FarmVille Groovy Cow Adoptable!

farmville groovy cow
A new lost, roaming animal, the Groovy Cow has made its way to FarmVille and should be roaming onto a farm near you.

The Groovy Cow is an adoptable animal, meaning that if you find one on your farm you cannot keep it for yourself, but you can choose to share it with your FarmVille neighbors via FaceBook newsfeed and give them the opportunity to adopt. farmville groovy cow

Her story is that while seemingly dazed and confused she got lost and can't remember where she lives! Maybe this Groovy Cow was under the influence, what do you think?

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

YoVille: New Movie-Studio at Realtors and Movie Sets in Furniture Store

Hollywood has arrived at YoVille , you can now buy a Movie studio for 29 YoCash at the realtors and start directing Movies with your friends. Then get over to the furniture store and start buying all these fantastic items to get your studio looking like a Movie set. Hollywood Movie Lights 4 YoCash, Hollywood Camera 12 YoCash, Hollywood Director Chair 4 YoCash and many more. You can create a Classic Romance, Western Classic or Horror Movie for 3,895 Coins with these back drops, they look fantastic. Happy Shopping!

Thanks Spiralda for the info and pics.
yoville hollywood movie sets
yoville hollywood movie sets yoville hollywood movie sets yoville hollywood movie sets yoville hollywood movie sets yoville hollywood movie sets yoville hollywood movie sets yoville hollywood movie sets yoville hollywood movie sets
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.

FarmVille Crafting Cottage Preview!

farmville crafting cottages
Tonight, as promised by Lexilicious via official FarmVille Podcast, more information was released about the upcoming Crafting Cottage feature. For participating in this Crafting Cottage you will receive an exclusive limited edition prize as a reward, the Chef Gnome (Bakery), the Bacchus Gnome (Winery), or Spa Gnome (Spa). Each Gnome coordinates with the Crafting Cottage you select.
farmville gnomes
The Crafting Cottages are still "Coming Soon" status, but if you participate in the Preview you will be able to pick which Crafting Cottage you want. There are three choices: The Bakery, the Winery, and the Spa.

    Bakery: Uses fruit and vegetable bushels to make pies and cakes.
    Winery: Users fruit and grain bushels to make wine and juices.
    Spa: Uses flowers and fruit bushels to make perfume and candles.

farmville winery     farmville winery     farmville winery
The Crafting Cottages will work with the Farmer's Market feature, specifically bushels, in which you will use to create specialized crafting goods depending on which Crafting Cottage you own. These specialized crafting goods will give your farmer an energy boost or "super-charge" your farmer.

According to the preview pictures, there are a few recipes that list the ingredients needed (bushels) to create the specialized crafting good. For example, the Bakery Crafting Cottage has a recipe for Strawberry Shortcake which requires Strawberry and Wheat bushels to make.

Crafting Building, Recipes, and Ingredients:

Bakery Crafting Building

    Pumpkin Bread – Pumpkin and Wheat Bushels
    Strawberry Shortcake- Strawberry and Wheat Bushels
    Spicy Muffins – Carrots, Peppers, and Ghost Chili
    Pattypan Tart – Pattypan Squash, Onion, and Rice

farmvile bakery

Winery Crafting Building

    Sweet Sake – Rice and Cranberries
    White Sangria- White Grapes, Sugar Cane, and Strawberries
    Table Wine – Grapes and White Grapes
    Fruit Wine – Raspberries, Blueberries, and Sugar Cane

farmville winery

Spa Craft Building

    Fresh Sachet – Pumpkins, Cranberries, and Sunflowers
    Floral Perfume – Raspberries and Morning Glory
    Soothing Herbal Lotion – Aloe Vera and Green Tea
    Relaxation Oil – Blueberries and Morning Glory

farmville spa

What do you think about this upcoming feature to FarmVille? Which Crafting Building is your favorite?

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille for iPhone & iPod Touch Official Demo

farmville iphone
Here is an official demo video of FarmVille native iPhone & iPod Touch App by Zynga as demonstrated at Apple's World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2010. FarmVille for iPhone is said to be released by end of June 2010 just in time to celebrate FarmVille's one year anniversary, as announced by Zynga CEO, Mark Pincus.

Continue reading to check it out.


Highlights of FarmVille for iPhone

    You will be using your same existing FarmVille farm, now accessible through your iPhone.
    You will have access to the same friends and neighbors as on FaceBook.
    There are "push" notifications that will alert you when your crops are ready to be harvested.
    Improved plowing, seeding, and harvesting functions that will allow you to work with multiple plots at the same time (more than even the Hot Rod tractor).
    Exclusive animal for FarmVille on iPhone only is the Snow Leopard animal.


This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

Breaking News! Zynga's FrontierVille arrives on Facebook

FrontierVille rides into town on today, courtesy of FarmVille creator Zynga. The new western themed Facebook game is best described by Zynga's Chief Game Designer Brian Reynolds, who calls it "Oregon Trail meets Little House on the Prairie meets FarmVille."

The goal of the game is to build your own frontier town, while growing your family and keeping the wilderness at bay. The game begins with a covered wagon and a plot of land, and from there you plant and harvest crops, custom create a log cabin, take on a spouse and make frontier babies (it's all very G-rated, don't worry). You'll be able to put the entire family to work, taking on quests and keeping snakes, bears and groundhogs from treading on your property.

frontierville on facebook

FrontierVille's social elements revolve around helping neighbors with their frontier towns, hiring friends to get jobs done quickly. The game also has a built-in reputation system -- the more favors you do, the better your reputation -- which in turn will make you more useful to friends who hire you for work.

Like other FarmVille and other Zynga games, FrontierVille will be updated with expansions and new items regularly and will be powered by a microtransaction system, which will allow you to use real-life cash to buy in-game currency which can then be used for special power-ups or premium virtual items.

Expectations at Zynga are big for this new game. EReynolds, who we interviewed about FrontierVille, wouldn't give us any specific numbers they're trying to meet, he says it would be a good thing if the game beat Zynga's fastest-growing game, Treasure Isle, which attracted 5 million users in one week. Our full interview with Reynolds will be coming shortly.

FrontierVille is the first social game for the video game vet , best known for creating multi-million dollar strategy games such as Civilization II and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Even though other Facebook games have been built by video game alums, it will be interesting to see how Reynold's experience will make this wild west game stand out from the pack.

Play FrontierVille on Facebook now > frontierville on facebookfrontierville on facebook frontierville on facebook

FrontierVille on Facebook: Think this is a FarmVille-killer?

Is FarmVille Getting Ready for 26x26 Expansion?

FarmVille Zoomed Out Farm
Earlier this week FarmVille's official Twitter page released an expansion teaser with a tiny picture of 26×26 Expansion.

After today's updates some FarmVille Freaks like FarmVille Freak Sheri are noticing that when viewing their farms "zoomed out" the area surrounding their farm border seems a little larger.

    "Hiya FarmGoddess – I noticed tonight that there is a dramatic change to my farm screen size – the margin around my farm is usually only about 1/2″ but it is now almost a full inch larger all around. I always have my IE zoom at 150%. I wonder if this might relate to expansion.

    Two things happened today – I got the pregnant pig and I got my groovy cows back – otherwise, nothing has changed since this morning that might have affected the screen.

    Hope I'm right about the potential for an expansion.

    Thanks!
    - FarmVille Freak Sheri"

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille Unreleased Swiss Cabin, Swiss Cottage, Swiss Evergreen, Firewood, & Swiss Alps Mountains

FarmVille Unreleased Swiss Cabin, Swiss Cottage, Swiss Evergreen, Firewood, & Swiss Alps Mountains
These FarmVille Unreleased items will most likely be making it to the market under the Swiss Alps theme. They might have made it in the past updates if it wasn't for all the glitches FarmVille was having!

Note: Unreleased items have no official release date or guarantee that they will make it to the FarmVille Market.

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.


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FarmVille & Mafia Wars Cross Promotion: Mystery Fuel Box

FarmVille Mafia Wars Complete Jobs
Thank you to FarmVille Freak J-Chaves for sending us these screenshots of the FarmVille Mafia Wars Mystery Fuel Box!

It looks like there will be another upcoming cross-promotion involving FarmVille and Mafia Wars. As a perk for playing Mafia Wars you can gain extra fuel for FarmVille. For example, leveling up in Mafia Wars will get you a Mafia Wars Mystery Box in which you will have the opportunity to win more free fuel!

This promotion is now available and "live"!

Will you participate in this FarmVille and Mafia Wars cross-promotion? Is the free fuel perk enough to spark you interest in Mafia Wars again?
FarmVille Mafia Wars
FarmVille: Low on Fuel? Gain a level in Mafia Wars and get a Mystery Fuel boxMafia Wars Mystery Fuel BoxLarge Can of Fuel in Mafia Wars Mystery Fuel Box
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.


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FarmVille Unreleased Alpine Rose Crop, Alpine Rose Mastery Sign, Moss Rock

FarmVille Alpine Rose, Mastery Sign, Moss Rock
Thank you to FarmVille Freak Rainexel for finding these unreleased FarmVille Alpine Rose Crop, Alpine Rose Mastery Sign, & Moss Rock!

Note: Unreleased items have no official release date or guarantee that they will make it to the FarmVille Market.

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille Simmental Calf released for adoption only

FarmVille Simmental Cow and Calves
With the release of the Simmental Cow, a limited edition Swiss themed animal, of course there is a new Simmental Calf in FarmVille.
FarmVille Adopt Simmental Calf
The Simmental Calf is adoptable only, you cannot purchase it in the FarmVille Market. Simmental Cows can be placed in the Dairy Barn for a chance at producing a Simmental Calf.

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille unreleased animals: Black Spotted Stallion, Persian Cat, Mock Turtle

Since FarmVille is releasing new items every day this week in the Mystery Game, you can expect to see a lot of unreleased animal posts on Games.com - The Blog! over the next few days. Here is the latest batch of unreleased animals, courtesy of FarmVille Freak, including an white, fluffy Persian cat and adorable turtle.

