Games.com Blog: “FarmVille Farmer's Market spotted in the wild” plus 19 more

Games.com Blog: “FarmVille Farmer's Market spotted in the wild” plus 19 more

Link to Games.com - The Blog

FarmVille Farmer's Market spotted in the wild

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 04:30 PM PDT

Looks like the FarmVille Farmer's Market that was originally reported here on Games.com -- The Blog! back in March might be coming sooner than later. One fan -- blue3187 -- logged into the game and discovered the new Farmer's Market and brief tutorial of the game, as seen in the image below.

farmville farmer's market

Based on this image, it looks like once this thing rolls out, we'll start finding perfect bushels (much like the perfect bunches of flowers), which can be traded with friends, combined to create goods, which can the be used a special power-ups in the game.
The rest of the details are in the dark, but if Zynga is already testing this out with random farmers, we'll bet our horse stable that this will be rolling out in very short time.

[Via FarmVille Freak]

 

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FarmVille Puppies: When will they grow up?

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 04:00 PM PDT

farmville puppies -- when will they grow up?

Last night was expected to be an eventful night on the Farm, many people fed their puppy for 14th time. Well, nothing happened. After much excitement, farmers have expressed frustration that their pups did not grow. Channel Zero (Official FarmVille Forum Moderator) said this in response to the complaints:

Once again, as I stated in the announcement from this morning, once the timer finishes counting down to the point where your puppy would run away, the counter should start to count up instead of down. Also, the puppy's timer should show as the 'Hungry In' instead of the 'Feed' timer.

To repeat, your puppy should not run away, nor will you need to feed it any additional kibble to keep it on your farm. If for any reason at all, your puppy does run away after its 14th feeding, I ask that you PM with details including when you first purchased your puppy, what date you fed it for the 14th time, as well as when the puppy ran away.

We'll keep you updated on when puppies should be ready to grow up, but for now we ask that you please remain patience, and to reiterate, once you have fed your puppy for the 14th time, you'll no longer need to purchase kibble or feed it kibble regularly.

Source: Official FarmVille Forums

So, it would seem our beloved FarmVille Puppies will not be growing tonight. Channel Zero's slightly vague post stated that we will be updated "on when puppies should be ready to grow up".

Many FarmVille players expected a full grown up Dog after 14 Kibble feedings, but there was no 'transformation'.When do you think we will have full grown FarmVille Dogs?

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

 

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Grow a tree in Tiki Resort with the Earth Day Charm

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 04:00 PM PDT

Tiki Resort has just rolled out a new charm in honor of the environmentally friendly Earth Day, and it's a fun one. The new Earth Day Charm when placed into the volcano (like all other charms) will grow an exclusive tree. There are three possible trees that you can get from the Earth Day Charm - but it is random, so you may have to end up placing more than three to get all of the trees you want.

Two of the trees are fairly run-of-the-mill trees, but there is one with hanging willow-like pieces that looks quite neat and would complement a tropical island very well. You can get an Earth Day Charm by receiving one from your friends as a gift, or buying one from the shop for 9 Facebook Credits. This new Earth Day charm is likely to be in and out quickly, so if I were you I'd try to get one as soon as possible!

Which game will you be celebrating Earth Day in?

 

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Cafe World explores the sea with new underwater theme!

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 04:00 PM PDT

Cafe World has released a major update with a ton of new underwater items. It might seem a bit odd to decorate your Cafe with underwater items, but we're certain that all of you creative decorators will come up with some really neat uses for the deep sea items. These items are available for a limited time like most themes, and some can be purchased for Cafe Cash and some for coins. Check out the list of brand new exclusive underwater items!

Jellyfish Table - 2 Cafe Cash
Coral Chair - 1 Cafe Cash
Brass Fish Chair - 2 Cafe Cash
Treasure Chest Bench - 4 Cafe Cash
Jellyfish Chair - 15,000 coins
Wide Whale Door - 3 Cafe Cash
Giant Aquarium - 18 Cafe Cash
Hard Coral - 7,000 coins
Seaweed - 10,000 coins
Orange Jelly Lamp - 17,500 coins
Blue Jelly Lamp - 17,500 coins
Rocky Seafloor - 1 Cafe Cash
Path of Atlantis - 900 coins
Watery Kingdom Walls - 2 Cafe Cash
Spiral Shell Wall - 8,000 coins
Coral Sea Wall - 12,000 coins
Comfortable Clam - 2 Cafe Cash
Seahorse - 3 Cafe Cash
Jellyfish Bounce - 12 Cafe Cash
Happy Horsey - 13 Cafe Cash
Sea Harp - 13 Cafe Cash
Underwater Waiter - 15 Cafe Cash
Hermit Clock - 16 Cafe Cash
Catfish Chase - 16 Cafe Cash
Kelp Divider - 12,000 coins
Jellyfish - 19,000 coins
Coral Clump - 25,000 coins
Seafloor Decor - 25,000 coins
Obsessive Octopus - 100,000 coins

As I'm sure you've noticed, most of the best stuff is available for Cafe Cash, which can be upsetting to the players. Underwater is a unique theme for a cooking game though, so we suspect it will be a hit! I don't know about you, but I'm thinking that a seahorse would fit right in!

