Log into FrontierVille today, and you'll be greated with the presence of a holiday-themed factory on the outskirts of your pioneer town. Looks like a bunch of elves moved onto your property and built a toy factory -- and now are getting ready to put you to work collecting toys. This can be done by asking friends (by posting a message on their Facebook Wall), helping neighbors on their homesteads and collecting daily bonuses. Toys can also be sent as free gifts.
pioneer toy factory collect toys
Once you have enough toys, you'll be able to redeem them for the six holiday-themed rewards:
frontierville toy factory colectibles
Candy Cane Lamp
Drummer Boy
Rudolph
Sledding Hill
Giant Pink Tree
Winter Mare
Oh yeah, and if you want to score these six items without doing all of that work, you can buy the number of presents you need using Horseshoes. Three Toy Bundles (x5, x10, x20) can be purchased for 15, 29 and 55 Horseshoes respectively.
toy bundle
Friday, January 13, 2012
Cafe World Holiday Dinner Catering Order: Everything you need to know
Attention all Cafe World caterers! A new job is now available to undertake via your Catering Van (the Catering Business menu), and it comes in the form of the "Holiday Dinner" order. Not to be confused with the Company Holiday Party job released last week, this is an entirely new catering order that sees you catering a Holiday Dinner, apparently just for friends, instead of for an entire company.
This job seems to be setup like most of the others, with a total of three stars available to earn, depending on how quickly you can complete the order, with the 3--star prize being a large decoration that you'd likely see up at Santa's Workshop. Meet us behind the break for everything you need to know about this new catering mission.
Once you start the Holiday Dinner catering job, you'll see that you have three full days to complete the job in order to do so with a three star rating. This job asks you to cook three holiday-themed dishes, which actually makes this catering job one of the hardest ever released, as these holiday recipes start out as locked out for users, until they can complete enough of the Holiday Dinner goals (remember, goals are an entirely different feature than Catering) in order to unlock access to cooking them. For example, the Baked Ham recipe that we'll talk about a little later can only be cooked after finishing part 5 of the Holiday Dinner Goals.
Whether or not you've unlocked these recipes does not affect your ability to accept the Catering order, so if you think you have enough friends on your account that have already unlocked those recipes and will be cooking them for their own stake with this job, go right ahead. Still, it seems unreasonable that Zynga would give such a short time limit of three days when this is the case. Luckily, this order as a convenient "Cancel Order" button located on its menu, so if you'd rather not even attempt the job until you have personally unlocked all three dishes, go right ahead - we won't blame you, as we're doing the same.
Moving onto the task at hand, however, once you are ready to tackle this mission, you'll need to serve Waldorf Salad 127 times, Baked Ham 138 times, and Angel Slices 63 times. You can unlock these tasks for Cafe Cash, at a price of 20, 18, and 16 Cafe Cash, respectively. In addition, you'll need to collect 15 Candy Canes and 10 Gingerbread Men to finish off this job's tasks.
For finishing the job in order three days, you'll earn 6 Catering Points, 6,300 Cafe Points, 141,750 Coins, and the Toy Workshop Bench decoration - a large animated item that has an elf diligently working away at a table in Santa's Workshop.
For the 2-star prize, you are given a total of five days to complete the order. This results in a prize of 4 Catering Points, 4,500 Cafe Points and 101,250 coins.
Finally, the 1-star prize will be received for simply finishing the mission, even if you go past the five day time limit. For going through with completing the order, you'll receive 2 Catering Points, 2,700 Cafe Points, and 60,750 coins - not a bad haul, considering.
For this job, you can have up to 11 people, including yourself, working on the job at once. You can either click on the "Ask for Help!" button to send individual requests to friends to ask them for help, or you can go into the Catering Business menu to see if any of your friends have already undertaken this job themselves, and if they have, you can instantly join their catering crew, if there are any positions left.
Since this job is such a difficult one (unless you and 10 of your friends just happen to have already unlocked the three Holiday dishes), this might be the time when you should take advantage of the ability to add more than the standard 11 total crew members to your order. This is done by clicking on the "Unlock Slot" button, at which point you are asked to gather the proper gear to allow another chef into the kitchen. You'll need to gather 1 Hat, 1 Jacket, 1 Pants, and 2 Pairs of Shoes in order to unlock a new crew slot, which can be done by asking your friends to send you the items via individual requests. You can skip this step entirely by simply paying 5 Cafe Cash to unlock the new slot instantly, if you so choose.
Remember, no matter what happens with your catering order (that is, no matter which star rating you end up getting), you'll be able to retry it if you so choose to get a higher score, and perhaps even unlock the Toy Workshop Bench decoration, if you didn't unlock it the first time around.
There's no telling whether or not this job will expire after the holiday season is over, so make sure to take a stab at this job while you're guaranteed to have a good shot at it. Besides, if you start the job now, you'll have the best chance of finding other players on your friends' list that are also trying the catering job, giving you an even better chance at success, so keep that in mind.
This job seems to be setup like most of the others, with a total of three stars available to earn, depending on how quickly you can complete the order, with the 3--star prize being a large decoration that you'd likely see up at Santa's Workshop. Meet us behind the break for everything you need to know about this new catering mission.
Once you start the Holiday Dinner catering job, you'll see that you have three full days to complete the job in order to do so with a three star rating. This job asks you to cook three holiday-themed dishes, which actually makes this catering job one of the hardest ever released, as these holiday recipes start out as locked out for users, until they can complete enough of the Holiday Dinner goals (remember, goals are an entirely different feature than Catering) in order to unlock access to cooking them. For example, the Baked Ham recipe that we'll talk about a little later can only be cooked after finishing part 5 of the Holiday Dinner Goals.
Whether or not you've unlocked these recipes does not affect your ability to accept the Catering order, so if you think you have enough friends on your account that have already unlocked those recipes and will be cooking them for their own stake with this job, go right ahead. Still, it seems unreasonable that Zynga would give such a short time limit of three days when this is the case. Luckily, this order as a convenient "Cancel Order" button located on its menu, so if you'd rather not even attempt the job until you have personally unlocked all three dishes, go right ahead - we won't blame you, as we're doing the same.
Moving onto the task at hand, however, once you are ready to tackle this mission, you'll need to serve Waldorf Salad 127 times, Baked Ham 138 times, and Angel Slices 63 times. You can unlock these tasks for Cafe Cash, at a price of 20, 18, and 16 Cafe Cash, respectively. In addition, you'll need to collect 15 Candy Canes and 10 Gingerbread Men to finish off this job's tasks.
For finishing the job in order three days, you'll earn 6 Catering Points, 6,300 Cafe Points, 141,750 Coins, and the Toy Workshop Bench decoration - a large animated item that has an elf diligently working away at a table in Santa's Workshop.
For the 2-star prize, you are given a total of five days to complete the order. This results in a prize of 4 Catering Points, 4,500 Cafe Points and 101,250 coins.
Finally, the 1-star prize will be received for simply finishing the mission, even if you go past the five day time limit. For going through with completing the order, you'll receive 2 Catering Points, 2,700 Cafe Points, and 60,750 coins - not a bad haul, considering.
For this job, you can have up to 11 people, including yourself, working on the job at once. You can either click on the "Ask for Help!" button to send individual requests to friends to ask them for help, or you can go into the Catering Business menu to see if any of your friends have already undertaken this job themselves, and if they have, you can instantly join their catering crew, if there are any positions left.
Since this job is such a difficult one (unless you and 10 of your friends just happen to have already unlocked the three Holiday dishes), this might be the time when you should take advantage of the ability to add more than the standard 11 total crew members to your order. This is done by clicking on the "Unlock Slot" button, at which point you are asked to gather the proper gear to allow another chef into the kitchen. You'll need to gather 1 Hat, 1 Jacket, 1 Pants, and 2 Pairs of Shoes in order to unlock a new crew slot, which can be done by asking your friends to send you the items via individual requests. You can skip this step entirely by simply paying 5 Cafe Cash to unlock the new slot instantly, if you so choose.
Remember, no matter what happens with your catering order (that is, no matter which star rating you end up getting), you'll be able to retry it if you so choose to get a higher score, and perhaps even unlock the Toy Workshop Bench decoration, if you didn't unlock it the first time around.
There's no telling whether or not this job will expire after the holiday season is over, so make sure to take a stab at this job while you're guaranteed to have a good shot at it. Besides, if you start the job now, you'll have the best chance of finding other players on your friends' list that are also trying the catering job, giving you an even better chance at success, so keep that in mind.
CityVille: Help choose which building(s) will be released next!
As CityVille has already been launched into the #5 spot on the overall Facebook app leaderboards, it's not surprising that Zynga is looking to expand the amount of content in the game. What's more, they've decided to give us, the real players of the game, a chance to help shape and influence the content that will be added in the coming days and weeks. This comes, first and foremost, in the form of a new poll on the official CityVille forums, where users can look at a variety of possible new buildings that may or may not be added to the game, and vote for their favorites.
As of right now, there are just five buildings to choose from, and you'll need to login to the forums in order to vote (a simply login with Facebook Connect will allow you to vote with the least amount of hassle). The choices are:
Power Plant
Gas Station
Prison
Parking Lot
Casino
As of this writing, the post has only been open for a matter of hours, and the Casino is winning with almost 46% of the vote. Second is the gas station with 24%, and the other options decrease from there. For the sake of the argument, the Parking Lot is in last place currently, with just 7% of the vote.
Interestingly, Zynga has made clear whether these items would be classified as businesses or community buildings. While it's presumable that items like the Casino and Gas Station would be released as businesses alongside the current options like the Toy Store or Diner, the Prison could very well be a community building, allowing you to add more population to your town (after all, the Police Station is a community building, so why stop there?).
We don't know when the winning item will be added to the game, but keep checking back with us, as we'll make sure you're the first to know which item wins, and when we'll see it in the game (personally, we're hoping for the Casino, so we're glad we're not alone in that vote).
As of right now, there are just five buildings to choose from, and you'll need to login to the forums in order to vote (a simply login with Facebook Connect will allow you to vote with the least amount of hassle). The choices are:
Power Plant
Gas Station
Prison
Parking Lot
Casino
As of this writing, the post has only been open for a matter of hours, and the Casino is winning with almost 46% of the vote. Second is the gas station with 24%, and the other options decrease from there. For the sake of the argument, the Parking Lot is in last place currently, with just 7% of the vote.
Interestingly, Zynga has made clear whether these items would be classified as businesses or community buildings. While it's presumable that items like the Casino and Gas Station would be released as businesses alongside the current options like the Toy Store or Diner, the Prison could very well be a community building, allowing you to add more population to your town (after all, the Police Station is a community building, so why stop there?).
We don't know when the winning item will be added to the game, but keep checking back with us, as we'll make sure you're the first to know which item wins, and when we'll see it in the game (personally, we're hoping for the Casino, so we're glad we're not alone in that vote).
CityVille: HQ Payouts doubled, game balance tweaked, bugs fixed
Almost a week has gone by since Zynga released their first major game upgrade for CityVille, providing for a Bonus Meter that's easier to fill, resulting in more profits for users, and a streamlined storage bar, that now contains both ship and overall Goods in one total (among other changes and improvements), but they haven't stopped there.
The developer has now announced an even larger list of changes that have taken place in the game this week (including one once again affecting the Bonus Meter), with some of these actually working to hurt the very rapid progress users have been experiencing since the game's launch.
As usual, we have the full list of improvements and changes behind the break, so meet us there, won't you?
First and foremost - the good news. The first bit of good news it the fact that HQ payout bonuses have now been doubled. That's right, from now on, when collecting from your Franchise HQs (not those franchises that your friends have added to your town - the actual Franchise skyscraper(s) you have in your town), you'll earn double the coins as before. With coins being perhaps the most valuable commodity in the game (aside from maybe energy), anyway to earn bonus coins is definitely appreciated.
Next, a bit of bad news. When supplying your franchises, you'll no longer receive bonus energy. While energy hasn't really been an issue for most users, who can play the game in five or ten minute sessions and never run out, this might become a bit harder to do, as this bonus energy is no more. Zynga says the reasoning behind this alteration was to "improve game balance," so we'll have to see how that works out for them.
As for Quests, earning items for your quests will now be easier thanks to the altered time limit for posting item requests. At launch, the request window was "once every 24 hours." Now though, players can now post item requests for items (like Chocolates, Endorsements, and the like, depending on the Quest) once every four hours.
