Saturday, February 27, 2010

Where virtual worlds once ruled, FarmVille dominates

Almost every week for the last few years, it seems, I've gotten a press release or a pitch touting some company's great new Facebook games network or kids' virtual world.

And why not? Companies like Zynga and Playfish are making money hand over fist with their collections of massively popular social games, and 2D Flash games aimed at children like Club Penguin, Webkinz, Habbo Hotel, and others have garnered vast amounts of virtual world investment dollars in recent years.

But to someone who cut his virtual world teeth on more immersive, 3D environments like There and Second Life, these never-ending announcements of new companies trying to jump on the social gaming bandwagon have left me with one nagging question: Where is the innovation?

To find the answer, one has only to do what investigative journalists were always trained to do: follow the money. But while Facebook games like FarmVille and Who Has the Biggest Brain, and social worlds for kids or teens like Gaia Online make financial sense, they aren't all that satisfying intellectually.

After all, while Second Life had no end of technical problems and was about as inviting to mainstream audiences as obscure European philosophy, it had a complex economy, a deep social structure, sophisticated politics and always seemed, to me, at least, as the jumping off point for truly groundbreaking technology.

And I wasn't alone. There were significant numbers of people interested in the legal, social, economic, and intellectual aspects of 3D immersive virtual worlds and regular gatherings like State of Play, the Virtual Worlds conferences and others. The technology bar was set high as early as 2003, when There and Second Life launched, and it only looked like, over time, it would go higher.

Sometime around 2006, though, the innovation seemed to have sputtered, and in its place has come a slew of profitable but essentially copy-cat low-fi social games and experiences. And I may be alone, but I find these developments increasingly boring.

But does it make sense? Absolutely.

Leaving 3D worlds behind
In the spring of 2007, an Austin, Texas, company called Show Initiative put on the first Virtual Worlds conference, an event that saw dozens of companies flock to New York to talk about how marketing could work in these nascent digital environments. Second Life, There, Entropia Universe, and others working on 3D immersive worlds were the stars.

And that conference was just the first of many. But today, it is called the Engage! Expo and companies working in 3D have been pretty much forgotten.

"That's why we changed our name from the Virtual Worlds conference to Engage," said Chris Sherman, the lead organizer of the events. "It broadens the scope of our business. The major media companies aren't just looking at virtual worlds. They're looking at iPhone apps [and] social games."

The real question in my mind is why is all the money flowing to iPhone apps and 2D kids and Facebook games? The answer, according to those who spend the most time following these fields, has everything to do with how easy they are to use.

"The social networks have opened up some really rewarding social experiences to a lot of new people and sparked a new acceptance of game dynamics," said community and social media consultant Ron Meiners. "[Virtual] world designers are way behind the social-network sites in providing easy, connective, fun technologies."

The problem with environments like Second Life, which is still in operation and still boasts significant numbers of users (though those numbers pale in comparison to what's seen on the most popular kids' worlds or Facebook games), is that while they're extremely interesting to the people who put the time in to learn how to navigate them, they are very hard to use, and don't provide the kind of instant-on experience necessary to attract the mainstream.

A huge amount of work
Even some of the biggest innovators in the 3D virtual world space agree with Meiners' take.

"Using the Internet in a real-time, low-latency communicative way where it brings people together socially hasn't been broadly explored, and now it's beginning to be explored," said Second Life publisher Linden Lab founder and chairman Philip Rosedale, "whether it's Twitter or a 2D Flash game, so those systems generally offer people something, and they're relatively easy to build."

Indeed, the complexities of building immersive, 3D environments is likely one of the major reasons why no one has yet come out with a virtual world that raises the bar beyond where Second Life took it, even after all these years.

"The deeper, fully immersive virtual worlds, as Second Life has shown, it's just a huge amount of work," said Rosedale, who is no longer involved day to day at Linden Lab.

And the problem for people like me, who are eager to see that bar get raised, is that investors want to see a quick return on investment and don't necessarily see that 3D virtual worlds are going to provide that payoff.

"If you're not a believer, long-term, in the ideas of virtual reality, as I am," Rosedale continued, "then as an entrepreneur, you're probably going to spend your development money elsewhere."

