Show off your Treetopia talents with new leaderboard

Treetopia Leaderboard
Treetopia released something pretty integral to the game in the form of a new leaderboard screen. This leaderboard updates every 7 days with new information about who the top Treetopia players are at any given time. There are three separate leaderboards, one for "Likes", one for "XP, and one for "Quests Done". When you visit a friend's Treetopia, you are given the option to click "like" on that Treetopia. Likes are a pretty good indicator that someone has done a good job of decorating and growing their tree.

On the leaderboard, you are also given the option to go see these different leaders. We think this is pretty neat, because if you've ever wanted to see what a level 39 player's Treetopia looks like - now you can. The top player currently has 38,000 quests completed! We're not sure how that's possible, but that is one dedicated Treetopia player.

In addition last week, new soccer items were added to Treetopia, and a new newspaper screen now displays all of the latest news. Check out the screenshot below to see what a max level player's Treetopia looks like.

FarmVille Announces Multiple Nursery Barns as Glitch: Build at your own risk!

On June 4th, we notified you about a Nursery Barn Glitch that is allowing farmers to build more than one Nursery Barn. Zynga has confirmed this as a glitch and has officially addressed the issue on the FarmVille forum. For the time being, you may be able to build multiple Nursery Barns, but it is not intentional or part of a new FarmVille upgrade. Zynga is aware of the glitch and will be working on a solution.

They are warning that you should build at your own risk . If you keep additional Nursery Barns (over 2) on your farm, it is possible that you may lose any animals stored in additional Nursery Barns whenever the glitch is patched in the future.

Update: The June 14th FarmVille Official Podcast announced that they will allow farmers to keep up to two Nursery Barns, but any additional Nursery Barns over two may be lost when the glitch is patched.

FarmVille Community Manager, Lexilicious announced via Official FarmVille Forum the following statement:

    "Hi Farmers,

    Since the release of Nursery Barns, a glitch has come to our attention that allows users to have more than one Nursery Barn.

    This is not the intended functionality of this feature and the ability to have more than one Nursery is a glitch.

    We are intending on fixing this issue in the future, however we have decided to allow users to have the ability to possess two Nursery Barns on their farm.

    Please know that if you continue to take advantage of this glitch and choose to have more than two Nurseries on your farm, you are building at your own risk, as this issue will be addressed in the future.

    This fix may result in the loss of any Nursery Barns in excess of two.

    We appreciate your patience and understanding with us during this time.

    Happy Farming!" (Source: FarmVille Forum)

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille Official Podcast for June 14th 2010

FarmVille's official podcast, rescheduled from Friday, June 11th, has aired today June 14th 2010 and is hosted by FarmVille Community Manager, Lexilicious.

You can listen to the podcast in the video above, read our FarmVille Freak Podcast Summary below or read the official transcript of the podcast provided by FarmVille's official forum.
FarmGoddess' FarmVille Freak Summary

New Releases from Last Week:

1. Island Theme

    Limited edition theme with decorations, animals, and crops.
    Pink Hibiscus and Flamingo Flower crops. No Mastery, limited edition.


2. Soccer Theme

3. Tea Party Co-Op Job

4. Dogs Last trick

Free Fuel for FarmVille Email Users

    One email per day.
    Each email expires in 24 hours
    Can get 3 tanks of fuel per day.
    Must be level 12 farmer


Crafting Cottages

    Bakery, Winery, Spa
    Clicking "Learn More" will show you more details.
    Limited edition gift of Gnomes for participating in the Crafting Cottage Preview.
    Your choice of profession is not locked in, you can change it when they are actually released.
    You can start collecting Bushels ahead of time that will be required for ingredients.
    This pop-up will only appear ONCE.


User-Submitted Questions:

    Q: How many Nursery Barns are allowed on farms? A: This is a GLITCH, not an intended function. This issue will be fixed. For now, users can have two Nursery Barns on their farm. If you have more than two Nursery Barns you are building at your own risk. You can lose any buildilngs or animals in excess of 2 when the glitch is fixed.
    Q: Are other animals besides Dogs allowed at Zynga? A: All pets are welcomed. There are some cats, one artist brought in a Rabbit, so other animals are allowed.
    Q: What constitutes a UNIT of gas? A: If you receive a Unit it is enough fuel for one plot of land.


:::COMING SOON:::

Adjustments to the Wheat Crop

    Wheat will be changed to a 12 hour crop.
    Wheat Crop Mastery will also change.
    Reason for change is that Wheat will be a common component in the Crafting Cottages.


Dairy Barn Expansions are coming soon!

Bees

    Bees will be coming soon!
    In the next few weeks.
    Will also include an entire new feature with Bees.

What was your favorite news in this podcast?

Official FarmVille Transcript for June 14th 2010

FarmVille Podcast – June 14th:

    Hey Farmers, and welcome to this week's installment of the Official FarmVille Podcast! My name is Lexilicious and I am here to bring you all of the latest news and information about FarmVille from Zynga. This week, we will be discussing our latest releases, I will be answering some questions from members of the FarmVille Community, and you guys will all be getting a sneak peek of things coming to FarmVille in the future.

    We had another week absolutely jam packed with new items for you guys to decorate your farms with. On Tuesday, the first installment of our new Island Theme made an appearance in FarmVille, bringing with it some items unlike any other you may have seen in FarmVille before. This new theme is very different from others we have released, which is wonderful for any users who are looking for a little variety in their game, or for those of you who like to stand out in a crowd. The new Island theme includes some great new animals and crops as well. The Spider Monkey, Pelican and Island Pig can now be found in the market along with the new Pink Hibiscus and Flamingo Flower.

    For anyone who may be interested, the Pink Hibiscus is a 22 hour crop, costs 140 Coins and Yields 310 coins when harvested. The Flamingo Flower is a 16 hour crop, costs 35 coins and yields 200 coins when harvested. Both of these crops are limited edition so they cannot be mastered and they will only be around for short time, so make sure to plant them while you still can.

    Along with the new Island themed limited Edition items, the new Soccer theme also made an appearance this week, along with the "Tea Party" Cop-op mission and the level 5 trick for your dogs. Remember, different breeds will do different things to help you around the farm, like fetching consumables, harvesting cows and harvesting sheep.

    We also have a new feature that has been implemented as a thank you to our users for signing up for email! For a limited time only, we will be giving out fuel to users who are level 12 or above that you can only claim through email.

    You will receive 1 email a day for the next two weeks containing free fuel. However, make sure that you claim your offer quickly because each fuel bonus expires within 24 hours. And the best part of this special promotion? You have the chance to get up to 3 tanks of fuel each day!

    And on Tuesday, the new Crafting Cottages Preview made its debut in FarmVille! This preview will give you a sneak peek of the upcoming Crafting Cottages feature and provide you with some valuable information.
    Upon logging into FarmVille, you will see a pop-up that shows the three new Crafting Cottages. The Bakery, Winery and Spa.
    Clicking "Learn More" will show you a sneak peek of some of the recipes each crafting cottage can build.

    Clicking the "Sign up" button will sign you up for one of the three professions. Upon doing this, you will receive a special Limited Edition gift as a thank you.

    If you choose your profession and regret your decision, never fear farmers. Your choice of profession isn't locked in. You will have the opportunity to change your mind about which crafting cottage you want to use when the feature is released.

    Now, make sure to start collecting bushels ahead of time so you'll be ready to go when the Crafting Cottages are released! Since this pop-up will only appear once, you can find the details of some of the upcoming recipes on the Official FarmVille forums.

    And as you guys know, thousands of questions are submitted to the FarmVille team each week and the best ones are answered here.
    Our first question this week comes to us from Jaime154, and her question is something I know many of you want answered. Jaime would like to know how many Nursery Barns you guys are allowed to have on your farms.

    Well, since the release of Nursery Barns, a glitch came to our attention that allows users to have more than one Nursery Barn. This is not the intended functionality of this feature and the ability to have more than one Nursery is a glitch.

    We are intending on fixing this issue in the future, however we have decided to allow users to have the ability to possess two Nursery Barns on their farm.

    Please know that if you continue to take advantage of this glitch and choose to have more than two Nurseries on your farm, you are building at your own risk, as this issue will be addressed in the future. This fix may result in the loss of any Nursery Barns in excess of two.
    Our second question comes to us from Nabby Sensai. "I want to know if zynga allows other animals besides dogs at work too. Are there ever cats at work and do the dogs chase them?"

    In fact, Zynga is more than just dog friendly. Pets of all shapes and sizes are allowed at work, as long as they are relatively well behaved. I have seen a few cats wandering around the office, but usually they are smart enough to steer clear of the dogs here. Much to the delight of the members of the FarmVille team, last Thursday, one of our artists actually brought his rabbit with him to work. So to answer your question... yes, other animals are allowed here at Zynga.

    And our last question is from Nana25 and this one is also something I see asked very frequently around the forums. "What constitutes a "unit" of gas"?
    This one is actually quite simple. If you receive a unit of fuel from a feature, it is enough fuel for one plot of land. For example, if you have 100 plots on your farm and you wish to use a vehicle that costs fuel to tend to them, you would need to obtain 100 units of fuel.

    Alright! That's it for user submitted questions for this week. Remember, if you have a question you would like answered by a member of the FarmVille team, please make sure to visit the Official FarmVille forums or www.farmville.com for more information.

    Now, due to some internal changes, we will be temporarily be removing the Tip of the week segment for a couple of weeks, however we will be bringing it back as soon as we are able, since so many of you have requested to see it return.

    And on that note, it's time for the part of the podcast I am sure all of you skip forward to hear... it's time for a sneak peek of things coming your way in the near future!

