FarmVille Unwither Ring Brought Back by Popular Demand!

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.


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FarmVille: Japanese Barn is now available

FarmVille has just released the Japanese Barn, a 20 slot storage building. The frame is available in the market for 5000 coins or the barn for 50FV$. In order to build the barn, you will need to receive 10 of each of the following from your neighbors: brick, reed thatch, bamboo, nail and wooden board.

Will you be asking your neighbors for some help to build the Japanese Barn?

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille New England Decorations: Covered Bridge, White Pine Tree, & Cliff

    farmville cliff     farmville covered bridge
FarmVille released three new limited edition New England themed decorations including a Covered Bridge, White Pine Tree, and Cliff.

These LE decorations can be purchased with coins or farm cash (White Pine Tree) during the next ___ days in the FarmVille Market.
farmville cliff     farmville white pine tree     farmville covered bridge
FarmVille New England Decorations (Released July 27th 2010):

    Covered Bridge – 400,000 Coins
    Cliff – 70,000 Coins
    White Pine Tree*- 4 FV$


*The White Pine Tree is a decorative tree, meaning it will not yield coins and is not harvestable.

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

Will you purchase any of these decorations for your farm?

FarmVille New England Animal: Morgan Horse

    farmville morgan horse
There is a new Limited Edition New England themed animal, the Morgan Horse, that hit the FarmVille Market tonight.

The Morgan Horse can be purchased for 24 FV$ farm cash in the FarmVille Market during the next 9 days only.

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

Will you purchase a Morgan Horse for you FarmVille Horse collection?

FarmVille Mystery Game, Round 3: Find out what you can win

farmville mystery game update
Tonight marks the third installment of the FarmVille Mystery Game. This Mystery Game features new prizes.

You can play this Mystery Game by accessing it via the FarmVille Market. This game will be available during the next 7 days only. Each play will cost 20 FV$.

Mystery Games yield exclusive prizes that you cannot get anywhere else. However, like Mystery Boxes, playing a Mystery Game is a gamble at your own risk as you are not guaranteed any one specific prize.
farmville beach cottage     farmville angora goat     farmville hooded merganser
farmville ornate cottage     farmville new carriage     farmville mill
The following are confirmed prizes for this Mystery Game (Released on July 27th 2010):

    Angora Goat
    Beach Cottage
    Hooded Merganser
    Mill
    New Carriage
    Ornate Cottage


This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

The only Farmville guide you need

In looking for interesting things to post here on Games.com -- The Blog, we come across a lot of links to things that claim to be "The Ultimate Farmville Guide" or "How to make infinite cash on Farmville with no effort," or something along those lines. An overwhelming majority of the time, those guides are either poorly written, rambling blog posts or part some sort of pyramid scheme of resellers hawking the same old common sense tricks.

Then there's PC World's Farmville Almanac, which blessedly does not fall into either of those categories. Using clear language, easy-to-read charts and a pleasing presentation, the Almanac has everything a Farmville player needs to know from planting their first seeds to to milking the cash crops available at the higher levels. It even gives different advice depending on how frequently you're willing to log in to the game -- great for people who have better things to do than plan their entire life around their virtual harvests.

The only people this guide doesn't apply to are those who are literally trying to cheat the system by getting some sort of auto-clicking program to play Farmville for them. But really, if you're one of those people, you shouldn't be playing Farmville at all. You should be participating in your other hobbies of tripping little old ladies and kicking puppies. You monster.

FarmVille Official Podcast (9/27): Halloween, Nursery Barn, Crafting Co-Op jobs

Last week's official FarmVille Podcast was rescheduled until day. It is hosted by FarmVille Community Manager, Lexilicious. You can listen to the video below, read the FarmVille Freak Summary, or read the entire transcript at the bottom of the post.

Excess Nursery Barns Removed

    Animals from removed 2nd Nursery Barn can be found in your Gift Box.
    100 FV$ rewarded to affected players.
    Will only be compensated for one removed Nursery Barn.
    Will not restore animals or give more farm cash for Nursery Barns for users possessing more than 2. (Players with 3 or more will still only receive, 1 – 100 farm cash and the restoration of one buildings worth of animals.
    FarmVille did warn users that having more than one Nursery Barn was risky. (But why didn't they warn players in advance that the Nursery Barns would be deleted today?)




Crafting Co-Op Jobs

    Jobs are based on recipes available with Crafting Buildings.
    Job requires that a certain number of ingredient be planted and harvested to get the reward.
    Rewards for completing jobs include XP, Coins, and Bushels.
    Access Crafting Jobs through same Co-Op icon in menu.
    Process works similar to normal Co-Op Jobs.


