Late night ranchers tonight were surprised to see not just a decoration release tonight, but an overhaul to the way FarmVille players will move, rotate, sell, and delete items tonight. FarmVille has debuted a brand new tool that allows you to move items around and rotate them (if the item is rotatable) and also a one-click sell/delete tool that makes getting rid of unwanted items a breeze.
The new Move Tool looks like a hand icon, and is a sub-button underneath the Multi-Tool. Once you click this Hand Tool, you can then click on an item that you want to move. The item will then be attached to your cursor and you can click anywhere on your farm to place it again. While holding it, you can press the space bar on your keyboard to automatically rotate it to face the direction you want. If you're like me and you've been trying to layout your fences to make a perfect pasture, you will greatly appreciate this change. It's also helpful because with the one-click harvesting change that was released several weeks ago, it made moving animals and trees impossible without first harvesting them.
The new Recycle Tool is a dual action tool that not only will sell items that you click on with the tool, but can also delete items that are not sellable. It's basically the universal "get rid of this" button, and will be a quick way to clear out your farm. When you click on an item to sell or delete it, you will have the option to turn on Quick Delete which will not warn you about selling or deleting any object less than 1,000 coins (if it isn't a Limited Item). You can also turn off the deletion warning until you switch tools.
All in all, we are very pleased with these changes. Little additions like this can go a long way in interface usability, and we're sure FarmVille players will find these new features to be a huge benefit.
Thứ Tư, 15 tháng 2, 2012
Mafia Wars London officially opens, let the Crown Jewel heist begin!
There's no time like the present to take your mafia on a working vacation -- to London. The new Mafia Wars London mission officially opened at midnight and for the next three weeks, you'll be pulling off the heist of a lifetime, i.e. stealing a Crown Jewel.
Of course, your crew won't be able to simply walk in and take it. We're talking about the Crown Jewels after all. You'll have to perform a series of special jobs, which require a certain number of London passports (found as loot dropped from jobs and fighting and by visiting the London page every 24 hours) to complete. The longer your perform a job, the more police will be on your tail, which will make it more difficult to get your job done, i.e require more energy and passports to complete a task. The police activity is measured by a Heat Meter, and once its full, you'll have to wait eight hours for it to reset so you can continue your job.
mafia wars london chapter 1 jobs
That time restraint butts up against the fact that there is a limited time frame to pull off this heist -- 21 days to complete all three chapters. If Mafia Wars Paris taught us anything, it's that you have to be a tenacious mobster to get the job done. Once you complete each chapter, you'll be rewarded with an item exclusive to the London mission. In your down time, work like a fiend to get as many London passports as you can (more on that soon) -- looks like you're gonna need them.
Of course, your crew won't be able to simply walk in and take it. We're talking about the Crown Jewels after all. You'll have to perform a series of special jobs, which require a certain number of London passports (found as loot dropped from jobs and fighting and by visiting the London page every 24 hours) to complete. The longer your perform a job, the more police will be on your tail, which will make it more difficult to get your job done, i.e require more energy and passports to complete a task. The police activity is measured by a Heat Meter, and once its full, you'll have to wait eight hours for it to reset so you can continue your job.
mafia wars london chapter 1 jobs
That time restraint butts up against the fact that there is a limited time frame to pull off this heist -- 21 days to complete all three chapters. If Mafia Wars Paris taught us anything, it's that you have to be a tenacious mobster to get the job done. Once you complete each chapter, you'll be rewarded with an item exclusive to the London mission. In your down time, work like a fiend to get as many London passports as you can (more on that soon) -- looks like you're gonna need them.
YoMart Themed Furnishings Added To Furniture store
The new Yomart theme has officially arrived to Yoville. The first furnishings are at the furniture store for purchase. Some of these items include The Yomart Mascot Girl for 5 Yocash, Yomart Cereal Shelves for 1,800 coins, Yomart vitamin Rack for 1,200 coins, and much much more! These items are great for opening your own little shop at home. So stop on by at the Furniture Store to open your own store!
Will you be opening your own YoMart? Tell us in the comments section!
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
Will you be opening your own YoMart? Tell us in the comments section!
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
New YoMart Themed Clothing Added To Fashion Store
A new theme has been added to Yoville along with some clothing. The new clothing includes a Convenience Store Uniform for 3,000 coin, a Hand held Pretzel for 9 Yocash, a Hand held Hotdog for 9 yocash, and a Hand held Drink for 9 yocash. Don't get caught at the store without these great new fashions! Try Them Today!
Game of the Day: Jumble Solitaire
Edging into the weekend and the game of the day stays strong. What will you be doing this weekend? Are you a Wild One or more of a Sorority Lifer?
The Game of the Day is Jumble Solitaire. In Jumble Solitaire, two of the all-time great games are combined. On one side you have the classic newspaper word jumble and on the other tri-peaks solitaire. It's your job to solve the jumble and clear three pyramids - can you do it?
Important side note: Just by playing The Game of the Day you will be entered into a monthly drawing to win a FlipCam HD. You don't need to do anything else, just play! The more you play, the more chances you have to win. For more information on the Game of Day check out the official New Game of the Day hub.
Play Jumble Solitaire now -->
The Game of the Day is Jumble Solitaire. In Jumble Solitaire, two of the all-time great games are combined. On one side you have the classic newspaper word jumble and on the other tri-peaks solitaire. It's your job to solve the jumble and clear three pyramids - can you do it?
Important side note: Just by playing The Game of the Day you will be entered into a monthly drawing to win a FlipCam HD. You don't need to do anything else, just play! The more you play, the more chances you have to win. For more information on the Game of Day check out the official New Game of the Day hub.
Play Jumble Solitaire now -->
Thứ Bảy, 11 tháng 2, 2012
Ponzi, Inc. is now permanently closed for business
This hasn't been a good week for Facebook games staying open, and Ponzi, Inc. is the next one to be closed for good. Ponzi is the creation of Challenge Games, an Austin-based studio that was recently acquired by social gaming giant Zynga. Ponzi has been slowly trailing off in activity over the past few months, and as of yesterday had around 221,000 monthly players. The staff who worked on Ponzi had the following to say on the game's Facebook page:
Dear Ponzi Players,
In October 2009, Challenge Games launched Ponzi, Inc., a fast paced tycoon game that pokes fun at corporate life.
Earlier this month, in real world corporate news, Challenge Games became part of the Zynga Game Network. We're thrilled to have the opportunity to bring our games to a wider audience, but we have had to make hard choices about where to focus our energies. As of June 29th, Ponzi, Inc. will lock the office doors for the final time and close up shop.
During its peak over one million people logged in to play Ponzi, Inc., and built their home offices into global corporate empires complete with Unicorn Palaces and Death Rays.
Players who have made purchases in Ponzi, Inc. within the past two months will have an equivalent value credited to them in FrontierVille, on or by July 31, 2010.
We'd like to extend a special thanks to our community - players and friends - from all of us on the Ponzi, Inc. team. Your passion and commitment helped make the game great fun. We look forward to seeing you playing our other games.
Sincerely,
The Ponzi Inc. Team
Earlier this month, we wrote up an article claiming that the best thing about Zynga's acquisition of Challenge Games was Ponzi. Unfortunately, the revenue must not have been high enough on the game to continue supporting it. What is even more scary is the fact that Challenge Games' other title, Warstorm, is doing equally as poor. It has been in a downward slide as well, and only has about 250,000 monthly actives. Will Warstorm weather the storm?
Dear Ponzi Players,
In October 2009, Challenge Games launched Ponzi, Inc., a fast paced tycoon game that pokes fun at corporate life.
Earlier this month, in real world corporate news, Challenge Games became part of the Zynga Game Network. We're thrilled to have the opportunity to bring our games to a wider audience, but we have had to make hard choices about where to focus our energies. As of June 29th, Ponzi, Inc. will lock the office doors for the final time and close up shop.
During its peak over one million people logged in to play Ponzi, Inc., and built their home offices into global corporate empires complete with Unicorn Palaces and Death Rays.
Players who have made purchases in Ponzi, Inc. within the past two months will have an equivalent value credited to them in FrontierVille, on or by July 31, 2010.
We'd like to extend a special thanks to our community - players and friends - from all of us on the Ponzi, Inc. team. Your passion and commitment helped make the game great fun. We look forward to seeing you playing our other games.
Sincerely,
The Ponzi Inc. Team
Earlier this month, we wrote up an article claiming that the best thing about Zynga's acquisition of Challenge Games was Ponzi. Unfortunately, the revenue must not have been high enough on the game to continue supporting it. What is even more scary is the fact that Challenge Games' other title, Warstorm, is doing equally as poor. It has been in a downward slide as well, and only has about 250,000 monthly actives. Will Warstorm weather the storm?
Happy Aquarium embraces the Twilight craze
Happy Aquarium Twilight Twilit
Did you think social games were safe from the teenage craze of Hollywood sensation, Twilight? Guess again, because Happy Aquarium is now allowing you to turn your fish tank into a Jacob vs. Edward showdown, and the poor fish are caught right in the middle of it. Of course, trademark requires Crowdstar to refer to their theme as "Twilit" but we all know exactly what they're talking about. We're no fools when it comes to vampires and werewolves!
Available for a limited time in the Happy Aquarium store is a new background ambiance titled "Twilit Forest Scape". This forest scene costs either 36 Pearls or 30 Facebook Credits, and will really set the scene for your Twilit experience. Also, there is a new Tank Mate called "Werewolf" that looks like a young Jacob, and when clicked will become a werewolf. He does cost 48 Facebook Credits or 58 Pearls, so he isn't cheap. So far, we don't see an Edward yet, but we're sure that's coming soon. They wouldn't want to make all the Edward fans angry, would they?
Log in to Happy Aquarium now to show your Twilit excitement.
Did you think social games were safe from the teenage craze of Hollywood sensation, Twilight? Guess again, because Happy Aquarium is now allowing you to turn your fish tank into a Jacob vs. Edward showdown, and the poor fish are caught right in the middle of it. Of course, trademark requires Crowdstar to refer to their theme as "Twilit" but we all know exactly what they're talking about. We're no fools when it comes to vampires and werewolves!
Available for a limited time in the Happy Aquarium store is a new background ambiance titled "Twilit Forest Scape". This forest scene costs either 36 Pearls or 30 Facebook Credits, and will really set the scene for your Twilit experience. Also, there is a new Tank Mate called "Werewolf" that looks like a young Jacob, and when clicked will become a werewolf. He does cost 48 Facebook Credits or 58 Pearls, so he isn't cheap. So far, we don't see an Edward yet, but we're sure that's coming soon. They wouldn't want to make all the Edward fans angry, would they?
Log in to Happy Aquarium now to show your Twilit excitement.
Is FarmVille 26 x 26 Land Expansion coming tonight? Zynga's Twitter reveals a teaser
In an update made on Zynga's official Twitter page, they simply tweeted a link to an image of the FarmVille 26 x 26 Land Expansion!
Is it possible that farmers could be upgrading their farms to the latest land expansion as soon as tonight?
Here is the link that they tweeted:
zfarmville
http://zyn.ga/PM
To follow the big Z, on Twitter, check out Zynga's Official FarmVille Twitter page here:
Zynga's Official FarmVille Twitter
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
Is it possible that farmers could be upgrading their farms to the latest land expansion as soon as tonight?
Here is the link that they tweeted:
zfarmville
http://zyn.ga/PM
To follow the big Z, on Twitter, check out Zynga's Official FarmVille Twitter page here:
Zynga's Official FarmVille Twitter
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
FarmVille Small Can of Fuel giftable returns
FarmVille has made a minor change this evening by bringing back the Small Can of Fuel to the FarmVille Gifting Page.
However, this free giftable Small Can of Fuel is currently on available through FarmVille.com.
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
However, this free giftable Small Can of Fuel is currently on available through FarmVille.com.
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
FarmVille Experiencing Technical Issues Tonight
Zynga's FarmVille Community Manager Lexilicious announced via the official FarmVille forum that FarmVille is experiencing technical issues.
These technical issues explain why many farmers are experiencing white, blank loading screens, out of sync errors and general difficulty accessing FarmVille. Perhaps this explains the delay in tonight's updates.
From Lexilicious:
"Hi Folks,
FarmVille has been experiencing some technical difficulties that have been resulting in some users experiencing white screens, loading issues and Out of Sync errors.
We are working on resolving these issues as quickly as possible and we would like to thank you for your continued patience and understanding.
We ask that you please refrain from creating additional threads about these issues to avoid excess spamming of the boards.
