FrontierVille Hay Fever seizes the wild west with poopcarts and more

frontierville hay fever items
FrontierVille has unloaded a batch of new farm related tech with their new Hay Fever item update. In addition to the infamous Double Rainbow written about earlier, thirteen awesome items (some more awesome than others) were released.

These decorations, while lacking in function, certainly deliver in the form department. The three different colored poopcarts are quite exquisite. Not to mention, I know how badly some readers have desperately wanted their very own sleeping bear on a cart decoration for months! And rightly so I might add.

Continue reading to see all the new goods including the graceful yet poignant Bear Cart and Poopcarts.

So maybe you're looking to make your FrontierVille Facebook frontier town more realistic. Farms in real life are covered with manure (poop) of all shapes and sizes. Personally, I don't think three colors of poop is quite enough to portray the nuances of realistic manure. Another staple of every farm is hay. The Hay Fever items deliver in this department as well with the Hay Cart, which allows you to boast sneakily to all your friends your farm is a healthy and thriving one. Or if you're trying to depict the struggle of life in the west, the Empty Hay Cart may be more appropriate (for best results, use shanty decor on your buildings).

Also available are the elegant Buggys and the farming equipment. Needless to say there is something for everyone in the Hay Fever update.
frontierville hay fever items
Blonde Buggy - 20 Wood, 9,500 Coins, 100 XP
Brown Buggy - 20 Wood, 9,500 Coins, 100 XP
Mower - 25 Horseshoes, 150 XP
Farm Rake - 5 Wood, 1,900 Coins, 20 XP
Bear Cart - 39 Horseshoes, 234 XP
frontierville hay fever items
Seed Drill - 8 Wood, 3,200 Coins, 32 XP
Hay Cart - 16 Horseshoes, 96 XP
Empty Hay Cart - 16 Wood, 15,000 Coins, 150 XP
Brown Poopcart - 25 Horseshoes, 150 XP
frontierville hay fever items
Green Poopcart - 25 Horseshoes, 150 XP
Yellow Poopcart - 25 Horseshoes, 150 XP
Pink Buggy - 55 Horseshoes, 330 XP
Black Buggy - 55 Horseshoes, 330 XP

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For 'Zynga to become the Google of games,' it will take more than good timing

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus
Earlier this summer, The New York Times spoke with Zynga CEO Mark Pincus about his rise to social gaming domination and came to the conclusion that the Facebook gaming mogul, who is expected to take in as much as $500 million this year alone, could "become the Google of games." And they just might be right, but it's going to take Pincus to execute a lot more creative energy and finesse than those before him.

Pincus said to the New York Times that his chance to capitalize on social gaming was "like search before Google came along."

The creator of FarmVille is actually following Google's path pretty closely, coming into the social games market in the middle of its Wild West phase and taking a stranglehold of the market much like how Google blazed the trail for search back in the late 1990s. However, there is one key difference in Zynga's empire than those of the internet titans like Google, eBay, Yahoo, Amazon and Facebook: Zynga depends more heavily on those before it than any successful internet start-up has to date.

Find more on how similar Zynga's path to greatness is to Google's and how it is to stay on top after the break.

Zynga
While Pincus was right in thinking in 2007, "There has to be more than "a garage sale, a bookstore, a search engine and a portal," where would social gaming be without Facebook, Google or even Yahoo? All three of these companies have contributed such a great deal to Zynga's success to the point now that the company owes much of its reign over social games to them. Which is exactly why Pincus has made good friends with all three to stay in the game.

It's been rumored that Google has invested a considerable amount of cash in Zynga, while in return the company is helping them along in developing its imminent games initiative fittingly-named Google Games. Recently Zynga and Facebook came to end a squabble--one that could have easily ended in Zynga saying goodbye to its primary platform--that resulted in the gaming giant cosigning to the social network's new, regularized currency, Facebook Credits, for five years with Facebook seeing a portion of the profits. Yahoo just signed a deal with Zynga to host its lot of social games as well, which will surely boost the company's monthly user base by a considerable margin.

Much like Google, Zynga has also drawn the ire of the public recently with the "ScamVille" incident covered by TechCrunch and the San Francisco Chronicle revealing some of Pincus' harsher words to his former employees. While Pincus is experiencing the usual highs and lows of an uber-successful internet start up, he will soon--if he hasn't already--reach the point where the only room for growth is innovation. Google could have never been the top search engine in the world if it didn't tweak its game with Google Apps, a movement that has earned the company some of the most used web applications around like Google Mail, Blogger, Picasa and Google Docs.

It was these applications that put the Google name on nearly everything users touched daily, something Zynga should consider as it reaches that point in its life where traffic is dipping due to its platforms and users catching on. With the recent changes to Facebook, Pincus will have to do more than just expand to another platform to remain relevant.

FarmVilleLet's face it: Zynga's recent loss of 21 million players, wasn't solely due to Facebook cutting the amount of stories users posted to their feeds from social gaming. Part of the decline was because, quite frankly, at least some of Zynga's players realized that the company's current design philosophy has become a bit stale. FrontierVille has innovated on some levels of action-oriented gameplay, but we've yet to see an honest-to-goodness new design philosophy behind one of the company's games since its rise to power.

Every major company needs to bring about something new at some point to stick in the minds of the public (just look at Apple's product line). Look at Facebook, for example. There is no way the social network could ever become as massive as it is today without first opening its gates to more than just college students, then structuring itself to support games and apps and finally invading opening its arms to the internet completely with the Open Graph-- you can thank the Open Graph for the "Like" button underneath the headline of this very article.