Two other improvements come in the form of tweaked train values, which sees the amount of coins required for each amount of good when sending off your trains being altered slightly, and in the form of a changed Bronze Statue Payout Bonus. The Bronze Statue is a decorative item available to purchase from the store. Now, though, the payout bonus that you receive from the Bronze Statue has been reduced, again, as Zynga says, to help improve game balance.
While this is already a lot of changes to take in, there are even more general bug fixes to speak of, ranging from improving the texts in wall posts, to lessening the amount of Out of Sync errors that a player could potentially run into while performing certain (at the time) bugged activities. Here's the list of bug fixes, straight from Zynga:
Collections Feed Posts - Collections feed posts now correctly states "Get 50 coins".
Bonus Meter - Fixed/adjusted bonus meter payouts, and issues related to bonus meter progression.
OOS errors when supplying franchises - Fixed the issue that was causing OOS errors when supplying franchises.
Friends listed on the requests page - Requests of the same type can only be sent to the same friend once per day; fixed the issue where friends were still appearing on the list, which was causing some of the gifts/requests related issues.
Franchise HQ displayed payout bonus - Fixed the issue where franchise HQ payout bonuses were being displayed incorrectly.
Quest: Build City Funds - Resolved the issue with requesting "Capital Endorsements".
XP Discrepancy - Fixed a discrepancy between XP being added and XP shown, which was causing OOS errors after leveling
Coin Discrepancy - Fixed a discrepancy between coins being added when collecting from businesses to the coins shown, which was causing the appearance of losing coins after refreshing the game and OOS errors when spending coins which were not being counted.
As we said at the beginning of this post, we can now see that the Bonus Meter has been altered yet again (seems they haven't been able to strike a nice balance as of yet). However, instead of changing the overall amount of coins that are awarded (like with the first change of the meter), we now see its progression being altered. That is, after the first week, teh meter would stick at the "Masterful," and would slowly fill, if it ever actually filled at all. This resulted in one large sum of bonus coins being awarded (in my game the bonus was always somewhere around 4,000+ coins.
Now, though, the Masterful bar fills just as quickly as the others, and once it is completely full, the bonus levels cycle back around to the first stage of "Bonus," and continues from there. In this way, you may receive four 1,000 coin bonuses instead of one large 4,000 coin bonus, which is actually fine with us. Hopefully this is how the meter will stay too, as we really like all of those bonus coins that we've been getting.
The developer has now announced an even larger list of changes that have taken place in the game this week (including one once again affecting the Bonus Meter), with some of these actually working to hurt the very rapid progress users have been experiencing since the game's launch.
As usual, we have the full list of improvements and changes behind the break, so meet us there, won't you?
First and foremost - the good news. The first bit of good news it the fact that HQ payout bonuses have now been doubled. That's right, from now on, when collecting from your Franchise HQs (not those franchises that your friends have added to your town - the actual Franchise skyscraper(s) you have in your town), you'll earn double the coins as before. With coins being perhaps the most valuable commodity in the game (aside from maybe energy), anyway to earn bonus coins is definitely appreciated.
Next, a bit of bad news. When supplying your franchises, you'll no longer receive bonus energy. While energy hasn't really been an issue for most users, who can play the game in five or ten minute sessions and never run out, this might become a bit harder to do, as this bonus energy is no more. Zynga says the reasoning behind this alteration was to "improve game balance," so we'll have to see how that works out for them.
As for Quests, earning items for your quests will now be easier thanks to the altered time limit for posting item requests. At launch, the request window was "once every 24 hours." Now though, players can now post item requests for items (like Chocolates, Endorsements, and the like, depending on the Quest) once every four hours.
Two other improvements come in the form of tweaked train values, which sees the amount of coins required for each amount of good when sending off your trains being altered slightly, and in the form of a changed Bronze Statue Payout Bonus. The Bronze Statue is a decorative item available to purchase from the store. Now, though, the payout bonus that you receive from the Bronze Statue has been reduced, again, as Zynga says, to help improve game balance.
While this is already a lot of changes to take in, there are even more general bug fixes to speak of, ranging from improving the texts in wall posts, to lessening the amount of Out of Sync errors that a player could potentially run into while performing certain (at the time) bugged activities. Here's the list of bug fixes, straight from Zynga:
Collections Feed Posts - Collections feed posts now correctly states "Get 50 coins".
Bonus Meter - Fixed/adjusted bonus meter payouts, and issues related to bonus meter progression.
OOS errors when supplying franchises - Fixed the issue that was causing OOS errors when supplying franchises.
Friends listed on the requests page - Requests of the same type can only be sent to the same friend once per day; fixed the issue where friends were still appearing on the list, which was causing some of the gifts/requests related issues.
Franchise HQ displayed payout bonus - Fixed the issue where franchise HQ payout bonuses were being displayed incorrectly.
Quest: Build City Funds - Resolved the issue with requesting "Capital Endorsements".
XP Discrepancy - Fixed a discrepancy between XP being added and XP shown, which was causing OOS errors after leveling
Coin Discrepancy - Fixed a discrepancy between coins being added when collecting from businesses to the coins shown, which was causing the appearance of losing coins after refreshing the game and OOS errors when spending coins which were not being counted.
As we said at the beginning of this post, we can now see that the Bonus Meter has been altered yet again (seems they haven't been able to strike a nice balance as of yet). However, instead of changing the overall amount of coins that are awarded (like with the first change of the meter), we now see its progression being altered. That is, after the first week, teh meter would stick at the "Masterful," and would slowly fill, if it ever actually filled at all. This resulted in one large sum of bonus coins being awarded (in my game the bonus was always somewhere around 4,000+ coins.
Now, though, the Masterful bar fills just as quickly as the others, and once it is completely full, the bonus levels cycle back around to the first stage of "Bonus," and continues from there. In this way, you may receive four 1,000 coin bonuses instead of one large 4,000 coin bonus, which is actually fine with us. Hopefully this is how the meter will stay too, as we really like all of those bonus coins that we've been getting.
CityVille Cheats and Tips: Guess What? You Don't Need Roads!
There's two schools of thought when it comes to the best way to play CityVille -- that is, whether looking pretty and saving land is more important than cramming things to the hilt and saving Energy. Right now, the prevailing wisdom of players is to value Energy-saving over land space. Today, we already showcased an awesome way to save Energy by using decorations. But if you find yourself running out of space more than Energy, here's some pointers:
CityVille Franchise HQ bonus
1. Franchise HQs don't need Roads to work. They take up 5x5 of space, which is a lot, but you need them to manage your franchises. Most people put these buildings off to the side, but they offer a +2% boost range of 11x11 to businesses. (You can see from the sample image that one HQ can bonus boost up to five businesses.) So put 'em where you can use their bonus boosting power!
CityVille Community Buildings
2. Community buildings (e.g. Post Office, Police, City Hall, etc.) and Storage buildings (e.g. Silo, Red Barn, Sticks, etc.) don't need roads either. Community buildings give out money and owning them allows you to have a bigger population. And Storage buildings let you have more goods. But other than that, these are pretty useless. Profit bonuses from decorations don't work on them. So if you have to put a building in the corner, do it to these two kinds!
CityVille Roads versus Sidewalks
3. Contrary to the headline of this post, roads are important. We all know certain buildings can't earn coins unless they're somehow touching the roads. So what do I mean when I say you don't need them? Well, the game starts you off with some Asphalt Roads already in place. This means most of us are tempted to keep using them, so we buy more for 10 Coins each. But a better substitute is actually the City Sidewalk, which costs 20 Coins. If you care about space, one Asphalt Road takes up 3x3 land, but one City Sidewalk takes up just 1x1 land. Instead of connecting your buildings by using the Asphalt Road, use the City Sidewalk!
(Note: A piece of City Sidewalk must be touching a piece of Asphalt Road to work. See the above image where I put down one piece of road in the middle of nowhere, connected the Sidewalks to it, and the businesses are functional? And that one Coffee Shop has some Sidewalk sticking out of it, but the game says it's "Not connected to road.")
CityVille Franchise HQ bonus
1. Franchise HQs don't need Roads to work. They take up 5x5 of space, which is a lot, but you need them to manage your franchises. Most people put these buildings off to the side, but they offer a +2% boost range of 11x11 to businesses. (You can see from the sample image that one HQ can bonus boost up to five businesses.) So put 'em where you can use their bonus boosting power!
CityVille Community Buildings
2. Community buildings (e.g. Post Office, Police, City Hall, etc.) and Storage buildings (e.g. Silo, Red Barn, Sticks, etc.) don't need roads either. Community buildings give out money and owning them allows you to have a bigger population. And Storage buildings let you have more goods. But other than that, these are pretty useless. Profit bonuses from decorations don't work on them. So if you have to put a building in the corner, do it to these two kinds!
CityVille Roads versus Sidewalks
3. Contrary to the headline of this post, roads are important. We all know certain buildings can't earn coins unless they're somehow touching the roads. So what do I mean when I say you don't need them? Well, the game starts you off with some Asphalt Roads already in place. This means most of us are tempted to keep using them, so we buy more for 10 Coins each. But a better substitute is actually the City Sidewalk, which costs 20 Coins. If you care about space, one Asphalt Road takes up 3x3 land, but one City Sidewalk takes up just 1x1 land. Instead of connecting your buildings by using the Asphalt Road, use the City Sidewalk!
(Note: A piece of City Sidewalk must be touching a piece of Asphalt Road to work. See the above image where I put down one piece of road in the middle of nowhere, connected the Sidewalks to it, and the businesses are functional? And that one Coffee Shop has some Sidewalk sticking out of it, but the game says it's "Not connected to road.")
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Why are we so hooked on Angry Birds? It's science [Infographic]
We already know that Rovio and its Angry Birds are poised to do battle with Zynga for global gaming domination. The iPhone-game-turned-everywhere-game has become millions' preferred time-waster on the run. But there's one thing we just can't seem to put our finger on: Why? An infographic put together by Ask Your Target Marketing attempts to answer this question with two forms of science (though, the latter of which is debatable in some circles): psychology and sociology.
But before we get into that, some basics. According to 1,000 surveyed Angry Birds players, men are 35 percent more likely to buy Angry Birds than women, and 18 to 24-year-olds are 33 percent more likely to buy the game than those 25 or older. Here's an interesting finding: gamers collectively play Angry Birds an average of 200 million minutes per day--that amounts to 16 collective years of flinging agitated avian creatures every hour of every day.
While just 15 percent of players feel addicted to the game often when playing and an even smaller 13 percent say they feel addicted always, a whopping 54 percent say they feel addicted occasionally. OK, so we get it: We're hooked by their angry talons. Now, how in the world did this happen? Simply put, it makes us feel good.
Out of 1,000 people who played Angry Birds 25 or more times, 32 percent of them felt "somewhat relaxed" after an Angry Birds session, while 23 percent said to have felt "very relaxed" after launching the birds into the amorphous green pigs. But generally speaking, 58 percent of Angry Birds players reported their mood to be improved after playing the game, while 37 percent said their mood was unchanged.
This is thanks to an amazing strange little thing called dopamine, which our brains put out on overdrive in anticipation of reward, according to the infographic. This massive release of dopamine makes us want to know just what will happen after letting that next bird careen into some wooden planks.
For 12 percent of players, the addiction has been so bad that they were forced to delete the game from their phones, while another 12 percent have merely considered that drastic measure as an option. The other 76 percent just keep playing, apparently. Good idea, you not-so-jovial bird junkies. Find the full infographic below, and click it to make it larger.
But before we get into that, some basics. According to 1,000 surveyed Angry Birds players, men are 35 percent more likely to buy Angry Birds than women, and 18 to 24-year-olds are 33 percent more likely to buy the game than those 25 or older. Here's an interesting finding: gamers collectively play Angry Birds an average of 200 million minutes per day--that amounts to 16 collective years of flinging agitated avian creatures every hour of every day.
While just 15 percent of players feel addicted to the game often when playing and an even smaller 13 percent say they feel addicted always, a whopping 54 percent say they feel addicted occasionally. OK, so we get it: We're hooked by their angry talons. Now, how in the world did this happen? Simply put, it makes us feel good.
Out of 1,000 people who played Angry Birds 25 or more times, 32 percent of them felt "somewhat relaxed" after an Angry Birds session, while 23 percent said to have felt "very relaxed" after launching the birds into the amorphous green pigs. But generally speaking, 58 percent of Angry Birds players reported their mood to be improved after playing the game, while 37 percent said their mood was unchanged.
This is thanks to an amazing strange little thing called dopamine, which our brains put out on overdrive in anticipation of reward, according to the infographic. This massive release of dopamine makes us want to know just what will happen after letting that next bird careen into some wooden planks.
