literally soars through milestones, one of which being that 200,000 years worth of Angry Birds has been played to date.

No wonder Rovio is eying up a $1 billion initial public offering. However, many wonder whether the franchise can remain relevant as the Finnish developer skyrockets toward its goal of 1 billion Angry Birds players. To ensure everything goes according to plan, Rovio looks to bring the birds into new game genres. Angry Karts, anyone?


[Image Credit: Mohamed Raoof]

Do you think the Angry Birds can go up from here? What type of Angry Birds game would you like to see next?

How FarmVille-maker Zynga is changing the game industry

Some might say Hollywood has had the biggest influence on gaming, and others will argue that the late Steve Jobs is one of the most important figures in gaming. FarmVille-maker Zynga is also wielding a pretty big hammer, though you might be hard pressed to find many game makers who will freely admit to it.

Save for MMO maker Todd Coleman. The KingsIsle creative director, responsible for the kid-friendly MMO Wizard 101, says that Zynga games were a major inspiration for Grub Guardians, an online tower defense game that also serves as a companion game to Wizard 101.

"We're taking a trick from the Zynga playbook," he says. "The trick is that players like to connect to a game's advancement curve, they like to make forward progress from whatever device they have handy."

In this case, players who want to get ahead in Wizard 101, but don't have a computer handy, will be able to do so by playing Grub Guardians. Play a few rounds of the tower defense game in whatever browser you have handy (and later on iOS and Android devices), then score new items and experience for your pet in Wizard.

"Sometimes players take 15 minutes, sometimes two hours, sometimes just 30 seconds to play Wizard. We thought it would be interesting to expose smaller, more digestible entry points to make advancements in the game," Coleman says.

The one way Zynga isn't influencing this MMO developer? Metrics. Zynga is notorious for crunching numbers and then using them to drive the game making process. Coleman maintains that when it comes to making games with more complexity than, say, FarmVille, you can't just rely on data to make decisions. Sometimes, he says, you just have to go with your gut.

Coleman and crew's guts seems to be leading down the right path (Wizard 101 has 13 million unique users a month, according to the Gamasutra article), though it's also hard to argue with Zynga's number crunching ways when a simple game like FarmVille brings in 28 million players a month. In the battle of gut vs. numbers -- numbers win. Or do they?

Quote of the Moment: 'There is no right way to do [social games]'

That's what Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price (pictured) said to GameSpot during an interview. The company has recently created Insomniac Click, its very own social games studio. But forming a social games wing has had deeper effects than simply making executives see green. Social gaming has apparetly permeated how the studio approaches its core game franchises like Resistance and Rachet & Clank on the PS3.

"What we are learning as we get further into social game development is the importance of on-boarding, the importance of social hooks, and reaching the broadest audience possible while delivering a AAA experience," Price told GameSpot. "These are things that we of course considered in console development, but as we are building social games we have to be even more focused on particular aspects of development, and because of that, we are learning a lot that also applies to our console games. And as a result, we are learning lessons that we probably wouldn't have learned if we were purely focused on our console games."

In other words, social games have had a visible effect on how the studio creates and maintains its existing console games. No, you won't come across farms to grow as you fend off the alien invasion, but you might "share" the fun with your friends. Price went on to say that the existence of Insomniac Click has led the studio to consider a bigger focus on community in its games. Then, the Insomniac head gets even more real for a second.

"Well, most of us are trying to figure out exactly where we want to focus in terms of making our mark in social games, because there is so much experimentation happening every day, and there is no right way to do it," Price said. "That's what is exciting about it." (And we seriously doubt Insomniac Games is alone there.)That's what Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price (pictured) said to GameSpot during an interview. The company has recently created Insomniac Click, its very own social games studio. But forming a social games wing has had deeper effects than simply making executives see green. Social gaming has apparetly permeated how the studio approaches its core game franchises like Resistance and Rachet & Clank on the PS3.

"What we are learning as we get further into social game development is the importance of on-boarding, the importance of social hooks, and reaching the broadest audience possible while delivering a AAA experience," Price told GameSpot. "These are things that we of course considered in console development, but as we are building social games we have to be even more focused on particular aspects of development, and because of that, we are learning a lot that also applies to our console games. And as a result, we are learning lessons that we probably wouldn't have learned if we were purely focused on our console games."

In other words, social games have had a visible effect on how the studio creates and maintains its existing console games. No, you won't come across farms to grow as you fend off the alien invasion, but you might "share" the fun with your friends. Price went on to say that the existence of Insomniac Click has led the studio to consider a bigger focus on community in its games. Then, the Insomniac head gets even more real for a second.