If you have an Out Of Sync issue to report, please post here: http://forums.zynga.com/showthread.php?t=592511
If you are experiencing white screens when playing FarmVille, please post here: http://forums.zynga.com/showthread.p...22#post6032222
If you have a loading issue to report, please post here: http://forums.zynga.com/showthread.php?t=592521
Thanks everyone!" (Source: FarmVille Forum)
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
These technical issues explain why many farmers are experiencing white, blank loading screens, out of sync errors and general difficulty accessing FarmVille. Perhaps this explains the delay in tonight's updates.
From Lexilicious:
"Hi Folks,
FarmVille has been experiencing some technical difficulties that have been resulting in some users experiencing white screens, loading issues and Out of Sync errors.
We are working on resolving these issues as quickly as possible and we would like to thank you for your continued patience and understanding.
We ask that you please refrain from creating additional threads about these issues to avoid excess spamming of the boards.
If you have an Out Of Sync issue to report, please post here: http://forums.zynga.com/showthread.php?t=592511
If you are experiencing white screens when playing FarmVille, please post here: http://forums.zynga.com/showthread.p...22#post6032222
If you have a loading issue to report, please post here: http://forums.zynga.com/showthread.php?t=592521
Thanks everyone!" (Source: FarmVille Forum)
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
Thứ Năm, 9 tháng 2, 2012
Mafia Wars Vegas fun facts: 100 million robberies, 250 million fights
Mafia Wars Vegas has arrived (as if you didn't know already), and as far as I'm concerned, this is the best expansion yet. The jobs have been broken down into new energy and fighting paths, which does a good job catering to different types of players. Properties have been replaced with a Casino that you can build out with help from friends, new boss battles are tough and requires you to think more strategically, and the new Fight Club Tournaments aren't so bad either (except for the fact that I keep getting KO'd in the first round). Sure, it's annoying that I never seem to have enough cash to buy items required for jobs, and that I keep getting killed by bosses -- but no one ever said running a mafia would be easy. And who wants it to be?
But, I digress. Zynga released some numbers for Mafia Wars Vegas, while pimping out the fact that they plan to blow up an armored truck once 10 million people visit the next expansion. The game still has a ways to go, but it looks like the 3 million or so players trying to take over Sin City have been very busy:
- 3 million people have visited Mafia Wars: Las Vegas since launch
- 7 million Vegas gifts are been sent every day
- 8.5 million casino properties have been upgraded
- 1.5 billion jobs have been done in Vegas:
- 250 million fights haven taken place in Vegas
- 100 million buildings have been robbed
- 80 million tournament fights have taken place
Mafia Wars Vegas: What do you do the most?
JobsBuild out my casinoFight in tournamentsFighting in generalRob other properties
VoteView ResultsShare ThisPolldaddy.com
But, I digress. Zynga released some numbers for Mafia Wars Vegas, while pimping out the fact that they plan to blow up an armored truck once 10 million people visit the next expansion. The game still has a ways to go, but it looks like the 3 million or so players trying to take over Sin City have been very busy:
- 3 million people have visited Mafia Wars: Las Vegas since launch
- 7 million Vegas gifts are been sent every day
- 8.5 million casino properties have been upgraded
- 1.5 billion jobs have been done in Vegas:
- 250 million fights haven taken place in Vegas
- 100 million buildings have been robbed
- 80 million tournament fights have taken place
Mafia Wars Vegas: What do you do the most?
JobsBuild out my casinoFight in tournamentsFighting in generalRob other properties
VoteView ResultsShare ThisPolldaddy.com
Amazon an unlikely winner in social gaming's growth
When you think of the companies that have benefited the most from the explosive growth of social games, a few names probably spring to mind. Facebook, of course, and definitely Farmville-maker Zynga. Playfish and Playdom, surely, in the wake of their lucrative buyouts. Well, one name that probably doesn't come to mind, but probably should, is Amazon.
As VentureBeat notes, Amazon's Web Services (AWS) division provides the hosting that powers six to eight of the top ten Facebook games, according to AWS' Jeff Barr. This means companies like Zynga, Playfish and Playdom pay Amazon substantial sums of money so they don't have to worry about things like server maintenance, bandwidth, backups and security for their growing game. Those substantial sums have helped make AWS into a $500 million a year business for Amazon, according to some estimates,
Of course the relationship isn't perfect -- problems with AWS scaling are likely behind some of the outages that occasionally plague many growing games. Still, Amazon has positioned itself well to benefit both from online sales of disc-based games and from the growth of web-based games.
As VentureBeat notes, Amazon's Web Services (AWS) division provides the hosting that powers six to eight of the top ten Facebook games, according to AWS' Jeff Barr. This means companies like Zynga, Playfish and Playdom pay Amazon substantial sums of money so they don't have to worry about things like server maintenance, bandwidth, backups and security for their growing game. Those substantial sums have helped make AWS into a $500 million a year business for Amazon, according to some estimates,
Of course the relationship isn't perfect -- problems with AWS scaling are likely behind some of the outages that occasionally plague many growing games. Still, Amazon has positioned itself well to benefit both from online sales of disc-based games and from the growth of web-based games.
Rexona's Nature Nurture brings real virtual gardening to Facebook
Tired of controlling virtual characters in your Facebook games? Why not try controlling a real gardener?
Rexona's Nature Nurture is pretty unique, as far as Facebook promotions go. The "game," such as it is, is simply a live video feed (containing four selectable angles) of a gardener among dozens of plants. You "play" using on-screen buttons to command the gardener to perform basic plant maintenance tasks like fertilizing, watering, trimming, misting and even adding earthworms. Then you simply watch as the gardener works through the queue of commands. It's a lot like Farmville, except instead of gaining levels and coins, you gain the satisfaction of helping maintain real plants.
You also get the satisfaction of watching this lone gardener as he goes slowly crazy working among the plants. As I played, I managed to get my gardener, Carlos, to do a set of manic jumping jacks (pictured), play some smooth jazz music and sing along to a medley of Beatles songs. It's like improv theater mixed with gardening mixed with gaming mixed with understated advertising, and the combination is totally great. Try it out.
Rexona's Nature Nurture is pretty unique, as far as Facebook promotions go. The "game," such as it is, is simply a live video feed (containing four selectable angles) of a gardener among dozens of plants. You "play" using on-screen buttons to command the gardener to perform basic plant maintenance tasks like fertilizing, watering, trimming, misting and even adding earthworms. Then you simply watch as the gardener works through the queue of commands. It's a lot like Farmville, except instead of gaining levels and coins, you gain the satisfaction of helping maintain real plants.
You also get the satisfaction of watching this lone gardener as he goes slowly crazy working among the plants. As I played, I managed to get my gardener, Carlos, to do a set of manic jumping jacks (pictured), play some smooth jazz music and sing along to a medley of Beatles songs. It's like improv theater mixed with gardening mixed with gaming mixed with understated advertising, and the combination is totally great. Try it out.
Quote of the Moment: 'Popular' does not mean 'good'
"I think a great many social game developers are mistaking the success of their games for positive contributions to humanity. ... If you talk to just about any social game developer, but particularly those who used to work in 'traditional' development, you'll hear them talk about how their niece or mother or uncle or whomever plays their games now. As if that fact justifies the nature of the games themselves. It's as if there's been this huge vacuum of professional isolation that's finally being released, and some developers are using that release as an excuse to justify the construction of profoundly dastardly works."
"When I hear so many developers use the market as a primary justification for design choices or professional choices, it makes me feel wretched. Many people like saturated fats and simple sugars and The View and a great many other things, but that does not automatically make those things righteous or good."
-Author, critic and Cow Clicker developer Ian Bogost explains why millions of users don't prove a game is good in an interview with GameSetWatch
"When I hear so many developers use the market as a primary justification for design choices or professional choices, it makes me feel wretched. Many people like saturated fats and simple sugars and The View and a great many other things, but that does not automatically make those things righteous or good."
-Author, critic and Cow Clicker developer Ian Bogost explains why millions of users don't prove a game is good in an interview with GameSetWatch
YoVille: Mystery Packs Items Revealed
YoVille 4 YoCash Mystery Pack
The 2,500 coin and 4 YoCash mystery packs were updated with new rare items. You can enjoy pictures of these items after the link and add to the list in comments or on forum. Remember, you can also get common items from these packs.
Thanks to Spiralda and Angie for the pictures! YoVille Mystery Pack Item: Rustic Coffee Table, End Table, and Rustic Shower
YoVille Mystery Pack Items: Arc de Triumph and New Money Floor
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
The 2,500 coin and 4 YoCash mystery packs were updated with new rare items. You can enjoy pictures of these items after the link and add to the list in comments or on forum. Remember, you can also get common items from these packs.
Thanks to Spiralda and Angie for the pictures! YoVille Mystery Pack Item: Rustic Coffee Table, End Table, and Rustic Shower
YoVille Mystery Pack Items: Arc de Triumph and New Money Floor
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
Thứ Hai, 6 tháng 2, 2012
Mafia Wars: Log in this weekend to pimp your properties for free
Mafia Wars Weekend Property uprgade
According to a little stealth update in Mafia Wars, Zynga plans to give everyone a free upgrade to their property some time this weekend. While we can't say exactly how many upgrades there will be, we know that you'll be able to apply them to any of your properties in any given city.
The information appears as a small banner ad on your home page that reveal more information once clicked. While free items, apologies and upgrades are nice, we hope this isn't all that Zynga meant when they promised improvements.
According to a little stealth update in Mafia Wars, Zynga plans to give everyone a free upgrade to their property some time this weekend. While we can't say exactly how many upgrades there will be, we know that you'll be able to apply them to any of your properties in any given city.
The information appears as a small banner ad on your home page that reveal more information once clicked. While free items, apologies and upgrades are nice, we hope this isn't all that Zynga meant when they promised improvements.
YoVille: Ten new permanent hairstyles in salon
Ten new Permanent Hairstyles have been released in the YoVille Salon. Four female and four male shiny hair for 18 YoCash each available in black, blonde, brown and red. For 20 YoCash ladies can get pink and guys blue.
Photos of all new hair after the link.
yoville permanent hairstylesyoville permanent hairstyles
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
Photos of all new hair after the link.
yoville permanent hairstylesyoville permanent hairstyles
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
YoVille Romantic Collectibles added in the furniture store
yoville romantic collectibles
Romantic Hot Tub and Romantic Waterfall are now available in the YoVille Furniture Store! Both Collectibles are animated with running water and will add an elegant touch to any garden. These will be in the store for 2 weeks only.
You can purchase the Hot Tub for 32 YoCash and the Waterfall for 20000 coins. Check the pictures after the link.
yoville romantic collectibles
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
Romantic Hot Tub and Romantic Waterfall are now available in the YoVille Furniture Store! Both Collectibles are animated with running water and will add an elegant touch to any garden. These will be in the store for 2 weeks only.
You can purchase the Hot Tub for 32 YoCash and the Waterfall for 20000 coins. Check the pictures after the link.
yoville romantic collectibles
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
Zynga holds two Top 10 Facebook pages, but something is missing
Social Media Today released a list of the Top 10 Facebook Pages today, and the results are surprising (Lady Gaga is the most popular living music artist on Facebook). The list measures the top pages in "Likes," but try to find what's missing. Here's the full list of Social Media Today's Top 10 Facebook Pages as of this morning:
Zynga Poker: 23.5 million "Likes"
Michael Jackson: 19.4 million "Likes"
Facebook (huh?): 17.8 million "Likes"
Lady Gaga: 17.1 million "Likes"
Family Guy: 16.5 million "Likes"
Vin Diesel: 14.9 million "Likes"
Mafia Wars: 13.7 million "Likes"
Starbucks: 13,206,824 "Likes"
House: 13,202,945 "Likes"
Barack Obama: 13 million "Likes"
Still haven't figured it out? Find the answer and a few more questions after the break. FarmVille LogoWhile Zynga Poker and Mafia Wars are two of Zynga's most popular games on Facebook, its most popular title of all time, FarmVille, is nowhere to be found. With a steady 60 million players, you'd think it'd have more fans than Zynga Poker.
Well, it turns out that it does with 24.3 million fans, which is nearly one million more than Zynga Poker's 23.5 million. So, what gives? Is FarmVille so ubiquitous at this point that it is not even recognized in such competitions, or this just an oversight?