For 12 percent of players, the addiction has been so bad that they were forced to delete the game from their phones, while another 12 percent have merely considered that drastic measure as an option. The other 76 percent just keep playing, apparently. Good idea, you not-so-jovial bird junkies. Find the full infographic below, and click it to make it larger.
BringIt puts games in your Facebook games, so you can ... gamble?
If you're the type who enjoys wasting their money gambling, have we got some news for you. In select Facebook games by CrowdStar, East Side Games, Sometrics and Mall World, you can wager your hard-earned, paid game currency with your friends in custom mini games by BringIt. A real-time transactional platform for social games, BringIt announced that its head-to-head competitions for virtual currency are now available in games from these developers.
According to BringIt, 8 million players have participated in these mini games within their favorite social games, and the asynchronous, head-to-head competitions will increase their number of daily players to 2.1 million. Players can wager any amount of virtual currency they choose, and post challenges to multiple friends at once. These challenges are sent to players who then can respond with their own wagers and post their scores in said games--the winner takes all.
For instance, Happy Aquarium fans can now challenge each other in a game of match-three, Aqua Blast, which is strikingly similar to Bejeweled. Using speed and various power ups, players must score as many points as possible in 60 seconds after wagering so many Pearls (the game's paid currency). Then, players can post that score to whomever's News Feed that they challenged.
If a friend responds with a wager of Pearls and a score that beats the challenger's score, they win whatever the challenger wagered. If the friend happens to score less than what the challenger did, then whoever posted the challenge wins whatever amount of Pearls that the loser wagered.
Payments are said to be posted automatically, but as of Sept. 11, there have been issues with the speed of payment, though BringIt is cataloging all payments to ensure that all winnings are met with payments. (At least this applies to Happy Aquarium.) Other BringIt partners like East Side Games, have different BringIt-powered mini games such as Gold Rush in Pot Farm.
Developers like East Side Games hope to make lots of dough from this form of in-game gambling. BringIt claims that the novelty of wagering paid currency could turn more freeloading social gamers into ones that pay up to play. And we guess it's all kosher, because the money at stake isn't "real" money. Though, if you paid for it with real cash originally, it kind of is, no?
According to BringIt, 8 million players have participated in these mini games within their favorite social games, and the asynchronous, head-to-head competitions will increase their number of daily players to 2.1 million. Players can wager any amount of virtual currency they choose, and post challenges to multiple friends at once. These challenges are sent to players who then can respond with their own wagers and post their scores in said games--the winner takes all.
For instance, Happy Aquarium fans can now challenge each other in a game of match-three, Aqua Blast, which is strikingly similar to Bejeweled. Using speed and various power ups, players must score as many points as possible in 60 seconds after wagering so many Pearls (the game's paid currency). Then, players can post that score to whomever's News Feed that they challenged.
If a friend responds with a wager of Pearls and a score that beats the challenger's score, they win whatever the challenger wagered. If the friend happens to score less than what the challenger did, then whoever posted the challenge wins whatever amount of Pearls that the loser wagered.
Payments are said to be posted automatically, but as of Sept. 11, there have been issues with the speed of payment, though BringIt is cataloging all payments to ensure that all winnings are met with payments. (At least this applies to Happy Aquarium.) Other BringIt partners like East Side Games, have different BringIt-powered mini games such as Gold Rush in Pot Farm.
Developers like East Side Games hope to make lots of dough from this form of in-game gambling. BringIt claims that the novelty of wagering paid currency could turn more freeloading social gamers into ones that pay up to play. And we guess it's all kosher, because the money at stake isn't "real" money. Though, if you paid for it with real cash originally, it kind of is, no?
NBA Legend creator Lionside bought out by Ngmoco [Updated]
Update: An ngmoco spokesperson confirmed the news to ISG: "We can confirm that ngmoco has acquired the Lionside team. The terms of the agreement are undisclosed. We are very excited to have Lionside join the ngmoco and DeNA family. They are working on new products for the Mobage social gaming platform, bringing their passion and experience to our continuously expanding first party development capabilities."
Neither side seems to want anyone to know about it just yet, but signs are pointing toward a buyout in the works between ngmoco and Lionside. Inside Social Games reports that, according to numerous Lionside employee Linkedin pages, a shuttered website, an inactive Twitter account and Facebook games that simply aren't operational, ngmoco may have acquired the San Francisco-based company.
A tipster pointed ISG toward the Linkedin pages of Lionside VP of Business Operations Michael McBride and European Account Manager Kane Curran, both of which read that Lionside has been acquired by ngmoco. Not to mention that Lionside CEO Brandon Barber's Google+ profile reads, "Lionside & ngmoco marketing and product guy."
To add to the mountain of evidence that Lionside has potentially been acquired by ngmoco, the company's official website has been taken down. And neither NBA Legend nor Lionside Football are available to play, the former of which is "being enhanced," according to a page that has replaced the actual game on Facebook.
Unfortunately, both games have been performing poorly, garnering a mere total of just over 367,000 monthly players, according to AppData. So, this begs the question: If Lionside has been acquired by ngmoco, just what would the studio be up to in its new capacity? Ngmoco, since it was purchased by Japanese social gaming giant DeNA earlier this year, has been working diligently on a global version of the publisher's Mobage mobile social games network, which was just released for Android.
So, our best guess is that Lionside would be working on mobile social games to be played on the Mobage network, though it doesn't seem that Lionside has ever worked in mobile games as a company (official information from the company is unavailable at the moment). We've contacted Lionside for comment.
Neither side seems to want anyone to know about it just yet, but signs are pointing toward a buyout in the works between ngmoco and Lionside. Inside Social Games reports that, according to numerous Lionside employee Linkedin pages, a shuttered website, an inactive Twitter account and Facebook games that simply aren't operational, ngmoco may have acquired the San Francisco-based company.
A tipster pointed ISG toward the Linkedin pages of Lionside VP of Business Operations Michael McBride and European Account Manager Kane Curran, both of which read that Lionside has been acquired by ngmoco. Not to mention that Lionside CEO Brandon Barber's Google+ profile reads, "Lionside & ngmoco marketing and product guy."
To add to the mountain of evidence that Lionside has potentially been acquired by ngmoco, the company's official website has been taken down. And neither NBA Legend nor Lionside Football are available to play, the former of which is "being enhanced," according to a page that has replaced the actual game on Facebook.
Unfortunately, both games have been performing poorly, garnering a mere total of just over 367,000 monthly players, according to AppData. So, this begs the question: If Lionside has been acquired by ngmoco, just what would the studio be up to in its new capacity? Ngmoco, since it was purchased by Japanese social gaming giant DeNA earlier this year, has been working diligently on a global version of the publisher's Mobage mobile social games network, which was just released for Android.
So, our best guess is that Lionside would be working on mobile social games to be played on the Mobage network, though it doesn't seem that Lionside has ever worked in mobile games as a company (official information from the company is unavailable at the moment). We've contacted Lionside for comment.
Playfish says goodbye to Hotel City, My Empire and four more games
Playfish games shut down
The Sims Social might have dethroned the mighty FarmVille, but its success may have cut into Playfish's other Facebook games and sent them to a speedier doom, too. On August 30th, the word went out in the official Playfish forums that Hotel City, My Empire, Who Has The Biggest Brain?, Geo Challenge, Word Challenge and Bowling Buddies will be getting axed Sept. 30.
We used to cover Hotel City back in the day (the game first launched on March 26, 2010) and can remember when it was a big deal. The game was well made and had once held an all-time high of 13 million monthly players and 3 million daily players. Right now, it's at 1.4 million monthly players and about 100,000 dailies, ranking it the 9th most-played Playfish and EA game on Facebook. But it's clear that won't be enough to save it.
Hotel City's popularity is followed closely by Bowling Buddies, Word Challenge, then Geo Challenge. Finally, far beneath them all on the social games ladder are Who Has The Biggest Brain? and My Empire. Though, at least one player suspects it may not be all about numbers, because Country Story currently ranks 10th behind Hotel City. But there's been no announcement to shut it down (yet).
The Sims Social might have dethroned the mighty FarmVille, but its success may have cut into Playfish's other Facebook games and sent them to a speedier doom, too. On August 30th, the word went out in the official Playfish forums that Hotel City, My Empire, Who Has The Biggest Brain?, Geo Challenge, Word Challenge and Bowling Buddies will be getting axed Sept. 30.
We used to cover Hotel City back in the day (the game first launched on March 26, 2010) and can remember when it was a big deal. The game was well made and had once held an all-time high of 13 million monthly players and 3 million daily players. Right now, it's at 1.4 million monthly players and about 100,000 dailies, ranking it the 9th most-played Playfish and EA game on Facebook. But it's clear that won't be enough to save it.
Hotel City's popularity is followed closely by Bowling Buddies, Word Challenge, then Geo Challenge. Finally, far beneath them all on the social games ladder are Who Has The Biggest Brain? and My Empire. Though, at least one player suspects it may not be all about numbers, because Country Story currently ranks 10th behind Hotel City. But there's been no announcement to shut it down (yet).
Idle Games shows first game Idle Worship's true social colors [Video]
Since co-founding social game hit maker Playdom, Rick Thompson has grown tired of the friend bar beneath Faecbook games. No, scratch that: He's grown tired of the way traditional Facebook games operate ... period. His contempt for this arguably tired form of Facebook game has helped spawn Idle Games and its first ever Facebook game, Idle Worship.
We first heard word of the potentially revolutionary social game way back in April, and Idle Games has launched the game into a closed beta test before presenting it to the audience of TechCrunch Disrupt, an event in San Francisco celebrating tech startups ran by TechCrunch. The overall gameplay of Idle Worship hasn't changed since we first heard about it, but now we have fancy video that reveals more of what the game is all about.
Through Idle Games's Idle Engine, Idle Worship does away with the friend found in almost all social games. Instead, your island of Mudlings (the people you oversee with either benevolence or tyranny) will be surrounded by not only your friends' islands, but players' islands based on how their Facebook profiles match up with your own.
Going even further, the game will slowly curate which of your friendships are stronger by bringing more active friends closer to your island, which is always at the center, and pushing your inactive friends away from your island. And, according to Idle Games CEO Jeffrey Hyman, your interactions with your friends will send ripples throughout the entire game in real time.
Through innovations like these, Hyman aims for Idle Games to become "the Pixar of casual games," according to TechCrunch. To better understand what we mean, check out Hyman's presentation below, and sign up for the ongoing closed beta test of the game right here.
We first heard word of the potentially revolutionary social game way back in April, and Idle Games has launched the game into a closed beta test before presenting it to the audience of TechCrunch Disrupt, an event in San Francisco celebrating tech startups ran by TechCrunch. The overall gameplay of Idle Worship hasn't changed since we first heard about it, but now we have fancy video that reveals more of what the game is all about.
Through Idle Games's Idle Engine, Idle Worship does away with the friend found in almost all social games. Instead, your island of Mudlings (the people you oversee with either benevolence or tyranny) will be surrounded by not only your friends' islands, but players' islands based on how their Facebook profiles match up with your own.
Going even further, the game will slowly curate which of your friendships are stronger by bringing more active friends closer to your island, which is always at the center, and pushing your inactive friends away from your island. And, according to Idle Games CEO Jeffrey Hyman, your interactions with your friends will send ripples throughout the entire game in real time.
Through innovations like these, Hyman aims for Idle Games to become "the Pixar of casual games," according to TechCrunch. To better understand what we mean, check out Hyman's presentation below, and sign up for the ongoing closed beta test of the game right here.
Monday, January 9, 2012
FarmVille down for 'maintenance' today: What's really going on?
You probably know by now that FarmVille will be down for maintenance today at 4 p.m. EST for about an hour. So while we're making plans to fill that 60 minutes (maybe longer based on past experience) by playing other Facebook games (or maybe doing something more active, like, going for a walk), we can't help but wonder what exactly is going to happen to the game while it's down?
Our best guess is that the game's getting some much-needed bug fixes and tinkering, though we've still got our fingers crossed that it will also include the 28x28 expansion for coins that we were promised way back when.
What do you think is going down with FarmVille today? Answer our lunchtime poll below!
What kind of FarmVille maintenance is going on today?
Roll-out of a cool new featureJust a few bug fixesProbably just a big, ole server rebootI don't care -- just give me my FarmVille back ASAP!
VoteView ResultsShare ThisPolldaddy.com
Our best guess is that the game's getting some much-needed bug fixes and tinkering, though we've still got our fingers crossed that it will also include the 28x28 expansion for coins that we were promised way back when.
