FarmVille gift alert! Some attractive colored flags have appeared as new giftable items. You can pass along yellow, blue, green and red flags (they're more like pendant flags rather than flag flags) to your FarmVille besties, then they can use them to add a little color to their respective farmscapes. They also flutter oh so gently, so if you pretend hard enough, you can almost feel that cool country breeze on your face.



Play FarmVille on Facebook Now >

FarmVille released a new feature that lets you store virtual items in barns or sheds. There are quite a few storage options to choose from, that is, if you are willing to pay up to 27 FarmVille dollars per barn or 22 FarmVille dollars per shed, which let you store 20 and 15 items respectively.

The problem is: If you don't want to pay, you're left with only two options: buy a barn for 40,000 coins, which holds six items, or a shed for 14,000 coins, which holds two items.

Players have been wildly debating whether storage barns are a godsend or a total rip-off. Here are a few choice quotes on the negative side of the big debate:

"It's almost like they get half baked ideas and just throw them together toss them into the game and move on to the next thing. In game storage for in game items is useless. If you guys at Zanga want to make money just offer 50 units of storage in the gift box for 50 Farm cash and people would jump all over that. Anything is better than in game storage units that take up space." - Rettahs.

"The new Storage is the biggest sh*t ever All the time i thought we get a Box and can put our items there unlimited.. i feel bad :S this sucks so much..." - gschw

"Why can't they have some storage like the gift box???Just drag the item and put it in??? Every item can be stored in gift box too.....Why cant we put it back to gift box??Is it that difficult?? These greedy people just here to make money. Not to make the players enjoy it more. That's the feeling i get from all this crap." - Judebinoy

I'm fully aware that FarmVille is only partially free to play and the company makes money on players buying virtual goods, but, there's a balance to strike between making bucks and keeping players happy.

It does seem a little weak that the storage you get without paying actual real-life cash holds almost a third less than what you can hold in the premium storage buildings.

I spent the 27 FarmVille dollars to buy a Sleek Black Barn and am pretty happy with it so far. Maybe the storage cap on all buildings need to be raised a little higher to keep a mob of angry farmers (with pitchforks) converging at Zynga's doorsteps.

As rumored several days ago, Zynga has expanded the FarmVille world by launching a version of the game on the company's FarmVille.com web page. While it still uses Facebook Connect, which allows Facebook players to continue to maintain and grow their previously created farms, moving the game from the popular networking service is a first for the company and speculation is high that Zynga may break out its other games from Facebook.



Currently labelled "Beta," the game seems nearly identical to the Facebook version. Although the game seems to run faster and the game's visuals seem must sharper. More information to come as we find out whether players should ditch the Facebook version of the game for this one.

Starting today, you'll be able to put your seasonal goodies and whatever else into storage on your virtual farm. When you log into the game, you'll see a tiny red barn icon on the left hand side of your screen. Click it and you'll be immediately taken to see the new storage options. Basically, all of those barns and sheds that have previously been just for looks will now hold those extras that might be cluttering up your farmscape.



Storage options come in large and small; you can buy a red barn for 30K coins and use it to store up to six items. A shed costs less -- 700 coins -- and can be used to store two items. The rest of the storage options (and, frankly, the better options) will cost you real-life cash. Barns that store 20 items run for 27 FarmVille dollars, and a pink shed that stores 15 items costs 22 FarmVille dollars. IMHO, it's worth spending a little cash for some extra space, especially if you are a power farmer, i.e. someone who obsessively logs in every day to play (like me).



Question: Do you think there are enough storage options for people who don't want to pay FarmVille dollars for them? Leave a comment below.


Related Articles:
- PetVille -- Zynga's Next Big Facebook Game
- FarmVille Without Facebook? Meet FarmVille.com

Management games like FishVille and Restaurant City follow a basic set of rules. Make things, maintain things, sell things and add new friends in order to grow your in-game virtual fortunes. It's an easy set to apply to nearly everything. Already there are farm games (FarmVille, Country Story), aquarium games (Happy Aquarium, FishVille, My Fishbowl), mafia games (Mobsters 2, Mafia Wars) , pet games (Pet Society) and foodie games (Restaurant City and Cafe World). But there are all sorts of other real-life concepts that could easily be applied to the "management game" model. Here are just a few ideas that we thought were so good, we even checked to see if the trademarks were available:

ZooVille (Trademark available!)


Players might start out with a zoo animal of their choice. From there, they could choose to have a cage style zoo or even create a massive wildlife reserve where the people drive around in cages for protection. Of course, players make money per exhibit, zoo-themed food, new attractions like penquin exhibits and more.

ChurchVille (Trademark available!)
Looking to start your own church or even your own religion? Gather your flock and their tax-free donations as you create a small church with simple pews, wall hangings and ceremonial items. Then as the flock turns into a herd, players will build bigger churchs and eventually a faith-based network of churches.

BandVille (Trademark available)
Build a band from the best players, book shows, manage roadies and merchandise for an early band of your creation. Choose friends who master skills for guitar, drum, bass, vocals or other instruments as you eventually booking tours, album releases, fans, rehab and more.