               
Mock Turtle     Persian Cat     Belted Duck     Brown Spotted Stallion     Black Spotted Stallion

I'm sure these will show up as Mystery Game animal prizes in the next few days. Stay tuned.

Have you been playing the Mystery Game in FarmVille? What prizes did you win?

Tiki Resort wheel: Spin to win a rare item

Tiki Resort has introduced a new wheel in the game -- and you can spin to win a rare item. Before you go getting all excited -- there's a catch. You have to pay 49 Facebook Credits (roughly $5) to have the privelege giving this thing a turn. One of the items you can win is the New Pirate Wonder, but you have to spin enough to collect the three pieces required to build it -- and that could get extra pricey, extra fast.

Do you think $5 is too much to pay to spin the new Tiki Resort wheel?

Zoom Zoom! Cars coming soon to YoVille

YoVille Cars
YoVille have just announced on their official blog that cars will be coming soon to the game. According to the post, players will be able to drive these cars around town and anywhere in YoVille. While the post didn't give us too much gritty information, they're promising that the full details will be coming along soon and we're find out exactly how these cars will work.

So far, players are begging for coin car options and hoping that not all the cars will require YoCash in order to enjoy. We're not so sure - cars seem like a big addition to YoVille and are likely a perfect candidate for a premium item. Time will tell though, and we'll be sure to have all the details on YoVille cars as soon as they're available.

What do you think about the idea of cars in YoVille? Which model of car are you hoping for?

Social City Spin Raffle gives out waterpark set

The Social City raffle is a unique experience, giving you the choice to spin to collect all of the parts of a set. Each spin costs 8 City Bucks, and guarantees you a prize. There are currently eight different pieces of a water park available, and once all eight of these items have been collected - the final prize will be unlocked and given out to the player.

This can definitely add up, being 8 City Bucks per spin. There is also an element of randomness, because you are not guaranteed to get a piece of water park that you haven't already received. This can be very frustrating and expensive. However, once you have all of the pieces, the opportunity is there to create a beautiful and large water park in your city.

Have you played the Social City raffle? How many waterpark pieces do you have?

Happy Pets is seeing double with new Pet Replicator

Happy Pets Pet Replicator
Happy Pets has just released an expensive new item, the Pet Replicator. This item will allow players to clone any one of their pets, and will deliver the pet to your gift box after the duplication has occurred. This feature will cost you a hefty 120 Facebook Credits though, so don't expect to start cloning all of your pets left and right. Do you have a special pet that was limited time and you wish you had more? Did you buy a pet from the Pet Trader and think he or she wants a friend that looks like them? Here is your chance.

The Pet Replicator only has one use total, and gives you 240 XP when used. You can also send the Pet Replicator to a friend if you want to give an expensive gift. This feature is long overdue, but we have a bit of sticker shock at the price.

What do you think? Is 120 Facebook Credits too much to spend to clone a Happy Pets pet? Tell us!

FrontierVille: Complete the 'Hot Wheels!' Goal for a Deluxe Buggy!

A new goal appeared in FrontierVille (as if building your own Horseshoe Pit wasn't enough) this weekend titled "Hot Wheels!" that asks players to complete three simple requirements to get the Deluxe Buggy. Honestly, the item is simply the original Black Buggy with a new name, but what's in a name anyway?

The original cost of 55 Horseshoes for the Black Buggy compared to zero for a Deluxe Buggy is a trade we would take any day. Join us behind the break for a short guide on how to accomplish this not-so-daunting task.
FrontierVille Hot Wheels Mission

This goal has three requirements, two of which aren't necessarily difficult, but will take a little while to complete:


    Collect Ten Saddle Soap (Unlock for 20 Horseshoes)
    Collect Ten Elbow Grease (Unlock for 20 Horseshoes)
    Clear Five Grasses




While it appears last on this list, the simplest requirement here is clearly the grasses, so just get that out of the way first. The two other goals require you to ask your friends to gift the items to you. But don't worry about trying to sell them on the idea, a free lunch is in it for them if they decide to lend a hand. Also, remember to respond to your friends' requests for these gifts, because doing so will net you one of the items too.
FrontierVille Hot Wheels Mission Complete

After you've complete the three requirements, you'll find yourself with a new whip and 100 more experience points. Not too shabby for an item that used to cost quite a lot of Horseshoes. Don't pass up on this chance to have the ride of your dreams, at least until the Jalopy shows up. Hey, it's only a matter of time!

FarmVille Unreleased Rainbow Chicken, German Tree, German Barn Stage 1, Barn Stage 2, & Barn Stage 3

Could FarmVille soon be celebrating Octoberfest, with an upcoming German theme? It looks like some of these items would fit in perfectly on a German-themed farm.

Thank you to FarmVille Freak Teresa for finding these unreleased FarmVille Rainbow Chicken, German Tree, German Barn Stage 1, Barn Stage 2, & Barn Stage 3 items!

Note: Unreleased items have no official release date or guarantee that they will make it in-game.

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

Cafe World welcomes you to the Far East with the Zen Garden set

Cafe World Japanese Set
A massive new set of items is available to spruce up your fine establishment in Cafe World: the Zen Garden set. Zynga added a slew of decorations like a arcade games and a karaoke as well as animated items including sumo wrestlers, ninjas and samurai.

To turn your cafe into the best sushi bar or noodle house in town, continue reading for a list of what's available.
Cafe World Japanese Set
Unfortunately, most of these items--especially those that are animated--cost sometimes exorbitant amounts of Cafe Cash with only three items available for an insane amount of coins. Take a look at what you'll be saving up for below:

Decorations:


    Indoor Zen Garden (18 Cafe Cash)
    Karaoke Stage (20 Cafe Cash)
    Arcade Games (22 Cafe Cash)
    Sword Display (5 Cafe Cash)
    Bamboo Fountain (5 Cafe Cash)
    Armor Display (7 Cafe Cash)
    Mystical Creature (13 Cafe Cash)
    Ninja (16 Cafe Cash)
    Sumo Wrestler (16 Cafe Cash)
    Japanese Food Display (40,000 coins)
    Tea Booth (50,000 coins)
    Taiko Drum (60,000 coins)



Furniture and Furnishings:


    Japanese Table (2 Cafe Cash)
    Japanese Chair (2 Cafe Cash)
    Japanese Door (2 Cafe Cash)
    Ocean Painting (14 Cafe Cash)
    Woman Scroll Painting (6 Cafe Cash)
    Bird Scroll Painting (6 Cafe Cash)
    Slide Door Wall (1 Cafe Cash)



Functional Items:


    Helmet Stove (6 Cafe Cash)
    Japanese Counter (3 Cafe Cash)



Outdoor Items:


    Sakura Tree (5 Cafe Cah)
    Zen Garden (18 Cafe Cash)



And that's everything you'll need to make your cafe into the next booming sushi bar. However, with an immense price tag of 187 Cafe Cash for the complete set, you're going to be saving for a long time to launch the Japanese fusion restaurant of your dreams. In the meantime, work on that fabled Grand Master Chef who should help get you that cash even faster.

Happy Pets: Mini Orange Cream and Giant Azure dinos are going extinct soon

Happy Pets Mini Orange Cream and Azure Dinos
Happy Pets players who have unlocked the Dino Den can now purchase four new colorful dino pets for 60 Facebook Credits each ($6 USD): Mini Orange Cream Triceratops, Mini Orange Cream T-Rex, Giant Azure Triceratops, and Giant Azure T-Rex.

But these dinos won't be staying around for long. Only 91 Mini Orange Cream Triceratops are left, and the game most likely started with more that seven hundred. And with most of the current dino offerings sporting a drab monochromatic blend, the sharp color contrasts of these new ones are a pretty sight. Two different sizes are also available -- Mini and Giant. Mini pets are 70% of the normal size for pets, while Giants are 180% the normal size.

Marvel 'digital collectible game' coming to Facebook, iPhone

We've heard talk about a Facebook game set in the Marvel Universe*, and today Marvel spills more details on the unnamed game. It will be a 'digital collectible game" that features all of the Marvel characters (even Marrow?). And, it will be available on both Facebook and iPhone.

Marvel has partnered with Washington-based social games start up Smith and Tinker to create these two games. Smith and Tinker co-founder Jordan Weisman says the game will include Marvel characters for players to collect and battle on both their computers or mobile devices. With films based on both Thor and Captain America set to release next year, a Marvel Facebook game couldn't be more timely.

We find it odd, however, that Smith and Tinker was hired to make this game, considering Disney owns both Marvel and social game developer Playdom. In fact, last month, *Disney CEO Robert Iger said that Playdom was working a a game that will feature 'Marvel IP.' Are there two games? Or, was this too much for Playdom to take on?

Mafia Wars: Atlantic City coming soon for mobile devices only

There will soon be a new location for Mafia Wars players to wreak havoc, Atlantic City, according to a leak caught by Mafia Wars Maniac. However, the new location will only be a city available to mobile phones--not to be confused with Zynga's Mafia Wars game for iPhone, which oddly has little to no connection with the Facebook game.

Atlantic City can only be accessed by going to m.mafiawars.com from a web browser on a mobile device, but the content is currently in beta testing and no launch date has been announced. Fortunately, the leaked promo page in Mafia Wars gives a great amount of detail as to what we'll be enjoying in Atlantic City.

Players Level 18 and above will be able to tackle this city using the same stats and items from their Facebook profile (finally!) as well as use their Las Vegas currency to complete the jobs. There will be an exclusive daily bonus for playing on your mobile device accompanied by two impressive reward items for mastering the location: the Automatic .22 with 105 Attack and 98 Defense and the Bullet 44 OET vehicle (99 Attack, 116 Defense). Bookmark the website on your mobile browser and stay tuned here for when Atlantic City finally goes live.