"Well, most of us are trying to figure out exactly where we want to focus in terms of making our mark in social games, because there is so much experimentation happening every day, and there is no right way to do it," Price said. "That's what is exciting about it." (And we seriously doubt Insomniac Games is alone there.)

Supercell blows up on Facebook with real-time multiplayer Gunshine.net

Many seem to believe that hardcore or traditional gamers are waiting to be captivated on Facebook. Helinski, Finland based social game developer Supercell would be one of them. After five months of open beta testing, the company has formally released Gunshine.net to Facebook, an isometric, real-time multiplayer RPG (role-playing game) for the core gaming crowd.

The game already exists on the website of the same name, but this version is said to combine an open world and real-time combat with social features like hiring friends and team creation to take on daunting bosses. Gunshine.net takes place in a dystopian, sci-fi world where players do battle on an isometric map. Players arrive in a pristine island called Dreamwake, tasked with fighting off infected citizens and later uncover just what's going on here.

Ultimately, Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen wants to prove that this type of social game can work successfully on Facebook. "We intend to get ahead of the curve and challenge the big guys," Paananen said in a release. "With Gunshine.net, we wanted to reach a niche group of gamers that enjoy playing a rich, MMO-style game in a sci-fi, dystopian setting, and we wanted to prove that this type of model works on Facebook. Our next step is to widen Supercell's reach by launching games that offer similar styles of rich game play, but with themes that have broader appeal."
Gunshine.net Intro
Gunshine.net currently hosts 160,000 monthly players and 20,000 daily players, according to AppData. The game certainly looks impressive, with full 3D visuals, and a heavy focus on plot before getting to the multiplayer aspects. We've yet to see traditional-style games do well on Facebook aside from the few strategy game makers, but perhaps blowing up a few zombies in an RPG is just what the doctor ordered.

FrontierVille Red, Pink, and White Rose Collections now available

Today has been absolutely huge for new releases in FrontierVille, with Zynga not only releasing a new building in the form of a Chapel (along with accompanying goals and a new collection), but also releasing a trio of new Valentine's Day themed rose crops. As any pioneer knows, the release of a crop in the game isn't complete without a collection to go along with it (giving users permanent incentive to growing said crops), so this time there are three new collections to speak of, one each for Red Roses, Pink Roses, and White Roses.

The Red Rose Collection asks you to find five items - a Red Rose Petal, Red Rose Vase, Red Rose Thorn, Red Rosebud, and 12 Red Roses. All of these items can be acquired by simply planting and harvesting Red Roses on your homestead, or by tending to Red Roses that your friends have planted on their Homesteads.

The prizes for completing the Red Rose Collection are a Red Rose Arbor and 25 XP.

Meet us behind the break for a look at the other two rose collections (hint: they're basically identical).
As we said, once you've started collecting items from the Red Roses collection, you'll instantly know what to expect from the White and and Pink Rose Collections.

The White Rose Collection asks you to find the following:

White Rose Petal
White Rose Vase
White Rose Thorn
White Rosebud
12 White Roses

The rewards for finishing this collection are one White Rose Arbor and 25 XP.

If you haven't guessed yet, the Pink Rose Collection is exactly the same as the other two - simply replace "White" or "Red" with "Pink," and you have the collection in a nutshell. To be specific, you'll be looking for:

Pink Rose Petal
Pink Rose Vase
Pink Rose Thorn
Pink Rosebud
12 Pink Roses

You'll receive a Pink Rose Arbor and 25 XP for completing this final Rose-themed collection.

Both the White Rose and Pink Rose collectible items can be earned in the same way - either by harvesting your own White or Pink Roses, or by tending to the same on your friends' Homesteads. Good luck in completing them!

Check out the rest of our Valentine's Day coverage right here.

What do you think of these new collections? Would you rather original collections be available for each crop, rather than the same prizes only in different colors?

FarmVille Sneak Peek: Valentine Pony, Reflective Heart Pool, and ... Pink Candy Corn?

Luckily, it seems that Zynga isn't near done with releasing Valentine's Day themed items in FarmVille, as we've come across another set of as-of-now unreleased images of items that we believe will be launching in the game in the near future. There are two new animals here, a new decorative item and something that is being referred to as a "Valentine Bonus Prize," but we'll get to that later.