SimsVille (Trademark abandoned in 2002)
While EA owns The Sims and it did work on a game called SimsVille that never released (FYI: the associate producer for the defunct game, Virginia McArthur now works at Zynga). Now that the trademark is available, players of the game might hone the skills of their on-screen selves as they interact with friends, neighbors, pets and the occasional police raid. Experience points would also come from the strength of your friend network. Imagine a virtual game about your real life social networking skills... I smell a paradox!

BarVille (Trademark available)
Finally, you could manage your very own house of libations. Stock the bar with top and bottom shelf liquors, add staff to manage tables and orders, create nightly specials, book cover bands, laugh at comedians and occasionally escort out those who may have stayed too long. From Irish pubs to trendy joints to Coyote Ugly, BarVille would offer accessories and options that would cater to anyone's tastes, as long as they have the money.

Give Us Credit
If you use any of the ideas, make sure you tell us first! We'd love to hear about how we might create the next social game. of course, what Villes would you like to see?

Looks like the Black Cats in FarmVille have undergone a change. Now instead of harvesting yarn from these furry felines, you harvest ... hair?



That's right, once your black cats go 100%, you now have the option to brush them instead of collecting yarn from them. What -- did the FarmVille folks decide pulling yarn from cats was a tad too surreal? One that note, if you found a donkey hiding in one of the new pink mystery boxes, s/he can be brushed as well.

Related Stories:
Pink FarmVille Mystery Boxes Arrive: Find Out What's Inside
FarmVille on PlayStation 3: 'Why Not?' Says Sony
FarmVille Turkeys: A Tale of Two Gobblers

Play FarmVille on Facebook Now >

Zynga, the makers of FarmVille, are ready to break the 65 million plus player game out of the confines of Facebook by making a full version of the game available on FarmVille.com. First word of Zynga's intent to build the site broke on TechCrunch. The game will still use Facebook Connect as a way to log into the game (which means that your farm will be saved) but by breaking outside of the social networking site's confines, Zynga may allow other logins as well.

Given Facebook's recent rules around viral marketing that many on the services consider spam, Zynga may have decided to go it alone due to some of those restrictions. But with the company's admission that it has had deals to offer "scammy ads" to players, early comments about the move were mixed.

When will the game launch on FarmVille.com? Maybe as soon as today.

A new mystery box has appeared in FarmVille -- a pink box that costs 16 FarmVille dollars (roughly $5) and when opened, reveals a surprise inside. The boxes will only be around until So far mystery boxes have yielded surprise items from the lukewarm (striped rest tents) to the super hot (as in, our very own manor).



These new Pepto-Bismol pink boxes include some groovy prizes including a Zen Garden and an Animal Float that looks like it's prepped and ready for a FarmVille Thanksgiving parade.

Below is the complete list (so far) of the pink mystery box items and how many experience points you earn with each of them.

Animal Float
XP Gained: 250
Sells for: 1,250 coins
The float looks ready for parading, complete with a cow, duck, pig and, of course, turkey made of flowers.


Water Tower
XP Gained: 250
Sell for: 1,250 coins
It's a tower. With water. Probably the least impressive mystery item in this batch.


Carousel
500 XP
The carousel looks great, and it's animated!


Zen Garden
XP Gained: 300
Sell for: 1,500 co
The animated Zen Garden is like, totally, Zen, but your farmer can't actually use it. Bummer.


Silver Streak Trailer
150 XP

Donkey
500 XP

We don't have pics (or all of the info for) the Trailer and Donkey yet. If you have them -- please email them to us at editors@games.com, and we will post them here (and give you credit, of course!).

I binged on seven of these new mystery boxes -- and four of them were water towers. I like water and all -- but there's a limit. Fortunately, I also picked up the Animal Float, Carousel and Zen Garden. Viva la mystery boxes!

Related Stories:
FarmVille Introduces the Garden Shed
FarmVille Magic Tools: The Ultimate Tool for Lazy Farmers
Scared Wild Turkeys Wander into FarmVille

Play FarmVille on Facebook Now >

As of today, PlayStation 3 owners will finally get access to Facebook. Just a day after its Xbox 360 competitors received access to the popular social network, gamers on the Blu-ray enabled console will now be able to show off their Trophies, purchase information and specific game events on their Facebook page.



Meeting with representatives of Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) yesterday in Washington, DC, Facebook integration, the system's future and the system's three year anniversary were all discussed. But we asked if there was any hope of getting popular Facebook games like FarmVille, Restaurant World or other games on the PlayStation 3? A company representative said that while the choice to bring a Facebook game to PlayStation 3 would be up to the game's publisher, be it Zynga, Playdom or other company, Sony wouldn't be against it. The rep felt that the PSP may ultimately be a better platform any such effort.

Given the recent "it does everything" marketing campaign by Sony, the PlayStation 3's stake in the gaming race has only been dwarfed by its success with capturing 60% of the Blu-ray player market. With hardware units installed in that many homes and Facebook games looking to capture a large chunk of the non-gamer audience, discussions to bring those games to the family TV seems like a no-brainer. For now, we'll wait.