What do you think is going down with FarmVille today? Answer our lunchtime poll below!
What kind of FarmVille maintenance is going on today?
Roll-out of a cool new featureJust a few bug fixesProbably just a big, ole server rebootI don't care -- just give me my FarmVille back ASAP!
VoteView ResultsShare ThisPolldaddy.com
FarmVille meets Cafe World in Gourmet Ranch on Facebook
Gourmet Ranch in action
If you're a frequent reader, you already know that FarmVille and Cafe World are two of the most popular games on Facebook. But when you think about it, the two are more connected thematically than you might first think. Developer Playdemic seems to have noticed it before any of us and decided to make a game surrounding just that premise. You see, where would your dishes in Cafe World be without the efforts of your farmer in FarmVille? While it suffers from stretching itself too thin, Gourmet Ranch for Facebook explores that very idea in one of sharpest simulator social games I've played in a long time.
Find the rest of our impressions of Gourmet Ranch behind the cut.
Farming and Serving
At first sight, Gourmet Ranch can appear daunting with its several modes of play, but it turns out to create somewhat of an organic play experience. A detailed tutorial will guide you through what could soon become your daily routine: Harvest and plant various crops in the farm among livestock and fruit trees for ingredients with which to cook meals for your country restaurant. While keeping track of it can be a challenge, the actual process is simple.
First of all, your list of recipes will always inform you of what ingredients you need and there is even a tab to display only the recipes you can cook immediately. Cooking recipes is far simpler than in Cafe World, requiring a single click and wait rather than several clicks that don't affect the quality of the dish in any way. Planting crops is the same way, however players will need to fence off designated squares for livestock. If space is a concern, players will be able to expand both their cafe and their farmland as they progress.
Of course, nearly every action such as buying new items, tress and livestock costs coins, but if dishes are constantly on the table that shouldn't be a problem. However, ingredients cost a special currency known as Keys. Gained as you level up or purchased through several payment methods supported by Social Gold like credit card and PayPal, some keys and a sum of coins will unlock one recipe. That also goes to show that Mastery doesn't exist in Gourmet Ranch.
The Market
Though where Playdemic omitted staples like Mastery and Goals, the developer introduced one unique feature to the genre. Every player is given a Larder, or a building used to store ingredients and not-so-livestock. From here, players can easily see what they have available to cook, but are also given the option to trade it. This Trade function is conducted through each players' Trade Store. Here, you can put up extra ingredients for sale to their friends. As soon you put new items into the trade store you can inform your friends through a News Feed message. When your friends post items for sale, you can visit their ranch and make a purchase. Think of it as a miniature farmers market between friends.
Admittedly, there is one thing about Gourmet Ranch that could become a headache later on--make that a lot of things, so to speak. With several crops, livestock, trees and dishes all ticking on separate timers simultaneously, keeping track of what's going to be ready for harvesting or serving next could become a nightmare. Players could easily be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things to objects to maintain. Despite that, Gourmet Ranch is a refreshing take on two slightly different genres by bringing them together into one smoothly animated and gorgeous Facebook game. And considering a game this polished is Playdemic's first social game, RockYou had good reason to pick them up when it did.
If you're a frequent reader, you already know that FarmVille and Cafe World are two of the most popular games on Facebook. But when you think about it, the two are more connected thematically than you might first think. Developer Playdemic seems to have noticed it before any of us and decided to make a game surrounding just that premise. You see, where would your dishes in Cafe World be without the efforts of your farmer in FarmVille? While it suffers from stretching itself too thin, Gourmet Ranch for Facebook explores that very idea in one of sharpest simulator social games I've played in a long time.
Find the rest of our impressions of Gourmet Ranch behind the cut.
Farming and Serving
At first sight, Gourmet Ranch can appear daunting with its several modes of play, but it turns out to create somewhat of an organic play experience. A detailed tutorial will guide you through what could soon become your daily routine: Harvest and plant various crops in the farm among livestock and fruit trees for ingredients with which to cook meals for your country restaurant. While keeping track of it can be a challenge, the actual process is simple.
First of all, your list of recipes will always inform you of what ingredients you need and there is even a tab to display only the recipes you can cook immediately. Cooking recipes is far simpler than in Cafe World, requiring a single click and wait rather than several clicks that don't affect the quality of the dish in any way. Planting crops is the same way, however players will need to fence off designated squares for livestock. If space is a concern, players will be able to expand both their cafe and their farmland as they progress.
Of course, nearly every action such as buying new items, tress and livestock costs coins, but if dishes are constantly on the table that shouldn't be a problem. However, ingredients cost a special currency known as Keys. Gained as you level up or purchased through several payment methods supported by Social Gold like credit card and PayPal, some keys and a sum of coins will unlock one recipe. That also goes to show that Mastery doesn't exist in Gourmet Ranch.
The Market
Though where Playdemic omitted staples like Mastery and Goals, the developer introduced one unique feature to the genre. Every player is given a Larder, or a building used to store ingredients and not-so-livestock. From here, players can easily see what they have available to cook, but are also given the option to trade it. This Trade function is conducted through each players' Trade Store. Here, you can put up extra ingredients for sale to their friends. As soon you put new items into the trade store you can inform your friends through a News Feed message. When your friends post items for sale, you can visit their ranch and make a purchase. Think of it as a miniature farmers market between friends.
Admittedly, there is one thing about Gourmet Ranch that could become a headache later on--make that a lot of things, so to speak. With several crops, livestock, trees and dishes all ticking on separate timers simultaneously, keeping track of what's going to be ready for harvesting or serving next could become a nightmare. Players could easily be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things to objects to maintain. Despite that, Gourmet Ranch is a refreshing take on two slightly different genres by bringing them together into one smoothly animated and gorgeous Facebook game. And considering a game this polished is Playdemic's first social game, RockYou had good reason to pick them up when it did.
Get Facebook game News Feed posts without visiting Facebook
Ever get sick of refreshing your News Feed for free items in your favorite Facebook games, but can't quite see yourself using one of those third party applications? An Adobe engineer named Charles Bihis has created an Adobe Air-based desktop application that syncs with your Facebook account to update you of anything on Facebook that would generate a News Feed post. It's called simply Facebook Desktop and it's available for free. While it doesn't seem like gaming was his motivation for the project from what he told WebPro News, there's no reason why it couldn't be used for just that.
Using Facebook Desktop could notify you of those one-time use News Feed posts from your friends in games like FarmVille and FrontierVille as they happen in real time. Forget popping over to the tab you have open for Facebook and pressing the F5 key over and over again. However, if you're going to actually make use of that free Chicken that your friendly neighborhood farmer is offering, you'll have to log into Facebook and then the relevant game to do so, obviously. But hey, at least you can be in the know that much faster.
Using Facebook Desktop could notify you of those one-time use News Feed posts from your friends in games like FarmVille and FrontierVille as they happen in real time. Forget popping over to the tab you have open for Facebook and pressing the F5 key over and over again. However, if you're going to actually make use of that free Chicken that your friendly neighborhood farmer is offering, you'll have to log into Facebook and then the relevant game to do so, obviously. But hey, at least you can be in the know that much faster.
FarmVille: Iced Donkey available as free gift for a limited time
As we told you earlier this week, Zynga has created a variety of iced animal sculptures for eventual release in FarmVille. One of those items, the Iced Cat, was already released in the latest FarmVille update, and today, we see the launch of another one of these frozen critters, in the form of the Iced Donkey, which is now available to send to your friends from the free gifts page, but only for a limited time.
The Iced Donkey is an aqua-colored frozen Donkey, standing atop a small mound of snow. Of course, if you have your land covered in snow, the base of this decorative item will blend right in, adding to the "realism." You'll be able to receive these Iced Donkeys as gifts only as long as it is available to send from the free's gifts page (if this is anything like the other "Limited Time" gifts, it won't last long), so make sure to ask your friends to send you one now, rather than later, to ensure that you don't miss out on the item entirely.
The Iced Donkey is an aqua-colored frozen Donkey, standing atop a small mound of snow. Of course, if you have your land covered in snow, the base of this decorative item will blend right in, adding to the "realism." You'll be able to receive these Iced Donkeys as gifts only as long as it is available to send from the free's gifts page (if this is anything like the other "Limited Time" gifts, it won't last long), so make sure to ask your friends to send you one now, rather than later, to ensure that you don't miss out on the item entirely.
FrontierVille Trading Post Goals: Everything you need to know
Well lookie here, partners! A new letter has appeared on your FrontierVille homestead, from Frontier Jack's cousin Jacques. He's interested in building a Trading Post in your town, to share the wonderful goods and furs that he as accumulated over his wide, worldly travels, and he hopes you'll help him do it.
You'll help Jacques (and yourself in the process) by building a Trading Post through a four part mission series that is now available in the game. Apparently, after finishing these quests, you'll be able to trade in items to the Trading Post (fitting its name) for extra rewards for your Homestead. As usual, we have the details about these new missions for you right here, so meet us behind the break to get started.
The first part of this mission series is called "Brewin' Up Some Rubaboo Stew," with Rubaboo Stew being somewhat of a specialty dish of Jacques, requiring peas and bacon. That takes care of two of the portions of this quest, and the initial construction of the Trading Post rounds out the quest:
Harvest 15 Peas
Collect Three Bacon (Pig Collection)
Purchase the Trading Post from the Market
Peas are available to grow from the market's Crop section, and they take two days to mature. Either that, or you can take advantage of an ability in the game that allows your friends' actions on your Homestead to count for your own quests. That is, plant 15 (or even just 5) Peas on your Homestead, have three friends come to visit and tend nothing but your Peas, and then accept those actions back in your own game. Voila - step completed, perhaps in as little as a matter of minutes, if you have FrontierVille neighbors currently online at the time of starting this mission.
As for the Trading Post, if you have the store discount school mission activated on your account, you'll be able to purchase the building from the store for 760 coins and 11 wood. Simply purchasing the base (not even whacking it to further build up the frame) will unlock that step of the quest.
The reward for completing part one is 300 XP and 1 Dinner energy item.
The second part of this mission series is called "Breakin' Ground," and it too contains three steps to complete, but this one might be a bit more time consuming.
Have 10,000 coins
Collect 10 Trade Permits
Harvest 25 Flax
While the coins will likely be on-hand already for most players, you'll need to rely on your friends to collect the Trade Permits by posting a general wall post to your wall asking for the item. In the meantime, Flax can be grown in 8 hours.
The reward for finishing Breakin' Ground is 400 XP and 10 Cloth.
Moving onto the third part of the quest, this step called "Securing Tradin' Routes" will see you actually working on building your Trading Post, but luckily, the other steps are incredibly simple.
Visit 12 Neighbors
Chop 5 Neighbor Trees
Finish Building the Trading Post
If you've yet to click on the Trading Post after purchasing the base, you'll need to build up the rest of the frame by whacking the base a whopping 18 times - each time requiring a single energy and 3 Wood.
For the "finishing touches," you guessed it, you'll have to collect various ingredients with the help of friends. The Trading Post contains many new items, so unfortunately, you won't be able to rely solely on your excess inventory to finish this one quickly. You'll need to collect 20 Hand Drills, along with 10 each of the following new items: Tiles, Awls, Beams, Blankets, and Sarsaparilla.
The Tiles, Awls, and Beams are earned through general wall posts, that any of your friends can respond to, while Blankets and bottles of Sarsaparilla are earned through individual requests that you'll send to friends that you think will be likely to help you. The Hand Drills are also earned through this method, but if you're lucky you'll already have the 20 needed in your inventory.
Either way, once you finish this quest, you'll receive 500 XP and 1,000 coins, while also unlocking the final quest in this four part series.
Part IV is called "Time to Open Shop," and it requires you to take advantage of the new abilities given to you by the Trading Post, along with collecting more items.
Collect 10 Beaver Pelts
Collect 1 Clerk's Hat (part of the new Trading Post Collection)
Trade in 5 items at the Trading Post
You'll need to collect the Beaver Pelts, once again, by asking your friends for help. Hopefully you have a lot of patient neighbors, as there has been a lot of asking (begging?) going on up until this point. Either way, once you finish this final step of the Trading Post quest set, you'll receive a great reward - 750 XP and 1 additional point to your maximum energy.
And there you have it! Finish these four quests, and you'll not only be introduced to a new in-game character in the form of Jacques, but you'll also have a new, functional building to call your own!
