Update: Due to technical issues, the Wheat Crop was not actually changed tonight. However, the changed mentioned below will be the anticipated changes made to the Wheat Crop as released by Zynga/FarmVille.
"Please note: Due to technical issues, this feature is not yet available. We sincerely apologize for any confusion or frustration this may have caused you. We will do our best to get this feature to you in the near future." (Official FarmVille Forum)
As mentioned via Monday's (June 14th) official FarmVille Podcast, changes have been made to the Wheat crop.
Because Wheat will be a key crop to the upcoming release of Crafting Cottages, FarmVille decided to lower the harvest time and Crop Mastery for Wheat.
Here is the new specifications for Wheat seeds:
Wheat
Hours: 12
XP: 1
Cost: 13 coins
Yield: 61 coins
Crop Mastery: 500, 1500, 3000
In addition, Whither for Wheat is being turned off until June 21st, this is to allow people to adjust to the new time line.
How do you feel about the new Changes made to the Wheat crop?
Monday, February 13, 2012
FarmVille Silo Home & Wind Turbine
farmville silo home
In addition to new coin purchasable animals, FarmVille has added two new expensive items- the Silo Home and the Wind Turbine.
If you are a high level farmer and looking for something to spend your coins on then you may want to consider this new building and decoration.
Silo Home – Level 65 required to unlock, costs 1,000,000 coins (1 million coins)
Wind Turbine – 1,500,000 coins (yes that is 1.5 million coins)
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
In addition to new coin purchasable animals, FarmVille has added two new expensive items- the Silo Home and the Wind Turbine.
If you are a high level farmer and looking for something to spend your coins on then you may want to consider this new building and decoration.
Silo Home – Level 65 required to unlock, costs 1,000,000 coins (1 million coins)
Wind Turbine – 1,500,000 coins (yes that is 1.5 million coins)
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
FarmVille Black Stallion Mystery
Earlier today, June 15th, and prior to updates, FarmVille released the Black Stallion to the FarmVille Market for only a few minutes. It seems that this limited and unannounced release was unintentional and accidental.
Those farmers that were lucky enough to snag the Black Stallion were able to purchase it for reportedly 40,000 coins.The Black Stallion is able to be placed in the Horse Stable and some farmers are already yielding foals.
Currently, the Black Stallion is not available for purchase, but hopefully will be soon in the near future.
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
Those farmers that were lucky enough to snag the Black Stallion were able to purchase it for reportedly 40,000 coins.The Black Stallion is able to be placed in the Horse Stable and some farmers are already yielding foals.
Currently, the Black Stallion is not available for purchase, but hopefully will be soon in the near future.
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
YoVille: New Summer Theme?
Hope you all are ready for Summer! Summer will kick off sometime this week in Yoville. The Hollywood Theme will be coming to an end with this last release. Platinum Ninja has posted on YoVille.com. Read her Official Blog after the jump.
Hey Guys,
We wanted to give everyone a heads up that the Hollywood Theme will be coming to an end later today with the Hollywood' Theme's last release of items. Hopefully you all are having fun decorating your homes and are getting creative with your Hollywood Sets and Hollywood Home Items! There were some pretty homes and sets that we saw posted on the forums with this release of items and we can't wait to see what you guys come up with next! Here is a sneak peek of some of the Hollywood Set items coming soon.
yoville moon landing
For those of you who were wondering we do not have any immediate plans to remove this Hollywood Theme from the Furniture Store. We will keep you updated if there are any changes to this but for now we plan to have this theme in the store for purchase for a while.
Later this week expect to see a new Summer inspired Theme to hit YoVille! Summer is almost officially here so it's time to celebrate it and have some fun in the sun! So stay tuned! Well that's about all folks make sure to keep your eyes out for more the rest of the Hollywood Sets coming hopefully later today the kick off of a new Summer theme later this week.
Hey Guys,
We wanted to give everyone a heads up that the Hollywood Theme will be coming to an end later today with the Hollywood' Theme's last release of items. Hopefully you all are having fun decorating your homes and are getting creative with your Hollywood Sets and Hollywood Home Items! There were some pretty homes and sets that we saw posted on the forums with this release of items and we can't wait to see what you guys come up with next! Here is a sneak peek of some of the Hollywood Set items coming soon.
yoville moon landing
For those of you who were wondering we do not have any immediate plans to remove this Hollywood Theme from the Furniture Store. We will keep you updated if there are any changes to this but for now we plan to have this theme in the store for purchase for a while.
Later this week expect to see a new Summer inspired Theme to hit YoVille! Summer is almost officially here so it's time to celebrate it and have some fun in the sun! So stay tuned! Well that's about all folks make sure to keep your eyes out for more the rest of the Hollywood Sets coming hopefully later today the kick off of a new Summer theme later this week.
Happy Birthday, Mafia Wars - Zynga's Facebook game turns two
Hard to believe that it was only two years ago that Mafia Wars launched on Facebook, and over that time the game has seen many incremental changes, which has both pleased and teed off devoted fans.
To celebrate this 24-month milestone, the mafioso game's offering double the loot for fighting for the next two days, plus a five free Throwing Knives (+65 attack skill) to help you hit rivals where it hurts. We're not exactly sure why this 'celebration' is focused fighting, though we suspect it might have something to do with the recent announcement that, in Mafia Wars Las Vegas, fighting will be "integral to conquering your enemies and completing your ultimate goal as the lord of the Las Vegas Underworld."
To celebrate this 24-month milestone, the mafioso game's offering double the loot for fighting for the next two days, plus a five free Throwing Knives (+65 attack skill) to help you hit rivals where it hurts. We're not exactly sure why this 'celebration' is focused fighting, though we suspect it might have something to do with the recent announcement that, in Mafia Wars Las Vegas, fighting will be "integral to conquering your enemies and completing your ultimate goal as the lord of the Las Vegas Underworld."
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Are social gamers messing up Facebook's user stats?
Much has been made in the press in the last few days about Facebook's imminent crossing of the 500 million user threshold. This seriously huge number suggests that nearly one in every 14 people in the world has a Facebook account -- a staggering yet not altogether unbelievable idea. However, there's some reason to believe the 500 million number is inflated by many Facebook users that hold multiple Facebook accounts. And many of those that open multiple accounts no doubt do so because of social games.
While having more than one Facebook account is technically a violation of Facebook's terms of service, countless people do indeed start secondary accounts for various reasons. Some do it for privacy; so they can post semi-public information that's still hidden from their wider social network. Others start pages for fake characters simply as a joke.
But many others start up their secondary Facebook accounts for gaming purposes. These multiple-account users can divided into two main groups. The first group creates multiple accounts to gain an edge in a game -- after all, it's a lot easier to get dozens of neighbors in Farmville if all those neighbors are actually you.
The second group simply starts up a secondary gaming Facebook account for convenience. Not only does this secondary account stop all those "free gift request" messages from clogging up the News Feeds of your real friends' News Feeds (who probably couldn't care less, if they don't play those games), but it also protects your "main" Facebook account from in-game neighbors who may be complete strangers in real life.
It's hard to determine exactly how many people have used multiple Facebook accounts for either of these gaming purposes, but the Facebook chatter about the problem is not insubstantial. Facebook's own official statistics show that only 50% of their users log in each day, though it's hard to extrapolate what that means to the "real" user count.
Still, as Facebook continues to grow as a gaming platform, it seems they're going to have to take some action on the multiple account problem. Either they'll have to get much more proactive about policing their one-person-one-account policy or loosen the regulations so users can easily separate out each facet of their online persona (such as their gaming persona) into its own unique account. Then, at least, Facebook can honestly say that their hundreds of millions of accounts each represent a unique personality, if not a unique person.
While having more than one Facebook account is technically a violation of Facebook's terms of service, countless people do indeed start secondary accounts for various reasons. Some do it for privacy; so they can post semi-public information that's still hidden from their wider social network. Others start pages for fake characters simply as a joke.
But many others start up their secondary Facebook accounts for gaming purposes. These multiple-account users can divided into two main groups. The first group creates multiple accounts to gain an edge in a game -- after all, it's a lot easier to get dozens of neighbors in Farmville if all those neighbors are actually you.
The second group simply starts up a secondary gaming Facebook account for convenience. Not only does this secondary account stop all those "free gift request" messages from clogging up the News Feeds of your real friends' News Feeds (who probably couldn't care less, if they don't play those games), but it also protects your "main" Facebook account from in-game neighbors who may be complete strangers in real life.
It's hard to determine exactly how many people have used multiple Facebook accounts for either of these gaming purposes, but the Facebook chatter about the problem is not insubstantial. Facebook's own official statistics show that only 50% of their users log in each day, though it's hard to extrapolate what that means to the "real" user count.
Still, as Facebook continues to grow as a gaming platform, it seems they're going to have to take some action on the multiple account problem. Either they'll have to get much more proactive about policing their one-person-one-account policy or loosen the regulations so users can easily separate out each facet of their online persona (such as their gaming persona) into its own unique account. Then, at least, Facebook can honestly say that their hundreds of millions of accounts each represent a unique personality, if not a unique person.
How social games can rewire our brains for the better
We've all heard the scolds talking about how games like Grand Theft Auto will turn a whole generation of kids into amoral killers. But that same concept can be used to explain how some social games are rewiring our brains to make us better people.
Ayogo founder Michael Fergusson recently talked about that very idea in a Fast Company interview. As one of the guiding forces behind diabetes-prevention game Healthseeker, Fergusson knows that games can subtly influence our behavior. "We're not trying to do huge things like make smokers into non-smokers, or basketball fans into soccer fans," he said. "We're trying to motivate very small actions by giving very small rewards, and design those rewards to leverage what we understand about how our brains work."
Historically, our brains have rewarded us for using past experience (seeing a predator every ten minutes) to predict future rewards (anticipating when the predator will return). Fergusson said these and other insights into how our brains work can be used in game design to create "compulsion loops" to do things that are good for us. "The idea we were designing around is that instead of making the primary goal getting one person to do a thousand healthy things, we would focus instead on getting a thousand people to do one healthy thing," he said.
Fergusson even sees these concepts extending outside the gaming world and into the real world of government policy. "What if process of getting a healthy snack from a vending machine was more fun than for getting a chocolate bar?" he asked. "I know there's a lot of talk about taxing junk food to discourage consumption, especially by kids. I would love to see some thought put into making healthy food more enjoyable through play." Yum!
Ayogo founder Michael Fergusson recently talked about that very idea in a Fast Company interview. As one of the guiding forces behind diabetes-prevention game Healthseeker, Fergusson knows that games can subtly influence our behavior. "We're not trying to do huge things like make smokers into non-smokers, or basketball fans into soccer fans," he said. "We're trying to motivate very small actions by giving very small rewards, and design those rewards to leverage what we understand about how our brains work."
Historically, our brains have rewarded us for using past experience (seeing a predator every ten minutes) to predict future rewards (anticipating when the predator will return). Fergusson said these and other insights into how our brains work can be used in game design to create "compulsion loops" to do things that are good for us. "The idea we were designing around is that instead of making the primary goal getting one person to do a thousand healthy things, we would focus instead on getting a thousand people to do one healthy thing," he said.
Fergusson even sees these concepts extending outside the gaming world and into the real world of government policy. "What if process of getting a healthy snack from a vending machine was more fun than for getting a chocolate bar?" he asked. "I know there's a lot of talk about taxing junk food to discourage consumption, especially by kids. I would love to see some thought put into making healthy food more enjoyable through play." Yum!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)