    So first up, we are going to be making some adjustments to the Wheat crop. Soon, it will become a 12 hour crop and we will be adjusting the cost, yield, and mastery numbers to bring it in line with its new grow time. We're doing this because wheat will be a pretty common component in some of the crafting cottage recipes and we don't want you guys to be using a crop with a multiple-day grow time in your first recipes.

    Now the second thing on the list this week is Dairy Barn Expansion! That's right folks, expansion for your dairies will be coming soon as per your request.

    And lastly, we have a release coming your way in the next couple of weeks that I am sure many of you will enjoy. Now, if anyone who is listening frequents the "suggestions" section of the FarmVille forums, you will know that bees are one of the most requested items we see. Well, not only will you see bees soon... we are making an entire feature around them! So make sure to keep an eye out for this upcoming release and the others in the near future.

    Alright folks, that's it from me this week. Again, my name is Lexilicious and thank you all so much for listening. I will be back this coming Friday with all of the latest news and information from around the Farm.
    Happy Farming!

FarmVille Freak Glenn's Horse, Foal, Cow & Calf Collection

FarmVille Freak Glen's Horse, Foal, Cow, & Calf Collection
Some farmers, like FarmVille Freak Glenn, love collecting all the FarmVille animals including limited editions, adoptables and farm cash only animals which make it especially difficult to own all the FarmVille animals ever released. FarmVille Freak Glenn has concentrated his endeavors on collecting all the released FarmVille Horses, Foals, Cows and Calfs.

While working on completing the collection, he has accumulated an almost complete matching set of Horses and their mini Foal versions as well as the Cows and their mini Calves.

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille Unreleased Tiki Surfdive Shack, Tiki Jet Skis, & Tiki Beach

It looks like some new Island themed decorations may be coming soon to FarmVille. Thank you to FarmVille Freak Martijn from FarmVille Code Hunters for finding these unreleased FarmVille Tiki Surfdive Shack, Tiki Jet Skis, & Tiki Beach.

Note: Unreleased items have no official release date or guarantee that they will make it to the FarmVille Market. Zynga is the sole owner of all their copyrighted images.

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

Restaurant City unleashes 60s Pop Chic theme and Magic Box

The newest theme to hit Restaurant City packs a blast from the past. Sixties Pop Chic week is here and Restaurant City wants you to design your eatery with all new mod items of old. The theme packs quite a variety of decor and objects for your restaurant so be sure to continue reading to get a look at the whole selection.

In addition, in conjunction with the new 60s Pop Chic themed goods, a new Magic Box has been released too. Continue reading to find out more.
restaurant city magic box
The Restaurant City Magic Box costs 12 Playfish Cash. Buy five for 60 Playfish Cash and you'll get an extra Magic Box for free. Finally, if you buy twelve boxes for 120 Playfish Cash you'll receive three extra Magic Boxes. Inside you'll find all kinds of exclusive items, some from the current limited edition theme, some not. If you head to Restaurant City you can see a ticker behind the box of the items potentially inside.

Below is all the new items from the Restaurant City 60s Pop Chic theme.
restaurant city 60's chairs
Chairs
Pearl Plastic Monobloc Chair - 1,600 Coins with email permission
Sky Plastic Monobloc Chair - 1,600 Coins with email permission
Green Half Capsule Chair - 2,400 Coins
Orange Half Capsule Chair - 2,400 Coins
Yellow Half Capsule Chair - 2,400 Coins
Red Half Capsule Chair - 2,400 Coins
Orange Mod Sofa - 2,500 Coins
Chocolate Mod Sofa - 2500 Coins

Tables
Mixed Grain Table - 1,300 Coins or Free Gift
Pearl Plastic Table - 1,300 Coins
Sky Plastic Table - 1,300 Coins

Wall Decoration
Airport Clock - 6,000 Coins

restaurant city 60's pop chic decor
Decoration
Cool Blue Disco Tile - 2 Playfish Cash
Mean Green Disco Tile - 2 Playfish Cash
Blush Modernist Divider - 2,400 Coins
Chocolate Modernist Divider - 2,400 Coins
Apple Modernist Divider - 2,400 Coins
Orange Mod Sofa Centre - 2,700 Coins
Orange Mod Sofa Corner - 2,700 Coins
Chocolate Mod Sofa Corner - 2,700 Coins
Chocolate Mod Sofa Centre - 2,700 Coins
Beatnik Man - 10,000 Coins

restaurant city 60's pop chic floor
Floor Tile
Airport Series Departure Tile - 50 Coins with email permission
Airport Series Arrival Tile - 50 Coins with email permission
Airport Series Cafe Tile - 50 Coins with email permission
Hotel Series Apple Tile - 70 Coins
Hotel Series Blush Tile - 70 Coins
Hotel Series Grape Tile - 70 Coins

restaurant city 60's pop chic
Wallpaper
Terracota SimpleTone Wallpaper - 1,700 Coins
Olive SimpleTone Wallpaper - 1,700 Coins
Ochre SimpleTone Wallpaper - 1,700 Coins
Apple SimpleTone Wallpaper - 1,700 Coins
Blush SimpleTone Wallpaper - 1,700 Coins
Grape SimpleTone Wallpaper - 1,700 Coins
Apple Fan Pattern Wallpaper - 2,900 Coins
Sky Fan Pattern Wallpaper - 2,900 Coins
Peach Fan Pattern Wallpaper - 2,900 Coins
Pink Fan Pattern Wallpaper - 2,900 Coins
Kiwi Sky Stripe Wallpaper - 3,500 Coins
Blush Dawn Stripe Wallpaper - 3,500 Coins
Citrus Punch Stripe Wallpaper - 3,500 Coins
Orchard Stripe Wallpaper - 3,500 Coins
Soup Pop Art Print Series - 300,000
Click here to play Restaurant City>

FarmVille Unreleased Edelweiss Crop & Edelweiss Mastery Sign

    farmville edelweiss
Thank you to FarmVille Freak Shiori for finding these unreleased FarmVille Edelweiss Crop & Edelweiss Mastery Sign.

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.


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YoVille: Win up to 500 Free YoCash!

yoville free yocash
Platinum Ninja announced in her Blog on YoVille.com, 'YoVille 3 Day Twitter Contest'. Just a simple Tweet a day could win you up to 500 YoCash and help spread the word and bring awareness about Protecting the Gulf. Read her Official Blog and learn how you can enter after the jump.

yoville free yocashHi Guys,

Let's help spread the word about Protecting the Gulf through Twitter! YoVille will be giving away 100 YoCash to 10 daily winners and 1 Grand Prize winner will win 500 YoCash through a 3 Day Twitter Contest! It's just a simple tweet a day with a chance to win tons of YoCash and help bring awareness to Protect the Gulf.

To Enter:

1. Log into your Twitter account and make sure you're following @yoville

http://twitter.com/yoville

If you aren't signed up it only takes a few minutes to register!

2. Tweet this contest message on the following day of the contest:

Day 1:
"Day 1: I want to help Protect the Gulf and win 500 YoCash from @yoville#YoVille!"

Day 2:
"Day 2: I want to help Protect the Gulf and win 500 YoCash from @yoville#YoVille!"

Day 3:
"Day 3: I want to help Protect the Gulf and win 500 YoCash from @yoville#YoVille!"

You may submit up to 5 tweets a day.

3. Tweets for the daily prize will be accepted until 11:59pm PDT that day and winners will be announced the following morning.

4. A Grand Prize winner will be chosen on Monday at 11:59pm PDT. The more you tweet, the better your chances of winning 500 YoCash!

Winners will be announced on Twitter and on the YoVille fan page. Don't forget to spread the word about our special 3-day contest and help Protect the Gulf!

Good Luck!

Platinum Ninja

This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.

New YoVille Moroccan Theme coming soon

The Summer Theme is on it's way out and a New Moroccan Theme will be on it's way to YoVille! Spice up your rooms with an Oriental/North African flair. Marrakesh and Casablanca here we come! Read Platinum Ninja's Official Blog after the jump.

Hey Everyone,

The Pool Party Theme has come to an end and the last of these items have already been released. Hope you all had fun playing around in your pools and threw some fun parties at your home! At this moment we will continue to keep this category in the stores for purchase but will be moving on to the next theme.

Don't worry guys summer fun isn't over yet! We'll be sending you on a YoVacation to Morocco. We have tons of Moroccan stuff headed your way! So get ready to spice up your rooms and your avatar! Lot's of awesome colors, designs, patterns and more! Here's a sneak peek of what is soon to come in the clothing department.
yoville moroccan theme
yoville moroccan theme
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.

YoVille players show off amazing "no YoCash" designs

I know that not all of us can afford to pay a lot of hard earned money to enjoy playing YoVille, so here are some amazing rooms done by the players of YoVille without the use of any YoCash!!

1. Teresa Comer
yoville no yocash designs
Patriotic and classy is what this room screams!! I'm ready for the fourth all over again!! Nicely done Teresa!!

Continue reading to see more.

2. Scottie Salyer
yoville no yocash designs
Scottie shows us a simple design can really be something fantastic, Great room Scottie!!


3. She Zozobrado
yoville no yocash designs
This room makes me want to have a serbert! My favorite theme that has been put out so far!! Great room She!

4. Nancy Burton Brooks
yoville no yocash designs
Nancy created this gorgeous black and white room using no Yocash!! Awesome room Nancy!


5. Michael Mazurek
yoville no yocash designs
This is showing just how amazing a room you can do with some imagination and NO yocash!! Fabulous job here Michael.

6. Jean Landuyt
yoville no yocash designs
Another garden BBQ with a pool to keep cool!! Great work here Jean!!

7. Eric Ebbing
yoville no yocash designs
This is such a simple design and beautiful at the price of no yocash!! Thank you Eric, this is amazing!

