FarmVille New England Animal: Puffin

A new limited edition New England themed Puffin is now available in the FarmVille Market.

The Puffin can be purchased with farm cash in the FarmVille Market during the next 11 days only.
farmville puffin
FarmVille New England LE Animal: (Released on July 29, 2010)

    farmville puffinPuffin – 14 FV$

    "Puffins are stocky, short-winged and short-tailed birds, with black upper parts and white or brownish-grey underparts. The head has a black cap, the face is mainly white, and the feet are orange-red. The bill appears large and colorful during the breeding season. The colorful outer part of the bill is shed after the breeding season, revealing a smaller and duller true bill beneath.Although the puffins are vocal at their breeding colonies, they are silent at sea." (Source: Wikipedia)

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille New England Decorations: Coastal Beach, Nelly Moser & Trawler Gnome

Continuing with the limited edition New England theme, FarmVille released three new decorations including a Coastal Beach, Nelly Moser tree, and a Trawler Gnome. A trawler Gnome, also known as Fisherman Gnome is representative of the importance of the Seafood industry for New England.

These limited edition decorations can be purchased in the FarmVille Market during the next 11 days only and afterwards will retire.
farmville trawler gnome     farmville nelly moser     farmville coastal beach
FarmVille New England LE Decorations (Released July 29, 2010):

    Coastal Beach – 16 FV$
    Nelly Moser (tree)* – 50,000 Coins
    Trawler Gnome – 18 FV$


*This is a decorative tree only, meaning it will not yield coins and is not harvestable.

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille rolls out new grab bag, plus more suggestive pop-ups

FarmVille added a few tweaks to the game today, including more suggestion pop-ups. Lately, you may have noticed pop-ups reminding you to add a Facebook friend as a neighbor. Now there will be others that will, for instance, let you know if a neighbor started a co-op job and needs your help or something else along those lines.

farmville grab bags

OK, before you say "Uh, more pop-ups! Lame!" -- one you click on the pop-ups, you'll be able to send a grab bag to your neighbor. Takes away some of the sting of having to deal with more pop-ups -- right? At least a little? So far, items pulled from the grab bag include experience points (XP) and extra coins.

farmville grab bag

Did you get a special Grab Bag yet? What did you find inside?

FarmVille Wild West Animals: Wild Turkey & Buckskin Horse

FarmVille released two additional Limited Edition Wild West themed animals including a Wild Turkey and a Buckskin Horse.
You may recognize these animals as previously unreleased items. Both the Turkey and the Buckskin Horse can be purchased in the FarmVille Market during the next 10 days only.

FarmVille LE Wild West Animals (Released September 2, 2010):

* Wild Turkey – 16 FV$
* Buckskin Horse – 26 FV$

   

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille Golden Horse Statue available through Mafia Wars Italy

Tonight, Zynga has announced that the cross-promotion between Mafia Wars and FrontierVille, advertising Mafia Wars Italy was actually just the first of a much larger celebration, which has now found a place on the farms of FarmVille as well.

A similar cross-promotion sees FarmVille players being given the opportunity to earn a Roman Golden Horse statue by playing Mafia Wars. Be on the lookout for a small pop-up at the bottom of the gameplay area which introduces the promotion, and be sure to head to Mafia Wars via the link provided therein to ensure that the promotion has been activated on your account.

After that, all you'll need to do is play Mafia Wars long enough to level up three times, to the minimum level of level 8. This is one of those rare occasions when being newer to a game might actually work in your favor, as Mafia Wars levels become harder to earn (or at least more time consuming) the higher level you are.

Once you've reached at least level 8 and leveled up three times, you'll be taken back to FarmVille where your free Roman Golden Horse statue will be waiting for you.