Today's PlayStation 3 Update
To get a taste of what Facebook is like on PlayStation 3 as of the 3.10 update that released today, owners need to merely select System Update from the XMB navigation bar. Once done, they'll be able to push their Trophy achievements to Facebook by comparing Trophies to a friend or by checking their PlayStation 3's Trophy Collection. Purchases and demo downloads can also be posted to Facebook but the user does get the option to not post, thus evading any awkward conversations about one's spending habits. The option should make it eaiser to decide on which games to purchase based on the ones that a friend is playing.

The last part of the update today is the option for developers to add specific events into their future games (or via updates). So those could run from posting information that you've completed a level, found a special item, beaten a friend in competition or quantitative results ("Micheal killed 1,000 foes!").

(As of 11:40am ET, the 3.10 update had not yet arrived. )

Seems like there's a whole lot of turkeys roaming around FarmVille these days and we wanted to clear up any confusion.

First, there's the limited edition Baby Turkey (on the left in the pic below), which you can buy in the FarmVille Market for 7 FarmVille dollars. After three days, the baby turkey transforms into a full-grown turkey (see second pic below). Then after two days, the gobbler can be harvested for turkey feathers (for 80 coins).



Then, there's the Wild Turkey (on right in both pics), which can only be adopted from friends who find them, lost and scared, on their farms. Like the regular Turkey, the Wild Turkey can be harvested in two days for turkey feathers (for 80 coins).



Does that help clear up any turkey questions? Good, now get back to farming.

Play FarmVille on Facebook Now >

Looking for a place to store all of those spooky trees, cat-o'-lanterns and other Halloween items that are still hanging out on your farm? We've heard that storage might be coming soon, and in the most recent FarmVille podcast, Community Manager Lexilicious confirms that storage options will arrive "sometime in November." With the new harvest items out -- our farm's starting to look more like a storage spot for random holiday related decorations.

Also coming soon to FarmVille -- an "enhanced" fuel system and a new limited edition collection of Country Fair items, some of which will be animated. Also look for new country flags and another round of mystery boxes. Lexilicious didn't spill any additional details on the new fuel system, but whatever it is -- we hope that translates into more fuel for farmers who don't want to play for the privilege.

[Via Zynga Podcast]

Play FarmVille on Facebook >

The firestorm around scam deals in social networking games continues after TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington exposed the shady side of the industry two weeks ago during the Virtual Goods Conference in San Francisco.

Today, the legal firm of Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff, LLP announced that it is investigating several complaints from users of social networking games. Those complaints run from offers that tie game players to deals or contracts with other companies in exchange for in-game virtual cash to hidden charges made on credit and debit accounts.

While the release from the legal firm doesn't say class action lawsuit, the companies that it is investigating include social networks Facebook and MySpace, game and application makers Zynga, RockYou along with virtual cash companies Offerpal and Double Ding. The firm, based in Scramento, California, specializes in class action lawsuits that include "false advertising" and "consumer fraud."

Via: [Gawker] and [Kershaw, Cutter and Ratinoff, LLP]

Related Articles:
- Offerpal Ditches Potty-Mouthed CEO
- Zynga Pulls Controversial 'Offers' from FarmVille, Other Games

Every wonder if your neighbor down the street is playing the same Facebook games you are? Are you more likely to encounter a Mafia Wars mafia in Memphis or Macon?
Through the power of Google Trends we've tracked down the top states for some of Facebook most popular games.

We found it fascinating to find out that Hawaii ranked the highest for both Cafe World and Mafia Wars with Utah, of all places, being the top spot for Restaurant City. Anything surprise you? Please let us know what you think of our Facebook game interest heat map in the comments.

A new batch of scared, bewildered and lost animals have arrived on FarmVille. This go-round, wild turkeys seem to be wandering onto people's farms. Sure, they might be happy to be adopted, that is, until it's time to cook Thanksgiving dinner.
We'll have to wait and see what we'll be able to harvest from this turkey (Tofurkey, anyone?). Update: once the turkey is ready, you'll be able to harvest turkey feathers (rather than drumsticks) -- a nice, safe choice that will not offend animal activists.

While farmers are busy tending to their new Big Ole Plantation and Chicken Coops, they'll also notice that FarmVille has brought back it's Sweet Seeds charity program. Instead of buying sweet potatoes, farmers can purchase sweet corn seeds for 25 FV dollars (roughly the equivalent of $5) and a part of the proceeds will go to several charities in Haiti. Read more about the organizations and how charitable farmers are making a difference.



The first Sweet Seeds program -- where farmers bought sweet potatoes for the cause -- brought in almost $500K for these same charities, so we expect these kind of do-gooder opportunities will be springing up more often. Other games have also started selling virtual goods for a cause: Pet Society has teamed up with the World Wildlife Federation and Sorority Life and Mobsters 2 recently partnered with the United Services Organization.