FarmVille Freak

Rumors of a sequel to FarmVille, creatively called FarmVille 2, are circulating around the internet. Popular gaming site Kotaku as well as  as VG247 mention a Zynga sequel to FarmVille.

Surely inquiring FarmVille Freaks want to know what exactly is FarmVille 2 and what does a sequel to FarmVille actually mean? Before you start asking a gazillion questions, not much is known about the sequel to our favorite farming game. Speculation of a sequel was triggered by a copywriter’s online resume that sources his work on “pitching FarmVille 2″.

Wait…aren’t FarmVille’s destination farms (English Countryside, Lighthouse Cove, Winter Wonderland, and Hawaiian Paradise) considered expansions of FarmVille and thus a sequel too? Well, that’s what we thought, but we all know that FarmVille has been locked down to Facebook due to exclusivity issues. You won’t find FarmVille anywhere else other than Facebook. In other words, the only place that you can access your beloved FarmVille farm is via Facebook. Even though other Zynga games are featured on outlets besides Facebook (Google Games, Zynga.com) FarmVille’s absence is well noted. Perhaps, FarmVille 2 will be able to expand to greener pastures beyond the confines of Facebook and thus expand Zynga’s reach into the farming sector of the social gaming community as well.

Zynga is scheduled to make an appearance at E3 2012 for the first time and hopefully they are planning to announce big news or at least some new information concerning the development or existence of FarmVille 2.

More on this story as we know it, stay tuned to FarmVilleFreak.com for updates.

What are your thoughts on FarmVille 2, FarmVille Freaks? How do you feel about a sequel to FarmVille?

Happy March, FarmVille Freaks and happy news on some of your favorite Zynga games! Today, Zynga announced that they will finally launch their much anticipated Zynga Platform on a revamped Zynga.com later this month!

At its launch the Zynga Platform located on Zynga.com will provide a  new access point to play five of Zynga’s top games including: CastleVille, Words With Friends, CityVille, Hidden Chronicles, and Zynga Poker. Sadly, even though FarmVille remains one of Zynga’s most popular games, it isn’t part of the fun just yet, but we hope it will soon. You will still need your Facebook login to play on Zynga Platform, but prepare for some exciting and innovative new changes such as increased player interaction beyond that of your Facebook friends, more games including those of third party developers featured on the Zynga Platform, as well as new real time chat features and  live game feed catered to your social gaming profile.

Be sure to watch the video above for a quick recap and demonstration of the Zynga Platform and how it will work.

The beta release of Zynga Platform on Zynga.com features:

• zFriends – Connect and play with more people, beyond your Facebook friends, who love to play as much as you do.
• More Games – Five of Zynga’s top games – CastleVille, Words With Friends, CityVille, Hidden Chronicles and Zynga Poker – will be accessible on the site at launch, but soon you will be able to discover and play more social games by Zynga and third party game developers.
• Social Stream – Get real-time access to items needed to advance faster in games by posting to Zynga’s live social stream without ever leaving your game board.
• Player Profile – A profile that is all about the way you play, highlighting your favorite games, top zFriends, recent activity and your helpfulness score to see how you stack up against friends.
• Live Chat – Without leaving the game board, you can also chat with zFriends in real-time to send gifts, strategize, or just say ‘OMG, look at the size of that beastie!’

Zynga.com New Platform (Click to Enlarge)

Zynga.com Game Feeds (Click to Enlarge)

Zynga.com Friend Help (Click to Enlarge)

Zynga.com Player Profile (Click to Enlarge)

What do you think, FarmVille Freaks? Are you excited about playing games on the Zynga Platform? 

To read the entire press release from Zynga continue reading below.

Press Release:

ZYNGA UNVEILS NEW PLATFORM FOR PLAY

The Zynga Platform Delivers More Ways to Play and More People to Play with on Zynga.com

Zynga Welcomes Game Developers Mob Science, Row Sham Bow and Sava Transmedia as Inaugural Platform Partners

SAN FRANCISCO – March 1, 2012 – Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA), the world’s leading provider of social game services, today announced the Zynga Platform, a new platform designed to bring players what they’ve asked for: new ways to play and more people to play with. As part of the initial roll out, Zynga will debut the beta release of Zynga.com, the company’s new destination for social games. In addition to serving up popular Zynga games, Zynga.com will let players discover and play social games created by third party game developers. These Platform partners will be able to reach new audiences and make their games even more social.

