FarmVille Blue Quarter Horse

UPDATE: FarmVille has changed the wording to the pop-ups for the “Your Help Needed”. They have added additional wording about what the permissions involve. We have updated this post to reflect these changes.

Some FarmVille Freaks are being offered a special Blue Quarter Horse for free as a way to entice you into allowing FarmVille more permissions.

When you agree to accept additional permissions from FarmVille, you will receive the Blue Quarter Horse for free in your FarmVille Gift Box. The pop-up notification “Your Help Needed!” further explains that FarmVille is working on a new feature that requires additional permissions. The permission that you will need to accept to get your free horse includes the following from FarmVille:

• FarmVille Notifications: allows you to receive important notifications from FarmVille.
• Publish Stream: enables simple wall posting.
• Publish Actions: helps you post your FarmVille achievements.

FarmVille Your Help Needed! Notice

FarmVille Your Help Needed Learn More Popup

FarmVille Your Help Needed Okay Popup

What do you think FarmVille Freaks? Is the free Blue Quarter Horse enough to entice you to allow more permissions from 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 Sad Cow

Zynga is ending FarmVille.com which will no longer be available sometime very soon.  If you’ve played FarmVille recently using the FarmVille.com platform, then you most likely have noticed the notice found above the in-game play area. The notice reads as follows:

“Attention Farmers! Very soon, FarmVille.com will no longer be available to our players. We encourage everyone to play on Facebook where you’ll find all your favorite features including widescreen mode! Click here to play!“

A little more information can be found over at the official FarmVille Forum where FarmVille Community Manager, Lexilicious announced

“Hey Farmers!
Due to maintenance costs, FarmVille.com will no longer be available for our players in the near future. We encourage you to play on Facebook, where you’ll find all of your favorite features, including widescreen mode!

Once access to FarmVille.com has been removed, you will be redirected to the facebook application if you attempt to connect to the site. Thank you for your continued support! “ (Source: Official FarmVille Forum)

Besides maintenance cost, there is no other reason given as to why FarmVille.com is ending or when its death will happen, but players are encouraged to access their favorite farming game via Facebook.

Please note, FarmVille can be accessed through Facebook and mobile app.

FarmVille Sad Cow

Yet another problem is plaguing FarmVille today and this time it involves the inability to post or share Feeds on your Facebook News Feed.

Posting or sharing Feeds on Facebook is key to many aspects of FarmVille play. We need to do this to share items with our neighbors, complete quests, and ask for help.

This problem has become a FarmVille “Known Issue”. Zynga is aware of the problem and working on a fix. For this problem, there is a possible workaround that may help (see below).

FarmVille Known Issue: 1-4-2012 Cannot post or share feeds

Last Update: 1/04

Description: Since 1/04, players are reporting that they cannot post or share their feeds

Status: The FarmVille studio is aware of these reports and is investigating the issue.

Possible Workaround: Trying scroll down. Feeds may appear below the game.

(Source: Official FarmVille Forum)

Are you experiencing this problem, FarmVille Freaks? Take our FarmVille Freak Poll below!

FarmVille Fuel

Working four farms can be a lot of work especially when there is a shortage of Fuel. One of the ways that we acquire more Fuel is by purchasing Crafted goods from our neighbors that we can then redeem for Fuel. The problem arises when there are none or very little neighbors to purchase goods from which in turn means no Fuel.

Typically, you have access to purchase from each of your neighbors that have Crafted goods for sale. YOu can purchase one good per friend per day. Currently, a FarmVille Known Issue is preventing the entire list of neighbors from showing up making it nearly impossible to stockpile Fuel. For example, my list of neighbors that I’m available to purchase goods from has dwindled to only 6 neighbors, despite knowing that I have many more neighbors with ample goods available.

This is a frustrating issue for farmers experiencing this issue as it is impossible to run four farms without Fuel for vehicles. I’m pretty sure that one-click farming on all four maximum expanded farms would lead to some sort of permanent hand cramping.

As you can see below, this is a FarmVille Known Issue which means that Zynga is aware of the problem and working on a fix. Many farmers rely on purchasing Crafted goods from their neighbors for Fuel for their farms so we hope that this Known Issue is fixed speedily. In the meantime hang tight, and be sure to take our FarmVille Freak Poll below!

FarmVile Known Issue: 12-27-2011 Neighbors don’t show up so goods and bushels are not available

Last Update: 12/27

Description: Since 12/18, players have been reporting that they don’t see all their neighbors listed while attempting to buy goods or bushels.

Status: The FarmVille studio is aware of these reports and is investigating the issue.

Workaround: N/A
(Source: Official FarmVille Forum)

Are you currently experiencing this problem? If so, how many neighbors are you able to purchase Crafted goods from? 

FarmVille Sad Cow

This FarmVille problem makes some farmers a little antsy as they can’t access their Gift Box-stored goodies. This evening some FarmVille Freaks are reporting issue when trying to access (or open) their FarmVille Gift Box. This has become a FarmVille Known Issue and Zynga is aware of the problem and working on a fix.

FarmVille Known Issue:Players cannot open Gift Box

Last Update: 12/07
Description: Since 12/07, players are reporting that they cannot open and access their Gift Box.
Status: The FarmVille studio is aware of these reports and is investigating the issue.
Workaround: N/A
Link to bug report thread: Here

Help FarmVille resolve this issue. If you are experiencing this bug, please click on the link above the provide the following info:
Cleared Browser Cache (Yes or No):
State exactly what error message are you seeing:
What browser and version you are currently using when getting the error:
Are you playing FarmVille on FarmVille.com or Facebook when getting the error:
Does it happen all the time:
Is it quest related? If yes, which Quest Line?:
Please explain what actions you took prior to getting the error:

(Source: Official FarmVille Forum)

Are you having problems with your FarmVille Gift Box?

