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.
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.
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.
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!
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).
With so many aquarium games showing up on Facebook over the past few weeks, it's tough to keep up. Each offers their own strengths and weakness and depending on a player's test, there's fun in each of the games. Rather than launch an exhausting piece about those differences, we decided to focus on one of the things that every aquarium game -- food.
From simple dots to nearly 3-D objects, the look of food can take many forms. So we took snapshots of the fish food from FishVille, Happy Aquarium, Fish World, My Fishbowl and Fish Life to let can decide.
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.
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.
Farmers will be busy this morning -- not only have Chicken Coops and mystery eggs come to nest in our farms, but the much talked ab out 22x22 land expansion is now available as well. The new Big Ole Plantation can be purchased for 250,000 coins (provided you have 20 neighbors) or for 30 FV Cash. Next land grab for farmers will be the 24x24 Mighty Plantation, which is "coming soon."
Along with Chicken Coops, FarmVille also introduces the FarmVille Mystery Eggs. While adding chickens to your new coop, you will randomly find mystery eggs (white, brown, black and golden) which you can share with up to five friends. What's inside these eggs? More chickens (!) and better yet, different colored chickens.
A special tip: the more chickens you add to your coop, the more mystery eggs you'll be able to collect. The note in the game also says that the more variety of chickens you have in a Coop, the better quality your eggs will be. So, keep an eye on your Facebook feeds and collect as many mystery eggs as possible.
A week or so ago, FarmVille introduced Dairy Farms, which let busy farmers milk 20 cows at once. At the time, the powers behind the game promised that those cow factories were just the beginning of utilitarian buildings in the game.
They made good on that promise because starting today, FarmVille includes new Chicken Coops, which will allow you to collect eggs from 20 hens as once. The new Chicken Coops can be received as a gift or purchased from the FarmVille Market for 5,000 coins. The Coops can be harvested on one day and sold for 250 coins. Note: you're only allowed one Chicken Coop on your farm at once; if you receive more than one, the additional Coops will magically transform into chickens once placed on the farm.
Once you buy a Chicken Coop, you'll occasionally find mystery eggs that you can share with your FarmVille buddies. More on that here. Keep farming that chicken!
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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. 
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.
Are we missing big news on your favorite game? Help us out! Email us at editors@games.com.