CityVille Cheats and Tips: How Decorations Earn You More Coins

CityVille decorations increase bonus to 231%
While efficient Goods management and mastering your Franchises in CityVille will certainly make you a far more successful mayor, one player has pointed out an extremely important aspect of the game that has the potential to send your profits sky high by implementing some hardcore decorating methods.

You can see in the image above, Josh Morlan (a.k.a. morlanjo) has done his math, using the Pool Hall as his example, he calculated that:

    Normal Pool Hall output: 420 coins
    Output with bonus: 1391 coins
    1 energy = 1391 coins
    Each Charlieville train I send out for more goods nets me 991 coins (that's
    -400 coins for the 100 production)

Basically, collecting money from businesses will always cost 1 Energy (Note: Resupplying businesses with goods doesn't use up Energy!). So he decided to choose a business that will pay him the most money and raise its profits by surrounding it with decorations that offer the biggest boosts. For most folks, that big boost decoration would be the Arboretum, which offers +16% and costs 4,000 Coins. In the top image, you can see he's also using the Bronze Statue (+2%) and Flower Patch (+1%) to plug any leftover space. Why is there space leftover? Well, your business needs to connect to the Asphalt Roads in order to make money. Between his Bronze Statues, you can see the small strip of Sidewalk that lets the Pool Hall connect to the street.

After all these changes, each Energy Josh spends on the Pool Hall will now nab him 1,391 Coins instead of 420 Coins. The great thing about this setup is that you can reuse the Arboretum on the sides by putting down another business. You can also swap out the business for a higher paying one when it becomes available. (Hot Tip: The bonus boosts work for when you collect, so you can use this decoration plan on more than one business. You just gotta do it one at a time.) This seems to be the best Energy-saving and money-making plan for the long run.
Macoan's CityVille 4x4 decorations chart
Another user, Michael A. Coan (a.k.a. macoan) made some handy charts to help other players with laying down decorations. For businesses that take up a 4x4 space (such as Josh's Pool Hall), click here. For those that use up 3x3, click here.

Who would've thought that having less businesses and more decorations can get you more money?

FrontierVille Pioneer Toy Factory: Everything you need to know

Log into FrontierVille today, and you'll be greated with the presence of a holiday-themed factory on the outskirts of your pioneer town. Looks like a bunch of elves moved onto your property and built a toy factory -- and now are getting ready to put you to work collecting toys. This can be done by asking friends (by posting a message on their Facebook Wall), helping neighbors on their homesteads and collecting daily bonuses. Toys can also be sent as free gifts.

pioneer toy factory collect toys

Once you have enough toys, you'll be able to redeem them for the six holiday-themed rewards:



frontierville toy factory colectibles

    Candy Cane Lamp
    Drummer Boy
    Rudolph
    Sledding Hill
    Giant Pink Tree
    Winter Mare

Oh yeah, and if you want to score these six items without doing all of that work, you can buy the number of presents you need using Horseshoes. Three Toy Bundles (x5, x10, x20) can be purchased for 15, 29 and 55 Horseshoes respectively.

Cafe World Holiday Dinner Catering Order: Everything you need to know

Attention all Cafe World caterers! A new job is now available to undertake via your Catering Van (the Catering Business menu), and it comes in the form of the "Holiday Dinner" order. Not to be confused with the Company Holiday Party job released last week, this is an entirely new catering order that sees you catering a Holiday Dinner, apparently just for friends, instead of for an entire company.

This job seems to be setup like most of the others, with a total of three stars available to earn, depending on how quickly you can complete the order, with the 3--star prize being a large decoration that you'd likely see up at Santa's Workshop. Meet us behind the break for everything you need to know about this new catering mission.

Once you start the Holiday Dinner catering job, you'll see that you have three full days to complete the job in order to do so with a three star rating. This job asks you to cook three holiday-themed dishes, which actually makes this catering job one of the hardest ever released, as these holiday recipes start out as locked out for users, until they can complete enough of the Holiday Dinner goals (remember, goals are an entirely different feature than Catering) in order to unlock access to cooking them. For example, the Baked Ham recipe that we'll talk about a little later can only be cooked after finishing part 5 of the Holiday Dinner Goals.

Whether or not you've unlocked these recipes does not affect your ability to accept the Catering order, so if you think you have enough friends on your account that have already unlocked those recipes and will be cooking them for their own stake with this job, go right ahead. Still, it seems unreasonable that Zynga would give such a short time limit of three days when this is the case. Luckily, this order as a convenient "Cancel Order" button located on its menu, so if you'd rather not even attempt the job until you have personally unlocked all three dishes, go right ahead - we won't blame you, as we're doing the same.

Moving onto the task at hand, however, once you are ready to tackle this mission, you'll need to serve Waldorf Salad 127 times, Baked Ham 138 times, and Angel Slices 63 times. You can unlock these tasks for Cafe Cash, at a price of 20, 18, and 16 Cafe Cash, respectively. In addition, you'll need to collect 15 Candy Canes and 10 Gingerbread Men to finish off this job's tasks.

For finishing the job in order three days, you'll earn 6 Catering Points, 6,300 Cafe Points, 141,750 Coins, and the Toy Workshop Bench decoration - a large animated item that has an elf diligently working away at a table in Santa's Workshop.

For the 2-star prize, you are given a total of five days to complete the order. This results in a prize of 4 Catering Points, 4,500 Cafe Points and 101,250 coins.

Finally, the 1-star prize will be received for simply finishing the mission, even if you go past the five day time limit. For going through with completing the order, you'll receive 2 Catering Points, 2,700 Cafe Points, and 60,750 coins - not a bad haul, considering.

For this job, you can have up to 11 people, including yourself, working on the job at once. You can either click on the "Ask for Help!" button to send individual requests to friends to ask them for help, or you can go into the Catering Business menu to see if any of your friends have already undertaken this job themselves, and if they have, you can instantly join their catering crew, if there are any positions left.

Since this job is such a difficult one (unless you and 10 of your friends just happen to have already unlocked the three Holiday dishes), this might be the time when you should take advantage of the ability to add more than the standard 11 total crew members to your order. This is done by clicking on the "Unlock Slot" button, at which point you are asked to gather the proper gear to allow another chef into the kitchen. You'll need to gather 1 Hat, 1 Jacket, 1 Pants, and 2 Pairs of Shoes in order to unlock a new crew slot, which can be done by asking your friends to send you the items via individual requests. You can skip this step entirely by simply paying 5 Cafe Cash to unlock the new slot instantly, if you so choose.

Remember, no matter what happens with your catering order (that is, no matter which star rating you end up getting), you'll be able to retry it if you so choose to get a higher score, and perhaps even unlock the Toy Workshop Bench decoration, if you didn't unlock it the first time around.

There's no telling whether or not this job will expire after the holiday season is over, so make sure to take a stab at this job while you're guaranteed to have a good shot at it. Besides, if you start the job now, you'll have the best chance of finding other players on your friends' list that are also trying the catering job, giving you an even better chance at success, so keep that in mind.