Microsoft could buy its way into social games in 2011, analysts say

The year 2011might involve even more acquisitions in social gaming from more companies than just Zynga, with potential buyers like Microsoft and media giant Viacom expected by analysts to be considering serious purchases, Reuters said. Because advertising isn't exactly working out this decade, big media and tech companies will look to virtual goods to stay afloat, according to analysts' predictions.

"The truth is everybody is talking to everybody, every potential buyer is probably talking to just about every social game company out there," said principal with Norwest Venture Partners Tim Chang, whose firm invested in Playdom.

Apparently Microsoft could be the next big customer, looking to enhance its Xbox Live platform, industry executives said. With Zynga's FarmVille coming to Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, they just might be right. However, Zynga is pretty much off the table at this point with an estimated worth of over $5 billion, but that doesn't mean smaller companies couldn't fill that void.

Find out who could be gobbled up next after the break.
Money Handling
"With Playfish and Playdom gone, Zynga being unbuyable, we're on the downside of that slope," said Don Rainey, a partner at Grotech Ventures. "We're through the big moves and into the small moves."

What about 'small move' companies like CrowdStar or Kabam? While CrowdStar chairman Peter Relman reportedly doesn't feel the pressure to sell, Microsoft could probably offer him something enticing. Who knows, Microsoft could be looking to promote the next phase of its Halo franchise through social gaming. All the cool kids are doing it. A Microsoft-owned CrowdStar could become the Facebook brand manager for Microsoft Games Studio much like Playfish is for Electronic Arts.

While consolidation through buyouts is certainly good for business, this could hurt the creative potential of social games studios to make gripping games with fresh ideas. There's nothing like the pressure to create a brand seller to stunt innovation. Hey, at least according to analysts, social games could be worth over $2 billion come next year.

Mobile social games are cooler than Sunday Night Football

And that's just on the Flurry network for iPhone. According to data compiled by Nielsen and Flurry, a social network for iPhone games and applications, more people played social games on their iPhone than those who watched Sunday Night Football on NBC.

When television is competing with mobile social games for viewers, you know this industry is more than a fad. Not to mention mobile social games on the iPhone alone are only about two years old. Flurry welcomes 19 million daily players for 22 minutes on average through the 50,000 apps that support the network, which is only 4 million viewers away from the most popular TV out there, American Idol. With numbers like this, it's a no-brainer for studios like Zynga and CrowdStar to look at mobile as the next frontier.

Count in players from other mobile social gaming networks like Open Feint and Plus+, open up the device categories to include Android and Blackberry and you got yourself far more eyes than that glorified Star Search American Idol will ever reach. It's no wonder that media giants like Viacom are joining Microsoft in looking to join the fun. It looks like we're going to see plenty more ads in our games than we might like come 2011.

ESPNU College Town update brings Facebook Credits and new Competition rules

Playdom's new sports university management game ESPNU College Town received a much-deserved update today in the form of Facebook Credits, new Competitions features and over 100 new items. Not to mention that now Event Revenue never expires, meaning you can collect profits from an event at any time after the event is through. The social network's official currency is now available for use in the game and applies to the existing packages:

    20 Campus Cash: 4.99 = 50 Facebook Credits
    42 Campus Cash: $9.99 = 100 Facebook Credits
    85 Campus Cash: $19.99 = 200 Facebook Credits
    240 Campus Cash: $49.99 = 500 Facebook Credits
    500 Campus Cash: $99.99 = 1000 Facebook Credits



Now, you'll have to buy the Facebook Credits outside of ESPNU College Town and the game still supports direct credit card and Pay Pal purchases, but this just makes things a lot easier to understand. Clicking and dragging All-Stars into the starters brackets for Competitions is no longer necessary. Just click the All-Star and then click the spot to place them in position; also, players cannot compete in this feature without at least one All-Star card for each sport, basketball and football.

With Event Revenue now permanent, there's no need to regret or hesitate scheduling longer events that yield more benefits as they'll be there to collect whenever you return. There's also a slew of new items including new mascots, statues and iconic buildings representing real-life college sports stadiums. All in all, these are welcome changes to the new game, which already boasts over 1.2 million users in its first month. They grow up so fast... and then they make mommy and daddy millions.

Happy Aquarium: Twilight-inspired fish sparkle and transform for Halloween

Happy Aquarium Sparkling Vampire
In the spirit of glittering vampires and really ripped werewolves--or Halloween these days--CrowdStar has revisited some old and introduced some new fish to Happy Aquarium. Jacob Black--er, the Werewolf returns from the Twilit theme for 48 Facebook Credits ($4.80) and, yes, he still transforms when you click him. The newest addition to the 'Halloween-themed' fish is Edward Cullen the Sparkling Vampire that for 55 Facebook Credits, or $5.50, sparkles when you click him. Oh, how fitting.

There is also a new wallpaper to go with your no-so-frightening fish: the Cemetery for 30 Facebook Credits, or $3. Its description reads, "Put fear into your tank with this Cemetery setting." Not with those fish, you won't. If there's one thing I can say about CrowdStar's paid currency items, it's that while most of them are shallow pop culture references, some of them are just plain hilarious.

Will you be adding the Sparkling Vampire to your collection? What goofy reference would you like CrowdStar to attempt next?

Send some magical free gifts to Restaurant City neighbors

It's not often when Playfish adds this many free gifts with a new theme in Restaurant City, but for this week's theme of Magic, Mystery & Mayhem (aka Harry Potter), we see four brand spankin' new items that can only be added to your restaurant after receiving them as a gift from friends.

The four items are the Owl Cage (an owl is actually in a cage), a Pickled Gubbins decorative item, that comes in the form of four bottles grouped together, a Spider, and a Purple Flavor Potions, a magical vial filled with an even more magical purple liquid.

As usual, these items will only be available to send to your friends for a limited time, so be sure to do that fast, if you know of someone who would love to decorate in the complete Harry Potter theme, this week or beyond.

Note: This also marks as your final warning to send some of the Halloween themed free gifts, as the Pumpkin Lamp and Pumpkin Lantern are now marked as "Last Chance." Send them or ask for them fast to not miss out!

FarmVille Halloween Costume Contest winners announced - Were you one of the lucky winners?

Back in October (that is, before Halloween), we brought you news concerning FarmVille's Halloween Costume Contest, which asked farmers everyone to take a picture of themselves in their Halloween costume and then post it on the game's official forums.

With Halloween having come and gone, the time has come for the FarmVille team to choose the ten winners of the contest, who each received 500 Farm Cash and 500,000 coins for their awesome costumes. You can check out all ten of the winning costumes by heading over to the game's official forums, with the costume above being just one of the lucky ten, taken by lucky winner zombski.

Ravenwood Fair falls victim to LOLApps Facebook drama

It seemed as though LOLApps' runaway hit Ravenwood Fair had escaped the privacy policy debacle that took place last month, which virtually shutdown every other application in the developer's arsenal (presumably because the game was released after the entire incident began), but now it seems that Facebook has decided to impose the same restrictions on the game anyway, as just minutes ago, LOLApps posted a public announcement on the Ravenwood Fair fan page informing users that the game's social elements have been disabled by the social network.

Their post reads:

    We are currently working with Facebook regarding the disabling of Gift and Neighbor requests. This reduction of service also covers bookmarking, wall posts and notifications. Ravenwood Fair will back in full operation as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience!

We'll be sure to let you know if and when the game's features are reenabled.

Car Town: New Hummer and Beetle zoom into your garage

Car Town is one of the most unique games on Facebook thus far, and has over 6 million monthly players. No one is doing car games quite yet other than Cie Games, and they're doing a great job of releasing new fun fast cars frequent enough to keep players entertained.

Today's new cars feature a 2006 Volkswagen Beetle, and a 2008 Hummer H2. These are two of the most trendy car brands out there, and you can't help but squeal at how adorable the little Beetle is. The Beetle is a level 25 car, with a D rating and a Performance Value of 183. This car is available in 7 different colors, and will cost you 20 points. It does provide 232 XP though, so it's not too shabby. There are only 7,356 left as of this writing.

The Hummer H2 is a class B vehicle available at all levels. It has an XP gain of 497 and a Performance Value of 246, but will set you back 42 points. That's not cheap. There are only 4,799 of them left, however, and they're going fast.

Nightclub City adds new paid currency: Nightclub Cred

Nightclub Cred
It's been a whirlwind of big changes for Nightclub City over the past couple of weeks, and today's addition of a new currency is no joke. Nightclub Cred is now the new way to purchase exclusive items in the game, and it replaces Facebook Credits in the game. It's not as big of a change as you might think though, because the new Nightclub Cred is purchaseable only with Facebook Credits. So why did they do it?

The answer is simple. With Facebook Credits, games don't have the ability to give them out for free. They can't offer them randomly as quest rewards, or start you out with any for free. It's basically a currency that the developer has no control of. Now that Nightclub City has added an intermediary currency, they can give them out to players in promotions or just for fun. This will be a benefit to you as a player!

For anyone who is confused, Nightclub City released an FAQ guide that helps players understand the change. The developers have stated that the prices for items should be exactly the same as before, except they offer bonuses for large purchases so it might even be cheaper. We definitely like this change!

Pre-order FarmVille for Dummies on Amazon.com

No folks, this one isn't a joke. FarmVille for Dummies now available for pre-order on Amazon.com. In case you still need to learn more about how to play everyone's favorite social game, this 288-page paperback book will teach you everything you need to know.

Aimed for new FarmVille players who are just starting out, FarmVille for Dummies will teach you how to find neighbors, how to achieve all of the ribbons and collections, how to shop at the FarmVille Market, how to do co-op missions, and how to deal with any technical issues that might be keeping you down. FarmVille for Dummies is written by Angela Morales of FarmVille Freak, and co-authored by Kyle Orland (who has done quite a bit of writing for us here).

The book is $13.59 USD, and has a release date of February 15, 2011. What could make a better Valentine's Day present than a copy of FarmVille for Dummies? We'll definitely be picking it up!

