Games.com Blog: “FarmVille March 5th Official Podcast arrives” plus 19 more |  |
- FarmVille March 5th Official Podcast arrives
- Cafe World Spices: Everything you need to know
- Daily News Wrap -- March 5, 2010
- Report provides detailed look at social game invites, players
- Fish World Tips and Tricks: Getting Started Guide
- An Early Guide to the New YoVille!
- Playfish's Pet Society gets Extreme Makeover
- PetVille Tail Mystery Crates arrives in premium store
- Are Ridiculously Big Rooms coming soon to YoVille?
- Happy Aquarium Death by Cuteness - Save the Baby Polar Bear
- FarmVille: World Food Programme thanks farmers for helping Haiti
- Mafia Wars Chop Shop overhaul is 'coming soon'
- Cafe World spices: Where the heck are they?
- Playfish announces Movie Award Winners!
- FarmVille Footprints change?
- FarmVille Bulgarian Flag now available!
- FarmVille Crop Mastery Changed Requirements Glitch: Now Fixed
- More Free Fuel in FarmVille!
- Updated Mystery Gift Prizes!
- FarmVille French Chateau Decorations: Serene Pool & Bistro Table
| FarmVille March 5th Official Podcast arrives Posted: 05 Mar 2010 10:00 PM PST The Official FarmVille Podcast was on time as scheduled for March 5th! -Pot of Gold * For every 5 pieces of gold you collect, you will be able to post a "sharing" option in your Facebook newsfeed that will allow your friends to collect. * Collect gold from neighbors gifts and newsfeed. Up to 10 people can collect from one sharing gold link. -Fuel Changes * Free Fuel can be found while plowing, fertilizing neighbors' farms, and in Mystery Eggs or Gifts. * You are limited to finding fuel on your farm while plowing once per day. * When you find free fuel on your farm you can share by posting a link in your newsfeed, up to 150 neighbors can collect free fuel. The amount of fuel they get depends on the size of their farms. (More plots, more fuel). * While fertilizing you can find free fuel once per neighbor. At a certain point of fertilizing you may notice that you are no longer finding fuel and will need to use up some of your current fuel, to find more. * The rate that fuel naturally regenerates has been changed to slow down.slowed down. The bigger your farm, the faster it will regenerate. -FarmVille Game Cards * Now available at 7 Eleven and Best Buy -Player Submitted Questions * Farms of the Week (Zynga's) are selected based on being "good looking" designs, hay bale, etc. * FarmHands are a consumable item that harvest all animals that are not in a building instantly. One time use. COMING SOON to FarmVille: * New feature that will allow better in-game communication with your FarmVille neighbors. * Fine tuning Mastery, Achievements, and Leveling. There will be permanent changes made to Mastery and Achievement requirements. * More St. Patrick's Day themed Mystery Box and Limited Edition items. You can read the official transcript here: This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
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| Cafe World Spices: Everything you need to know Posted: 05 Mar 2010 11:00 AM PST  Get ready to kick it up a notch around your virtual kitchens. After a short delay, Cafe World's spices have officially arrived, but accessing them requires a few extra steps. First, you'll need to complete your spice rack by collecting all of the jars, lids and boards. If you don't have the patience to wait, you'll be able to buy whatever leftover items you need.  Once the rack's ready to go -- you'll receive a notification that your spices have arrived. That's where the second task comes in -- to access the spices, you need a friend to help you open the shipment. That can be done by posting a notice on your Facebook wall, asking friends to help. Once they give the assist, the spice rack magically opens.  The spice rack contains seven spices total, each acting a 'boost' for your good. The spices and their magic powers are as follows: Super Salt, adds 5% more servings; Power Pepper, Adds 10% more servings, , Onehour Thyme, speeds cook time 1 hour; Sixhour Thyme, speeds cook time 6 hours; Instant Tyme, Makes a dish ready instantly and Salvage Sage, removes spoil from a dish. The Mystery Spice boost varies (we used it and it shaved five minutes cooking time off the dish), and these must be gifted by friends.  To use the spices, on the spice rack icon, which will display all of your available spices. Click 'Use It' under the spice of choice and then drag it over the dish that needs to be spiced. Once the dish has been spiced, you'll receive a notification confirming that the boost has been activated.  The Spice Rack also includes a Spice Market, where players can purchase new spices for coins or using Cafe Cash, depending on the Spice. Super Salt and Power Pepper cost 1,800 coins to 30,000 coins, depending on how many you buy, the other cost anywhere from 2 Cafe Cash to 145 Cafe Cash. The Instant Thyme costs the most, just because it makes your dishes ready instantly and, well, that's almost makes Cafe World too easy. As mentioned earlier, the Mystery Spice must be gifted from friends. And that, fellow virtual chefs, sums up the new spice features in the game. From what we've seen so far, this new feature seems to add a nice new level of complexity to Zynga's popular restaurant sim, which continues to hold the number two spot as the most popular game on Facebook.