CityVille: Help choose which building(s) will be released next!

As CityVille has already been launched into the #5 spot on the overall Facebook app leaderboards, it's not surprising that Zynga is looking to expand the amount of content in the game. What's more, they've decided to give us, the real players of the game, a chance to help shape and influence the content that will be added in the coming days and weeks. This comes, first and foremost, in the form of a new poll on the official CityVille forums, where users can look at a variety of possible new buildings that may or may not be added to the game, and vote for their favorites.

As of right now, there are just five buildings to choose from, and you'll need to login to the forums in order to vote (a simply login with Facebook Connect will allow you to vote with the least amount of hassle). The choices are:

Power Plant
Gas Station
Prison
Parking Lot
Casino

As of this writing, the post has only been open for a matter of hours, and the Casino is winning with almost 46% of the vote. Second is the gas station with 24%, and the other options decrease from there. For the sake of the argument, the Parking Lot is in last place currently, with just 7% of the vote.

Interestingly, Zynga has made clear whether these items would be classified as businesses or community buildings. While it's presumable that items like the Casino and Gas Station would be released as businesses alongside the current options like the Toy Store or Diner, the Prison could very well be a community building, allowing you to add more population to your town (after all, the Police Station is a community building, so why stop there?).

We don't know when the winning item will be added to the game, but keep checking back with us, as we'll make sure you're the first to know which item wins, and when we'll see it in the game (personally, we're hoping for the Casino, so we're glad we're not alone in that vote).

CityVille: HQ Payouts doubled, game balance tweaked, bugs fixed

Almost a week has gone by since Zynga released their first major game upgrade for CityVille, providing for a Bonus Meter that's easier to fill, resulting in more profits for users, and a streamlined storage bar, that now contains both ship and overall Goods in one total (among other changes and improvements), but they haven't stopped there.

The developer has now announced an even larger list of changes that have taken place in the game this week (including one once again affecting the Bonus Meter), with some of these actually working to hurt the very rapid progress users have been experiencing since the game's launch.

As usual, we have the full list of improvements and changes behind the break, so meet us there, won't you?
First and foremost - the good news. The first bit of good news it the fact that HQ payout bonuses have now been doubled. That's right, from now on, when collecting from your Franchise HQs (not those franchises that your friends have added to your town - the actual Franchise skyscraper(s) you have in your town), you'll earn double the coins as before. With coins being perhaps the most valuable commodity in the game (aside from maybe energy), anyway to earn bonus coins is definitely appreciated.

Next, a bit of bad news. When supplying your franchises, you'll no longer receive bonus energy. While energy hasn't really been an issue for most users, who can play the game in five or ten minute sessions and never run out, this might become a bit harder to do, as this bonus energy is no more. Zynga says the reasoning behind this alteration was to "improve game balance," so we'll have to see how that works out for them.

As for Quests, earning items for your quests will now be easier thanks to the altered time limit for posting item requests. At launch, the request window was "once every 24 hours." Now though, players can now post item requests for items (like Chocolates, Endorsements, and the like, depending on the Quest) once every four hours.

Two other improvements come in the form of tweaked train values, which sees the amount of coins required for each amount of good when sending off your trains being altered slightly, and in the form of a changed Bronze Statue Payout Bonus. The Bronze Statue is a decorative item available to purchase from the store. Now, though, the payout bonus that you receive from the Bronze Statue has been reduced, again, as Zynga says, to help improve game balance.

While this is already a lot of changes to take in, there are even more general bug fixes to speak of, ranging from improving the texts in wall posts, to lessening the amount of Out of Sync errors that a player could potentially run into while performing certain (at the time) bugged activities. Here's the list of bug fixes, straight from Zynga:

        Collections Feed Posts - Collections feed posts now correctly states "Get 50 coins".
        Bonus Meter - Fixed/adjusted bonus meter payouts, and issues related to bonus meter progression.
        OOS errors when supplying franchises - Fixed the issue that was causing OOS errors when supplying franchises.
        Friends listed on the requests page - Requests of the same type can only be sent to the same friend once per day; fixed the issue where friends were still appearing on the list, which was causing some of the gifts/requests related issues.
        Franchise HQ displayed payout bonus - Fixed the issue where franchise HQ payout bonuses were being displayed incorrectly.
        Quest: Build City Funds - Resolved the issue with requesting "Capital Endorsements".
        XP Discrepancy - Fixed a discrepancy between XP being added and XP shown, which was causing OOS errors after leveling
        Coin Discrepancy - Fixed a discrepancy between coins being added when collecting from businesses to the coins shown, which was causing the appearance of losing coins after refreshing the game and OOS errors when spending coins which were not being counted.

As we said at the beginning of this post, we can now see that the Bonus Meter has been altered yet again (seems they haven't been able to strike a nice balance as of yet). However, instead of changing the overall amount of coins that are awarded (like with the first change of the meter), we now see its progression being altered. That is, after the first week, teh meter would stick at the "Masterful," and would slowly fill, if it ever actually filled at all. This resulted in one large sum of bonus coins being awarded (in my game the bonus was always somewhere around 4,000+ coins.

Now, though, the Masterful bar fills just as quickly as the others, and once it is completely full, the bonus levels cycle back around to the first stage of "Bonus," and continues from there. In this way, you may receive four 1,000 coin bonuses instead of one large 4,000 coin bonus, which is actually fine with us. Hopefully this is how the meter will stay too, as we really like all of those bonus coins that we've been getting.

CityVille Cheats and Tips: Guess What? You Don't Need Roads!

There's two schools of thought when it comes to the best way to play CityVille -- that is, whether looking pretty and saving land is more important than cramming things to the hilt and saving Energy. Right now, the prevailing wisdom of players is to value Energy-saving over land space. Today, we already showcased an awesome way to save Energy by using decorations. But if you find yourself running out of space more than Energy, here's some pointers:
CityVille Franchise HQ bonus
1. Franchise HQs don't need Roads to work. They take up 5x5 of space, which is a lot, but you need them to manage your franchises. Most people put these buildings off to the side, but they offer a +2% boost range of 11x11 to businesses. (You can see from the sample image that one HQ can bonus boost up to five businesses.) So put 'em where you can use their bonus boosting power!
CityVille Community Buildings
2. Community buildings (e.g. Post Office, Police, City Hall, etc.) and Storage buildings (e.g. Silo, Red Barn, Sticks, etc.) don't need roads either. Community buildings give out money and owning them allows you to have a bigger population. And Storage buildings let you have more goods. But other than that, these are pretty useless. Profit bonuses from decorations don't work on them. So if you have to put a building in the corner, do it to these two kinds!
CityVille Roads versus Sidewalks
3. Contrary to the headline of this post, roads are important. We all know certain buildings can't earn coins unless they're somehow touching the roads. So what do I mean when I say you don't need them? Well, the game starts you off with some Asphalt Roads already in place. This means most of us are tempted to keep using them, so we buy more for 10 Coins each. But a better substitute is actually the City Sidewalk, which costs 20 Coins. If you care about space, one Asphalt Road takes up 3x3 land, but one City Sidewalk takes up just 1x1 land. Instead of connecting your buildings by using the Asphalt Road, use the City Sidewalk!