What do you think of the new underwater themed items? Have you gone shopping yet?

 

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PetVille: Two new challenges are now available

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 03:00 PM PDT

PetVille releases new challenges fairly regularly, at least often enough to keep me entertained. There is now not just one new challenge, but TWO! Here at Games.com, we have all of the details.

"Express Yourself" is the first challenge, and it is quite an easy one. All you need to do is reach level 3 in any personality, which can be done by feeding your pet the special personality treats. Easy as pie, but if you can't remember how to level up your personality, we've got you covered! Here is a guide to PetVille personality which will help you complete this challenge in no time.

The second challenge is called "Keep Up With Joneses", and it requires you to buy three items from your neighbor's houses. This is easy as long as you have the coins or Pet Cash to buy the items! To get this one quickly, visit a friend's house and just click on something inexpensive like a flower or wall hanging. Not sure how to buy items from your neighbor's home? We can help you, with this handy guide to shopping at a neighbor's house!

These challenges are only available for one week, so hop into PetVille today and check them out!

 

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Restaurant City: Seaweed Salad and free Seaweed

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 02:00 PM PDT

Restaurant City has been releasing freebies like crazy during this Japanese theme, and today's special surprise is a free Seaweed ingredient for the new recipe -- a Seaweed Salad. This new salad requires seaweed, ginger, and a chili pepper, which can be bought for 12 PF Cash.

While American's generally consider seaweed a type of gross algae found in our lakes and rivers, many Asian countries eat it as a regular part of their diet. It is actually rich in Calclum and Magnesium, and is used in salads, soups, and used to wrap sushi. Neat, huh?

If you would like to claim your free seaweed ingredient for the next 24 hours only, cilck here. You do not need to log fully into the game, but you may want to just to be safe.

Enjoy your free seaweed and have fun making Seaweed Salad!

 

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Earn 3 free Cafe Cash with this simple offer

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 02:00 PM PDT

Cafe World just loves to give players free ways to earn Cafe Cash, but we're not complaining! The latest is an easy set of questions on their "Earn Cash" page. Here's how you claim it:

First, click here to go to the Cafe Cash page. Near the top of the screen, there is a large banner that says "Do this free activity to earn Cafe Cash". Click the link that says "3 Cafe Cash" and a pop-up will come up with a few questions to answer and a short video on the left. There are five total questions asking about online and real life friendships, and making friends. Once you have answered all five questions (there are no right or wrong answers) and click the "Become a Fan" button, you will have earned your 3 free Cafe Cash. This video is an advertising partnership with KIN, a new Windows phone.

Easy right? If you want your free cash, go check it out!

 

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Become a golf pro in Little Rock Pool

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 01:30 PM PDT

Little Rock Pool has just released a set of golfing items for your underwater leisure! Haven't you always wanted to have golfing supplies deep within your lagoon? Now you'll have the chance! These golf items will only be available for the next 7 days. Here is the full list of available golfing items in Little Rock Pool:

Golf Bag - 250 Meteor Credits
Golf Ball - 2000 Coins
Putter - 2500 Coins
Driver - 3500 Coins
Iron - 4000 Coins
Golf Hole - 5000 Coins

This is a rather small set, and we're not sure if it really makes sense to have some of these golf items underwater. It makes sense that a golf ball would have landed in the water, or even a club, but an entire golf hole? Who are we kidding, anything is possible in a game!

Play Little Rock Pool today to check out this limited time set of golf decorations!

 

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New Collectibles and Enchanted Decor

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 01:04 PM PDT

Two new collectibles have been added to the furniture store, a fire breathing dragon costing 23 YoCash and an XL enchanted waterfall costing 22,500 Coins, these collectibles are on sale for 13 days.

Image

Also new enchanted decor for your castle, from candles, torches, fences and much more. This theme is coming to an end shortly so get what you can to finish your dream castle.

Cheers Spiralda for the info.

This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.

 

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YoVille: Vespa and sewing machine collectible preview

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 01:00 PM PDT

YoVille has just posted teaser images on its wall about two new buildable collectibles in the factory! This pale green Vespa and lovely sewing machine and sewing table could be giving us a hint of what the next theme may be. As of this writing, they are not yet in the YoVille Factory, but they are apparently on their way along with two other items we haven't seen yet!