Considering FarmVille's undeniable clout on Facebook, is it fair to include the game in these lists? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
Zynga Poker: 23.5 million "Likes"
Michael Jackson: 19.4 million "Likes"
Facebook (huh?): 17.8 million "Likes"
Lady Gaga: 17.1 million "Likes"
Family Guy: 16.5 million "Likes"
Vin Diesel: 14.9 million "Likes"
Mafia Wars: 13.7 million "Likes"
Starbucks: 13,206,824 "Likes"
House: 13,202,945 "Likes"
Barack Obama: 13 million "Likes"
Still haven't figured it out? Find the answer and a few more questions after the break. FarmVille LogoWhile Zynga Poker and Mafia Wars are two of Zynga's most popular games on Facebook, its most popular title of all time, FarmVille, is nowhere to be found. With a steady 60 million players, you'd think it'd have more fans than Zynga Poker.
Well, it turns out that it does with 24.3 million fans, which is nearly one million more than Zynga Poker's 23.5 million. So, what gives? Is FarmVille so ubiquitous at this point that it is not even recognized in such competitions, or this just an oversight?
Considering FarmVille's undeniable clout on Facebook, is it fair to include the game in these lists? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
Mozilla sees a future in HTML5-powered browser gaming
Firefox creator Mozilla thinks the future of browser games will be backed by HTML5 and other improved web tech, if today's launch of Mozilla Labs' Gaming Division is any indication. Companies launch new divisions all the time, but since Mozilla is technically behind the curve with Google and Zynga joining forces to create Google Games the company can't afford to sit idly on this project.
This must be why Mozilla also launched a game development competition, Game On 2010, today to go along with its new Gaming Division. The competition asks contenders to develop their best browser-based games and is open to just about anyone with development skills. While official details have yet to be released, it's probably a good idea to put on those thinking caps right about now if you want to make a winning product.
So, what could this mean for social games? If HTML5 is truly where browser-based gaming is headed, isn't only a matter of time before we see games sporting full 3D graphics and live multiplayer on Facebook and other social platforms? With Google, Zynga and Mozilla all taking the initiative, consider it a done deal in our book. What do you think? Would you like to more robust Facebook games take advantage of HTML5? Do you think it's possible?
This must be why Mozilla also launched a game development competition, Game On 2010, today to go along with its new Gaming Division. The competition asks contenders to develop their best browser-based games and is open to just about anyone with development skills. While official details have yet to be released, it's probably a good idea to put on those thinking caps right about now if you want to make a winning product.
So, what could this mean for social games? If HTML5 is truly where browser-based gaming is headed, isn't only a matter of time before we see games sporting full 3D graphics and live multiplayer on Facebook and other social platforms? With Google, Zynga and Mozilla all taking the initiative, consider it a done deal in our book. What do you think? Would you like to more robust Facebook games take advantage of HTML5? Do you think it's possible?
Thứ Bảy, 4 tháng 2, 2012
FrontierVille Huge Expansion Missions: Everything you need to know
FrontierVille Huge Homestead is here
Zynga allowed pioneers in FrontierVille to expand their homestead to 29x29 squares earlier this summer with the Big Homestead Expansion, but things have gotten a little cramped in the past two months with all of the nifty animals, industrial buildings and money pits activities we've had the pleasure of playing with. That's why today, we can now expand our homestead even farther to 33x33 squares with the Huge Expansion Missions. But if you've yet to expand your homestead, the price for the Big Expansion Quest mission has been cut by 4,500 coins!
You officially have no reason to at least get started on breaking new ground, but if you're right there with us, join us after the break for a full guide.
Huge Homestead Exploration
The series of missions will initially cost you just a handful of 950 coins (that's just the beginning), which will automatically add the missions to your queue, which you can edit at will thanks to a recent update. The first mission, titled "Huge Homestead Exploration," goes a little something like this:
Own three Ribbons (They'll be used for the mission)
Buy a Forest Saw at the Market (costs 3,500 coins in Decorations section)
Chop 10 neighbors' trees (Easy enough)
Aside from buying the Forest Saw in the Market and chopping trees like normal, the Ribbons naturally appear on the free gift list, so put them on your wish list and publish it to your friends. They do go for 4 Horseshoes a piece in the Market, but such an accessible item can wait out the 12 Horseshoes ($2 USD).
Spying on Some Foxes
The next mission is called "Spying on Some Foxes" and requires quite a bit more time to complete. Here's what you need to do:
Gather 20 Telescopes (Ask your friends from the mission page)
Feed 25 Animals
Clobber Four Foxes
The hardest parts of this mission are how long it's going to take to get 20 Telescopes from your friends and how much energy it will cost both feeding your animals and beating down some foxes. While you can unlock the Telescopes for an insane 80 Horseshoes, or over $8, here's a real tip: foxes appear when you feed or harvest chickens, so buy a few extra chickens (they're only 75 coins) and feed them to increase your chances of foxes appearing.
Sneaky Snake Cakes
"Sneak Snake Cakes!" is the third mission on your way to a nice chunk of land and has a prerequisite that you'll have to meet before you can continue: an Inn, which is quite an undertaking that requires lots of time, wood and coins. After completing an Inn you can finally finish this long mission:
Clobber Three Snakes
Bake Three Cakes
Visit 12 Neighbors
What killing snakes has to do with baking cakes, other than the fact that the two words rhyme, we haven't in the slightest. Nonetheless, snakes can be found when clearing rocks and skulls from your homestead, so that's an easy enough goal. Baking cakes requires the Inn to craft, so that's a pretty big barrier to entry for a goal that takes seconds to accomplish. If you don't have 12 neighbors already, this goal is going to take you more than one day, but you can always unlock it for 24 Horseshoes (fat chance)!
Just Sign Here
The fourth mission, "Just Sign Here," while it kind of completes itself, is ridiculous nonetheless:
Harvest 300 crops (seriously?)
Clobber Eight Groundhogs
Get 20 Survey Authorizations
Regardless of the fact that you can harvest any crop you like (hint: Clovers take just five minutes) this goal is going to take a long, tedious time. Since groundhogs pop up from harvesting crops, you'll probably have that goal finished before your halfway done the first. All the while, you'll have to ask your friends for 20 Survey Authorizations. Those insane Horseshoes options aren't looking so bad now, are they? (No... must resist!)
Get Huge!
Your final mission, should you choose to accept it (we'd hope so if you've come this far), is "Get Huge," which will essentially drain you of your life savings:
Collect Two Daily Bonuses from your Land Office
Have or Craft Two Land Grants Inside the Land Office
Buy Land Expansion (33x33) at the Land Office
Well, I don't know about "huge," but something will surely shrink from completing this mission when it costs 20,000 coins to craft two Land Grants. While that's phenomenally better than when one Land Grant cost a ludicrous 100,000 coins to craft, some players are probably still reeling from the cost of the first. Maybe the final rewards from this mission, two Mystery Crates, two Animal Mystery Crates and a Swimming Hole will make up for some of the financial damages. All in all, this is probably the longest and most arduous task in FrontierVille to date, so for those looking for a true challenge, here you are.
Zynga allowed pioneers in FrontierVille to expand their homestead to 29x29 squares earlier this summer with the Big Homestead Expansion, but things have gotten a little cramped in the past two months with all of the nifty animals, industrial buildings and money pits activities we've had the pleasure of playing with. That's why today, we can now expand our homestead even farther to 33x33 squares with the Huge Expansion Missions. But if you've yet to expand your homestead, the price for the Big Expansion Quest mission has been cut by 4,500 coins!
You officially have no reason to at least get started on breaking new ground, but if you're right there with us, join us after the break for a full guide.
Huge Homestead Exploration
The series of missions will initially cost you just a handful of 950 coins (that's just the beginning), which will automatically add the missions to your queue, which you can edit at will thanks to a recent update. The first mission, titled "Huge Homestead Exploration," goes a little something like this:
Own three Ribbons (They'll be used for the mission)
Buy a Forest Saw at the Market (costs 3,500 coins in Decorations section)
Chop 10 neighbors' trees (Easy enough)
Aside from buying the Forest Saw in the Market and chopping trees like normal, the Ribbons naturally appear on the free gift list, so put them on your wish list and publish it to your friends. They do go for 4 Horseshoes a piece in the Market, but such an accessible item can wait out the 12 Horseshoes ($2 USD).
Spying on Some Foxes
The next mission is called "Spying on Some Foxes" and requires quite a bit more time to complete. Here's what you need to do:
Gather 20 Telescopes (Ask your friends from the mission page)
Feed 25 Animals
Clobber Four Foxes
The hardest parts of this mission are how long it's going to take to get 20 Telescopes from your friends and how much energy it will cost both feeding your animals and beating down some foxes. While you can unlock the Telescopes for an insane 80 Horseshoes, or over $8, here's a real tip: foxes appear when you feed or harvest chickens, so buy a few extra chickens (they're only 75 coins) and feed them to increase your chances of foxes appearing.
Sneaky Snake Cakes
"Sneak Snake Cakes!" is the third mission on your way to a nice chunk of land and has a prerequisite that you'll have to meet before you can continue: an Inn, which is quite an undertaking that requires lots of time, wood and coins. After completing an Inn you can finally finish this long mission:
Clobber Three Snakes
Bake Three Cakes
Visit 12 Neighbors
What killing snakes has to do with baking cakes, other than the fact that the two words rhyme, we haven't in the slightest. Nonetheless, snakes can be found when clearing rocks and skulls from your homestead, so that's an easy enough goal. Baking cakes requires the Inn to craft, so that's a pretty big barrier to entry for a goal that takes seconds to accomplish. If you don't have 12 neighbors already, this goal is going to take you more than one day, but you can always unlock it for 24 Horseshoes (fat chance)!
Just Sign Here
The fourth mission, "Just Sign Here," while it kind of completes itself, is ridiculous nonetheless:
Harvest 300 crops (seriously?)
Clobber Eight Groundhogs
Get 20 Survey Authorizations
Regardless of the fact that you can harvest any crop you like (hint: Clovers take just five minutes) this goal is going to take a long, tedious time. Since groundhogs pop up from harvesting crops, you'll probably have that goal finished before your halfway done the first. All the while, you'll have to ask your friends for 20 Survey Authorizations. Those insane Horseshoes options aren't looking so bad now, are they? (No... must resist!)
Get Huge!
Your final mission, should you choose to accept it (we'd hope so if you've come this far), is "Get Huge," which will essentially drain you of your life savings:
Collect Two Daily Bonuses from your Land Office
Have or Craft Two Land Grants Inside the Land Office
Buy Land Expansion (33x33) at the Land Office
Well, I don't know about "huge," but something will surely shrink from completing this mission when it costs 20,000 coins to craft two Land Grants. While that's phenomenally better than when one Land Grant cost a ludicrous 100,000 coins to craft, some players are probably still reeling from the cost of the first. Maybe the final rewards from this mission, two Mystery Crates, two Animal Mystery Crates and a Swimming Hole will make up for some of the financial damages. All in all, this is probably the longest and most arduous task in FrontierVille to date, so for those looking for a true challenge, here you are.
Mafia Wars Social Missions: Are you an Initiator or a Helper?
Mafia Wars Missions tab
The Zynga community team announced on the Mafia Wars forums that a new feature is now live named Social Missions. However, the feature is only live for some lucky players to initiate the missions while everyone can be recruited to help once one of their friends finds a Social Mission. Regardless of whether you've been chosen as an Initiator, you'll be pleasantly surprised to find a new "Missions" tab between the Gifting and Marketplace tabs (pictured above). We're going to make an educated guess and say that this will be the hub for all Social Missions. Common sense rocks, we know.
Social Missions only trigger while doing normal jobs, but once that happens said player, or the Initiator, can recruit his or her mafia friends to become Helpers in the mission. These are timed tasks that have different assignments specialized for certain types of players, which gives the Initiator the chance to make best use of his mafia. We hope Social Missions will make use of the Top Mafia feature, because as of right now it's severely underused aside from its bonuses and being required to Declare War.
According to the forum post, it seems that Initiators will receive special item rewards in addition to a combination of experience, coins and later Loyalty Points, while Helpers will only be rewarded the latter with a chance at common loot. Initiators can also dismiss Helpers if they're too slow or could potentially jeopardize the mission, so be on your 'A' game.
With the ability to Initiate 10 and Help with 10 Social Missions at once, we're going to have quite a lot of work on our hands when this feature goes live for everyone.
The Zynga community team announced on the Mafia Wars forums that a new feature is now live named Social Missions. However, the feature is only live for some lucky players to initiate the missions while everyone can be recruited to help once one of their friends finds a Social Mission. Regardless of whether you've been chosen as an Initiator, you'll be pleasantly surprised to find a new "Missions" tab between the Gifting and Marketplace tabs (pictured above). We're going to make an educated guess and say that this will be the hub for all Social Missions. Common sense rocks, we know.