(Note: A piece of City Sidewalk must be touching a piece of Asphalt Road to work. See the above image where I put down one piece of road in the middle of nowhere, connected the Sidewalks to it, and the businesses are functional? And that one Coffee Shop has some Sidewalk sticking out of it, but the game says it's "Not connected to road.")

FarmVille Mystery Game (01/02/11): "Best of" animals now available

It's a Sunday night, and during the holiday season, that means that FarmVille's Mystery Game has been restocked with six new items for you lucky players to try and win. This week's theme is "Best of" animals, and it contains, as the name suggests, some animals that were released in the game previously, but were removed and are now making a reappearance (likely due to fan suggestions).

The confirmed contents of this week's Mystery Game are:

White Peacock
White Owl
Japanese Duck
Red Parrot
Carinal
Female Ostrich

Remember, these items range in rarity from Common to Rare, so keep that in mind when playing the game. If you'd like to do so, this week's Mystery Game costs 20 Farm Cash to play, with 20 Farm Cash earning you a single dart that you can use to attempt to win one of these prizes.

This week's Mystery Game contents will be available for just the next six days, at which point another round of the Mystery Game will launch, with six new items to play for and collect.

FarmVille Winter Wonderland Animals: Baby Penguin, Brown Gypsy Horse, Brown Gypsy Foal

In tonight's FarmVille update, we see the launch of an entirely new limited edition item theme in the game. This theme will continue in the game's love of the winter holiday, as it is called simply "Winter Wonderland." To start this theme off with a bang, we see the release of three new animals to the game, with two of those animals being available in the game's store.

For some of you, you'll recognize these animals as those we brought you a sneak peek of some time ago. They are the Baby Penguin and the Brown Gypsy Horse. Both of these animals are premium, meaning that they can only be purchased with Farm Cash. The Baby Penguin costs 12 Farm Cash, and the Brown Gypsy Horse costs 26 Farm Cash. You'll gain a hefty XP bonus for purchasing either animal - 1200 for the Penguin and 2600 for the Horse.

Remember, since this is a Horse that can be placed inside the Horse Stable, it can also be bred. You guessed it - the Brown Gypsy Horse can produce a Brown Gypsy Foal, that can then be shared with your friends on your wall. If you know of any of your FarmVille neighbors that have purchased this horse for themselves, keep a special lookout for their wall posts to make sure you don't miss out on a free Brown Gypsy Foal for your own farm (or Nursery Barn, if you prefer).

This (first?) round of Winter Wonderland items will remain in the game's store for the next 13 days. We'll be sure to let you know if and when more items are added to the theme in the future, so keep checking back!

FarmVille Winter Wonderland Building: Bundle up and head into the new Igloo

Brrrrr. It's cold in here. You'd think the walls were made of ice or something. Oh wait... in the case of FarmVille's newest Winter Wonderland building, the Igloo, they are made of ice! The new Igloo is a cute, average sized building item that you can purchase for Farm Cash as a decorative building for your farm. Unfortunately, you can't actually walk inside it - darn!

The Igloo can be purchased for 16 Farm Cash, and can be sold for 8,000 coins, should you change your mind about keeping it once the winter season ends. You'll receive 1600 experience points as a bonus for purchasing the Igloo. While 16 Farm Cash might seem like a high price, this is actually one of the most affordable buildings we've seen released in the game in some time, at least where premium, or Farm Cash only, items are concerned. That being the case, we certainly couldn't blame you if you wanted to pick this one up because of its slightly lower price.

The Igloo will remain in the game for the next 13 days, at which point it will disappear from the store, likely not to be seen again (at least not until Zynga potentially decides to re-release the Igloo next year once winter comes around).

FarmVille Winter Wonderland Decorations: Ice Skating Ring, Penguin Fishing, Iced Duck & More!

In tonight's FarmVille update, we see the launch of five new decorative items in the new Winter Wonderland theme of limited edition items. The five items are those that we've seen in the past, through a FarmVille Sneak Peek that we brought you last month.

Four of the items are premium, for those that don't mind spending a little Farm Cash, but there is one item (and a cute one at that) that is available for coins. The four premium items are the Hot Springs, Ice Skate Ring, Penguin Fishing, and the Iced Cow. The Hot Springs and Ice Skate Ring are large, natural looking elements, while the Penguin Fishing is an oddly named item (in our opinion). Yes, it has a penguin that dives into a frozen pond to retrieve a fish, but couldn't it have been called "Fishing Penguin" instead? Either way, the Penguin Fishing item costs 18 Farm Cash. The Hot Springs and Ice Skate Ring cost 30 Farm Cash and 26 Farm Cash, respectively, while the Iced Cow is a relative bargain (at least by comparison) at 4 Farm Cash.

The lone coin item fits in with the Iced Cow, as it is an iced version of another in-game animal. The Iced Duck will set you back just 10,000 coins - now that's a real bargain in the game, at least where limited edition decorative items are concerned.

These five items will be available in the game for the next 13 days (as of this writing). It's still unknown as to whether or not Zynga will release more items in this theme, or if this is a one-off release, but we'll be sure to let you know if and when more new items arrive.

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

CityVille Cheats and Tips: How to move, sell and delete items

cityville cheats move items
cityville cheats how to move itemsIf you've been playing CityVille for a while, you know the importance of moving and deleting items. Moving decorations and organizing your buildings can earn you thousands of extra coins for very little energy. Unfortunately though, many people just aren't sure how to move or delete their items. This makes decorating and reorganizing your CityVille city a daunting task. Fortunately for you, moving and deleting items is extremely simple. Unlike other city building games like Millionaire City, CityVille lets you move items for free, no money, bots, or cheats required.

To move an item, building, decoration, or some other CityVille structure, simple click on the arrow or cursor button at the bottom right of the screen (pictured above). It can be found above the 'Build' button and left of the button that contains your Inventory, Collections, and Franchises.

Click the cursor button and a menu will open allowing you to either move, rotate, or sell an item. When you're done moving items, click the Stop icon where the cursor icon used to be. Simple.

SuperPoke! Pets creator 'working out the details' on post-closure access

To say even that SuperPoke! Pets fans are "pissed" is an understatement. (Seriously, just look at the comments on our first post regarding the sad news.) SuperPoke Pets and SPP Ranch players' rage at Slide's shuttering at the hand of Google has made headlines of nearly every major news outlet, and finally some details regarding Slide's response have come to light.

Namely, CNN reports that Slide and Google representatives have responded to complaints concerning players' hard-earned cash pumped into the now-defunct game. "One thing you can't do [with virtual goods] is bring them home and keep them forever," Slide's communications team wrote on the SuperPoke! Pets forums in response to complaints.