Nursery Barn Expansion

    20 additional storage space for baby animals.
    LE & German Theme


Feathered Friend Mystery Game

    LE Germany items and Dogwood LE Crop (with mastery, available until October 19th)

Coming Soon to FarmVille

    Soon players can purchase CLOTHING including Costumes for their avatars in the coming weeks.
    Halloween features including a constructible Haunted House, and a Halloween Candy Holiday Basket (Collection Event).
    Players will soon be able to visit a special neighbor to earn one new consumable and one new decoration.

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

Mafia Wars: Harvest 20 FarmVille crops for a free stamina refill

Mafia Wars cross promotions have been popular lately, and here is another from Zynga that will refill your stamina in Mafia Wars after harvesting 20 crops in FarmVille. While we're sure that this promotion will appear in your game in due time, why wait for that?

Mafia Wars Manic has found a shortcut link that will take you straight to the pop-up in Mafia Wars. Just copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://tiny.cc/lr9nx

After that, follow the pop-up to open up FarmVille and start harvesting. But remember to use all of your stamina up before starting this promotion to make the work worth your while.

Earn 2 free FarmVille Farm Cash in A Christmas Carol Promotion

Thanks to the good folks at FarmVille Feed, we've come to learn that Zynga has launched yet another free Farm Cash promotion in FarmVille.

This time, the promotion is for the upcoming release of Disney's A Christmas Carol on DVD. Simply click on the sponsored link window as seen at right, and you'll be able to watch the movie trailer and answer a question about your own holiday memories.

After that's said and done, you'll be rewarded with 2 Farm Cash, which can be found added to your total immediately upon refreshing the page.

We personally have yet to have this offer spawn on our own farms, but with the holiday season approaching, will we see more holiday-themed offers being given to FarmVille players? Stay tuned to find out.

New FarmVille Limited Edition Crop: White Pumpkin

In a very late update this evening (or early this morning, depending on your thinking), Zynga has added a new limited edition crop to FarmVille in the form of the White Pumpkin.

This crop has been released as part of the now full-fledged Thanksgiving theme, and is available to grow until December 17. White Pumpkins can be planted for 100 coins per square, and they take a full eight hours to mature. You'll earn a single experience point for each square of the White Pumpkins that you plant, and they can be harvested for 150 coins, for just a 50 coin profit overall.

White Pumpkins are masterable, with the first star of mastery being available at a whopping 1000 harvests. With the crop's time limit of a month, it might be harder for some users (especially those with smaller fields) to make it through the three stars, so start planting these pumpkins now if you want a chance at earning the limited edition mastery sign.

CityVille Cheats and Tips: A Goods Management Guide

CityVille Goods
Now that you've expanded your Franchise empire along with the boundaries of your booming town in CityVille, it's time to get those Goods in line. I don't know about you, but I often find myself maxed out on Goods upon logging into the game. In fact, it's gotten to the point where, at times, I can't even harvest my crops before somehow getting rid of my gobs of Goods. However, there are a few ways to optimize your Goods management so that you don't run into the same problem.

1. The Right Crops for the Right Time
The number one way to control the amount of Goods you produce is planting smart. This isn't FarmVille anymore where the motto normally goes, "The more crops, the better!" Remember to be sure of the yield of each crop and its harvest time before planting. Now, you don't have to break out the calculator or anything (well, unless you're that intent on efficiency), but an idea of how many Goods are waiting for you in a few hours or days is good to keep in mind. For instance, I would strongly recommend against planting a field full of corn when you already have half of your Goods limit in storage.

Jump behind the break for four more tips on how effectively manage your Goods.
CityVille Storage
2. You're Gonna' Need a Bigger Boat
Or in this case, a bigger barn. There are currently only four storage solutions in the game and they're as follows:

-Silo: 250 coins; 100 Storage
-Red Barn: 1,000 coins; 415 Storage
-Sticks: 1,125 coins; 485 Storage
-Cargo Shed: 10 City Cash; 1,000 Storage

While it is mighty tempting to just say, "Forget it," and put up for the Cargo Shed, smart buys and even smarter positioning can help you avoid paying real dollars just to keep your Goods in safe keeping. While Silos are the cheapest solution to Storage, they're not exactly efficient. A much better strategy, although more expensive, would be to line up multiple Barns and Sticks adjacent to one another facing your farmland. In fact, the best way to build in CityVille is in a grid format similar to this, though it's not 100 percent necessary. The bottom line here is that if you place Barns and Sticks intelligently along the borders of your farmland or city, letting Silos fill in any unavoidable blanks, you should be fine when it comes to Storage.