Social Missions only trigger while doing normal jobs, but once that happens said player, or the Initiator, can recruit his or her mafia friends to become Helpers in the mission. These are timed tasks that have different assignments specialized for certain types of players, which gives the Initiator the chance to make best use of his mafia. We hope Social Missions will make use of the Top Mafia feature, because as of right now it's severely underused aside from its bonuses and being required to Declare War.
According to the forum post, it seems that Initiators will receive special item rewards in addition to a combination of experience, coins and later Loyalty Points, while Helpers will only be rewarded the latter with a chance at common loot. Initiators can also dismiss Helpers if they're too slow or could potentially jeopardize the mission, so be on your 'A' game.
With the ability to Initiate 10 and Help with 10 Social Missions at once, we're going to have quite a lot of work on our hands when this feature goes live for everyone.
Survey says, 'Two fifths of American gamers play Facebook games'
Of America's 160 million gamers, 41 percent of them are playing social games on Facebook or another social network, Newzoo's 2010 US National Gamers Survey says. As we all know, social games have just emerged in the later half of this decade compared to console games that been around--if we want to get technical here--for nearly 40 years, which maintain 56 percent of gamers' attention. This means that in just a few short years, social games like FarmVille have become more popular than MMOs, PC or Mac games and games on mobile devices, some of which have had decades to garner the same attention, Newzoo says.
But what's going on here isn't that gamers are switching platforms, rather they're taking on more platforms with the average gamer playing on three of the seven major gaming platforms simultaneously (define average), according to Newzoo.
Newzoo's US National Gamers Survey 2010
Of course, there's something to be said of social games' accessibility. In other words, they don't exactly require the amount of dedication or focus that console or traditional PC games do, which definitely contributes to the amount of social gamers. Though, if there is any metric that shows whether social games allow for true dedication, it's cold hard cash.
According to Newzoo, of the 115 million--71 percent of total--gamers who spend money on their favorite hobby, 25 percent spend their hard-earned dough on social games. With over 28.7 million players nationwide paying for in-game currency (at sometimes admittedly unreasonable rates), it's a no-brainer that social games are becoming a mutli-billion dollar industry.
These numbers beg the question: is it only a matter of time, with digital distribution becoming more robust every year (62 percent of console gamers pay for games and digital game content), before all games are free-to-play, taking the microtransaction model that social games seem to have mastered?
But what's going on here isn't that gamers are switching platforms, rather they're taking on more platforms with the average gamer playing on three of the seven major gaming platforms simultaneously (define average), according to Newzoo.
Newzoo's US National Gamers Survey 2010
Of course, there's something to be said of social games' accessibility. In other words, they don't exactly require the amount of dedication or focus that console or traditional PC games do, which definitely contributes to the amount of social gamers. Though, if there is any metric that shows whether social games allow for true dedication, it's cold hard cash.
According to Newzoo, of the 115 million--71 percent of total--gamers who spend money on their favorite hobby, 25 percent spend their hard-earned dough on social games. With over 28.7 million players nationwide paying for in-game currency (at sometimes admittedly unreasonable rates), it's a no-brainer that social games are becoming a mutli-billion dollar industry.
These numbers beg the question: is it only a matter of time, with digital distribution becoming more robust every year (62 percent of console gamers pay for games and digital game content), before all games are free-to-play, taking the microtransaction model that social games seem to have mastered?
FarmVille: Race a Horse in Disney's Secretariat free Farm Cash promo
FarmVille Secretariat promotion
For a good change of pace, instead of bombarding us with multiple choice questions, the latest FarmVille free Farm Cash offer allows you to run a quick horse race. Aside from that, you'll be watching the trailer of Disney's Secretariat, a film billed as "The Impossible True Story" of an American horse who aced all three races of the Triple Crown in 1973.
FarmVille Secretariat: Select a horse
It's cute that Zynga actually took the time to set this up. The sight of the familiar FarmVille horses and jockeys done in the the FarmVille style is pretty gratifying. It definitely makes me wonder if horse-racing will be the theme of Zynga's new fall game. (Facebook had a brief period of horse husbandry games, such as Ubisoft's Horse Gaga, but they didn't take off as people hoped.) The promo has you select a horse, choose something to feed it with, pick a jockey to ride it, and then let 'em race.
FarmVille Secretariat: Feed your horse
FarmVille Secretariat: Which Jersey will your jockey wear?
Though the artwork is nice prior to the race itself, the racing animation is pretty lame and incredibly crude. There's also no sound. But the concept itself is nifty, and your horse isn't guaranteed to win, so at least they didn't chicken out by taking the randomness factor out of it.
FarmVille Secretariat racing game
FarmVille Secretariat: Your horse won!
It's also pretty hilarious that if you're first place, the 'game' says your horse won! But if your horse came in third, it just says "Your horse came in third!", instead of "Sorry, it lost!", or "I'm sorry your horse sucks!"
FarmVille Secretariat: Your horse came in third!
Well, it was nice to see the Disney and Zynga marketing folks try something new. I hope you enjoy your 2 free Farm Cash!
For a good change of pace, instead of bombarding us with multiple choice questions, the latest FarmVille free Farm Cash offer allows you to run a quick horse race. Aside from that, you'll be watching the trailer of Disney's Secretariat, a film billed as "The Impossible True Story" of an American horse who aced all three races of the Triple Crown in 1973.
FarmVille Secretariat: Select a horse
It's cute that Zynga actually took the time to set this up. The sight of the familiar FarmVille horses and jockeys done in the the FarmVille style is pretty gratifying. It definitely makes me wonder if horse-racing will be the theme of Zynga's new fall game. (Facebook had a brief period of horse husbandry games, such as Ubisoft's Horse Gaga, but they didn't take off as people hoped.) The promo has you select a horse, choose something to feed it with, pick a jockey to ride it, and then let 'em race.
FarmVille Secretariat: Feed your horse
FarmVille Secretariat: Which Jersey will your jockey wear?
Though the artwork is nice prior to the race itself, the racing animation is pretty lame and incredibly crude. There's also no sound. But the concept itself is nifty, and your horse isn't guaranteed to win, so at least they didn't chicken out by taking the randomness factor out of it.
FarmVille Secretariat racing game
FarmVille Secretariat: Your horse won!
It's also pretty hilarious that if you're first place, the 'game' says your horse won! But if your horse came in third, it just says "Your horse came in third!", instead of "Sorry, it lost!", or "I'm sorry your horse sucks!"
FarmVille Secretariat: Your horse came in third!
Well, it was nice to see the Disney and Zynga marketing folks try something new. I hope you enjoy your 2 free Farm Cash!
Zynga buys studio founded by Age of Empires creators, original games incoming
Zynga Dallas
Zynga announced today that it has gobbled up yet another US game developer, Dallas-based Bonfire Studios. Formed in 2008 by members of the defunct Ensemble Studios--creators of the Age of Empires series and Halo Wars--the developer is now officially Zynga Dallas.
Heading the FarmVille creator's Lone Star stronghold will be Bonfire's three founders, David Rippy, Bill Jackson and Scott Winsett, who will become general manager, creative director and senior art director (similar positions to what they held at Bonfire), respectively. While most of Zynga's big purchases have been of web game studios, this is the first major game studio to be welcomed into the social gaming empire.
This move is strangely brilliant considering members of the studio have created one of the most critically acclaimed real-time strategy series in recent years with Age of Empires, yet Bonfire Studios has zero experience with Facebook games. After saying to TechCrunch that they will allow Zynga Dallas to "continue to develop new IP across multiple platforms," Zynga must be on to something huge whether it be on a console or on Facebook. Though, we doubt the company would turn away from one of the most profitable platforms, currently.
With the recent trend of Facebook strategy games like Kingdoms of Camelot and Monster World and the Bonfire team's obvious experience in that genre, it's possible that Zynga is looking towards this genre to innovate with Zynga Dallas "developing original IP for the company," according to the Zynga blog. Then again, the developer could just as easily be working on a clone. Hey, it's not as if Zynga hasn't before. Regardless, we're hopeful that if Zynga were to buy serious talent, it would use it seriously.
Zynga announced today that it has gobbled up yet another US game developer, Dallas-based Bonfire Studios. Formed in 2008 by members of the defunct Ensemble Studios--creators of the Age of Empires series and Halo Wars--the developer is now officially Zynga Dallas.
Heading the FarmVille creator's Lone Star stronghold will be Bonfire's three founders, David Rippy, Bill Jackson and Scott Winsett, who will become general manager, creative director and senior art director (similar positions to what they held at Bonfire), respectively. While most of Zynga's big purchases have been of web game studios, this is the first major game studio to be welcomed into the social gaming empire.
This move is strangely brilliant considering members of the studio have created one of the most critically acclaimed real-time strategy series in recent years with Age of Empires, yet Bonfire Studios has zero experience with Facebook games. After saying to TechCrunch that they will allow Zynga Dallas to "continue to develop new IP across multiple platforms," Zynga must be on to something huge whether it be on a console or on Facebook. Though, we doubt the company would turn away from one of the most profitable platforms, currently.
With the recent trend of Facebook strategy games like Kingdoms of Camelot and Monster World and the Bonfire team's obvious experience in that genre, it's possible that Zynga is looking towards this genre to innovate with Zynga Dallas "developing original IP for the company," according to the Zynga blog. Then again, the developer could just as easily be working on a clone. Hey, it's not as if Zynga hasn't before. Regardless, we're hopeful that if Zynga were to buy serious talent, it would use it seriously.
Thứ Năm, 2 tháng 2, 2012
Bejeweled 3 arrives online, in stores on December 7 [Exclusive]
EXCLUSIVE -- Bejeweled, the addictive puzzle game that has turned gem swapping into an international pastime, is getting a new sequel, Games.com can exclusively reveal. PopCap Games is announcing later this morning that Bejeweled 3 will be unleashed on the world on December 7. God help us all.
Bejeweled 3 will still have similar gameplay to the classic Bejeweled and Bejeweled 2 games -- match three or more of the same-colored gems over and over again, while racking up huge scores -- but there will be a few additional game modes and features that will offer something a little different.
In addition to high-def graphics, new sound effects and the ability to match more than one set of gems at one time (a key feature that debuted in Bejeweled Blitz last year), the game will have a special Quest mode made up of 11 mini-games, a new Lightening mode where you'll have to match as many gems as possible in a certain amount of time, and four new 'secret' game modes, which you will unlock as you play.
Related: Bejeweled 3 creator Jason Kapalka gives Games.com the inside scoop on the new game
One of the most interesting new additions is a special Zen mode (similar Bejeweled 2's Endless mode) where you can play the game without end, as calming music and positive affirmations play in the background. Oh yeah, they went there.
Gallery: Bejeweled 3: First look
"The challenge in creating a new version of Bejeweled is to innovate and keep it fresh and exciting without losing touch with the gameplay that millions of people love," says PopCap co-founder and Chief Creative Director Jason Kapalka.
The new Bejeweled also has a badge system, with some of the badges reserved for the most elite gem matchers.
bejeweled 3
Bejeweled 3 will be available for in retail and online for $19.99, starting December 7. Bejeweled games are popular on both Facebook and Apple's iOS platform, but for now, Bejeweled 3 will only be available as a downloadable PC game.
If you're wondering if it's worth the cash, just keep in mind that this 10-year-old game series is so popular that it has been played by a half-billion people for a total of 7.5 billion hours, and that older versions of the game sell at the rate of one copy every 4.3 seconds. Your 4.3 seconds might be coming sooner than you think, if Bejeweled 3 proves to be as popular as its predecessors.
Bejeweled 3 will still have similar gameplay to the classic Bejeweled and Bejeweled 2 games -- match three or more of the same-colored gems over and over again, while racking up huge scores -- but there will be a few additional game modes and features that will offer something a little different.
In addition to high-def graphics, new sound effects and the ability to match more than one set of gems at one time (a key feature that debuted in Bejeweled Blitz last year), the game will have a special Quest mode made up of 11 mini-games, a new Lightening mode where you'll have to match as many gems as possible in a certain amount of time, and four new 'secret' game modes, which you will unlock as you play.
Related: Bejeweled 3 creator Jason Kapalka gives Games.com the inside scoop on the new game
One of the most interesting new additions is a special Zen mode (similar Bejeweled 2's Endless mode) where you can play the game without end, as calming music and positive affirmations play in the background. Oh yeah, they went there.