While Slide did say that it's "working out the details" on how to make some of the games' content and items available outside of the game, it also compared digital pets purchased with real cash to Halloween costumes, according to CNN. "You purchase it to dress up and enjoy the experience, but likely don't wear that costume day in and day out, or for every Halloween thereafter," the team wrote. (Um, was I the only kid who had to wear the same costume for a few Halloweens?)

Net Jacobsson, a former Facebook executive and adviser to companies like CrowdStar, told CNN that refunding players with their hard-earned, spent digital cash is far from simple. "The accounting issues can be massively complicated," Jacobsson told CNN. "They've already counted it as revenue. They've taxed it. Refunding $20 would cost more than $20, not to mention the man-hours involved in dealing with it."

CNN recalls that, when games like Pirates Ahoy! and Gangster City shut down, creator Playfish allowed players to take their earned currency into a new Playfish game and offered free incentives for the games' fans to enjoy new Playfish games. However, players wouldn't exactly have any other Slide games to go to. So, why not herd the disgruntled players into one of those shiny new Google+ Games with either some free in-game cash or other incentives? Or, here's just a thought: Bring the games into Google+ Games already.

Top 25 Facebook Games - September 2011: Rise of The Sims Social

Will Zynga finally be dethroned? August saw one of the biggest upsets in Facebook gaming history, as EA and Playfish released The Sims Social. Short after its shoddy release in the middle of the month, the game has skyrocketed to third place this month with over 7.5 million daily players and fifth place on the monthly player charts with over 24 million players. While CityVille, Empires & Allies, Zynga Poker and FarmVille are on top of the charts yet again, all four games have suffered declines.

If this doesn't stir the pot a bit in the Facebook gaming world, nothing will. But The Sims Social isn't the only new game to upset the charts and displace a few hit games. Zynga's The Pioneer Trail expansion hit the monthly chart just under The Sims Social in sixth place at a healthy 19.7 million players. Words with Friends, the Facebook version of the popular mobile game, released in August to over 11.5 million monthly players, while Ubisoft set The Smurfs and Co. loose to over 8.6 million rabid fans and hit 16th place.

The casualties for this month include August's last five spot holders: Treasure Isle, Zombie Lane, Happy Aquarium, Mall World and Crime City. These games weren't just displaced because of the influx of new games hitting top spots, but all five were already on a decline. This allowed new additions like the Bubble and Ninja Sagas in the 21 and 22 spots at 6.6 million and 6.2 million monthly players, respectively.

Top 25 Facebook Games September
But look more closely at this month's chart, and you'll notice that each and every one of these brand new games to upset the charts is backed by a massive, recognizable brand. Perhaps this is what it takes to disrupt the status quo in Facebook games. And with ambitious branded games like Dexter Slice of Life on the way, our guess is that you'll be seeing a lot more from where The Sims Social and The Smurfs and Co. came from.

Facebook Credits enter Asia, but what about Zynga Game Cards?

Now, it will be even easier for folks in southern Asia to waste money on buy virtual items in their favorite Facebook games. Facebook Credits, the platform's dominant currency, will enter several Asian markets through MOL, Asia's Internet services payment provider with over 600,000 locations.

The strategic partnership allows Asian Facebook gamers to purchase Facebook Credits online through MOLPoints, or what becomes of users' money when purchased, through a new MOLPoints application on Facebook. "MOL is committed to ensure that our consumers are able to acquire virtual currency for their digital lifestyle with safety and ease and we believe that this strong partnership with Facebook will continue MOL's momentum to provide highly effective monetization solutions for the social web." said MOL CEO Ganesh Kumar Bangah in a statement.

MOL says that it puts no surcharges on its MOLPoint transactions, which are conducted over a secure payment gateway. That's all well and good, but didn't Zynga just enter the same territory a few months back with the exact same company? Indeed, so what could this mean for the company's Game Cards? Judging from the wording in MOL's release (and the step-by-step guide on its website), this service will be online only.

This means that Zynga Game Cards would still be the go-to option for low-income families in Asia that can only buy in-game content with cash. Regardless, the news speaks volumes to the fact that Facebook gaming is huge in more places than just the U.S., Europe and Japan. And the social gaming scene can only grow from here.

GameStop sees the (iPhone back)light, will sell iOS devices [Rumor]

First Facebook, and now ... iPads? According to 9to5 Mac, the ubiquitous, brick-and-mortar games retailer plans to sell iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches. The website cites several anonymous sources that say the announcement was made at the company's annual private trade show in Las Vegas last week. And if you think that it's all poppycock, check out the below image that 9to5 Mac found, detailing the fact that GameStop will soon accept trade-ins of old iPhones, iPods and iPads in its stores.

Since that news was revealed earlier, the website guesses that GameStop looks to stock up on its trade-ins of these devices before offering the new models such as the imminent iPhone 5 (4S ... 4G?). Of course, this wouldn't be a terrible idea. Mobile gaming is in a renaissance of sorts at the moment, with everyone wanting a piece of that pie and putting their best foot forward to break out in a big way in the space.

With a storefront on Facebook and now reportedly embracing the mobile gaming revolution, GameStop appears to realize (finally) that it needs to adapt to the changing games industry. As a forewarning, however: If you're going to buy an iPad or iPhone from GameStop, make sure to buy it new--this is complex hardware we're talking about here. (And have you seen those used consoles the stores offer? I'll pass.)
GameStop iOS device trade in

Move over Slap Chop: Ninjas slice 250,000 pieces of fruit every 60 seconds

Mobclix rolled out an infographic that shows what happens on mobile devices in every minute, and - surprise, surprise - a big chunk of that time involves playing games.

According to the chart, in 60 seconds: 208,333 minutes of Angry Birds are played; 180 million coins are collected in TinyZoo friends; 80 copies of Fruit Ninja are sold, and 250K pieces of fruit are sliced in the game. Damn, that's a lot of fruit.

fruit ninja, angry birds mobile infographic

Too bad we can't say the same for Fruit Ninja Frenzy on Facebook, which seems to be steadily losing players. The Facebook version is a decent game, but there's just something awesome about using your finger to chop fruit like a highly trained ninja.

Wayne Brady is a serious gamer, but he ain't down with the FarmVille

When Let's Make a Deal host (and hilarious Chappelle Show cameo) Wayne Brady isn't, well, making deals with contestants, he's playing video games. During an interview with USA Today, Brady revealed his intense passion for the pastime, stating that his 30-minute breaks between shows consist of Halo: Reach and Mortal Kombat. But he also name-dropped another game.

"I like to be left alone when I'm not working," Brady told USA Today. "So the last thing I want to do is go to a (game like Zynga's) Farmville and have a community. I want the single player experience. I play a storyline all the way through. The more cinematic the game is, the more can replay it."