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| Daily News Wrap -- March 5, 2010 Posted: 05 Mar 2010 10:00 AM PST  More of the news that's important enough to know about, but not important enough for us to write a whole post about:Crowdstar guns for Zynga: CrowdStar co-founder Jeff Tseng says the company will grow from 40 employees to more than 100 this year in this VentureBeat profile. And none of those employees have titles -- "there are no directors or producers or studio chiefs." Sounds fine for a small studio, but will this anarchic structure be sustainable as the company grows? Star Wars items launch on Xbox Live: Includes a toy "Mouse Droid" vehicle, storm trooper costumes and, of course, a lightsaber. We're still waiting for Farmville's fully operational Death Star tractor that can harvest a whole planet's worth of crops with a single blast. The Sims 3 Ambitions expansion arrives in June 2010: Sim-occupations shown off in the trailer include firefighter, "fashionista," inventor, detective, sculptor, construction worker, tattoo artist, and.... Ghostbuster? If there's an option to get Slimer as a pet, I am so in...
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| Report provides detailed look at social game invites, players Posted: 05 Mar 2010 09:15 AM PST  The paper benefits from some extremely detailed data provided by LOLApps for two of its most popular games, Yakuza Lords and Diva Life. The researchers used this data to generate a comprehensive nine-page report (PDF) looking at everything from changing player demographics as a game grows to how much time is spent in various areas of a game over time to which types of invites are most effective at generating new players. The most interesting data point in the report, to me, was that a full 80% of non-invited players for these two games (i.e. players who stumbled on the game on their own) stopped playing before the first day was up. For players that came to the game through an invite, 50% were still there the next day and a full 20% were still playing 80 days later. So if you've ever wondered why social games seem so eager for you to invite your friends to play, well, now you know. SocialTimes has a good summary of some other interesting findings from the paper that's well worth a look.
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| Fish World Tips and Tricks: Getting Started Guide Posted: 05 Mar 2010 09:00 AM PST  Fish World on Facebook is an addicting game where players can create their own aquariums, breed unique species of fish and compete with friends to have the best virtual fish tank around. In order to buy new tank backgrounds, decorations, fish eggs or other items, players have to save up their coins or Fishbucks. In Fish World, players can earn coins and Fishbucks by cleaning fish tanks, selling fish and completing other tasks. Fish World offers a variety of themes, and players can mix and match items to customize their tanks. If you want to learn how to play Fish World and have one of the top aquariums around, keep reading for a ton of great tips and tricks. To begin playing Fish World, visit the application on Facebook and allow access. New players start out with a starter tank and a default background. At the top left hand side of the screen, you'll see how many coins you have to play with. Buying and Selling Fish When you first start playing Fish World, you'll need to buy some fish eggs. To do this, click on the icon that looks like orange bubbles, located at the lower right hand side of the screen; from here you can buy fish eggs. For new players there are a limited number of fish called "Starter Fish" and they're pretty cheap. The best way to earn Fish World coins and Experience Points quickly (when you begin playing) is to buy a bunch of Green Snappers for 10 coins, Clown Fish for 20 coins or Bubbleheads for 35 coins. Make your decision on how often you'll be back to play. For example, the Green Snappers only take 4 hours to grow and they sell for 15 coins when they are adults. With the purchase of Clown Fish eggs, you can double your money in two days because this breed sells for 45 coins. Simply drop these eggs into the tank. In order for it to grow, you'll need to feed it. Click on the jar that says "Food," located to the left of the eggs. To sell a fish, click on it with your cursor. At the bottom of the screen, you'll see a status bar that says "Adulthood." This will tell you how much longer it will take for that particular fish to become an adult. It will also tell you how much that fish will sell for in its current state of growth and how much it will be worth as an adult. When you are ready, click 'Sell Fish" and collect your coins. Feed Your Fish & Keep Your Tank Clean A tank full of dead fish is worthless so be sure to come back and feed your fish! If you're not going to be around to