Sherman agreed.

The cost of building 3D worlds and "the return on investment is simply not there," Sherman said. "It's cheaper to build a Flash game or cheaper to build an iPhone app...If you have an existing audience that you can tap into and know you can pour a lot of eyeballs [into] quickly, then it makes sense to build a [low-fi] virtual world" like Webkinz.

And low-fi experiences are definitely where the money is going. While the old-style 3D virtual worlds touted complex economies and substantial marketplaces of virtual goods like castles, sophisticated vehicles, technologically advanced digital toys, and more, they have been left in the dust by companies that are building huge businesses around much simpler kinds of goods.

In 2009, reported Sherman's Engage Digital Media, investors poured $1.38 billion into 87 companies working on one form or another of virtual goods. Looking through the roster of the firms that got that money, one does not see much in the way of 3D innovation, though Linden Lab was one of the recipients of that capital.

"If you're an entertainment company or media company, you may be exploring 3D virtual worlds," Sherman said, "but it's just [a small] part of your bag of tricks. You've got iPhone games, Flash games, and social games. You go where your users want to go, or where they're already at."

The rub
The rub of it, for folks like me, is that kids and tweens don't need 3D environments to get their social needs met. Rather, they need a platform that makes it simple and easy to get together with their friends, play simple games, and have fun. And the same seems to be true of the mainstream adult audience.

A game like FarmVille "does a lot of fun things," said Meiners. "It enables people to have a sense of accomplishment, satisfaction, fun, and to share that with others...the experience, but also gifts and such. And it's all very easy to tap in to. It doesn't demand much.

Still, Meiners thinks that the game is not over for the 3D virtual world. In his capacity as a well-known consultant, he said he's constantly being approached by people building one new kind of environment or another, and some of those entrepreneurs have set their sights on the terrain occupied by Second Life.

"Second Life was really painful to use and hard to navigate, and very cumbersome as a social platform," Meiners said. "But people could be wildly creative, and the extent to which it inspired people was really impressive. It's a powerful experience, and I think the potential for people, businesses, and other groups to create meaningful virtual experiences will keep motivating people to try again. Social networks are fine for a lightweight experience, but the virtue of a [3D] virtual world is that they can be much more immersive, and that's...compelling."

Meiners also thinks that the popularity of social games, either for adults or kids, is grooming new audiences for future immersive virtual worlds.

"I know people are graduating to more sophistication in their social games," he said. "I think some of it, at least, will lead to virtual world experiences."

Of course, there are millions of people who would say that an online game like World of Warcraft has kept the 3D virtual world in the mainstream. But WoW, as popular as it is, never offered the open-ended kind of experience that a Second Life or There did. And while there is plenty of energy being put into new kinds of alternate-reality games, interactive narratives, and other so-called "transmedia" productions, none so far, at least, offer what was available as early as 2003.

As Sherman put it, Second Life is [pretty much] the last man standing when it comes to full 3D robust virtual worlds.

And even Meiners, who said he's privy to some efforts that he thinks will eventually raise the 3D virtual world bar--particularly when it comes to technology that will make it easier to run the environments seamlessly in a browser and which could have advanced social tools--admitted that nothing is on the immediate horizon.

For many people, that's no big deal. Millions of people are happily farming away in Facebook games or having a great time tapping away on iPhone games. And a whole lot of money is being made in the process.

But for curmudgeons like me, I still say enough is enough. Let's see some real innovation.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

FarmVille Dog is on the way soon!

In a recent FarmVille podcast, Zynga commented that the much anticipated FarmVille Dog would be "coming soon". Seasoned farmers know that "coming soon" can mean weeks or months in FarmVille terms. However, in the latest FarmVille podcast, they dropped a few more details about Dogs and said specifically that Puppies would be coming in a matter of weeks and that it would be a special interactive animal in which you will be able to pick out, name and train as it grows.

So here's more good news for all the FarmVille Freak dog lovers.

There is actually a placeholder icon for the FarmVille Dog in the Zynga game. No picture yet except for the one that appears above the forum.