Well, Facebook games haven't come terribly far since FarmVille when it comes to cinematic experiences. So, we'll avoid trying to sway Brady just yet. Instead, we'll just remind him of two particularly lovely ladies that he might like to hear are down with digital farming. Both Superbad's Emma Stone and Mila Kunis of That '70s Show fame have admitted to being hooked on FarmVille.

So, you might want to at least give it a shot to up your game. Nah--even we won't recommend Facebook games to boost your appeal with the ladies. Hey, you may as well just wait until those nifty Unreal Engine-powered games hit Facebook.

What do you think of Brady's opinions on Facebook games? Are you looking for more cinematic experiences in your social games? Any luck yet?

Asteroids: Gunner to crash-land onto your earthly iPhone, iPad shortly

How do you revive one of most recognizable classic games of all time? Turn it into a mobile social game, duh. Atari will soon release Asteroids: Gunner, the next take on its hit franchise, to iOS devices everywhere. The game, which is said to hit Nov. 10, turns the retro staple into a freemium dual-stick shooter, meaning power-ups and upgrades are available for both in-game currency and real cash.

And by "dual stick" we mean that players will push their thumbs frantically in opposite circles to both avoid running into asteroids and blow them to smithereens. The social comes in with both Game Center and OpenFeint support with a myriad of achievements to brag about with friends. We'd say that Asteroids: Gunner marks a shift in Atari's direction, but we'd be lying.

Atari has been keen on social on mobile gaming for some time now, having launched a Facebook version of Asteroids and two original games: puzzler Faeries vs Darklings and Dungeons & Dragons-themed role-playing game Heroes of Neverwinter. While the three games have enjoyed tepid results, Atari is far from finished.

In addition to Asteroids: Gunner, the company has a mobile version of iconic brick-breaker Breakout in the works for iOS, too. Stay tuned for an in-depth look at the next Asteroids later this week. (Spoiler: You're going to blow things up--including yourself--a lot.)

EA Partners exec leaves to make a killing with Crime City maker Funzio

All aboard the gravy train. Yet another EA executive has left the company to join a competing social game maker, IndustryGamers reports. This time, it's former EA Partners Director of Business Developement Jamil Moledina (pictured), who just revealed that he had joined Crime City creator Funzio as its VP of Business Development.

Moledina will pretty much be doing the same thing, it seems: making sure Funzio stays in the black by working with partners new and old across platforms. The business development veteran has been with the games industry for some time, working as the executive director of the Game Developers Conference before his stint with EA. As for Funzio, Moledina appears psyched.

"From what I've seen, the future of games is about creating fun social action games for play on any device, any platform, anywhere," Moledina said to IndustryGamers. "Funzio is one of very few companies whose vision and execution are delivering on that goal, and I'm excited to join a team inventing that future."

Moledina follows a number of EA execs who jumped ship into more social waters, despite even the company's headway into social gaming with The Sims Social. Over just this summer, GM of EA-owned Easy Studios Ben Cousins left for ngmoco, NBA Jam creator Mark Turmell joined Zynga (since confirmed) and former executive VP of EA Play Jeff Karp ditched for Zynga, too. While these could all just be coincidental, EA could have a bigger problem on its hands than just Big Trouble in Little Haven.

Frogger is 30 years old, still bouncin' in Frogger Pinball on Facebook

Alright, so 30 is far from old, but that's ancient in frog years. Konami celebrates the 30th anniversary of gaming's favorite jaywalker with Frogger Pinball on Facebook. The game, created by Silverball Studios, is definitely a departure for Frogger, having the little green guy save his Lily from the clutches of the evil RoboCroc ... as a pinball. We at least hope the villain drives a red sedan.

Frogger Pinball takes cues from games like Bejeweled Blitz with its weekly leaderboards and tournaments, but attempts to add a light storyline to its naturally twitch-reflex play style. Come on, did you expect anything less from a Frogger game, and a pinball-themed one at that? The game's story mode spans three different tables: the Swamp, City and Space Station.

Players can unlock special characters from there to compete with their friends for the high score in Challenge Mode. Of course, unique power-ups and bonuses are rewarded throughout for leveling up, hitting targets and completing loops. We're sure each pinball table features unique obstacles, and you'll have to complete them with both Frogger and Lily to play Challenge Mode with all three characters.
Frogger Pinball in action
Konami has been no slouch when it comes to social gaming, either. The company has already released a few Facebook games, including an original in Viva! Mall. While that game has since shut down, the company has reported that social games helped the company double its profits year-over-year, according to Joystiq. That said, expect way--and we mean way--more where Frogger came from.

CityVille: Zynga announces upcoming changes - more expansions, business renaming and more

Over on the official CityVille forums, Zynga has announced a series of new features and items that will be coming to the massive city-building game in the future. These additions or changes are those that users have been calling for once, and I have a feeling you'll like what they have to say.

So far, a list of confirmed "features in the works" include:

A bridge over the river to expand your city even further
Ability to change your city's name
Ability to change your business names
Franchise improvements

We're not quite sure what "franchise improvements" Zynga actually has in mind, but we'll let you know when we learn more. Meet us behind the break for a look at the other items Zynga has promised.
In addition to new features or gameplay changes, four new item themes are being created for additional decorations or even buildings that may be released in the future. These themes are:

Little Italy
AsiaTown
Nightlife District
Beach Boardwalk

Again, there's no telling when these features and new item themes will officially be released in the game. They very well may be full of businesses, homes, and decorations, or they could just be a series of decorative items - only time will tell at this point.

Remember to keep checking back with us in the future, as you'll be the first to know when Zynga starts launching these many additions in the futur

CityVille: Observatory, Music Store, & Furniture Store now available

If you're one that likes having at least one of each kind of business and community building in your town in CityVille, get ready to bust out your virtual pocketbook, as Zynga has released two entirely new businesses and one community building (which are all incredibly pricey) to the game's store.

The two businesses are the Music Store and the Furniture Store. Both cost 200,000 coins each, and both come with a population requirement that must be met before even having access to purchase them in the first place. You must have at least 7500 citizens in your town to unlock the Music Store, while you must have 6500 for the Furniture Store. The Music Store produces 910 coins for every 170 Goods you supply it, while the Furniture Store produces 864 coins for every 160 Goods supplied.

As for the Observatory, it too costs 200,000 coins to build, and as a community building grants you access to having 1900 more citizens in your city. However, to build the Observatory, you must first have 6500 citizens in your town to unlock it in the store.

Luckily, none of these items have level requirements, so if you've been saving up the coins (and have enough people living in your town) feel free to purchase them right now and adding a bit of culture to your town.

Keep your virtual computer virus free with VirusWars on Facebook

Just today, the folks at BitDefender launched a computer themed tower-defense title on Facebook called VirusWars. The game has a clever premise - you are in charge of protecting the inner workings of your computer system. It's up to you to place defense systems on your motherboard and other various computer hardware in order to keep out all manner of nasty things, from malware and spyware to viruses and even spam.