Gallery: Bejeweled 3: First look
"The challenge in creating a new version of Bejeweled is to innovate and keep it fresh and exciting without losing touch with the gameplay that millions of people love," says PopCap co-founder and Chief Creative Director Jason Kapalka.
The new Bejeweled also has a badge system, with some of the badges reserved for the most elite gem matchers.
bejeweled 3
Bejeweled 3 will be available for in retail and online for $19.99, starting December 7. Bejeweled games are popular on both Facebook and Apple's iOS platform, but for now, Bejeweled 3 will only be available as a downloadable PC game.
If you're wondering if it's worth the cash, just keep in mind that this 10-year-old game series is so popular that it has been played by a half-billion people for a total of 7.5 billion hours, and that older versions of the game sell at the rate of one copy every 4.3 seconds. Your 4.3 seconds might be coming sooner than you think, if Bejeweled 3 proves to be as popular as its predecessors.
Bejeweled 3 creator tells us why this isn't just another sequel [Exclusive Interview]
PopCap co-founder and Chief Creative Director Jason Kapalka gives Games.com the inside scoop on Bejeweled 3's new features, and confesses that his mother's approval is the ultimate measure of success for this new version of the classic gem-swapping game. Aw, isn't that sweet.
bejeweled 3 from popcapOK, so let's talk about some of Bejeweled 3's new features. There's a Quest mode. Would you say that's one of the big new features for the game?
Yes, that's definitely one of the big ones. We're not trying to make a full-blown role-playing game or anything like that. It's kind of more of a structure for a series of challenges and variances for the game. There's a whole bunch of crazy Bejeweled variances we were playing around with, and we put in the quest mode as a framework to put them in there. So the structure is that we're trying to restore some various artifacts and to do so you have to play these different kinds of Bejeweled variants, that in some cases they are only minor variants on the Bejeweled rules, like you only have 10 moves or something like that to release a jewel.
What are some examples of the Bejeweled 'variants' in the new Quest mode?
There's a balance mode where you have a pendulum that goes back and forth depending on which color of gems you are clearing, if you tilt it too far one way or the other you lose, so you have to decide which gems to match to keep the thing balanced. There's Ice Storm, where you have these rising colors of ice that are going up and you have to knock them by making matches before they get to the top. There's Diamond Mine which is kind of the one where you're digging, and you're clearing dirt by clearing gems and the more you do you dig down further and further and find treasures and so forth. There's Butterflies -- which is a pretty interesting one -- where you have these jeweled butterflies that are moving up from the bottom towards the top where there's a big spider, and you're trying to clear them off the board to freedom or before they get to the top where the spider will eat them.
Are those your favorites in the new game?
Yeah, there's a couple that are actually – the Secret one or those Quest ones. There's some of them that are entertaining once or twice; I wouldn't want to play them repeatedly. There's other ones that are actually pretty compelling, and we've made those into separate game modes. So once you've played for a little bit, you unlock them as a full mode you can play.
Is that what the oh-so mysterious 'secret games' are in Bejeweled 3?
Yeah. The secret games are basically some of the variants of Bejeweled. The more unusual ones that we thought were the really cool ones that you wanted to play over and over again. And so once you've progressed a little way through the game, they're unlocked so you can just go back and play them in sort of a perpetual mode, as you would with the other versions, like Classic skill and so forth.
OK. I also noticed that there's going to be a new badge system in the game.
Yeah. It's not exactly ... it's kind of new. I wish I could say it's super radically awesome cool. We had something like that in the PC version of Bejeweled Blitz. It's sort of an achievement system. The only thing – you get these badges for doing various things, and there's different levels of badges, and there's elite badges for doing really tough things.
How tough are the 'tough' badges?
A really tough badge would be Super Nova Gem, which is a kind of gem that exists in the game but it's one of these we don't even tell people about it because it's nearly impossible to make. You have to get six gems in a row. And it's quite hard to do that. You either need to have an incredibly lucky hall of gems, or you need to engineer an extremely difficult combination of gems so those fall together and make a sixth gem combination. And a Super Nova Gem does a humongous explosion, so that's kind of cool. It's mostly just an achievement to see if you can actually get such a thing.
How many badges are there going to be in the game?
Oh gosh. There's a bunch. There's dozens. I would say there's dozens and dozens.
Bejeweled Blitz came out and we got obsessed with being able to do more than one match at one time. Is that also going to be in the game?
Oh yeah. We kind of used a lot of the Bejeweled Blitz basic physics and mechanics of it. Kind of carried into Bejeweled 3 here. Like Blitz, the visuals and all the special effects and stuff are pretty cranked up. It's full HD displays and accelerated explosions and more tunnels and so on.
Do you think that will go over well with the traditional Bejeweled fan?
I believe so. I think that when we put out Bejeweled 2 in 2004, at the time, for the casual game market, it was actually a bit over the top. I remember people telling us things like, 'Why is your game 1024 by 768? That resolution is way too big. Casual players are never going to need that hi-res." And that may be true -- that may be overkill for some people -- but in some ways it also kind of allows for future-proofing. Down the road another year or two, it will still probably look good, we hope. And of course it can be played at a lower resolution and smaller and you can resize the windows freely and just play on low-end computers, so that is a pretty important part. We are trying to support both casual players and people who have a fancier machine, so they can also enjoy more stuff. Bejeweled 2 is six years old.
What's your definition of success for a game like Bejeweled 3?
Honestly, Bejeweled 3 was, in some ways, a game we made for my Mom. And my Mom is a big Bejeweled fan, but, you know what, she doesn't use Facebook, she doesn't want to use Facebook, she doesn't want to play Bejeweled Blitz. So she's been looking at Bejeweled where, so, she's been playing stuff on, you know, 2004 kinds of things. So, you know, [Bejeweled 3] was a game that we kind of made for people like her, who kind of like Bejeweled, but have been kind of left a bit high and dry for awhile, as far as getting something new.
So if your mom likes Bejeweled 3, then you'll consider it successful?
Well, yeah, it's actually not a bad way of looking at it. [Laughs]
How many additions in the game are based on things that fans requested?
There is definitely a number of things in there that are a result of what people liked or didn't like in earlier versions. So for example, we've got one in there called Lightning Mode, which is influenced by Bejeweled Blitz. It's not exactly Bejeweled, because we didn't want to just duplicate that. It's sort of a very fast-paced, time-based kind of game. It is different from Blitz in a couple ways, in that you, it can last longer than a minute. You can kind of collect these time gems that will extend your game. And it's kind of got a sort of a stage thing, where you go up in rounds, and each round is worth more points, and so forth. So, that was definitely influenced by Blitz, because we figured that, you know, the players who are playing Bejeweled Blitz, of which, there are quite a few now.
Does Bejeweled 3 have any kind of social media integration that, you know, if you get a high score, can you put it on Twitter, or anything like that?
To be honest, right now, no. But it'll probably get stuff like that in the future. We're trying to figure out how to kind of do these things in a way that, kind of makes sense. And it didn't seem to make sense, Bejeweled 3 is kind of, more of a, single player game.
OK.
Now, that doesn't mean that, in fact, it's quite likely that, aspects of Bejeweled 3 will start to resurface, in other parts of. So, might, you start seeing some of those kinds of variant games, you know, as part of, you know, iPhone Bejeweled, or Bejeweled Blitz. And that seems quite possible.
You know, one thing I didn't really see in the trailer, were remnants of Bejeweled Twist. Is there any reason for that?
There are some places you'll see Bejeweled Twist resurfacing, but not in [Bejeweled 3]. There are some games coming out the next couple months, where, I will, I don't know if I, I'd probably better not announce anything.
I would say that Twist is not dead. There will be more twisting. There will be more twisting coming, but our feeling was that Twist was a little bit more of a hard-core mechanic. [Yeah] And so we're going to try to move that into a product where those kinds of players are more likely to enjoy it.
Downloadable casual games have been taking a hit and a lot of people have blamed that on social gaming. Do you think this will affect how Bejeweled 3 is received?
It's definitely a factor. Yeah, I mean download space is, it's getting a lot tougher. I wouldn't say it's necessarily going downhill, but it's certainly flattening.
On the other hand, it's kind of a complex equation. Last year was our best year for retail. We're doing very well with boxes in retail stores. That's not exactly the sexy new social game story. There are a lot of people out there who are still buying their games in places like Wal-Mart, and so you know, we've been doing pretty good there.
Now it's not something that is a news story, but – and it's true that in general PC retail sales, especially for AAA games are not looking too good. But it has been doing pretty well for us. Downloadable are also, it's definitely a sign of it's changing. And I would say, in the future – as you can see from the kinds of products we're doing now, we're trying to – I wouldn't say move away from it, -- but I would say branch out from it.
When you look at some of our other games, what we find, the good thing about the PC is that it's a pretty good spot for testing things out and seeing how they work, and developing for that in a way that helps the other platforms. So, Plants vs. Zombies, if we started doing a count of where it's been played, probably by now you'd see that a lot more people have played it on iPhone or iPad or Xbox or something like that than have played it online. But would it have existed on those platforms if it hadn't been on PC first? Probably not. We provided a good spot for that game to come out. It was a pretty high risk game and it was a good spot to develop something where you weren't worried about a lot of the crazy technological issues, platform issues and so forth. And then going from there to these other platforms was actually relatively easy, comparatively. And when we went to iPhone, people were already quite aware of Plants vs. Zombies from PC, and so forth. And so that kind of helped get it out there.
Bejeweled 3 Interview: Part II: Take a closer look at the game's new experimental 'Zen' mode, complete with positive affirmations and breath modulator.
bejeweled 3 from popcapOK, so let's talk about some of Bejeweled 3's new features. There's a Quest mode. Would you say that's one of the big new features for the game?
Yes, that's definitely one of the big ones. We're not trying to make a full-blown role-playing game or anything like that. It's kind of more of a structure for a series of challenges and variances for the game. There's a whole bunch of crazy Bejeweled variances we were playing around with, and we put in the quest mode as a framework to put them in there. So the structure is that we're trying to restore some various artifacts and to do so you have to play these different kinds of Bejeweled variants, that in some cases they are only minor variants on the Bejeweled rules, like you only have 10 moves or something like that to release a jewel.
What are some examples of the Bejeweled 'variants' in the new Quest mode?
There's a balance mode where you have a pendulum that goes back and forth depending on which color of gems you are clearing, if you tilt it too far one way or the other you lose, so you have to decide which gems to match to keep the thing balanced. There's Ice Storm, where you have these rising colors of ice that are going up and you have to knock them by making matches before they get to the top. There's Diamond Mine which is kind of the one where you're digging, and you're clearing dirt by clearing gems and the more you do you dig down further and further and find treasures and so forth. There's Butterflies -- which is a pretty interesting one -- where you have these jeweled butterflies that are moving up from the bottom towards the top where there's a big spider, and you're trying to clear them off the board to freedom or before they get to the top where the spider will eat them.
Are those your favorites in the new game?
Yeah, there's a couple that are actually – the Secret one or those Quest ones. There's some of them that are entertaining once or twice; I wouldn't want to play them repeatedly. There's other ones that are actually pretty compelling, and we've made those into separate game modes. So once you've played for a little bit, you unlock them as a full mode you can play.
Is that what the oh-so mysterious 'secret games' are in Bejeweled 3?
Yeah. The secret games are basically some of the variants of Bejeweled. The more unusual ones that we thought were the really cool ones that you wanted to play over and over again. And so once you've progressed a little way through the game, they're unlocked so you can just go back and play them in sort of a perpetual mode, as you would with the other versions, like Classic skill and so forth.
OK. I also noticed that there's going to be a new badge system in the game.
Yeah. It's not exactly ... it's kind of new. I wish I could say it's super radically awesome cool. We had something like that in the PC version of Bejeweled Blitz. It's sort of an achievement system. The only thing – you get these badges for doing various things, and there's different levels of badges, and there's elite badges for doing really tough things.
How tough are the 'tough' badges?
A really tough badge would be Super Nova Gem, which is a kind of gem that exists in the game but it's one of these we don't even tell people about it because it's nearly impossible to make. You have to get six gems in a row. And it's quite hard to do that. You either need to have an incredibly lucky hall of gems, or you need to engineer an extremely difficult combination of gems so those fall together and make a sixth gem combination. And a Super Nova Gem does a humongous explosion, so that's kind of cool. It's mostly just an achievement to see if you can actually get such a thing.
How many badges are there going to be in the game?
Oh gosh. There's a bunch. There's dozens. I would say there's dozens and dozens.