3. Time is Money (and Goods)
Say it with me: Collect from and supply businesses as often as possible. Actually, collecting from Businesses should hold a much higher priority than collecting rent, taxes and free from residential buildings. Here's a scenario: if you only have a few Energy left, yet both your Businesses and Housing are ready to be collected from, which would spend your remaining Energy on? If your answer was cutting down Trees, you're are not even close to getting it. All kidding aside, just collect from the Businesses. This way, you'll get both coins and will be able to supply those Businesses, which costs nothing but Goods--and that's exactly what we want to get rid of.

Franchise Supply
4. Meet Expanding Demand with Expanding Supply
Franchises are a funnel for Goods. Every day, you'll be able to supply a huge portion of your Goods to your Businesses in other cities. And it only gets better with the more places your Businesses pop up. As soon as you're able to, open another Franchise as soon as possible. (Second and third Franchise opportunities open up at Levels 10 and 20.) With two Franchises running Businesses in multiple cities you could easily unload 75 percent of your Goods the moment you log in and click the "Supply" button a few times.

5. All Aboard!
While we've touched on Shipping before, we didn't exactly touch its importance when it comes to Goods management. And the reason why it's at the end of this list is because, frankly, it's a last resort. But don't think it's not equally as important. To put it into perspective, shipping Goods via Train can rid you of up to 700 Goods in an instant. While many of us haven't expanded to a local waterway to give international shipping a go, surely that will provide an even better way of dumping excess Goods elsewhere while making some money in the process. So, when you're at a loss of where to put the rest of those Goods after everything else has been taken care of, send them off on a train and make a few friends happy.

Zynga designed FarmVille as "a negative experience," says Braid creator

In a recent interview with Gamasutra, developer of hit Xbox Live Arcade game Braid Jonathan Blow claimed that Zynga's creation of FarmVille "is actually about designing something that's a negative experience." He made the statement when asked to return to his infamous stance on damaging design trends in video games. While Blow refrains from telling developers what games to create, he did have strong words for the 54.2 million-strong farming simulator.

"I still wouldn't tell people, 'Don't make that game' exactly, I would say, 'Think about what you're making and be careful when you make it and try not to exploit players,' Blow said to Gamasutra. "But I mean now that we've got FarmVille and stuff like that, I pretty much would say 'don't make that kind of game' because I don't see much value in it."

Not much value in it, eh? Well, how does millions in annual revenue sound for value? Unfortunately, that's not exactly what he meant. "It's about 'How do we make something that looks cute and that projects positivity' -- but it actually makes people worry about it when they're away from the computer and drains attention from their everyday life and brings them back into the game, Blow said.

Look after the break for more of what Blow had to say about games like FarmVille, but be warned: it's not pretty.

FarmVille Gifting Quests
Blow, who is in the midst of developing his second major game titled "The Witness," went on to say that games like FarmVille are designed for players to exploit their friendships into a mechanical means of game progression. We imagine he's referring to the issues with gifting quests (pictured) and possibly even the recent complaints that FarmVille might as well be named "BegVille."

As the independent developer continued, no one was safe. "And there's this kind of new way where people are, like Bryan Reynolds working on FrontierVille and stuff, making it supposedly deeper, but that kind of thing has been very token so far, Blow said. "And in fact, I would argue that the audience of that kind of game doesn't necessarily want a deeper game, or certainly that's not proven; it's very speculative."

His beef, apparently, is with developers like Zynga and not the Facebook platform, claiming that there is plenty of room for creative game ideas on Facebook. Unfortunately in his eyes, the FarmVille style is not the way to go.

FarmVille New Years Clothing: Tiaras, Top Hats, Party Dresses, and more!

With tonight's FarmVille update, we see the official launch of the New Years celebration in the game. Since most Winter Holiday items have already expired from the store, or are quickly on their way out of the proverbial door, it only makes sense that Zynga would make the most of the remaining year by releasing items allowing us to celebrate its end. Such items are now available in the Clothing section of the FarmVille marketplace, as seven new clothing items have been added to the game.

These items are those that you might remember seeing here in a FarmVille Sneak Peek, as we showed them to you back on the 18th of December (notice that some of those unreleased items are not in this release - are more items coming in the future?). For girl players / avatars, there is a Black Tiara, Silver Tiara, Gold Party Dress, Purple Party Dress, and a Silver Party Dress, all of which cost Farm Cash. Both of the Tiaras are available for 5 Farm Cash each, while the Party Dresses cost 10 Farm Cash each.