The game's tower defense layout will be incredibly familiar to those who have played even one other game in the genre. You'll be allowed to choose a level set to start on, with each level giving you a different amount of coins to start with. You'll be able to spend those coins on defensive items, including multiple varieties of turret. These turrets come in different colors and with different stats, with the more powerful options obviously costing more coins to place. That is, you'll be able to choose from a whole host of different stat configurations, from those turrets that shoot fast, but are weak, to those that shoot slowly, but can dominate most anything that enters their path.

Meet us behind the break to see how you'll be able to put your strategy to use to defeat the evil viruses.
You'll be able to see the standard path that all enemies will walk down when you are placing your defensive units. If you can afford it, you'd of course want to place multiple units along each path, in positions where they will be able to reach the most number of viruses before they can attack your system's "health." Once you believe you're ready to face enemies, you can click on the "Send Wave" button to set the gameplay into action.

From here, you can either pause the action, or you can speed it up, for times when you know you'll win and don't need to watch things play out. The game doesn't pause if you open up the shop, but you are allowed to do so and to place new defensive units on the fly. For each enemy you defeat, you'll earn a small amount of coins, which can then be spent to either upgrade your current units to become more powerful, or simply buy additional units from the store.

For each virus that escapes your defenses, and makes it to the "core," you'll lose a bit of health. Depending on the level pack you're playing, you may have to take on 50 waves or more before you've competed the round. You'll be able to track your overall score for a particular level by keeping an eye on the neighbor bar at the bottom of the screen. You can also check out your individual stats (how many kills you've made in total across all of the five current levels), and your team stats (all users choose from one of four teams to join) in order to make sure that you're doing your part in the group.

All told, VirusWars appears to be a pretty solid, if a bit shallow take on the tower defense genre. With a small gameplay area, it's unlikely that most users would get overwhelmed with the placement of their defenses, opening this game up to many more players - especially those that may not be seasoned veterans with the gameplay formula.

FarmVille Valentine Sneak Peek: Heart Elephant, Pink Swan, Romantic Pavilion, and More

In our continued effort to bring you all of the latest happenings in FarmVille, today we bring you another Valentine's Day themed edition of the FarmVille Sneak Peek. This time, we've found five new items - two animals, and either two or three decorations, depending on how Zynga classifies one item in particular.

The two animals are the Heart Elephant and the Pink Swan. With the recent fuss over Ducklings, it will be interesting to see if the Pink Swan is added to the list of options for growing a Duckling, or if it is simply placed in the store as a premium animal available for purchase. The Heart Elephant, then, continues in this year's theme of releasing pink animals covered in hearts.

As for the other three items, they are the Chocolate Fountain (which animates with flowing chocolate), a Romantic Pavilion (a great accompaniment to the Romantic Gazebo), and the Lady Gouldian Finches. Personally, I'd say that these are some of the prettiest birds released in the game - it would only be better if you could actually harvest from these birds, or if each individual bird were larger.

As usual, there's no guarantee that these items will officially be released in the game, so keep that in mind.

Check out the rest of our Valentine's Day coverage right here.

Will you purchase any of these items should they be released in FarmVille, or are you ready to move on from the Valentine's Day theme already?

FarmVille Sneak Peek: Long Onions, Lilac Daffodils, Strapsberry, Purple Tomato and More

Earlier today, we brought you a look at a quick trio of unreleased crops in FarmVille, that will most likely be released in the game as part of the upcoming Greenhouse feature, which will allow you to create hybrid crops to plant and master on your farm. While Fire Peppers, Rice Meal and Jalapenos are one thing, this newest set of unreleased crops comes in the form of not only food items, but also some of the prettiest flowers we've seen in the game to date.

These new crops are (from left to right in the image above): Long Onions, Lilac Daffodils, Strapsberries (a mix between strawberries and raspberries), Purple Tomatoes, Whiskey Pete, Red Spinach, Squashkin (squash mixed with pumpkin), and Poppy Sunflowers.

Again, if and when these crops are released as part of the upcoming Greenhouse, they will all be masterable, so I hope you have the patience necessary to make your way through each one, one by one. No word yet as to the harvesting times or costs of these new crops, but we'll be sure to bring you all of the stats once they officially launch in the game.

FrontierVille Cheats and Tips: Upgrade the Chicken Coop in a flash

The coyotes are coming to FrontierVille. If you don't have your Chicken Coop ready and upgraded by then, you may as well kiss those chickens goodbye. Luckily, a forum contributor named King of Skulls has thought up a crafty trick to upgrade that coop as quickly as possible. First, make sure you have no unfinished buildings aside from the Chicken Coop and meet us behind the break.

Be warned that this tip is for veteran pioneers with lots of resources only. Now that you have no buildings to worry about, purchase a Saw Mill. Plant it on the ground and give it those 40 whacks. Whatever you do, do not finish the Saw Mill by turning in those items. Instead, gather as many Care Packages as you can by either giving them out as Free Gifts or asking your friends for them. Once you've acquired a good amount of them, open them all up.

Because the Saw Mill and Chicken Coop require much of the same items to complete and upgrade, you will only receive exactly what you need for the Chicken Coop. Players have reported getting nearly every item needed instantly. However, you will still have to grab the elusive Chicken Wire by asking friends or sending one out. Now, wasn't that simple (but expensive)?

Check out the rest of our FrontierVille Cheats & Tips right here.

Have you finished the Chicken Coop yet? What tips do you have for getting the coop done quickly?

Conan O'Brien plays Angry Birds life-sized, sticks it to the Swedes

If you needed any more confirmation that Angry Birds is huge, Coco's involvement should do the trick. Conan O'Brien played a life-sized version of Rovio's pig-smashing sensation on his TBS show last night. The stunt was to commemorate that his show is now available online for one week. Finally, Finland, his greatest group of foreign fans, can enjoy that red tuft of hair whenever they darn well please. "We have decided to honor tonight Finland's greatest contribution to mankind," Conan said last night. "I'm talking of course about the videogame, Angry Birds." As an extra bonus, Conan helped the Finns get a one-up over their lifelong rivals, the Swedes, by using Ikea furniture as the pigs' stronghold. The results are nothing short of hilarious.

What do you think of Conan's version of Angry Birds?

FarmVille Scam Alert! The Rainbow Cow News Feed post is a lie

Rainbow Cow Scam
First it was cake, and now we can't even trust cows? The FarmVille scammers are at it again with this Rainbow Cow News Feed post circulating through Facebook. FarmVille Freak reports that this is, in fact, a scam. Whatever you do, do not click on this offer and warn the friend whose account it was posted through. The number one giveaway that a free item post is a scam is that the message does not come directly from Zynga. Not to mention the unlikely language, typos and shady offer pages the links normally take you to.

[Image Credit: FarmVille Freak]

Have you fallen victim to this scam or another before? How do you think is the best way to handle a FarmVille scam?