“We built Zynga.com to give our players more ways to connect with each other and play great social games whether built by Zynga or other talented developers,” said Mark Pincus, founder and CEO, Zynga. “Together with our platform partners, we look forward to bringing more play to the world on our platform.”

Zynga.com – a playground for social games
Zynga.com is built with the goal of bringing players more ways to connect with more people on a new destination dedicated to social games. Zynga.com will enable players to meet and connect with other players who share a love for social games, ultimately giving them more friends to play with. Players will progress faster in their games by tapping the entire community to instantly get what they need to complete quests, obtain virtual items and advance to the next level. Zynga.com is one of the first sites to be totally integrated with Facebook as an extension of the companies’ strong and collaborative partnership. It will allow players to log in with their Facebook ID and easily play games with their existing Facebook friends, as well as other people who love to play the same games.

“Zynga.com was created based on listening to players and understanding what they want and need to make their play time more fun and meaningful,” said Manuel Bronstein, general manager of Zynga.com. “We are excited to give players a way to connect with other people who love to play the same games in a destination that is all and only about games. We will continue to listen to player feedback and provide even better ways for them to connect and play together.”

The initial beta release of Zynga.com features:

• zFriends – Connect and play with more people, beyond your Facebook friends, who love to play as much as you do.
• More Games – Five of Zynga’s top games – CastleVille, Words With Friends, CityVille, Hidden Chronicles and Zynga Poker – will be accessible on the site at launch, but soon you will be able to discover and play more social games by Zynga and third party game developers.
• Social Stream – Get real-time access to items needed to advance faster in games by posting to Zynga’s live social stream without ever leaving your game board.
• Player Profile – A profile that is all about the way you play, highlighting your favorite games, top zFriends, recent activity and your helpfulness score to see how you stack up against friends.
• Live Chat – Without leaving the game board, you can also chat with zFriends in real-time to send gifts, strategize, or just say ‘OMG, look at the size of that beastie!’

Zynga Platform Partners
In an effort to let players discover and play even more games on Zynga.com, for the first time ever, Zynga will enable third party developers to create and publish games on the Zynga Platform. Zynga is working with a number of early partners, including: Mob Science, Row Sham Bow and Sava Transmedia. Zynga Platform partners will have access to the 240 million monthly active users who currently play Zynga games by publishing and promoting them across the Zynga network. In addition to inviting developers to promote their games to its player audience, Zynga will enable partners to tap into channels and features that increase social engagement, analytics that measure and drive social, and back end technology that ensures scalability and availability.

“Publishing on the Zynga Platform will allow developers to tap into a captive audience of players who love to play social games,” said Rob Dyer, head of platform partners at Zynga and former senior vice president of Publisher Relations at Sony Computer Entertainment. “What’s more, we’re committed to creating an environment that’s a win, win for everyone involved. We know the challenges of being a game developer, and want to build the best destination for play – not just for players – but for the entire ecosystem as well.”

“As an independent game developer, we have faced significant challenges in getting players to discover our games,” said Michael Witz, CEO of Mob Science. “The Zynga Platform provides an unparalleled opportunity by letting us focus on building a game that can easily be enjoyed by the millions of people on Zynga’s network who already love to play social games. As an early Zynga Platform Partner, we look forward to working closely with the company to evolve the platform and create the best environment for developing and playing social games.”

Zynga currently measures the level of social engagement in its games through a metric that looks at a player’s active social network (ASN). Through analytics and player feedback, Zynga’s learned that the number of active neighbors a player regularly engages within their game directly impacts how meaningful of an experience they have and how much they want to play. By tapping into a combination of features like the live Social Stream and analytics that measure ASN, Platform partners will be able to understand, refine and drive more social engagement in their games.

“Making great social games is challenging and it’s even more difficult to build for scale so millions of people worldwide can play simultaneously and have a great experience,” said Cadir Lee, chief technology officer, Zynga. “Our goal for the Zynga Platform is to make it easier for game developers to build the best social games without having to deal with technology challenges.”

