Games.com Blog: “FarmVille is Returning Missing HoneyBees” plus 11 more

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• FarmVille is Returning Missing HoneyBees
• Cafe World: Get hundreds of free VIP Salads from Facegamer's gift links
• Restaurant City celebrates the 50s with Elvis, Buddy Holly, Grease, and Dr Pepper
• Social City Drive-in theater -- you asked for it, you got it
• Happy Pets: Toy Story micropets get a store sequel and a sales discount
• FarmVille 'Publish this story to your Facebook Wall' Glitch
• FarmVille Unreleased Red Foal & Red Calf
• YoVille: Twelve new free skin colors added
• YoVille: Mystery Packs Items Revealed
• Quote of the Moment: 'Popular' does not mean 'good'
• Rexona's Nature Nurture brings real virtual gardening to Facebook
• Amazon an unlikely winner in social gaming's growth

FarmVille is Returning Missing HoneyBees Posted: 05 Aug 2010 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Farmville In an erroneous glitch occurring several days ago, many farmers found their HoneyBees missing. Remember, if you do not tend your Beehive daily then some of your Bees will "fly away". However, farmers that did tend their Beehive daily still had missing Bees. The good new is that many farmers are reporting that their HoneyBees have been returned by FarmVille. You may find your refunded HoneyBees in your FarmVille Gift Box. This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Cafe World: Get hundreds of free VIP Salads from Facegamer's gift links Posted: 05 Aug 2010 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Cafe World Today, Jacqueline Simon on Facegamer explained that every Cafe World player is allowed a certain number of "free-floating" gifts per day. Free-floaters are gifts that you can get even though they've been sent by nobody, like the stuff that you click on a Facebook Wall or a Feed. Jacqueline explains this by claiming that "Zynga uses them as padding to honor a gift that would have otherwise been rejected by the system." However this works, it's safe to say that Jacqueline has created a way for players to grab their maximum allotment of V.I.P. Salads that Zynga will let us take. The V.I.P. Salad (see image on the right) is dish that occasionally shows up on the Gifts page. They come in bunches of 35 and sell for 99 Coins per serving. Jacqueline has gathered 12 gift links, which she calls "Overloads". Theoretically, clicking on her "Overloads" can get you more than 800 servings of VIP Salads! But there are several rules to maximize this opportunity: 1) Come to The Facegamer to collect Overloads BEFORE you accept your normal gifts for the day. Why? Accepting gifts can use up some of your free-floating gift quota. Remember that you get about twelve TOTAL, not each. So any combination should be fine as long as it's 12 or less. 6 VIP and 6 Energy is ok, but you're probably not going to get 12 VIP and 12 Energy. 2) Don't use notes found on Facebook that have Super Sliders, Lobster Dinners, etc. Why? They also are designed to purposely use up your free-floating gift quota. You have to make a decision. Do you want Super Sliders (4 coins each), Lemon Butter Lobster (9 coin each) or VIP Dinner/Salad (99 coin each). You can only pick so many a day. 3) Clearing your cache does occasionally help you collect these gifts, but not all the time. You can find very good and detailed instructions at Zynga support site, here: How to Clear your Cache A copy of the links to her V.I.P. Salad Overloads is available right below. Be sure to check out your Cafe World Gifts box to see how many salads you might've gotten. Remember, not everybody gets the same amount of freebies using this hack.   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Restaurant City celebrates the 50s with Elvis, Buddy Holly, Grease, and Dr Pepper Posted: 05 Aug 2010 08:30 AM PDT Filed under: Restaurant City Restaurant City is tapping into 1950s nostalgia and the the power of Dr Pepper in this week's new restaurant theme. Also, how many of you know that Dr Pepper has a jingle? The game's official blog posted a 1977 commercial for a jingle that remained in use until 1983. You can view and sing-along by clicking on the lyrics below, though personally, I like the one that uses Popeye the Sailor in the end: ♫ I'm a Pepper, he's a Pepper, She's a Pepper, we're a Pepper, Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper, too? Be a Pepper. Drink Dr Pepper.♫ Lot the 'Almost Famous' theme, where the game first parodied singers with foodie names like Lady Gaga as Lady Cocoa, or their 60s theme which included the Beatles, we've got some 50s rock n' roll stars and celebs here too. The male star of Grease (1978), Danny Suko, played by John Travolta, has been renamed Danny Zucchini (costing 10 Playfish Cash) and his lady love Sandy Olsson, played by Olivia Newton-John, is now Sandy Orange (9 PFC). Famed rock n' roll pioneer Buddy Holly has been brought back as Nutty Holly (24,000 Coins). And Elvis is rockin' diners as the new Kitchen King (12 PFC). You can also get a Dr Pepper Vending Machine for free (it earns 300 Coins every 4 hours and never breaks down) by mastering the Dr Pepper Float recipe, which requires 10 Dr Pepper and Ice-Cream ingredients total. And there's a Dr Pepper Billboard sign you can put outside of your restaurant for 500 Coins, but it'll only be on sale until September 1st.   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Social City Drive-in theater -- you asked for it, you got it Posted: 05 Aug 2010 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Social City Social City recently held a contest on what type of leisure building you'd like to have most, and the winner -- a Drive-in theater -- has now made its way into the game. This theater will add 62,000 happiness points to the game, and 795 experience points, but it'll cost you big to get all of those big bonuses. The limited edition building costs 59 City Bucks, which is just over $10 in real-life cash. Do you think the new Drive-In Theater is worth the City Bucks?   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Happy Pets: Toy Story micropets get a store sequel and a sales discount Posted: 05 Aug 2010 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Happy Pets Toy Story pets are back! Happy Pets have brought back the entire set that first debuted this June, which appeared a week right before Toy Store 3 came out in American theaters. For those who missed it the first time, you've got a second chance. Not only that, but this time, they're cheaper! Let's look at the original prices compared to the new ones: Cowboy Cat and Space Ranger Cat were 90 Facebook Credits ($9 USD), now they're 70 FB Credits ($7 USD). Alien Guinea Pig dropped from 90 FB Credits to 64 FB Credits ($6.40 USD). Cowboy Horse went from 80 to 62 ($6.20 USD). Spring Dog dropped from 80 to 50. And Bacon Pig fell from 70 to 50. Right now, it seems everyone's in love with Bacon Pig since that's selling the strongest. As a reminder, the special thing about these pets is that they're smaller than normal. This means that they're roughly the same size as the Microcat, and if you breed them, the offspring might inherit the 'micro' gene. You can check out the bottom of the Catzilla blog post for a size comparison.   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

