Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn farmville english countryside. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn farmville english countryside. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng

Thứ Tư, 4 tháng 1, 2012

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?

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?

Thứ Sáu, 30 tháng 12, 2011

FarmVille English Countryside Sneak Peek: Downy Birch Tree & Silver Birch Tree

Two new trees will apparently be coming to the English Countryside theme in FarmVille in the very near future, or so say this newest set of unreleased images. We've found pictures of both a Downy Birch Tree (also called the European White Birch Tree) and the Silver Birch Tree (a European ornamental tree), along with their mastery signs.

These two trees have no office release date, although we expect them to show up in the game as early as Sunday evening, when FarmVille is expected to update in full next. As they are both Birch trees, it's likely that one will be the Mystery Seedling of the other, and if history tells us anything, they'll be priced at 5 and 10 Farm Cash, although we don't know which tree will be the more expensive one.

We'll make sure to give you all of the details about these trees as they officially become available in the game.

Which of these two trees do you hope is the cheaper of the two, or do you like them enough to buy both?