Zynga’s infrastructure operates as a platform that serves the company’s entire lineup of games and studios worldwide. Over the last year, Zynga has bolstered its own private infrastructure, called zCloud, enabling game studios to quickly scale their games. Zynga will soon enable Platform partners to leverage the technology that Zynga built specifically for creating and scaling social games.

Availability
Zynga.com is expected to launch this month. The play service will be available in 16 languages, including: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Indonesian, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Thai.

Zynga is initially working closely with select Platform partners, but plans to open up the Zynga Platform and make it more widely available to all third party game developers through an API later this year. (Source: Zynga.com)

FarmVille My Little PonyVille (Image Credit: Equestria Daily)

Zynga, the developers of FarmVille are teaming up with popular toy maker Hasbro!

This partnership is an interesting one that promises exciting new things for Zynga players and FarmVille lovers with pretty much endless possibilities. It seems as though this new partnership will focus on Hasbro making toys for popular Zynga games like FarmVille. What could this mean? Think real life collectibles of famous FarmVille characters with the Hasbro makeover of irresistible cuteness.

We can expect to see Zynga + Hasbro products available as early as Fall 2012.

We’d like to give a special thanks to FarmVille Freak Dark Farmer for sharing this news with us!

Check out the press release below for more details.

Industry Gaming Leaders Hasbro and Zynga Announce Global Partnership

Hasbro signs exclusive worldwide strategic alliance to develop wide range of products based on Zynga’s highly popular and iconic brands

SAN FRANCISCO & PAWTUCKET, R.I.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) and Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) announced today a comprehensive partnership that grants Hasbro the rights to develop a wide range of toy and gaming experiences based across Zynga’s popular social games and brands. As the world’s largest social game developer with more than 227 million monthly active users, Zynga has created some of the world’s most popular social game brands including FarmVille, CityVille and Words With Friends.

Through this agreement, Hasbro has obtained the license to develop and distribute wide ranging product lines based on Zynga’s game brands in a number of toy and game categories. This deal also creates an array of opportunities for co-branded merchandise featuring a combination of both Hasbro and Zynga brands.

“It’s exciting to partner with Hasbro as we share a common vision for play and a mission to connect the world through games,” said Mark Pincus, founder, CEO and chief product officer of Zynga. “This partnership is so special because it represents an exciting leap forward in enabling people to connect their virtual and real worlds. Hasbro has inspired play through their famous toys, games and action figures and we look forward to working with a company that continually creates meaningful and fun brands.”

“Hasbro is thrilled to have the opportunity to bring Zynga’s immensely popular social games to life in a variety of creative and new expressions that reflect consumers’ growing desire to surround themselves with gaming brands they love anytime, anywhere together with their friends and family,” said Brian Goldner, President and CEO of Hasbro. “Zynga is bringing more games to mainstream culture and is redefining how people play. At Hasbro, we’re proud to help bring their games to even more people around the world. This strategic alliance plays off of both Hasbro’s and Zynga’s proven strengths and is emblematic of the new innovations and new platforms we are creating across our entire gaming portfolio.”

The two companies expect the first products to be available beginning Fall 2012.

About Hasbro

Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) is a branded play company providing children and families around the world with a wide-range of immersive entertainment offerings based on the Company’s world class brand portfolio. From toys and games, to television programming, motion pictures, video games and a comprehensive licensing program, Hasbro strives to delight its customers through the strategic leveraging of well-known and beloved brands such as TRANSFORMERS, LITTLEST PET SHOP, NERF, PLAYSKOOL, MY LITTLE PONY, G.I. JOE, MAGIC: THE GATHERING and MONOPOLY. The Hub, Hasbro’s multi-platform joint venture with Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) launched on October 10, 2010. The online home of The Hub iswww.hubworld.com. The Hub logo and name are trademarks of Hub Television Networks, LLC. Come see how we inspire play through our brands athttp://www.hasbro.com. © 2012 Hasbro, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

About Zynga

Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) is the world’s largest social game developer with more than 227 million monthly active users playing its games, which include CityVille, FarmVille, Words With Friends, Scramble With Friends, CastleVille, Hidden Chronicles, Zynga Poker, Empires & Allies, Indiana Jones™Adventure World, The Pioneer Trail, Mafia Wars and Café World. Zynga’s games are available on a number of global platforms, including Facebook, Google+, Tencent, Apple iOS and Google Android. Through Zynga.org, Zynga players have raised more than $10 million for world social causes. Zynga is headquartered inSan Francisco.”(Source: Hasbro.com)

Are you excited to see real world FarmVille collectibles and products from the Zynga + Hasbro partnership?