CityVille Cheats and Tips: Energy Stockpiling 101

Energy!
Many players see the rampant Energy gain in CityVille as one of its major flaws, because it allows the game to move too rapidly. But guess what, we're stuck with it for the time being, and there are plenty of ways to essentially play the game when and how you want--for free. No more of that buying Batteries nonsense. When forum member Provincia asked how high players could increase their Energy by, the responses were staggering. Yet not impossible. In fact, shooting your Energy level into three-digits territory is easy.

1. Send and you shall receive
The best way to get Energy is to send it. So, when there is nothing else to send your friends, send them +3 Energy Batteries. There's a high chance that they will return the favor. Stow these away for a rainy day. I've seen players reach over 300 Energy using just this method.

2. Go green
Not literally, but be smart about your Energy use. If you have particularly helpful friends, leave the costly stuff to them and only collect from properties that reward Energy. Just about every Community Building has a chance of dropping Energy. Actions while visiting friends cost zero Energy, so return the favor to them. If everyone involved understands that everyone else is trying to conserve Energy, then all is well.

Batteries!
3. Collections rock
There are a few Collections in the game that reward players with Energy when turned in. That said, I'd recommend only dealing with buildings that result in Energy-yielding Collections. These would include the Coffee Shop, Hot Cocoa Shop, Toy Store, Videogame Store, Pool Hall, Tavern, Corner Store, Tofu Burger and plenty more. Just check the Collections section of the game to find out what you should be running if you want to maximize Energy through Collections.

4. Visit early and often
Your friends are valuable to you, no? Then pay them a visit every once in a while. Actually, visit them a lot! Every time you visit them you will be rewarded with one Energy. If they're a brand new friend, it's five Energy for the first time you help them out. Which leads us to ...

5. Vicarious and gregarious
Make lots of new friends. Like, all the time. For every new friend you make, that's five Energy in your pocket for visiting them. Better yet, leading the vicarious CityVille life through even more players means even more Energy conserved. (While returning the favor, of course.) While I wouldn't personally recommend this due to Franchise issues and whatnot, cycling friends could be an easy way of amassing Energy.

And there you have it. Congratulations, you've passed Energy Stockpiling 101. Enjoy playing the game indefinitely, and we'll see you in about three weeks. Don't forget hygiene!

[Image Credit: Fire Faux]

Check out the rest of our CityVille Cheats & Tips right here.

Zynga gives FarmVille players 5 Farm Cash for free via e-mail

And to what do we owe this pleasure, Zynga? According to FarmVille Freak, players have been receiving the above pop-up in their FarmVille games. It tells them that there will be 5 free Farm Cash waiting for them in their e-mail the next day. This is an unannounced promotion and, frankly, we have no idea what its purpose is. Is Zynga just being nice? Sure, but we doubt that's all (nothing personal guys, but this is a business). Since players are receiving the Farm Cash in their e-mail inboxes, we're going to guess--an educated one, of course--that this is a viral promotion of Zynga's e-mail services. Alright, so if that's the case, we went and done exactly what Zynga wants: create buzz. What? Do you want us to not report the FarmVille news?

[Image Credit: FarmVille Freak]

Have you seen this promotion appear in your game? What do you think of Zynga's methods of playing up their e-mail service?

FarmVille English Countryside Sneak Peek: Emperor's Hops sprout up

Zynga has wasted no time in releasing new crops, buildings and more to its FarmVille expansion, English Countryside. In fact, FarmVille Freak is finding hints at new crops in unexpected places like the game's Mastery charts. At this point, you have to think at least some of these leaks are intentional. (Very sneaky, Zynga.)

Players have reported finding a crop called Emperor's Hops in their Mastery charts within the game. There's no information given about the crop other than that it will take 780 harvests to reach the first Mastery tier. At the very least, it's safe to guess that Bushels from the Emperor's Hops will be used in future Pub recipes. Either way, we'll surely find out everything we need to know about these apparently superior hops soon enough.

[Image Credit: FarmVille Freak]

Check out the rest of our English Countryside coverage right here.

Have you seen this unreleased crop in your Mastery charts yet? What type of beers do you think Emperor's Hops will create?

Lady Gaga donates big bucks to Zynga's Japan relief efforts

There's no word on whether Lady Gaga actually likes and/or plays FarmVille, CityVille or the 20-some-odd other Facebook games by Zynga -- but the eccentric pop singer has donated $1.5 million dollars (from sales of her branded Japan Prayer Bracelets) to the company's Japan relief efforts in a partnership with the Red Cross and Save the Children. Other celebs, such as Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears, have recently lent their star power to Zynga's charity efforts as well.

"I'm inspired that my little monsters banded together to help those affected by the terrible tragedy," Gaga says. "What Zynga's players have done for the cause is equally inspiring, and I'm thrilled to partner with them to raise money that will go to Save the Children and the American Red Cross."

In the last two weeks, dedicated Zynga players raised over $2 million dollars by spending real-life cash on items in CityVille, FarmVille, FrontierVille, Words with Friends and a handful of the company's other games. So -- all that adds up to a nice chunk of change for those affected by the disaster overseas.

All of this takes place through Zynga.org, the FarmVille creator's philanthropic branch, which has also raised millions for disaster relief in Haiti and to help animals through the National Audubon Society and ASPCA, among others -- a gesture emulated by other social gaming companies who know players are more than willing to spend a few dollars here and there to make a difference.

lady gaga farmville

FarmVille English Countryside: The Pause feature saved FarmVille

Unless Zynga decides to change its mind and somehow makes the Pause feature in FarmVille an option, which would be a technological feat in itself, let's hope this will be the last you hear from this Games.com blogger about the dreaded Pause. Yes, the lot of players hate it, but with all due respect, many seem to misunderstand why it even exists. Regardless of why you think Zynga implemented this seemingly dastardly feature, here are three reasons why "Pause" saved FarmVille.

1. That's a lot of data
Sure, part of the reason why players can only request help so often or send gifts so often is so you don't progress too quickly. However, requests also have to be processed through servers, or the computers whose sole purpose is to keep online games running. Every time you send or receive a request or item, that data has to be processed somewhere. Now, the information on how much game data Zynga's or Facebook's servers process daily isn't immediately accessible, but you can imagine that with 14 million daily players on average, it's a lot.

If both farms were active at all times, players would receive requests from both farms no matter what. Regardless of how many players are on one side or the other at any given moment, to treat each farm individually would result in an absolutely insane amount of data. FarmVille can barely handle 14 million players on any given day, but what if that number were to effectively double in almost an instant (thanks to a second farm for everyone)? FarmVille would fall to its knees for a very long time, that's what. So, the Pause feature is admittedly a harsh way of handling what would have probably crashed FarmVille on Day One of the English Countryside release, but I can't think of a better way. Can you?

FarmVille is huge
2. Where do I put all of this stuff?
Ask any veteran FarmVille player for their major complaints. They'll likely tell you that Zynga either releases stuff too frequently or there isn't enough room to put it all. Granted, most of it is Holiday buildings and items, but what about crafting buildings, animal housing and the like? Most of it is in either Storage or your Garage, isn't it? Or if you're like me, you just delete to make room. Sure, Zynga could expand our farms all we want, but how long before it just becomes unmanageable? It has reached a point for me where if a friend is above a certain level, visiting is out of the question as Flash will surely crash and burn.