Will it be the same dog we've seen sneak peeks at in the Official FarmVille Forum banner? Or can we expect a better and new dog? I hope that Zynga will eventually consider adding different breeds of dogs! The possibilities could be endless.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Zynga: No, we're not charging for Farmville

Social games behemoth Zynga denied Monday a rumor that FarmVille, its wildly popular Facebook-based game, would be switching from a free to a subscription-based model at the end of March.

A fan site called FarmVilleFreak.com--yes, that's how popular this game is--re-posted an alleged e-mail received by a reader that announced FarmVille would be moving out of beta and into an expanded version on March 31. It would cost $5.99 per month and would feature new levels and achievements.

That would, of course, make the first day of the allegedly non-free FarmVille to be April Fool's Day. And a Zynga representative, in an e-mail to CNET, says the rumor is not true.

Farmville, with over 75 million monthly users, is already making a lot of money for Zynga. But, according to blogs like the AOL-owned Games.com, it's not yet sufficient for the company to consider going public. Currently, the game makes its money by charging users for virtual goods that help them get ahead, for which they can fork over cash or complete third-party offers and surveys.

The companies fueling those offers came under some serious scrutiny last year over the revelation that there were hidden fees attached to many of them. Some wondered, in the wake of the media frenzy, whether Zynga would have to look elsewhere for revenues--thus far, it hasn't made any indications that it will. But a recent survey estimated that only about a third of avid social-game players actually pay real-world money for virtual goods, which puts the viability of a subscription model into question.

Several months ago, Zynga--arguably the most profitable company to make a name for itself on Facebook's developer platform, as well as a major buyer of Facebook ads--raised a $180 million round of funding led by Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies, which also has a sizeable stake in Facebook. The round was largely interpreted as a way for longtime Zynga employees to achieve some liquidity without actually going public, indicating that its rumored IPO might be further down the road than some expected.

FarmVille puppies coming soon, plus an easier way to find fuel

The FarmVille podcast this week revealed that puppies will finally be making their way to the game. Puppies won't be like the other animals that mostly stand around and wait to be harvested. Instead, these will be more like pets, and virtual farmers will be able to name them, watch them grow up and teach them tricks.

We've been hearing related rumors for months now, so it's good to hear that FarmVille's finally letting the dogs out. It also makes sense that FarmVille would include man's best friend because the company who makes this game -- Zynga -- was named after the CEO's dog. There's a fun factoid you can use to impress your friends and family, no?

Other upcoming items include the ability to find fuel on your friends' farms, and more opportunities to share fuel with friends. Dunno about you, but we've almost exhausted that huge supply of fuel we scored from our Christmas Tree gifts and were starting to panic. More fuel can't come soon enough.

Other things of note: FarmVille Game Cards arrive in Target, Best Buy, Wal-mart, 7-Eleven and Gamestop on February 22, Limited Yellowstone- and West Coast-inspired items will arrive in the store this week and limited edition Lunar New Year Crops are available (bamboo and lotus, available at level 10 and 30 respectively).

If you want to check out the rest of the podcast, play the video above or head to the official Zynga forums for the full podcast transcript.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

FarmVille wins 'Social Networking Game of the Year' award

As FarmVille on Facebook nears 80 million monthly players -- and continues to attract more players -- it looks like the farming game won't go to seed anytime soon. That was further punctuated when the game won 'Social Networking Game of the Year" at the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards in Vegas last night.

Other nominees for this category included Bejeweled Blitz from PopCap, Farm Town from Codebell and Playfish's Restaurant City. Even though FarmVille was a 'no duh' choice for this award, we're happy to see that all of these social games were represented (in their own category, no less) at this influential industry event.

Casual Game of the Year went to Flower for PlayStation 3, a surreal game where you control the wind as it blows flower petal over different environments, which change appearance as you interact with them. Flower edged out PopCap's addictive Plants vs. Zombie, a surprise choice considering how many gamers -- both 'core' and casual -- flocked to the tower defense-style game on PC, Mac and, recently, iPhone as well.

