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.

Zynga slaps Brazilian social game creator Vostu with lawsuit for copycatting

Zynga vs Vostu
Look, we all know Zynga has been pegged before for, how do you say, being inspired by their competitors' works. But that pales in comparison to what Vostu, a Brazilian social game publisher has done with popular games like CityVille and PetVille. The developer south of the equator has essentially copied several Zynga games wholesale--mistakes and all, as TechCrunch reports--into games like Mega City and Pet Mania. Lo and behold, Zynga has slapped Vostu with a big ol' lawsuit for, you guessed it, infringement. Zynga had this to say in its lawsuit:

    Vostu has brazenly appropriated the copyright-protected aspects of Zynga's games(as well as almost every other aspect of Zynga's business) – with scant effort to mask their strategy– and then offered games virtually identical to Zynga's games to prospective players in the United States and elsewhere.

Basically (and based on its previous run-ins with companies), Zynga sees drawing inspiration from and downright copying the opposition verbatim, as two different things. Though, again, that's also a slippery slope. The lawsuit, which Zynga filed in a San Francisco court (and TechCrunch has in full right here), displays detailed comparisons between its games and Vostu's, clearly supporting its case. It's a shame, too, because we'd love to see Vostu's take on games like FarmVille for iPhone--mistakes and all.