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farmville

Sims Social Is Now The Second Most Popular Facebook Games Only Next To CityVille.

September 10, 2011

The Sims Social1 Sims Social Is Now The Second Most Popular Facebook Games Only Next To CityVille.

The Sims Social has now an average of 9.3 million DAU surpassing FarmVille's 8.1 million by over 1 million., with players playing at an average of three times a day in 15 to 20 minutes intervals.

“The Sims Social” from EA and Playfish has now overtaken Farm Ville from Zynga as the no. 2 game on Facebook, according to Appdata. The Sims Social has now seen an average of 9.3 million DAU, with players playing at an average of three times a day in 15 to 20 minutes intervals.

During the first week of its debut, Sims Social had 4.6 million DAU, while making it the 10th most popular game on Facebook. But now it has amassed over 9.3 million DAU within a month surpassing FarmVille’s 8.1 million by over 1 million.

EA’s CFO, Eric Brown commented: “What has made [The Sims Social] a success so far is the Playfish expertise… combined with the creative excellence of the core Sims team,” said Brown. “Those teams work together exceptionally well”.

the sims social 2 Sims Social Is Now The Second Most Popular Facebook Games Only Next To CityVille.

But no doubt, Zynga’s CityVille still tops the DAU chart with nearly 14 million users. But regardless, Sims Social which is still a new game in Facebook has succeded in gaining a huge DAU base within a very short time. However, in MAU base, it has just over 34.3 million bit short of FarmVille’s 35.6 million.

Taking in view the domination of Zynga’s games in Facebook, EA and Playfish has a lot more to achieve in coming days, if it is to make Sim Social above all.

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Woman Scammed Through FarmVille

May 22, 2011

Dozens of rogue apps and scams appear on Facebook every month, and while thousands of careless/impulsive users fall prey to such scams, I believe majority of the users are using their better judgement when it comes to suspicious apps. So, now it looks like scammers are turning towards  Facebook games lately.

A woman from Greene County, PA, USA, was recently scammed though the popular Facebook game FarmVille.

According to a news report, the woman received an instant message from someone she friended while playing the game asking her to check out a link.

She clicked on the link and over the next two days, she noticed that two $400 withdrawals were made from her Facebook account.

She tried to contact her FarmVille fried about the scam only to receive an email response that said, “I am from Indonesia. I don’t speak English.”

She didn’t received any response from Facebook regarding the incident. FarmVille developer, Zynga said the incident would be investigated.

Watch out for similar foul play even when you are just gaming on Facebook, and if possible, using gaming cards rather than your credit or debit card to recharge your game credits will be safer.

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CityVille Amasses More Players Than FarmVille

December 24, 2010

fb CityVille logo 300x240 CityVille Amasses More Players Than FarmVille

Zynga’s CityVille has climb up to the number one spot on app leaderboard so fast, I am sure, that even Zynga must have been surprised.

CityVille has now edged pass Zynga’s own number one game Farmville in about 3 weeks after its launched.

According to data from AppData, FarmVille has 56.6 million active users with 16.3 million daily active users, while CityVille has 61 million monthly active users with 16.7 million daily active users.

fb appdata 24dec10 CityVille Amasses More Players Than FarmVille

Beside Cityville and FarmVille, zynga also holds two more spots in the top five with FrontierVille and Texas HoldEm Poker. Mafia Wars has been losing active players over the last few months but still holds a place in the top 10.

CityVille’s future success was well expected, but it’s is very impressive to see how it amassed all those players in just a matter of few weeks.

It is true all social games eventually settle and start seeing drop-offs. FarmVille’s all time high was more than 83 million monthly active users. How soon will CityVille top that? And how long will CityVille rule? Those are yet to be seen.

In the meantime, it’s just happy times for Zynga.

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Phrases Edge Past FarmVille For Top Facebook App Spot

November 23, 2010

FarmVille, the most popular social game on Facebook has been finally dethroned by another Facebook app that has nothing to do with anything called games.

Phrases is an app that allows users to post a variety of content to their newsfeed including quotes, images, and quizzes. Takeoff Monkey takes the credit as the developer of the app.