Sony action/adventure game Uncharted 2 for PlayStation 3 swept the AIAS awards, taking home the big prize as Game of the Year, as well as 'Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction' and 'Adventure Game of the Year' 'Outstanding Achievement in Animation,' among others. Looks like things are heating up for PlayStation 3 after all.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Farmville Valentine Boxes: How They Work and What You Get

Farmville Valentine boxes were added to the hit Facebook application early this morning, proving once again that game maker Zynga loves to celebrate! So how can you get your own Farmville Valentine box, what can you collect and how does the whole thing work? Read on for the details.

Farmville Valentine Box: What is it?

When you log into your Farmville farm, a pop-up box will alert you to the introduction of Farmville Valentine boxes. The note will direct you to check your gift box. When you do, you'll find a Farmville Valentine mailbox. To add it to your farm, click the Use button, and place it as you would any other kind of gift.

How do Farmville Valentine boxes work?

The aim of the Farmville Valentine box is to collect a many gifts as you can from your neighbors. There are five free gifts available from the gifting menu, including a red heart box wrapped with a golden ribbon, a vase of purple flowers, a light blue teddy bear, a set of three letters, and a round blue present. Users can request Farmville Valentines from friends. To to so, mouse over your Valentine box and select the 'Look Inside' option. Then, click the 'Ask for Love' button in the upper left hand corner of the dialog box, and select the neighbors from whom you'd like to request Valentines.

When you answer a friend's Farmville Valentine request, you'll be rewarded, too. Here's a list of the gifts available to send and each gift's corresponding reward:

Pink Polka Dot Box: 1/5 Fuel Refill
Purple Flowers: Mystery Gift
Heart Box: 20 XP
Flat Pink Box: 1,000 Coins
Pink Bear: Pink Cow

Note that the pink cow is the same pink cow that's been available for months, and NOT the new white with pink spots version that appears on the screen when your game is loading.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Farmville About To Cruise Past 80 Million Users

The massively popular Facebook game, Farmville, is now even more popular. Farmville is about to surpass 80 million monthly active users, up from 70 million active monthly users in December 2009 and 60 million active monthly users in October 2009. If you look at these stats, it seems that the game is gaining 10 million users every other month.

AllFacebook’s Application Statistics show that Farmville now has around 31 million daily active users, up from around 27 million daily active users on Feb 2, 2009. Similarly the weekly active users now stand at 54 million up from 49 million on Feb 2, 2009. These stats are even more astounding and shows that Farmville has gained 4 million daily active users in less than 2 weeks – around 35% growth.

The passion of Farmville users is also evident from other events. When Zynga launched a special fund raising campaign for Earth Quake relief in Haiti, Farmville gamers donated more than $1 million by buying virtual gifts. On the occasion of Valentine’s Day Farmville users sent more than 220 million Valentine’s Day virtual gifts in 18 hours, such is the engagement of users on Farmville.

One of the main reasons for such high active usage stats, is the many ways in which Zynga engages with its application users. Earlier this year, Zynga launched some special Super Pumpkins, that were only available to users who were a fan of Farmville’s fanpage on Facebook. This resulted in Farmville’s fanpage blasting past 20 million fans, up from 10 million in January.

Farmville’s growth has also been a case of “a rising tide raising all boats”. Facebook now has 400 million registered users, up from 350 million users back in Dec, 2009. While Facebook gained 50 million users in the past two months, Farmville managed to acquire 10 million users – a growth of around 14% for both Facebook and Farmville.

Another interesting point that becomes evident from these stats is that out of the 200 million users who log in to Facebook every day, 15 percent are playing FarmVille.

'FarmVille' creator opens India office

Zynga, the largest social game provider, announced the opening of its office in Bangalore - the first office outside the United States. The India operation will focus on game development and large-scale infrastructure to support the delivery of Zynga games.

Online gaming in India is rapidly expanding, and Zynga India is aiming to promote its games like FarmVille, Mafia Wars, Café World, and FishVille among Indian players.

In India, 41 per cent of active Internet users played online games in 2008, up 89 per cent from the previous year, according to the Internet & Mobile Association of India. With more than 81 million Internet users, India is projected to become the third largest online market behind China and the US by 2013.