FarmVille Sad Cow

There have been some pestering problems on the farm lately. While some farmers are currently experiencing difficulty harvesting their crops by being unable to harvest, there are some other lingering problems that Zynga is working on or has already addressed so that farmers can get back to work on their farms. Zynga Customer Support has reported these issues below as either addressed or still investigating.

FarmVille Bugs 6.1.2011

The following issues have been addressed:

• Cornflower and Aster Co-op Jobs for Quest Credit : We removed these tasks from the quests so you should be able to progress to the next quest.
• Harvesting Chicken Coop Quest Credit: Issue was fixed on 5/2/11.
• Sheep Breeding :  We have received reports from players indicating that an unusually high amount of White Sheep are being produced when breeding. As white is a color, it is possible to produce white sheep when the feature is operating normally. Additionally, please note that pattern inheritance comes from the father and the offspring have a chance of inheriting the patterns. We are investigating player reports to determine if more white sheep are being produced than anticipated. Please know that this process is not an easy one and will take time for us to address.
• Pig Pattern/Color Inheritance : Similar to Sheep Breeding, players have reported receiving a high number of Plain, Pink Pigs. The feature is currently working as intended and Plain Pigs are a possible result from Pig Breeding. Pig Pattern inheritance is also a chance inheritance from the father. NOTE: If you are breeding color changing Pigs, the offspring will be plain pigs as we have not released this pattern in the Market yet.
• Loading: Some players were unable to load their farm on 5/25/11. We have fixed the root cause of that loading issue. If you are still having issues, please clear your cache as well.
• Love Potions : We understand that some players feel that they have wasted potions on breeding as the result is not what they expected. We have shared this feedback with the FarmVille studio. If you are accepting love potions, please make sure you have room in your Gift Box. The Gift Box limit is 500.
• Royal Wedding Tent issues: We apologize for any troubles experienced with this feature. The Friend invite list not populating has been fixed.
• Friends list not populating when sending free gifts: Issue appeared to mainly affect Internet Explorer 9 users and has been resolved.
• Sheep Pen locked on Home Farms: Issue has been fixed.
• Playing both Home and English Farms: Players can grow crops on both farms simultaneously. Option is provided when you travel from one farm to another

These issues are still under investigation:

• Pig Breeding: Unable to breed Pigs or Limited Edition Pigs, like Pumpkin Pig, on English farms.
• Gift Box: Lambs are locked in the Gift Box.
• Bushels: Bushels received from harvesting are not appearing in Bushel Inventory.
• Out of Sync Issues:  These issues are ongoing and may have different root causes, which we are investigating.

Have you experienced any of these problems on your farm?

FarmVille Sad Cow

In the past few days FarmVille has been fairly problematic. Some farmers have not been able to access their precious farms. Others have not been able to breed Sheep. Good news, some of these issues have been fixed and most farmers experiencing farm lockouts should now be able to visit their farms again. In the meantime, Puppy Hunger and Withering have been disabled until everything is completely resolved.

So what happened to FarmVille? In a statement released today via the official FarmVille Blog, Zynga addressed the FarmVille issues and explains what happened. It turns out that breeding some specific Sheep may have triggered one of the problem. Read below for all the details.

From FarmVille Official Blog:

“Here’s some information concerning players unable to play FarmVille, which are essentially lockouts for all intents and purposes:

#1 lockout first started around Wednesday night following an update, and more than likely involves an attempt to breed one of two sheep (the red-and-blue polka dot sheep and the Birthday sheep appear to be culprits at this point). It has nothing to do with “illegal” sheep or anything like that (as far as we can tell).

While we were attempting to identify this issue, lockout #2 occurred on early Thursday morning. This was something that went way beyond our control, and was wide-reaching enough that while the initial lockout was resolved by late Thursday afternoon, the effects of the root cause are still impacting Zynga at this very moment. Those who got locked out because of #2 should be able to get back in (though obviously because the lockouts look the same to you, you have no idea if you got hit by #1, #2 or both).

We have #1 fixed (we believe), but because the echoes of #2 are still impacting us, we haven’t been able to publish it and fix everyone that’s affected. We hope to do so in a short while but things can change (unfortunately, as you may have already seen).

Meanwhile wither and puppy hunger will remain off until this is all resolved. We are very much committed to getting everyone back into FarmVille as soon as possible, and we appreciate everyone’s patience in this matter. Thanks everyone, and we hope to get you back to your farms soon!” (Source: FarmVille Blog)

Have you experienced problems with FarmVille lately? What happened to you?

FarmVille Pink Unicorn

There is a new FarmVille Facebook scam out offering unsuspecting farmers a free adoptable FarmVille Pink Unicorn. First of all the Pink Unicorn is still an unreleased item (that we featured on FarmVille Freak) and secondly, it will not be adoptable as it is projected to be a Mystery Game featured item. (Note, this is subject to change.)

More importantly, remember, that any Facebook groups or fake new feed shares that that offer free FarmVille items and are NOT from official FarmVille sources are both untrustworthy and unfruitful. Please share this information with your neighbors, especially those who you have seen fall victim to these scams.

FarmVille Pink Unicorn Scam

FarmVille Valentine Cow

FarmVille Valentine Calf

Looks like Zynga could be rolling out Valentine’s Day Limited Edition items very soon!

FarmVille Valentine Calf Giftbox

Have you seen this glitch occur on your farm?

FarmVille Valentine Calf on Farm