The two animals are the Valentine Pony and the Valentine Pony Foal. You'll be able to add the Valentine Pony to your collection either as a Mystery Game item, store item, or through some other method, and will then have a chance of breeding a Valentine Pony Foal if you place it into your Horse Stable with a Stallion.
Meanwhile, a Reflective Heart Pool is a lovely new decorative item that comes in the shape of a heart with multi-colored flowers arranged on the outside. Finally, the Valentine Bonus Prize that we mentioned earlier looks to be the final prize available from the Valentine Mailbox, which we are now almost certain will update to receive new prize items in the future,just as the Holiday Tree updated at the end of last year. What will be inside this Valentine Mystery Box remains a mystery; however, it's pretty safe to say that it will be an animal, based on the image above.

Finally, a new limited edition crop looks to be coming to the game in the form of Pink Candy Corn. The exact details to this crop (growth time and cost, profits, and so on) remain to be seen, but we'll be sure to bring you all of that and more when and if the crop launches in the game in full.

Check out the rest of our Valentine's Day coverage right here.

Which of these items are you most looking forward to seeing added to FarmVille?

Game of the Day: Call of Atlantis

The Game of the Day rolls on and takes to ancient times with Call of Atlantis. Call of Atlantis is three great game genres rolled into one.It's part match 3 (like Bejeweled) part hidden object (like Mystery Case Files), part adventure and all awesome. Trek across ancient cities collecting the seven mysterious crystals of power.


Important side note: Just by playing The Game of the Day you will be entered into a monthly drawing to win a FlipCam HD. You don't need to do anything else, just play! The more you play, the more chances you have to win. For more information on the Game of Day check out the official Game of the Day hub.
Click here to play Call of Atlantis

Nab a FarmVille Alpine Goat, turn Facebook Credits into Farm Cash

Zynga sure is taking this whole Facebook Credits thing seriously, huh? If you've stocked up on Facebook Credits recently or just want a brand new animal to play around with on the farm, trading in any amount of Facebook Credits for Farm Cash will reward you with an Alpine Goat in FarmVille. The Alpine Goat first appeared during the German Event of last year, so consider this a second chance.

The Alpine Goat harvests every three days for 84 coins and originally cost 14 Farm Cash, but now you can grab him for a buck. That's right, any of the three above packages will reward you with the goat. For the uninformed, 10 Facebook Credits is $1 in real money as 50 Credits is equal to $5 and 200 is $20. This offer expires in just over 59 hours as of this writing, so scrounge up that dollar quick if you want old Billy here.

CityVille Bookstore and Goal: Everything you need to know

A new business has dropped in CityVille, the Bookstore. However, you'll need to complete a daunting task for access to the building. In "Opening the Books," you'll need to either add two brand new neighbors to the game or have a total of 25 already. Then, you will just have to visit two of those friends to complete the Goal and unlock the Bookstore.

Once unlocked, the Bookstore costs 3 thousand coins, earns 430 coins for every 100 Goods spent. Whether it's worth finding more friends or having a metric ton of them is up to you, but it will unlock a shiny new Collection. For more tips on good use of businesses, check out our guide.

FarmVille Pic of the Day: Dénise Le Grand's white elephant puzzle

Folks, I have been playing FarmVille and writing FarmVille news for a long time, and I can confidently say I've never come across an elephant jigsaw puzzle farm...until now. Ms. Le Grand (also known as Heartagirl on the FV Forums) has blown me away with her creative farm design. A jigsaw puzzle farm? Of a white elephant? It's pure genius!

But the big picture isn't everything. If you look closely you can see that many of the pieces are made up of different animals, hay bales, and crops. Not to mention that cool optical illusion of a piece being put in place at the top. Even the elephant itself is very carefully designed, look at the shadows representing the legs on the far side. Well done Ms. Le Grand, your farm is, without a doubt, one of a kind.

Continue reading to see what Dénise Le Grand had to say about her farm art.
farmville pic of the day denise le grand elephant puzzle
What inspired your creative jigsaw puzzle farm design?
What inspired me first was the elephant. I love elephants and in real life I collect them in all shapes and materials. The second thing was the jigsaw. I also love jigsaws and I thought it would be great to make something with shadows and pieces falling together but not finished yet. So I immediately thought of a jigsaw with 1 piece still not in place.

Do you have any awesome decorating tips to share?
Don't freak out when you see some farm designs! Just start simple and keep trying and make the design more difficult every time you make something. Draw the design first, like I do, and keep the drawing next to you or find something online you like and start making the outlines with hay bales. Most importantly, remember that designing farms takes time, so having problems sleeping might help ;)

My elephant farm is the 3rd farm I entered for competition and was also my 3rd big farm design I made.

How did you go about making those perfectly shaped puzzle pieces and elephant? Was it difficult?
First I started to make the squares with shadow, then I made them into jigsaw pieces. Then I made the outlining of the elephant. Was it difficult? Yes and no.