FarmVille Holiday Tree: Sneezy Sheep, Kodiak, more coming next week

Gypsy HorseAs it turns out, the gifts currently in the FarmVille Holiday Tree won't be the only ones come next Thursday. That's right, the folks over at FarmVille Freak are at it again and have discovered seven unreleased items that are expected to be added to the Holiday Tree come Dec. 16. Check out what's to come and how many Gifts each will cost:

    Sneezy Sheep: 75 Gifts
    Winter Tinsel Tree: 100 Gifts
    Frozen Pegasus: 125 Gifts
    Ice House: 150 Gifts
    Kodiak: 200 Gifts
    Arctic Fox: 300 Gifts
    Snow Stallion: 500 Gifts (available after breaking the Meter Limit)


If you were waiting for some better items to be featured in the Holiday Tree, well, here they are. You have a whole week to gather enough Gifts, so get to it if you'd rather have one of these items. Honestly, we'd rather wait for these bad boys. I mean, who wouldn't want a massive house made of ice on their farm? No one, that's who.

Find the rest of our Holiday coverage right here.

What do you think of these unreleased Holiday Tree items?

FarmVille Festive Tree Missions: Everything you need to know

On top of today's release of this year's Holiday Tree in FarmVille, we also see Zynga launching a new series of holiday quests in the game. These quests are brought to us again by Zing the Elf. Now that you've made your farmland look festive for the holidays via the Winter Wonderland Quests, Zing is hoping that you'll take part in these new quests, which deal with your new Holiday Tree, along with the new limited edition crops that have been added to the game in celebration of the winter / holiday season.

Meet us behind the break for a look at these new missions.
The first quest in this set is called "A Festive Tree," and it comes with three goals:

Buy Holiday Tree
Harvest 200 Poinsettias
Add 10 Gifts to your Holiday Tree

As the Holiday Tree is being rolled out to users on a slow rollout, it's possible that you may not have access to completing this portion of the quest just yet. However, if you haven't received an in-game popup letting you know that the tree has arrived on your farm, but you have received wrapped presents from friends, you may be able to "force" the tree into our account, by attempting to "Use" one of these presents from your Gift Box. This should alert you to the fact that you have yet to place your Holiday Tree on your farm, and you'll be allowed to purchase the tree for a single coin. I can personally confirm that this method does work, as it was how I finally earned my tree, but you may need to be a bit lucky to have the "exploit" work for you. Either way, it's worth a shot, no?

The other portion of this quest - the harvesting of Poinsettias - can either be skipped by paying 15 Farm Cash, or you can go through with harvesting 200 of these flowers. Poinsettias are a 1 day crop, meaning that they take a full 24 hours to b available to harvest. They are planted for 45 coins per square, and are then harvested for 126 coins. You'll gain 3 experience points for each Poinsettia seed that you plant, making these 200 worth your while to plant.

After completing the Festive Tree quest, you'll receive 100 XP, 2,500 coins, and a Snow Angel decorative item as a reward. The Snow Angel decoration looks like a pile of snow that has a snow angel indentation in it.

After finishing this quest, you'll move onto the second in the line, which is called Wrapping Presents. This quest also has three steps associated with it:

Harvest 200 Peppermint
Get 6 Sheets of Wrapping Paper
Harvest 3 Gifts from the Winter Workshop

Now that the Holiday Tree has been released, and you now have a place to actually put Christmas presents, the Winter Workshop has been updated to randomly give away gifts when you "collect" from it. These gifts will go into your Gift Box after you "collect" them, and you can then add them to your Holiday Tree just like any other gift.

As for the Peppermint, this is a permanent crop that takes 1 full day to grow. You can plant it for 50 coins and then harvest it for 150 coins per square. You'll gain 1 experience point per seed of Peppermint that you plant. Finally, you can ask for Wrapping Paper from friends in the same way that you asked for Holiday Cookies back in the Winter Wonderland Quest set.

The rewards for this second step are 250 experience points, 5,000 coins, and a Winter Sheep. This Winter Sheep is a plain white sheep that has simply been given a red scarf to protect it from the cold.