8. Donna Brazaite
yoville no yocash designs
Donna designs this pure as white room from heaven!! This is such a great decorating job!! Thanks Donna.

9. Ailis Alison Murray
yoville no yocash designs
I always wondered what I would ever do with all those ship in a bottles they gave us, well Ailis shows us exactly that!!

10. Robby Bobby
yoville no yocash designs
I love Alice in wonderland and love this cat!! How cool is this room!! Fabulous Robby!!

These rooms are just a small sample of what can be done without the use of Yocash. Lets face it, there will be items we all want that will cost Yocash, and most of us can afford a little each month. I just wanted to show you that it is possible to create gorgeous rooms free of Yocash!! If you have any questions or remarks feel free to add them below!!

This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.

Yoville: Lost baby panther needs a home

YoVille Lost Peter Panther
Baby Panther is looking for a home! You can help these little guys the same way as the previous lost animals; share them with your friends and give them a temporary home from your Facebook-feed. You can also purchase a Panther of your own from the Pet Shelter for 25 YoCash.
YoVille buy Peter Panther
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.

FarmVille Changes How Mystery Gift & Mystery Eggs Work

FarmVille Mystery Box opening
FarmVille has changed how you open giftable Mystery Gifts and Eggs!

Now, you no longer have to place them on your farm to open them! They will open automatically from the Giftbox when you click the "use" button. The item inside the Mystery Gift or Mystery Egg is then put straight into the Giftbox.

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille Unreleased: Armadillo, Longhorn Brown, & Pitbull Puppy

Thank you to FarmVille Freak Teresa for finding these unreleased FarmVille Armadillo, Longhorn Brown, & Pitbull Puppy!
FarmVille Unreleased: Armadillo, Longhorn Brown, & Pitbull Puppy
Sure to be a FarmGoddess' favorite, could the Pitbull Puppy be a representation of Zynga's mascot?

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.


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FarmVille: Latest unreleased items show Underground Storage is coming

Thank you to FarmVille Freak Teresa for finding these unreleased FarmVille Underground Storage Phase 1/2/3, Shovel, Locked Cellar, & Cellar Shovel!
FarmVille Unreleased Underground Storage Phase 1/2/3, Shovel, Locked Cellar, & Cellar Shovel
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.


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FarmVille Unreleased: Gnome Caveman, Vintage Tractor, Pigpen Phase I, & Pigpen Phase II

Thank you to FarmVille Freak Teresa for finding these Unreleased FarmVille Gnome Caveman, Vintage Tractor, Pigpen Phase I, & Pigpen Phase II!
FarmVille Unreleased: Gnome Caveman, Vintage Tractor, Pigpen Phase I, & Pigpen Phase II
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

Mafia Wars Armory Production Items: What's in it for you

Since Zynga unleashed the Armory to giddy Mafia Wars fans everywhere yesterday, we've already shown you what you'll need to build the game's third item production property. We're here now to show you what you can get from this brand new piece of real estate, and it's looking good.

Join us after the break for a full list of what you can find from production your brand new Armory. Ocular Implants

Common Items

    Tigerskin Armored Vest (12 Attack, 30 Defense)
    Rolax Sheath (18 Attack, 28 Defense)
    Gene Splicer (27 Attack, 16 Defense)
    Rigged Traffic Cone (28 Attack, 19 Defense)
    Pair of Ocular Implants (25 Attack, 26 Defense)
    Davy Crockett Hat (21 Attack, 9 Defense)
    Flak Jacket (10 Attack, 25 Defense)
    Dragon Skin Body Armor (12 Attack, 28 Defense)
    Riot Gear (12 Attack, 28 Defense)
    Royal Thai Army Beret (28 Attack, 21 Defense)







Pair of Optiks

Uncommon Items

    Carmine's Lucky Lapel Pin (34 Attack, 11 Defense)
    Pair of Optiks (23 Attack, 36 Defense)
    Camouflage Body Armor (18 Attack, 34 Defense)
    Trip Wire Bomb (32 Attack, 19 Defense)
    Viking Helmet (21 Attack, 37 Defense)
    Half Dollar Body Armor (13 Attack, 30 Defense)
    Winner's Wreath (27 Attack, 38 Defense)
    Utility Belt (30 Attack, 30 Defense)
    PNV (21 Attack, 31 Defense)
    City Inspector's Uniform (30 Attack, 37 Defense)







Chevalier Exoskeleton

Rare Items

    Executive Overcoat (22 Attack, 45 Defense)
    Shturmovik (45 Attack, 28 Defense)
    Optical Camo Suit (43 Attack, 26 Defense)
    Chevalier Exoskeleton (18 Attack, 43 Defense)
    Galea (18 Attack, 45 Defense)
    Titanium Mesh Jacket (31 Attack, 46 Defense)
    Pinstripe Suit (21 Attack, 38 Defense)
    Blood Rain (30 Attack, 51 Defense)
    Pair of Trekker Boots (23 Attack, 38 Defense)
    Ghillie Suit (16 Attack, 42 Defense)


These are all of the items that your Armory will have a chance of building daily, but you can also build items yourself whenever you please. But you'll need enough Armor Parts to do it, which drop from jobs, fights and robbing. During your Armory's first three levels, you'll have a chance to make a random Common, Uncommon and Rare item, which will cost two, five and 14 Armor Parts respectively. Here's all of the items you can currently make from Armor Parts at Levels 4 through 10:

    Level 4 (18 Armor Parts): Plastic Legging (33 Attack, 41 Defense)
    Level 5 (22 Armor Parts): Mariner's Suit (43 Attack, 39 Defense)
    Level 6 (28 Armor Parts): Pressure Suit (45 Attack, 40 Defense)
    Level 7 (35 Armor Parts): Sleek Torso Guard (44 Attack, 46 Defense)
    Level 8 (38 Armor Parts): Full Body Armor (47 Attack, 40 Defense)*
    Level 9 (42 Armor Parts, 1 Bio-monitor): MNU Suit (31 Attack, 50 Defense)*
    Level 10 (48 Armor Parts, 1 Micro-fission Cell): Power Armor (43 Attack, 53 Defense)*


*Each time you build a Level 8, 9 or 10 item, you'll receive a permanent bonus to your stats. Level 8 items will grant +1 Attack and Defense, Level 9 items will reward +10 Health and Level 10 items will give you +2 Energy and Stamina.

That's a lot of Armor Parts! Instead of spending them on random items, we'd recommend saving them for the big guns as they seem to be definitely worth the wait.

Restaurant City Coffee Buzz Contest: Playfish Cash for those with the coolest Coffee Bars

Now, this is the beauty of social gaming. Two players of Playfish's Restaurant City, britgirls and benla, are running their very own contest in the game titled "Coffee Buzz." The goal? Make the most awesome coffee bar, of course!

Other players have pitched in and accumulated a total of 380 Playfish Cash in prizes for those with the snazziest Coffee Bar. Every aspect of the contest, from donations to moderating to judging is being run by dedicated players. Now, for a bunch of Restaurant City enthusiasts to get together and run this contest all by themselves is pretty damned impressive.

The official forum post says that the contest is open to anyone, but considering you'll need to be at least Level 9 or higher to even build the Coffee Bar, we'd recommend you reach that milestone first before entering.

All you'll need to do is submit a screen shot of your Coffee Bar in the contest's thread on the Playfish forums by September 30 and--boom--you've entered for your chance at a chunk of 380 Playfish Cash. Be sure to check out the thread for official rules and good luck. May the best Hazelnut Latte win!

Zynga and other top Facebook games see shrinking dedicated user base

Today's top Facebook games, including Zynga's beloved FarmVille franchise, are suffering a shrinking monthly user base, according to Gamasutra. While Zynga continues to hold a whopping seven of the top Facebook games, according to AppData, the number of returning players is slowly in decline.

FarmVille has only lost 4,800 users in the past two weeks, but that drop is nothing compared to the 84 million monthly users it fell from in March. Surprisingly, FrontierVille took a step back in growth worth 2.2 million players in just two weeks. While Zynga Poker enjoyed an increase in users to the tune of 1.6 million card sharks, the rest of the social gaming giant's games are losing players by the thousands.

Regardless of whether this is a surprise, what gives? According to Gamasutra, most of these games are enjoying increase in daily active users, oddly enough. What does this say about the lasting appeal of Facebook games?

Pet Society Update: "Like" button on items is now live thanks to Playfish

Playfish has added the option for users to "Like" individual items in Pet Society. When players see a new item that they want to share the news of to their friends, all they need to do is "Like" it and that information will appear on their friends' walls.

That player's friends can then click on that news feed post and be taken to a page where they'll either be logged into the game or, if they're new to the game, be given an option on whether to join. This change is very similar to the recent update made to FIFA Superstars in which users can now "Like" individual players and share that information with their friends.

The ability to add "Likes" to in-game content was opened up for Facebook developers just this month and could prove to be huge for promoting in-game content. It looks like Facebook game developers just got back exactly what they wanted: viral growth. Very sneaky, sis.

Writer's Blox on Facebook: Clever mind-bending word game backed by Merriam-Webster

I generally spend seven days out of the week tending crops, caring for virtual pets and delivering orders to my virtual mafia. While that's my job (and also a great way to unwind), sometimes all of that social gaming leaves my brain feeling, well, a little unused. And then, Arkadium's new Writer's Blox on Facebook steps in, delivering a clever word game designed to turn mushy brain matter back into a well-oiled thinking machine.