You'll help Jacques (and yourself in the process) by building a Trading Post through a four part mission series that is now available in the game. Apparently, after finishing these quests, you'll be able to trade in items to the Trading Post (fitting its name) for extra rewards for your Homestead. As usual, we have the details about these new missions for you right here, so meet us behind the break to get started.
The first part of this mission series is called "Brewin' Up Some Rubaboo Stew," with Rubaboo Stew being somewhat of a specialty dish of Jacques, requiring peas and bacon. That takes care of two of the portions of this quest, and the initial construction of the Trading Post rounds out the quest:
Harvest 15 Peas
Collect Three Bacon (Pig Collection)
Purchase the Trading Post from the Market
Peas are available to grow from the market's Crop section, and they take two days to mature. Either that, or you can take advantage of an ability in the game that allows your friends' actions on your Homestead to count for your own quests. That is, plant 15 (or even just 5) Peas on your Homestead, have three friends come to visit and tend nothing but your Peas, and then accept those actions back in your own game. Voila - step completed, perhaps in as little as a matter of minutes, if you have FrontierVille neighbors currently online at the time of starting this mission.
As for the Trading Post, if you have the store discount school mission activated on your account, you'll be able to purchase the building from the store for 760 coins and 11 wood. Simply purchasing the base (not even whacking it to further build up the frame) will unlock that step of the quest.
The reward for completing part one is 300 XP and 1 Dinner energy item.
The second part of this mission series is called "Breakin' Ground," and it too contains three steps to complete, but this one might be a bit more time consuming.
Have 10,000 coins
Collect 10 Trade Permits
Harvest 25 Flax
While the coins will likely be on-hand already for most players, you'll need to rely on your friends to collect the Trade Permits by posting a general wall post to your wall asking for the item. In the meantime, Flax can be grown in 8 hours.
The reward for finishing Breakin' Ground is 400 XP and 10 Cloth.
Moving onto the third part of the quest, this step called "Securing Tradin' Routes" will see you actually working on building your Trading Post, but luckily, the other steps are incredibly simple.
Visit 12 Neighbors
Chop 5 Neighbor Trees
Finish Building the Trading Post
If you've yet to click on the Trading Post after purchasing the base, you'll need to build up the rest of the frame by whacking the base a whopping 18 times - each time requiring a single energy and 3 Wood.
For the "finishing touches," you guessed it, you'll have to collect various ingredients with the help of friends. The Trading Post contains many new items, so unfortunately, you won't be able to rely solely on your excess inventory to finish this one quickly. You'll need to collect 20 Hand Drills, along with 10 each of the following new items: Tiles, Awls, Beams, Blankets, and Sarsaparilla.
The Tiles, Awls, and Beams are earned through general wall posts, that any of your friends can respond to, while Blankets and bottles of Sarsaparilla are earned through individual requests that you'll send to friends that you think will be likely to help you. The Hand Drills are also earned through this method, but if you're lucky you'll already have the 20 needed in your inventory.
Either way, once you finish this quest, you'll receive 500 XP and 1,000 coins, while also unlocking the final quest in this four part series.
Part IV is called "Time to Open Shop," and it requires you to take advantage of the new abilities given to you by the Trading Post, along with collecting more items.
Collect 10 Beaver Pelts
Collect 1 Clerk's Hat (part of the new Trading Post Collection)
Trade in 5 items at the Trading Post
You'll need to collect the Beaver Pelts, once again, by asking your friends for help. Hopefully you have a lot of patient neighbors, as there has been a lot of asking (begging?) going on up until this point. Either way, once you finish this final step of the Trading Post quest set, you'll receive a great reward - 750 XP and 1 additional point to your maximum energy.
And there you have it! Finish these four quests, and you'll not only be introduced to a new in-game character in the form of Jacques, but you'll also have a new, functional building to call your own!
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Social games aren't social enough, but do we really want more?
Many followers of the social games industry likely feel inundated with the claims that social games are not social enough or they're downright evil. While I can't help but agree, I also can't help but play devil's advocate. Social connections are used by today's Facebook games as mere means to an end. Today's social gamers are only as successful as the amount of dedicated friends they have, regardless of whether those "friends" are genuine. Truth be told, those friends are replaceable. But what if they weren't?
What if your friends in, say, FrontierVille were more meaningful than just a source of Item X for Goal #458? Imagine a FrontierVille that featured real consequences that could only be resolved through the help of your most dedicated of friends. Say your avatar is bitten by a snake while clearing debris from his homestead. A pop-up appears reading, "Ask yer friends to join together an' create an antidote or yer as good as gone!"
Social game crazedYou have two hours to rally your closest Facebook friends to collaborate in a real-time puzzle mini game to concoct an antidote for the poison. If they can't create and deliver the medicine in that time, you will die. Don't worry, they'll be rewarded with XP and coins for their efforts. Does this sound like fun? How about on the other end? Another scenario: Your friend has the parts to upgrade his General Store, but needs you and three other friends to join him in real time on his homestead to build it. If you can't respond in six hours, his planks of wood will warp, his nails will rust from time passed and he'll have to start from scratch. Your friend just wasted 15 thousand coins because you were busy at work, and he's not happy.
Sure, these two scenarios are wildly extreme. But how else would a developer like Zynga make its games more social while maintaining the urgency that hooks you? We all want social games to make better use of the social connections that Facebook fosters. Yet as Facebook users, it can be enough just to keep in touch with whomever writes on our walls. For friendships in social games to become more meaningful while maintaining profitability--which is no doubt a chief concern for developers--then the urgency to keep playing has to be intensified. And what better way than to put your friends' enjoyment of the game at stake?
Would social game developers ever attempt such an exploitative tactic? That, of course, has yet to be seen. But it's the only foreseeable method of creating deeper social connections while raking in the dollars. (Ever notice how dissenters never explain what these "deeper social connections" would be when crying out for them?) Responsibility for your friends' enjoyment of a game and likewise is a deeper social connection, one that would definitely force a selective hand when choosing allies. But wouldn't this type of responsibility kill the fun of it? If this is what "deeper social connections" would lead to, then count me out.
What if your friends in, say, FrontierVille were more meaningful than just a source of Item X for Goal #458? Imagine a FrontierVille that featured real consequences that could only be resolved through the help of your most dedicated of friends. Say your avatar is bitten by a snake while clearing debris from his homestead. A pop-up appears reading, "Ask yer friends to join together an' create an antidote or yer as good as gone!"
Social game crazedYou have two hours to rally your closest Facebook friends to collaborate in a real-time puzzle mini game to concoct an antidote for the poison. If they can't create and deliver the medicine in that time, you will die. Don't worry, they'll be rewarded with XP and coins for their efforts. Does this sound like fun? How about on the other end? Another scenario: Your friend has the parts to upgrade his General Store, but needs you and three other friends to join him in real time on his homestead to build it. If you can't respond in six hours, his planks of wood will warp, his nails will rust from time passed and he'll have to start from scratch. Your friend just wasted 15 thousand coins because you were busy at work, and he's not happy.
Sure, these two scenarios are wildly extreme. But how else would a developer like Zynga make its games more social while maintaining the urgency that hooks you? We all want social games to make better use of the social connections that Facebook fosters. Yet as Facebook users, it can be enough just to keep in touch with whomever writes on our walls. For friendships in social games to become more meaningful while maintaining profitability--which is no doubt a chief concern for developers--then the urgency to keep playing has to be intensified. And what better way than to put your friends' enjoyment of the game at stake?
Would social game developers ever attempt such an exploitative tactic? That, of course, has yet to be seen. But it's the only foreseeable method of creating deeper social connections while raking in the dollars. (Ever notice how dissenters never explain what these "deeper social connections" would be when crying out for them?) Responsibility for your friends' enjoyment of a game and likewise is a deeper social connection, one that would definitely force a selective hand when choosing allies. But wouldn't this type of responsibility kill the fun of it? If this is what "deeper social connections" would lead to, then count me out.
Earn 2 free FarmVille Farm Cash from General Electric promotion
Another sponsored link in FarmVille, another offer for free Farm Cash. The next promotion to rest underneath your game screen is from General Electric, according to FarmVille Feed. Some commenters are reporting that the offer has yet to appear underneath their game screens. But for those that have it, it's quite simple to nab that Farm Cash.
Just click on the link and a pop-up will appear. From there, follow along with GE's weird "Ecomagination Line Dance" quiz and the two Farm Cash shall be yours. Just look out for the notification at the to of the pop-up to appear that reads, "You've earned your Farm Cash." Give it about 30 minutes and refresh your FarmVille game to see your Farm Cash total increase by two automatically. Doesn't it feel so much better when it's free?
Just click on the link and a pop-up will appear. From there, follow along with GE's weird "Ecomagination Line Dance" quiz and the two Farm Cash shall be yours. Just look out for the notification at the to of the pop-up to appear that reads, "You've earned your Farm Cash." Give it about 30 minutes and refresh your FarmVille game to see your Farm Cash total increase by two automatically. Doesn't it feel so much better when it's free?
FarmVille: Zynga gives away free Duckling to all players
If you've been having trouble finding Ducklings randomly when harvesting from your FarmVille Duck Pond, or if you can't see to snag any of the free Ducklings posted by your friends, Zynga is looking to help you out by offering you a free Duckling.
This, as of now, is simply a one-time-only bonus, that appears as an in-game pop-up the first time you play the game after this update. You'll be given a free Brown Duckling, that can grow up into one of a variety of different adults, if you gather the help of enough friends within the time limit. Hopefully, you won't suffer from the same empty menu and broken help requests that were experienced at the initial launch of this feature in the game.
It's great that Zynga has made an attempt to at least partially make up for this feature's bugs by offering users a free Duckling, and we can only hope that the feature is now bug-free once and for all. Just make sure to login to FarmVille soon to claim your free Duckling while it is available.
Have you continued to suffer from issues with the FarmVille Duck Pond? Will you grow this Duckling up into an adult?
This, as of now, is simply a one-time-only bonus, that appears as an in-game pop-up the first time you play the game after this update. You'll be given a free Brown Duckling, that can grow up into one of a variety of different adults, if you gather the help of enough friends within the time limit. Hopefully, you won't suffer from the same empty menu and broken help requests that were experienced at the initial launch of this feature in the game.
It's great that Zynga has made an attempt to at least partially make up for this feature's bugs by offering users a free Duckling, and we can only hope that the feature is now bug-free once and for all. Just make sure to login to FarmVille soon to claim your free Duckling while it is available.
Have you continued to suffer from issues with the FarmVille Duck Pond? Will you grow this Duckling up into an adult?
FarmVille: Giant Black Cherry Tree now in market; available from seedlings
In a two-part FarmVille update today, Zynga has made a change to the Black Cherry Tree released on Sunday evening as part of the game's Anti-Valentine's Day mini-theme. When the tree first launched, if you placed the Black Cherry Tree in an Orchard, it would spawn the Rainier Cherry Tree, which is already available from the standard Cherry Tree, lessening its value. However, in this update, Zynga has changed this so that the Black Cherry Tree can now spawn seedlings to a Giant Black Cherry Tree to fit in with the other giant trees that have been released in the game.
If you'd rather not wait or try your luck at receiving a Giant Black Cherry Tree seedling from an Orchard (or from a free seedling posted by your friends on the news feed), you can also now purchase this giant tree from the store for 10 Farm Cash. As the tree has been added after the other Anti-Valentine's Day items, its expiration date in the store reflects that accordingly, as it will be available to purchase on its own for two weeks - three days longer than the normally sized Black Cherry Tree itself.
If you were questioning whether or not the Black Cherry Tree was worth it before, the ability to spawn another exclusive tree might just be enough to persuade you to a purchase.
Will you purchase a Black Cherry Tree just to receive a giant version, or will you purchase the Giant Black Cherry tree and skip the steps in creating one?
If you'd rather not wait or try your luck at receiving a Giant Black Cherry Tree seedling from an Orchard (or from a free seedling posted by your friends on the news feed), you can also now purchase this giant tree from the store for 10 Farm Cash. As the tree has been added after the other Anti-Valentine's Day items, its expiration date in the store reflects that accordingly, as it will be available to purchase on its own for two weeks - three days longer than the normally sized Black Cherry Tree itself.
If you were questioning whether or not the Black Cherry Tree was worth it before, the ability to spawn another exclusive tree might just be enough to persuade you to a purchase.
Will you purchase a Black Cherry Tree just to receive a giant version, or will you purchase the Giant Black Cherry tree and skip the steps in creating one?
