Games.com Blog: “Killer FarmVille pic of the day: Nintendo mascot Mario” plus 10 more |  |
- Killer FarmVille pic of the day: Nintendo mascot Mario
- PetVille issues two new challenges: Tickle Monster and Berry Blueberry
- New survey challenges conventional widsom on social gamers
- FarmVille mystery chest: What did you find inside?
- Civilization Network lead offers strategy tip: Hoard gold to rule the world
- Quote of the Moment: The demographic development drift
- Digital Chocolate hits one million Facebook players
- Three new YoVille collectibles now available in Store
- New whimsical house now on sale in YoVille
- Asia's social gaming scene a world away from America's
- PetVille Mystery Gifts: Find out what's inside
| Killer FarmVille pic of the day: Nintendo mascot Mario Posted: 24 Mar 2010 11:00 AM PDT  A lot of people love FarmVille, and a lot of people hate FarmVille, but even the nay-sayers are using the farming sim game on Facebook to kill some free time -- including using it as a medium to create. at times, mindblowing, pixel art . From Donkey Kong to the Mona Lisa, farmers use plants, hay bales and other farm objects to create a pixelated version of something. Here's my favorite -- Mario. For more FarmVille Pixel Art check out: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.152528-FarmVille-Creates-New-Avenue-for-Videogame-Pixel-Artists
More on Games.com | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments     |
| PetVille issues two new challenges: Tickle Monster and Berry Blueberry Posted: 24 Mar 2010 10:00 AM PDT  This week's new PetVille challenges just might tickle your fancy (or might just sound kinda creepy, depending). The first challenge -- called Tickle Monster -- gives you seven days (there are six left at the time of this post) to tickle 10 of your neighbors. To tickle neighbors, visit their house and when the Let's Play menu pops up, select the 'Tickle' option. Complete the challenge and score a special badge for bragging rights. The second challenge for this week -- Berry Berry Blueberry -- requires feeding your pet blueberry kibble and then collecting the gem (aka the Kibble Time bonus) after the food runs out. If you don't play often, this may be challenging since the Blueberry kibble runs out every 8 hours -- so we recommend setting up a reminder to snag that gem before it disappears (and your pet gets sent to the pound). Like the Tickle Monster challenge, complete this and you'll earn a special badge that will tell the world that you're kind of a big deal when it comes to PetVille. Which PetVille challenges have been the easiest to complete?
More on Games.com | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments   |
| New survey challenges conventional widsom on social gamers Posted: 24 Mar 2010 09:00 AM PDT  The new survey of 13,000 respondents aged 8 and older found the average age for social gamers was 29 in the U.S. and 27 in Germany, France and the UK. That's actually younger than the 35- year-old average age the Entertainment Software Association lists for the average gamer in the US. It's also much younger than the 43 year old average Popcap found in its recent survey of casual gamers, a difference Newzoo's Peter Warman attributes to that company's flawed methodology. "Their conclusion was based on a survey among only 18+ year olds," he said. "It is therefore not at all surprising that their average age is extraordinarily high; it is clearly not a representative number." While the Newzoo study did find that a slight majority -- 55% -- of U.S. social gamers were female, those numbers flip in France, where only 46% of social gamers are female. In either case, it's not much more than the 40% of U.S. gamers the ESA says are female. The Newzoo study also found that only 24% consider social networks their "primary gaming destination," leaving a large majority that presumably use consoles, portables, or traditional PC games for much of their gaming fix. Food for thought in the ongoing debate about how exactly social gaming is changing the game industry.
Read | More on Games.com | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments   |
| FarmVille mystery chest: What did you find inside? Posted: 24 Mar 2010 08:00 AM PDT  A select group of farmers have run across a special locked box, aka the FarmVille Mystery Chest, while harvesting fields. To unlock it, you have to (if you haven't already) give Zynga your email address, and the game will email a code to open the box. Once you receive the code, head back into the game, enter it and - voila - the FarmVille mystery chest will burst open with a surprise inside. Players have been finding all manner of items in the boxes, including a less-than-exciting golden chicken to the slightly more exciting Mammoth Statue. After the break is a list of prizes found in the chest so far:  Totem Pole  Platinum Gnome:  Farmhands  Mammoth Statue  Golden Chicken Other items found in the locked mystery chest includes +5 Fuel Refills, +10 Fuel Refills and the Calico Cat. Have you found one of these rare FarmVille mystery chests? What did you find inside?
More on Games.com | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments   |
| Civilization Network lead offers strategy tip: Hoard gold to rule the world Posted: 24 Mar 2010 07:00 AM PDT  The classic PC real-time strategy game -- Civilization -- is in the process of being translated into a Facebook game. Since its announcement in October, we haven't learned much more about Civilization Network other than the fact that it's set to arrive in June and friends will not be able to gift gold to friends in the game.Today, we finally heard another teensy bit about the game on the official Facebook page, with an introduction to lead producer, David McDonough, who offers would-be players his strategy for dominating in this not-yet-released game: Hoarding gold. Lots of it. The team here at Firaxis gets into a Civ Network game daily and it's usually a pretty hard fight to come out on top. If I manage to be the victor, it's nearly always because I built myself into an economic engine of petrifying power! I like to chase wealth in Civ - my favorite way to play is to amass such extravagant loads of gold that I can buy and sell nations and armies at a whim...  The money game in Civilization Network is a tricky beast. Hoards of gold are self-sustaining once they get big enough and the treasury can be converted into anything you need at a moment's notice, but timing is everything when a big play takes such a heavy slice of your economic lifeblood. I usually need a good network of friends with me early on, keeping me up-to-date with technology and watching my back in case there are any wars. But once the game gets rolling, a strong money player can have truly fearsome momentum. Are you looking forward to Civilization Network's release in June?