This word game starts by giving the player a series of blocks (or 'blox') with letters on them, and the goal is to form as many words as possible, earning the highest score possible. And while this might sound just like Scrabble, it's actually a little different. Instead of using single tiles with single letters on it, the blox can be anything from a single Scrabble-like tile to three and four tiles stuck together to form different shapes. Figuring out how all of those shapes can best work together to form words AND get the highest possible score is the real challenge. word blox on facebook
Writer's Blox players get two free puzzles to solve every day (a 'Daily Freebie' and daily 'Big Blox;' they both automatically reset at midnight EST), and once you place all of the blox on the board, you can save your layout before clearing the board to try again for a higher score. If you don't like how you're progressing on the second, third .. 10th try, you can revert back to one of your save layout or the layout with the highest score. This is one of the more polished elements in the game, and will be one of the big reasons word junkies like me will keep coming back for more.
writers blox buy more
Other things that left a lasting impression: there's a leaderboard that shows how your score measures up to friends, which is always great, but de rigeur for most Facebook games. The game expands on this social features with a cool 'My News' area that keeps tabs on your progress while you play (in the form of newspaper headlines, see image below) and you can click any of these news bits and post them on your Facebook wall for bragging rights.

writers blox

For now, that's pretty much the entire game, but it looks like more social gaming-style elements will be inserted into Writer's Blox shortly, including free gifts to send to friends, the ability to earn Writer's Bux, which can be used to buy unspecified 'bonus' items. I also like that this game is backed by Merriam-Webster, which lends a sense of authority to the entire experience.

There are still a few things I'd like to see included in Writer's Blox at some point: 1. More incentive to solve the word puzzles more than once. I'm a competitive person, but I generally don't have the amount of time it takes to solve the same word puzzle several times over unless it's going to yield a big reward. After going through the puzzle twice, I felt I deserved a little more in exchange for my time. 2. Achievements -- I'd like to see more a formalized achievement system with set goals which would give players a little more incentive to keep playing this game more than once a day.

Play Writer's Blox on Facebook now >

FarmVille Halloween Costumes arrive: Are they a trick or a treat?

FarmVille Halloween costumes have arrived, and for the next 16 days, you will be able to purchase a costume (for either coins or Farm Cash) and dress up your farmer in a variety of outfits -- my personal faves have to be Super FV Woman and the Ugly Duckling, as modeled by my virtual farmer in the image above.

There's good news and bad news about these costumes. A handful of them are available for coins, but the really cool ones will require you to spend some real-life cash to have the privilege of putting 'em on your farmer. However, I you just want to see if those pricier costumes are worth buying, you can try them on your farmer.
There are two ways to find these brand new costumes:

farmville halloween costumes

1. Click on your farmer, which will open the customization window. You should see a new 'Clothing' button on the top right. Mouse over it and you'll see a pop-down menu, which will have 'Costumes' as an option. Select costumes and you will be able to scroll through your selection.

farmville halloween costumes

2. There is also a new 'Clothes' option in the FarmVIlle Market. Click it to open up the menu of items, which can be purchased right there. If you want your farmer to try on the costumes, you will be bounced to the customization window once again.

FarmVille Halloween Limited Edition Item Showcase [Video]

If you're a FarmVille fan, you know that limited edition Halloween items have been flooding the game's in-game market, many of which cost Farm Cash. Most of these items are also animated (admit it -- they're pretty hard to resist) and you can see them in action in the video above.

Find more stories on our 2010 Halloween Guide for FarmVille, Mafia Wars & more.

Games.com launches Game Finder Facebook app

Can you tell which 'Cafe World' link you should click to get to the actual game? How many times have you thought you were going to a game and ended up on a random fan page instead?

That's where Game Finder enters the picture. This new Facebook app from Games.com is designed to help you find your favorite social games (or discover new ones) without the confusion. To search, simply go to http://apps.facebook.com/game-finder/ and type in the game of the game you're looking for. Your search results will lead you directly back to the game and not some random page.

facebook apps games.com But wait; there's more. Our goal with this app is to also help you make it easier to discover new Facebook games, and -- for now -- you can do that by browsing through games by the following genres: Virtual World, Card Games, Role-Playing, Action & Arcade, Word, Board and Other. You can sort by Most Popular, Alphabetical and New to take a peek at different games as well.

facebook browse games

We'll be tweaking this app with some more nifty ways to help you discover new games. In the meantime, head to Game Finder to play and discover new Facebook games.

Oh yeah, don't forget to sign up to win a Games.com branded Snuggie. We wear them at work all of the time and they are perfect for when it's cold but you need your hands free to play games. Winner!

ESPNU College Town's Jay Arrera reveals how TV might help social games grow [Interview]

ESPNU College Town, released just over 30 days ago, has already amassed over 2 million monthly users and released two major content updates introducing Facebook Credits, baseball, softball and myriad new items. Regardless of the Playdom pedigree, social game growth is in a weird limbo where companies will take a step forward only to take two more back. So, it begs the question: how? ESPNU College Town's Senior Producer Jay Arrera tells us how Playdom managed to attract a few million college sports fans in less than 60 days (hint: lots of TV advertisements) and how the studio plans to keep them coming back for more.

What was the inspiration behind ESPNU College Town and why use the ESPNU brand specifically?

ESPN actually approached Playdom. The company had recently launched Social City in the spring of this year, it did very well and actually received the Game of the Year Award at GDC Online. ESPN were big fans of the game and they approached us and said, 'We have an idea for someone to be an athletic director, we've seen that you made a really popular game in the social game space.' We formed a partnership where ESPN would work with Playdom on multiple titles and this is the first title in that series.
ESPNU Campus
ESPNU might be one of the most traditionally advertised Facebook games to date with TV spots found on ESPN. Why is it that you went with this approach to get the word out there?
That was definitely ESPN's drive. Facebook games are traditionally advertised only on Facebook, but part of it was that we wanted to attract ESPN's audience through the strength of their brand. They wanted this to be a game that was played by their audience and so we wanted to bring new users to ESPN's brand and ESPN wanted to bring new players to Facebook. I think we've succeeded; we've seen an increase in traffic from both ESPN.com and their related fan pages. But also we've got a lot of people playing this game who have never played a Facebook game before. Or they've heard about Facebook games, but nothing but bad things about them and are really enjoying and totally addicted to this game now.

What do you think has contributed most to ESPNU's insanely fast growth in just the past month?
I think it's the passion for college sports, specifically their alma mater. What's an important feature for us is to have people able to identify with a real-world school and with that they bring all of their passion, pride and rivalries. People are very competitive with their [school] rivalries. They're also really enjoying the campus-building portion and being able to make their campus look like how they remember it or wish had it ever been.

Going off of that, have you found trouble finding new players in the face of Facebook's recent changes to discovery and Groups?
I wouldn't say we're having trouble finding players, but it's changing the tactics we're using to get the word out. And that's one of the reasons we're really excited about this partnership with ESPN so that we can try a bunch of different advertising mediums that we haven't used before and see which ones are most effective and which ones aren't. The changes to Facebook have absolutely impacted our ability to use channels that we've used in the past. So, we're definitely getting creative.

ESPNU Cross Promotion Social City
How successful have the cross-game promotions been for ESPNU? Is that something that Playdom plans to continue in the future?
I think we'll do it on a case-by-case basis. It worked really well for this game because we were attracting an audience that was very interested in the specific niche we were going for with U.S.-based college sports fans. So, it was very effective for capturing that audience. We'll see how it performs in other games where we're trying to go more broad appeal or even a tighter niche.

What are your thoughts on the approach of other popular sports Facebook games like Madden NFL Superstars and FIFA Superstars? Was there ever an interest in creating more interactive Challenge games during the game's development?
That was one of the first things we discussed as in the design for the game and we had the very deliberate decision to not make this into a hardcore sports simulator. We've seen a number of games on Facebook come out with that approach and they've generally not done well. There is a very different audience on Facebook that are going to be interested in that fantasy simulator-there is definitely a core audience that is into that and they do well enough for that audience, but it's not a broad appeal. Playdom's approach with this particular game is very much so to make it appeal to as wide an audience as possible, that is engaging for casual users as well as fun for someone who is really passionate about their sports.

ESPN has their brand on the line and they wanted to make sure that sports fans were still getting the full sports experience. A lot of that is done by making a lot of activities to do in the game so that if someone just wants to build a college campus, they can experience the entirety of the game just doing that. If someone wants to be extremely competitive and play out in one or multiple sports either in their conference or against their friends, they can do that too. So, it was definitely a deliberate design decision to have a lot of different gameplay options for different audiences.

I'm sure there have been countless comparisons between ESPNU and Social City, so aside from Challenges, what else do you feel differentiates this game from Social City? How about in the future?
Obviously the Competitions and the sports are the big differentiations. One of the things that was pleasantly surprising to us is that most of the players of ESPNU College Town had never played Social City. So, while some of the gaming press have said, 'Wow, it looks just like Social City," that's because Social City was very effective. And now we have an entirely new audience and they're really enjoying the game mechanics as is. They're just as invested in it as Social City players are. Some people play both games and others just play ESPNU College Town; we're really happy with that.

Challenge Mode
Are there any plans in the future to further differentiate the two games or is this as far as it goes?
Oh no, they will continue to differentiate. Playdom has also recently released City of Wonder and some people say that it's very similar to Social City-that game has its own life now, its own audience and its own theme. ESPNU College Town will continue to do the same and we are already reacting to player-requested items and features; some of the recent releases have been because of player feedback. This game has its own audience and we will deliver on that feature list now.

While we're on it, now that the foundation has been laid for ESPNU, where does Playdom take the game from here?
Well, we're still growing the game, so we're still very much in the early part of what we want to do with the game. We're still doing everything we can to get the word out and getting friends to compete and share with their own friends; that's our primary goal right now. We are continuing to work with the player vs. player competition because it's very popular. So, we've got a lot of features coming in the next few weeks, so stay tuned for those changes. As you saw, we just added baseball and softball-there's a lot of college sports out there. We've also got a lot of ideas with ESPN about how to tie in the real world with the virtual world, so you can look forward to more tie-ins there.