Meanwhile, boy players / avatars can be outfitted in either a Black Top Hat or a Silver Top Hat. Remember, boy avatars can unlock a full Tuxedo from within the Party Barn that was released in full last week. These top hats are both premium items, and would add an equally luxurious touch to your avatar's ensemble this New Years season. Both Top Hats can be purchased for 5 Farm Cash each.

All of these items will be available for a short while into the New Year - for the next 13 days, to be exact. Be sure to head into the game sometime before then if you want to make sure your in-game avatar can ring in the new year in style!

FarmVille New Years Tree: Confetti Tree

Personally, we love the now frequent additions of extremely unique, or otherwise impossible-in-the-real-world trees that have been released in FarmVille over the past few weeks. Keeping with this new in-game theme of sorts is tonight's release of the Confetti Tree, a bright, colorful tree that has been released as part of the New Years theme of limited edition items.

The Confetti Tree costs 5 Farm Cash to add to your farm, and can be harvested once every 2 days. You'll gain just 15 experience points for purchasing the tree, but you'll also make 150 coins each and every time you harvest it (of course, the tree grows colorful clusters of confetti).

As of this writing, the rumors surrounding this tree are that if you add this level 1 Confetti Tree to an Orchard on your farm, you'll have a chance to spawning a level 2 Disco Ball Tree as a Mystery Seedling. We'll be sure to confirm or deny this as more information becomes available, but either way, Disco Ball Trees have begun showing up as Mystery Seedlings, so make sure to collect all that you see your friends posts on your news feed!

The Confetti Tree will be available in the game for the next 21 days, and for those that are still on a holiday kick, it can be decorated with Lights and Snow once you purchase it. The tree is masterable, with the first star of mastery being available after 75 harvests.

FarmVille Winter Countdown: Everything you need to know

The Winter Countdown has officially launched in FarmVille, allowing users to earn and share 12 unique items in a Holiday / Winter theme, one item per day, in an effort to earn themselves a very special prize at the end of the 12 day Winter Countdown.

This event will take a bit of cooperation between yourself and your FarmVille neighbors, so meet us behind the break to see how you can help your friends (and help yourself) earn these 13 new items! First, you'll only be able to start participating in the event when you see a pop-up like the one at the top of this post, alerting you that the Countdown has officially started in your own game. We're expecting this to be a slow rollout, as most new features are in FarmVille, so if you don't see the countdown the next time you log into the game - don't panic!

Once you accept the pop-up above, you'll be shown the Winter Countdown menu, where each day, a new item will be revealed. This initial item for day 1 is the White Soldier, a returning item from last year's Winter Holiday celebration. If you were playing the game at this time last year, and have a White Soldier already present on your land, this will NOT count as participation for Day 1 in this year's Winter Countdown - you will need to earn another one in order to earn credit for participating. The same will go for any other re-released items that we'll see launched in this event, such as the Gold Ornament (seen in the top image).

To do so, you'll need to click on the Ask/Share button underneath the item's name. This will allow you to post a news post to your feed, sharing a White Soldier with friends, and simultaneously asking your friends to send you a White Soldier as well.

Each day, a new item will be available to send, and if you can manage to log-in to the game and collect all 12 items as they are available (that is, login consistently and collect each day's item for the next 12 days in a row), you'll receive a special bonus prize at the end. The prize is shown at the bottom of the Winter Countdown menu, and looks like a Mystery Animal Crate.

To access the Winter Countdown menu at any time, you'll need to look out for the Blue and Red wrapped present icon that will be found in the top right corner of the FarmVille gameplay area. Don't worry about closing the window when you first see it upon launching the game, as this icon will allow instant access to the event from here on out.

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

FarmVille Mystery Game (12/26/10): Best of Animals Week

If you're a big animal collector in FarmVille, you'll be happy to know that this week's Mystery Game has been released, and it contains a new set of six exclusive animals that are sure to set your zoological gene on fire. This week's game will cost 20 Farm Cash to play, for each individual dart you'd like to play, which is 4 Farm Cash more than the "normal" 16 Farm Cash price.

This week's game contains the following items that are up for grabs:

Baby Giraffe
Baby Zebra
Purple Mane Pony
White Lion Cub
White Unicorn
Camargue Horse

If you missed your chance at some of these items when they were released previously in the game (the Camargue Horse was released as part of the French Chateau theme, for instance), you'll want to make sure to try your hand at this week's Mystery Game, as there's no telling when (if ever) the items will make another reappearance in the game after this week.

FarmVille New Years Items: New Year Horse, Party House, Cider Fountain & More

All together, these items are mostly Farm Cash items that will set you back a pretty penny (or virtual Farm Cash) if you choose to purchase them all, but there is one item for those that would rather stay clear of spending premium currency. Meet us behind the break to find out what it is. First off, the new animal is the New Year Horse, which should look familiar, as we brought you a Sneak Peek of this (and many other items in this release) last week. The New Year Horse costs 22 Farm Cash, and comes outfitted with a cute Top Hat, noise maker, and New Years Sash. If purchased, you can harvest from your New Year Horse once every three days, to receive 140 coins each time. Of course, you'll also be able to place the New Year Horse in your Horse Stable, offering the potential to receive a New Year Foal (with matching top hat and sash).

Moving on, the new building is the animated Party House. This building costs 25 Farm Cash, and is a brightly decorated building with pulsing lights shooting from the windows, two rotating spotlights from the roof of the home, and four clusters of balloons perched at the home's corners. Sure, it might be a tad expensive, considering that it is just a decorative building, but the sheer quality of the animation seems to make it worth the price.

Finally, there are three decorations that are now available to purchase, two of which are Farm Cash-only. These items are the Cider Fountain and the New Year Band. The Cider Fountain is another animated item, which consists of a large tower of glasses over which Cider is pouring down, into a large trough at the bottom. It costs 15 Farm Cash to add to your farm. The New Year Band costs 20 Farm Cash, and is a truly clever item, consisting of a three piece band, instruments, stage equipment and lighting, with the band being made up of a Chicken drummer, a Duck guitarist, and a sheep playing the keyboard. How cute!

The other decoration is a simple stationary Happy New Year sign that costs just 4,800 coins to add to your land. Even if you don't want to spend the Farm Cash on these other items, this sign will allow you to still celebrate the holiday in fashion. You'll gain 48 experience points for purchasing the sign, which will only be available for the next 5 days.

All other items will be available for the next 13 days, so keep these separate time limits in mind when deciding which items to purchase. You wouldn't want to miss out on collecting any of these neat items, now would you?

Scam Alert: 50 free FarmVille Cash from Groupon Wall post is phony

It should already be known as rule of thumb not to click on offers from any social game that don't come from the game itself. But just in case you missed that memo, All Facebook reports that the recent FarmVille Wall post offering 50 free Farm Cash from Groupon is malware just waiting to attack your computer.

The link, which comes from either a third-party Blogspot FarmVille news blog or will redirect those unaware to a Facebook application page (seen above) offering 25 free Farm Cash. It may look similar to a FarmVille freebie, but this is extremely simple to copy. Remember, the only way to gain Farm Cash from the game is to either buy it yourself, have it rewarded directly from a Zynga or FarmVille News Feed Post or take advantage of the sponsored links featured beneath the game screen. (The real Groupon offer is found beneath the game screen.)

All Facebook suggests that if you have unfortunately already clicked on the faulty offer, you should remove and block the application from your Facebook profile. To remove applications from your profile, just click the Account tab in the upper right of your screen and go to "Privacy Settings." Then, click on "Apps and Websites," click "Edit Settings," find the relevant application and choose the small "X" to the right of it to remove it permanently. Also, you might want to perform a full malware and virus scan on your computer using whatever software you prefer. Now, remember to think twice before clicking on any old FarmVille post.

FarmVille Model Farm gets all mushy with Valentine's Day update

Model Farm Valentines
The FarmVille Model Farm, or what I like to call the interactive Market, has been updated with Valentine's Day items. FarmVille Freak reports that the new relatively new feature has shed its wintry decorations in time for a heavy dose of pink. Of course, every item is up for sale. Clicking on any given decoration will open a preview window just like it does in the Market, giving you the option to buy the item with either coins or Farm Cash depending on the item.
While you'll find plenty of lovely decorations including the Love Shack and Romantic Coach, also available are some of the Winter Wonderland items like the Icelandic Horse and Totem House. Of course, all of these items cost Farm Cash, so do not pay a visit with an empty wallet. Unless you just want the free random bonus, then by all means stop by.

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

Have you seen the new items in the Model Farm yet? Would you ever purchase items from FarmVille via the Model Farm?

FarmVille Valentine's Day Showcase Two includes Chinese New Year

With Valentine's Day still over two weeks away, but Zynga is already thinking about other important February holidays in FarmVille. Take a look at the new FarmVille Showcase, which features a few new Valentine's Day items including the hilarious Venus Gnome. But check out the Chinese Dragon in time for the Lunar New Year this Feb. 3.
Also seen in the video are what appear to be some sort of Asian-style bridge, a Heart Pig, a heart-filled canoe and what looks like a picnic scene under a tree. And since the Chinese New Year celebration starts next week, it's safe to expect this set of items to release before then at the very least.