Bejeweled Blitz came out and we got obsessed with being able to do more than one match at one time. Is that also going to be in the game?
Oh yeah. We kind of used a lot of the Bejeweled Blitz basic physics and mechanics of it. Kind of carried into Bejeweled 3 here. Like Blitz, the visuals and all the special effects and stuff are pretty cranked up. It's full HD displays and accelerated explosions and more tunnels and so on.
Do you think that will go over well with the traditional Bejeweled fan?
I believe so. I think that when we put out Bejeweled 2 in 2004, at the time, for the casual game market, it was actually a bit over the top. I remember people telling us things like, 'Why is your game 1024 by 768? That resolution is way too big. Casual players are never going to need that hi-res." And that may be true -- that may be overkill for some people -- but in some ways it also kind of allows for future-proofing. Down the road another year or two, it will still probably look good, we hope. And of course it can be played at a lower resolution and smaller and you can resize the windows freely and just play on low-end computers, so that is a pretty important part. We are trying to support both casual players and people who have a fancier machine, so they can also enjoy more stuff. Bejeweled 2 is six years old.
What's your definition of success for a game like Bejeweled 3?
Honestly, Bejeweled 3 was, in some ways, a game we made for my Mom. And my Mom is a big Bejeweled fan, but, you know what, she doesn't use Facebook, she doesn't want to use Facebook, she doesn't want to play Bejeweled Blitz. So she's been looking at Bejeweled where, so, she's been playing stuff on, you know, 2004 kinds of things. So, you know, [Bejeweled 3] was a game that we kind of made for people like her, who kind of like Bejeweled, but have been kind of left a bit high and dry for awhile, as far as getting something new.
So if your mom likes Bejeweled 3, then you'll consider it successful?
Well, yeah, it's actually not a bad way of looking at it. [Laughs]
How many additions in the game are based on things that fans requested?
There is definitely a number of things in there that are a result of what people liked or didn't like in earlier versions. So for example, we've got one in there called Lightning Mode, which is influenced by Bejeweled Blitz. It's not exactly Bejeweled, because we didn't want to just duplicate that. It's sort of a very fast-paced, time-based kind of game. It is different from Blitz in a couple ways, in that you, it can last longer than a minute. You can kind of collect these time gems that will extend your game. And it's kind of got a sort of a stage thing, where you go up in rounds, and each round is worth more points, and so forth. So, that was definitely influenced by Blitz, because we figured that, you know, the players who are playing Bejeweled Blitz, of which, there are quite a few now.
Does Bejeweled 3 have any kind of social media integration that, you know, if you get a high score, can you put it on Twitter, or anything like that?
To be honest, right now, no. But it'll probably get stuff like that in the future. We're trying to figure out how to kind of do these things in a way that, kind of makes sense. And it didn't seem to make sense, Bejeweled 3 is kind of, more of a, single player game.
OK.
Now, that doesn't mean that, in fact, it's quite likely that, aspects of Bejeweled 3 will start to resurface, in other parts of. So, might, you start seeing some of those kinds of variant games, you know, as part of, you know, iPhone Bejeweled, or Bejeweled Blitz. And that seems quite possible.
You know, one thing I didn't really see in the trailer, were remnants of Bejeweled Twist. Is there any reason for that?
There are some places you'll see Bejeweled Twist resurfacing, but not in [Bejeweled 3]. There are some games coming out the next couple months, where, I will, I don't know if I, I'd probably better not announce anything.
I would say that Twist is not dead. There will be more twisting. There will be more twisting coming, but our feeling was that Twist was a little bit more of a hard-core mechanic. [Yeah] And so we're going to try to move that into a product where those kinds of players are more likely to enjoy it.
Downloadable casual games have been taking a hit and a lot of people have blamed that on social gaming. Do you think this will affect how Bejeweled 3 is received?
It's definitely a factor. Yeah, I mean download space is, it's getting a lot tougher. I wouldn't say it's necessarily going downhill, but it's certainly flattening.
On the other hand, it's kind of a complex equation. Last year was our best year for retail. We're doing very well with boxes in retail stores. That's not exactly the sexy new social game story. There are a lot of people out there who are still buying their games in places like Wal-Mart, and so you know, we've been doing pretty good there.
Now it's not something that is a news story, but – and it's true that in general PC retail sales, especially for AAA games are not looking too good. But it has been doing pretty well for us. Downloadable are also, it's definitely a sign of it's changing. And I would say, in the future – as you can see from the kinds of products we're doing now, we're trying to – I wouldn't say move away from it, -- but I would say branch out from it.
When you look at some of our other games, what we find, the good thing about the PC is that it's a pretty good spot for testing things out and seeing how they work, and developing for that in a way that helps the other platforms. So, Plants vs. Zombies, if we started doing a count of where it's been played, probably by now you'd see that a lot more people have played it on iPhone or iPad or Xbox or something like that than have played it online. But would it have existed on those platforms if it hadn't been on PC first? Probably not. We provided a good spot for that game to come out. It was a pretty high risk game and it was a good spot to develop something where you weren't worried about a lot of the crazy technological issues, platform issues and so forth. And then going from there to these other platforms was actually relatively easy, comparatively. And when we went to iPhone, people were already quite aware of Plants vs. Zombies from PC, and so forth. And so that kind of helped get it out there.
Bejeweled 3 Interview: Part II: Take a closer look at the game's new experimental 'Zen' mode, complete with positive affirmations and breath modulator.
Serenity now: Bejeweled 3's Zen mode treads on 'New Age-y' territory
One of my favorite things about PopCap's popular match-3 puzzle game is that you can choose to play under high pressure, whether timed or to beat a high score, or -- if you're just in the mood to kick back and relax -- you can play the game on Endless mode, where there's no time limits, you can just swap gems until you fall into some sort of blissed out trance.
PopCap co-founder and Chief Creative Director Jason Kapalka says this has always been a fan favorite, and in the new Bejeweled 3 game, the 'Endless' mode from the previous Bejeweled games has been completely blown out and renamed the 'Zen' mode.
Like the 'Endless mode,' you will be able to play for infinity -- but the Zen mode has some new added a few new experimental features designed to transport you to your happy place. While you play the game, you'll be treated to a spa-like experience with relaxing visuals and music. And a breath modulator. And, if you choose, positive affirmations like 'Don't Worry' and 'Be Happy.' Oh yeah -- they went there.
Kapalka offers us more details on what to expect in Bejeweled's most experimental version of the game yet.
So, tell us more about Bejeweled 3's Zen mode.
The zen mode is gonna be quite interesting. A lot of this stuff that's in there is actually kind of scientific-lite. It actually has things in there that you can actually use to kind of, you know, get into a meditative state. It's got breath modulation stuff...
Breath modulation? How does that work?
Well, you turn it on. And this sort of tracking line moves up and down the screen at the same time you hear kind of, basically, breathing in and out sounds. It actually works pretty well. What it does is then, over time, if you play that, the pace sort of slows down gradually. So you get to ideas that kind of. It definitely works. I mean, as you're listening to the, you know, breathing and watching this line in the background, you kind of think up your own breathing with it. And as that slows down, you know? You tend to, you know, make you also slow down your own breathing.
Wow. That's wild.
Yeah. I mean, it's not exactly, you know? It's not full-on biofeedback-type stuff, where we kind of attach, you know, electrodes to your head or anything like that.
But it is, you know? It actually does, you know, the kind of function that will, you know? If you sit there and do that, it's very likely it will actually kind of slow your breathing down, which will probably cause you to calm down and lose your stress.
Have you guys done any medical testing on that?
Jason: Yeah, kind of. Yeah. We – there's some medical researchers who have been doing a bunch of tests using Bejeweled and custom variants of Bejeweled. They have a version that will actually do a biofeedback. So they have people hooked up to monitors and so on. We can't exactly replicate what they're doing in this version. But, yeah, we have had them come in and talk to us a few times and consult with us.
Is there anything else rather than breath modulation, like colors and sound?
There's some subtle stuff we did in the game where when you're playing in the Zen Mode, a bunch of things like gravity and the rate of how things swap and explosions are all kind of tend to be a little more mellow, basically. But there's also more full-on things. There's fine aural tones, which – you might have heard of these -- you have to wear headphones to listen to them. It's an auditory illusion where they play a frequency in one ear and a different frequency in the other ear. And that kind of tricks your brain into hearing a different frequency, by hearing the two sounds in different ears. And it can be done so that you hear a frequency outside of the regular hearing range.
Now the point of that is that, in theory, you can have it be tones that are outside of the range of hearing but are in the range of different kinds of brain wave pulsations. The theory being it can be useful for meditation by playing frequencies that are in the beta wave or delta wave range that would be associated with deep sleep or dreaming. That's kind of an interesting thing. It's in there in the experimental category. But that is an area that's sort of fringe science. And, you can turn the monitor off as you prefer.
What has the response been like from players?
Different people have different responses to it. Some people listen to it and think it's cool. Other people hear a bunch of irritating tones and noises. So it's something that we thought was fun to try. And some people like it. It does work well for some people in terms of meditative mode. And we also have one more feature in there that is definitely for my mom. We call them mantras. Which are kind of, to some degree, kind of like affirmations. Where it will display positive thoughts on the screen either visibly ___ or if you want, subliminally.
Like what? What kind of affirmations?
Generally positive thinking kind of things. 'Be happy' and 'Don't worry.' At one point we had a quit smoking set in there where it would try and tell you things to quit smoking, but we had to take that out because, bizarrely, even having the mentioning of smoking in there gave us an ESRB rating, where we had tobacco use. So it was just too weird to have a thing where we would come out with a warning about smoking on it.
Yes, that would be odd for a Bejeweled game.
Yeah, so it has these things in it. That's a weird one, obviously, because clearly that's getting into some sort of New Agey territory. Some people don't like it and some people would consider it silly, but, again, my mum likes it, and I know she enjoys that stuff or seeing it, and it does no harm, and it's certainly it's an option you can choose, whether you want on or not. It's part of the whole experience of a zen-type thing, which we always thought was a good idea to embrace the idea that if people are playing it to relax let's kind of throw in everything we can to might possibly help you do that, rather than sort of...
All you need to do is insert yoga instructor you're good to go.
We did change some of the things where you can get music well you can actually play music or various sort of soothing sound effects in the background like running water or waterfalls, stuff like that, too. So, yeah, I mean, we'll see how that goes.
It is odd because it represents how Bejeweled has these two extremes, so you've got, you know, on the one hand, that version, where you could be you know listening to hypnotic tones on your headphones and positive affirmations while you're watching this breathing thing go up and down, and on the other extreme you've got kind of hyper-kinetic, one-minute action games with explosions all over the place with wormholes and lightning bolts, and so forth.
Now, some people may like both of them, and that's been the weird thing with Bejeweled is whenever people try and specify it as a game for one type of person, you know it's a bit not fair to say that. It got stereotyped as being just a game for mums initially, and with things like iPhone and visuals, [Bejeweled ]Blitz and so forth, it takes on a different form for different people.
PopCap co-founder and Chief Creative Director Jason Kapalka says this has always been a fan favorite, and in the new Bejeweled 3 game, the 'Endless' mode from the previous Bejeweled games has been completely blown out and renamed the 'Zen' mode.
Like the 'Endless mode,' you will be able to play for infinity -- but the Zen mode has some new added a few new experimental features designed to transport you to your happy place. While you play the game, you'll be treated to a spa-like experience with relaxing visuals and music. And a breath modulator. And, if you choose, positive affirmations like 'Don't Worry' and 'Be Happy.' Oh yeah -- they went there.
Kapalka offers us more details on what to expect in Bejeweled's most experimental version of the game yet.
So, tell us more about Bejeweled 3's Zen mode.
The zen mode is gonna be quite interesting. A lot of this stuff that's in there is actually kind of scientific-lite. It actually has things in there that you can actually use to kind of, you know, get into a meditative state. It's got breath modulation stuff...
Breath modulation? How does that work?
Well, you turn it on. And this sort of tracking line moves up and down the screen at the same time you hear kind of, basically, breathing in and out sounds. It actually works pretty well. What it does is then, over time, if you play that, the pace sort of slows down gradually. So you get to ideas that kind of. It definitely works. I mean, as you're listening to the, you know, breathing and watching this line in the background, you kind of think up your own breathing with it. And as that slows down, you know? You tend to, you know, make you also slow down your own breathing.
Wow. That's wild.
Yeah. I mean, it's not exactly, you know? It's not full-on biofeedback-type stuff, where we kind of attach, you know, electrodes to your head or anything like that.