FarmVille Fairy Tale Animals: Knight Steed & Fairy Pig
For a couple of days now, we've known that a fairytale themed set of items would be launching in FarmVille, we just didn't know exactly when that update would hit. Turns out, tonight's FarmVille update brought with it this entirely new limited edition item theme, which contains (thus far) two new animals: the Knight Steed and the Fairy Pig.
If you like a bit of whimsy with your farm animals, these are definitely two to look into. The Knight Steed is a beauty - a silver steed with lots of ornamentation surrounding its saddle, completely draped with fabric and armor. Of course, this opulence comes at a price - 26 Farm Cash, to be exact. As with other horses in the game, you'll be able to harvest from your Knight Steed once every three days (if left out of a Horse Stable), and you'll receive 140 coins when doing so.
Meanwhile, the Fairy Pig is also appropriately named, being a lovely peach pig with wings, a crown, and a magic wand that sparkles. You can pick up this cute pig for 18 Farm Cash. If left out of the Pig Pen, you'll be able to harvest from this Fairy Pig once every two days, receiving 30 coins in the process.
It's unknown as of this writing whether this will be an extended theme in FarmVille (consisting of multiple item releases), but these initial animals will be available in the game for the next two weeks. We'll be sure to let you know if more animals join them in the future.
If you like a bit of whimsy with your farm animals, these are definitely two to look into. The Knight Steed is a beauty - a silver steed with lots of ornamentation surrounding its saddle, completely draped with fabric and armor. Of course, this opulence comes at a price - 26 Farm Cash, to be exact. As with other horses in the game, you'll be able to harvest from your Knight Steed once every three days (if left out of a Horse Stable), and you'll receive 140 coins when doing so.
Meanwhile, the Fairy Pig is also appropriately named, being a lovely peach pig with wings, a crown, and a magic wand that sparkles. You can pick up this cute pig for 18 Farm Cash. If left out of the Pig Pen, you'll be able to harvest from this Fairy Pig once every two days, receiving 30 coins in the process.
It's unknown as of this writing whether this will be an extended theme in FarmVille (consisting of multiple item releases), but these initial animals will be available in the game for the next two weeks. We'll be sure to let you know if more animals join them in the future.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Cafe World Toaster Oven Goals: Everything you need to know
Along with the release of the Toaster Oven in Cafe World comes a series of six missions, that will introduce you to the appliance, as well as a series of new recipes that are only able to cook in the Toaster Oven. These missions are appropriately named Toaster Oven I, II and so on, and are actually some of the most complex goals we've seen in the game to date. This isn't due to the fact that any one particular mission is incredibly difficult, but due to the fact that during these six goals, you will actually unlock two branching trios of missions, that must be completed before you can head back to the Toaster Oven goals.
I know it sounds confusing, but the best way to explain it would be to simply jump in. That being the case, Toaster Oven I asks you to simply place the Toaster Oven in your cafe, which is as good of a place as any to start.
Place your Toaster Oven
Cook 3 Home Style Pot Roast
Earn 1000 coins
This is luckily a case where all you have to do is cook the Home Style Pot Roast, rather than actually waiting for it to cook, which would take a full two days. Once you complete this mission, you'll receive 3,000 coins, 300 Cafe Points, and a Fresh Fruits and Veggies decorative item, which can be found on the 3rd page of Decor in the store.
Toaster Oven II has you completing your Toaster Oven, along with cooking even more Pot Roasts (yes, just cooking - not serving).
Complete your Toaster Oven
Place Bread Rack in Cafe
Cook 5 Home Style Pot Roast
For complete details on how to finish the Toaster Oven in your Cafe, check out our guide. Meanwhile, the Bread Rack is available to purchase by simply clicking on the "Buy It" button which opens the appropriate page in the store. You can purchase the decorative item for 25,000 coins. Finishing this second quest unlocks a new recipe in your cookbook - the Toaster Pastries. You can cook the Toaster Pastries for 1,000 coins, and they will be ready in 30 minutes. You'll have 25 servings to sell for 55 coins each, for a return of 1375 coins in total.
Toaster Oven III sees you putting this new recipe to work, along with actually serving another dish.
Serve 10 Breakfast Sandwiches
Serve 5 Toaster Pastries
Get 5 Jars of Jam
You'll earn the Jars of Jam by clicking on the "Ask" button and sending out requests to your friends to help you. While you're waiting you can cook not only the Toaster Pastries, but also the Breakfast Sandwiches, which take just 3 minutes to cook, but can also only be prepared in the Toaster Oven. They cost 150 coins to cook, and will offer you 10 servings which can be sold for 25 coins each, giving you a return of 250 coins in total. Finishing this quest rewards you with 4,000 coins and 400 Cafe Points.
Toaster Oven IV is the last mission before things become a bit complicated. To finish this mission, you'll need to complete three fairly simple steps.
Cook 6 Toaster Pastries
Place a Lucky Tangerine Tree in your Cafe
Spice 3 Neighbors' Stoves
The Lucky Tangerine Tree is available to purchase for 8,000 coins. You'll need to scroll past all of the new items, into the older decorations to find this one, as they are listed by price. Finishing this quest rewards you with 5,000 coins, 500 Cafe Points, and a "Busy City Setting Window," which is a decorative item that can be found in the Windows section of the store, not the decorative tab.
Here's where things become complicated (you can't say I didn't warn you), but Di's Mingle Network has the info to help clear up any confusion. To complete Toaster Oven V, you'll need to complete three steps:
Serve 8 Bruschettas
Serve 10 Caramel Apples
Get 8 Loaves of Bread
While asking your friends for the bread and serving 10 Caramel Apples (a two hour dish) is fairly self-explanatory, if you try to cook Bruschettas, you'll realize that the dish has yet to be unlocked on your account. This triggers the first of two side-quests that you'll need to complete. Here are the details for unlocking Bruschetta. We've indented them on the page to keep them separate, and you must complete all three tasks to unlock Bruschetta, and then head back to the Toaster Oven quests proper.
Bruschetta I:
Get 5 Tomatoes (ask friends)
Get 5 Cloves of Garlic (ask friends)
Place your Toaster Oven
Rewards: 5,000 coins & 1000 Cafe Points
Bruschetta II:
Get 8 Pieces of Mozzarella (ask friends)
Get 6 Loaves of Bread (ask friends)
Serve 6 Belgian Waffles (a two hour dish)
Rewards: 5,000 coins & 1000 Cafe Points
Bruschetta III:
Serve 10 Breakfast Sandwiches
Serve 10 Pumpkin Pie (a 12-hour dish)
Get 15 Pieces of Mozzarella
Reward: Bruschetta recipe
Once you've unlocked Bruschetta, you'll be able to cook the dish for just 240 coins. It is ready to serve in 5 minutes, and you'll have 10 servings to sell for 35 coins each. This gives you a return of 350 coins total. Once you've unlocked Bruschetta and have completed Toaster Oven V, you'll receive 3,000 coins, 300 Cafe Points, and the Kitchy Tableware decorative item, which is found in the Windows section of the store.
For Toaster Oven VI, the final mission in the current lineup of Toaster Oven quests, you'll need to cook another locked dish, unlocking another trio of side-quests.
Serve 12 Eggplant Sandwiches
Get 15 Eggplants
Get 10 Tomatoes
You'll be able to ask your friends to send you both the Eggplants and Tomatoes, but as the Eggplant Sandwich recipe is locked to you, you'll need to unlock it by completing the following three quests:
Eggplant Sandwich I:
Get 5 Eggplants (ask friends)
Earn 10,000 coins
Get 8 Iceburg Lettuces (ask friends)
Reward: Kitchy Cutting Countertop (decorative item)
Eggplant Sandwich II:
Get 8 Loaves of Bread (ask friends)
Serve 10 Clubhouse Sandwich (an 18-hour dish)
Get 6 Cucumbers (ask friends)
Reward: 5,000 coins & 1000 Cafe Points
Eggplant Sandwich III:
Get 12 Baby Spinach (ask friends)
Get 6 Tomatoes (ask friends)
Spice 5 Neighbors' Stoves
Reward: Eggplant Sandwich recipe
Once you've completed these three quests, you will have unlocked the Eggplant Sandwich recipe proper, which can be cooked for progress back in Toaster Oven VI. Once you can collect the Eggplants and Tomatoes in that job, along with cooking the Eggplant Sandwiches, you'll receive your final reward for this quest set - a Red Rush Lightning Stove. Remember, these Lightning Stoves not only cook food in one-click, but they also cook food faster, so it's great to have more than one on hand at once.
Like I said, these quests are complicated, and definitely won't be easy to complete (unless you have a never-ending supply of Cafe Cash with which to skip steps by unlocking them). However, with a bit of determination and patience, you should be able to receive the awesome prize at the end, and will have unlocked a series of new recipes that you can't find anywhere else. Whether or not you tackle these quests now or later, however, will be up to you.
What do you think of these Toaster Oven goals? Are they too complicated to be enjoyable, or do you like a good challenge?
I know it sounds confusing, but the best way to explain it would be to simply jump in. That being the case, Toaster Oven I asks you to simply place the Toaster Oven in your cafe, which is as good of a place as any to start.
Place your Toaster Oven
Cook 3 Home Style Pot Roast
Earn 1000 coins
This is luckily a case where all you have to do is cook the Home Style Pot Roast, rather than actually waiting for it to cook, which would take a full two days. Once you complete this mission, you'll receive 3,000 coins, 300 Cafe Points, and a Fresh Fruits and Veggies decorative item, which can be found on the 3rd page of Decor in the store.
Toaster Oven II has you completing your Toaster Oven, along with cooking even more Pot Roasts (yes, just cooking - not serving).
Complete your Toaster Oven
Place Bread Rack in Cafe
Cook 5 Home Style Pot Roast
For complete details on how to finish the Toaster Oven in your Cafe, check out our guide. Meanwhile, the Bread Rack is available to purchase by simply clicking on the "Buy It" button which opens the appropriate page in the store. You can purchase the decorative item for 25,000 coins. Finishing this second quest unlocks a new recipe in your cookbook - the Toaster Pastries. You can cook the Toaster Pastries for 1,000 coins, and they will be ready in 30 minutes. You'll have 25 servings to sell for 55 coins each, for a return of 1375 coins in total.
Toaster Oven III sees you putting this new recipe to work, along with actually serving another dish.
Serve 10 Breakfast Sandwiches
Serve 5 Toaster Pastries
Get 5 Jars of Jam
You'll earn the Jars of Jam by clicking on the "Ask" button and sending out requests to your friends to help you. While you're waiting you can cook not only the Toaster Pastries, but also the Breakfast Sandwiches, which take just 3 minutes to cook, but can also only be prepared in the Toaster Oven. They cost 150 coins to cook, and will offer you 10 servings which can be sold for 25 coins each, giving you a return of 250 coins in total. Finishing this quest rewards you with 4,000 coins and 400 Cafe Points.
Toaster Oven IV is the last mission before things become a bit complicated. To finish this mission, you'll need to complete three fairly simple steps.
Cook 6 Toaster Pastries
Place a Lucky Tangerine Tree in your Cafe
Spice 3 Neighbors' Stoves
The Lucky Tangerine Tree is available to purchase for 8,000 coins. You'll need to scroll past all of the new items, into the older decorations to find this one, as they are listed by price. Finishing this quest rewards you with 5,000 coins, 500 Cafe Points, and a "Busy City Setting Window," which is a decorative item that can be found in the Windows section of the store, not the decorative tab.
Here's where things become complicated (you can't say I didn't warn you), but Di's Mingle Network has the info to help clear up any confusion. To complete Toaster Oven V, you'll need to complete three steps:
Serve 8 Bruschettas
Serve 10 Caramel Apples
Get 8 Loaves of Bread
While asking your friends for the bread and serving 10 Caramel Apples (a two hour dish) is fairly self-explanatory, if you try to cook Bruschettas, you'll realize that the dish has yet to be unlocked on your account. This triggers the first of two side-quests that you'll need to complete. Here are the details for unlocking Bruschetta. We've indented them on the page to keep them separate, and you must complete all three tasks to unlock Bruschetta, and then head back to the Toaster Oven quests proper.