Preorder FarmVille for Dummies on Amazon here >

Treasure Isle gets the Zynga Message Center for streamlined gift requests

If you're tired of finding that all of your Treasure Isle gift requests have expired because you've waited too long collect them (due to the fact that it simply takes so long to accept gifts individually from the gift requests screen), you'll be thrilled to know that Zynga has added the Zynga Message Center to Treasure Isle, allowing you the ability to have one-click access to all of the game's gift requests currently on your account.

You an access the Zynga Message Center by clicking on the red and white Z at the top right of the gameplay area. From there, you'll be able to view all of your current gift requests, whether they be actual gifts sent to you from friends (including Mystery Gifts), explorer pack offers, or even those requests that see you sending items to your friends for collectings, or just extra energy.

Zynga has been known to roll the Zynga Message Center in other games slowly, so if you don't see the feature live on your own game just yet, be patient, as we're sure it will arrive soon.

Treasure Isle: Build the Ziggurat Relic for extra energy

A new relic is available to build in Treasure Isle, and this one comes in the form of a Ziggurat Relic. This relic is a land-based object, which is actually fairly large, so you may need to rearrange some items before placing down your free base.

You'll need to build the Relic, just as you have all of the others, using materials collected from friends. In this case, the first stage of the build requires 1 each of Metal, Ectoplasm, Gold, Pillars, and Paint. You can accept these items either as general gifts from your friends (that they initiate), or you can click on the "Ask for More" button associated with the item you want to post a request to your wall asking your friends for help. Remember, you can have five of these requests active on your account at one time, so feel free to ask for all five if you don't think your friends would mind.

All told, there are four steps to the Ziggurat's construction, requiring a total of 10 of all of the individual ingredients, or 50 items. Once completed, you'll earn a permanent +3 maximum energy boost, that will stay active on your account until you store or sell the relic, at which point the boost would be removed.

PetVille All-in-One Store makes shopping for items easier than ever

If you're on a slower computer, you might find PetVille to be one of the harder games to navigate on Facebook, especially when it comes to shopping for new items, as you have to scroll (and scroll... and scroll... ) to find virtually anything in the game's Furniture or Clothing, and other stores.

Now, though, Zynga has launched the "All-in-One" Store in PetVille, allowing users to simply load a basic menu, showing pictures of all items, along with their prices, and purchase them with the quick click of a mouse. The store's menu contains tons of sorting features, like sorting items that are limited time only, those that belong to particular themes (collections), those that go in a particular room (bedroom, kitchen, etc.), those that are on sale, and on and on it goes.

All of the game's items have been combined into this store (hence the name), allowing you to pick up wallpaper and flooring just as quickly as you can buy a complete new outfit for your pet. The only downside to this is the fact that in using this new store, you lose the ability to see a complete collection laid out in an example space. In the kitchen department, for instance, it was always nice to see a set of cabinets arranged to see how they would really look placed next to one another.

Luckily, the old stores are still available to browse through, giving you complete freedom in how you want your shopping experience to look in the game.

Earn 4 free PetVille Pet Cash from Bing Promotion

As many a PetVille player could confirm, decking out each room in your pet's in-game home isn't cheap, especially if you want to get your hands on some truly special premium items - those which cost Pet Cash.

Zynga is here to help with that just a bit this week, as they have launched a new activity in PetVille, allowing players to answer "Bing's Holiday Shopping Questions" to earn 4 free Pet Cash. This activity can be launched by clicking on the Sponsored Link window (seen at right), which is located underneath the PetVille gameplay area. From there, you'll launch a new window where you can take part in the activity.

This one is fairly basic, and simply asks you to answer the question "What's the worst gift decision you've ever made?" You'll then share your answer anonymously and move on. The next few questions are multiple choice, with the entire activity being completed in just a few minutes of your time. You'll know when you've earned your Pet Cash, as you'll be notified of such in the top right corner of the activity's window. If you wait in this screen long enough, you'll earn your Pet Cash before taking part in the final "step" of the activity, that being to take a spin on the Bing Holiday Facebook app. You can if you'd like to try out the functionality, but we can confirm it is not required to earn the Pet Cash.

When you're finished, you'll be able to refresh the PetVille game page to see your in-game total having automatically gone up by 4 - not bad for just a few clicks of the mouse.

Game of the Day: Bounce Out

The game of the day rolls on and we have a classic for you. Bounce Out has been a part of games.com for several years and it's popularity never wanes. You won't be able to stop playing 'Bounce Out!', the fast and addictive game. Switch bouncy super balls around to match three or more of the same color and watch them bounce off the screen. Go for bigger combos to earn huge bonuses!

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.

Play Bounce Out Now! -->

FrontierVille Storage Space III Timed Mission: Everything you need to know

For those of you that have been keeping up with the various Storage Shed expansion missions in FrontierVille, you'll be happy to learn that the third and final mission in this trio has been released.

Appropriately, the mission is called "Storage Space III," and for those that have completed Storage Space I and II, released over the past two weeks, this will give you the chance to earn your final five free additional storage shed slots, so that you can store more items from your Frontier. This is a timed mission, only being available for three days once you accept it. To be clear, you have all the way up until January 7 to accept this quest, but once you do, you only have three days to complete it.

There are three tasks in this mission, and they will prove to be quite a challenge for those players with no debris or crops on their land:

Clobber 5 Groundhogs
Clobber 10 Snakes
Collect 10 Crowbars

You'll need to draw Snakes out on your land by clearing rocks, thorns, or skulls, and you can bring out Groundhogs by harvesting crops. As for the Crowbars, you'll be able to ask your friends to help you by posting a general wall post to your news feed so that you friends can send you a crowbar. This is a "Give one, get one" situation, so everyone that decides to help you will receive a Crowbar in return (and vice versa).

The rewards for this new mission are the aforementioned five free slots in your Storage Shed, along with 400 experience points and 750 coins - not a bad deal, if you can manage to lure out 15 varmints in a three day time.

Have you completed the other two Storage Shed missions? How are you liking your expanded Storage Shed?

FarmVille: Free Gifts page updated with six new Holiday items, including trees

If you're in the giving mood this holiday season, why not send your FarmVille neighbors some interesting new themed items from the game's free gifts page? There are six holiday items now available to send, with four of them being new to the game, and two being a return from last year's Holiday celebration.

One of the returning items is the Snowflake Pole, and it is the only item of the six that is available to send through traditional means, meaning that you can stay right on Facebook and send it to your friends. The other item, the Giant Lollipop I, is a FarmVille.com exclusive, meaning that you'll have to head over to FarmVille.com and gift them to your Facebook friends from there (the process is the exact same, but you'll just need to be on FarmVille.com to do it).

As for the other, new items, there is a Gold Nutcracker (a redesigned version from last year's Gold Nutcracker, so it technically is a new item), a Red Hanging Bell, and a Holiday Tree that all must also be sent from FarmVille.com, and a White Xmas Tree that is only available to send from the FarmVille app on iPhone/iPad.

The Holiday Tree is especially interesting as it is a real, growing tree, that grows silver and gold ornaments and garland, can be harvested, and can presumably be mastered (as we saw with the then unreleased Mastery Sign in a recent FarmVille Sneak Peek). You'll only be able to send the tree to your friends by logging into FarmVille on your iPhone/iPad and heading to the free gifts menu within the app.

Keep in mind though, that no matter where you are sending your gifts from, you'll still only be able to send one gift to a particular friend everyday, so plan your gifting ahead of time if you want to outfit your friends with all of these items before they're gone.

Check out the rest of our Holiday 2010 coverage right here.

Which of these items do you most want your friends to send you? Have you already collected all of these items from generous friends?

FarmVille Balloon Crop now in store, but unavailable to grow [UPDATE: Now available]

UPDATE: The Balloons Crop has been officially "released" as part of the New Year's Ball Drop / Party Barn event. You'll need to unlock access to planting the crop after having 10 of your friends accept your invitation to your party. Find out all of the details about this new event by clicking on this link.

If you've been looking forward to planting some of the cheerful and colorful Balloon crop seeds in FarmVille as much as we have, you'll be happy to hear that the Balloon Crop has now been spotted in the wild, via an in-game store listing that is now available for players to look at. However, that's all you can do with the crop at the moment, as it is "Locked."

The reasoning for the locked status is that a "License is needed." We'll be sure to let you know how to obtain said license as soon as we can, but in the meantime, let's take a look at the announced stats for this new crop. First, it's cheap, available to grow for just 15 coins per square. It grows for 16 hours, and you'll be able to harvest each square of ready balloons for a return of 126 coins per square.

This looks to be a fairly good crop for lower level players to jump into planting, not only due to its low price, but due to the fact that you'll gain 2 experience points for each and every square of the Balloons that you plant, which might allow some players to level up before all is said and done. Finally, the Balloons Crop can be mastered, with the first star or mastery coming after harvesting just 80 balloons.

When will the Balloons Crop be available to grow? That much is still up in the air, but we'll be sure to let you know when it unlocks, or what you'll need to do in order to unlock it, as more information becomes available.

What do you think of this unusual, imaginary new crop? Will you attempt to master the Balloons Crop before it (presumably) leaves the store?

FarmVille Party Barn / New Year's Ball Drop Event: Everything you need to know

We've known about the upcoming New Year's Party in FarmVille for a few weeks now, but users everywhere have now started to see the New Year's Ball event kick off in the game, with the launch of the Party Barn in the store. While some users have been given the base of the Party Barn for free, others (even after refreshing) have had to resort to purchasing the base for 5,000 coins. Regardless of how you get it onto your farm, it can be upgraded with ingredients to turn into something truly spectacular.

This is another collection event, that is sure to end the year on a high-note with users, thanks to the prizes available via this event, and we have all of the information you need about this year-ending party behind the break.
First things first, if you're like me, and have an overwhelming number of Winter Holiday decorations flooding your farm, leaving you with little free space, you'll need to do some serious reorganization in order to even fit the Party Barn on your land, as it is simply massive.