But it is, you know? It actually does, you know, the kind of function that will, you know? If you sit there and do that, it's very likely it will actually kind of slow your breathing down, which will probably cause you to calm down and lose your stress.
Have you guys done any medical testing on that?
Jason: Yeah, kind of. Yeah. We – there's some medical researchers who have been doing a bunch of tests using Bejeweled and custom variants of Bejeweled. They have a version that will actually do a biofeedback. So they have people hooked up to monitors and so on. We can't exactly replicate what they're doing in this version. But, yeah, we have had them come in and talk to us a few times and consult with us.
Is there anything else rather than breath modulation, like colors and sound?
There's some subtle stuff we did in the game where when you're playing in the Zen Mode, a bunch of things like gravity and the rate of how things swap and explosions are all kind of tend to be a little more mellow, basically. But there's also more full-on things. There's fine aural tones, which – you might have heard of these -- you have to wear headphones to listen to them. It's an auditory illusion where they play a frequency in one ear and a different frequency in the other ear. And that kind of tricks your brain into hearing a different frequency, by hearing the two sounds in different ears. And it can be done so that you hear a frequency outside of the regular hearing range.
Now the point of that is that, in theory, you can have it be tones that are outside of the range of hearing but are in the range of different kinds of brain wave pulsations. The theory being it can be useful for meditation by playing frequencies that are in the beta wave or delta wave range that would be associated with deep sleep or dreaming. That's kind of an interesting thing. It's in there in the experimental category. But that is an area that's sort of fringe science. And, you can turn the monitor off as you prefer.
What has the response been like from players?
Different people have different responses to it. Some people listen to it and think it's cool. Other people hear a bunch of irritating tones and noises. So it's something that we thought was fun to try. And some people like it. It does work well for some people in terms of meditative mode. And we also have one more feature in there that is definitely for my mom. We call them mantras. Which are kind of, to some degree, kind of like affirmations. Where it will display positive thoughts on the screen either visibly ___ or if you want, subliminally.
Like what? What kind of affirmations?
Generally positive thinking kind of things. 'Be happy' and 'Don't worry.' At one point we had a quit smoking set in there where it would try and tell you things to quit smoking, but we had to take that out because, bizarrely, even having the mentioning of smoking in there gave us an ESRB rating, where we had tobacco use. So it was just too weird to have a thing where we would come out with a warning about smoking on it.
Yes, that would be odd for a Bejeweled game.
Yeah, so it has these things in it. That's a weird one, obviously, because clearly that's getting into some sort of New Agey territory. Some people don't like it and some people would consider it silly, but, again, my mum likes it, and I know she enjoys that stuff or seeing it, and it does no harm, and it's certainly it's an option you can choose, whether you want on or not. It's part of the whole experience of a zen-type thing, which we always thought was a good idea to embrace the idea that if people are playing it to relax let's kind of throw in everything we can to might possibly help you do that, rather than sort of...
All you need to do is insert yoga instructor you're good to go.
We did change some of the things where you can get music well you can actually play music or various sort of soothing sound effects in the background like running water or waterfalls, stuff like that, too. So, yeah, I mean, we'll see how that goes.
It is odd because it represents how Bejeweled has these two extremes, so you've got, you know, on the one hand, that version, where you could be you know listening to hypnotic tones on your headphones and positive affirmations while you're watching this breathing thing go up and down, and on the other extreme you've got kind of hyper-kinetic, one-minute action games with explosions all over the place with wormholes and lightning bolts, and so forth.
Now, some people may like both of them, and that's been the weird thing with Bejeweled is whenever people try and specify it as a game for one type of person, you know it's a bit not fair to say that. It got stereotyped as being just a game for mums initially, and with things like iPhone and visuals, [Bejeweled ]Blitz and so forth, it takes on a different form for different people.
Pet Society's Hideeni Mystery Box lets you become the Great Hideeni
Astronaut Pumpkin
While Halloween is sadly over, you don't necessarily need an excuse to run out of the house in a costume. Well, at least in Pet Society you don't with the new Hideeni Mystery Box. (Otherwise that would be kind of weird.) This new item, for 6 Playfish Cash, will contain one of nine of the Great Hideeni's elaborate-yet-obvious disguises.
Players can also buy bundles of the Mystery Boxes at five for 24 Playfish Cash or 13 for 60 if they want to increase their chances of completing the whole Hideeni Wardrobe. These costumes would be the perfect way to prank your friends. Just dress up in one of Hideeni's ridiculous outfits, find a way to get a friend to visit you and they'll think that the real Hideeni is in town. My personal favorite is a tie between the Octopus Costume and the Pineapple Costume, because they're just both so goofy. Not to mention that my favorite colors are purple and pink and that is OK... at least that's what those t-shirts tell me.
While Halloween is sadly over, you don't necessarily need an excuse to run out of the house in a costume. Well, at least in Pet Society you don't with the new Hideeni Mystery Box. (Otherwise that would be kind of weird.) This new item, for 6 Playfish Cash, will contain one of nine of the Great Hideeni's elaborate-yet-obvious disguises.
Players can also buy bundles of the Mystery Boxes at five for 24 Playfish Cash or 13 for 60 if they want to increase their chances of completing the whole Hideeni Wardrobe. These costumes would be the perfect way to prank your friends. Just dress up in one of Hideeni's ridiculous outfits, find a way to get a friend to visit you and they'll think that the real Hideeni is in town. My personal favorite is a tie between the Octopus Costume and the Pineapple Costume, because they're just both so goofy. Not to mention that my favorite colors are purple and pink and that is OK... at least that's what those t-shirts tell me.
Will Facebook's privacy struggle finally end in January 2011?
While that question has yet to have an answer, the Wall Street Journal reports that the social network is currently conducting an investigation on the events that transpired earlier this month with the help of RapLeaf, a data broker who came forward to help Facebook with its mission. More importantly, the Facebook development team is working on a solution for app developers to able to share user data with content partners anonymously--which means no more User IDs being sent out--that will be mandatory by Jan 1. 2011, according to WSJ.
As the investigation continues, the company has suspended fewer than a dozen unnamed app and game developers from the website for six months for selling user information to equally anonymous data brokers. RapLeaf has agreed to delete all of its User ID data, but Facebook, who said the company is simply "the data broker who came forward to work with us on this situation," hasn't implied whether the company was guilty as well, WSJ reports.
Could this be the end of Facebook's struggle for privacy? (Doubtful.) If developers can provide user data anonymously to content partners, which we imagine would amount to mere numbers rather than specific information, our gaming experience could be vastly improved without the worry of being exposed to seedy Internet advertising agencies. We'll see what happens in 2011, but until then take care of yourself when you're out there farming.
As the investigation continues, the company has suspended fewer than a dozen unnamed app and game developers from the website for six months for selling user information to equally anonymous data brokers. RapLeaf has agreed to delete all of its User ID data, but Facebook, who said the company is simply "the data broker who came forward to work with us on this situation," hasn't implied whether the company was guilty as well, WSJ reports.
Could this be the end of Facebook's struggle for privacy? (Doubtful.) If developers can provide user data anonymously to content partners, which we imagine would amount to mere numbers rather than specific information, our gaming experience could be vastly improved without the worry of being exposed to seedy Internet advertising agencies. We'll see what happens in 2011, but until then take care of yourself when you're out there farming.
Thứ Tư, 1 tháng 2, 2012
ESPNU College Town: ESPN Arcade QB Assault brings twice the game
ESPN is integrating ESPNU College Town into nearly every facet of its online presence, so it would only make sense that ESPN Arcade is next in line. To help get the word out about ESPN's games hub, Playdom has introduced ESPN Arcade QB Assault to the game. A football tossing arcade game, this decoration would rest perfectly beside your ESPN SportsNation Pool Party.
To nab this limited edition item, all you need to do is click here: http://espn.go.com/free-online-games/sports/espnucollegetown2010?ex_cid=collegetown_fanpage_to_landing
From there, just follow the instructions in the green text box and you should be redirected to your own campus. You'll see a notice reading, "Congratulations! Your Promotional Code has been validated." Click "Continue," and your exclusive gift should be in your gift inventory, ready to bring some fun to your campus. And how fun it is! Clicking on the item within your game will send you to the actual ESPN Arcade game, QB Assault, which couldn't be a more fitting time killer while you wait for your events to tick down. The question is, however, can you play two games at once (probably)?
To nab this limited edition item, all you need to do is click here: http://espn.go.com/free-online-games/sports/espnucollegetown2010?ex_cid=collegetown_fanpage_to_landing
From there, just follow the instructions in the green text box and you should be redirected to your own campus. You'll see a notice reading, "Congratulations! Your Promotional Code has been validated." Click "Continue," and your exclusive gift should be in your gift inventory, ready to bring some fun to your campus. And how fun it is! Clicking on the item within your game will send you to the actual ESPN Arcade game, QB Assault, which couldn't be a more fitting time killer while you wait for your events to tick down. The question is, however, can you play two games at once (probably)?
Simply Hospital Cheats & Tips: Getting Started Guide
simply hospital cheats getting started guide
Simply Hospital is a Facebook game published by 6waves. Manage your own hospital by hiring doctors, provide examination and diagnostic rooms, decorate it to make it look appealing and maintain your medical equipment, all to increase its reputation and profit. These are just a few of the things you can do to begin playing Simply Hospital.
Continue reading to check out the Simply Hospital Cheats & Tips: Getting Started Guide.
Research Diseases
Patients with different types of illnesses will visit your hospital with the hope of being cured. From the common cold to first crush, the objective is to cure them when they visit your hospital. Each illness has its own degree of complexity and if it's a new strain, it takes some research before it can be diagnosed and cured.
simply hospital cheats getting started guide
Constantly research diseases increasing diagnosis accuracy and effectivity of the cure. It's recommended that you maximize research 2 diseases at a time. There is no point to spend money on researching a disease ahead of time especially if you haven't reached a certain level where patients start to visit with that illness. Research is expensive and you'll have a better chance with old illnesses first.
Looking at the image above, you'll know how the level you are at, how long it takes to complete the research, the cost and percentage of increase. As an example, Zombie Syndrome is at level 5 and after the research is done, it will increase the success rate of diagnosing it by 8% and 5% for curing it.
Provide Medical Rooms and Equipment
Each illness needs special equipment to diagnose and cure the patient. Go to the research panel window and you'll see which room and equipment you need for each illness. Click on the hospital editor icon. You start off with 10 areas for your rooms. Click on the add room icon to purchase one.
simply hospital cheats getting started guide
Diagnostic rooms would be a priority and you'll have to eventually construct 2 examination and shrink rooms. These are the two main rooms you'll need once you level up and patients start coming in droves.
Here's a tip: It's better to diagnose patients at earlier levels than curing them because you can use medicines to help out with the latter. Don't panic when it's asking you to add equipment rooms to cure frostbite, lamp-man or even the zombie syndrome. Hold out as long as you can, as long as it doesn't affect your reputation too much. Save up first to get more rooms for later levels.
Hire Specialists
Doctors are needed to diagnose and operate the medical equipment. When you purchase a new room, a notification will let you know that you need to hire some staff.
You have two options. You can hire your friend and assign them to a room or you can hire a specialist. It's cheaper to hire friends because their hourly rate is lower but take note that their experience is lower and they are not as efficient as specialists.
At earlier levels, you can choose to hire friends since it's expected you are working on increasing your reputation and you start out low. Eventually you'll have to spend a little bit more to increase the percentage of successful diagnosis and curing a patient.
simply hospital cheats getting started guide
The image above shows the experience level, its average cure rate, how many people the doctor can accommodate before they take a break, resting time in seconds and their hourly rate. As an example, Good Sensi Milla has a higher experience than the two, making her more efficient because he can accommodate more patients (six more).
When you change staff, remember to manage your human resources and check whether there is an idle doctor. When you appoint someone else to replace a current staff member, they become idle until you fire them. When you fire them, they stay idle and you'll still be paying their hourly rate.
simply hospital cheats getting started guide
Treat with Medicines
Gift giving in Simply Hospital is important in your overall strategy. Decorations can help but medicines are more beneficial. Take note that gifts here is a bit different because you have to buy them with your own coins to send to friends. Each friend you send it to will add up to your total bill.
simply hospital cheats getting started guide
You can, however, choose the free gift icon which will randomly select medicines (or even decorations) to send to your friend. What you're hoping for is to get more of the headache pill or panagrease. You'll need them to treat ailments during a shift and it will help increase your hospital's reputation.
