Games.com Blog: “Treasure Isle teases about new Monkey Palace” plus 16 more

Games.com Blog: “Treasure Isle teases about new Monkey Palace” plus 16 more

Link to Blog.games.com

Treasure Isle teases about new Monkey Palace

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 05:21 PM PDT

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Treasure Isle Monkey PalaceThe folks at Zynga who are in charge of Treasure Isle are a big fan of teasing players, giving us just enough information to get us excited about new features without fully spilling the beans. Today, we have learned that a new Monkey Palace will be coming soon. What do we know about it so far? According to the Treasure Isle Digger's Anonymous page (which is an official Zynga-managed Treasure Isle fan page), the monkey "might want to trade with you".

What could this mean? We have a few theories. One neat idea would be a player economy, where players can buy and sell things with each other in a player auction sort of interface. Another possibility is that the Treasure Palace monkey will provide unique limited items that can only be purchased when the monkey is around. Perhaps you can trade things in to the monkey in exchange for Island Cash or new items.

We're not sure what the Monkey Palace could be, but we know it's coming soon and has something to do with trading. What do you think this monkey could be for? Leave your ideas in the comments.

 

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Help the gulf in YoVille with new Charity Pets

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 05:11 PM PDT

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YoVille gulf oil spill charity pets
Zynga is all about charity efforts, and today a brand new way to help the Gulf oil spill relief efforts has surfaced in YoVille. Each week for the next four weeks, a new Charity Pet will be released. So far, we're being told that a Pelican, Sea Turtle and an Otter will be released. The fourth pet is still a mystery at this time. This week's pet is the Pelican, which is available for 30 Yo Cash. Half of the proceeds from each Charity Pet will go to the Audubon to help with the wildlife affected by the BP oil spill.

To access the new Charity Pets, click the "Help the Gulf" button in the top right of your game screen. You will then be given the option to either purchase the pet, or rally your friends. If you choose to rally your friends, you will post a wall post prompting your friends to help out. For every 10 friends that click on your wall post, you will receive a balloon accessory for your avatar.
Were you wanting to donate to help with disaster cleanup? Now is your opportunity to donate and get something in YoVille in return. Check it out by logging into YoVille today.

 

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FarmVille 7-Eleven promo ends, but the corny commercials will live forever

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 01:00 PM PDT

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The Zynga 7-Eleven promotion officially ended on July 15 (you can still redeem codes through December, however), but these two commercials will keep the memory of our favorite Facebook game promotion alive forever.

But seriously, it's not really clear what's going on in either of these commercials (the guy from Jersey turns into a farmer? They have guns but run from the police?), but they do have that cheeseball vibe that reminds me of video games commercials from the '80s.




Give us your best interpretation of either of these videos, and whomever has the best explanation will win a Mafia Wars or FarmVille 7-Eleven code (we still have a few leftover in Games.com storage).

 

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

A sweet new version of Bejeweled Blitz

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 11:00 AM PDT

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PopCap unveils a brand new version of Bejeweled Blitz -- one you can eat! OK, so this Bejeweled isn't really from PopCap, it was posted by 'ShakeSheepSound' on YouTube, and it's made of delicious candy. To see how this edible Bejeweled was created, check out the second video below, complete with indie rock/shoegazing soundtrack.


I'm impressed with the steady-handed individual tasked with moving the gem selector pieces with a tiny pair of tweezers. I also like how the artist makes it look like the pieces of candy shrink and disappear when three of the same color are matched. Talk about going to great lengths to pay homage to a game. Then again, when it's all over, you can eat your game as a reward.

[Via PopCap Twitter]

 

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

PetVille Daily Clean Pet Bonus leads to free weekly Pet Cash

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 10:30 AM PDT

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PetVille Daily Clean Pet Bonus
First announced last week, players who consecutively log in for up to five days to clean their pet will be eligible to receive 1-3 free Pet Cash from PetVille. What do you think? Is it enough to make you play more regularly? Personally, I always like it when games give players alternate ways of obtaining premium money.

Currently, PetVille players can earn free Pet Cash from doing surveys, randomly finding 'em in the homes of other pets, or playing the Genie Gems mini-game.