feed your fish, choose a breed that takes longer to grow. Over time, fish tanks in Fish World will develop green splotches of algae. By cleaning the algae off the tank, you'll rack up coins quickly. To do this, grab the sponge located on the bottom right hand side of the game-play screen. Drag the sponge over the green spots and wipe them away. For each green spot that you wipe clean, you'll get about 5 coins and 1 experience point. Visit Fish World Friends To add friends to Fish World, you can send them invitations by clicking on "Invite Friends" in the tab located above the game. Your Fish World friends will appear at the bottom of the screen in order of the rank. As you scroll over their avatars, you'll see options to "visit" or "send gift." By visiting friends you can earn quick coins and experience points. You can do this by cleaning their tank just as you clean your own. Keep in mind that players can have more than one tank. Click the "Tank" tab on the left hand side of the screen to open their list of tanks. Be sure to clean every tank that each friend has in order to maximize your points and coins. "Love" Your Fish for Free Coins You can make a few quick coins by proclaiming your love to your fish by clicking the "I Love My Fish" button. There is an option to announce this on Facebook; don't be shy about it! By letting your friends know that your playing Fish World, they too may sign up and send you gifts! Keep in mind that you can only "love" your fish once a day. Sell the Gifts You Receive Another way to way to get coins fast is by selling the free gifts that you receive. You can do this by clicking "Inventory" and dragging the item into your tank. Next, click on the item and click "Sell" at the bottom of the screen. A confirmation window will pop up alerting you to how much the item is worth upon selling it. These gifts are free to give and receive so be sure to take care of your Fish World friends and they'll likely return the favor. Play Fish World on Facebook >
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| An Early Guide to the New YoVille! Posted: 05 Mar 2010 08:46 AM PST  A picture of the new YoVille has been posted on the official YoVille blog. The new layout is supposed to provide more space for decorating and a less clustered game window. There are two main changes.The live deals sidebar and the top toolbar are going to be removed. Wait, the top toolbar? How am I going to decorate my rooms?!No More Edit Room Button! The upper left corner of the screen is gonna be your YoVillian wallet. And seeing the prices of items those days, you're are going to use it too much. At the top you can see coins and yocash icons and that will show the amount of money you have. An advertisement button for getting more coins and cash is found just below them. OMG, How Are We Going To Decorate Our Rooms? The bottom toolbar will have 5 main icons: The three houses : Most probably will open a list of your buddies and their places. The globe: Will open the YoVille map. The party top hat: Will open the events menu. The chair: Is the edit room button for decoration. The sunglasses: Will be for changing your appearance. A new chat log button will be also available. Notice that there are no locks, no smilies, no actions menu and no camera game button. As we reported before, live deals and energy bar will be removed. That's it for now. Keep on checking for more details and don't forget to tell us what you think in comments. This article was originally posted on YoVille Lounge.
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| Playfish's Pet Society gets Extreme Makeover Posted: 05 Mar 2010 08:30 AM PST  Wow, lots of changes in Pet Society today. We won't review all of them, but here are a few of the cooler features worth mentioning. Chest Organization Playfish calls this "better chest management." Aside from the funny wording of this, we love the tabs on top of our storage chest that neatly separate the contents.  Improved Camera Yay! Playfish listened to our request for a camera that takes pictures of our pets in the house! This would have been really nice to have for the Movie Award competition. Before, it was impossible for our pets to be included in their own scenes, but better late than never.  New Look for Village  Full Screen Mode has Bug We did notice a little bug. When you choose Toggle Full Screen, you get the game in a larger format. However, when you try to go back to the normal mode, a large section on the right-hand side gets squished out of the picture.   Verdict Overall, we really like the new changes in Pet Society. We know it must be a challenge to make a visually rich game in a small format, and we're consistently amazed by the level of details shown in the artwork of this game. Finally, thanks for the 3000 coins!  This article originally appeared on Pet Society Anonymous.