Finally, the third quest looks to be the end of this Holiday Tree quest line, but this time, it only requires you to do two tasks to complete:

Add 30 Gifts to your Holiday Tree
Fertilize 25 Plots on your neighbors farm

You'll be able to finish the second step quite easily, as you can fertilize five plots on five different neighbors' land and have this step done in a jiffy. If you have a limited number of neighbors, or don't have many neighbors with land that will accept fertilization, it is presumable that you could work on the same friends' farm over multiple days to reach the same end, but that is unconfirmed as of this time.

Also, by the time you've unlocked this mission (unless you were already growing Poinsettias at the time of their launch), you will have likely already collected close to 30 gifts, or perhaps more, from your friends. All told, this seems like the easiest quest out of the three to complete, but it comes with some great rewards if you've made it this far. You'll earn 500 experience points, 7,500 coins, and a Frozen Pegasus statue for completing it.

As more images from this quest line become available, we'll be sure to update this space. In the meantime, start planting those Poinsettias so you can finish off this quest set before the holidays arrive in full!

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

We understand that the community has been pretty shaken up by the introduction of quests into FarmVille. With these new quests being available, let us know if you plan on participating in them, or if you'll just go on as usual. Does FarmVille need quests to be entertaining?

New FarmVille Ribbon: Looking Fresh

In an unannounced FarmVille update, Zynga has added a new ribbon to the popular farming game (bringing the current total to 40 ribbons), this one called "Looking Fresh." If the name doesn't give it away, this ribbon has to do with the relatively new ability to change your in-game avatar's clothing.

All you need to do to earn this ribbon is simply change your avatar's clothes. You can do this by clicking on your Avatar and then customizing their outfit from the menu that appears. However, you must do this "once per day" in order for it to count. We would say that this is a bit strict on Zynga's part, especially with the holidays coming up, and people spending more time with friends and family rather than playing on Facebook, but that's apparently the way it is.

As with all other ribbons, you'll be able to earn four different ribbons in this set: Yellow, White, Red and Blue. The Yellow Ribbon is earned after changing your clothes just 3 times, or in three days time. White is earned after a week's worth (7 days) of clothing changes, Red is awarded at 10 changes, and finally, the Blue ribbon is received after changing your avatar's clothing 20 times. Withe every new ribbon that you earn, you'll gain coins and experience points (the better ribbon, the more the reward, of course).

For daily players, the biggest problem with this ribbon will be actually remembering to take a few seconds to change your avatar's clothing.

Note: As of this writing, it doesn't appear as though simply swapping out clothing items in your inventory will do the trick to racking up "clothing changes," as we went through our stock inventory and never saw any progress. It was only after purchasing a 5,000 top from the store that we actually received one mark on our tally. We've contacted Zynga for confirmation, and we'll be sure to let you know if this changes, or if you really will have to purchase 20 pieces of clothing as soon as we hear back.

Will you take the time to change your avatar's clothing this much just to earn an in-game ribbon? What if you didn't have to pay coins to change their clothing?

FarmVille New Year Animal: Disco Ball Sheep

If you're like me, and like anything bright, shiny, or animated in FarmVille, you'll be just as thrilled as I am to know that Zynga has launched an item that fits into all three of those categories. The Disco Ball Sheep is now available in the FarmVille marketplace as part of the limited edition New Year item theme.

What makes this item so great isn't just its shiny "wool" that makes the sheep look like it's a disco ball - it's the fact that you can... wait for it... purchase it for coins! Yes, after releasing animal after animal to the game's store that could only be purchased for Farm Cash, Zynga has mercifully priced this item for coins. Sure, its price tag of 140,000 coins isn't necessarily a bargain, but if you're a player that simply refuses to spend premium / real currency in FarmVille, this will definitely allow you to celebrate the New Year in style.

The Disco Ball Sheep can be harvested from every three days, and you'll receive 28 coins each time you do so. You'll receive 1,400 bonus experience points for purchasing the sheep, which will be available in the game for just 10 days.

FarmVille Disco Ball Tree makes an appearance in the market

For quite some time now, we've been investigating the appearance of the mysterious Disco Ball Tree in FarmVille. We had seed reports of the tree showing up randomly as a Mystery Seedling, even before any other New Years themed trees had been released, and we were then put under the assumption that the Disco Ball Tree is the level 2 tree from the Confetti Tree, which was released at the beginning of the week. But what if someone didn't want to wait for their Confetti Tree to spawn a Disco Ball Tree Mystery Seedling?