 

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FishVille bewitches players with new Bayou Items

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 09:00 AM PDT

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FishVille Bayou Country Items
FishVille is certainly feeling educational with their new Bayou Items release, I mean, check out the PR for their Buildable Swamp Shack: "Bayou Country is most closely associated with Cajun and Creole cultural groups native to the Gulf Coast region."
FishVille Bayou Items Store
Or how about the description of their Bayou themed Bullfrog:
One of the so-called "true frogs", Bullfrogs are native to the eastern United States, ranging from as far north as Nova Scotia, all the way down to central Florida. They also live as far west as Wisconsin and the Rockies and were introduced widely throughout Colorado, British Columbia, California, and other western states.
We're not sure what voodoo possessed FishVille to put out a theme for the Bayou. One would expect them to have ridden the coattails of Disney's Frog and the Princess film. Or at least, had saved this for the fall season, sometime near Halloween. But instead, we've got eight new pieces of decor (one of which, the Bullfrog, expires within the next 24 hours), plus a new wallpaper and floor for the tanks.
FishVille Bayou Tank Wallpaper
Astute players will also notice there's a new Brown Mystery Egg on the Gifts page. Unfortunately, there's no special fish to be had there. Both times I got one, the fish turned out to be a Pajama Cardinal.
FishVille Bayou Gifts

 

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Cafe World: Dinner at Twilight Eclipse is a guys-only affair

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 08:00 AM PDT

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Cafe World Twilight
We haven't seen a Twilight Eclipse release since Crowdstar's Happy Pets and Happy Aquarium sets earlier this month. But just when we thought the Twilight fever has passed, Zynga's Cafe World comes out with 27 new decor pieces for Team Edward and Team Jacob. And like the Crowdstar sets, Bella is strangely absent...
Cafe World Twilight Gifts
There's also three new giftable snacks: Garlic Necklace, Apple of Temptation, and Vampire Staked Steak. The last of which, is also a new cafe recipe which earns 2,010 Coins from 335 servings in one day.
Cafe World Vampire Staked Steak
For those who want to collect both Twilight hunks, Edward is listed as Twinkling Vampire, is animated to sparkle, and costs 15 Cafe Cash. Jacob is the shirtless, Transforming Werewolf and costs 16 Cafe Cash. The most expensive premium item is the Red Plasma Fountain, which costs 18 Cafe Cash. For regular currency, the honor goes to the Vamperial Throne, which costs 35,000 Coins.
Cafe World Twilight decor
And for a bit of a heads-up, while the Blood and Bats Entrance looks like it should be a blood-dripping doorway, it actually doesn't move. So if you're thristing for the red ooze effect, grab A Family Portrait for 3 Cafe Cash under the windows section instead.

 

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Cafe World: Free Grill Father Super Stove when you level up in Mafia Wars

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 07:00 AM PDT

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Cafe World Grill Father
In Cafe World, Super Stoves streamline cooking in the game into a one-click process, but harnessing that convenience costs 32 Cafe Cash. There's also a suited up version, called the Grill Father, that goes for 35 Cafe Cash. This puts it somewhere around $4-5 per stove.

But you can get the Grill Father for free by leveling up 5 times in Mafia Wars. New players will have to make it to Level 15. To get started, look for the tiny icon of the Grill Father Super Stove on the left side of your Cafe World game screen. Click on the notice (image above) and answer "Yes" to be redirected to the Mafia Wars game.

 

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EA signs deal with Live Gamer; doubles down on microtransactions

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 06:00 AM PDT

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mo moneyPaying nickels and dimes to buy additional content in games isn't going away anytime soon, and, in fact, it looks like EA may be doubling down on microtransactions by announcing a new partnership with Live Gamer, which will run all of EA's "microtransaction projects" and will help "accelerate the company's online gaming strategy."

The press release doesn't mention any specific games, but just off the top of my head, this deal seems particularly relevant to EA's social gaming arm, Playfish, responsible for Pet Society and FIFA Superstars on Facebook, as well as its casual gaming portal Pogo, which has had microtransactions for a while now. EA has also started to integrate more microtransactions in its blockbuster console games as well: Madden NFL Football debuted microtransactions in the 2010 edition, Dragon Age and Dead Space (among other EA console games) also rolled out additional downloadable content.