How long did it take you to complete the design?
It took me much longer then the other designs I made. The part that was difficult was the design itself 'cause I started with jigsaw pieces that were not placed together yet. I restarted 3 times before I was on the right track. It took me 4 or 5 days, but that's also 'cause I wanted to make it as perfect as possible, 'cause it was an elephant.

What do you think of Ms. Le Grand's Great White Elephant Puzzle farm? Tell us in the comments below.

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! Bookmark this site!

Check out the rest of our FarmVille Cheats & Tips right here.

Wishful Features: CityVille Franchises need more control

Ever launched a Franchise in a friend's CityVille town only to have it produce nothing? Maybe the player quit the game without deleting it. Perhaps he just doesn't care about your Franchise. Worse even, have you had a friend launch a franchise in your own city, only for him to never supply it?

The only control we have over Franchises at the moment is preventing them from establishing in our own cities, and removing them once they're created. To delete one of our own Franchises from a friend's city, we need to ask that friend to delete it themselves. What if that friend quit playing the game without telling anyone (not that this is his responsibility). And forget whatever crummy franchise you put down in Samantha's city. That's there for good. CityVille forum contributor Jammsbro started a thread simply titled, "I hate greedy players," which spawned from this very issue. And it could be easily avoided if Zynga allowed us more direct control over our Franchises.

Say you created a Coffee Shop Franchise early on in the game, and you realize that it's simply not as profitable as, say, the Sushi Bar Franchise. However, some of the players whose cities host your Coffee Shops are no longer active. At the moment, you are stuck with those busted old java houses. I'm no designer, but I can't imagine it would be too difficult for Zynga to add the option to delete our Franchises remotely. That way, we could make good on our poor, early game decisions.

This wouldn't only allow players to rake in more profits. Wouldn't players be more proactive and selective about their Franchises in fear of having to delete or being deleted? Giving players the ability to delete Franchises would create more competition and more communication between friends in order to weed out the inactive players. So, please Zynga, let us control our unwieldy Franchises.

[Image Credit: CityVille Tips and Tricks]

Do you think CityVille would benefit from more control over Franchises? How else do you think Franchises could be improved?

Poll: What brings you back to FarmVille after 100 levels?

It's Game Over!
For 14 million daily players, FarmVIlle is an absolute blast. However, Zynga actually rewards little to that elite player base. Like forum contributor WanderYeNot says, "I don't see why that is... it's like punishing you for being a loyal player." Farm Cash isn't rewarded to players, nor is much anything else. Some players claim that it isn't all about levels, which might be true. But levels should mean something, no? In the meantime, what is it that brings you veterans coming back past Level 100?

What brings you back to FarmVille past Level 100?
It doesn't. I'm so bored of that game!What do you mean? I have all these crops to master.I like the events throughout the year.It keeps me in touch with my friends.
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An Hour Without FarmVille: What would you do?

Facebook has been shut down for one hour. All access to the website has been blocked off and no apps calling to it like Facebook Mobile or--gasp--games can receive any data. For all intents and purposes, Facebook is, nay, FarmVille is dead for 60 minutes. What do you do? Alright, so Facebook really isn't shut down. (But how many of you checked?)

Angie Bird, a 26-year-old Facebooker and environmentalist has attempted to contact Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, to ask the dreaded question Social Times reports. Earth Hour is coming up, a 60-minute period of celebration and observance of our planet. Everything goes off--Internet, TV, cell phones, videogames--in respect of the energy it consumes.

Will Zuckerberg pull the plug and lead the ceremony? Doubtful, but that ripple-effect-waiting-happen begs questioning. What would we do if Facebook games shut off for one hour? Would you go about your business? Is there work to be done around the house? How about your loved ones; is some quality time in order? These are the things that people might not think about when engrossed in their individual conquests for levels and mastery signs.

These are the things that we could all think about more. Now, don't get me wrong. Turning off for an hour and clicking some crops is a harmless hobby. (And a fun one at that.) Perhaps these are the questions in life that FarmVille addicts fail to ask after finding FarmVille. Many people question whether Facebook game addicts even exist, or if it's even possible to become addicted to a game. If this is the effect of social games on certain folks, an entrancing distraction from real life, then it's somewhat easier to understand an addict's side of the story.

That being said, asking ourselves what we would do without FarmVille, before feeling as if we need it, might be a good way to avoid getting hooked. Not to mention it could help grant some perspective surrounding this issue of "addiction" and claims of "evil" flying off the handle. (That, frankly, a lot of people need.) So, do yourself a favor some time, and go do something else for an hour. The next time you come back to the farm, you might appreciate it that much more.