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| PetVille Tail Mystery Crates arrives in premium store Posted: 05 Mar 2010 08:00 AM PST  PetVille introduces a new mystery crate -- this one completely devoted to tails. The green crate with the question mark contains one of 12 animated tails and can be purchased in the Premium Store for 15 PetVille Cash.Based on the picture to the right, it looks like a fox tail is one of the options, as well as a peacock tail, which was spotted on the Pet Society fan page. If you have know what the other tails are -- please leave a note in the comments below! We haven't seen these in action yet, but they seem like a cute li'l way to give your pets a unique look.
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| Are Ridiculously Big Rooms coming soon to YoVille? Posted: 05 Mar 2010 07:54 AM PST  Bigger rooms are coming soon to YoVille. And no, we are not talking about a wider view of the current rooms but rooms with different sizes! This was announced by Zynga's Pink Ninja who said that they are planning " to release houses with larger rooms in the future."Above is a picture that features both my poor Photoshop skills and a bigger YoVille room. This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
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| Happy Aquarium Death by Cuteness - Save the Baby Polar Bear Posted: 05 Mar 2010 07:30 AM PST  Death by cuteness has come to Happy Aquarium in the form of a lost baby polar bear. This latest evil enticement into the game is bordering on the insane for it's sheer adorableness. If you can't resist, check into Happy Aquarium and help save your baby polar bear. Click here to play Happy Aquarium -->
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| FarmVille: World Food Programme thanks farmers for helping Haiti Posted: 05 Mar 2010 07:00 AM PST After the Haiti earthquake, FarmVille responded by allowing players to buy limited edition White Corn seeds, and 100% of the proceeds went to the World Food Programme. Now the WFP gives back, thanking virtual farmers for their generosity. "We wanted to thank all of you for stepping up and helping them during this time of crisis," the WFP rep says in the video, which was filmed at a WFP "nutrition activity" in Port-au-Prince. Sales of the limited edition White Corn seeds brought in roughly 1 million dollars, which were used to help earthquake victims. This video comes on the heels of a Brazilian news site accusing Zynga of keeping half of the proceeds, which Zynga firmly denies. We suspect the confusion was over FarmVille's previous Haiti relief campaign (before the giant earthquake) -- also called Sweet Seeds for Haiti -- and for those, 50% of the proceeds were donated and Zynga pocketed the rest. Whatever the case, it's nice to see that spending a few dollars from the comfort of your home (playing a game no less) can actually make a difference.
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| Mafia Wars Chop Shop overhaul is 'coming soon' Posted: 05 Mar 2010 06:00 AM PST  The Mafia Wars Chop Shop launched on February 18, and it's already undergoing an overhaul. Once the changes launch -- which will be 'soon' according to the Mafia Wars fan page -- the Chop Shop will produce car parts, and you'll be able to score more car parts from completing job and fighting -- which can then be used to build "hot vehicles." The different parts are rumored to be the following, according to the Mafia Wars Wiki: * Car Part * Thai Car Part * Russian Car Part * Cuban Car Part * Bulletproof Glass * Solar Panel Whether this will be a big step up remains to be seen -- so put on your seat belt and get ready for the ride.
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| Cafe World spices: Where the heck are they? Posted: 05 Mar 2010 05:00 AM PST  Yesterday, we were told that Cafe World Spices would be launching and, now, a day later -- there's ne're a spice in our cafe. The Zynga message boards are flooded with complaints -- covering everything from no spices, to the lack of lids and large jars available for gifting. And that's when we discovered that the spices were released, and then recalled due to a technical hiccup. "The mystery spice was available for a short amount of time and then removed from game when problems with the spice were revealed. The spices are scheduled to be released to the game as a fully functioning feature soon," says Cafe World moderator Belle Starr. So, we're still waiting with baited breath for our spices. Do you have all of the parts you need?