Take Our Poll

FarmVille Zynga and Politics

As local elections come to a close tonight throughout the United States, we’d like to take a moment to revisit the idea of politics invading FarmVille’s virtual real estate and possibly your own farms.

Back in September, Bloomberg Businessweek first reported that some presidential hopefuls and their campaigns, specifically Rep. Michele Bachmann in this case, would like to target popular social games such as Zynga’s FarmVille in hopes of gaining virtual support and to pick up some key voters.

Michael Hendrix, a consultant for the firm working on Bachmann’s ad campaign dubs this idea the “gamification of politics”. One game in particular, FarmVille, he sees as an advantageous “demographic frontier for Republicans” with “the majority of social gamers [being] stay-at-home moms over 38″.  Hendrix claims to have written software that will allow players to bring politics to the farm. We’ve all seen some of our fellow FarmVille Freaks flex their political affiliation on their farms via their hay bale constructed farm art of Democrat Donkeys or Republican Elephants, but Hendrix plans to take this a step further with a more real world borrowed concept- yard signs! He suggests that his software would allow FarmVille players to show support for their candidates by placing political yard signs on their virtual farms just as they would on their real world lawns.

Even though Zynga has not yet publically endorsed the notion of a political invasion of FarmVille and this article is written from a speculative perspective, it has us all wondering- do politics belong on the farm? Certainly, if politics did seep their way into FarmVille, it’d be an optional endorsement for players to decide and one with all parties represented. On the other hand,FarmVille is already becoming more like a full-time job, do we really need to corrupt it with politics, party lines, and the sometimes unwelcomed diversity it brings? We can see how happy neighbors and our shared love of toiling over our farms could quickly turn into heated arguments and broken farmer friendships.

What do you think, FarmVille Freaks? Does political representation belong on your farm? If it were possible, would you show support for your candidate or political affiliation with a yard sign display on your farm? Sound off in the comments below and be sure to take our FarmVille Freak Poll!

(Referenced Source: Bloomberg Businessweek)

FarmVille Mark Pincus at Zynga's Unleashed Event

Zynga’s Unleashed event that took place earlier today at Zynga’s headquarters in San Francisco introduced a barrage of new Zynga game titles, a new Zynga platform with Project Z and Ztags, and a new way to play some of your favorite games including FarmVille!

New Zynga Games

Keeping up with the competition and hoping to stay ahead, Zynga’s studios are constantly producing new social games  and today they announced the titles of even more fun games including the latest Ville game, CastleVille which we are most excited about. Read below for a recap on all the new Zynga games “coming soon”.

• CastleVille
• Zynga Bingo
• Hidden Chronicles
• Dream Zoo
• Mafia Wars 2

CastleVille

CastleVille hails from the Zynga’s Lone Star State studio in Dallas and it is the latest “Ville” title. It takes place in a medieval world with fantasy and enduring characters. It’s movie quality looks (is that Tangled?) and music (75 piece orchestra and full choir backed original soundtrack) Zynga describes as the “most beautiful game we’ve ever made”. In CastleVille you can “get your happy ending” by building the castle and kingdom of your dreams.

Zynga Casino’s Zynga Bingo

Hurry up and tell Grandma, Zynga releases yet another Casino title, Zynga Bingo! It joins Zynga’ Casinos most popular Poker game, Zynga Poker. We can’t wait to see what the Big Z was able to do with the already natural social aspect of Bingo transformed into social gaming. What we already know? Think- themed bingo rooms such as “Pirates Paradise” and “Vegas Lights”. Your chips from Zynga Poker will work in Zynga Bingo too with a promise to make it easy to find your casino friends while they are playing. Bingo!