A recent study says microtransactions will grow to $7 billion globally by 2015, so it's no surprise that Live Gamer's picking up new clients, which includes THQ and Real Networks' GameHouse. I'm sure we'll be hearing similar news from other traditional game publishers in the near future -- the success of selling virtual goods has everyone seeing dollar signs.

 

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Pet Society: Homes of High Society Pets

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 04:30 AM PDT

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Ever wonder what it's like to be royalty? Jean-Pierre has always been a little prince, living it up in 5-star luxury. He was especially excited when the Versailles-themed items were released earlier this month. Kellie from High Society Pets gives us this exclusive tour of her pet's palace, including the Hall of Mirrors, where Jean-Pierre takes tea with visiting pets of importance, his conservatory playhouse, and his dressing room.

I think Kellie did a fabulous job of decorating, don't you? Check out more of her pet's home at High Society Pets.

Hall of Mirrors:
Pet Society Hall of Mirrors
Sleeping Chambers:
Pet Society Sleeping Chambers
Conservatory Tea Room (made from Playhouse):
Pet Society Conservatory Tea Room
Dressing Room (made from Display Room):
Pet Society Dressing Room
The picture below comes from another player, Jessica, who re-created the Versailles Hall of Mirrors or Galerie des Glaces. Looks like this little princess could be a good match for Jean-Pierre!
Pet Society Galerie des Glaces
This article originally appeared on Pet Society Anonymous.

 

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YoVille: Moroccan Mystery Box Items Revealed

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 04:15 AM PDT

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YoVille Mystery Box
The Moroccan Mystery box that was recently released got a very positive review from most of the YoVille players. We know that many of you want to find out about what's hidden inside! The YoVille Lounge Forums prepared a list of the items found in the box. Don't forget that the new box can also earn you coins and YoCash.

What did you get from the box?YoVille Mystery Box Results

This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.

 

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FarmVille Overflowing Beehives Yield Fertilize All Option

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 04:10 AM PDT

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FarmVille Overflowing Beehive
FarmVille Fertilize All in GiftboxMany farmers, such as FarmVille Freak William, are experiencing a new FarmVille notice that offers a special perk for Overflowing Beehives.

Farmers with Overflowing Beehives may receive the pop-up below that offers a "Fertilize All" reward. Using the Fertilize All reward will fertilize your entire FarmVille farm's crops.

The Fertilize All can be used immediately or stored in your Gift Box for later use.

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

 

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New FarmVille Puppy: St. Bernard

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 04:05 AM PDT

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FarmVille St. Bernard
Continuing with Swiss theme, FarmVille has released a new puppy this evening- the St. Bernard. You can pick the St. Bernard's barrel color- brown, blue, or pink. The new puppy will cost 65 FV$ and come with 2 weeks worth of kibble.
The St. Bernard Dog is a very large breed of dog, a working dog from the Swiss Alps, originally bred for rescue. The breed has become famous through tales of alpine rescues, as well as for its large size. (source: wikipedia)
FarmVille St. Bernard Choose your puppy!
Will you be adding the St. Bernard to your farm?

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

 

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Quote of the Moment: The downside of "viral"

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 04:00 AM PDT

"1. They reproduce at a fantastic rate. True. Facebook games came from nothing, and now everyone and their mother plays FarmVille.

2. They can mutate. Games update regularly, weeding out unused/disliked features and adding in better components that will help them "survive". The Challenge Missions in Mafia Wars are a prime example. The most recent was South Africa, meant to capitalize on the World Cup - the objective of this mission was to fix the matches by bribing referees and so on. Now that the World Cup is over, the new players drawn to the game will likely stay due to the fun they had with the "mutation".

3. They are acellular, that is, they contain no cytoplasm or cellular organelles. So far as I know. 'Cause if they did, that would be disturbing.

4. They carry out no metabolism on their own and must replicate using the host cell's metabolic machinery. Indeed, Facebook games are helpless to reproduce without the living "host cells", i.e. human beings. This is where all of that annoying "Please be my neighbor on FarmVille!" notification spam comes from.