Once placed, you'll be shown a menu that details all of the aspects of this new event. First and foremost, while this is a collection event in the most basic sense of the word, you'll be collecting friend RSVPs, rather than any actual item. You'll need to invite your friends to your in-game New Year's Ball Drop party, and the more friends that accept your invite, the bigger your party becomes, and the better the rewards that you'll unlock.

As of right now, there are four prizes to unlock for both girl and boy players, but the avatar clothing item therein is different depending on the gender of your in-game avatar. For both genders, three of the prizes are the Fireworks Finale (presumably a one time fireworks show that you can put on, on your farm), an unlock of the Balloons Crop, and a Disco Pony. However, for girl avatars, you'll also be able to unlock a fancy black Party Dress for your avatar, while boys will unlock the black Party Tuxedo for the same amount of "Guests."

You'll earn the Fireworks Finale after 5 guests have been added to your party. 10 Guests unlocks the Balloons Crop, which we told you about earlier this evening (16 hour crop that rewards 2 XP when planted for 15 coins per square; harvestable for 126 coins per square), 20 guests unlocks the avatar clothing item for your specific gender, and reaching the full 40 guest capacity unlocks the Disco Pony, an animal that we told you about recently in a FarmVille Sneak Peek.

To invite guests to your party, you'll need to click on the "Invite" button within the Party Barn menu. This will take you to a menu like the one seen below, where you'll be shown a list of all of your Facebook friends, with each friend having a "Share" button underneath their profile picture. Clicking on the Share button for a particular friend allows you to post an individual invite to that user's wall. If you haven't turned on automatic wall posting within the game (Zynga suggests that you do, but this is entirely voluntary for this event), you'll need to approve each wall post as it goes onto your friends' walls, but automatic posting will speed this process up considerably.

While you're waiting for your "guests to arrive" - their avatars will appear next to your barn, but can be removed by simply clicking on them to clear space, and they will then show up inside your barn on the dance floor - you can take a few moments to upgrade your Party Barn using the standard three ingredients: 8 Wooden Boards, 8 Nails, and 8 Bricks. You can either buy them for 1 Farm Cash each from the store, or you can ask your friends to send them to you via individual gift requests.

Of course, once the barn has been completed, it will be transformed from a simple red barn to a neon, flashing 2011 Party Barn, complete with large crystal ball perched atop a pole from the top of the barn, as seen at the top of this post. Once the party ends at the beginning of the new year, you won't be able to invite anymore of your friends to the party (meaning you won't be able to add more guests to redeem more items), but you will be able to re-watch the ball drop, or purchase prizes you already have enough guests for. In addition, the Party Barn will thankfully be storable.

And there you have it! A complete run-down on FarmVille's last big blowout of 2010. Remember to head into your own game to get the party started!

Check out the rest of our New Year's coverage right here.

What do you think of this Party Barn / New Year's Ball Drop event? Is it better or worse than other holiday events in the game?

Crowdstar launches first-ever social mobile game, Top Girl

Facebook game maker Crowdstar launches its first mobile social game -- Top Girl -- which is based on its hit fashion-centric game It Girl on Facebook.

While Top Girl is a separate game from It Girl -- the two games are largely identical. Start the game by custom-creating an avatar and then take them shopping, dress them and then help them climb a virtual social ladder by taking on modeling jobs and hitting up popular nightspots. There's also a dating feature which require you to flirt and snag a boyfriend who will shower your avatar with gifts.

The biggest difference between the two games is that Top Girl does not directly tie-in to Facebook or Facebook Connect, and instead uses mobile social network OpenFeint. It's a bold move, considering that OpenFeint doesn't have as many users as Facebook, but Crowdstar Mobile Studio Head Blair Hamilton says they made that decision, "because we expect a different set of users to play this game."


Hamilton says, "While resource management games appear to be succeeding in mobile social gaming, we felt that a role-playing game- especially for females- would establish a new category and opportunity for CrowdStar."

Even though It Girl (and, now, Top Girl) has intellectual parity with a TV show like 'Keeping up with the Kardashians,' this type of shopping/fashion game has proven to be popular with the social gaming set. Guess everyone needs a junk food fix, whether it's keeping up with pseudo-celebs in tabloid-style TV or the newest social game.

How about a Zynga Pirates game? Zynga survey teases game ideas

Or, better yet, what do you think of a Robin Hood social game by Zynga? Those are some of the possibilities for future Facebook or mobile games that Zynga teased in one of its infamous surveys. It appears that the company is toying around with several potential game ideas in house, and wants you to help decide what becomes the next big thing since, well, Empires & Allies, really.

The game ideas span Hollywood acting and production to acting as a music mogul. But our favorite from the list is absolutely the idea for a pirates game in which players sail the high seas in search of treasure and--gasp!--romance aboard a massive ship. Besides, it would fit Zynga's modus operandi to enter the pirate games sub genre with Mighty Pirates and others sailing about.

However, the idea of becoming the world's most famous detective on Facebook sounds exciting, and relatively original. OK, so there is To Catch A Killer, but we really just want to be the next Elliott Stabler on Facebook. If you want to have a hand in Zynga's next potential game, check out the survey right here.

Zynga vs Vostu: Brazilian game developer responds to Zynga infringement lawsuit

Yesterday, Zynga filed suit against Brazilian social game developer Vostu for infringement. According to detailed examples provided by Zynga, Vostu has copied Zynga games like CityVille and PetVille wholesale in its Mega City and Pet Mania games, even going so far as to replicating the company's mistakes in its games, as TechCrunch reports. In response to Zynga's detailed accusations, Vostu spokesman Davidson Goldin said:

    Zynga has been accused of copying so many games that they've sadly lost the ability to recognize games like ours that are chock full of original content and have been independently created. Vostu has 500 brilliant employees working night and day making hand drawings and writing proprietary code for online games that our 35 million users worldwide enjoy. Zynga's anti-competitive effort to bully us with a frivolous lawsuit - especially when we have some of the same key investors - is pathetic. While Zynga plays games with the legal process we will continue focusing on using our substantial resources to create games that entertain our customers.

Essentially, Vostu is responding how we initially responded to the news yesterday: Zynga has had a history of run-ins with other companies for similar reasons. Most recently, it's Oregon Trail expansion to FrontierVille had its name changed in response to a lawsuit filed by The Learning Company, the creators of the original PC adventure game. However, we're interested to see how Zynga responds to Vostu's, um, direct statement, but more importantly how the courts perceive the wealth of comparisons.

Nintendo's 'not interested' in Facebook games, but Wii U will go social

If you're a bit confused, let us clarify: Nintendo will not make Facebook or mobile games until Pikachu's fly. But, according to Joystiq, the company is very much interested in social media when it comes to console experiences, specifically the Wii U. When asked during a Q&A about the upcoming console's online experience, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata admitted, "We are no longer in a period where we cannot have any connection at all with social networking sites."

Of course, in true Nintendo fashion, no concrete details were given. Though, Iwata went on to say, "We're looking at ways that will convey to this audience which games are fun and, ideally, in a way that will enable people who are playing those games with others, to share that information socially."

So, the company still isn't keen on making its games free, but Nintendo does at least recognize that the social features that Facebook games provide are valuable. However, we're still waiting to see exactly what Iwata means by "sharing information socially," and how that will fit into the console's online infrastructure (which we also know little to nothing about).

Investors won't be happy until Nintendo starts making iPhone games

Well, get to it, why dontcha? The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Nintendo investors are calling for the massive creator of Mario to make iPhone and Android games ... or else. With the drastic price cut of its flagship handheld system, the 3DS, in less than six months since its release, investors say that it's time Nintendo tries something new, regardless of what it's said in the past.

Recently, Pokemon Co. announced an iPhone game revolving around the ubiquitous pocket monsters, Pokemon Say Tap (pictured). It almost instantly saw the company's stock spike their highest in four months with the assumption that Nintendo might be getting into the mobile games business, according to the SF Chronicle. But the company quickly pointed out that this was not the case, and just as quickly those gains turned into losses.

"They just don't get it," MF Global FXA Securities Ltd. said in a sales note that day, according to the SF Chronicle. "Sell the stock, because a management once feted for creative out-of-box thinking have just shown how behind the times they are."

Nintendo has repeatedly affirmed that it will not develop games that do not use its hardware, which clearly has investors in a tizzy, as the company was recently forced to slash its profits forecast for 2011 by a whopping 82 percent. "Smart phones are the new battlefield for the gaming industry," Masamitsu Ohki, a fund manager at Stats Investment Management Co, told SF Chronicle. "Nintendo should try to either buy its way into this platform or develop something totally new."

But if the numbers--Apple is now the most valuable company in the world, while Zynga is poised to become the most valuable games company globally--weren't enough for Nintendo, will investor complaints be? Well, it looks like price cuts and apologies haven't worked to appease Nintendo's investors (nor has its announced intent on entering the digital goods space), so it appears as if the Mario maker doesn't have much of a choice. [Ed. Note: Remember kids, today's the last day to get your 3DS at the discounted price and with 20 free games at Wal-Mart. Don't walk, run!]

Bazinga! Big Bang Theory: Mystic Warlords of Ka'a nerds up Facebook

And you thought the fact that Dungeons and Dragons is coming to Facebook was nerdy. Now, a real collectible card game, based on a fake collectible card game, has hit Facebook. Dire Wolf Digital has released Big Bang Theory: Mystic Warlords of Ka'a to the platform.

And yes, it's entirely inspired from the dorky card battle game that Sheldon, Leonard, Howard and Raj duke it out through on the wildly popular CBS sitcom of the same name Well, without the subhead, of course.

The game, said to be in "preview beta," released in late July and plays much like classic card games of nerdery like Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon cards, but with a far simpler interface and play style. (Full disclosure: all of which I played in my hay-days of intense nerdom.) The way cards defeat each other in battle is governed by a simple rune system--a glorified rock, paper, scissors game, it seems.

Players stack these cards up against one another amidst the quirky, witty dialog you expect from the show every week. Once this effective game of War (remember that game?) is over, some of those cards hit the "Battle Line," which is where you can damage your opponent.