Here's an important tip: Use medicines to treat patients only when there is a long queue at the diagnostic rooms. You don't know when you'll get free medicines and they go fast during a long shift. Hold on to it until you see that the patient's mood drop. Remember it's about timing. Don't wait until it's too low that you end up losing the patient altogether.
Shift Management and Statistics
Start accepting patients by starting a new shift. You'll get to choose shifts as short as 15 minutes or a maximum of 48 hours.
simply hospital cheats getting started guide
Expenses and the number of patients expected per shift are shown to help you decide which one to choose. A tip here is to play the shorter shifts so you can manage your hospital better. Leaving it without a manager is not recommended because you might end up losing more patients, especially if you don't have enough rooms yet.
It's suggested that you watch patients like a hawk at earlier levels. Check if their mood is decreasing and if they are being diagnosed and cured successfully. Are there more patients with the same disease at a certain point?
After a shift is done, you'll see your shift's performance.
simply hospital cheats getting started guide
Look at the overall reputation and check if the shift helped increase your reputation. Scroll through the list of patients that visited your hospital. The example above shows that working on researching zombie syndrome more is needed or get more medicines to cure them immediately. Some also left the line because it took a long time to assist them. Install benches or hire more efficient doctors to help decrease this number.
Manage your Hospital's Reputation
The overall objective is to increase your hospital's reputation so you can get more patients per shift, which will increase your profits. More profit will mean you can expand your hospital and will be able to research more illnesses to make your hospital more efficient. This is why the shift statistics is important to help you strategize.
Here's a tip: Having a very high reputation isn't beneficial when you're not ready with enough rooms or research is lacking. A safe percentage would be around 60-70% once most rooms are in place and research is average. It's easier to manage and you can work on increasing your reputation slowly.
Take note though that neighbors can help increase your reputation when they visit you, which you can also do the same.
Participate in the Doctor's Council
Another way to increase your profits easily is to participate in your friend's doctor council sessions. This happens when a VIP patient arrives at their hospital. Look at the upper left corner of the game's interface and below the reputation level, you'll see an icon that looks like people meeting at a table.
simply hospital cheats getting started guide
If there is a number in it, that indicates that you have a number of councils that you can participate in. Join on all councils. It will reward you a hefty amount. This will increase once you level up.
simply hospital cheats getting started guide
Click here to play Simply Hospital >
Simply Hospital is a Facebook game published by 6waves. Manage your own hospital by hiring doctors, provide examination and diagnostic rooms, decorate it to make it look appealing and maintain your medical equipment, all to increase its reputation and profit. These are just a few of the things you can do to begin playing Simply Hospital.
Continue reading to check out the Simply Hospital Cheats & Tips: Getting Started Guide.
Research Diseases
Patients with different types of illnesses will visit your hospital with the hope of being cured. From the common cold to first crush, the objective is to cure them when they visit your hospital. Each illness has its own degree of complexity and if it's a new strain, it takes some research before it can be diagnosed and cured.
simply hospital cheats getting started guide
Constantly research diseases increasing diagnosis accuracy and effectivity of the cure. It's recommended that you maximize research 2 diseases at a time. There is no point to spend money on researching a disease ahead of time especially if you haven't reached a certain level where patients start to visit with that illness. Research is expensive and you'll have a better chance with old illnesses first.
Looking at the image above, you'll know how the level you are at, how long it takes to complete the research, the cost and percentage of increase. As an example, Zombie Syndrome is at level 5 and after the research is done, it will increase the success rate of diagnosing it by 8% and 5% for curing it.
Provide Medical Rooms and Equipment
Each illness needs special equipment to diagnose and cure the patient. Go to the research panel window and you'll see which room and equipment you need for each illness. Click on the hospital editor icon. You start off with 10 areas for your rooms. Click on the add room icon to purchase one.
simply hospital cheats getting started guide
Diagnostic rooms would be a priority and you'll have to eventually construct 2 examination and shrink rooms. These are the two main rooms you'll need once you level up and patients start coming in droves.
Here's a tip: It's better to diagnose patients at earlier levels than curing them because you can use medicines to help out with the latter. Don't panic when it's asking you to add equipment rooms to cure frostbite, lamp-man or even the zombie syndrome. Hold out as long as you can, as long as it doesn't affect your reputation too much. Save up first to get more rooms for later levels.
Hire Specialists
Doctors are needed to diagnose and operate the medical equipment. When you purchase a new room, a notification will let you know that you need to hire some staff.
You have two options. You can hire your friend and assign them to a room or you can hire a specialist. It's cheaper to hire friends because their hourly rate is lower but take note that their experience is lower and they are not as efficient as specialists.
At earlier levels, you can choose to hire friends since it's expected you are working on increasing your reputation and you start out low. Eventually you'll have to spend a little bit more to increase the percentage of successful diagnosis and curing a patient.
simply hospital cheats getting started guide
The image above shows the experience level, its average cure rate, how many people the doctor can accommodate before they take a break, resting time in seconds and their hourly rate. As an example, Good Sensi Milla has a higher experience than the two, making her more efficient because he can accommodate more patients (six more).
When you change staff, remember to manage your human resources and check whether there is an idle doctor. When you appoint someone else to replace a current staff member, they become idle until you fire them. When you fire them, they stay idle and you'll still be paying their hourly rate.
simply hospital cheats getting started guide
Treat with Medicines
Gift giving in Simply Hospital is important in your overall strategy. Decorations can help but medicines are more beneficial. Take note that gifts here is a bit different because you have to buy them with your own coins to send to friends. Each friend you send it to will add up to your total bill.
simply hospital cheats getting started guide
You can, however, choose the free gift icon which will randomly select medicines (or even decorations) to send to your friend. What you're hoping for is to get more of the headache pill or panagrease. You'll need them to treat ailments during a shift and it will help increase your hospital's reputation.
Here's an important tip: Use medicines to treat patients only when there is a long queue at the diagnostic rooms. You don't know when you'll get free medicines and they go fast during a long shift. Hold on to it until you see that the patient's mood drop. Remember it's about timing. Don't wait until it's too low that you end up losing the patient altogether.
Shift Management and Statistics
Start accepting patients by starting a new shift. You'll get to choose shifts as short as 15 minutes or a maximum of 48 hours.
simply hospital cheats getting started guide
Expenses and the number of patients expected per shift are shown to help you decide which one to choose. A tip here is to play the shorter shifts so you can manage your hospital better. Leaving it without a manager is not recommended because you might end up losing more patients, especially if you don't have enough rooms yet.
It's suggested that you watch patients like a hawk at earlier levels. Check if their mood is decreasing and if they are being diagnosed and cured successfully. Are there more patients with the same disease at a certain point?
After a shift is done, you'll see your shift's performance.
simply hospital cheats getting started guide
Look at the overall reputation and check if the shift helped increase your reputation. Scroll through the list of patients that visited your hospital. The example above shows that working on researching zombie syndrome more is needed or get more medicines to cure them immediately. Some also left the line because it took a long time to assist them. Install benches or hire more efficient doctors to help decrease this number.
Manage your Hospital's Reputation
The overall objective is to increase your hospital's reputation so you can get more patients per shift, which will increase your profits. More profit will mean you can expand your hospital and will be able to research more illnesses to make your hospital more efficient. This is why the shift statistics is important to help you strategize.
Here's a tip: Having a very high reputation isn't beneficial when you're not ready with enough rooms or research is lacking. A safe percentage would be around 60-70% once most rooms are in place and research is average. It's easier to manage and you can work on increasing your reputation slowly.
Take note though that neighbors can help increase your reputation when they visit you, which you can also do the same.
Participate in the Doctor's Council
Another way to increase your profits easily is to participate in your friend's doctor council sessions. This happens when a VIP patient arrives at their hospital. Look at the upper left corner of the game's interface and below the reputation level, you'll see an icon that looks like people meeting at a table.
simply hospital cheats getting started guide
If there is a number in it, that indicates that you have a number of councils that you can participate in. Join on all councils. It will reward you a hefty amount. This will increase once you level up.
simply hospital cheats getting started guide
Click here to play Simply Hospital >
Pet Society Restaurant Week brings new decorations a la carte
Frying Pan Sole
Restaurant City has invaded Pet Society, but not in the way you think. Unfortunately, Maggie will not be making an appearance, but there are several items inspired by the sister game in Playfish's pet care game all week including new Mystery Box gifts such as a Smoked Meat Selection from the Gold Mystery Box and a Bar Neon Sticker from the Blue. There is also a Frying Pan for your pet to carry that can be found on the Weekly Dig.
In addition to a slew of restaurant-themed furniture--which can be purchased in one big bundle for and wallpaper, there are also five elegant paintings that have been given the pet treatment like "Pet with a Pearl Earring" and "The Fur of Venus" available in the Boutique. To get your pets ready for a swanky trip to the local bistro there are a few new outfits such as the Waiter, the Chef Dress and Mon Petite Cherie Elegant Outfit. Of course, it wouldn't be Restaurant Week without the food, so you find dishes like Lamb Chop with Rosemary and Sole Meuniere in the Grocery.
Restaurant City has invaded Pet Society, but not in the way you think. Unfortunately, Maggie will not be making an appearance, but there are several items inspired by the sister game in Playfish's pet care game all week including new Mystery Box gifts such as a Smoked Meat Selection from the Gold Mystery Box and a Bar Neon Sticker from the Blue. There is also a Frying Pan for your pet to carry that can be found on the Weekly Dig.
In addition to a slew of restaurant-themed furniture--which can be purchased in one big bundle for and wallpaper, there are also five elegant paintings that have been given the pet treatment like "Pet with a Pearl Earring" and "The Fur of Venus" available in the Boutique. To get your pets ready for a swanky trip to the local bistro there are a few new outfits such as the Waiter, the Chef Dress and Mon Petite Cherie Elegant Outfit. Of course, it wouldn't be Restaurant Week without the food, so you find dishes like Lamb Chop with Rosemary and Sole Meuniere in the Grocery.
City of Wonder: Gifts of Wonder visits Jamestown, birthplace of the colonies
Jamestown Colony
Jamestown, where it all began or where it all ended for you half-glass-empty folk. Playdom has paid homage to this iconic colonial settlement through Gifts of Wonder in City of Wonder. Much like 5 Days of Gifting in Social City, you'll have five days to send and request each daily gift in order to win the grand prize gift. In this case, players will send one another pieces of the Jamestown settlement to finally receive the Jamestown Colony. Here's what you'll need to gift on each day:
Day One: Jamestown House (40 population every 45 minutes)
Day Two: Jamestown Lodge (42 population every 45 minutes)
Day Three: Jamestown Wall (4 Attack, 18 Defense)
Day Four: Jamestown Tower (7 Attack, 15 Defense)
Day Five: Jamestown Field (50 coins every two hours, 20 Trade)
Make sure you don't miss a day or you won't be rewarded with the Jamestown Colony, a Wonder that grants a two percent boost to goods and markets and 350 Trade. You only have a little over seven hours to get yourself the Jamestown House, so hurry if you want a free Wonder.
Jamestown, where it all began or where it all ended for you half-glass-empty folk. Playdom has paid homage to this iconic colonial settlement through Gifts of Wonder in City of Wonder. Much like 5 Days of Gifting in Social City, you'll have five days to send and request each daily gift in order to win the grand prize gift. In this case, players will send one another pieces of the Jamestown settlement to finally receive the Jamestown Colony. Here's what you'll need to gift on each day:
Day One: Jamestown House (40 population every 45 minutes)
Day Two: Jamestown Lodge (42 population every 45 minutes)
Day Three: Jamestown Wall (4 Attack, 18 Defense)
Day Four: Jamestown Tower (7 Attack, 15 Defense)
Day Five: Jamestown Field (50 coins every two hours, 20 Trade)
Make sure you don't miss a day or you won't be rewarded with the Jamestown Colony, a Wonder that grants a two percent boost to goods and markets and 350 Trade. You only have a little over seven hours to get yourself the Jamestown House, so hurry if you want a free Wonder.
Game of the Day: BurgerTime Deluxe
The game of the day is going back, back to the old school! Let the culinary capers commence in BurgerTime Deluxe. Help Peter Pepper as he uses his assortment of ingredients to thwart the dastardly Vinnie Vinegar. Scale the platforms and assemble the burgers piece by piece to clear the levels. Daze the baddies with pepper or earn big points by squashing them with falling ingredients.
Click here to play Burger Time -->
Click here to play Burger Time -->
Đăng ký:
Bài đăng (Atom)