What would you for an hour if FarmVille shut down? Have you tried to step away from Facebook games for awhile? How did it change your perpestive toward them?

Maple Story is coming to Facebook, free-to-play goes social once again

MapleStory, one of the most successful free-to-play MMOs out there from Nexon, will launch a Facebook edition this summer. The 2D, side-scrolling multiplayer game has had 102.4 million subscribers as of Sept. 2009, and Nexon clearly hopes to bring that runaway success to Facebook. The nearly 6-year-old game will be known as MapleStory Adventures on Facebook, and will reportedly have a simpler interface while allowing players to complete quests, level up and defeat monsters in the same style.

However, it's unknown whether the multiplayer component of the game will be asynchronous (think friend interaction in FrontierVille) or real time like the original. Regardless, the game will adopt the micro transaction it has always employed. So, think of this as merely a transition rather than an update--with a ton more potential players.

    Expanding our global IPs into the social and mobile gaming space is a watershed moment in Nexon's global expansion efforts, said Daniel Kim, CEO of Nexon America. Not only will this move provide new ways for hundreds of millions of fans worldwide to experience Nexon's games, it allows Nexon the opportunity to prove the robustness of its business model on new platforms.

Nexon will also be releasing KartRider later this month as an iOS and Android game later this month. It will be called KartRider Rush and feature the same distribution model as MapleStory for Facebook. Players will be able to compare scores with one another over Facebook Connect, and will allow for real time, four-player racing. That's great, but we all know what the real news is: Adorable chibi warriors will finally be at your Facebooking fingertips this summer.

Would you play MapleStory on Facebook? What do you think of free-to-play MMOs' migration to Facebook?

FrontierVille: The snow is gone and green trees have returned

If you're one in a warmer climate, you'll be happy to know that Zynga has updated FrontierVille's "weather" to match your new Spring climate. That's right, after a few months, winter has officially left the game, bringing back the original green Oak and Pine Trees that we all love (or perhaps simply love to hate).

This means that all of your current trees should have automatically transformed from lifeless and snow-covered to lush and green, and that any new trees that grow on your Homestead should match. If they are still snow-covered on your Homestead, simply wait a few hours, and we're sure the update will come around to you.

Aside from simply looking better, remember that you can also use these trees to bring out a Robin Egg and trigger the Spring has Sprung missions on your land, which will really help you get in the mood for warmer weather.

What do you think of the melting of the snow in FrontierVille? Were you ready for green trees to return to your land, or did you want your Homestead to stay a winter wonderland year round?

Official FarmVille Podcast (March 25, 2011): Sheep Breeding coming to Home Farm

This week's official FarmVille podcast saw a complete English Countryside theme taking over. FarmVille Community Manager Lexilicious confirmed that the podcast will return to its normal form on April 8. For this edition, however, we were given a complete overview of the beginning of our adventure to England, making the majority of this more of a recap than a sneak peek.

Some questions were answered in the podcast, however; namely the question of when Sheep Breeding will be coming to Home Farms. Interestingly, the answer wasn't that it "won't be coming," but rather that it will be coming to the game in the future. However, we'll only be able to access sheep breeding (and presumably the entire Sheep Pen itself) after we've "mastered" the English Countryside farm. Of course, the details are slim right now as to what the exactly means. Do we simply need to finish all of the English Countryside goals to be considered a master, or will we actually have to master all trees and crops available on our English farms in order to unlock sheep breeding back home?

We'll make sure to let you know as more details become available surrounding this announcement, so keep checking back. As usual, if you missed the full podcast, you can check it out in its entirety at the top of this post.

Check out the rest of our English Countryside coverage right here.

What do you think mastering the English Countryside farm will entail? Would you rather just pay Farm Cash to unlock sheep breeding on your Home Farm, or do you like a challenge.

FarmVille: Crab Apple Trees growing from Mystery Seedlings

We've received another semi-official sneak peek of a new tree coming to FarmVille this week, as some users are starting to receive Crab Apple Trees from their Mystery Seedlings. The Crab Apple tree appears to be of a normal height, so this very well could be a situation where another, entirely different tree is released in the game that is as-of-now unknown, but happens to produce a Crab Apple tree when placed in an Orchard.

We'll make sure to let you know when these trees are officially released in the market, but for now, keep a special eye out on your news feed for any posts offering Mystery Seedlings, as you never know if you'll be the lucky one to receive one at random.

Have you received a Crab Apple Tree from your Mystery Seedling yet?