More on Games.com | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments   |
| Quote of the Moment: The demographic development drift Posted: 24 Mar 2010 05:15 AM PDT  "I realized how much had changed when I received a text from my 37-year-old niece Pam asking me to be her neighbor in FarmVille. Friends and family who never understood my arcane language of loot drops and combat balancing had at last grasped the simple act of plow it, plant it and pick it. Repeat. Through Facebook, women in their 30's and 40's had become the new 'hard core' gamer. We were farming, playing with our virtual pets and becoming virtual neighbors with one another in numbers never before seen in video game history (82 million and counting for FarmVille alone).I don't believe this shift in demographics is a temporary one either. While the new "hard core" gamer might not pick up the next DOOM or Quake, Facebook games have made gamers out of millions of women, the same women who might one day encourage their daughters to pursue a career in this field or pursue it themselves. It is this new trend, Facebook's ability to merge fun and friends in a unique and super-social way, that paves the way for and calls out to the next crop of female developers." -Veteran game designer Brenda Brathwaite discusses how social games are attracting a new generation of women to the joys of gaming
Read | More on Games.com | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments   |
| Digital Chocolate hits one million Facebook players Posted: 24 Mar 2010 04:45 AM PDT  Here at Games.com -- The Blog!, it doesn't really surprise us anymore when some social game or another gets a metric buttload of players really quickly. The virality is still somewhat surprising to Digital Chocolate's Trip Hawkins, though. The Electronic Arts founder recently blogged he was "a bit surprised myself" that his company's two Facebook games have already surpassed one million monthly users on Facebook.The overhwelming majority of that million are playing the company's MMA Pro Fighter, which has seen its user base grow steadily since launching in late December. The company's second release, NanoTowns, has seen even quicker growth since it's launch in early March. Will the company's latest release, Safari Kingdom, see similar success? It we were Trip Hawkins, we wouldn't be... surprised.
Read | More on Games.com | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments   |
| Three new YoVille collectibles now available in Store Posted: 24 Mar 2010 04:21 AM PDT Three new collectibles have just arrived in the furniture store, a Whimsical Bubble Hookah costing 24 YoCash, Crazy Hatter Tea Party costing 21 YoCash and XL Sittable Mushroom costing 16,500 coins. All three items are interactive. Get down to the furniture store now and treat yourself to these wonderful collectibles! This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
More on Games.com | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments   |
| New whimsical house now on sale in YoVille Posted: 24 Mar 2010 04:17 AM PDT A new house was recently added to YoVille. This new Whimsical Balcony House will cost you 40 YoCash and has a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom an upstairs room two balconies and a front yard. Pop along to the realty office now and take a tour. This house is considered to be one of the expensive YoVille houses. Is it worth it? Discuss in comments. This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
More on Games.com | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments   |
| Asia's social gaming scene a world away from America's Posted: 24 Mar 2010 04:00 AM PDT  Games like China's Happy Farm and America's Farmville might look similar on the surface, only one of these games once let you steal your friends crops in the middle of the night. Hint: it wasn't Farmville.This is just one of the many cultural differences found in intercontinental social gaming, as pointed out by Popcap's Senior Director of Business Development for Asia Giordano Contestabile in an excellent post over at Gamezebo today. Apparently, China's social games tend to focus more on cutthroat competition and embarrassing your friends, to better attract the country's player base of primarily young males raised on hardcore massively multiplayer games. This means players of social games in China can routinely bomb their friends' hospitals or sell their friends in an S&M dungeon. The competitive aspects got so bad that the Chinese government had to step in to urge developers to create more "harmonious" games, according to the piece. It's like they're a whole 'nother country or something!
Read | More on Games.com | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments   |
| PetVille Mystery Gifts: Find out what's inside Posted: 24 Mar 2010 04:00 AM PDT  FarmVille's has 'em. So does Mafia Wars and Cafe World. So it was only a matter of time that PetVille get a mystery gift of its own. Starting March 19, you have been able to send friends mystery gifts and a surprise will be waiting inside.So far, PetVille mystery gift items inside have been completely random, and we couldn't say it better than PetVille-ian Neimuru who says in the official forums, "I absolutely love how random this stuff is. It's like having a crazy aunt that just wraps up stuff around her house for your birthday." So far items found inside the PetVille mystery gifts include the following: - bright ideas chair - lord lizard - russel (stuffed monkey) - ultracon morpher - mech assassin - lovebear (white) - ship in a bottle - dvd - red/yellow peace stone - loopy swirl tea cup - stack of linens - ultra waves laundry detergent - pink plastic laundry basket - lucky cupcake - porcelain lamp - giraffe - elephant - bubble pipe - egyptian plant What did you find inside your PetVille mystery gifts? Send a pic to libe@games.com and we will post it here!
More on Games.com | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments   |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Games.com News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |