We mobsters have been patiently awaiting the new inventory page in Mafia Wars since it was hinted at a month ago by the Zynga team. Now, we are that much closer with its first unveiling to the public in this short tutorial video provided by Mafia Wars community manager Nate. Detailing all the changes to the Mafia Wars inventory system, Nate even goes through some features to the new inventory that will lead to entirely new features to the game such as informational item categories that will later have more meaning.
While the new inventory page certainly breaks things down more clearly, it seems far more geared toward veteran players than it does newbies or more casual Mafia Wars players like myself. With color-coded breakdowns of active and inactive items as well as better explanations of how these items affect your Attack and Defense statistics in addition to your mafia members, I have a feeling that this new system will go way over the heads of many players. Though, this is the direction the game has been headed in for some time, slowly becoming Zynga's hardcore social game. According to many commenters, the new inventory has yet to go live for them (including myself), but take a look for yourself and decide what crowd the new inventory is meant for.
Friday, January 13, 2012
FarmVille Sneak Peek: Party Barn, Icicle Cottage and Party Barn parts
Party Barn Brick Party Barn Party Barn Nail Party Barn Wood
Been wondering just what this New Year's Eve Party in FarmVille might look like since we recently broke the news? Just as expected, our friends at FarmVille Freak are on the case and have found some unreleased images of exactly where it'll take place. If some guess work is appreciated, I'd say the New Year's Eve Party Building will work a lot like similar buildings released this year, with players being required to ask their friends for construction materials and later to gift one another invitations for the big event.
Our reward for completing the Party Barn will be the bumping, new-age hoedown you'll see in the FarmVille Freak post. Finally, we have something to look forward to this New Year's Eve. You know, aside from the awesome parties, flowing drinks and Jan. 1 regrets.
Been wondering just what this New Year's Eve Party in FarmVille might look like since we recently broke the news? Just as expected, our friends at FarmVille Freak are on the case and have found some unreleased images of exactly where it'll take place. If some guess work is appreciated, I'd say the New Year's Eve Party Building will work a lot like similar buildings released this year, with players being required to ask their friends for construction materials and later to gift one another invitations for the big event.
Our reward for completing the Party Barn will be the bumping, new-age hoedown you'll see in the FarmVille Freak post. Finally, we have something to look forward to this New Year's Eve. You know, aside from the awesome parties, flowing drinks and Jan. 1 regrets.
FarmVille Sneak Peek: Gingerbread Gnome, New Year Gnome and more
New Year Gnome Winter Bear Cave Snow Animal Statue
In addition to an expectantly awesome New Year's Eve Party, FarmVille Freak has found some unreleased decorations in FarmVille that should help sign off 2010 and ring in 2011 with a bang. For the remainder of this year, we have the Winter Bear Cave and Snow Animal Statue to winterize our farms even further. As for rounding out the Christmas cheer, a Gingerbread Gnome, Stocking Planter, Tinsel Arch and Tinsel Fence await us. And lastly, to help ring in the New Year is the 2011 New Year Gnome, all dolled up in a 2011 top hat, a fancy suit and scarf and fittingly enough blowing on a kazoo. To help us decide on what to save for first, FarmVille Freak has included estimated prices for a few of these unreleased items:
Gingerbread Gnome – 18 FV$
Winter Bear Cave – 25 FV$
Snowy Animal Statue – 12 FV$
Tinsel Arch – 10,000 Coins
Tinsel Fence – 5,000 Coins
Stocking Planter Tinsel Arch Tinsel Fence
If these prices turn out to be accurate, that's quite a lot of cash for a simple cookie. Not to mention that it'll be rough to fancily fence off your Holiday area in FarmVille with a Tinsel Fence that costs 5,000 coins a piece. If you want the truest Christmas and New Year's experience on the farm, it looks like you'll have to harvest double time this holiday season.
In addition to an expectantly awesome New Year's Eve Party, FarmVille Freak has found some unreleased decorations in FarmVille that should help sign off 2010 and ring in 2011 with a bang. For the remainder of this year, we have the Winter Bear Cave and Snow Animal Statue to winterize our farms even further. As for rounding out the Christmas cheer, a Gingerbread Gnome, Stocking Planter, Tinsel Arch and Tinsel Fence await us. And lastly, to help ring in the New Year is the 2011 New Year Gnome, all dolled up in a 2011 top hat, a fancy suit and scarf and fittingly enough blowing on a kazoo. To help us decide on what to save for first, FarmVille Freak has included estimated prices for a few of these unreleased items:
Gingerbread Gnome – 18 FV$
Winter Bear Cave – 25 FV$
Snowy Animal Statue – 12 FV$
Tinsel Arch – 10,000 Coins
Tinsel Fence – 5,000 Coins
Stocking Planter Tinsel Arch Tinsel Fence
If these prices turn out to be accurate, that's quite a lot of cash for a simple cookie. Not to mention that it'll be rough to fancily fence off your Holiday area in FarmVille with a Tinsel Fence that costs 5,000 coins a piece. If you want the truest Christmas and New Year's experience on the farm, it looks like you'll have to harvest double time this holiday season.
FarmVille Sneak Peek: Snowball Fight, New Years Invite Icons and more
Snowball Fight Hit Other Snowball Fight Taunt New Years Invite Reindeer Mugshot
It looks like the folks at FarmVille Freak are working as hard as we are this holiday season to bring you the latest in holiday news from the farm. In its latest round of unreleased items in FarmVille, the team has found some icons that surely help give us a better idea of what the imminent Snowball Fight might be like as well as the New Year's Eve Party.
It seems that the Snowball Fight will be much like gifting expect with much less unwrapping and much more of the cold stuff in players' faces. It looks as if you'll be able to "send" throws to one another with the recipient given the option to send back, but that's not all. You will also be able to send your friends taunts to get them to throw more snow at you, which we imagine will be to help grow your pile of snow for that incoming Snowman feature. We also see what the New Year's Eve invites will look like, which could be part of building the yet-to-be-released Party Barn.
Seasons Greetings Game Card
While the new Seasons Greetings virtual Game Card from Zynga is self-explanatory, there is one peculiar unreleased icon that we just can't point our fingers on as to what it means, the Reindeer Mugshot. Could this be yet another unreleased feature or part of the incoming snow-related events? I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Unless, of course, FarmVille Freak works its magic ahead of time and grabs some more unreleased content for us to drool over. Until then, you just make sure you have enough room on the farm for all these incoming items.
It looks like the folks at FarmVille Freak are working as hard as we are this holiday season to bring you the latest in holiday news from the farm. In its latest round of unreleased items in FarmVille, the team has found some icons that surely help give us a better idea of what the imminent Snowball Fight might be like as well as the New Year's Eve Party.
It seems that the Snowball Fight will be much like gifting expect with much less unwrapping and much more of the cold stuff in players' faces. It looks as if you'll be able to "send" throws to one another with the recipient given the option to send back, but that's not all. You will also be able to send your friends taunts to get them to throw more snow at you, which we imagine will be to help grow your pile of snow for that incoming Snowman feature. We also see what the New Year's Eve invites will look like, which could be part of building the yet-to-be-released Party Barn.
Seasons Greetings Game Card
While the new Seasons Greetings virtual Game Card from Zynga is self-explanatory, there is one peculiar unreleased icon that we just can't point our fingers on as to what it means, the Reindeer Mugshot. Could this be yet another unreleased feature or part of the incoming snow-related events? I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Unless, of course, FarmVille Freak works its magic ahead of time and grabs some more unreleased content for us to drool over. Until then, you just make sure you have enough room on the farm for all these incoming items.
CityVille Cheats and Tips: Visit Neighbors early and often
First Friend Visit
While we've covered visiting neighbors in passing once or twice in our ongoing series of Cheats and Tips for CityVille, it's only just now that the CityVille team has given us some vital information about how they work. Whether you're a hardcore mayor or just a casual city council member, these tips on how to maximize your bonuses from neighbor visits could potentially launch ahead of your friends in your favorite new Zynga game.
First off, every time you visit a brand new neighbor for the first time you will be rewarded with 100 coins, 3 Energy and 1 XP. Now, that's a pretty hefty bonus just for popping in and welcoming your new friend to the game, don't you think? As you all probably know already visiting friends daily after the fact nets you the standard 50 coins, 1 Energy and 1 XP.
Join us after the break for more details on exactly how neighbor visits work.
Old Friend Visit
Visiting a neighbor grants players five actions, marked by lightning bolts on the left hand side of the screen. These actions can be used to help your friend by providing business via tourist buses, chopping their trees, collecting fees from their properties or harvesting their crops. Though, we recommend avoiding that last option altogether--it almost always leads to complaints.
We'll admit it, we lied (at least only a little bit). While the visiting bonuses are available daily, they actually run on a 23-hour clock, meaning that they reactivate every 23 hours instead of 24. For the most hardcore of CityVille players, this will mean the world--but this news won't mean much to us more casual mayors as we actually enjoy sleep. However, here's where things get interesting.
Reputation Hearts
While the visitation bonuses are only available every 23 hours, your five actions will replenish every 12. This means that you can level up your Reputation score ( the meter that replaces your Energy when visiting friends) even more than before--bonus or not. Though you might not see yourself taking advantage of this piece of information, consider this tip. Why not try logging into the game just before you go into work or school and visit all of your friends? Then, by the time you come home, your friends should be ready for some help yet again. Try this out and you might see that Reputation score fill up even faster than your experience level. And if some of you feel that Reputation is a meaningless number, check out what CityVille forum moderator Sugar Monkey has to say about that:
The number of bonuses you can get from neighbor visits also depends on your total reputation, so if your reputation is lower than the number of neighbors you have you will run out of bonuses before you will run out of neighbors to visit.
This means that although bonuses run on a 23-hour timer, they're are governed by your Reputation score as well. For example, if you have a Reputation score of 6 and you have eight neighbors, you will only be able to collect bonuses from six of your friends daily until your Reputation matches the number of friends you have. Basically, increase your Reputation to allow yourself to take advantage of all the bonuses your neighbors have to offer. So, as the game continues, requiring more neighbors for more features, you might want to take advantage of that 12-hour timer to make sure your Reputation matches your popularity.
While we've covered visiting neighbors in passing once or twice in our ongoing series of Cheats and Tips for CityVille, it's only just now that the CityVille team has given us some vital information about how they work. Whether you're a hardcore mayor or just a casual city council member, these tips on how to maximize your bonuses from neighbor visits could potentially launch ahead of your friends in your favorite new Zynga game.
First off, every time you visit a brand new neighbor for the first time you will be rewarded with 100 coins, 3 Energy and 1 XP. Now, that's a pretty hefty bonus just for popping in and welcoming your new friend to the game, don't you think? As you all probably know already visiting friends daily after the fact nets you the standard 50 coins, 1 Energy and 1 XP.
Join us after the break for more details on exactly how neighbor visits work.
Old Friend Visit
Visiting a neighbor grants players five actions, marked by lightning bolts on the left hand side of the screen. These actions can be used to help your friend by providing business via tourist buses, chopping their trees, collecting fees from their properties or harvesting their crops. Though, we recommend avoiding that last option altogether--it almost always leads to complaints.
We'll admit it, we lied (at least only a little bit). While the visiting bonuses are available daily, they actually run on a 23-hour clock, meaning that they reactivate every 23 hours instead of 24. For the most hardcore of CityVille players, this will mean the world--but this news won't mean much to us more casual mayors as we actually enjoy sleep. However, here's where things get interesting.
Reputation Hearts
While the visitation bonuses are only available every 23 hours, your five actions will replenish every 12. This means that you can level up your Reputation score ( the meter that replaces your Energy when visiting friends) even more than before--bonus or not. Though you might not see yourself taking advantage of this piece of information, consider this tip. Why not try logging into the game just before you go into work or school and visit all of your friends? Then, by the time you come home, your friends should be ready for some help yet again. Try this out and you might see that Reputation score fill up even faster than your experience level. And if some of you feel that Reputation is a meaningless number, check out what CityVille forum moderator Sugar Monkey has to say about that:
The number of bonuses you can get from neighbor visits also depends on your total reputation, so if your reputation is lower than the number of neighbors you have you will run out of bonuses before you will run out of neighbors to visit.
This means that although bonuses run on a 23-hour timer, they're are governed by your Reputation score as well. For example, if you have a Reputation score of 6 and you have eight neighbors, you will only be able to collect bonuses from six of your friends daily until your Reputation matches the number of friends you have. Basically, increase your Reputation to allow yourself to take advantage of all the bonuses your neighbors have to offer. So, as the game continues, requiring more neighbors for more features, you might want to take advantage of that 12-hour timer to make sure your Reputation matches your popularity.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
No More Heroes creator to spit out three more Mobage social games
And only one of which will actually involve grasshoppers. Grasshopper Manufacture, the Japanese developer responsible for stylish, gory hardcore games like No More Heroes, revealed just before the Tokyo Game Show that it will release three mobile social games through the now-global Mobage network, Kotaku reports.
The first game to be released internationally under this new deal between the developer and DeNA, which runs the Mobage network with recent acquisition ngmoco, is Frog Minutes. The game already released in Japan back in March, so this will likely just be a localized version for Mobage on Android phones in the U.S. and abroad.
In Frog Minutes, players disturb parts of a forest scene to stir up various insects and feed them to frogs. The more quickly players do this, the higher their score will climb, it seems. Ribbeting, isn't it? (Sorry, couldn't resist.) Not much was revealed about Grasshopper Manufacture's other two Mobage projects other than their titles: Humans vs Zombies and Alien Busters.
The developer plans to show more of those games at a later date, according to Kotaku. Grasshopper Manufacture is placing big bets on social games with a mobile social version of No More Heroes, which designer Suda 51 said he hopes it will be bloodiest social game around.
While it's interesting to see a Japanese developer known for taking risks with unique games major consoles that (unfortunately) sell poorly hop into the low-risk, high-profit world of social gaming, it wasn't hard to see this one coming. And considering the effect social games has had on traditional American developers, we doubt this is the last news like this we'll hear from Japan.
The first game to be released internationally under this new deal between the developer and DeNA, which runs the Mobage network with recent acquisition ngmoco, is Frog Minutes. The game already released in Japan back in March, so this will likely just be a localized version for Mobage on Android phones in the U.S. and abroad.
In Frog Minutes, players disturb parts of a forest scene to stir up various insects and feed them to frogs. The more quickly players do this, the higher their score will climb, it seems. Ribbeting, isn't it? (Sorry, couldn't resist.) Not much was revealed about Grasshopper Manufacture's other two Mobage projects other than their titles: Humans vs Zombies and Alien Busters.
The developer plans to show more of those games at a later date, according to Kotaku. Grasshopper Manufacture is placing big bets on social games with a mobile social version of No More Heroes, which designer Suda 51 said he hopes it will be bloodiest social game around.
While it's interesting to see a Japanese developer known for taking risks with unique games major consoles that (unfortunately) sell poorly hop into the low-risk, high-profit world of social gaming, it wasn't hard to see this one coming. And considering the effect social games has had on traditional American developers, we doubt this is the last news like this we'll hear from Japan.
Karma Kingdom looks to combine social good, social fun on Facebook
A Facebook game that can score us some good karma points--where do we sign up? We've seen games like FarmVille and CityVille run social good campaigns, but Singapore-based developer Asvathaa has a made an entire game of the idea. The developer just released Karma Kingdom on Facebook, a quest-driven game that looks to help you "Create Your Better World," according to its tag line.
Karma Kingdom integrates Indian mythology into modern lessons of doing good for others. It does this by allowing players to curate an island nation and maintain their citizens' happiness using the three tenants of happiness: health, community and knowledge. You will be guided by several Indian gods and goddesses in your efforts to keep the people happy through quests.
You do this through creating homes for your people to live in, and then surrounding those homes with decorations that promote Health, Community and Knowledge. It seems as if it's important to keep that balance in the decorations you place. Otherwise, your citizens will quickly become unhappy and provide less Goodwill, the resource you need to provide for your people.
Players can plant crops to provide more Goodwill, and the game doesn't seem to be governed by any energy system. (Now, that's something fresh.) But what's more important is the real goodwill Asvathaa aims to create with Karma Kingdom. The Singapore developer has promised to donate a 10 percent of its income through Facebook Credits to non-profit charities. (However, Asvathaa doesn't say which charities it will donate to exactly.)
Karma Kingdom in action
The more happiness-generating decorations you buy in the game using Facebook Credits, the more Asvathaa will donate ... somewhere. "We want to offer a personal CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) platform for every individual as the desire to give back exists in each one of us," Asvathaa CEO and founder Ashok Desai said in a release. If anything, the game looks to be a fresh take on the genre given that it doesn't limit your play time through energy, and maybe it will do some good, too.
Karma Kingdom integrates Indian mythology into modern lessons of doing good for others. It does this by allowing players to curate an island nation and maintain their citizens' happiness using the three tenants of happiness: health, community and knowledge. You will be guided by several Indian gods and goddesses in your efforts to keep the people happy through quests.
You do this through creating homes for your people to live in, and then surrounding those homes with decorations that promote Health, Community and Knowledge. It seems as if it's important to keep that balance in the decorations you place. Otherwise, your citizens will quickly become unhappy and provide less Goodwill, the resource you need to provide for your people.
Players can plant crops to provide more Goodwill, and the game doesn't seem to be governed by any energy system. (Now, that's something fresh.) But what's more important is the real goodwill Asvathaa aims to create with Karma Kingdom. The Singapore developer has promised to donate a 10 percent of its income through Facebook Credits to non-profit charities. (However, Asvathaa doesn't say which charities it will donate to exactly.)
Karma Kingdom in action
The more happiness-generating decorations you buy in the game using Facebook Credits, the more Asvathaa will donate ... somewhere. "We want to offer a personal CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) platform for every individual as the desire to give back exists in each one of us," Asvathaa CEO and founder Ashok Desai said in a release. If anything, the game looks to be a fresh take on the genre given that it doesn't limit your play time through energy, and maybe it will do some good, too.
Club Penguin fires a salvo of fun with Puffle Launch for iPhone [Video]
Parents, secure the iPhones and iPads. If Club Penguin isn't going to slide onto Facebook anytime soon, we'll take the next best thing: the iPhone. Puffle Launch, first released as a mini game within the kids world of Club Penguin over a year ago, launches onto iPhone tomorrow, Sept. 15. The game, which will be available for the paltry price of $.99, puts players in control of Daredevil, one of the many Puffles available in the existing Disney-owned web game.
Just like in Club Penguin, kids can fire Daredevil from a cannon, careening into obstacles and collecting Coins. Better yet, those Coins can be transferred to kids' existing Club Penguin accounts to buy new items from the web game's store. As players advance through the game's many daring and dangerous aerial courses, they will eventually have to face the Crab Boss.
According to a Club Penguin representative, Puffle Launch is already played by 150,000 kids daily, and a new Puffle is adopted every second in the kid-friendly virtual world. (That amounts to more than 20 million of the little balls of love adopted in 2011 already!) With statistics like that, color us baffled as to why Club Penguin has yet to hit Facebook, especially considering the amount of preteens that are already active on the social network.
Hopefully, this is just the beginning of Club Penguin's expansion beyond its little home on the web and onto new platforms (aside from Nintendo's stable of consoles). Check out the game's trailer below, but you might not want to show the kids just yet, unless you're willing to buy it on every iOS device in the house.
Just like in Club Penguin, kids can fire Daredevil from a cannon, careening into obstacles and collecting Coins. Better yet, those Coins can be transferred to kids' existing Club Penguin accounts to buy new items from the web game's store. As players advance through the game's many daring and dangerous aerial courses, they will eventually have to face the Crab Boss.
According to a Club Penguin representative, Puffle Launch is already played by 150,000 kids daily, and a new Puffle is adopted every second in the kid-friendly virtual world. (That amounts to more than 20 million of the little balls of love adopted in 2011 already!) With statistics like that, color us baffled as to why Club Penguin has yet to hit Facebook, especially considering the amount of preteens that are already active on the social network.
Hopefully, this is just the beginning of Club Penguin's expansion beyond its little home on the web and onto new platforms (aside from Nintendo's stable of consoles). Check out the game's trailer below, but you might not want to show the kids just yet, unless you're willing to buy it on every iOS device in the house.
Kabam on Edgeworld's release and what battles lie ahead [Interview]
Edgeworld
Even at first glance of its war-torn landscape filled with futuristic buildings blasted to bits by the laser weapons of alien and mechanized armies, it's clear that Edgeworld is San Francisco-based developer Kabam's most ambitious project yet. Formerly known as Watercooler, the studio and publisher is filled with fans of traditional strategy PC games. Even CEO Kevin Chou was a world-ranked StarCraft player back in the day.
Inspired by sci-fi staples like Star Wars, Star Trek and even the Halo series of shooter games, Edgeworld is the culmination of Kabam's ongoing mission to bring a true 4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) game experience to Facebook. Since the game's "open beta" release in August, the team is hard at work to make that vision a reality as it claims to have in previous games. (As of this writing, the game enjoys over 858,000 monthly players, according to AppData.)
We sat down with Edgeworld Producer James Holloway recently to hear his thoughts on the game post-release, and what plans he and the rest of the Kabam team have for the strategy game in the future.
Edgeworld in action
Now that Edgeworld has released, what are your knee-jerk reactions? What do you love about the game at release, and what would you like to fix most?
We're really pleased with the release so far. We're seeing a lot of people come back to play the game--it has a really high retention. A lot of people are joining Alliances and engaging with each other. In every sector, I see chat is very active. But this is just the beginning.
The biggest thing that I think we're missing is that our Alliance feature is pretty lean right now. The thing that we would like to emphasize more is a cooperative play of the game. I think we have just the basics right now. The new Maps feature is going to integrate very tightly with alliances--you work together [with Alliances] to conquer territory.
We have about four unique turrets and nine units, and that's just the beginning. We're working on a new unit and a new turret that we're really excited about, and those are going to launch in the next month. We'll be introducing higher levels of our buildings. So, there's a lot more content that we need to create, and we're just getting started.
What's the most interesting thing you've seen players do in the game since release--something that never happened during testing?
One thing that we sort of didn't anticipate was that some Alliances and players are attacking each other for resources. At one point we didn't have inter-Alliance resource sharing, so right now you can actually send resources to other players to help them out. So, we didn't have that feature [originally].
But what people were doing was working around that by setting up their Command Centers, which are what contain your resources, outside the perimeter of their turrets. [Players would then] leave their Alliance, cook it, and then attack them and take their resources. So, they were doing resource transfers before the feature was even allowed.
Do you have any interesting or helpful gameplay tips for the players to get ahead in Edgeworld?
Certainly! If you're just starting out, we give every player two days of starter protection wherein no other player can attack you. That's a free few days of protection, and use that time wisely to build up your base and experiment with different configurations. Allow the Factions to attack your base. There's a lot of experimentation with the units.
Players are posting on the forums, talking with each other and also within their Alliances about the best combinations of units to deploy when attacking a base. There are a lot of combinations of tanks and DPS [damage per second] units you can deploy. Rhinos, or other types that have a lot of hit points, can take a lot of fire, and then you can deploy units with longer range or higher DPS behind them.
Edgeworld blast
Depending on what your goals are--like, you might want as many resources as possible--you might want to deploy the Raiders. The Rhinos draw fire from the turrets, while the Spectres sit outside and fire away at the turrets. You really want to upgrade your Spectres to give them a longer range.
We have two different types of units in the game right now: infantry units and mechanized units. It's not necessarily that the mechs are more powerful than the infantry--we're still constantly balancing the game to make sure every unit has its role.
Another thing is that the Warp Gates are really important as far as attacking goes. As you upgrade those, you increase their capacity so that you can actually deploy more units on the ground [at once]. As you unlock more units, the more powerful units will start to consume more of the [Warp Gates'] bandwidth, so you want to upgrade those to deploy the biggest army that you can.
Thanks for talking with us (and for the tips), James.
Territories Could Blow Alliance Play Wide Open
During our chat, Holloway had something brand new to show coming soon to Edgeworld. (Though, it's still in the concept phase, so weren't provided images.) It's a feature tentatively known as "Territories," and the game's producer hopes that it will expand Alliance play into something even more meaningful.
"We haven't seen a past feature like this that I can think of, and we all play a lot of games," Holloway gushes about what he's about to show me. "We're trying to make this a deeper, more robust 4X or empires building game."
As it relates to the game's story, many of the Galactic Union's outposts have been abandoned during the war for Cerulea IV, and they're ripe for the taking. The Territories feature will provide you with a map of the entire planet Cerulea IV, with your home base appearing in the center as a star. Your home base will be surrounded by either hostile, Alliance or neutral territories marked in red, green or simply displayed as abandoned outposts, respectively.
Edgeworld concept art
It's up to you to work with your Alliance to invade either hostile (controlled by enemy Alliances) or neutral outposts, and keep them under your control for as long as possible to reap their benefits, which weren't revealed to us. (Our best guess is additional resources to keep your home bases going.) Players will individually attack outposts just as they would enemy bases, and can call on their Alliance for help asynchronously.
However, players cannot build on these outposts, only bolster their existing defense turrets with their own resources to maintain control of the benefits they provide. This will make it more difficult for enemies to invade. Speaking of invading, players can only enter outposts that are adjacent to their own base or controlled outposts. Eventually, we see the Territories feature becoming a constant struggle between opposing Alliances, and hopefully something for us to work toward.
"This is very different from our other strategy games," Holloway says. "In most cases you individually own tiles on the map, but in this case you kind of need an Alliance to own territory. This is something we're really excited about. We're still working on it and prototyping it, but hopefully we'll have something out in the next four weeks."
Even at first glance of its war-torn landscape filled with futuristic buildings blasted to bits by the laser weapons of alien and mechanized armies, it's clear that Edgeworld is San Francisco-based developer Kabam's most ambitious project yet. Formerly known as Watercooler, the studio and publisher is filled with fans of traditional strategy PC games. Even CEO Kevin Chou was a world-ranked StarCraft player back in the day.
Inspired by sci-fi staples like Star Wars, Star Trek and even the Halo series of shooter games, Edgeworld is the culmination of Kabam's ongoing mission to bring a true 4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) game experience to Facebook. Since the game's "open beta" release in August, the team is hard at work to make that vision a reality as it claims to have in previous games. (As of this writing, the game enjoys over 858,000 monthly players, according to AppData.)
We sat down with Edgeworld Producer James Holloway recently to hear his thoughts on the game post-release, and what plans he and the rest of the Kabam team have for the strategy game in the future.
Edgeworld in action
Now that Edgeworld has released, what are your knee-jerk reactions? What do you love about the game at release, and what would you like to fix most?
We're really pleased with the release so far. We're seeing a lot of people come back to play the game--it has a really high retention. A lot of people are joining Alliances and engaging with each other. In every sector, I see chat is very active. But this is just the beginning.
The biggest thing that I think we're missing is that our Alliance feature is pretty lean right now. The thing that we would like to emphasize more is a cooperative play of the game. I think we have just the basics right now. The new Maps feature is going to integrate very tightly with alliances--you work together [with Alliances] to conquer territory.
We have about four unique turrets and nine units, and that's just the beginning. We're working on a new unit and a new turret that we're really excited about, and those are going to launch in the next month. We'll be introducing higher levels of our buildings. So, there's a lot more content that we need to create, and we're just getting started.
What's the most interesting thing you've seen players do in the game since release--something that never happened during testing?
One thing that we sort of didn't anticipate was that some Alliances and players are attacking each other for resources. At one point we didn't have inter-Alliance resource sharing, so right now you can actually send resources to other players to help them out. So, we didn't have that feature [originally].
But what people were doing was working around that by setting up their Command Centers, which are what contain your resources, outside the perimeter of their turrets. [Players would then] leave their Alliance, cook it, and then attack them and take their resources. So, they were doing resource transfers before the feature was even allowed.
Do you have any interesting or helpful gameplay tips for the players to get ahead in Edgeworld?
Certainly! If you're just starting out, we give every player two days of starter protection wherein no other player can attack you. That's a free few days of protection, and use that time wisely to build up your base and experiment with different configurations. Allow the Factions to attack your base. There's a lot of experimentation with the units.
Players are posting on the forums, talking with each other and also within their Alliances about the best combinations of units to deploy when attacking a base. There are a lot of combinations of tanks and DPS [damage per second] units you can deploy. Rhinos, or other types that have a lot of hit points, can take a lot of fire, and then you can deploy units with longer range or higher DPS behind them.
Edgeworld blast
Depending on what your goals are--like, you might want as many resources as possible--you might want to deploy the Raiders. The Rhinos draw fire from the turrets, while the Spectres sit outside and fire away at the turrets. You really want to upgrade your Spectres to give them a longer range.
We have two different types of units in the game right now: infantry units and mechanized units. It's not necessarily that the mechs are more powerful than the infantry--we're still constantly balancing the game to make sure every unit has its role.
Another thing is that the Warp Gates are really important as far as attacking goes. As you upgrade those, you increase their capacity so that you can actually deploy more units on the ground [at once]. As you unlock more units, the more powerful units will start to consume more of the [Warp Gates'] bandwidth, so you want to upgrade those to deploy the biggest army that you can.
Thanks for talking with us (and for the tips), James.
Territories Could Blow Alliance Play Wide Open
During our chat, Holloway had something brand new to show coming soon to Edgeworld. (Though, it's still in the concept phase, so weren't provided images.) It's a feature tentatively known as "Territories," and the game's producer hopes that it will expand Alliance play into something even more meaningful.
"We haven't seen a past feature like this that I can think of, and we all play a lot of games," Holloway gushes about what he's about to show me. "We're trying to make this a deeper, more robust 4X or empires building game."
As it relates to the game's story, many of the Galactic Union's outposts have been abandoned during the war for Cerulea IV, and they're ripe for the taking. The Territories feature will provide you with a map of the entire planet Cerulea IV, with your home base appearing in the center as a star. Your home base will be surrounded by either hostile, Alliance or neutral territories marked in red, green or simply displayed as abandoned outposts, respectively.
Edgeworld concept art
It's up to you to work with your Alliance to invade either hostile (controlled by enemy Alliances) or neutral outposts, and keep them under your control for as long as possible to reap their benefits, which weren't revealed to us. (Our best guess is additional resources to keep your home bases going.) Players will individually attack outposts just as they would enemy bases, and can call on their Alliance for help asynchronously.
However, players cannot build on these outposts, only bolster their existing defense turrets with their own resources to maintain control of the benefits they provide. This will make it more difficult for enemies to invade. Speaking of invading, players can only enter outposts that are adjacent to their own base or controlled outposts. Eventually, we see the Territories feature becoming a constant struggle between opposing Alliances, and hopefully something for us to work toward.
"This is very different from our other strategy games," Holloway says. "In most cases you individually own tiles on the map, but in this case you kind of need an Alliance to own territory. This is something we're really excited about. We're still working on it and prototyping it, but hopefully we'll have something out in the next four weeks."
Zynga, Playdom, EA and Bioware vets cause a Rumble with new freemium studio
While many a story has come to light recently, detailing high-level game designers jumping ship to Zynga, here's one where a fairly big gun under the big Z's umbrella has left for new pastures. To be specific, John Yoo, lead designer on CityVille, is one of a few industry veterans that have joined with Greg Richardson [pictured], of former BioWare/Pandemic fame, in the creation of a new freemium (free-to-play) game studio by the name of Rumble.
After speaking with Rick Thompson, the founder of another major social games company - Playdom - the two partnered to form Rumble. Rounding out this new package are former EA employees Mark Spenner and David O'Connor. With these big names in their camp, Richardson's goal with Rumble is to create games that are free to play (supported with paid add-ons), but lie somewhere in between the expensive world of high-end PC games and the extremely casual games represented by many Facebook titles.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Richardson has faith that this middle ground holds a lot of merit. "We saw this third hill, and we think it's the biggest of the three hills," he says. This isn't to say, though, that Facebook games are out of the picture, as Richardson confirmed that they will use the social service, but will also focus on mobile devices and PCs through the browser.
In addition to developing its own games, Rumble will publish other developer's titles. While no specific details were announced about any of Rumble's specific games (we can expect the first sometime early next year), Richardson did list many of the company's areas of inspiration, which lie anywhere from Zelda and Super Smash Bros. to Diablo and Civilization. Regardless of the game in question, he says that Rumble looks to avoid overly complex gameplay. With this many areas of inspiration, we're definitely interested in seeing what Rumble comes up with, but for now - the possibilities are endless.
After speaking with Rick Thompson, the founder of another major social games company - Playdom - the two partnered to form Rumble. Rounding out this new package are former EA employees Mark Spenner and David O'Connor. With these big names in their camp, Richardson's goal with Rumble is to create games that are free to play (supported with paid add-ons), but lie somewhere in between the expensive world of high-end PC games and the extremely casual games represented by many Facebook titles.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Richardson has faith that this middle ground holds a lot of merit. "We saw this third hill, and we think it's the biggest of the three hills," he says. This isn't to say, though, that Facebook games are out of the picture, as Richardson confirmed that they will use the social service, but will also focus on mobile devices and PCs through the browser.
In addition to developing its own games, Rumble will publish other developer's titles. While no specific details were announced about any of Rumble's specific games (we can expect the first sometime early next year), Richardson did list many of the company's areas of inspiration, which lie anywhere from Zelda and Super Smash Bros. to Diablo and Civilization. Regardless of the game in question, he says that Rumble looks to avoid overly complex gameplay. With this many areas of inspiration, we're definitely interested in seeing what Rumble comes up with, but for now - the possibilities are endless.
Monday, January 9, 2012
FrontierVille: Finish the New Years Resolution goals for 20 Horseshoes
Apparently, you guys know how to get things done in FrontierVille, at least where behind the scenes changes are concerned. If you were one of the many people that tried to finish the six New Years Resolution missions in FrontierVille before January 14 in order to earn your free 50 Horseshoes, but couldn't, there is still a definite incentive to actually finish those missions, aside from earning the various Crates full of decorations that you'll receive when finishing each one individually, that is.
After much outcry from users over the difficulty to complete these missions (on the official fan page, on the Zynga forums, and every other site with a comment button), or the various glitches being suffered from therein, Zynga has decided to reward all users for finishing the missions, regardless of whether they did it before January 14, or after.
All six of the New Years goals will be available to complete until January 31, as first reported, but Zynga has now announced that if you can finish all six before the end of the month, you'll receive 20 free Horsehoes. Sure, it's not 50 Horseshoes, which admittedly is a lot better, but any free Horseshoes at this point is definitely better than none, especially when considering the downright difficulty of some of these missions. Sell 50 Oxen, Pigs, and Goats? Sheesh!
In addition, remember that if you can complete all six missions before they expire, you'll receive an exclusive new badge - the Resolute Pioneer badge, that is only being given away to those users that complete this feature in full. If you don't complete one or more missions before they expire, so too will your opportunity at receiving this badge. You wouldn't want that to happen would you? Good luck to all those that are still trying to finish these goals in time - we're going to need it!
After much outcry from users over the difficulty to complete these missions (on the official fan page, on the Zynga forums, and every other site with a comment button), or the various glitches being suffered from therein, Zynga has decided to reward all users for finishing the missions, regardless of whether they did it before January 14, or after.
All six of the New Years goals will be available to complete until January 31, as first reported, but Zynga has now announced that if you can finish all six before the end of the month, you'll receive 20 free Horsehoes. Sure, it's not 50 Horseshoes, which admittedly is a lot better, but any free Horseshoes at this point is definitely better than none, especially when considering the downright difficulty of some of these missions. Sell 50 Oxen, Pigs, and Goats? Sheesh!
In addition, remember that if you can complete all six missions before they expire, you'll receive an exclusive new badge - the Resolute Pioneer badge, that is only being given away to those users that complete this feature in full. If you don't complete one or more missions before they expire, so too will your opportunity at receiving this badge. You wouldn't want that to happen would you? Good luck to all those that are still trying to finish these goals in time - we're going to need it!
Cafe World Cooking Academy Graduation Goals: Everything you need to know
Did you think that the White Cravat missions would be the end of your term in Cafe World's Cooking Academy? With all of the work we've had to put into our schooling so far, it would be great if that were the case, but unfortunately, there are three more missions to complete before we can apparently leave our school days behind us.
Before we get into the details of these missions, it should be noted that some users (myself included) have so many outstanding goals that these newest goals won't even appear in our quest set on the right side of the screen, because they are covered up by other goals. In the case of goals that ask you to collect items from friends (which these do), you'll need to either complete other goals to uncover the Graduation set, or hope that the goal has something you can complete within your own Cafe, so you can force the quest window to pop up (click on the black progress bar in the top left corner of the screen when it appears).
Whether you can see these quests on your cafe or not, meet us behind the break for a look at the steps you'll need to complete to finally finish your work at the Cooking Academy.
The first is called The Big Day," which is a reference to Graduation Day. It asks you to complete three steps:
Collect 1 Graduation Hat
Collect 2 Grad Bull Horns
Collect 5 Graduation RSVPs
Unfortunately, yes, all three of these are collection steps, and you'll likely be incredibly familiar with how they work by this point. Simply send requests to your individual Cafe World neighbors - the ones that you think would be most likely to help you. And remember, in Cafe World, RSVPs can typically only be sent one-per-player, so you'll need to find five different friends to help you complete this portion of the mission, or pay the 35 Cafe Cash price to unlock them all.
After finishing this portion of the quest, you'll unlock the actual graduation mission series, which comes with two parts. The first part is "Graduate with Honors" and asks you to cook a few dishes, earn some coins, and raise your Buzz Rating.
Cook 12 Herbed Halibuts
Earn 15,000 coins
Attain Buzz Rating of 75
The Herbed Halibuts can be put onto the stove, deleted, and then cooked again to more quickly complete this task (otherwise you'll be waiting the full 24 hours that they take to cook). Earning 15,000 coins will of course happen over time if you simply play the game, and a quick way to raise your buzz rating is to take advantage of your Coffee Machine or Drink Bar, if you have them. Serving an individual coffee or drink to a customer can sometimes raise your buzz rating 3 or 4 points or more, so use some of that energy you have on hand and quickly put that requirement to bed.
Finally, finishing this portion of the quest will unlock "Graduation Day," a one-task quest that asks you to "Attend Graduation." Simply click on the button that says "Attend Graduation," and you'll receive your Graduation Diploma as a reward. This is apparently a wall-hanging decoration that you can use to show off your progress to your friends that visit your cafe.
Once this is complete, rumor has it that you'll be able to finally unlock Cooking Specialty, and you'll be able to choose from three chefs that you'd like to cook with - American, French or Chinese. What happens after that is anyone's guess, as we haven't heard of any users actually making it that far yet. Once the Specialty Cookbook becomes more widespread, we'll be sure to give you a complete rundown on how it works.
Before we get into the details of these missions, it should be noted that some users (myself included) have so many outstanding goals that these newest goals won't even appear in our quest set on the right side of the screen, because they are covered up by other goals. In the case of goals that ask you to collect items from friends (which these do), you'll need to either complete other goals to uncover the Graduation set, or hope that the goal has something you can complete within your own Cafe, so you can force the quest window to pop up (click on the black progress bar in the top left corner of the screen when it appears).
Whether you can see these quests on your cafe or not, meet us behind the break for a look at the steps you'll need to complete to finally finish your work at the Cooking Academy.
The first is called The Big Day," which is a reference to Graduation Day. It asks you to complete three steps:
Collect 1 Graduation Hat
Collect 2 Grad Bull Horns
Collect 5 Graduation RSVPs
Unfortunately, yes, all three of these are collection steps, and you'll likely be incredibly familiar with how they work by this point. Simply send requests to your individual Cafe World neighbors - the ones that you think would be most likely to help you. And remember, in Cafe World, RSVPs can typically only be sent one-per-player, so you'll need to find five different friends to help you complete this portion of the mission, or pay the 35 Cafe Cash price to unlock them all.
After finishing this portion of the quest, you'll unlock the actual graduation mission series, which comes with two parts. The first part is "Graduate with Honors" and asks you to cook a few dishes, earn some coins, and raise your Buzz Rating.
Cook 12 Herbed Halibuts
Earn 15,000 coins
Attain Buzz Rating of 75
The Herbed Halibuts can be put onto the stove, deleted, and then cooked again to more quickly complete this task (otherwise you'll be waiting the full 24 hours that they take to cook). Earning 15,000 coins will of course happen over time if you simply play the game, and a quick way to raise your buzz rating is to take advantage of your Coffee Machine or Drink Bar, if you have them. Serving an individual coffee or drink to a customer can sometimes raise your buzz rating 3 or 4 points or more, so use some of that energy you have on hand and quickly put that requirement to bed.
Finally, finishing this portion of the quest will unlock "Graduation Day," a one-task quest that asks you to "Attend Graduation." Simply click on the button that says "Attend Graduation," and you'll receive your Graduation Diploma as a reward. This is apparently a wall-hanging decoration that you can use to show off your progress to your friends that visit your cafe.
Once this is complete, rumor has it that you'll be able to finally unlock Cooking Specialty, and you'll be able to choose from three chefs that you'd like to cook with - American, French or Chinese. What happens after that is anyone's guess, as we haven't heard of any users actually making it that far yet. Once the Specialty Cookbook becomes more widespread, we'll be sure to give you a complete rundown on how it works.
CityVille: Landmarks have arrived, but they might disappoint you
It's an update that many CityVille players had been waiting for - that being the addition of Landmarks in our cities - however, the actual execution of said feature might leave you wanting for more. Either way, Landmarks are officially now available to build in your cities.
There are four Landmarks available to purchase so far - the Pearl Tower (a building in Shanghai, China), Big Ben, the Empire State Building, and the Chicago Tower. All four can be purchased from the now unlocked "Landmarks" portion of the game's build menu, and all four come with the exact same stats. They all cost a whopping 2 million coins each, and they all serve as a sort of Community Building, adding to your maximum total population available by 2,000 citizens.
Once you build the structure of your landmarks, you'll be able to staff it with 12 of your friends by sending requests to those individual users that you think will help you. Only then will the population bonus go into effect.
And... that's pretty much it. See? I told you their release was pretty lackluster. If you can afford one of these buildings, I suppose the simple fact that you could afford one would be worth bragging about, as your friends would then see the building when visiting your town and be in awe, but your mileage may vary on that front.
We'll be sure to let you know when more Landmarks are released, or if new features are added to the buildings therein, so keep checking back!
There are four Landmarks available to purchase so far - the Pearl Tower (a building in Shanghai, China), Big Ben, the Empire State Building, and the Chicago Tower. All four can be purchased from the now unlocked "Landmarks" portion of the game's build menu, and all four come with the exact same stats. They all cost a whopping 2 million coins each, and they all serve as a sort of Community Building, adding to your maximum total population available by 2,000 citizens.
Once you build the structure of your landmarks, you'll be able to staff it with 12 of your friends by sending requests to those individual users that you think will help you. Only then will the population bonus go into effect.
And... that's pretty much it. See? I told you their release was pretty lackluster. If you can afford one of these buildings, I suppose the simple fact that you could afford one would be worth bragging about, as your friends would then see the building when visiting your town and be in awe, but your mileage may vary on that front.
We'll be sure to let you know when more Landmarks are released, or if new features are added to the buildings therein, so keep checking back!
FarmVille Sneak Peek: Cupid's Castle building project coming soon?
It looks like Zynga will be releasing a new building project for us in FarmVille in the near future, to coincide with the upcoming Valentine's Day holiday. The building is the Cupid's Castle, and it apparently has three stages of construction (shown from left to right in the above image), each making the castle more elaborate and downright cute in the process.
In theory, this building will be just like the Haunted House or the Winter Workshop released during the Halloween and Christmas events, respectively. Since it seems as though we'll be collecting valentines in a collection event just like last year, this would only make sense, as the Cupid's Castle would then give out free valentines every time you collect from it (that is, if it works as we assume).
Of course, all of this is purely speculative at this point, and whether or not the building will actually serve any purpose whatsoever remains to be seen. This is a just a best guess as to what we think Zynga will do. Remember, there is no guarantee that the building will actually even be released in the game, so keep that in mind.
In theory, this building will be just like the Haunted House or the Winter Workshop released during the Halloween and Christmas events, respectively. Since it seems as though we'll be collecting valentines in a collection event just like last year, this would only make sense, as the Cupid's Castle would then give out free valentines every time you collect from it (that is, if it works as we assume).
Of course, all of this is purely speculative at this point, and whether or not the building will actually serve any purpose whatsoever remains to be seen. This is a just a best guess as to what we think Zynga will do. Remember, there is no guarantee that the building will actually even be released in the game, so keep that in mind.
FarmVille Sneak Peek: Six new Duck types apparently coming soon
If you've finished building your Duck Pond in FarmVille, and would like more variety in terms of the Ducks that you place inside of it, you're in luck, as we've found six as-of-now unreleased images of Ducks that will apparently be launching in the game in the very near future.
The ducks are, from left to right in the picture above: Muscovy Duck, Red Billed Duck, Pekin Duck, Scoter Duck, Cayuga Duck, and Goldeneye Duck. All of these are true-to-life varieties of Ducks, and seem to be pretty good virtual representations at that.
There's no word yet as to how these Ducks will be made available (they will most likely be available as Farm Cash items in the store, but may also be released as free gifts), or how much they'll cost, so start saving both your coins and your Farm Cash just in case. In addition, remember that there is no guarantee that all of these Ducks will be released officially in the game, so keep that in mind.
We'll make sure to let you know when/if these Ducks become available and how to add them to your farm, so keep checking back!
The ducks are, from left to right in the picture above: Muscovy Duck, Red Billed Duck, Pekin Duck, Scoter Duck, Cayuga Duck, and Goldeneye Duck. All of these are true-to-life varieties of Ducks, and seem to be pretty good virtual representations at that.
There's no word yet as to how these Ducks will be made available (they will most likely be available as Farm Cash items in the store, but may also be released as free gifts), or how much they'll cost, so start saving both your coins and your Farm Cash just in case. In addition, remember that there is no guarantee that all of these Ducks will be released officially in the game, so keep that in mind.
We'll make sure to let you know when/if these Ducks become available and how to add them to your farm, so keep checking back!
Saturday, January 7, 2012
CityVille is available in Indonesian, Turkish; global conquest continues
Zynga has made CityVille available in Turkish and Indonesian. Now that players can say both "Merhaba" and "Halo" to CityVille, the world's most popular social game is now available in seven languages including English. However, the languages aren't available to me personally--perhaps it's an issue of location? Hopefully, this is fixed soon, because I'm sure there are plenty of Turkish or Indonesian folks living in the US who would like to play in their native language.
Update: CityVille has also been made available in Portuguese, yet no official announcement was made. The language is ready for use unlike Indonesian and Turkish.
Regardless, this appears to be Zynga's next step in maintaining CityVille's dominant numbers: reach out to as many demographics as possible. The game recently suffered a dip in players from its massive peak of 100 million, and you can bet the monolithic developer will do everything in its power to steady its numbers. However, it will be interesting to see how Zynga handles localization in countries with vast culture differences such as China, Japan and the rest of East Asia.
Update: CityVille has also been made available in Portuguese, yet no official announcement was made. The language is ready for use unlike Indonesian and Turkish.
Regardless, this appears to be Zynga's next step in maintaining CityVille's dominant numbers: reach out to as many demographics as possible. The game recently suffered a dip in players from its massive peak of 100 million, and you can bet the monolithic developer will do everything in its power to steady its numbers. However, it will be interesting to see how Zynga handles localization in countries with vast culture differences such as China, Japan and the rest of East Asia.
Facebook Game Cheats and Tips: How to master the new News Feed
Facebook News Feed tweak
As some of the more observant social gamers may have noticed, the Facebook team has revamped the way the News Feed works. While the changes have greatly reduced the clutter in your News Feed, they might have reduced the amount of social game-related posts you're seeing. This is because the News Feed now (by default) displays only the News Feed posts by friends and Pages that you interact with the most. But what if you want to see all of those posts in the rare chance they provide something useful? Here's how to make it happen.
On your homepage, scroll all the way up to the top of your News Feed. Then, click on the text that will most likely read "Most Recent" and you will see a drop down menu appear. If you'd like to see all game-related News Feed post from your friends, click on the Games icon and your feed will refresh with only those updates. This way, you can easily see what everyone is up to and reap the benefits more easily. Who said you need third party apps?
Games Feed
You can also tailor the News Feed to only display posts from those you want to posts from by clicking on the "X" next to their name in any given post. Choose "Hide all by [X]" to never see a post from them again. Better yet, if all you're interested in is gaming on your account, you can create your own Friend's List to populate the News Feed. All other posts will be blocked from your feed. So, say you only want to see FarmVille-related posts. Then create a Friend's List that only includes the FarmVille fan page, your favorite news sites and your swathe of farmer friends. Finally, watch the News Feed populate with all the bonus items you could have never hoped to find before.
[Via All Facebook]
Did you find these tips helpful in increasing your available News Feed bonuses? How did you go about finding these bonuses before Facebook changed the feed?
As some of the more observant social gamers may have noticed, the Facebook team has revamped the way the News Feed works. While the changes have greatly reduced the clutter in your News Feed, they might have reduced the amount of social game-related posts you're seeing. This is because the News Feed now (by default) displays only the News Feed posts by friends and Pages that you interact with the most. But what if you want to see all of those posts in the rare chance they provide something useful? Here's how to make it happen.
On your homepage, scroll all the way up to the top of your News Feed. Then, click on the text that will most likely read "Most Recent" and you will see a drop down menu appear. If you'd like to see all game-related News Feed post from your friends, click on the Games icon and your feed will refresh with only those updates. This way, you can easily see what everyone is up to and reap the benefits more easily. Who said you need third party apps?
Games Feed
You can also tailor the News Feed to only display posts from those you want to posts from by clicking on the "X" next to their name in any given post. Choose "Hide all by [X]" to never see a post from them again. Better yet, if all you're interested in is gaming on your account, you can create your own Friend's List to populate the News Feed. All other posts will be blocked from your feed. So, say you only want to see FarmVille-related posts. Then create a Friend's List that only includes the FarmVille fan page, your favorite news sites and your swathe of farmer friends. Finally, watch the News Feed populate with all the bonus items you could have never hoped to find before.
[Via All Facebook]
Did you find these tips helpful in increasing your available News Feed bonuses? How did you go about finding these bonuses before Facebook changed the feed?
Feeling depressed? Play Bejeweled, a new study says
The National Institute of Mental Health says that roughly 21% of all Americans suffer from some form of "mood disorder," and a large portion of those same people suffer from full-on depression. Another not-so-fun fact is that depression is the leading cause of disability for people ages 15 to 44.
So instead of popping a pill or masking your sorrows using some other less-than-productive means, a new study, underwritten by PopCap shows that playing "casual" games like Bejeweled, Peggle and Bookworm Adventures can help reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression.
bejeweledThe study, conducted at East Carolina University's Psychophysiology Lab and Biofeedback Clinic performed on a group of 60 clinically depressed people (half of them served as a control group), who were evaluated after playing a few of PopCap's games, and those who played the games experienced 57% reduction in symptoms. The findings also suggest that playing casual games can have short and long-term benefits for those who play them.
"The results of this study clearly demonstrate the intrinsic value of certain casual games in terms of significant, positive effects on the moods and anxiety levels of people suffering from any level of depression," says Dr. Carmen Russoniello, ECU clinic director and professor who presided over the study. "In my opinion the findings support the possibility of using prescribed casual video games for treating depression and anxiety as an adjunct to, or perhaps even a replacement for, standard therapies including medication."
I'd be curious to see what other types of games have the same effect. Would playing all games help people feel less depressed? What if you play these games too much? Another recent study published in the New York Times says that heavy video game playing has been found to cause depression in teens, mostly because they're spending so much time playing games that they neglect a social life. Not sure if that would also apply to Bejeweled and the other games in the PopCap study, but something to consider for the next go-round.
So instead of popping a pill or masking your sorrows using some other less-than-productive means, a new study, underwritten by PopCap shows that playing "casual" games like Bejeweled, Peggle and Bookworm Adventures can help reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression.
bejeweledThe study, conducted at East Carolina University's Psychophysiology Lab and Biofeedback Clinic performed on a group of 60 clinically depressed people (half of them served as a control group), who were evaluated after playing a few of PopCap's games, and those who played the games experienced 57% reduction in symptoms. The findings also suggest that playing casual games can have short and long-term benefits for those who play them.
"The results of this study clearly demonstrate the intrinsic value of certain casual games in terms of significant, positive effects on the moods and anxiety levels of people suffering from any level of depression," says Dr. Carmen Russoniello, ECU clinic director and professor who presided over the study. "In my opinion the findings support the possibility of using prescribed casual video games for treating depression and anxiety as an adjunct to, or perhaps even a replacement for, standard therapies including medication."
I'd be curious to see what other types of games have the same effect. Would playing all games help people feel less depressed? What if you play these games too much? Another recent study published in the New York Times says that heavy video game playing has been found to cause depression in teens, mostly because they're spending so much time playing games that they neglect a social life. Not sure if that would also apply to Bejeweled and the other games in the PopCap study, but something to consider for the next go-round.
Incrediland on Facebook: An incredibly confusing experience
Remember what it felt like to watch the Teletubbies as an adult or even a young adult, for that matter? Playing Incrediland on Facebook is to relive that wave of unsettling and aggravating confusion. The only difference between the two is the former was designed for toddlers while the latter is in a place largely dominated by an audience that's 18 and older. Home of the Incredimals and developed by a company of the same name, Incrediland is a series of small islands containing three species of these strange creatures. And your task is to collect them all through horribly disconnected activities and terrible loading times.
The game starts you off with one Incredimal, the Gambi. Now, there are 30 subspecies to each of the game's species of critters making for 90 total Incredimals to collect. Now, how you do this is where Incrediland becomes frustratingly convoluted. Frankly, I created an Incredimal and have no idea how I did it. Even after reading the game's tutorial carefully the process is like some sort of endless, pointless Rube Goldberg puzzle.
Gambi in the wild
From what could be gathered, you will visit your second Incredimal through a series of nondescript menus and tiny buttons. Then, you will breed this creature with your existing one to create a new Incredimal that will hopefully fulfill one of the 30 subspecies you are looking to acquire. After the baby hatches from the Incubator, which takes a full hour, you can teach it new tricks in the Nursery for it to mature into an adult. Each trick costs Incredicoins to teach your critter, but these can be refilled through several methods as well as buying them outright for cash. Oh, and these Incredimals also have stats attached to them--Speed, Strength and Intelligence--but you likely won't have an idea in the slightest as to what they mean (I don't).
Finally, your newly trained and matured Incredimal can breed with your existing ones to create new subspecies. As you level up from creating new creatures, you will gain access to new species and subspecies. The game's tutorial video claims that your friends will be needed to progress, but I've yet to see any reason to add friends other than the ability to trade and sell Incredimals. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to much more to Incrediland than the simple and inexplicable act of collecting miscellaneous creatures. Sure, Incrediland has an impressive and complex breeding concept and collection hook, but its been nearly impossible to appreciate beneath baffling interaction design.
The game starts you off with one Incredimal, the Gambi. Now, there are 30 subspecies to each of the game's species of critters making for 90 total Incredimals to collect. Now, how you do this is where Incrediland becomes frustratingly convoluted. Frankly, I created an Incredimal and have no idea how I did it. Even after reading the game's tutorial carefully the process is like some sort of endless, pointless Rube Goldberg puzzle.
Gambi in the wild
From what could be gathered, you will visit your second Incredimal through a series of nondescript menus and tiny buttons. Then, you will breed this creature with your existing one to create a new Incredimal that will hopefully fulfill one of the 30 subspecies you are looking to acquire. After the baby hatches from the Incubator, which takes a full hour, you can teach it new tricks in the Nursery for it to mature into an adult. Each trick costs Incredicoins to teach your critter, but these can be refilled through several methods as well as buying them outright for cash. Oh, and these Incredimals also have stats attached to them--Speed, Strength and Intelligence--but you likely won't have an idea in the slightest as to what they mean (I don't).
Finally, your newly trained and matured Incredimal can breed with your existing ones to create new subspecies. As you level up from creating new creatures, you will gain access to new species and subspecies. The game's tutorial video claims that your friends will be needed to progress, but I've yet to see any reason to add friends other than the ability to trade and sell Incredimals. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to much more to Incrediland than the simple and inexplicable act of collecting miscellaneous creatures. Sure, Incrediland has an impressive and complex breeding concept and collection hook, but its been nearly impossible to appreciate beneath baffling interaction design.
FarmVille: Bushels can still be shared, don't worry
Zynga made an interesting change to FarmVille yesterday that condensed several pop-up notifications. Of course, one of those was the infamous Bushel pop-up. Now, only one, smaller pop-up will appear after harvesting all of your crops providing a total of Bushels found throughout an entire harvest. This unfortunately removed the ability to share them through notifications. FarmVille blog contributor Tim reminds us that its still possible to share Bushels.
All you need to do is share from inside the Farmer's Market. Click on any given Market Stall, click on "Look Inside" and then click the "Use Bushels" button. From there, each Bushel will appear and have the option beneath it to either be used or shared. Click "Share," choose how many you want to share and then you'll be prompted to make a News Feed post for all of your friends to scrap over. This method is tedious for sure, but at least those annoying pop-ups are gone.
[Image Credit: FarmVille Blog]
Are you satisfied with the changes to Bushel notifications? What other optimizations would you like to see come to FarmVille?
All you need to do is share from inside the Farmer's Market. Click on any given Market Stall, click on "Look Inside" and then click the "Use Bushels" button. From there, each Bushel will appear and have the option beneath it to either be used or shared. Click "Share," choose how many you want to share and then you'll be prompted to make a News Feed post for all of your friends to scrap over. This method is tedious for sure, but at least those annoying pop-ups are gone.
[Image Credit: FarmVille Blog]
Are you satisfied with the changes to Bushel notifications? What other optimizations would you like to see come to FarmVille?
Thursday, January 5, 2012
FrontierVille Sneak Peek: Fanny and Bess Mystery Crates
The war between Fanny and Bess continues regardless of whether you set them up during the Valentine's Day Goals (a little flirtatious rivalry, perhaps?). FrontierVille Info has found two new Mystery Crates that are on their way to FrontierVille revolving all around our two favorite ladies, Bess and Fanny. It's unknown when exactly these Crates will be released or whether they're slowly rolling out already, but according to FrontierV, they will cost between 30 and 35 Horseshoes.
Bess Collection
The Bess and Fanny Collections each have a chance of dropping one of four items, which are essentially mirrors of one another. The Bess Collection includes a White Rabbit, Bess' Horse, Bess' Wagon and Bess' Outhouse.
Fanny Collection
If you hadn't noticed already, each Collection takes on the general theme of its character pretty heavily. The Bess Collection is largely red and orange-colored, while the Fanny Collection takes on blue and black almost exclusively. Fanny's items include a Black Raven, Fanny's Horse, Fanny's Wagon and Fanny's Outhouse. According to FrontierV, these items will be available for purchase through March 28, so I'd say these Crates are en route as of this writing.
[Image Credit: FrontierV]
Do you plan on buying either of these Mystery Crates? Which do you prefer more, and why?
Bess Collection
The Bess and Fanny Collections each have a chance of dropping one of four items, which are essentially mirrors of one another. The Bess Collection includes a White Rabbit, Bess' Horse, Bess' Wagon and Bess' Outhouse.
Fanny Collection
If you hadn't noticed already, each Collection takes on the general theme of its character pretty heavily. The Bess Collection is largely red and orange-colored, while the Fanny Collection takes on blue and black almost exclusively. Fanny's items include a Black Raven, Fanny's Horse, Fanny's Wagon and Fanny's Outhouse. According to FrontierV, these items will be available for purchase through March 28, so I'd say these Crates are en route as of this writing.
[Image Credit: FrontierV]
Do you plan on buying either of these Mystery Crates? Which do you prefer more, and why?
FarmVille Model Farm goes green with St. Patrick's Day items
As useless as it may be, the Model Farm presses on in FarmVille, and has been updated in time for St. Patty's Day this Thursday. Items in this edition of the Model Farm include some new additions that were just introduced to the game last night like the Irish Hare, Irish Cob Horse, Leprechaun Girl Gnome and more. Of course, all of the items here are available for either Farm Cash or an exorbitant amount of coins, though you do receive that random bonus for visiting. Taking a peek won't hurt anybody, right?
[Via FarmVille Freak]
Find the rest of our St. Patrick's Day Coverage right here.
Do you visit the Model Farm daily for the bonus? Have you ever purchased anything from there?
[Via FarmVille Freak]
Find the rest of our St. Patrick's Day Coverage right here.
Do you visit the Model Farm daily for the bonus? Have you ever purchased anything from there?
Rumor: FrontierVille 37x37 Land Expansion is rolling out to pioneers
Despite the Goals leaking early and our prediction of a March 1 release date, the 37x37 Land Expansion in FrontierVille has been MIA for six weeks now. However, according to FrontierVille Info, several players have reported that the expansion has arrived on their homesteads. If true, the expansion is coming in the midst of a Coyote invasion, but we have (almost) everything you need to know right here. So, don't come crying to us that you don't know what to do and get to expandin'.
Have you seen the 37x37 expansion on your homestead yet? When it finally launches, do you plan to take it head on or are you too busy fending off hungry Coyotes?
Have you seen the 37x37 expansion on your homestead yet? When it finally launches, do you plan to take it head on or are you too busy fending off hungry Coyotes?
Quote of the Moment: 'Zynga can't just throw FarmVille onto mobile'
Angry Birds Facebook
You can't take an experience that works in one environment and one ecosystem and force-feed it onto another. It's like Zynga. They can't just take Farmville and throw it on mobile and see what sticks. The titles that have been successful for them on mobile are the ones they've built from the ground up for the platform.
Peter Vesterbacka of Rovio said this in an interview with Inside Social Games regarding Angry Birds' big move to Facebook. The (filthy rich) Angry Birds' "Mighty Eagle" also revealed that the Facebook version has been in the works for an entire year. This goes to show how seriously the company is taking the move in comparison to most studios who crank out Facebook games in a fraction of that time. However, the prime reason behind Rovio's extended development for Angry Birds Facebook is adapting the same experience to a different platform. One can imagine this is a challenge from either end of the spectrum.
[Image Credit: Game N Train]
What do you think of Rovio's strategic approach to Facebook? Will they be successful on the platform?
You can't take an experience that works in one environment and one ecosystem and force-feed it onto another. It's like Zynga. They can't just take Farmville and throw it on mobile and see what sticks. The titles that have been successful for them on mobile are the ones they've built from the ground up for the platform.
Peter Vesterbacka of Rovio said this in an interview with Inside Social Games regarding Angry Birds' big move to Facebook. The (filthy rich) Angry Birds' "Mighty Eagle" also revealed that the Facebook version has been in the works for an entire year. This goes to show how seriously the company is taking the move in comparison to most studios who crank out Facebook games in a fraction of that time. However, the prime reason behind Rovio's extended development for Angry Birds Facebook is adapting the same experience to a different platform. One can imagine this is a challenge from either end of the spectrum.
[Image Credit: Game N Train]
What do you think of Rovio's strategic approach to Facebook? Will they be successful on the platform?
FrontierVille's same-sex marriages originally a 'bug'
Zynga's FrontierVille is the first Facebook game to include same sex marriages. In the Wild West themed game, you create an avatar and, soon after you start settling your piece of frontier property, you have the option to take on a virtual spouse -- which can be a man or a women.
While all this seems modern and open-minded (not to mention, follows a bigger trend in video games, such as The Sims and Dragon Age, that depict sex scenes with same-sex partners) -- turns out that the options for a same sex spouse was totally unintentional. Zynga Chief Game Designer and FrontierVille creator Brian Reynolds says the option to choose male or female was originally a 'bug.' Players seemed to like it, he says, so they just left it in. Since then, the number of same sex marriages in-game is triple that in the US. That piece of data might explain the Fanny n' Bess Valentine's Day mission that launched in February, where the goal was to form a love connection between two of the game's female characters.
Reynolds also says players respond well to the game's Facebook wall posts, which are filled with sexual innuendos like (which we've covered that in more detail here), "Justin visited neighbor homesteads and got wood!"
frontierville wall posts sexual innuendo
All of this sexy talk was part of Reynold's 'The New Frontier in Social Gaming' talk at this year's South By Southwest Interactive Conference in Austin, Texas, which was covered by Inside Social Games. Reynolds discussed the thinking behind the game, which -- while not the most popular Zynga game -- has set a new standard for social games. Big picture, that means people making games now face the challenge of adding tried-and-true game experiences, such as quests, story, characters, into the social experience of a Facebook game.
And, Reynolds says game makers should not to be afraid to push boundaries in order to elicit social interaction. "Friends don't want to know about what you've done in a game," he says, "they want to know something funny about you or something they can start a conversation with."
While all this seems modern and open-minded (not to mention, follows a bigger trend in video games, such as The Sims and Dragon Age, that depict sex scenes with same-sex partners) -- turns out that the options for a same sex spouse was totally unintentional. Zynga Chief Game Designer and FrontierVille creator Brian Reynolds says the option to choose male or female was originally a 'bug.' Players seemed to like it, he says, so they just left it in. Since then, the number of same sex marriages in-game is triple that in the US. That piece of data might explain the Fanny n' Bess Valentine's Day mission that launched in February, where the goal was to form a love connection between two of the game's female characters.
Reynolds also says players respond well to the game's Facebook wall posts, which are filled with sexual innuendos like (which we've covered that in more detail here), "Justin visited neighbor homesteads and got wood!"
frontierville wall posts sexual innuendo
All of this sexy talk was part of Reynold's 'The New Frontier in Social Gaming' talk at this year's South By Southwest Interactive Conference in Austin, Texas, which was covered by Inside Social Games. Reynolds discussed the thinking behind the game, which -- while not the most popular Zynga game -- has set a new standard for social games. Big picture, that means people making games now face the challenge of adding tried-and-true game experiences, such as quests, story, characters, into the social experience of a Facebook game.
And, Reynolds says game makers should not to be afraid to push boundaries in order to elicit social interaction. "Friends don't want to know about what you've done in a game," he says, "they want to know something funny about you or something they can start a conversation with."
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Poll: The Sims Social is back online (for some), how about you?
While it is cliche, there's really no other way to put it: Sims fans, rejoice! It looks like EA and Playfish London have made good on their promise, as The Sims Social appears to be back online for us here in the Aol Games office. (Not to mention I've seen some of my friends in the game, too.)
EA was quick to bring the game down when it launched last week with numerous performance and access issues, and was equally as quick to point out that The Sims Social is in "open beta." Days later, the developer issued an email to all registered players--after silence on its Facebook fan page, mind you--apologizing for the inconvenience and reiterating the fact that it is in open beta testing.
More importantly, EA and Playfish said that part of the game's recovery process open beta test was to let players into The Sims Social gradually. And, here we are, directing our Sims to do nearly whatever we damn well please once again. And with much glee, might we add. (Seriously, despite a terribly unfavorable launch, this is one impressive Facebook game.)
However, if players are gradually being reintroduced to The Sims Social, the perhaps some have still unfortunately been left behind. And with that, we ask you, the ever-so-patient players:
Are you finally playing The Sims Social again?
Indeed! Boy, does it feel good to play god...No, and why'd you have to rub it in?!I haven't checked ... kinda forgot about it.
VoteView ResultsShare ThisPolldaddy.com
Click here to see if The Sims Social has come back online for you Now >
Have something to get off of your chest about The Sims Social outage?
EA was quick to bring the game down when it launched last week with numerous performance and access issues, and was equally as quick to point out that The Sims Social is in "open beta." Days later, the developer issued an email to all registered players--after silence on its Facebook fan page, mind you--apologizing for the inconvenience and reiterating the fact that it is in open beta testing.
More importantly, EA and Playfish said that part of the game's recovery process open beta test was to let players into The Sims Social gradually. And, here we are, directing our Sims to do nearly whatever we damn well please once again. And with much glee, might we add. (Seriously, despite a terribly unfavorable launch, this is one impressive Facebook game.)
However, if players are gradually being reintroduced to The Sims Social, the perhaps some have still unfortunately been left behind. And with that, we ask you, the ever-so-patient players:
Are you finally playing The Sims Social again?
Indeed! Boy, does it feel good to play god...No, and why'd you have to rub it in?!I haven't checked ... kinda forgot about it.
VoteView ResultsShare ThisPolldaddy.com
Click here to see if The Sims Social has come back online for you Now >
Have something to get off of your chest about The Sims Social outage?
The Sims Social runs on Dunkin' with in-game items and boosts
Look, The Sims are people, too (sort of), and deserve a cup 'o joe every once in awhile. EA has come out of the gate swinging with The Sims Social, backing it up already with an in-game promotion by Dunkin' Donuts. The American coffee and donuts chain officially announced that several of its menu items have been given the Simlish treatment in an ambitious six-month long campaign.
Once a month for the next six months, players can send their friends one coffee and one food item (pictured) for an extra boost. (Well, then these better be pretty massive boosts.)
Aside from the usual gifting, players will also unlock Dunkin' Donuts-themed consumables as they progress through the game. Finally, if players "Like" the Dunkin' Donuts Facebook page, they'll score two more items to decorate their Sims' homes with, one of which is a beach chair that their Sims can relax on and drink Dunkin' Donuts coffee.
However, a point driven by EA and Dunkin' Donuts is that this brand integration is relevant to The Sims Social and adds a level of realism. Regardless of how relevant it is, while it's much appreciated, this is still a marketing push. However, it speaks volumes to not only how quickly The Sims Social is growing--it's already reached over 7 million players despite its launch issues--but how confident EA is in the game.
If not built around a brand entirely, most Facebook games need to hit several millions of players before even considering bringing in brand integration. It seems as if The Sims brand is speaking for itself in The Sims Social's rapid growth, but what we're all waiting for is to see how far that will take the game and for how long can it keep the momentum. One game has to touch FarmVille numbers eventually, and perhaps we're looking right at it.
Are you digging the Dunkin' Donuts branding in The Sims Social? Do you think this game is EA's way into the ring with Zynga?
Once a month for the next six months, players can send their friends one coffee and one food item (pictured) for an extra boost. (Well, then these better be pretty massive boosts.)
Aside from the usual gifting, players will also unlock Dunkin' Donuts-themed consumables as they progress through the game. Finally, if players "Like" the Dunkin' Donuts Facebook page, they'll score two more items to decorate their Sims' homes with, one of which is a beach chair that their Sims can relax on and drink Dunkin' Donuts coffee.
However, a point driven by EA and Dunkin' Donuts is that this brand integration is relevant to The Sims Social and adds a level of realism. Regardless of how relevant it is, while it's much appreciated, this is still a marketing push. However, it speaks volumes to not only how quickly The Sims Social is growing--it's already reached over 7 million players despite its launch issues--but how confident EA is in the game.
If not built around a brand entirely, most Facebook games need to hit several millions of players before even considering bringing in brand integration. It seems as if The Sims brand is speaking for itself in The Sims Social's rapid growth, but what we're all waiting for is to see how far that will take the game and for how long can it keep the momentum. One game has to touch FarmVille numbers eventually, and perhaps we're looking right at it.
Are you digging the Dunkin' Donuts branding in The Sims Social? Do you think this game is EA's way into the ring with Zynga?
The Sims Social: Didn't get your free Fan Page gifts? Join the club
Just a short time after launching the Sims Social on Facebook, EA / Playfish are already catching some flack from many users about their fan page promotion, which offered free gifts to all users that Liked the fan page on Facebook. However, in this case, the many complaints seem rather accurate.
For the past few months, EA and Playfish have been practically begging users to Like the Sims Social fan page on Facebook in anticipation of the game's launch. In return, we were told that we'd receive free gifts when the amount of Likes reached certain amounts (a free grill for reaching 10,000 Likes, for instance). So, Like the page we did - to the tune of over 2 million players, as of this writing. However, when it came time to fulfill its end of the promise, it looks like the team of EA and Playfish have really dropped the ball.
With the many loading, gameplay and other general maintenance issues that the game has suffered since launch, and with the lack of warning that the developers gave to users, the free items came and went within a matter of days, leaving many completely in the dark, but plenty upset. And when I say matter of days, I mean less than a week (or, less than four days, if you stick strictly to the posts on the game's page). Speaking of, EA / Playfish made just two posts on the fan page's wall about the items being available. One, last Friday, announced that the items were available. Then, in the wee Monday morning hours, they announced that we had one final "last chance" at claiming these items.
In theory, all seven million of the game's monthly active players would have had to see one of these two posts on their News Feed (assuming it didn't get covered up by game posts or simply general status updates and posts by friends), and then click on the link to head to the "More to Like" section of the fan page to click on individual links to claim each and every item. They would then have to hope that they didn't run into maintenance or loading issues that would prevent the items from really being claimed. That's a lot of stuff that all needed to go right, all in a very short period of time. Needless to say, many users didn't make it and walked away almost empty-handed.
Currently, the only item that has a still active link (as of this writing) is an orange refrigerator, which unlocked at the 1.5 million player mark. Why this single item is still available is unknown, but it leaves us to believe that someone simply forgot to "turn it off." To let the developers know of their dissatisfaction, a group of users have taken to the official Playfish forums (along with those posting on the fan page itself), urging the developer to re-release the items for a short while longer, so that more players have a chance to claim them. What's more - many users are claiming that the links were already inactive when EA / Playfish posted their last chance warning, which really adds fuel to the fire.
Will this call to the developers really result in a re-release of the free items? Maybe it will, and maybe it won't, but we bring you all of this information so that you can join the cause (if you so choose). There's more power in numbers, so if you're unsatisfied with the amount of time (or lack thereof) that Playfish gave us to claim these items, make sure to let your voice be heard. Even if it doesn't work out, you'll at least be able to rest with the satisfaction of knowing that you tried.
Were you able to claim your free fan page items for liking the Sims Social fan page, or did the links expire before you even knew they were active? Will you join the cause on the official Playfish forums, requesting a re-release?
For the past few months, EA and Playfish have been practically begging users to Like the Sims Social fan page on Facebook in anticipation of the game's launch. In return, we were told that we'd receive free gifts when the amount of Likes reached certain amounts (a free grill for reaching 10,000 Likes, for instance). So, Like the page we did - to the tune of over 2 million players, as of this writing. However, when it came time to fulfill its end of the promise, it looks like the team of EA and Playfish have really dropped the ball.
With the many loading, gameplay and other general maintenance issues that the game has suffered since launch, and with the lack of warning that the developers gave to users, the free items came and went within a matter of days, leaving many completely in the dark, but plenty upset. And when I say matter of days, I mean less than a week (or, less than four days, if you stick strictly to the posts on the game's page). Speaking of, EA / Playfish made just two posts on the fan page's wall about the items being available. One, last Friday, announced that the items were available. Then, in the wee Monday morning hours, they announced that we had one final "last chance" at claiming these items.
In theory, all seven million of the game's monthly active players would have had to see one of these two posts on their News Feed (assuming it didn't get covered up by game posts or simply general status updates and posts by friends), and then click on the link to head to the "More to Like" section of the fan page to click on individual links to claim each and every item. They would then have to hope that they didn't run into maintenance or loading issues that would prevent the items from really being claimed. That's a lot of stuff that all needed to go right, all in a very short period of time. Needless to say, many users didn't make it and walked away almost empty-handed.
Currently, the only item that has a still active link (as of this writing) is an orange refrigerator, which unlocked at the 1.5 million player mark. Why this single item is still available is unknown, but it leaves us to believe that someone simply forgot to "turn it off." To let the developers know of their dissatisfaction, a group of users have taken to the official Playfish forums (along with those posting on the fan page itself), urging the developer to re-release the items for a short while longer, so that more players have a chance to claim them. What's more - many users are claiming that the links were already inactive when EA / Playfish posted their last chance warning, which really adds fuel to the fire.
Will this call to the developers really result in a re-release of the free items? Maybe it will, and maybe it won't, but we bring you all of this information so that you can join the cause (if you so choose). There's more power in numbers, so if you're unsatisfied with the amount of time (or lack thereof) that Playfish gave us to claim these items, make sure to let your voice be heard. Even if it doesn't work out, you'll at least be able to rest with the satisfaction of knowing that you tried.
Were you able to claim your free fan page items for liking the Sims Social fan page, or did the links expire before you even knew they were active? Will you join the cause on the official Playfish forums, requesting a re-release?
EA to The Sims Social players: Sorry for the bugs, here's 150 SimCash
It looks like that, for many a player, The Sims Social hasn't been without its problems even after it has soared to over 7.5 million daily players. But EA and Playfish are keeping their cool, in fact, so cool that they're making it rain on disgruntled Sims fans.
Several players on the Playfish forums report receiving an email saying those who suffered a week-long glitch in which the game would not load past 65 percent will receive 150 SimCash, the game's paid currency, as compensation for the extensive outage.
Unfortunately, only players affected by the lengthy error will receive the email and the resultant 150 SimCash. When you receive the SimCash in-game, a message will appear in your messages page that reads "You have bought 150 SimCash." Confirmed by Playfish community manager Bevypoo, this will not bill you in anyway, regardless of the strange wording.
EA and Playfish sure know the way to players' hearts: more free stuff. Hopefully this will be enough to restore players' faith in the game even after its initial issues, because is there a better way to handle a situation like this than with freebies? We think not, which almost has us wishing we'd suffered the loading issues personally--almost. Check out the full email for yourself:
The Sims Social SImCash email
[Image Credits: Caperture]
Did you suffer loading issues last week, or are you one of the strangely unlucky? How well do you think EA and Playfish handled this situation?
Several players on the Playfish forums report receiving an email saying those who suffered a week-long glitch in which the game would not load past 65 percent will receive 150 SimCash, the game's paid currency, as compensation for the extensive outage.
Unfortunately, only players affected by the lengthy error will receive the email and the resultant 150 SimCash. When you receive the SimCash in-game, a message will appear in your messages page that reads "You have bought 150 SimCash." Confirmed by Playfish community manager Bevypoo, this will not bill you in anyway, regardless of the strange wording.
EA and Playfish sure know the way to players' hearts: more free stuff. Hopefully this will be enough to restore players' faith in the game even after its initial issues, because is there a better way to handle a situation like this than with freebies? We think not, which almost has us wishing we'd suffered the loading issues personally--almost. Check out the full email for yourself:
The Sims Social SImCash email
[Image Credits: Caperture]
Did you suffer loading issues last week, or are you one of the strangely unlucky? How well do you think EA and Playfish handled this situation?
The Sims Social beats FarmVille, attracts second most daily players
Boy, people sure do love to play god. According to Appdata, The Sims Social has surpassed Zynga's iconic FarmVille with the second most daily players of any Facebook game. Since its launch just a month ago today, EA and Playfish's ambitious social rendition of The Sims has amassed over 9.3 million daily players--that's over 1 million more than FarmVille's 8.1 million.
The Sims Social still has a way to go to the number one spot, which is, of course, held by Zynga's most popular game CityVille at just under 14 million daily players. Regardless, it's unprecedented for a game to grow this quickly in daily players, at least for a game that wasn't built by Zynga. Not to mention this is despite the hiccups the game faced along the way including days worth of downtime.
So, that's the power of The Sims, huh? Well, not so fast. While The Sims Social has certainly showed its might when it comes to gripping players (and keeping them there ... so far), the game is still in fourth place in terms of monthly players at just over 34.3 million. This number could grow in time naturally as daily players spread the word and through advertising, but it's nevertheless telling of the limits a Facebook game faces when it doesn't have a massive existing player base, like Zynga's games.
In other words, EA and Playfish have quite a lot of work ahead of them, if they want The Sims Social to be on top in all regards. But judging from the game's performance thus far despite its early setbacks--and in the face of the most popular Facebook games to date--perhaps Simlish could become the dominant language in Facebook gaming.
Have you been one of the over 9 million locked into The Sims Social? What do you think of the game so far?
The Sims Social still has a way to go to the number one spot, which is, of course, held by Zynga's most popular game CityVille at just under 14 million daily players. Regardless, it's unprecedented for a game to grow this quickly in daily players, at least for a game that wasn't built by Zynga. Not to mention this is despite the hiccups the game faced along the way including days worth of downtime.
So, that's the power of The Sims, huh? Well, not so fast. While The Sims Social has certainly showed its might when it comes to gripping players (and keeping them there ... so far), the game is still in fourth place in terms of monthly players at just over 34.3 million. This number could grow in time naturally as daily players spread the word and through advertising, but it's nevertheless telling of the limits a Facebook game faces when it doesn't have a massive existing player base, like Zynga's games.
In other words, EA and Playfish have quite a lot of work ahead of them, if they want The Sims Social to be on top in all regards. But judging from the game's performance thus far despite its early setbacks--and in the face of the most popular Facebook games to date--perhaps Simlish could become the dominant language in Facebook gaming.
Have you been one of the over 9 million locked into The Sims Social? What do you think of the game so far?
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