Bruschetta I:
Get 5 Tomatoes (ask friends)
Get 5 Cloves of Garlic (ask friends)
Place your Toaster Oven
Rewards: 5,000 coins & 1000 Cafe Points
Bruschetta II:
Get 8 Pieces of Mozzarella (ask friends)
Get 6 Loaves of Bread (ask friends)
Serve 6 Belgian Waffles (a two hour dish)
Rewards: 5,000 coins & 1000 Cafe Points
Bruschetta III:
Serve 10 Breakfast Sandwiches
Serve 10 Pumpkin Pie (a 12-hour dish)
Get 15 Pieces of Mozzarella
Reward: Bruschetta recipe
Once you've unlocked Bruschetta, you'll be able to cook the dish for just 240 coins. It is ready to serve in 5 minutes, and you'll have 10 servings to sell for 35 coins each. This gives you a return of 350 coins total. Once you've unlocked Bruschetta and have completed Toaster Oven V, you'll receive 3,000 coins, 300 Cafe Points, and the Kitchy Tableware decorative item, which is found in the Windows section of the store.
For Toaster Oven VI, the final mission in the current lineup of Toaster Oven quests, you'll need to cook another locked dish, unlocking another trio of side-quests.
Serve 12 Eggplant Sandwiches
Get 15 Eggplants
Get 10 Tomatoes
You'll be able to ask your friends to send you both the Eggplants and Tomatoes, but as the Eggplant Sandwich recipe is locked to you, you'll need to unlock it by completing the following three quests:
Eggplant Sandwich I:
Get 5 Eggplants (ask friends)
Earn 10,000 coins
Get 8 Iceburg Lettuces (ask friends)
Reward: Kitchy Cutting Countertop (decorative item)
Eggplant Sandwich II:
Get 8 Loaves of Bread (ask friends)
Serve 10 Clubhouse Sandwich (an 18-hour dish)
Get 6 Cucumbers (ask friends)
Reward: 5,000 coins & 1000 Cafe Points
Eggplant Sandwich III:
Get 12 Baby Spinach (ask friends)
Get 6 Tomatoes (ask friends)
Spice 5 Neighbors' Stoves
Reward: Eggplant Sandwich recipe
Once you've completed these three quests, you will have unlocked the Eggplant Sandwich recipe proper, which can be cooked for progress back in Toaster Oven VI. Once you can collect the Eggplants and Tomatoes in that job, along with cooking the Eggplant Sandwiches, you'll receive your final reward for this quest set - a Red Rush Lightning Stove. Remember, these Lightning Stoves not only cook food in one-click, but they also cook food faster, so it's great to have more than one on hand at once.
Like I said, these quests are complicated, and definitely won't be easy to complete (unless you have a never-ending supply of Cafe Cash with which to skip steps by unlocking them). However, with a bit of determination and patience, you should be able to receive the awesome prize at the end, and will have unlocked a series of new recipes that you can't find anywhere else. Whether or not you tackle these quests now or later, however, will be up to you.
What do you think of these Toaster Oven goals? Are they too complicated to be enjoyable, or do you like a good challenge?
Game of the Day: Fishdom Spooky Splash
The Game of the Day is sticking with the spooky theme as spring begins. Fishdom Spooky Splash is an under the the sea match-3 adventure. Build the aquarium of your nightmares with Fishdom - Spooky Splash, a spooktacular Match 3 game and splash into the creepy spirit! Use your skills to match three or more eerie items and remove all of the gold tiles from the board.
Click --> play Fishdom Spooky Splash
Important side note: Just by playing The Game of the Day you will be entered into a monthly drawing to win a FlipCam HD. You don't need to do anything else, just play! The more you play, the more chances you have to win. For more information on the Game of Day check out the official Game of the Day hub.
Important side note: Just by playing The Game of the Day you will be entered into a monthly drawing to win a FlipCam HD. You don't need to do anything else, just play! The more you play, the more chances you have to win. For more information on the Game of Day check out the official Game of the Day hub.
Click --> play Fishdom Spooky Splash
Important side note: Just by playing The Game of the Day you will be entered into a monthly drawing to win a FlipCam HD. You don't need to do anything else, just play! The more you play, the more chances you have to win. For more information on the Game of Day check out the official Game of the Day hub.
Important side note: Just by playing The Game of the Day you will be entered into a monthly drawing to win a FlipCam HD. You don't need to do anything else, just play! The more you play, the more chances you have to win. For more information on the Game of Day check out the official Game of the Day hub.
FarmVille: Gray Horse available as free gift for a limited time
Zynga has gotten back into the swing of things, offering a single item on the Free Gifts page in FarmVille that normally isn't available. This time, we see the release of the Gray Horse as a limited time item, which is now available to send to your friends (and receive, if they would be so kind) in the same way as you would handle any other free gift.
Before you send every friend a Gray Horse, however, remember that these horses have been available in the game for some time, either as a lost animal wandering on farms, a reward given when completing the Horse Stable, or even as an animal that might randomly appear in your Animal Trough. If you know of someone who can never have enough horses, by all means send this one along, but for everyone else it might be smarter to wait until this item expires, and you use your daily gift limit on something else.
Will you send a Gray Horse to your friends before the item leaves the free gifts page, or do your friends already have more Gray Horses than they can handle?
Before you send every friend a Gray Horse, however, remember that these horses have been available in the game for some time, either as a lost animal wandering on farms, a reward given when completing the Horse Stable, or even as an animal that might randomly appear in your Animal Trough. If you know of someone who can never have enough horses, by all means send this one along, but for everyone else it might be smarter to wait until this item expires, and you use your daily gift limit on something else.
Will you send a Gray Horse to your friends before the item leaves the free gifts page, or do your friends already have more Gray Horses than they can handle?
CityVille: Energy Bar cap lifted by 15 points
Zynga has made a small (read: downright tiny) concession in the war between CityVille users and themselves over the recent changes to the way Energy is handled in the game. Last week, Zynga changed the Energy Bar so that you couldn't use any purchased or gifted energy (from your gift box) to go over your maximum energy allowed in your energy bar.
They've now changed this stipulation, but again, this is a slight change at best, that likely won't help much. With this new change, you are now allowed to go over your maximum energy amount by 15 points using gifted or purchased energy. That means that you'll be able to use five of your allowed 15 3+ batteries from your inventory in order to give your energy bar a boost, but whether or not this will eliminate the many, many batteries that will now simply be deleted from gift requests due to lack of room remains to be seen.
It's nice that Zynga has added this new cap, but it's clear that in another feedback thread on the forums (which is at seven pages and climbing), this simply hasn't been enough. In fact, it might have even made the situation worse, as users are feeling insulted by such a limited increase. One user, Danielhm, seems to have summed it up best:
They've now changed this stipulation, but again, this is a slight change at best, that likely won't help much. With this new change, you are now allowed to go over your maximum energy amount by 15 points using gifted or purchased energy. That means that you'll be able to use five of your allowed 15 3+ batteries from your inventory in order to give your energy bar a boost, but whether or not this will eliminate the many, many batteries that will now simply be deleted from gift requests due to lack of room remains to be seen.
It's nice that Zynga has added this new cap, but it's clear that in another feedback thread on the forums (which is at seven pages and climbing), this simply hasn't been enough. In fact, it might have even made the situation worse, as users are feeling insulted by such a limited increase. One user, Danielhm, seems to have summed it up best:
FarmVille St. Patrick's Day Trees: Rainbow Tree and Giant Rainbow Tree
A duo of new trees has been released in FarmVille this evening, with these two trees being some of the most whimsical we've seen released in the game to date. These two trees are the Rainbow Tree and the Giant Rainbow Tree, and they come in the current St. Patrick's Day limited edition item theme.
Both of these trees are premium, with the normal Rainbow Tree costing 5 Farm Cash, and the Giant Rainbow Tree going for 10 Farm Cash. Other than the price, these two trees come with the same stats: you'll gain 15 experience points for purchasing either of them, and they can be harvested once every two days for 150 coins. The first star of mastery is available for each tree at 75 harvests.
Remember, the Giant Rainbow Tree will spawn from normal Rainbow Trees that are placed in Orchards, so feel free to save your 10 Farm Cash and simply wait for one to randomly appear on your farm that way - either through your own Mystery Seedlings, or through those claimed from friends' news posts.
Both of these trees will be in the game for the next two weeks.
Check out the rest of our St. Patrick's Day 2011 coverage right here.
Will you purchase either of these trees for your farm? What other fantasy trees would you like to see added to the game?
Both of these trees are premium, with the normal Rainbow Tree costing 5 Farm Cash, and the Giant Rainbow Tree going for 10 Farm Cash. Other than the price, these two trees come with the same stats: you'll gain 15 experience points for purchasing either of them, and they can be harvested once every two days for 150 coins. The first star of mastery is available for each tree at 75 harvests.
Remember, the Giant Rainbow Tree will spawn from normal Rainbow Trees that are placed in Orchards, so feel free to save your 10 Farm Cash and simply wait for one to randomly appear on your farm that way - either through your own Mystery Seedlings, or through those claimed from friends' news posts.
Both of these trees will be in the game for the next two weeks.
Check out the rest of our St. Patrick's Day 2011 coverage right here.
Will you purchase either of these trees for your farm? What other fantasy trees would you like to see added to the game?
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
The Sims Social: Grab free fan gifts with our links roundup
Update: On 9/19 at 1:19 p.m., the Sims Social official fan page announced that the following links will be expiring soon, but didn't specify when. For more freebies, you can also try grabbing the exclusive Dunkin' Donuts Lawn Chair (announced 9/15) and the Pogo Arcade Machine (discovered yesterday).
After a botched attempt at granting free fan freebies for The Sims Social last month, Playfish and EA have begun rolling out free fan gifts again so players can get a second chance.
Also, if you were one of the lucky players who did manage to grab those free gifts the first time around, you're still eligible to grab more! (Hey, you can always sell them to make some Simoleons.)
Anyway, these gifts were released one at a time, spaced over several consecutive days, so to make it easier for you guys, we've rounded up the links in one post.
Here's what you need to do:
Step 1: Log into Facebook.
Step 2: You still have to 'Like' the official fan page in order for these to work.
Step 3: Click on the item you want in the chart below. (Note: Each link will open a New Window.)
Below is a list of what's been given out so far, and when they did it. This page will be updated as the freebies continue.
Liebefunkenmann SS-10 Keyboard (Sept. 6)
CharKoohl Black BBQ (Sept. 7)
Still Life Easel (Sept. 8)
Basix Bookshelves (Sept. 9)
Neukum Classic Guitar (Sept. 10)
Llamark Chillblast Fall (Sept. 11)
PerpetuLux-Sable (Sept. 12)
Rub-A-Dub-Tub (Sept. 13)
Pompeii Fireplace (Sept. 14)
Which is your favorite free gift? Did you know that aside from looking pretty, some of these are important to completing certain missions in the game?
After a botched attempt at granting free fan freebies for The Sims Social last month, Playfish and EA have begun rolling out free fan gifts again so players can get a second chance.
Also, if you were one of the lucky players who did manage to grab those free gifts the first time around, you're still eligible to grab more! (Hey, you can always sell them to make some Simoleons.)
Anyway, these gifts were released one at a time, spaced over several consecutive days, so to make it easier for you guys, we've rounded up the links in one post.
Here's what you need to do:
Step 1: Log into Facebook.
Step 2: You still have to 'Like' the official fan page in order for these to work.
Step 3: Click on the item you want in the chart below. (Note: Each link will open a New Window.)
Below is a list of what's been given out so far, and when they did it. This page will be updated as the freebies continue.
Liebefunkenmann SS-10 Keyboard (Sept. 6)
CharKoohl Black BBQ (Sept. 7)
Still Life Easel (Sept. 8)
Basix Bookshelves (Sept. 9)
Neukum Classic Guitar (Sept. 10)
Llamark Chillblast Fall (Sept. 11)
PerpetuLux-Sable (Sept. 12)
Rub-A-Dub-Tub (Sept. 13)
Pompeii Fireplace (Sept. 14)
Which is your favorite free gift? Did you know that aside from looking pretty, some of these are important to completing certain missions in the game?
Dunkin' Donuts pushes its brand with a free Sims Social Lawn Chair
Dunkin' Donuts strikes again in The Sims Social. On top of all the free fan gifts from Playfish and EA rolling out daily on the game's official fan page, the American coffee-and-donuts chain has chipped in for the first Sims Social-branded virtual item in the form of an exclusive Dunkin' Donuts Lawn Chair.
To get the chair, you've got to 'like' the official Dunkin' Donuts Facebook page here and then head over to the section of the page titled "DD & The Sims Social".
Owning the lawn chair adds 250 points to your house value, which is a modest, but no small amount. It also sells for 15 Simoleons, which is chump change, but hey, free furniture! And lastly, the chair comes with a bit of extra animation.