“India offers some of the world’s most sophisticated and rich technical talent bases and we are thrilled to have a local presence,” said Zynga CEO Mark Pincus.

Zynga India will add to its current game studios in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Baltimore. The company will recruit computer scientists and engineers who are experienced in building scalable infrastructure to handle more than 70 million daily active users.

“We are excited to be launching the first international facility for Zynga and will be focused on hiring about 100 of the best and brightest over the next year,” said Shan Kadavil, Country Manager, Zynga India.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Zynga offering a pricy V-Day ring for FarmVille crops



Edible flowers and plush teddy bears aren't the typical add-on fair for Zynga Game Network's FarmVille, but that doesn't mean the studio isn't offering something special for those who wish to buy their hopelessly addicted loved ones a Valentine's Day gift.

Enter the "Unwither Ring," a 40-something dollar gift that you can give whomever until February 14th. The virtual item is a bit of a game breaker -- the person using it will never have to worry about their crops withering if they choose to step away from the game for a few hours. We're of the mind that this is a great gift. After all, there is a world outside the office. But others, those without the ring namely, are apparently thinking otherwise. What's your take?

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Zynga FarmVille Invasion: Goodbye Multiple Chicken Coops!

Since Tuesday night Zynga started removing multiple Chicken Coops in FarmVille. For those farmers in violation of the "One Chicken Coop" rule, you can expect your multiple coops to be deleted and your excess Chickens sent to your Gift Box. It does not matter how you obtained the multiple Chicken Coops whether by in game glitch or if you purposely used tricks to gain extra coops.



Some farmers were surprised to see their Gift Box filled with some 100 plus Chickens and their extra Chicken Coops missing. Although your Gift Box limit is only 30, it will accommodate any excess Chickens.

The removal is without notice and may happen at anytime. If Zynga has invaded your farm while you were away, you will receive this pop-up notice upon visiting your farm.

Monday, February 8, 2010

FarmVille new Valentine's Decorations Set

In a very delayed update, FarmVille has added lots of new Valentine's themed decorations to help get your farm in love mode.

These special limited edition decorations can be purchased in the FarmVille market for the next 7 days. They require either farm cash or coins to purchase. Those items purchasable with farm cash only, are also sendable items that may be purchased and then sent as gifts to your FarmVille neighbors.

All of the new Valentines decorations except two require farm cash.

Valentine's Decorations (farm cash only)
  • Swan Fountain – 24 FV$
  • Cupid Gnome – 18 FV$
  • Love Balloon – 18 FV$
  • Cupig – 15 FV$
  • I Love You I – 2FV$
  • I Love You II – 2FV$
  • XOXO – 2FV$
  • 5 Valentines (works with the Valentines Box) – 5FV$
Valentines Decoration (coins)
  • Love Arch – 2,200 coins
  • Valentine's Box – 1 coin, if needed for replacement due to deletion error. You may only own ONE.
Which Valentines decoration is your favorite?

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

FarmVille Stable: Two ways to get what you need


FarmVille stables arrived today, and instead of a fully formed building, players quickly discovered that they'd have to do a little more work before moving in their horses. That work consists of acquiring 50 items used to complete the building.

Materials required to complete the stable are the following:

10 boards
10 nails
10 bricks
10 bridles
10 horse shoes

These materials can be acquired in two ways:

1. Convince friends to send them to you as gifts


Staring today, everyone will have two of the materials in the "Free Gifts" tab of the game. Each player will have a different pair of items -- it's completely random -- which they can send to their friends. Items will change every week. The goal is to convince all of your friends to gift the items required, and the best way to do that is by sending gifts to them as well.

Once you receive the items as a gift, accept it and it will appear in your gift box. Open the gift box and click the Use button on the item and the item will be stored in the stable.


2. Buy materials from the FarmVille Market

If you don't want to wait for friends to send all of the right items, there's also an option to purchase them in the Market for FarmVille cash. Each item costs 1 FV$ each, so getting everything you need will cost 50 FV$, which is not exactly cheap. Once you buy the items, they will automatically be stored in the stable.

Once the stable is complete, you'll be rewarded with a gray horse. You can also move up to 20 horses into the stable and harvest every 24 hours.