Phrases was able to edge pass FarmVille barely, but it is surely a great achievement to take down FarmVille that ruled the chart for 15 months. According to appdata, Phrases has around 54.4 million monthly average users, while FarmVille stood with around 53.9 million.

Phrases is certainly making news but it is believed that it doesn’t have what it takes to continue its run. Takeoff Monkey is said to have disabled the app for U.S. users recently without any explaination according to Inside Facebook.

According to Gamasutra, FarmVille is still the top dog with around 16 million daily active users, and Windows Live Messenger with 9.7 million daily users is the closest competitor.

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Jacksonville Mother Admitted To Killing Her Son Over FarmVille

October 28, 2010

A Jacksonville mother admitted to killing her son for interrupting while she was playing FarmVille.

Allexandra Tobias, a 22-year-old mother who was charged with shaking her baby, 3-month-old Dylan Lee Edmondson, to death in January has pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree murder.

According to a report, Tobias was angered by her son’s crying while she was playing FarmVille on Facebook.

She shook the baby, laid him on the living room couch and smoked a cigarette to compose herself. Apparently, the family dog knocked the baby off the couch, causing him to cry some more and Tobias shook him again until he stopped crying (breathing).

She also reportedly admitted to her cell mate the baby hit his head on the computer when she shook him.

She also confided to family members over phone that the recent death of her mother affected her psychological state, and may have contributed to her aggression on the night of her son’s death.

She will be sentenced in December, and is expected to get between 25 to 50 years in jail according to guidelines.

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Zynga Is Evil Behind Their Casual Games

September 11, 2010

zynga2 Zynga Is Evil Behind Their Casual GamesFarmVille is undoubtly the most played game on Facebook. So are the other games of Zynga such as Mafia War, FrontierVille and Texas Hold Em Poker.These games are well accepted and loved by people around the world.

But how well do you know the person behind the games? Here are some quotes made by former Zynga’s employees about the company, the CEO Mark Pincus to be more specific, as SF Weekly article reports:

“I don’t fucking want innovation,” the ex-employee recalls Pincus saying. “You’re not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers.”

One freelance contractor said he was offered work from Zynga with explicit instructions: “Copy that game.”

The former senior employee who was present for Pincus’ “No innovation” diatribe described Zynga’s business model this way: “Steal somebody else’s game, throw millions of dollars at it, and then, if it doesn’t have it already, add virtual coins.”

A former employee. “I would venture to say it is one of the most evil places I’ve run into, from a culture perspective and in its business approach. I’ve tried my best to make sure that friends don’t let friends work at Zynga.”

In August, Digital Chocolate filed a lawsuit against Zynga over the trademark to the “Mafia Wars” game. Zynga’s ad agency also got into trouble recently for vandalizing streets in San Francisco, but sticking fake dollar bills.

All these quotes makes Zynga’s CEO Mark Pincus infamous quote rings true, “I have done every horrible thing in the book just to get revenues.”

But, as the SF Weekly article points out, “Many successful companies have their original sins — corners cut, bridges burned, allies trampled.” We cannot hate Zynga or its games just for being so evil icon smile Zynga Is Evil Behind Their Casual Games . Our own Facebook has it’s own stories.

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Facebook Credits Comes To FarmVille

March 10, 2010

Farmers of FarmVille who are looking to purchase in-game currency will now have a new option. Apart from the previously  available options, Credit cards and PayPal, Farm Cash and Farm Coins can now be purchased using Facebook Credits – Facebook’s virtual currency.

FB Credits FarmVille Facebook Credits Comes To FarmVille

This new payment system have been adopted in a number of popular Facebook games like Happy Island, Happy Aquarium and Happy Pets, where Facebook Credits is the sole option for in-game purchases.

This new payment option in FarmVille is arguably bigger for Facebook Credits than it is for the game, with the amount of exposure it will get through the game.

FarmVille has more than 83 million users, making it larger than Twitter. If the Facebook Credit payment option catches up in FarmVille, Facebook could very well cross the speculated $1 billion revenue mark in 2010, taking into account the 30% take on revenues generated through Facebook Credits.