The game was perfectly timed with the college football season, but what plans does Playdom have to keep ESPNU relevant in the future when the 2010-2011 football season is through? Will other sports take prominence as the seasons pass?
I think you'll see that as we go along. The best answer I have is that ESPN has made it their art to keeping sports alive 365 days a year and that's what they bring to this game. The ability to be not just a seasonal game, but something that is a collegiate experience year round.

Last but certainly not least, what tips or advice do you have for ESPNU players to get an edge on the competition?
Upgrade your academics! People joke that Academics don't play any effect in the game, but that is absolutely incorrect. That is how you build your student enrollment and how you get a competitive edge in competition. Also, it helps to have a better team, so having better All Stars you absolutely will improve in your Competition. Those two things are probably the most important.

It's been a lot of fun--if you actually look in the Playdom forums, there's tremendous discussion amongst the players trading tips. Also, Playdom actively participates in the forums too, so that's a great place to go to if players are looking for the edge.

Cafe World Jack-O-Lantern invites spooky guests to your cafe

We haven't seen a full collection of Halloween decorations in Cafe World yet, but Zynga have given us some spooky-themed fun to get the ball rolling. If you log in to Cafe World tonight, you will be greeted with an offer to place the Jack-O-Lantern in your cafe. Once placed, it looks like a pumpkin that is half buried in the ground, and has a tooltip saying "Carve Me!". Clicking on the pumpkin will bring up the above window that allows you to request parts from your friends to carve your Jack-O-Lantern.

The Jack-O-Lantern is a little pumpkin man that will summon Halloween-themed guests into your cafe. Players so far are reporting that the guests aren't too obvious, but they will be named things like "Dracula" and "Werewolf". To carve a Jack-O-Lantern, you need to collect 8 each of Knives, Spoons, Markers, and Candles. You can also by Knifes/Spoons for 1 Cafe Cash, and Markers and Candles for 2 Cafe Cash. The finished pumpkin product is storable, so you can put him away when Halloween season has come to an end. For those who want instant gratification, you can also purchase the Jack-O-Lantern for 20 Cafe Cash.

Treasure Madness update arrives with simpler ... everything

Tile Colors Updated
Finally, I can get back to digging. French social game developer zSlide decided that the menu systems in Treasure Madness weren't exactly intuitive and decided to focus on simplifying the whole menu navigation experience the game's most recent update. First off, the "Maps" section of the game has now been broken down into three simple tabs: Current Maps, Story Maps and Special Maps. While the first two are pretty self-explanatory being the maps you're currently working on and level-appropriate maps attached to the game's storyline, respectively--it's this Special Maps tab that is a bit ambiguous. Basically, any map that are limited edition (including expired ones), Golden, Fruity and archived maps will appear here.

Just like the simplified Maps section, Collections have also been streamlined in almost the same way. Now boiled down to three tabs (Incomplete, Story and Special), Collections are far easier to navigate. The main difference between the two changes is that far more Collections will be displayed than Maps purely because of how Collections work. More incomplete and Special Collections should be displayed because they're not something players actively work on.

Players can publish stories to their News Feeds even faster now by setting the game automatically post them via the starter bar or checking off "Publish Faster" under the option to share things. Removing the check box on later milestones will allow players to add custom messages to their posts.

In probably the greatest change to game in this update (pictured), tiles now glow in colored-coded hues to indicated their difficulty. Normal tiles glow white while progressively harder tiles glow yellow, then orange and the most difficult shine red--just as clear as the Homeland Security Advisory System! There are plenty more changes to the game including an improved backpack interface and an even easier way to buy maps right from within the game, so check out all the updates in-game.

Social Game Universe launches IGAPI, makes a game of cross promotion (literally)

Ever since Facebook's destruction of changes to how players discover new games, smaller developers have had a hard time getting their games to their audience (i.e. you and I). Social Game Universe, a Toronto-based social games innovator, has an answer for that in the Inter-Game API (IGAPI). A tool originally created solely for games by the developer like Hollywood Tycoon and Avastar, IGAPI transforms cross game promotion normally served by services like Applifier into somewhat of a meta-game for social gamers.

Find out more about how it works and what it could mean for social gamers after the break.
What would normally appear as a small advertisement for a game turns into what Social Games Universe calls an "Action Card" with IGAPI. The Action Cards allow players to interact with other gamers across different games entirely while remaining within the game currently on their screen. For instance, instead of seeing a message pop up on the marquee-style cross promotion bar that almost every social game has, you would see the option to double the strength of a player's army in Rise of the Ancients rather than merely an advertisement. Alright, well it's still an ad, but at least it's one that might engage you into trying the game out, because we all know how well banner ads work out. The service allows players to register for features like friend tracking, achievements and privacy settings. All things considered, IGAPI is nearly a game itself, but maybe that's the point.

IGAPI Action Cards
Social Games Universe is making the service available to all Facebook game developers for absolutely free, but what's more important is how this might revive players' ability to find new games to play. When your mouse clicks lead to an impact rather than information, it becomes much more appealing to go ahead and press the button. Down the line, this technology could use its friend tracking and XP system to keep players engaged in several games by one developer by letting them interact with one another across multiple games. If IGAPI catches on, expect to quite literally be gaming while you game.

Bon Jovi and CrowdStar could rock faces off with Facebook Credits deal

It looks like Bon Jovi will be living on more than a prayer (more like Facebook Credits) thanks to his new promotion in three of CrowdStar's hit games: Happy Island, It Girl and Happy Aquarium. While TechCrunch reports that Jovi- esque items can be found in all three, they're nowhere to be found, as of this writing, in neither Happy Island nor It Girl. However, players can find two Bon Jovi wallpapers in Happy Aquarium that each go for 42 Facebook Credits, or $4.20, and a set of Bon Jovi Drums (pictured) for the same price.

As players go about their business in the game, they'll be offered a Bon Jovi bundle pack complete with a digital download of the 80s legend's greatest hits album, Facebook Credits, Bon Jovi-themed items and a coupon code to use in the band's online store-- all for a certain amount of real dollars. While it's unsure how much dough Bon Jovi will make off of this deal (we're gonna' shoot for a lot), what really matters here is what this implies for the future of digital goods both in and outside of Facebook.

If this Bon Jovi deal takes off, developers like Zynga and Playdom could very well follow CrowdStar's example. Not to mention that this sort of bundle is far from limited to music deals. While getting a digital copy of an award-winning artist's greatest hits is interesting, how about a digital copy of a movie the day it releases on DVD or a download code for a piece of downloadable content within a video game (Playfish might be ahead of the game here) in a bundle with Facebook Credits? With digital media steadily becoming the de facto standard, this could become the next big carrot on the stick for virtual money.

Happy Aquarium: Pilgrims bring the harvest, colonize our tanks

    Penny the Pilgrim
In celebration of the day when the Pilgrims came to America, filled up the Native Americans with the best food they could find and then broke the news that they were taking over this town (or something like that), CrowdStar has released Pilgrims to Happy Aquarium. Paul and Penny the Pilgrim are Tankmates that both go for an affordable 23 Facebook Credits, or $2.30.

Sure they're smiling now, but just wait until they a throw a big party for your fishes. There will be all the fixings: turkey, candied yams (my favorite), corn and even a green bean casserole. But did we mention the massive dessert called imperialism? Yeah, try dealing with that, little fishes. Aw, but how can you resist--they're too darned adorable. Looks can be deceiving, people. So, watch out for your finned friends with these two schemers around. But look at those faces--resist, Joe.

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

Yes, Tony Hawk 'would love to' have a Facebook game [Interview]

Tony Hawk isn't just a skateboarding legend, he's also a thrifty entrepreneur. From his professional skateboarding career, to his clothing brand, to his eponymous game franchise (including the new Tony Hawk Shred), the man has made the name Tony Hawk synonymous with skateboarding the world over.

So where does a man -- seemingly at the peak of his career -- go from there? In a recent interview at a swanky NYC hotel, Hawk details the possible social gaming future of his game series, his interest in Microsoft's hands-free gaming peripheral, and his desire to introduce younger fans to his oldest -- and most beloved -- games that bear his name.

Do you think the Tony Hawk game series could make its way to Facebook or other social applications? Are you interested in exploring that segment of the market?

I would love to. I think maybe the first step of that was when we released Pro Skater 2 for iPhone and iPod Touch. I would love to port more of those games -- that would be amazing. Because I feel like you have a whole new experience with handheld devices and PDAs/Smartphones ... whatever you wanna call them. We just have to find the right partnership.

There's a lot of love for older games in the Tony Hawk series that you share enthusiasm for. Is there any possibility of seeing those games moving to more social mediums or Facebook?

Yeah, there's definitely interest. To be honest, that's more Activision's call. I try to move it as far as I can or, you know, push them in that direction. When the iPhone stuff came out, it was me knocking on the door like, "Hey, these guys, they can do it." There was this underground video that went out that they ended up taking off the web for awhile because Activision asked them to -- 'cause they just did it on their own. But I saw it when it came out and I said, "You guys gotta get on this. We gotta do this." And obviously there's a lot of legalities and licensing things, and it took a long time, but we did it.

We have such a great backlog of games that are prime to be on different platforms -- like social networks, or mobile devices -- I would go there first instead of creating something new for those platforms. Because there is a deep-rooted love for those games and people like to be nostalgic like that.

What's the next step for the Tony Hawk series? You've said the board peripheral was meant to make the game more realistic and immersive -- any interest in working with Microsoft's Kinect or Sony's PlayStation Move?