Luckily, there is now a solid answer for that, as the Disco Ball Tree has finally been released as a standalone item in the FarmVille marketplace. Unfortunately, if you'd like to add this lovely tree to your land, you'll need to be willing to pay 15 Farm Cash. Once purchased, however, you can harvest the tree every two days, and you'll receive 150 coins for doing so. You'll gain just 15 experience points for purchasing the tree, but as any tree-lover in FarmVille can tell you - you don't purchase the trees for the experience point bonuses.

The Disco Ball Tree will be available in the game's store for the next 15 days, but luckily, will be available as Mystery Seedlings long after if you choose to hand onto your Farm Cash for the time being. One final note - the tree can be mastered, with the first star of mastery being available after 75 harvests, if that's something that will sway your decision in purchasing one.

FarmVille New Years Items: Fireworks I, II, III, & New Year Gnome

As part of tonight's FarmVille update, we've seen the release of four new decorative items in the game. All four of these items fit into the current New Year theme of limited edition items, but unfortunately for those that like to save their Farm Cash, all of these items are premium.

What's more, three of the four items are Fireworks, meaning that they are one-time use items that will disappear from your farm once launched, after showing you a pretty virtual fireworks show in your game. The Fireworks are labeled as Fireworks I, II, and III, and all three cost 3 Farm Cash each. It seems a bit unreasonable for Zynga to charge Farm Cash for a one-time use item, but luckily, there are ways to receive free Fireworks this year, as friends can post them on their wall as they complete stages in the New Years Party Barn event.

The other new item is the New Year Gnome, which will be a big hit with Gnome collectors. He's a cheerful little fella that's ready to party, as he comes equipped with a noise-maker and confetti, and a price tag of 18 Farm Cash. You'll receive 1,800 bonus experience points for purchasing the Gnome, if that makes you more likely to purchase him.

All four of these items will be available in the game's store for the next 10 days, so if you can't play FarmVille on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day proper, you'll be able to throw a post-holiday Fireworks show within your game to keep the party going.

FarmVille: Free Fuel and Double Mastery Events going on now

Two small updates launched in FarmVille this evening, but both will be greatly appreciated by long-time fans. First, the rest of this week (starting with Tuesday) will be called Free Fuel Week, where all users that login to the game consistently will be rewarded with free fuel just for doing so.

This first prize for the first day of Free Fuel week is a single can of fuel. Login tomorrow and you'll likely receive two cans. Login on Thursday and you'll receive three and so on. It's definitely a great prize for those that login consistently anyway, so make sure to do so for the rest of this week to claim your free black gold.

The second update will see you putting your free fuel to good use, as a 48-hour Double Mastery event has been launched in the game. As with all double mastery events, this will allow you to earn up to three points of mastery for every single square of a crop that you harvest, if you combine this automatic double mastery bonus with an activated bushel. You only have 48 hours to make the most of this event however, so make sure to plant as many crops as you can in that time. As for me, I think I have some two and four hour crops that are just screaming to be planted during this time. How about you?

Which of these events do you appreciate more - the free fuel, or the double mastery event?

FarmVille Scam Alert! Avoid English Stars Sheep News Feed posts

The scammers have returned to the farm. According to FarmVille Freak, another illegitimate News Feed post is circulating Facebook. This time, it offers FarmVille players a free English Stars Sheep. This is not an official Zynga offer, so do not click on it, notify whomever supplied the feed and delete the post from your own News Feed. That is, if you couldn't tell already from the poor punctuation and pixelated image. Not to mention, this expansion pack hasn't even been released yet.

If you unfortunately did click on the offer and the subsequent pop-up page, which itself mentions that this "English Stars Sheep" has not been officially released yet, scan your computer for malware and change your passwords immediately. Also, keep in mind that accounts affected by scammers can be suspended by Zynga. So, be careful of the offers you accept and only accept those officially from Zynga.