The current buildables, the Enchanted Pegasus and the Centaur Statue have not been in the factory for very long, so many players are worried that they will be removed before there is time to finish them. However, YoVille has told us that there will be two more additional collectibles that have not yet been previewed, so perhaps there is the possibility to have four available at a time. We will find out soon!

To complete the buildable items in YoVille, you must collect the widget supplies from your friends or buy them with YoCash.

What do you think the next YoVille theme will be?

 

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FarmVille gifting gets a big overhaul (that's a good thing)

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 12:30 PM PDT

One of our biggest gripes about FarmVille -- and all social games in general -- is the gifting feature. There's nothing more annoying than bouncing between the gift request on Facebook to the game and back again.

Looks like that's going to change on FarmVille, which rejiggered its gifting system. In the upper right hand corner of the game screen, you can now see an envelope and a number next to it, which alerts you with how many gifts you have waiting to be accepted.

farmville gifting overhaul

Click on the envelope and that will pop a new window that will list your pending gifts, who they're from. You'll have the option to Accept or Ignore each gift.

farmville gifting

Gifts you accepted will appear -- as per usual -- in your gift box. We're pretty impressed with how the new gifting feature is working so far and give it two hooves up.

What do you think? Is the new FarmVille gifting feature is a huge improvement?

 

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What You're Saying About Games.com - The Blog on Facebook.

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 12:03 PM PDT

Today Facebook released a bunch of new features that will allow websites to connect you to your friends on the sites that you use. Posted below is the news feed of Games.com The Blog.
If you log in you will see what your friends and others are saying about Games.com The Blog!
We think this is the coolest thing since sliced bread!

What do you think?

 

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Zynga's Mark Pincus says no to IPO (again) in CNBC interview

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 10:00 AM PDT

Will FarmVille maker Zynga IPO anytime soon? That's the rumor that's been flying for months, though CEO Mark Pincus denies that those plans are in the works on this CNBC clip.


"I'm not sure where those rumors come from, but we can pretty consistently say that we don't have plans to go public."

Then what are the future plans of Zynga?

Pincus expertly avoids giving a real answer to the questions and says "our future is tied in the future of social gaming." Yeah, yeah, buddy. Give us something we can chew on, would ya?

A few interesting tidbits came out of the interview, however, like the fact that Zynga doesn't want to 'distract' players from their games with lots of in-game advertising. Last week, we heard scuttlebutt that FarmVille would be integrating some ad sponsored crops, but we haven't seen anything along those lines in the game yet and we're glad that -- for now -- FarmVille and other games won't be bombarded with ads.

Pincus also mentions something about narrowcasting social gaming feeds on Facebook, so any updates would only go to fellow players, and not spam everyone on Facebook, which would be a fantastic idea. Raise your hand if you feel slightly guilty for spamming all of your non-gamer friends with FarmVille, Mafia Wars updates. *Raises hand.* Unfortunately, there hasn't been any mention of that (not yet, at least) at today's Facebook F8 conference in San Francisco, which you can watch live here.

 

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This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Ranch Town on Facebook: Getting Started [video]

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 08:00 AM PDT

Ranch Town from Meteor Games launched on Facebook today, and so far -- it seems like another farming game that's set in the West Coast mountains. We're not sure if there's gold in them hills, but we do know we have a cow and some land to farm. Take a sneak peek at this new game in the video below.




Ranch Town -- what do you think?

 

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Family Feud nears 2.5 million Facebook players

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 07:45 AM PDT

Just yesterday, we were noticing how Playfish COO Sebastien de Halleux thought established brands would come to dominate social gaming in the next 24 months. Then, just today, we were noticing one particular data point seems to support his thesis -- namely the continuing explosive growth of iWin's Family Feud Facebook App, which is already nearing 2.5 million monthly players just over a month after its launch.

Sure, 2.5 million players isn't going to give Farmville a run for its money just yet. But considering that the number was 1.2 million just a week ago, and just 775,000 a week before that, and zero just three weeks before that, well, lets just say that the trend is definitely a healthy one.

Besides the well known name, a lot of Family Feud's success probably has to do with the organic way it urges players to invite their friends to the game. After playing the first half of the game's final "Fast Money" round, the player has to put up a wall request inviting friends to play the second half for a chance at an in-game point bonus. Once the friend has helped with the 50-second bonus round, the familiar game show format is likely to get them to keep playing.

While there's no guarantee that Family Feud's growth will continue on the same trajectory in the future, its initial success on Facebook definitely makes it a case study to watch out for. Current monthly and daily user averages, courtesy of AppData, after the break.