Hidden Chronicles 

A new genre for Zynga, Hidden Chronicles is your soon-t0-be favorite memory challenge game. Think the adult version of Highlights with all the fun of Where’s Waldo. Beautiful graphics for you to stare at and scope out all the hidden objects all in a social game setting.

The twist is that there will be a social game setting which means you can play with your friends and work up a friendly competition. Throughout your game play you will unlock the story of Ramsey Manor which is your home base in Hidden Chronicles. There at the Manor you will also be able to meet and interact with characters and customize the Manor. Interesting!

Dream Zoo

Dream Zoo is a zoo themed game that will be available at the Apple App Store. You can build your own virtual zoo in the palm of your hands (literally) as you collect some of your favorite zoo animals. Recruit your neighbors to help you take care and feed your animals and help them out as well.

Mafia Wars 2 

Zynga’s first real sequel Mafia Wars 2 launched yesterday. Mafia Wars 2, yes it needed its own new game and new title is now available on Facebook and Google+ games. Get your mafia on now!

New Zynga Platform & Project Z

As you already know, most of Zynga games can be played on Facebook, some Google + and mobile devices. Zynga wants to continue to move forward with making more games mobile accessible. They also want to give us a new promise of  what they call “instant social” with Project Z, which they describe as a new Zynga social game service that will be enabled by Facebook Connect where players can “connect with others who are playing at that very moment”.

Project Z seems like another another step towards more Zynga independence from social networks. As of yet very little details have been released about Project Z and what exactly it means. We can expect to learn the nitty gritty of Project Z as we approach its launch. However, what you can do today, is sign up and reserve your gamer tag! Your gamer identity tag, called “zTags” will allow you to travel effortlessly between your favorite Zynga games on the Project Z service. They also reveal that Project Z will “be coming soon to a browser near you very soon”.

To reserve your zTag visit Zynga:

http://ztag.zynga.com/

zTag

Zynga & Facebook Mobile

Recently Facebook launched its mobile apps and mobile site and along with this Zynga announced three HTML5 large scale games that will be coming very soon to Facebook’s mobile app site. Remember FarmVille Express? Yes! A new way to play FarmVille on your mobile device better than ever. With the help of HTML5 technology the mobile games will boast faster load times, smoother game play, and better responsiveness. The other Zynga titles that will be built using HTML5 besides FarmVille Expres are Zynga Poker Mobile Web and Words With Friends HTLML5.

Source: http://www.zynga.com/about/press/company-blog/more-social-more-fun-come-out-and-play

What are you thoughts, FarmVille Freaks? What do you think of the new Zynga games? Have you already registered your new gamer tag zTag? 

FarmVille White Kitten

We’re here again to alert you to another scam. Like they say, “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.” The newest scam popping up on our news feeds is for an adorable White Kitten.

FarmVille White Kitten Scam FaceBook Notice

This is not a post from the official Zynga FarmVille game! For your safety, and your friends, please do not click on this! If you have, we suggested you report the page to FaceBook and update your password. Often the purpose of these scams is to gather your private data (entered on FaceBook) and any data of your friends that can be reached through your account. Several players have reported receiving viruses from similar posts in the past.

FarmVille White Kitten Scam Page

Please pass this message along to help keep everyone on FaceBook safe from these scammers, click our “Share on FaceBook” link. Visit us again soon to keep up with all your FarmVille news!

Do you suspect you have received a virus after clicking on this or a similar post?

Zynga vs. BlingVille

In a recent legal fight between FarmVille developer Zynga and Overtime Apps, Zynga is claiming trademark infringement for use of “Ville” in Overtime Apps’ game titled BlingVille. BlingVille is also a social game that will be released on Facebook.

It’s no secret that Zynga has built an empire of successful “Ville” games. Let’s count the ville titled family of games:

1. FarmVille
2. CityVille
3. FishVille
4. FrontierVille
5. PetVille
6. YoVille

FarmVille Creator Zynga Games

Although Zynga does not own the word ville by any means, in the gaming community they have invested interest in their popular ville titled games. It may sound ridiculous, but Zynga has built a reputation in the social gaming world with an extremely large following of players. In fact, many players would try BlingVille just because of its name and on assumption that it is the latest and greatest Zynga game.