It's a difficult conundrum for Zynga: Either continue to offer larger and larger farms to facilitate the deluge of features (Flash can only handle so much) or stop releasing content so often and risk losing interest from its daily players. And thus the expansion was born: A way to introduce new ideas and features while keeping farms manageable ... for now.

Travel to England
3. Things looked a little withered overall, no?
Admit it, FarmVille was getting stale. Bloggers, players and Zynga itself can blame the Facebook changes of 2010 all it wants for the game's fall from superiority, and they're partly right. But at some point we all must come clean and consider what FarmVille would have looked like six months from now if Zynga kept adding features to the original game. Players would continue to leave in droves because, frankly, looking at the same farm day in and day out was downright boring. Obviously Zynga was honest with itself, so now it's our turn.

When it comes down to it, looking back at all the work you've done for years can't be what ties you down. Even if you're still having fun (nothing's stopping you from staying, really), it will reach a breaking point eventually. The numbers show that's exactly what happened for almost 40 million players. Just look at the MMO scene: Games like World of Warcraft would have died out years ago if Blizzard, it's developer, didn't revamp its world every few years with new expansion packs. Think of it that way and the two worlds of gaming aren't so different.

The bottom line is that persistent games like FarmVille, ironically, can't last forever. Even if you're bummed about starting over--an argument I just don't buy, because you're the same level and could have prepared--sometimes you must accept change. Change is natural, and it's a good thing, trust me. And even if Zynga somehow makes the Pause feature optional, do you really want to maintain two farms at once? It's time to face the facts: This is the future of not just FarmVille, but the social gaming genre. Just look at the four corners of your FrontierVille homestead--Zynga is already prepared for change.

Check out the rest of our English Countryside coverage right here.

Have your own thoughts on the FarmVille English Countryside and the Pause feature?

Deep Realms on Facebook: Depth that's both delightful and detrimental

Deep Realms, for all intents and purposes, is an attempt to get the lot of social gamers into a genre that has largely been dominated by fans of the Final Fantasy series or Dungeons and Dragons. (Full disclosure: You're lookin' at one.) Developed and published by Playdom of Social City fame, Deep Realms nails the classic role-playing game (RPG) shtick while introducing a plethora of social elements to keep players coming back and connecting with one another. Folks who know what a d20 is or can tell you the difference between Cloud Strife and Squall Leonhart will feel right at home with Deep Realms, but will the average FarmVille player dig this much complexity?

Playdom does a wonderful job of easing players into the game's travel system and battle mechanics. Even the six classes and their ability trees should be simple enough to understand for your standard Facebook gamer. You are a humble farmer (sound familiar?) who out of nowhere is thrown into a quest to find your estranged brother who went off into a miscellaneous cave after giant rats attack your homestead. The standard framework of an RPG storyline is there, which is enough to train you how to navigate the world.

Deep Realms Map
Each map is littered with tiles, which each cost one Energy point to move to, so it's easy to see where the gameplay hook stems from. While the whole Energy bit is admittedly getting old, at least this is an inventive method. Tiles have a seemingly random chance of hiding a monster inside, so to speak. This will launch players into battle, which is a turn-based affair of players and monsters trading blows. While the battle system is easy enough to understand--your options are to either attack, drink a health potion or run away--the way in which attacks are assigned is something to be left up to Playdom to explain. (To break the fourth wall for a moment: Explaining exactly how Deep Realms works would take thousands of words.)

Once players hit a certain level, they must choose to enlist in a certain school of combat from six options like Sorcerer, Warrior, Archer and more. You know, the same few roles some of you have been dealing with since the 1970s, which somehow never get old. Regardless, this adds a layer of depth not found in most social games, but it is just the beginning. Once your lowly farmer-turned-sorcerer (at least in my case) reaches Level 5, you're ripped right out of the cave you were exploring. Why?

Deep Realms Town
Because Playdom has something(s) to show you, that's why. You know that adventure you were busy embarking on? Well there is a litany of features and options that, if you're used to playing with friends, supersede your quest. Without getting too bogged down in the details, there's an Arena to fight friends in, a Tavern to rally friends to fight giant monsters with, a Bazaar to buy items in, Elixirs to trade between friends, Spirits to conjure for bonuses when fighting friends, Collections to watch out for when questing, Gifts to send to friends ... you get the idea.

Deep Realms, for all of its beautiful, seemingly hand-drawn graphics, smooth animations and engrossing music, is an incredibly complex game. Especially when at one point you're simply clicking around a cave and another you're bombarded with a list of other things to do that have nothing to do with your brother. If it turns out that he was eaten by bipedal rats wearing vests (you'll see) in the end, it'll be no wonder why considering you were too busy hanging out in Town. The game's myriad features should be introduced slowly, not when you haven't even left the first dungeon. Deep Realms, while borrowing features from several games we've already covered, adds a layer of beautiful, shiny polish that's undeniable. This game deserves your attention, but just be ready for Level 5--it's a doozy.

Click here to play Deep Realms on Facebook Now>

Have you tried Deep Realms yet? What do you think of the game's complexity and how it's presented?

Why core gamers hate social gamers: Is it all about the money?

Isn't it always about the Benji's? GamesBrief seems to think so in its short and sweet estimation of why exactly core gamers--i.e. those who wouldn't dare put the controller down for FarmVille--hate social gamers. First of all, the post draws a line between what a core and a casual audience is, while doing the same for core and casual gamers.

According to GamesBrief, 90 percent of "core gamers" don't even finish the games they buy, which cost $40 on average, while the dedicated 10 percent reaps the benefits. How, do you say? "In the core games market, the casual or non-dedicated player subsidizes the gaming enjoyment of the core gamer," GamesBrief says. In other words, traditional games would be nothing without the majority that wastes money on games they'll never finish, thus funding future releases for dedicated fans to play.

However, because social games are free to play, 90 percent of players will never pay to play though virtual goods purchases. This is because they don't have to--the remaining 10 percent that is willing to pay is what keeps companies like Zynga afloat. In short, it's the paying minority that allows social games to support casual audiences who will never pay a dime. So, what does this leave us with?

"So what we are seeing in the social games market is that the players who love the game are actually paying for the amount of enjoyment they are getting; in the core market, the people who getting lots of enjoyment are doing so at the expense of others," GamesBrief says. So, the bitterness that core gamers feel for social gamers stems from fear that more casual gamers will give up on spending $40 or more for games they'll never finish in favor of free, Facebook games. Whether this is subconscious or exactly what publishers like EA or Activision discuss in board room meetings (or entirely false) is unknown. Regardless, the song still remains: Haters gon' hate.

Do you think this is real reason why core gamers hate on social gamers? Are hardcore games in danger for this very reason?