Mystic Warlords of Ka'a in action
At this time, there are two factions of cards to play with, and players can duel their friends, too. Now, if only Sheldon's drawn-out, crazy explanations continued throughout the game.

Zynga was worth $11.5 billion in March, and is tailing Activision Blizzard

And it has soared past EA's $6.35 billion. In its most recently revised S-1 filing to the Security and Exchanges Commission (SEC), Zynga wrote that its valuation was at $11.5 billion in March of this year, TechCrunch reports. The FarmVille maker made a number of other revisions to its filing for IPO, or when the company will become available for public trade on the stock market. This means that Zynga is worth almost twice as much as EA, the veteran video games publisher responsible for iconic hardcore game franchises like Madden and Battlefield.

Not to mention it means that Zynga likely still intends to file for IPO, which many expect will raise another $1 billion for the company and boost its valuation to up to $20 billion, amidst a recent stock market plunge and shrinking confidence. This puts Zynga just under Activision Blizzard, the publisher known for the Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero series worth $12.17 billion, according to NASDAQ. Keep in mind, that this number is from five months ago. And is Zynga was just $500 million or so beneath Activision then, it could arguably be worth more than the company right now based on how fast it has grown.

However, valuation is based on a numerous amount of factors that contribute to market perception of a company's worth, and not necessarily actual net worth (as is market cap). In addition, the company might have made itself even more attractive to investors, writing that just 63 percent of its revenue comes from its top three games, CityVille, Empires & Allies and FarmVille. Compare that to four years ago, when 93 percent of its revenue came in from its top games.

The main takeaway here is that A. Zynga seems to have no intention of backing out on its IPO, which is said to happen this fall, and B. Zynga is worth lots and lots of money--possibly more than the most valuable games company in the world. I honestly thought I'd never see the day ... no, I'm not crying. Someone must be cutting onions in here. You can read the full SEC filing right here, if you want to be bored to tears.

Google+ Games comes out swinging with Zynga, PopCap, Playdom et al

The gloves are officially off. Google has announced that it's slowly rolling out games to its Google+ social network. Aptly dubbed Google+ Games, the search--and possibly now social games--giant has teamed up with a number of high-profile Facebook game developers and publishers to bring their games to its platform.

According to a blog post announcing the new games movement, Google is focused on providing you with games that "are there when you want them and gone when you don't." Meaning that, instead of being infused with the existing Google+ News Feed, game updates are found by clicking on the new Games button between the search bar and the Circles button.

And just as quickly, these updates will be removed from your view when you press any other button next to the search bar. Your accomplishments in games on Google+ are only shown to those who also play games on Google+. And boy, has Google come armed to the teeth against Facebook. Google+ Games launches with games from PopCap, Playdom, Kabam, Wooga, GameHouse, EA, Funzio and Digital Chocolate. (And, of course, Rovio.)

Google+ Games
Wait a second, is that a Zynga game down there? But, doesn't that violate its terms with Facebook? (Surely, there's a loophole there we're not aware of.) Check out all of the launch games below, and join us in the waiting game for when that Games button appears on your Google+:

Games on Google+

[Image Credit: Google]

Major UK broadcaster funds Facebook fashion game for insights into women

Originally packaged and delivered as some pro bono, social good project, Beauty Town - Fashion, Friends & Fun is a game that's supposed to promote healthy body image among its players "by stealth".

It does this by giving players the option to choose among 6 body types, 3 heights, tons of customizable heads, and unlockable fashion tips for every kind of female figure you can cobble together. Players will learn how to dress themselves and other people by the fashion tips the game provides. They'll also learn to be more open about such things by participating in the game's official forum.

But none of this sounds very stealthy to me.
Instead, what's really stealthy is how Channel 4 -- a big UK broadcaster of such shows as How to Look Good Naked and Embarrassing Bodies -- plans to use the game to gather knowledge on its female players. Knowledge which the broadcaster hopes will help them service their television audience, so they can expect to do cross-promotions and the like. Currently, the UK has a television ratings system called the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB), which functions like the US Nielsen ratings.

    Ian MacKenzie, Channel 4 media project manager, says: "We still work on BARB data [to understand who our audience is], which is based on a small sample of homes. Projects like this help us realise our potential audiences, how they behave and their needs."

You know social games are big when even TV networks are turning to them along with their national ratings system to design their programming. So, if you love Beauty Town, play on. Just remember, Channel 4 is watching you. You'll probably be reminded of that every time you see the game's loading screen, where that display of Polaroids have taken on a new meaning.
Channel 4 HQ

Wishful Features: FarmVille Horse breeders should keep their foals

Our newest Wishful Feature is one that was brought to our attention via some adamant users on the FarmVille forums. Via a thread entitled "Allow horse breeders to keep the foals?", we learned that there is a very strong contingent of players that would like to receive the Foals that are bred by their horses in the Horse Stable, rather than just being forced to either share them with friends, or lose them entirely.

After reading the post, I thought - "You know, that's right! We should be allowed to keep our foals." My claim comes not just out of my somewhat-selfish collector's gene, that makes me want to have one of every FarmVille item ever created, but also from a very logical point-of-view. After all, if I knew that I would have a chance at receiving foals for the Horses that I specifically purchase on my own account, I would be much more likely to spend Farm Cash on the premium horses that are released in FarmVille, recently on somewhat of a weekly basis.

Why should players have to rely on other FarmVille players to purchase the horses that they'd like to receive foals from? I understand that it's a part of FarmVille's social mechanics - that being to share one's bred horses with friends - but this seems like something that would do equally well as a reward for the user that purchases the horse in the first place. Heck, why not make it a "two for one" situation, like so many other events in FarmVille - breed a foal for yourself, and share one with the first lucky neighbor that clicks on a new wall post? It's a win-win for everyone, and it would surely boost the in-game economy (read: pad Zynga's pocketbook) as players start purchasing more and more premium horses for their own use, rather than solely that of their friends.

With FarmVille undergoing multiple updates every week, and the aforementioned forum thread already drawing in over 50 replies, it will be interesting to see if Zynga takes this thought to heart and implements it in the game. We'll make sure to let you know if they do.

FrontierVille: "Like" the Zynga Fan Page and receive free Energy

If you're a FrontierVille player, you might want to take advantage of Zynga's quick (and free) new offer on the official Zynga, Inc. fan page. Whether you're already a fan of the fan page, or if you've never liked it before (or if you've liked and then unliked the page after a promotion, for instance), you can now head over to the Zynga, Inc. fan page, "Like" the page if you haven't done so already, and then receive a free Energy item in FrontierVille.

This free energy is unfortunately only a Light Snack, worth just three free energy when consumed, but hey, it's free, and for those that have gone through the two land expansions currently available in the game (which spawns mass amounts of trees and debris around the outskirts of your frontier), you'll know that every bit of free energy counts.

To receive this free energy, just click on the "FREE SNACK" tab on the Zynga, Inc. fan page and click on the image that appears (the image will only appear once you've liked the page). Hopefully this will be the first of many such gifts that Zynga gives away via their fan page. We'll be sure to let you know if more arrives.

FarmVille Winter Wonderland Animals: Caribou and Fiordland Penguin

Just today, we brought you a FarmVille Sneak Peek of a series of then unreleased animals, and wouldn't you know it? Tonight's FarmVille update sees two of those four animals being released in the game.

The two animals are the Caribou and the Fiordland Penguin. Both are, unfortunately, premium Winter Wonderland animals that are only available to purchase for Farm Cash. The Caribou costs 20 Farm Cash, while this new variety of Penguin (not to be confused with the "regular" penguin that was released in the game last year, and again this year as a free gift) costs 14 Farm Cash.

Both animals can be harvested from every three days, but the Caribou is worth much more as an investment animal, as you'll receive 125 coins each time you harvest from it, while the Penguin gives off only 45 coins.

As limited edition animals, the Caribou and the Fiordland Penguin will only be available for the next 13 days, so shop fast if you want to make sure you'll have a chance to purchase them both.

FarmVille Winter Wonderland Ski Shop now available

Earlier today, we took a look at a then unreleased item in FarmVille by the name of a Ski Shop. Little did we know then that this item would be released this quickly into the game, but wouldn't you know it? Tonight's FarmVille update has, in fact, seen the release of the Ski Shop as a purchasable item in the game.

Unfortunately, the building doesn't seem to have any sort of function beyond looking pretty (we hoped that it would), and you'll need to bust out both the figurative and the literal pocketbook for this one - the Ski Shop is a premium building that will set you back 25 Farm Cash to add to your farm. Sure, it's not the most expensive building ever released in the game, but it's also not the cheapest.

You'll receive 2,500 bonus experience points for purchasing this lovely building (we love the bright blue roof), and you can sell the building at any time (in case you don't want to store the building, or just don't have the storage space) for a return of 12,500 coins.

As a limited edition item, the Ski Shop will only be available in the game for the next 13 days, while the items that were released earlier this week are down to ten days remaining in the store. Shop fast if you want to purchase them all!

FarmVille Winter Wonderland Decorations: Ski Jump, Totem Pole, Winter Creek, & More

A new set of Winter Wonderland decorations has been released in FarmVille as part of tonight's update. We brought you a Sneak Peek of some of these items earlier today, but you can now purchase them, officially, within the game itself.

The new items are the Ski Jump, Totem Pole, Winter Creek, and Winter Fire Pit. Fortunately, two of these items are actually available to purchase for coins, while the other two are premium, Farm Cash only, items. The Ski Jump and Winter Creek are the premium items, available for 28 and 30 Farm Cash each, respectively, while the Totem Pole and Winter Fire Pit go for 50,000 and 120,000 coins, also respectively.

As all of these items are limited edition Winter Wonderland decorations, they will all only be in the game for the next 13 days. That's actually a fairly long time, as far as other limited edition FarmVille items are concerned, so we wouldn't be surprised if even more items from this theme were released between now and the expiration date of this second set of items. We'll make sure that you're the first to know if and when other items are added to the game in this theme, so that you don't miss out on finishing your collection.