I really felt like that was the only way to make it more immersive, was to do something more physical. To stand on it. I had really shied away from that in previous years because I didn't feel like the technology was ready. It was just too clunky and weird. Then when I saw the whole advent of accelerometers and Wii Remotes and sensors -- I knew. And also the success of Guitar Hero was the big thing for me, because I felt like "We have the technology, but are people really going to buy a peripheral for a game?" And it works! Last year, kids really embraced this. And we've really tuned it up so it's more responsive, the software works better with the hardware this time around. And I'm really excited we can still make games for this.

And Kinect, I played it recently. I'm interested in it. There's a part of me that feels like skating is a little too intricate for that system, because I have played it and I see what it senses, but maybe there's a way to combine them, which would be amazing. Right now, the board is sensing all the motion and it's sensing if you're getting near it, but it's not sensing what your upper body is doing way up here, which is exactly what Kinect could do. So there's a lot of possibilities.

And you, as a gamer, what are you most interested in? Are you more of a social gamer or a console gamer?

I'm more interested in consoles. I'm more interested in utilizing the latest hardware to its fullest extent, and definitely things like this. Not in "gimmick" mode, but different ways to use the technology and have a more interactive experience with the game.

Is there anything you personally want fans to know about Tony Hawk Shred?

I think they don't realize just how far we've come with the controls. A lot of people assume if they had trouble with the controls before, how could it be any different? It's the same hardware. But, the way that the software and the hardware communicate, we've really tightened up and really made up a literally one-to-one turning ratio. I'm just really excited for people to get their hands on it and check it out.

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.

FarmVille Sneak Peek: White Ram, Snow Goose, Arctic Rabbit, Muskox

It's time once again for a FarmVille Sneak Peek, where we bring you leaked images of unreleased items that might be coming to FarmVille in the near future. This time around, we've come across a set of unreleased animals, all of which seem to have a connection to the upcoming winter holiday.

The animals are (from left to right), the White Ram, Snow Goose, Arctic Rabbit and Muskox. It's unclear yet as to whether or not these animals will be available for Farm Cash or coins (we're assuming the former for all of them), or how much they'll be worth when harvested.

As usual, there is no guarantee that any of these items will officially launch in the game, so keep that in mind.

While we're waiting to see if these animals launch in FarmVille,

City of Wonder: Stock up on extra Gold in Black Friday sale

As most Facebook games have done this year, Playdom is holding a Black Friday sale in City of Wonder, allowing users to stock up on extra Gold (the game's premium currency) that they can then use to purchase exclusive buildings and decorations.

This sale is a bit backwards, in terms of design. Rather than lowering the amount of money required to purchase each Gold package in the game, Playdom has instead simply increased the amount of Gold each package contains. That being the case, you can now pick up 100 Gold for $19.99 and 280 Gold for $49.99 (as examples), rather than the original 85 and 240 Gold packages originally available at those prices.

This sale will only be going on for a limited time, and Gold packages are available in quantities of as little as 20 Gold for $4.99, so make sure to take advantage of the bonus Gold now if you're at all interested.

Cafe World: Earn 50 Cafe Cash for Harry & David purchase

If you've been waiting for another shopping promotion in Cafe World, Zynga has launched a new one this weekend that you might be interested in. This newest promotion is from Harry & David, a gourmet gifts retailer.

Via this promotion, you'll be able to receive 30% off gourmet gifts, and get free standard delivery on all purchases. You'll need to activate this offer by clicking on the link (as seen at right) which appears below the Cafe World gameplay area. From there, place a legitimate order between now and December 18 and you'll receive 50 free Cafe Cash a reward for taking part.

While this offer will, of course, require you to put out some real money before you receive your Cafe Cash, if you had been planning on making such a purchase anyway, why not take a few extra seconds to activate the Cafe World deal and earn something for yourself in the process?

FarmVille Farm of the Week Contest starts now, strut your crops' stuff

Tweety Bird Farm
Do you own a farm that your neighbors could only dream of having? Are your crops shaped to form the image of Tweety Bird and Sylvester Pussycat? Well, the Zynga community team wants to recognize these farming feats of epic proportions with its Farm of the Week Contest in FarmVille. Every Monday, the forums will open up to submissions for the best farm to be decided that Friday at 3p.m. by the community team.

Better yet, there's no specific theme to each week--just bring your best farm and pit it against your fellow farmers' land. As for the winner, they'll be rewarded with 100 Farm Cash and their farm featured on the FarmVille fan page on Facebook. To give you a little guidance, the team of judges will be looking for originality, effort and presentation. All you need to do for entry each week is post a screen capture of your farm every Friday by 3 p.m. EST. Think your farm has what it takes? Then you better start decorating now because some of the earlier entries look mighty impressive.

Earn 2 free FarmVille Farm Cash via Step Up 3 promotion

With FarmVille in the midst of its holiday celebration for this year, many users are finding themselves splurging on item after item, not only as gifts for themselves, but as gifts for friends. What better way to help you continue that generous giving spirit than to earn yourself some free Farm Cash (a gift in and of itself, from Zynga to you).

You'll be able to earn 2 free Farm Cash via a new cross-promotion that Zynga has set up with Step Up 3, the third installment in the popular film series about dancing. This promotion can be accessed by heading to FarmVille's game page on Facebook, and then scrolling down to the bottom of the flash gameplay area, where you'll see the "Sponsored Link" area, as seen at the top right of this post.

Clicking on that link will bring up a new window, where you'll be asked to "Watch five Step Up 3 videos and vote for your favorite!" Unfortunately, you can't get out of this without watching at least one video. You can, of course, watch as many of them as you'd like, but as soon as you've watched a single video, you can click on the "Vote" button next to it to be able to move on.

As soon as you submit your answer, you'll see the exciting "You've earned your Farm Cash" text appear in the top right corner of this new window, which can then be closed. Simply refresh the FarmVille game page, and you'll see that your in-game Farm Cash total will have increased by two. Sure, two Farm Cash may not be enough to purchase... well, most anything in the store, but if you keep doing these new activities as they appear in the game, you'll soon have enough to buy something really special for yourself or for your friends this holiday.

Wishful Features: Full business rotation in CityVille

In my opinion, one of the best things about Zynga's newest game, CityVille, is the sheer amount of customization players are allowed when it comes to placing items in our cities. We can place individual flower pots, trees, and the like, along with sidewalks, lamp posts, stop signs, and every other functional item a town needs to, well... function.

However, when it comes to placing actual buildings in our town, that customization is a bit two-sided. On one hand, we have the ability to rotate any residential building (Homes, Apartment Complexes, etc.) in four directions, allowing you to have the front of said building facing in any direction that you'd like. This allows you to intricately decorate back yards, create full alleyways and the like, and really make your city come to live.

However, in terms of placing Businesses, these businesses can only be situated to face one of two directions - either to the SW, or to the SE, as pictured in the image at the top of this post. There is no option, currently, to allow for a business to be situated in such a way as to show off its backside, and that seems rather odd to me. Why force users to place roads to connect to the "front" side of these businesses, when we aren't forced to do so for residences? If we could have the same freedom when placing businesses as we do when placing homes, I can only imagine the amount of creativity that users would come up with in designing their towns.

It's conceivable that this feature will be added to the game in the future, as CityVille is still extremely new, but we've learned form experience that the more vocal users are about an issue or wish, the more likely Zynga is to listen, and we sincerely hope that they do here.

That being the case, if you share this Wishful Feature, let us know in the comments. Now that you've had some time to really jump into the city-building game, let us know what other features you'd like to see added.

Cafe World Collections Guide: Free Coins, CP, & Spices for all!

Since the Collections Cabinet was launched in Cafe World at the end of October, users everywhere have been clamoring for collection items, which are found through simply cooking (cooking anything in the Cafe World cookbook will give you a chance at randomly finding an item), in an effort to earn the numerous rewards available for turning these collections in.

As of this writing, there are five collections available to finish (each of which has five items, for a total of 25 collectibles), with a wide range of prizes, from simple Cafe Points (the game's experience points) and coins, to Spice packs and even exclusive recipes. As you'll only be able to earn these items by continually cooking in the game, and the chance of receiving items from each collection seem to be quite equal, we thought we would give you guys a detailed look at these new collections, to show you wish items you'll most want to keep a lookout for.

For those that haven't finished building the Collections Cabinet, this will also give you a complete glimpse at what awaits you when you've finished constructing it. All of the details concerning these five collections, including the prizes you'll receive, can be found behind the break.

First and foremost, you'll be able to access your Collections by looking inside your completely built Collections Cabinet, either by clicking on the Collections Cabinet proper (the item that physically stands in your cafe), or by clicking on the stainless steel drawer icon in the game's bottom menu. From there, you'll be able to click on the "Trade In" button next to any particular collection (as seen in the screenshot below) to earn your prizes).

The first collection is called Kitchen Navigation. This collection requires the following five items:

Can Opener
Cutting Board
Salad Bowl
Simple Wine Opener
Wooden Spoon

Rewards for completion: 250 Cafe Points & 250 Coins

The next collection is Stainless Pots and Pans, and, as you might have guessed, you'll need to collect five different stainless steel cooking pans in order to turn it in. The five items are:

Stainless Frying Pan
Stainless Omlette Pan (this misspelling is native in the game)
Stainless Sauce Pan
Stainless Saute Pan
Stainless Skillet

Rewards for completion: 3 Six--hour Thymes & 500 coins (these Six-hour Thymes lessen the cooking time of any currently cooking dish by three hours)

The third collection is the Simple Dinnerware collection, that has you collecting four plates and one bowl through cooking. The five required items are:

Bread and Butter Plate
Dinner Plate
Salad Plate
Serving Dish
Soup Bowl

Rewards for completion: Unlock the Royal Feast recipe & 500 coins

The Royal Feast recipe is found on just the second page of the in-game Cookbook, under the "Fundamentals" section. It is a 12 hour dish, requiring 840 coins to cook. It offers 600 servings once completed, which are sold for 5 coins each, for a total of 3,000 coins in return. You'll earn 219 Cafe Points in the process of cooking and serving each Royal Feast.