Just click on the chair, and your Sim will get the option to "Sit" or "Drink Dunkin' Donuts Coffee". So kick back, and watch your Sim lie down on the chair to sip from a steamy cup.
Dunkin Donuts Sims Social Lawn Chair
Do you enjoy branded goods in games? Do you think it makes them more realistic?
To get the chair, you've got to 'like' the official Dunkin' Donuts Facebook page here and then head over to the section of the page titled "DD & The Sims Social".
Owning the lawn chair adds 250 points to your house value, which is a modest, but no small amount. It also sells for 15 Simoleons, which is chump change, but hey, free furniture! And lastly, the chair comes with a bit of extra animation.
Just click on the chair, and your Sim will get the option to "Sit" or "Drink Dunkin' Donuts Coffee". So kick back, and watch your Sim lie down on the chair to sip from a steamy cup.
Dunkin Donuts Sims Social Lawn Chair
Do you enjoy branded goods in games? Do you think it makes them more realistic?
Playfish founder: We have redefined social games with The Sims Social
The Sims Social is just an arm's reach from being the number one game on Facebook, so this kind of logic is expected. In an interview with MCV, Playfish founder and co-GM Kristian Segerstrale said, "In bringing one of EA's most popular game franchises to Facebook, Playfish and The Sims team have redefined the meaning of social in video games."
While The Sims Social certainly treads some new ground in how Facebook gamers interact, it's important to remember to chalk up much of the game's runaway success to the brand it's attached to. In just over a month since its release, The Sims Social has skyrocketed to become the second most popular Facebook game to date in both daily and monthly players, AppData reports.
Just last week, EA's (which owns Playfish) proverbial secret weapon ousted Zynga's iconic and ubiquitous FarmVille in daily players, but now the game has even more monthly players than the household name farming simulator with over 43.8 million and counting. The Sims Social has dipped a bit in daily players, but is just about 2.9 million fans away from beating out the might CityVille as the most played Facebook game daily.
"By combining Playfish's expertise and passion for social play with the deep creative heritage of The Sims franchise and the insights of its creators, we feel we've brought something very special to life – and tens of millions of players around the world have responded with extraordinary enthusiasm over the last few weeks," Segerstrale said to MCV.
The founder went on to say that new features to The Sims Social will land in the coming months. And we're sure that if EA wants to host the top Facebook game overall, that those features will have to be even more groundbreaking than before. How's about in-game marriages, eh? (Because we all know how well that's worked elsewhere.)
Have you been a part of The Sims Social craze on Facebook? Do you think it's incredible growth is due to its reportedly groundbreaking social features, or is more thanks to its name (it could always be both)?
While The Sims Social certainly treads some new ground in how Facebook gamers interact, it's important to remember to chalk up much of the game's runaway success to the brand it's attached to. In just over a month since its release, The Sims Social has skyrocketed to become the second most popular Facebook game to date in both daily and monthly players, AppData reports.
Just last week, EA's (which owns Playfish) proverbial secret weapon ousted Zynga's iconic and ubiquitous FarmVille in daily players, but now the game has even more monthly players than the household name farming simulator with over 43.8 million and counting. The Sims Social has dipped a bit in daily players, but is just about 2.9 million fans away from beating out the might CityVille as the most played Facebook game daily.
"By combining Playfish's expertise and passion for social play with the deep creative heritage of The Sims franchise and the insights of its creators, we feel we've brought something very special to life – and tens of millions of players around the world have responded with extraordinary enthusiasm over the last few weeks," Segerstrale said to MCV.
The founder went on to say that new features to The Sims Social will land in the coming months. And we're sure that if EA wants to host the top Facebook game overall, that those features will have to be even more groundbreaking than before. How's about in-game marriages, eh? (Because we all know how well that's worked elsewhere.)
Have you been a part of The Sims Social craze on Facebook? Do you think it's incredible growth is due to its reportedly groundbreaking social features, or is more thanks to its name (it could always be both)?
Sims Social survey lets you sound off on item prices, favorite features and more
It's that time folks - time to let your collective voices be heard! EA wants to know how much fun (or not) you're having with the Sims Social on Facebook, and they've released a fairly long survey to help you tell them. This survey contains all sorts of questions, ranging from the basics of how often you play the game, to allowing you to rate your opinion on item pricing (are they too cheap? too expensive?) and what some of your favorite features are in the game.
Of course, the point of all of this is to gather enough opinions to actually sway the way the game develops in the future. Hopefully, with questions dealing with how much we like to "build" items with parts (bookcases, double beds, etc.), and the option to say that you don't like it at all, we may actually see a lessening in those kinds of items, if enough users agree. You can even rank various gameplay features (decorating your house, visiting friends, customizing your Sim, etc.) in the order that you like them. In this way, perhaps we'll see more focus being placed on the most (overall) liked feature, and you'll be able to say you helped to make that happen.
Unfortunately, this isn't the kind of survey that will allow you to give your opinion on future item sets, but there are plenty of blank text boxes for you to say exactly what you want to the developers in a place that you know they'll see it. Again, this survey is prety lengthy (when compared to other Facebook game surveys anyway), so you'll want to make sure you have around 5-10 minutes to set aside to take it.
We've taken this survey as well, and if we start to notice any gameplay changes arising because of options listed here, we'll make sure to let you know. In the meantime, head over to this link right here to take the survey for yourself.
Of course, the point of all of this is to gather enough opinions to actually sway the way the game develops in the future. Hopefully, with questions dealing with how much we like to "build" items with parts (bookcases, double beds, etc.), and the option to say that you don't like it at all, we may actually see a lessening in those kinds of items, if enough users agree. You can even rank various gameplay features (decorating your house, visiting friends, customizing your Sim, etc.) in the order that you like them. In this way, perhaps we'll see more focus being placed on the most (overall) liked feature, and you'll be able to say you helped to make that happen.
Unfortunately, this isn't the kind of survey that will allow you to give your opinion on future item sets, but there are plenty of blank text boxes for you to say exactly what you want to the developers in a place that you know they'll see it. Again, this survey is prety lengthy (when compared to other Facebook game surveys anyway), so you'll want to make sure you have around 5-10 minutes to set aside to take it.
We've taken this survey as well, and if we start to notice any gameplay changes arising because of options listed here, we'll make sure to let you know. In the meantime, head over to this link right here to take the survey for yourself.
The Sims Social: Country meets chic with Country Kitchen items
Is it just me, or is decorating our houses one of the best things to do in the Sims Social? I know I could personally spend plenty of time rearranging furniture in each room, only to ripe it all out and start over again, and to help us do that with even more themes is a new Country Kitchen theme that has launched in the game this week. These country kitchen items bring in all sorts of shades of brown and ivory, and it's one of the most complete themes we've seen released in the game yet. Here's a rundown of what to look out for in the store to make this theme complete in your own home.
Plate Collection
Costs: 4 SimCash
Value: $600
Perfecto Fruitbowl
Costs: 4 SimCash
Value $600
Vintage Wines
Costs: 6 SimCash
Value: $900
RuralU Deluxe C (Kitchen Counter Piece)
Costs: 10 SimCash
Value: $1500
RuralU Deluxe (Kitchen Counter Piece)
Costs: 12 SimCash
Value: $1750
Antiquitate Deco (Wall Sconce)
Costs: 3 SimCash
Value: $450
19th Century Lamp
Costs: 10 SimCash
Value: $1500
19th Century Pot (Flowers)
Costs: 19 SimCash
Value: $2800
Antiquitate Oil
Costs: 325 Social Points
Value: $700
Basinuate Marble (Sink)
Costs: 12 SimCash
Value: 1750
Clean Stat: 5
FrancoFaux Chaise (Buildable item)
Costs: 225 Social Points
Value: $500
Cereal Shelf
Costs: 250 Social Points
Value: $550
19th Century Mat
Costs: 19 SimCash
Value: $2800
Clox Fruitful
Costs: 350 Social Points
Value: $800
RuralU Trove (Wall Cabinet Piece)
Costs: 600 Social Points
Value: $1450
RuralU Charm (Wall Cabinet Piece)
Costs: 800 Social Points
Value: $2050
FrancoFaux Tableau (Buildable item)
Costs: 800 Social Points
Value: $2050
RuralU Latch (Hutch - Buildable item)
Costs: 1100 Social Points
Value: $3100
G King Counter (Center Island - Buildable item)
Costs: 15,000 Social Points
Value: $21,250
Happiness Stat: 3
Normanity Chair (Living Room Furniture - Buildable item)
Costs: 450 Social Points
Value: $1050
FrancoFaux Cafe (Living Room Furniture - Buildable item)
Costs: 650 Social Points
Value: $1600
Normanity Sofa (Living Room Furniture - Buildable item)
Costs: 700 Social Points
Value: $1750
Sleep Stat: 3
In addition to all of these items, there's also a Cooking Skill vent hood called the SuxDelux that's available to users that have reached a Cooking Skill of 40 or higher. This item has a value of $3650.
In the Build Menu, you can also find a selection of new windows in the same matching dark wood color, ranging in price from 750 coins for the RealOak 2 Pane to 6,000 coins for the RealOak 5 Pane. If you want the window in the picture above, with the quaint ivory curtains, that will set you back a whopping 39 SimCash. Along with this, there are five new wallpapers and three new floor tiles to round out the theme.
There's no listed time limit on any of these items, so if you don't have enough Social Points or SimCash available to buy them now, you should be able to save up and purchase them well into the future. Still, if you want to get your hands on these items while they're fresh, I really couldn't blame you. I just hope your kitchen is big enough to hold them all!
[Final Image Credit: Playfish/EA]
What do you think of these Country Kitchen items? Are you more of a modern fan, or do you like country / southwestern items?
Plate Collection
Costs: 4 SimCash
Value: $600
Perfecto Fruitbowl
Costs: 4 SimCash
Value $600
Vintage Wines
Costs: 6 SimCash
Value: $900
RuralU Deluxe C (Kitchen Counter Piece)
Costs: 10 SimCash
Value: $1500
RuralU Deluxe (Kitchen Counter Piece)
Costs: 12 SimCash
Value: $1750
Antiquitate Deco (Wall Sconce)
Costs: 3 SimCash
Value: $450
19th Century Lamp
Costs: 10 SimCash
Value: $1500
19th Century Pot (Flowers)
Costs: 19 SimCash
Value: $2800
Antiquitate Oil
Costs: 325 Social Points
Value: $700
Basinuate Marble (Sink)
Costs: 12 SimCash
Value: 1750
Clean Stat: 5
FrancoFaux Chaise (Buildable item)
Costs: 225 Social Points
Value: $500
Cereal Shelf
Costs: 250 Social Points
Value: $550
19th Century Mat
Costs: 19 SimCash
Value: $2800
Clox Fruitful
Costs: 350 Social Points
Value: $800
RuralU Trove (Wall Cabinet Piece)
Costs: 600 Social Points
Value: $1450
RuralU Charm (Wall Cabinet Piece)
Costs: 800 Social Points
Value: $2050
FrancoFaux Tableau (Buildable item)
Costs: 800 Social Points
Value: $2050
RuralU Latch (Hutch - Buildable item)
Costs: 1100 Social Points
Value: $3100
G King Counter (Center Island - Buildable item)
Costs: 15,000 Social Points
Value: $21,250
Happiness Stat: 3
Normanity Chair (Living Room Furniture - Buildable item)
Costs: 450 Social Points
Value: $1050
FrancoFaux Cafe (Living Room Furniture - Buildable item)
Costs: 650 Social Points
Value: $1600
Normanity Sofa (Living Room Furniture - Buildable item)
Costs: 700 Social Points
Value: $1750
Sleep Stat: 3
In addition to all of these items, there's also a Cooking Skill vent hood called the SuxDelux that's available to users that have reached a Cooking Skill of 40 or higher. This item has a value of $3650.
In the Build Menu, you can also find a selection of new windows in the same matching dark wood color, ranging in price from 750 coins for the RealOak 2 Pane to 6,000 coins for the RealOak 5 Pane. If you want the window in the picture above, with the quaint ivory curtains, that will set you back a whopping 39 SimCash. Along with this, there are five new wallpapers and three new floor tiles to round out the theme.
There's no listed time limit on any of these items, so if you don't have enough Social Points or SimCash available to buy them now, you should be able to save up and purchase them well into the future. Still, if you want to get your hands on these items while they're fresh, I really couldn't blame you. I just hope your kitchen is big enough to hold them all!
[Final Image Credit: Playfish/EA]
What do you think of these Country Kitchen items? Are you more of a modern fan, or do you like country / southwestern items?
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