FarmVille Orchards producing Watering Cans; the drought has ended

Thirst no more, my lovely Mystery Seedlings. Orchards are finally producing Watering Cans in FarmVille, according to FarmVille Freak. As you might remember, there was a slight drought in the game after Zynga removed the ability for Snowmen to create Watering Cans in preparation for this very change. The company briefly reversed the change to Snowmen to hold us over, but now that will no longer be necessary. From here on out, harvesting Orchards will now have a chance of dropping either a Mystery Seedling or a Watering Can. You will also have the opportunity to share Watering Cans with friends once they drop. Rejoice, my friends, for the FarmVille drought has ended.

Update: FarmVille Freak reports that Zynga has also reduced the Watering Can requirement for Mystery Seedlings from 10 to eight. This should alleviate the effects of the drought even further. If only USDA was this magical...

[Image Credit: Call of the Land]

Have you seen your Orchards drop Watering Cans yet? What are your thoughts on this shift from Snowmen to Orchards producing Watering Cans?

FarmVille 28 x 28 Farm Estate expansion now available for coins

Back in November, FarmVille released the 28 x 28 Farm Estate expansion. In a peculiar move, it was released at the price of 120 Farm Cash but stated "TBD" by the coins value. This indicated that somewhere down the line it would be available for coins. Many of us forgot about this because it has has been months since the release. Today, FarmVille has released the coin pricing so that those of you who don't want to spend Farm Cash can still expand your farm.

The biggest complaint thus far is that you can't just pay 4 million coins to unlock this expansion. You also have to add 10 more neighbors. It doesn't matter how many neighbors you currently have (I have 136) it will still require you to get 10 more neighbors. This is a pretty big barrier at this stage in the game for those who are uncomfortable with adding strangers as friends on Facebook.

The price is a hefty 4,000,000 coins, so unless you've been scrimping and saving and not spending all of your coins on the adorable Valentine's Day items you might not have enough for this. I know I certainly don't. It's easier to save up 4 million coins for some than it is to spend real money though,so for some this might be a great addition.

Did you already buy the Farm Estate expansion for 120 Farm Cash or have you been waiting for coins?

Picture of the Day: Emily Bear's Valentine's Day Farm

FarmVille player, Emily Bear (also known as Emerson865 on the FarmVille Forums), has grown one of the most beautiful farms we've ever seen just in time for Valentine's Day.

The incredible attention to detail makes Ms. Bear's farm, which was inspired by her son, a magnificent spectacle to behold. Notice the rainbow colored heart made entirely out of trees, the handsome pink and purple border, and finally, the incredible complexity of the central heart itself, which features a variety of different crops and animals. This is FarmVille art at its finest.

Continue reading to see what the artist, Ms. Bear, had to say about her masterpiece.

    "My farm has always been my escape from the stresses of everyday life. It has been a great way for me to combine creativity, as well as a way to enlist my imagination.

    I constantly change the overall theme of my farm. This particular configuration actually came about out of my thirteen-year-old son's drawing. He drew a rainbow in the shape of a heart and it really captured my attention. I have a lot of orchards on my farm and the biggest trick was to make sure the colors were as close to a rainbow blend as possible.

    It did not really take me long to get the orchards in place, but the plots were another matter. After all, a farm is not really a farm without plots. I also have a lot of random animals and learning some of the tricks to hiding them is also key. After those steps, it was just a matter of planning and timing out the different crops of the inner heart, which mirrored the colors of the orchards.

    The biggest piece of advice I can offer is to always remember that any farm can be beautiful. It does not matter if a farm is designed around hay bales, trees or animals. Often some of the most basic decorations are the best items to decorate with." - Ms. Bear

FarmVille Cupid Corn: First non-charity Farm Cash crop released

FarmVille has just released a new paid Farm Cash crop, and for the first time it isn't related to a charity promotion. The Cupid Corn costs 10 Farm Cash for a 1 week permit to buy and plant unlimited seeds for 7 days. The new crop is masterable and provides great XP and coin rewards.

Cupid Corn is harvestable in 16 hours, sells for 200 coins, and gives out 4 XP for each harvest. It looks a lot similar to the Candy Corn crop that was released around Halloween last year, except with the familiar Valentine's Day colors. 10 Farm Cash isn't really too much to spend considering that you get a full week to plant and harvest the Cupid Corn as many times as you possibly can.

Will you be purchasing the Cupid Corn or are you sticking to crops that are purchased through coins?

FarmVille: Chinese Lantern Trees growing from Mystery Seedlings

The Mystery Seedlings are a pretty fun minigame in FarmVille because you never know what kind of tree you're going to receive. Spotted in the wild is a new Chinese Lantern Tree that can be obtained through the Mystery Seedlings.

Even though the Chinese New Year is over and this seems a bit late, it's still a very interesting looking tree unlike any we have seen before in the game. While you could take the time to water your seedlings and hope to get this tree, it's probably easier just to search through your newsfeed and see if your friends have found any to share with you. At this time, it is unclear if the Chinese Lantern Tree is just a limited time tree that will be going away.

FarmVille: "Like" English Countryside fan page to unlock White Aster Super Crop

In addition to adding prizes to the upcoming FarmVille English Countryside contest, Zynga has added another reason to like the expansion's official fan page on Facebook. If the fan page can receive 2.5 million "Likes," they will release a new crop to all players.

The new crop is the White Aster, which we've brought you a bit of a sneak peek of in the past. The White Aster isn't just any crop, though - it's a Super Crop, which Zynga says will give off more XP and coins than you might expect, or at least more XP and coins than a regular crop that you'd simply find in the store everyday.

The fan page currently sits at around 1.63 million Likes, so it might take a bit of time before we'll actually receive this crop in the game. Make sure to "Like" the fan page if you haven't done so already to help everyone receive this new crop!

Check out the rest of our English Countryside coverage right here.

Have you liked the English Countryside fan page?

CityVille: Plant Sweet Potatoes to help Japanese Earthquake Fund

CityVille has joined the Japanese Earthquake Relief efforts, with Zynga launching a new crop in the game in the form of Sweet Potatoes. 100% of the proceeds received from the purchase price of Sweet Potatoes will go to help victims of the recent tragedy in Japan.

As with other premium crops in the game, these premium sweet potatoes cost 5 City Cash per square that you'd want to plant. This will allow you to donate as little or as much as you'd like, simply by planting more squares. The sweet potatoes are an instant growth crop, giving you 250 Goods per square planted, and they will never wither, no matter how long you might leave your game unattended.

If you don't have any Farm Cash to donate in FarmVille to unlock the Daikon Radishes, but you do have extra City Cash lying around, this is a great alternative to still help those in need. You can also look into purchasing a Kobe Cow in FrontierVille, if you'd rather donate with Horseshoes instead.

FrontierVille: Purchase Kobe Cow to help Japanese earthquake victims

Zynga has added to their partnership with Save the Children to help those victims of the Japanese earthquake by releasing a new charitable animal in FrontierVille. In addition to the Daikon Radishes in FarmVille, and the Sweet Potatoes in CityVille, you can now purchase a Kobe Cow in FrontierVille using Horseshoes. 100% of the purchase price of Kobe Cows will go to Save the Children's Japan Earthquake Fun, to help those victims in need.

The Kobe Cow is available to purchase as the first item on the "Special" tab in the marketplace. You'll be able to purchase a single Kobe Cow for 45 Horseshoes. This cow needs to be fed once every 10 hours, and you'll receive 5 XP and 50 coins for doing so. It's presumable that you could buy multiple cows if you so choose, knowing that each will cost 45 Horseshoes in the process.

There's no expiration date currently listed on this offer, so if you need to head to the store to buy a Zynga Game Card, you'll likely have plenty of time to redeem it and still donate before the Kobe Cow leaves the store.

Will you purchase a Kobe Cow in FrontierVille?

Cafe World Make Mardi Gras Merry Catering Order: Everything you need to know

To celebrate Mardi Gras, Zynga has launched a new Catering Order in Cafe World full of six tasks that you'll need to complete to "Make Mardi Gras Merry." These six tasks include three dishes that need to be cooked in bulk, and three collectable items that you'll need to receive from your friends.

This time around, the 3-star rating is only available for the first three days after accepting the job, so you'll need to make sure you have plenty of friends ready, willing, and able to help you before you jump in (or, simply have a lot of Cafe Cash on your account so you can unlock the steps that might give you trouble).

We have all of the details about this new catering order, so meet us behind the break to get started.


The three cooking tasks in this mission require you to serve Fish n Chips (a two hour dish) 400 times, serve Voodoo Chicken Salad (a 12 hour dish) 50 times, and serve Seafood Paella (a 14 hour dish) 50 times. All three of these tasks can be unlocked for anywhere from 30-35 Cafe Cash, which is quite the sum, meaning that I wouldn't undertake that decision lightly.

Remember, if you're having trouble cooking these dishes on your own, you can bring (and are encouraged to bring) up to 12 of your Cafe World friends in on the order with you, to share in the progress. You can add extra slots to your catering crew by collecting more items, as usual, but you likely won't need to if you already have 13 people (including yourself) all cooking at once.

While you wait for your dishes to cook, you can go about the task of asking your friends to send you the three collectibles in this catering order. You'll need to collect 7 Beads (bead necklaces), 4 Masks, and 3 Tambourines. Each of these items are earned by clicking on the "Ask" button next to an item and then sending individual requests to your friends to help you out.

If you can complete the order within the first three days of starting, you'll earn the 3-star rating, 12 Catering Points, 3500 Cafe Points, 60,000 coins, and you'll unlock the exclusive dish for this order - the New Orleans Gumbo. New Orleans Gumbo can be cooked for 600 coins, and is ready to serve in just one hour. You'll have 45 servings to sell for 20 coins each, giving you a return of 900 coins in total.