The fourth collection is the Simple Pots and Pans collection. Not to be confused with the Stainless Pots and Pans collection above, these items are entirely different, basic versions of those stainless steel items. In this case, most of the pots are black, with some red and white accents. The five items are:

Frying Pan
Omlette Pan (again, this misspelling is also in the game)
Sauce Pan
Saute Pan
Skillet

Rewards for completion: 250 Cafe Points & 250 Coins

Finally, the fifth and last available collection (as of this writing), is the Cutting for Beginners collection. While this might sound like a class for those that are easily depressed, rather than a cooking collection, we'll give Zynga the benefit of the doubt here. This is, obviously, a knife collection, requiring the following knives:

Utility Knife
Chef's Knife
Paring Knife
Bread Knife
Carving Knife

Rewards for completion: +5 Energy points & 500 coins (Energy is used when preparing drinks and coffee for your guests before they sit down to dine on your current dishes)

As a note to those who need some of these items for their collections, the first item on all of these lists is the most rare, so you're likely to have a harder time finding them than all other collectibles. Still, with enough continuous gameplay, you're likely to have a full supply of these items - enough to trade them in time and time again, and continue to rake in the rewards.

If you do want to get your hands on a particular item right this second, however, you can add any item to your wishlist via the green plus sign next to each item. Your wishlist can contain up to five items, which your friends may voluntarily send you by hovering over your picture in their friends bar at the bottom of the screen and offering up any item they happen to have. The same goes for you, if you'd like to help your friends instead. Simply hover over your friends' picture in your neighbor bar, and their wishlist will automatically appear. If they need any collectible items, that you have duplicates of, you can make their day by sending one their way.

And there you have it! A complete guide to Cafe World Collections that should have you rolling in riches and fame (well, maybe not fame) in no time flat! Remember, if you've yet to complete building your Collections Cabinet, you can earn a boost in the right direction by using our Quick Gifting links for the ingredients required to build it. Simply offer those to your friends, and you'll have the cabinet completed in no time!

Cafe World: Level up in Mafia Wars for a free Lightning Stove

Everyone knows that one of the best things to happen to Cafe World is the addition of Lightning Stoves some months ago, but many players still haven't been able to outfit their entire cafes with these convenient appliances (they allow for one-click cooking after all - none of that "Stirring" or "Dicing" business anymore).

That being the case, Zynga has offered a free Cafe World Lightning Stove to all players that will participate in a new cross-promotional event with Zynga's mob game, Mafia Wars. Users that have been playing Cafe World since these stoves were first introduced will recognize this stove, as it is the red version of the same sort of stove released way back when. All you'll need to do to earn a Lightning Stove for yourself is click on the small lightning stove icon in the top left corner of the screen, and click on the "Play Mafia Wars" link from the pop-up that appears in order to activate the promotion on your account.

From there, simply level up in Mafia Wars 2 times - that's right, just gain 2 levels - and you'll be the proud owner of a bright red Lightning Stove, that will not only cook your food in one-click, but will cook dishes 10% faster than a traditional stove to boot! Once you've completed this task, a new window will pop-up in Mafia Wars, giving you a link to load Cafe World where your new stove will be waiting for you in your inventory (you'll see a x1 next to the stove, which would cost 35 Cafe Cash otherwise).

To be especially clear, only users that make it to a minimum of level 8 will be able to receive this free stove, so before the promotion starts, you'll need to be at at least level 6, to avoid having to level up more than the promotion's standard of two times. Also, the stove you win as a prize is a completely built stove, ready to start cooking on immediately - no building necessary!

There's no telling how long Zynga will keep this promotion active, so make sure take advantage of it while you can!

CloudForest Expedition Sneak Peek: You're gonna have a rough landing

When we last heard word of Cloudforest Expedition, it was but a glint in legendary designer John Romero's eye. Well, that and a Facebook page chock full of little tidbits detailing the game, which is still in development at Romero's new social game studio, Loot Drop. Now, we've been granted access to some high resolution images of the game in action, and frankly, it's looking downright stunning.

In Cloudforest Expedition, players are on a search for their missing grandfather, which for whatever reason leads them to a jungle teeming with wildlife, ancient artifacts and strange tribes of natives. The images we have here seem to imply that you'll crash land in Cloudforest, left to your own devices to figure just what happened to your grandfather.

It seems that you'll encounter a normal (enough) looking jungle landscape in which either you or your grandfather landed in Cloudforest. From there, you will meet some colorful tribesman that appear to worship fire and dwell on a volcanic landscape. During your travels, you'll also come across other travelers or teammates, it seems, that we imagine will help you somehow navigate Cloudforest (and we assume will help you set up camp in various locations).

Gallery: Cloudforest Expedition on Facebook
We also know that players will get to choose between two avatars: a red-headed woman who seems to be channeling Lara Croft (and has a certain affinity for lemurs), and a roguish-looking man that's a cross between Rambo and Bear Grylls. To find out more about Cloudforest Expedition ahead of its Fall release, "Like" its Facebook page right here, and check out the rest of these images in the gallery.

Nordeus's CEO on how Top Eleven became number one [Interview]

Being number one feels good, doesn't it? EA has been the most recognized name in sports games, even on Facebook--until a little game called Top Eleven came around the bend. Created by a small Serbian studio known as Nordeus, Top Eleven has quickly become the number one football (or soccer for you American folk) game on Facebook with over 4 million monthly players, according to AppData.

The game, which overtook EA Sports and Playfish's FIFA Superstars this summer, takes a far heavier simulator approach to the sports genre on Facebook. Oddly enough, this take has done quite well for Nordeus thus far. We sat down with Nordeus CEO Branko Milutinović recently to find out why the company took this approach to sports games on Facebook, how it has made it this far, and what it plans to do to stay on top. (Here's one: Top Eleven is available in about 27 languages, and it's all thanks to player contributions--now that's dedication.)

Noredus' motto seems to be, "Bringing desktop gaming experiences to social networks." Was this always the company slogan, and why did you decide to take this approach to social games?

It's probably my fault we still haven't changed it. Now, times have changed. When we got into social games at the moment, we though social games weren't complex or engaging enough, and someone who could translate the complexity of desktop games to social networks is going to be a huge success.

It has proven to be correct, because nowadays you see The Sims Social and Zynga is becoming less and less casual. Back then we thought we could differentiate ourselves from the competition by creating games that aren't completely casual or shallow, but complex and addictive. That's what we've done rather successfully with Top Eleven.

Our mission statement is a bit different--in a few words it would be something like 'Unifying gaming experiences throughout devices and platforms.' That's what Noredeus [has been] ever since we published Top Eleven.

How exactly will Nordeus connect the gaming experience between devices?

The idea is to provide users unique gaming experiences in that they can simply pick up where they left off. This would mean if you're, say, in the office and playing a game on Facebook during your break and you have to commute back home, we'll provide a way users can still interact, which is very important to them. You're going to be able to play the same game, with the same account, on different devices and platforms.

Top Eleven in action
Of course, football is huge in Europe, South America and some of Asia, but why did you go with a far heavier simulator approach to a Facebook game surrounding it?

There's a long and complex answer to that, which equals a lot of research we did. It comes down to the idea of providing users with a social game that's a bit more challenging than simply the relaxing, action-packed casual type. In short, people are managers at birth--everyone always thinks they would be able to run the country better, the team better.

And they simply don't get the chance to show how good they would have been doing the job that the other idiot is doing. That's the case in Europe, and I have a lot of American friends, so I think it's very similar back there as well. So, it's a characteristic of mankind [laughs]. In Europe, we're always having long and detailed discussions regarding football tactics or whether the manager chose the right lineup.

The idea is to fulfill users' natural need to show everybody else how good they would actually be, given the opportunity, by providing them a virtual plot that is only theirs. They're running the show, competing with other people, and Top Eleven really forces people that are friends to play together. Rather than the crew dynamics movement since day one of social games, we've taken it to the next level in that you're competing with friends synchronously.

It's also something that the rest of the industry is moving toward, but I think I can be very proud of us for picking some key elements of where social gaming is going to get to in the beginning--becoming the pioneers of what the social gaming scene is today over a year ago. I think that's the reason why a really small company from Serbia, which doesn't really have any tradition in building successful games--so, a very small company with very young people, and without any funding, we managed to build something that's rocking the boat now.

Now, will Nordeus remain focused on sports simulators, or does the company have an interest in pursuing other desktop gaming experiences on Facebook?

Without revealing too much, I can definitely say that we're going to remain in the sports genre. But we also have some plans to enter some other areas as well. Not in the distant future, but it's something to [look forward to.]

Facebook games have been largely a genre dominated by large American publishers (aside from Wooga). But I'm ready to see more culturally diverse social games. How do you think that as internationally-based companies gain global notoriety, the culture of other countries will come through in their social games?

I guess it depends on the publisher. From our side, our vision is to build global products, so we really want to cover as many countries in the world with a specific product. Of course, you can't always have the full coverage, but like with Top Eleven we have users from 140 or so countries. From our side, I don't think our culture is going to [influence] what we develop. Our vision is definitely global.

The Nordeus Team
Generally speaking, how does Nordeus plan to capitalize on this success? What can Top Eleven fans look forward to in the developer's future?