 

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Quote of the Moment: "I don't think it's going to take over the world."

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 07:00 AM PDT

"I think it's going to be an established area of games; I don't think it's going to take over the world. People were saying that about online games before that and they were saying that about portable games before that.

There's always, when a new platform or a new niche emerges, there's explosive growth in that niche; it's like this void that's being filled very rapidly, where there was a vacuum. So right now we're at the steep of that curve. If you extrapolate that out, it looks like 'Oh, that's gonna be the whole market in 5 years,' but of course the curve never stays that steep.

It's kind of like the ecosystems are in this gigantic disruptive phase. Whole new niches are opening and other ones are shrinking and so we're seeing some very steep deltas in different directions right now. I get the sense that in a year from now we'll start seeing these things plateau towards what their natural equilibrium is."

-Legendary developer of SimCity and The Sims Will Wright throws some cold water on the most optimistic predictions for the social games market

 

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News Corp. buys social game developer Irata Labs

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 06:30 AM PDT

It was just a week ago that News Corp. Digital Media Group CEO Jon Miller told the MIPTV conference that casual games were "the next big thing" in consumer entertainment. Now, it seems the company is putting some of its money where its mouth is, acquiring tiny social game developer Irata Labs.

The three-person Irata team is best known for Spymaster, a slick Mafia Wars style game based in the world of international espionage. The game runs on its own dedicated web site, but players need to connect to other players via Twitter or Facebook Connect to reach the game's highest levels. Irata also has non-gaming products, including iList, an application that uses Twitter for classified advertising, and the upcoming Flyvly, a location-aware middleware platform for mobile games.

The LA Times reports that Irata will not be incorporated into News Crop.'s MySpace or gaming news site IGN, but will work with those departments "when it makes sense" according to "a person familiar with the matter."

 

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Tell Zynga what you like about FishVille!

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 05:00 AM PDT

A survey was posted on the official FishVille fan wall today telling players that their feedback is valued and their time would be appreciated if they answered a few questions in a survey. While other game surveys are predominantly focused on themes and "what do you want to see next?", it looks as if FishVille are wanting to learn more about their player's habits while they're enjoying FishVille. The questions are mostly focused on the player's perception of how fun various activities are in FishVille, such as decorating your tank, engaging in social features, and competing against friends.

The first question asks players to rate how important different elements of FishVille are to them, and it has some interesting choices. One of these choices is "collecting all Sand Dollar fish" and another is "collecting ALL fish". While I'm sure we won't ever get to see the results of this survey, it is pretty clear that Zynga are wondering if releasing more Sand Dollar fish is a wise decision. There are also some basic questions about what level you are and how many tanks you have. There are only 6 questions in total, so the survey won't take long at all!

If you feel passionate about FishVille and would like your opinion to be heard, make sure to fill out the survey and let them know what you think!

 

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Garden Life celebrates Earth Day with new items

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 05:00 AM PDT

Garden Life is the perfect candidate for an Earth Day celebration, since gardening is such a big part of a green, environmentally friendly lifestyle. Of course they were going to participate! While this collection is rather tiny, Garden Life is made by a small developer so we cannot expect a huge PetVille-sized decoration release. Here is the list of the few items that are now available to celebrate Earth Day in Garden Life!

Compost Bin - Level 3, 350 coins
Earth Globe Statue - Level 7, 1200 coins
Earth Day Garden Gnome - 950 coins

Thankfully, all of these items are available for coins and none for gems - which makes buying these a snap as long as you've attained the required level.

What other neat Earth Day items would you like to see in Garden Life and other games?

 

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Ranch Town launches on Facebook - Breaking News!

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 03:45 AM PDT

ranch town on FacebookMeteor Games, the makers of Island Paradise, is bringing the Wild West to Facebook with a name game called Ranch Town.

From the presser:

"Ranch Town gives Facebook desperados a chance to live - and play - in the iconic Gold Rush era of American history. Starting with their very own plot of land, a lonely cow and a handful of mining nodes, players can stake claim to, cultivate and mine for more gold than those 49ers of years ago ever dreamed of. When supplies are low, players can head to the general store for a variety of provisions to get back into the saddle. As they progress in the game, the pan handlers will unlock new machinery, build up their resources and strike it rich - becoming the envy of every dude and gal in Ranch Town."

Looks like this whole Wild West/ Gold rush theme might be the next big thing with Facebook games if reports that Zynga is launching a similarly themed game -- FrontierVille -- in the not-too-distant future.

We're going to saddle up and give this new game a test drive. In the meantime, give Ranch Town a try and let us know what you think.

Play Ranch Town on Facebook >


 

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