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| Playfish announces Movie Award Winners! Posted: 05 Mar 2010 04:50 AM PST  Playfish and Pet Society finally announced the Movie Award winners earlier today. They admit they messed up for being late, but they did have a good excuse: Too many great entries to choose from! You can see the full list of the Golden Mayor Statue awards on the Playfish blog, but here are two of my personal favorites: The Best Thriller award went to Julianne Ting for her chilling video that takes its cues from The Shining.  Ivett Ariana Ponce Guevara got 50 Playfish Cash and a Golden Mayor Award for Best Drama. I was pleasantly surprised to see that she referenced American Beauty, a movie which won the Academy Award for Best Picture back in 2000. A lot of Pet Societyholics were around four years old when this movie was released. Just goes to show you that this game isn't just for kids!   This article originally appeared on Pet Society Anonymous.
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| Posted: 05 Mar 2010 04:34 AM PST  Have you noticed that you can place FarmVille items on your farm closer together? Several FarmVille Freaks are reporting that the FarmVille "Footprints have changed, allowing you to place items such as decorations closer together than before. Would you agree with this? This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak
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| FarmVille Bulgarian Flag now available! Posted: 05 Mar 2010 04:23 AM PST  All of you Bulgarian FarmVille Freaks will be happy to know that you can now purchase your country's flag in the FarmVille Market!The Bulgarian Flag will cost 16 FV$ or farm cash. What Flag would you most like to see next? This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
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| FarmVille Crop Mastery Changed Requirements Glitch: Now Fixed Posted: 05 Mar 2010 04:18 AM PST
In an update made tonight on 03.04.10, FarmVille changed the requirements for some Crop Mastery! Some crops are have lowered and others have increased.This change should have all the FarmVille Crop Profit Spreadsheet analysts busy for awhile. Since some of the Crop Mastery levels have lowered, it has caused some farmers to now go over the requirements needed to complete Crop Mastery for that specific crop. For example, Blueberries and Strawberries Crop Masteries have both lowered and now Blueberries require only 3,000 points to master. If this happened to you don't freak out yet . . . it is still possible to gain your Crop Mastery Sign and XP. Try planting the crop in which you should now have Mastery for and it should re-align everything to be accurate. Remember, you may have to wait for the crop to harvest in order for this to happen. In the past, when Crop Mastery changed, replanting the crop you should now have Crop Mastery for and then harvesting it triggered the ability to get the Crop Mastery Sign and XP rewards. This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak
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| Posted: 05 Mar 2010 04:07 AM PST  In an update made on 03.04.10, FarmVille added more opportunities to gain free fuel! You can now gain free fuel by plowing or helping out on your neighbor's farms when fertilizing their crops. You may also find free fuel offered on your FarmVille neighbors Facebook newsfeed by sharing and also find it in Mystery Gifts or Mystery Eggs . Free Fuel is always nice, especially if you are using the gas-guzzlilng Hot Rods! For more information on Free Fuel read here from Official FarmVille Forum Moderator Lexilicious:
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| Posted: 05 Mar 2010 04:01 AM PST
This is a very welcomed change, as farmers have been growing tired of the old prizes for awhile now! So what's in the latest free Mystery Gifts?! ::: Spoiler Alert ::: These are confirmed Mystery GIFT Prizes as of 03.04.10: -Ossabaw Pig -Saanens Goat -Breadfruit Tree -Mandarin Tree -Greenery -Birdfeeder -Free Fuel This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
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| FarmVille French Chateau Decorations: Serene Pool & Bistro Table Posted: 05 Mar 2010 03:41 AM PST
The Serene Pool and the Bistro Table can be purchased in the FarmVille Market for the next 26 days. The Serene Pool is quite lovely, matches the Villa nicely, but will cost you 22 FV$. The Bistro Table costs 6,000 coins.   Will you purchase the Serene Pool or Bistro Table? Send your pics to farmgoddess@farmvillefreak.com to be featured on FarmVille Freak. This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
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