A spokesman from Zynga justified the legal matter by making the following statement:

“We regret that BlingVille LLC has chosen to move forward with a social game called BlingVille despite our advance notice to them of our rights. Use of the name ‘BlingVille’ is an obvious attempt to capitalize on the fame and goodwill associated with Zynga’s family of “ville” games which includes FarmVille and CityVille. We are prepared to take all necessary steps to protect our intellectual property rights.”

Who knew that a suffix could cause such a stir!

(Source: G4, Gamasutra)

What do you think? Is BlingVille biting off Zynga’s success and riding on the FarmVille coattails or is anything fair game?

FarmVille on Prisoners Computer

FarmVille Freaks come from all walks of life . . . and criminal backgrounds. Smuggling cell phones into prisons is no surprise really, but did you ever think prisoners would be using smuggled smart phones to play FarmVille behind bars?

The New York Times is reporting that while smart phones in prison can be lethal devices that are used to organize inside riots or orchestrate crimes on the outside, they are also being used for leisure activities such as playing FarmVille! Smart phones provide internet access which allow all sorts of communication with the outside world. The incarcerated equipped with smart phones can have access to Facebook accounts, email capabilities and text messaging, not to mention their own piece of virtual land and livestock in FarmVille.

Smuggled cell phones most often enter the prison by guards or other employees, visitors, or incoming prisoners and usually come with a hefty price tag, “ranging from $300 to $1,000, depending on the type of phone and the service plan. Monthly fees are generally paid by inmates’ relatives”.  Most recently, notorious criminal Charles Manson was caught just a few weeks ago hiding a cell phone under his prison mattress.

It’s easy for anyone to get addicted to using their phones or playing FarmVille, but can you imagine if you had nothing else to do and all the time in the world to devote to tending your FarmVille crops? Farming for prisoners is not only fun, it helps pass the time in days filled with boredom. However, farming from your cell comes with a huge risk- since President Obama passed legislation back in August 2010 making possession of illegal cell phones a crime punishable with up to one extra year in prison.

What do you think FarmVille Freaks?

FarmVille Chinese Loading Screen

FarmVille Chinese has officially launched and while the Chinese version is very similar to the original FarmVille as far as fundamental game play and concept, there are some crop exclusives.

Our friends over at AOL’s Games.com investigated the crop exclusivity a little further and here’s what they had to say below.

“At the end of December, we brought you the news that Zynga had launched a new version of FarmVille for Chinese players. While the game appears mostly identical (the games share the same basic gameplay functions, crop prices, and so on), there are actually a few differences to be found, especially where Chinese FarmVille’s crops and trees are concerned.

While the standard version of FarmVille does have more items to offer overall, Chinese FarmVille has four exclusive crops, and one exclusive tree at the time of this writing. We’ve done a little bit of digging and have found out more about these exclusive crops and the exclusive tree, if you’re interested in seeing what our Chinese-speaking friends are experiencing in their version of the game.

FarmVille Chinese Exclusive Crops & Tree

The first crop is the Peony flower, which is the national flower of China, which obviously explains its presence in that version of the game. Based on our research, we believe the second crop to be Ginseng, an ingredient normally found in energy drinks or medicinal teas. The third crop is something called “dong chong xia cao,” which literally translates to “winter worm, summer grass,” but is more commonly known as Caterpillar Fungus. Finally, the mushroom crop is theLingzhi, a medicinal herb found in health supplements. As for the tree, it is known as the Areca Nut Palm, which is found in Asia and the tropical Pacific regions.

FarmVille Chinese Market

Whether or not the original version of FarmVille will ever receive these items as well remains to be seen. However, even if standard FarmVille doesn’t receive these items, it’s still interesting to see what items are being offered for the Chinese-speaking crowd.” (Source: Games.com)

FarmVille Freak Dr. Green Thumb's FarmVille Chinese Farm

According to App Data CityVille breached the 69 million mark this month, while FarmVille attracted 57 million. Considering CityVille is still a very young one month old, it looks like Zynga has another hit.

FarmVille remains at the top of the leader board for daily active users with 14 million compared to CityVille’s at a strong 13.8 million easily securing the second place spot.

Has Zynga persuaded you to venture off your farm to try out life in the City?