[Image Credit: FarmVille Freak]

Have you seen this scam floating around the News Feeds? How do you think Zynga should handle the issue?

FarmVille English Countryside: Exclusive decorations in the store

While you may have found yourself all caught up in the many quests and buildings to construct on your second farm in the FarmVille English Countryside, don't lose sight of the fact that there are a set of new and exclusive decorative items available to purchase for your new land in the game's store.

Like the Country Fence that was standing next to your Horse Stable? You can purchase that and two other items that are exclusive to the English Countryside expansion by heading to the Decorations tab of the store and clicking on "Them" under the Sort By drop down menu.

The Country Fence mentioned above costs 300 coins per piece, while a Dilapidated Fence is a lighter shade of brown (or even a dark tan color) that also costs 300 coins per section, but is a bit broken (on purpose of course). Finally, you can purchase a low Country Hedge to create all manner of mazes or just more naturally divided areas on your farm for 600 coins per piece.

There is no time limit associated with these items, so we expect them to be available permanently on your new farm.

Check out the rest of our English Countryside coverage right here.

Will you fill your second farm with these exclusive fence types?

Zynga raises $2.2 million for Japan relief effort (with a li'l help from Ashton and Britney)

Zynga Japan Relief
Twitter and social gaming yet again prove their worth (so, you can stop defending them now) as Zynga told the Hollywood Reporter that it has $2.2 million for the Japan earthquake relief effort. Within just over 24 hours of the disaster, the company launched a donation campaign with Save the Children that spanned several of its games including FarmVille, FroniterVille and more. With that alone the company raised over $1 million in matched donations through purchased in-game items, but it wasn't until Zynga enlisted the massive Twitter followings of stars like Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears that donations soared. Many of the in-game promotions have ended, but if you've yet to donate the link tweeted by Nicki Minaj and other miscellaneous superstars still seems to be in working condition. So, what are you waiting for?

[Image Credit: CityVille Games]

Have you donated to the Japan relief effort yet through Zynga? What do you think of Zynga's approach to helping Japan?

Lunchtime Poll: How is the FarmVille English Countryside music?

The English Countryside, Zynga's first ever expansion to any of its games much less FarmVille, has been out for a few days now. As many of you likely agree, music in a videogame--even a Facebook game--can make it or break it. As with all of its games, Zynga composed a new theme song that plays on loop as you farm in England. So, we here at the office played a little game recently we call "How Long Until You Mute It." (We've already pitched it to GSN, so don't even try it.) Let's just say the winner lasted about 10 minutes, which is good for a 30-second track that endlessly loops. But we want to know what you think.

Do you like the English Countryside music?
I love it! It sounds so classically regalIt's good, but I turned it off after a few loops.I don't listen to game music as it is, so I wouldn't know.It's awful. Who could listen to that for even five minutes?
VoteView ResultsShare ThisPolldaddy.com

Have a unique response?

FarmVille LE English Countryside Trees: European Beech & Juniper Trees

In tonight's FarmVille update, we see the release of two new trees in the current English Countryside limited edition item theme. These two trees are available to place on either your Home Farm or on your second farm in the English Countryside, but remember - if you'd like to have one of these trees on both of your farms, you'll need to purchase two of them.

The two trees are the European Beech Tree and the Juniper Tree, and, as you might have guessed, they both go for Farm Cash: 10 and 5 Farm Cash each, respectively. Also, if you'd like to refrain from purchasing the European Beech Tree, you can always just purchase the Juniper Tree and then hope to receive a European Beech tree from a Mystery Seedling when placing it in the Orchard.

Both of these trees are masterable, with the first star of mastery coming after 75 harvests of each tree, and they'll both be available to purchase in the store for the next two weeks.

Which of these two trees do you like more? Are you glad to see Zynga releasing more realistic trees to the game, or do you miss the more outlandish trees of updates past?