If you can't finish within three days, but still finish within the first five days of starting, you'll receive the 2-star rating, 8 Catering Points, 2500 Cafe Points, and 45,000 coins. Finally, if you finish the mission at any time after the first five days, you'll receive a single star, 4 Catering Points, 1500 Cafe Points, and 25,000 coins.

This looks to be one of the more tedious catering missions released in Cafe World, as you'll need to continually come back to your game to serve the Fish n Chips, but at least completing that task in bulk should be easier than, say, 400 12-hour dishes, or worse. Good luck to all those going for the 3-star rating!

Will you complete this Mardi Gras catering order in your game, or do you think it's too difficult to complete in time?

Cafe World Toaster Oven: Everything you need to know

A new building project is now available to undertake in Cafe World, with this new appliance coming in the form of a Toaster Oven. The Toaster Oven can be compared to a Super Stove, or even the Deep Fryer, in that it offers one-click cooking (meaning that once you choose the recipe, it goes to cook immediately, without dealing with extra clicks for ingredient preparation), and it requires no cleaning.

Perhaps the nicest part about the Toast Oven, however, is the fact that it requires very few parts to build, in comparison to other objects in the game. The Toaster Oven takes only nine parts to build, and we have all of the details about this new appliance behind the break. Won't you meet us there?


The Toaster Oven's assembly is quite simple, as we said. It requires nine parts in total to build: a single Warming Tray, three Thermostats, two Toaster Knobs, and 3 Broiling Racks. You'll be able to earn these items by clicking on the "Ask for More" button next to each ingredient and then sending individual gift requests to your friends asking for that items.

In addition, you can also earn these items from Special Delivery boxes sent you as free gifts (depending on how many other building projects you currently have in your cafe), or through the daily Special Delivery email that you receive from Zynga, if you've shared your real email address with them.

Once you're done building the Toaster Oven, you'll be able to use it to cook some exclusive dishes; that is, some dishes will only be available to cook in the Toaster Oven, just as you can only cook some things in the Deep Fryer, but not your entire recipe book. Three of these recipes are Bruschetta (240 coins to cook), Toaster Pastries (1000 coins to cook) and an Eggplant Sandwich (700 coins to cook). After serving a dish, you won't have to clean the Toaster Oven before cooking another.

It's presumable that Zynga will add more dishes to the Toaster Oven's catalog in the future, just as they added a second set of recipes to the Deep Fryer in the past. In the meantime, why not take a look at the long list of Toaster Oven goals that have been released in association with this new appliance. You can find all of the details on how to complete these 6+ goals in our guide.

What do you think of these new recipes? Do you appreciate having a new cooking tool in your cafe, or would you rather keep all of the cooking on the stove top?

Infinity Blade 2 takes notes from Mafia Wars's playbook next year

Infinity Blade 2
Let's just hope that seven bucks it's asking for comes down by that time. Chair Entertainment, the creator of Infinity Blade and its critically-acclaimed sequel, has announced that an ambitious social update is coming to the game in 2012. The new social feature is known as Clash Mobs, and it call thousands of players together both in real-time and asynchronously to take down massive enemies. Sound familiar?

"Clash Mobs will appear in an update of the game and incorporate players from all over the world," Infinity Blade 2 lead designer Donald Mustard told Mashable. "Right now, you play the game by yourself, but Clash Mobs will let you partner with thousands of other players in real-time to help you reach a goal in the game."

The update, which is expected to land within the next six months, will reward all players that contribute to each massive battle with new weapons and experience points. "We want gaming apps to be a massive social event, and this will be a step in the right direction," Mustard said to Mashable. "The concept is already available on certain games such as Words With Friends, so we wanted to incorporate a social component to this role-play games, as well."

According to Mashable, Mustard said that these collaborative efforts could take upwards of 24 hours with thousands of friends and strangers alike lending their blades to the fight. Again, sound familiar? This all sounds like the boss battles common to Facebook role-playing games like Mafia Wars and its new mobile counterpart, though in real time rather than asynchronous play. Now, the biggest differential between the two is that hefty $6.99 price tag.

What do you think of hardcore-skewed games like Infinity Blade taking cues from more casual social games like Mafia Wars? Does this mark a trend, or is a game maker simply trying something new?

Could social games inspire players to help out in the real world, too?

Social games may be about using your friends as resources to progress, but that's a two-way street, you know. (And if you're the type that's only going one way, don't expect to have many friends for very long.) The same applies to the real world, in a way, no? Iowa State University professor of psychology Douglas Gentile's recent findings might point in that direction.

In an article published in the December issue of the journal Nature Reviews/Neuroscience, Gentile puts forth the idea that social games might inspire players to be helpful to others in real-life social situations. Titled "Brains on video games," the article is a collection of independent studies from six researchers on the psychological effects of video games.

Particularly speaking to social games, Gentile found in experimental studies across the U.S., Japan and Singapore that playing "pro-social" games led to more "helping behavior" in players as a result, according to Medical Xpress. In one longitudinal study, or one conducted over an extended time period, it was found that students that started their school year playing social games displayed increased helpful behaviors later in the school year.

"If content is chosen wisely, video games can actually enhance some skills," Gentile said to Medical Xpress. "But overall, the research has demonstrated that they're far more powerful teaching tools than we imagined. But the power can be both good and bad." Of course, Gentile was referring to the potentially negative psychological effects of violent video games like desensitization and everyday aggression.

While it can't be said for sure that helping one another through social gaming directly leads to players feeling driven to help others in the real world, it makes sense on paper. While the motivations are far more simplified, social gamers use their friends to advance much like folks make friends to advance. Whether that real-world motivation be emotional fulfillment or scoring a carpool to work, there's still a possible connection there, right?

Do you think social gaming could lead to more helpful behavior in real social situations? Do you find yourself more cooperative in your day-to-day, thanks to FarmVille or another Facebook game?

Coco Girl maker MetroGames lets go of employees after failed buyout

Unfortunately, even developers that appear to be doing well aren't safe, it seems. Inside Social Games reports that, after failing to close a deal that would have sold the company to a larger publisher, MetroGames has begun to ax its staff. Best known for hits like Coco Girl, which released earlier this summer, the company enjoys a seemingly healthy 5.5 million monthly players.

"We informed our staff of our financial condition last week," MetroGames CEO Damián Harburguer told ISG. "A significant number of really talented employees have left the company and we will be forced to make additional reductions very soon. We regret that this happened during the Holiday season, but we did not want to take drastic action while any chance remained that a deal would be successful. We are doing everything we can to help our former employees find new positions with other companies in Buenos Aires and elsewhere."

According to the website, Harburguer's statement follows an email that arrived at several news outlets last week from someone that claimed to be a MetroGames employee. The supposed employee reported that both Harburguer and MetroGames COO Julián Lisenberg had publicly asked staffers to continue working throughout December holiday bonuses or even wage payment. The anonymous employee also claimed that the two had privately pressured employees to quit simultaneously.

The news comes as a shock considering MetroGames' top game is home to over 3 million monthly players and 530,000 daily players. There has been no official mention of MetroGames closing down, but the nameless employee does warn of "imminent closure," according to ISG. Best wishes to those affected, and sadly, this is just latest in a string of layoffs in the social games scene this year.

Are you bummed at the thought of MetroGames closing down? What do you think of the rampant closures and layoffs in social games this year?

The breakdown of Japanese social gamers is a lot like the U.S., actually

As it turns out, older women in Japan like social games just as much as they do in the states. Major Japanese social gaming companies including DeNA, GREE and Mixi have released detailed demographic information regarding their players. And, aside from a few interesting caveats, Japanese social gamers don't differ too much from their Western counterparts.

According to GREE, 53 percent of its players are women, while 34 percent of those are aged between 20 and 29 years old. Just under that is 27 percent, accounting for Japanese gamers 30 to 39 years old. GREE also breaks down its player base according to geographic location. Of course, those based in Tokyo dominated the graph, making up 34 percent of all GREE players. Following that is Kinki with 16 percent of players.
GREE gamer demographics
As for DeNA, the company has only provided aged-related data, but Serkan Toto guesses that its gender demographic split is similar. Since March 2011, a whopping 41 percent of Mobage--its mobile social game network--players are aged 30 years or older.

Japanese media publisher Enterbrain has provided its own unique demographic data of social gamers focusing on occupations. According to the company's findings, nearly 15 percent of all Japanese social gamers are housewives, followed by office workers coming in at around 13 percent. It looks like, no matter where you're from, the current crop of social games just speaks to the ladies.

[Image Credist: GREE, Kotaku]

Are you surprised at all that social demographics in Japan don't differ terribly from those in the states? Do you think these numbers would look similar in other parts of the world?

2011's hottest gadgets all have one thing in common...

Games. And those hopelessly addictive casual games, at that. According to an end-of-year poll put together by SodaHead, a leading opinion-based web community, the five best gadgets of this year all provide game entertainment. The website's poll of 962 people declared Apple the clear winner, with its iPhone 4S and iPad 2 taking 39 and 25 percent of the vote, respectively.

Of course, it's pretty clear at this point that the iPhone and iPad game scene is thriving, especially when it comes to "free". Following Apple's empire is Amazon's Kindle Fire with 17 percent of the vote, the Nintendo 3DS winning the hearts of 12 percent of voters and the Nook Tablet scoring 7 percent of the vote.

While the 3DS is billed as more of a hardcore mobile gaming device at the moment, Nintendo promises that more casual games are the way. The Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire, however, have made casual games a major pillar of their strategy since day one, with game franchises like Bejeweled, Words With Friends and Angry Birds available on both devices already.

A sample of just under 1,000 might be considered rather small, but we're willing to bet that more than 1,000 folks would generally agree with the results. A look at any of these devices' sales numbers--well, the 3DS's later numbers--can attest to that. As for 2012, you can likely expect our prediction for 2011 ring even truer: Mobile games will burn hotter than ever. Check the infographic in full below.

What do you think was the best gadget of 2011? If you own one of these devices, what's the number one thing you use it for?