Oh, and they're tricky. Tricksy little viruses they are. They even act benign, rewarding the host when they pass the contagion on, or requiring transmission of the virus to continue in the game. This usually comes right when they've got their hooks in the player. 'You need more mafia members to play this level. Recruit. Recruuuuuit!' And the player dutifully sends out request spam to everyone on their friends list, and some poor schmuck picks it up, and the cycle begins anew. These things snowflake out - and once you start with one game, others will follow."

-Alex Villanueva draws some eerie parallels between real viruses and the "viral" nature of social gaming

 

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Cisco security report mentions nebulous social gaming threat

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 03:00 AM PDT

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The dirty little secret of the social gaming industry that a large portion of players use these games to goof off when they should be working. Now, a new security report is warning companies that lost productivity could be the least of the problems caused by the games -- that they could be a bona fide security risk to corporate IT infrastructure. All that's missing is the "how."

To be fair, page 11 of Cisco's 2010 Midyear Security Report mainly focuses on the huge time sink Facebook games represent for otherwise productive workers (see image). But the report also tries to sell the games as some sort of ill-defined security risk to company computers. "It's safe to assume that online criminals are developing ways to deliver malware via popular applications," the report states. "Heavy users love to search the web for cheats and tricks for better play, so they may fall victim to malware-laden links or spam messages offering such shortcuts."

While we've seen isolated cases of malware popping up in game ads and fake "strategy guide" scams, Cisco's case seems a bit overblown to us. Just because it's "safe to assume" hackers are targeting Facebook games doesn't mean that companies' critical servers are under imminent threat from Farmville-playing employees. In fact, if any such malware were to show up as part of the most popular Facebook games, it would likely be quickly discovered, reported and (hopefully) neutralized by the game-maker before it could spread too far.

To its credit, the Cisco report does say that simply banning all employee access to social networks is an overly severe solution to this problem. "Businesses must balance the need to provide access to collaboration tools with the need to manage enterprise security," the report states. Amen to that.

 

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Green Giant's Farmville cash promotion a success

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 02:00 AM PDT

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When Zynga partnered up with real-world produce maker Green Giant to give away Farmville cash, no one was really sure if virtual items would really drive real-world product sales. Well, any doubts have been removed now that the program seems set to finish as a bona fide success.

Mashable reports that over 100,000 in Farm Cash was given away as part of the six week pilot program, which started in select Target stores but soon expanded to over 4,000 stores nationwide. It was virtual money well spent, according to Green Giant. "It's really helped us put Green Giant Fresh back in front of the consumers in the social media world," Green Giant Fresh Michalin Modena told The Packer. "It's been a great opportunity to modernize our communication channels to consumers."

The free Farmville cash codes will appear on 25 different Green Giant Fresh produce products through Aug. 1, though they can be redeemed until the middle of September. Wait, Aug. 1? That's only a few days away! Excuse me, I have to make a quick trip to the store...

 

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More game developers sign up for Facebook Credit exclusivity

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 01:00 AM PDT

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When Crowdstar became the first major developer to accept Facebook Credits as its exclusive in-game currency earlier this month, we predicted "we could start seeing more and more social game makers tying their fates to the pre-eminent social network and its new unified payment system." Lo and behold, the last three weeks have seen three more major developers making Facebook Credits the only way to pay to play.

This month, quiz-maker LOLApps, Zoo World developer RockYou and German developer Wooga have all signed on as exclusive partners in the Facebook Credits revolution. Now millions of players of these companies' games will have to sign up for Facebook's branded currency to buy in-game items, with 30% of the proceeds going to the social network. What's in it for the developers? Well, players that sign up to buy Credits in one game are already part of the system if and when they want to buy Credits in another -- no need to break out the credit card and sign up for a new account.

The frictionless synergy of this system, combined with giveaway promotions from Facebook itself, pretty much guarantee that Facebook Credits will continue to gain attention and support from more and more developers going forward. While big companies like Zynga may hold out for a while with non-exclusive support, it seems like Facebook Credits are well on their way to becoming the de facto payment standard for all of Facebook gaming.

How do you feel about this? Does it matter to you what kind of in-game currency you use to buy your social gaming items? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

 

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