FarmVille LE English Countryside Animals: Cleveland Bay Horse & Sebright Chicken

Two new animals are now available to purchase in FarmVille this evening, with both of these animals coming in the English Countryside limited edition item theme. We've brought you a sneak peek of both of these animals in the past, and they come in the form of the Cleveland Bay Horse and the Sebright Chicken.

The Cleveland Bay Horse is the more expensive of the two animals (while neither one are cheap), being available for 26 Farm Cash. The Sebright Chicken, meanwhile, costs 20 Farm Cash. That's a pretty hefty price for a single chicken, but if you're a collector, you'll want to make sure to take a look at this pretty white option.

Remember, if you purchase the Cleveland Bay Horse, you'll have a chance to breed the horse in the Horse Stable to produce a Cleveland Bay Foal, which can then be shared with friends. To find a foal yourself, just watch out for news posts from your friends that have purchased the horse and successfully bred one themselves.

Both of these animals can be placed on either of your farms, and they'll be available in the game's store for the next two weeks.

Which of these animals do you like better? Are you a horse or chicken collector in FarmVille? How many animals do you have in your collections?

FarmVille LE English Countryside Buildings: English B&B & Riding School

It's interesting. After Zynga announced that they wouldn't be releasing as many items in FarmVille in the future, so that they could maintain the stability of the new English Countryside expansion, we haven't seen a slow down in new item releases - in fact, we've seen an increase! Not that we're complaining...

Tonight is no different, as two new buildings have been added to the limited edition English Countryside item theme in the form of the English B&B (B&B meaning Bed & Breakfast) and the Riding School. The Riding School goes along with the equestrian / sports items we gave you a sneak peek of in the past, and horse-lovers everywhere will want to add this large structure to their farms, even if it does cost 25 Farm Cash to do so. Unfortunately, this also happens to be the cheaper of the two buildings, as the English B&B costs 30 Farm Cash.

Both of these buildings come with fairly large footprints on your land, but the English B&B specifically is one of the largest buildings we've seen released to date. Keep that in mind when you head into the store to purchase one, as you might have to reorganize some items on your farm before making the splurge. No matter which item you choose to purchase, these two buildings are available for purchase on both the Home Farm and your second farm, but only for the next two weeks.

Which of these two buildings will you add to your farms? Will you purchase both items for the English Countryside farm, or for your Home Farm?

FarmVille LE English Countryside Decorations: Red Phone Booth, Cricket Gnome & More

As part of tonight's FarmVille update, we've seen the release of five new decorative items in the current English Countryside limited edition item theme. All five of these items are available to purchase for either your Home Farm or your second farm in the English Countryside, but remember, if you'd like to have one of these items on each of your farms, you'll need to buy them twice.

Interestingly, only one of these five items is priced for Farm Cash - that being the Cricket Gnome. It's not unusual to see Gnomes priced for Farm Cash (in fact, it would be unusual if one were available for coins), so you can expect to add the Cricket Gnome to your collection for 15 Farm Cash. You'll gain 1500 experience points for purchasing this cute little fella, which should make a nice addition to your collection, no matter which farm you place him on.

Meet us behind the break for a look at the other four decorations released this evening.
For the other four decorations, you'll need to be willing to spend anywhere from 2,000 to 150,000 coins to add these items to your farm. Starting with the least expensive item, we have the fourth installment in the "Spring Flowerbed" series - the Spring Flowerbed IV item which is available for 2,000 coins. A Jumping Fence (like that found in Equestrian activities) costs 8,000 coins each, while a Red Phone Booth goes for 50,000 coins. Finally, the most expensive of the four is the Cricket Garden, at the aforementioned 150,000 coin price tag.

It's worth noting that while the Cricket Garden is a fairly pricey item, it isn't very large, taking up an area no larger than a single plot of land. Keep that in mind when you go to shell out that many coins - it's not as visually impressive of an item as you might expect, as you can see from the store's preview image below.

Regardless of the item(s) you choose to purchase, you'll need to do so within the next two weeks, before they expire from the store.

Which of these decorations are you most excited about adding to your farm?