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FarmVille: New Horse Stable, Super Bowl and Heart’s Day Items on Facebook

February 4, 2010

Just 3 weeks ago, the Facebook game, FarmVille, had only over 73 million monthly active users. Now the game has over 76 million monthly active users! This is not surprising because Zynga never fails to add something new to the game.

In fact, so many new things spiced up the game the past few weeks. They released Super Bowl special items, last week. These include: the oh-so-cute Chicken Cheer and Chicken Joy (both cheerleaders); Horse and Sheep Spectators; football players, Cow Kicker, Line Quackers 1 and 2; etc.

This week, they released Valentine’s Day special items, including: Fire and Ice Roses (for those level 35 and up), Yellow and White Roses, Hot Pink Pigs, and Pink Patch Cows.

Some of the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day items can be sent to friends, although these have to be purchased first using FarmVille Cash (FC).

Finally this week the new horse stable was launched. Players can find their very own in their gift boxes. However, the horse stable they will find is an incomplete one. To complete it, they need 10 of the following items: nails, bricks, boards, horseshoes, and harnesses. Each player has a free brick to begin with. The necessary items can be received as gifts from friends or can be bought at the marketplace for 1 FC each. Extra FC can be purchased ($1 for every 5-6 FC). After completing the horse stable, the player will be awarded with a grey horse! The stable can be filled with 20 horses (brown, grey, and the new pinto horse) and can be harvested every day. Unfortunately, only 1 stable is allowed per farm.

Farmville Horse Stables 300x207 FarmVille: New Horse Stable, Super Bowl and Heart’s Day Items on Facebook

Something to look forward to: according to some sites, Zynga will be releasing FarmVille clock towers, dogs, kangaroos, and colts soon!

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FarmVille Wins Best Social App of 2009

January 10, 2010

The Crunchies Awards is an annual competition for startups, internet, and technology innovations of the year. The 2009 awards were held last Friday, 8 January 2010 at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. Guess who won the Best Social App award? FarmVille!

FarmVille competed with

FarmVille is Zynga’s top Facebook game, followed by Mafia Wars, CafeWorld, FishVille, and Zynga Poker. Currently, this game has over 73 million monthly active users in Facebook, alone. The game is popular to those between 18 and 35 years old, although there are those who are already in the 50s and older who still play the game.

This Facebook app is played all over the world. Below is the ranking based on the number of users from different countries:

  1. USA
  2. Turkey
  3. Philippines
  4. United Kingdom
  5. Italy
  6. Canada

A new feature of the game is being able to feed the chickens in the player’s neighbors’ coops. Doing this earns the player 4 coins and 1 experience point. After feeding, the chickens then lay an egg. If it is a mystery egg, the player can post it on their wall and friends can claim the egg and open the mystery eggs to get a mystery item.

FarmVille 300x92 FarmVille Wins Best Social App of 2009

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Facebook Games: Bane or Blessing?

December 24, 2009

Playing Facebook games is probably one of the biggest crazes nowadays. In fact, we get numerous invitations from friends from all over the world to join and play with them. Popular ones include: Farmville and Café World by Zynga, Pet Society and Restaurant City by Playfish, and Happy Aquarium by Crowdstar. Among these, Farmville is probably the most popular with 70 million users.

Facebook has approximately 350 million users worldwide and about one fifth of them play online games. That is okay if it is done at home. However, it has been proven that these games are also played at work.

In India alone, their Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry said that survey results revealed that about 12.5 percent of corporate sector employees’ productivity goes into playing Facebook games. That is like one hour of every employee’s 8-hour workday.

In the US, Nucleus Research, Inc. found that almost half of office staff visit the social networking site at work. So that about 1.5 percent of productivity is lost. That is like 7 minutes of work lost daily per employee working on an 8-hour shift.

Because of this loss in productivity, many companies have banned access to social networking sites. However, there are some people who think that these games are good for employees, as long as it’s not overdone.

According to Santosh Chaturvedi, a psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences in Bangalore, online games are beneficial to employees because their mind gets to take a break from work. This change in mindset may allow them to concentrate better when they get back to work, thus increasing productivity.

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