FarmVille 'Publish this story to your Facebook Wall' Glitch Posted: 05 Aug 2010 05:30 AM PDT Filed under: Farmville Thank you to FarmVille Freak Ron for bringing this newest glitch to our attention. It seems that several FarmVille Freaks have reported issues that when they try to "Publish this story to your FaceBook Wall and your friends' home pages?" it does not load properly preventing them from being able to click the publish button. This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

FarmVille Unreleased Red Foal & Red Calf Posted: 05 Aug 2010 05:00 AM PDT Filed under: Farmville FarmVille may have begun to release these unreleased FarmVille Red Foals and FarmVille Red Calves to the masses by being able to adopt them. This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

YoVille: Twelve new free skin colors added Posted: 05 Aug 2010 04:30 AM PDT Filed under: YoVille The new skins we previously told you about are now here. YoVille players now have the chance to enjoy 12 skin colors for free. To change your skin, click on Edit Appearance icon and then choose the Skin category. Keep reading for more pictures of our Spiralda modeling the 12 tones! Which is your favorite color? This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

YoVille: Mystery Packs Items Revealed Posted: 05 Aug 2010 04:00 AM PDT Filed under: YoVille The 2,500 coin and 4 YoCash mystery packs were updated with new rare items. You can enjoy pictures of these items after the link and add to the list in comments or on forum. Remember, you can also get common items from these packs. Thanks to Spiralda and Angie for the pictures! This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Quote of the Moment: 'Popular' does not mean 'good' Posted: 05 Aug 2010 03:00 AM PDT "I think a great many social game developers are mistaking the success of their games for positive contributions to humanity. ... If you talk to just about any social game developer, but particularly those who used to work in 'traditional' development, you'll hear them talk about how their niece or mother or uncle or whomever plays their games now. As if that fact justifies the nature of the games themselves. It's as if there's been this huge vacuum of professional isolation that's finally being released, and some developers are using that release as an excuse to justify the construction of profoundly dastardly works." "When I hear so many developers use the market as a primary justification for design choices or professional choices, it makes me feel wretched. Many people like saturated fats and simple sugars and The View and a great many other things, but that does not automatically make those things righteous or good." -Author, critic and Cow Clicker developer Ian Bogost explains why millions of users don't prove a game is good in an interview with GameSetWatch   Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Rexona's Nature Nurture brings real virtual gardening to Facebook Posted: 05 Aug 2010 02:00 AM PDT Tired of controlling virtual characters in your Facebook games? Why not try controlling a real gardener? Rexona's Nature Nurture is pretty unique, as far as Facebook promotions go. The "game," such as it is, is simply a live video feed (containing four selectable angles) of a gardener among dozens of plants. You "play" using on-screen buttons to command the gardener to perform basic plant maintenance tasks like fertilizing, watering, trimming, misting and even adding earthworms. Then you simply watch as the gardener works through the queue of commands. It's a lot like Farmville, except instead of gaining levels and coins, you gain the satisfaction of helping maintain real plants. You also get the satisfaction of watching this lone gardener as he goes slowly crazy working among the plants. As I played, I managed to get my gardener, Carlos, to do a set of manic jumping jacks (pictured), play some smooth jazz music and sing along to a medley of Beatles songs. It's like improv theater mixed with gardening mixed with gaming mixed with understated advertising, and the combination is totally great. Try it out.   Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Amazon an unlikely winner in social gaming's growth Posted: 05 Aug 2010 01:00 AM PDT When you think of the companies that have benefited the most from the explosive growth of social games, a few names probably spring to mind. Facebook, of course, and definitely Farmville-maker Zynga. Playfish and Playdom, surely, in the wake of their lucrative buyouts. Well, one name that probably doesn't come to mind, but probably should, is Amazon. As VentureBeat notes, Amazon's Web Services (AWS) division provides the hosting that powers six to eight of the top ten Facebook games, according to AWS' Jeff Barr. This means companies like Zynga, Playfish and Playdom pay Amazon substantial sums of money so they don't have to worry about things like server maintenance, bandwidth, backups and security for their growing game. Those substantial sums have helped make AWS into a $500 million a year business for Amazon, according to some estimates, Of course the relationship isn't perfect -- problems with AWS scaling are likely behind some of the outages that occasionally plague many growing games. Still, Amazon has positioned itself well to benefit both from online sales of disc-based games and from the growth of web-based games.   Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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