First of all, in a few weeks you're going to be pleasantly surprised by what we have been doing for many months. The game is going to evolve a lot--at the moment I can't share many details. But there are many improvements on the way, and we think the game is going to become exactly what users are passionate about.

And we have been conducting a lot of research and interaction with our user base. Our users are also very passionate about [Top Eleven], as our daily to monthly player ratio is one of the highest in the world: between 22 and 24 percent. And we have been working with them in polishing the feature set and building a product that's going to be super.
Thanks for sharing some of Nordeus's secrets for success with us, Branko.

Jimmy Buffett will tie Margaritaville Online to the real deal

In likely the most obvious brilliant move into Facebook games yet, Jimmy Buffett is hard at work with publisher THQ and Vancouver, BC-based developer Exploding Barrel Games on Margaritaville Online. (Though, why the game isn't simply known as "MargaritaVille" is beyond us.) In an interview with CNN, the legendary performer, author and songwriter spilled the salt, so to speak, on when the game will release and what it will be like.

According to Buffett, Exploding Barrel Games and THQ are looking at an October release to coincide with the end of his Las Vegas tour. As we already know from its initial announcement, the game will feature full 3D visuals, but Buffett revealed to CNN that players will first arrive in Margaritaville on a boat (of course) at Captain Tony's Bar. This game follows Buffett's songs, but goes even further to explore the stories within the world he has created over nearly 40 years.

The songwriter revealed that he hopes to connect the Facebook and iPad game to his existing Margaritaville restaurants and hotels via virtual goods purchased in the game. However, he has even more ambitious ideas for Margaritaville Online. "I'm toying with ideas of taking it into the real world, where you could have a battle of the bands, or you could have people play in our band," Buffett told CNN. "That's the kind of involvement that I'm looking at in the future."

Gallery: MargaritaVille Online on Facebook
Buffett will directly involve himself in the game beyond his music, which players will be able to listen to in-game. Parrot Heads will be able to directly interact with Buffett in the game, though there's a catch. "But you won't see my real name," Buffett revealed to CNN. "I'll sneak in. I already have my pseudonyms picked out, because I know they'll track me quick." We might not be able track the virtual Jimmy Buffett just yet, but we'll be tracking the release of this game ... just after this margarita.

Honor late, great Patrick Swayze in ... a Dirty Dancing Facebook game?

Remember, it's Sept. 9, not April 1, so this is for real. AllFacebook reports that a Facebook game surrounding the iconic 1987 film starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, Dirty Dancing, is in development at Toronto-based studio Social Game Universe. The game will include the tunes you all know from the hit movie, like "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" and "Hungry Eyes," as players rehearse and perform dance numbers at the Kellerman's Resort to level up.

Presented in 8-bit style visuals like the video games of the time, Dirty Dancing on Facebook will have players dancing alongside retro, digitized versions of Baby and Johnny from the movie. (I'd rather think of them as Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze in glorious 8-bit rendering, but to each his own.)

Players will then roam around the resort and drop "Romance Waves" to cause guests to fall in love and stay for awhile longer. Wait, that never happened in the movie!

Anyway, players will perform real dance moves that originated from the film, likely including Baby's infamous "maraca shaking." If any of this tickles your fancy, you can head over to the Facebook page right now and sign up for a chance at an exclusive preview of the game.

However, it looks like Social Game Universe is looking for super fans, here--you've been warned. Dirty Dancing is expected to make its Facebook game debut later this month.

The Sims Social beats FarmVille, attracts second most daily players

Boy, people sure do love to play god. According to Appdata, The Sims Social has surpassed Zynga's iconic FarmVille with the second most daily players of any Facebook game. Since its launch just a month ago today, EA and Playfish's ambitious social rendition of The Sims has amassed over 9.3 million daily players--that's over 1 million more than FarmVille's 8.1 million.

The Sims Social still has a way to go to the number one spot, which is, of course, held by Zynga's most popular game CityVille at just under 14 million daily players. Regardless, it's unprecedented for a game to grow this quickly in daily players, at least for a game that wasn't built by Zynga. Not to mention this is despite the hiccups the game faced along the way including days worth of downtime.

So, that's the power of The Sims, huh? Well, not so fast. While The Sims Social has certainly showed its might when it comes to gripping players (and keeping them there ... so far), the game is still in fourth place in terms of monthly players at just over 34.3 million. This number could grow in time naturally as daily players spread the word and through advertising, but it's nevertheless telling of the limits a Facebook game faces when it doesn't have a massive existing player base, like Zynga's games.

In other words, EA and Playfish have quite a lot of work ahead of them, if they want The Sims Social to be on top in all regards. But judging from the game's performance thus far despite its early setbacks--and in the face of the most popular Facebook games to date--perhaps Simlish could become the dominant language in Facebook gaming.

FarmVille: Ugly Duckling returns as wandering, lost animal

In celebration, if you will, of Zynga's release of the Duck Pond in FarmVille, the developer has re-released a fairly familiar wandering animal into the game. Along with the Belted Duck that has been spotted wandering onto players' farms, you now also have a chance, once again, to find an Ugly Duckling.

This lost-and-found event works just as you'd expect. At random while playing, you may be notified that a sad, lonely Ugly Duckling has wandered onto your farm. You can either ignore the Ugly Duckling, thus ending the event, or you can post a news item to your wall, allowing your friends to claim this lost animal for themselves. As usual, you won't actually receive anything when finding a Duckling on your own farm - you'll need to find a post form a friend who has found one on their own farm and then claim that Duckling in order to get one onto your farm.

The Ugly Duckling just wants to find a nice new home, and who knows, if you take care of it, it may turn into a Swan (ok, no "may" - it will if you take care of it for a short while by feeding it). Note: the Ugly Duckling itself isn't available to add to your Duck Pond, but the Swan it turns into is. We'll make sure to keep track as to whether or not Zynga changes this stipulation in the future (we hope they do).

Wishful Features: The Facebook App Store

Even if you don't own an Apple device, surely most of you have heard that the ubiquitous technology company recently released its Mac App Store. A strange step for computing, but a logical one for a company like Apple, the Mac App Store will serve as the new place for users to find new applications to download, purchase and use. Inspired by the App Store found in the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, it's possible in future renditions of the Mac computer that this will be the only way users will be able to access new apps.

Another more relevant platform could certainly take advantage of a similar distribution model: Facebook. While there have been rumors of a Facebook gaming hub since Nov. 2010, nothing seems to have surfaced. Imagine a place where social gamers could go to find the newest, most popular games on Facebook (for free, of course). This place could easily be called the Facebook App Store, but knowing Apple and their sprawling copyrights and patents that probably wouldn't blow over so well. Regardless, let's keep the name for the sake of the argument, shall we?

Join us after the break to explore the possibilities of a Facebook App Store.

First, the Facebook App Store would finally serve as a single hub to find and manage our social games. From this page within Facebook, we could launch any game attached to our account or manage our requests in a single, unified window. No longer would we have to scroll through a long list of games or requests displayed in tiny font to find the game or gift we're looking for. This hub would make better use of modern computers' wide screen displays, depicting each item using the thumbnail images rather than lists. Relevant information could be included next to each game such as requests or even messages like "Crops are ready to be harvested."

Angry Birds
Second, this would be the place to find new games. Of course, this would have the potential to reinvigorate Facebook's viral channels using many of Apple's methods for app discovery. However, it would also come with a few potentially polarizing features. Facebook would likely become the quality controller for new Facebook games with standards and guidelines for new games to be featured in the App Store, which people feel strongly about on both ends. Does your game work properly and plan to exit beta status in no later than six months from now? (I'm looking at you, Zynga.) Then welcome to the App Store!

Better yet, games would gain popularity naturally through ratings similar to those on the iPhone. How do you think Angry Birds (pictured above) became so popular? It has over 35 thousand ratings on the Apple App Store, for starters. Just think of how well the rating system could do on Facebook with a base of 250 million social gamers? Send the highest rated games or those who gained the most ratings each week to the Facebook App Store homepage and just like that, discovery is back again.

Finally, since this is Facebook, everything would be ingrained into its social channels. Users would be given the option to share their achievements and gifts like normal, but how about their ratings? Players could even chat within the ratings pages of games, much like comments on Facebook game fan pages today. Making use of the open web that Facebook claims to embrace so much, developers could update the pages for their games through the App Store.

FarmVille in the App Store
Realistically speaking (for once), Facebook could very well be up to something similar to this. The company recently opened a Games division to help optimize the platform for social gamers while keeping the non-gamers out. Wait, that sounds exactly like what we're talking about here. Facebook also finally made a hire for that open games partnership director position--for quality control purposes, perhaps? Of course, all of this would require an engineering marvel, but if a 26-year-old programmer can create the world's most ubiquitous website, I'm sure his team could handle it.

Baby drowns while his mother plays Cafe World on Facebook

Facebook games are a fun way to pass the time, but only if you're not neglecting your obligations in the real world. Shannon Johnson of Fort Lupton, Colorado is going to be arraigned Friday for the drowning of her 13-month-old son. The cause? The mother left her son alone last September in the bathtub while she played Cafe World and multitasked on Facebook.

Johnson stated that she didn't want her baby to become a "mamma's boy" and that he was an independent child who liked to be left alone. She also said that the water may have been higher than usual that day. The boy was pulled from the bathtub after being left alone for approximately 3 minutes. Johnson discovered him lying sideways with his face underneath the water. After being rushed to the hospital, the 1 year old boy was pronounced dead at 4:30 p.m.

This isn't the first time we have heard of a Facebook game being involved in a child's neglect or murder. Last October, Alexandra Tobias plead guilty to shaking her child to death for crying while she tried to play FarmVille.