Does Zynga have the potential to become the "Google of games?" Well, it's most definitely in that position, but it is up to Pincus to decide whether he wants Zynga to be more than just FarmVille and Mafia Wars and truly move the industry forward. Could Zynga's newest game coming this year be their answer?

FrontierVille Mystery Crates return with more illusive animals to collect

Got bored of your pink alpaca already? You're in luck as Zynga has introduced new Mystery Crates to FrontierVille containing brand new and mysterious animals in equally goofy colors. Until October 19, you can pay 30 Horseshoes, or around $3 USD, for a chance at one of these Mystery Animals:

    A white, brown or pink Deer (Harvest in 6 hours)
    A white, lilac or blue Quail (Harvest in 3 hours)
    A gray, red or white Squirrel (Harvest in 2 hours)


Three bills seems like a lot for a chance at a pink Deer (come on, it's as close FrontierVille will ever get to unicorns), but if you just want the animal in its normal variety for your collection right this instant, Zynga added the even more expensive option to buy a white Quail, a brown Deer or gray Squirrel outright for 65 Horseshoes (about $7 USD). For the same price, I'd rather take my chances at two different Mystery Animals to finish that Mystery Animals Collection I missed out on before that much quicker.

FrontierVille and Water.org: Donate $5 and wrangle a Water Bison

Did you know that just $25 can bring one person on the planet clean water for a lifetime? Now, multiply that (roughly) by the 30.5 million FrontierVille players and we could provide fresh, clean water to millions. Zynga is teaming up with Water.org, an international non-profit founded by Matt Damon and Gary White, this Christmas to remind us spoiled Americans that a horribly large portion of the world's population doesn't have the same access to amenities we consider commonplace.

And to feel a little less like spoiled brats, you can donate $5 in the form of 50 Facebook Credits to Water.org to introduce an adorable, doe-eyed Water Bison to your stable on the homestead. And take comfort in knowing that 100 percent of all proceeds from this charity event will go directly to Water.org. That is, the nearly 1 billion people that lack what should be a birthright: clean water. And besides, how can you resist those big ole eyes and pink nose?

FrontierVille toys finally available as a free gift

Toys as Gifts
Toys -- we need lots of 'em to fill up that new Toy Factory in FrontierVille. The only way we've been able to get said toys is by begging friends to send them to us via Facebook Wall post, even though we were told that they would also be available to send/ receive as free gifts to/from neighbors.

Just when we were starting to think 'WTF?,' the toys finally make an appearance in Free Gifts area of the game. So now we can start gifting each other with wild abandon -- not to mention ask our friends for Toys via the Toy Factory menu. So that means double the supply of toys coming in. In other words, you'll be well above Scrooge status in no time (and that much closer to wrangling in your own Winter Mare, which you can get in exchange for 500 toys). Now, go forth and spread the love by giving virtual toys to all the girls and boys.

FrontierVille Pony Express Badges now available

For those of you lucky enough to already have the Pony Express on their land in FrontierVille, you'll be happy to know that there is a new series of Badges / Achievements for you to earn in the game, based off of this new functional building. As we told you earlier this evening, each day you collect the Daily Bonus from your completed Pony Express, you'll have a chance of triggering a Special Delivery package, that is delivered to you by a Pony Express rider. This new badge, called the Deliveries badge, is a reward for collecting a certain number of Deliveries over time.

Here's the stats for each of the four levels of the badge:

Decent Deliveries - Collect 3 Deliveries at the Pony Express - Rewards 100 XP and 500 coins
Delightful Deliveries - Collect 10 Deliveries - Rewards 2,000 XP and 1,000 coins
Demanding Deliveries - Collect 100 Deliveries - Rewards 5,000 XP and 5,000 coins
Daunting Deliveries - Collect 500 Deliveries - Rewards 8,000 XP and 10,000 coins

And there you have it - another Badge that you'll earn by simply playing the game for long enough - and with some pretty awesome rewards too!

FrontierVille Groundhog Trap: Everything you need to know

frontierville groundhog trap guide
frontierville groundhog trap guideSo you've been trying to finish those FrontierVille Groundhog Day Goals and trap Phil & Fred the groundhogs, but you just can't wrap your head around that blasted Groundhog Trap. Don't worry, you aren't the only one a bit confused by the FrontierVille Groundhog Trap. After all, it's a very complicated piece of machinery. Fortunately, I've gathered everything there is know about the FrontierVille Groundhog Trap into one place. With my FrontierVille Groundhog Trap guide, you'll be able to complete the Groundhog Day Goals and trap groundhogs Phil and Fred without a problem.

Get started with my FrontierVille Groundhog Trap guide below.
frontierville groundhog trap guide
Buy and Place your Groundhog Trap
First thing you're going to need to do is buy a Groundhog Trap from the market. Each Groundhog Trap costs 2,000 Coins and you can buy as many as you want. Once you purchase the Groundhog Trap, you'll need to place it somewhere it won't interfere with your animals or buildings. However, you are going to want to place the Groundhog Trap somewhere where it can be surrounded by crops (that's where groundhogs love to appear). But more on the Groundhog crop trick later.

frontierville groundhog trap guideCollect Groundhog Trap Supplies
To finish your state-of-the-art Groundhog Trap you will need a total of 30 supplies. A finished Groundhog Trap requires:

5 Tin Sheets
5 Screws
5 Bait
5 Sticks
5 Ropes
5 Crate Boxes

You'll have to ask your friends for help in order to finish your Groundhog Trap. So get started requesting parts from your friends now. The alternative is to spend FrontierVille Horseshoes, but at four Horseshoes for five Groundhog parts, it can be pretty costly. Just using Horseshoes, the Groundhog Trap requires 24 Horseshoes to fully complete.

Catch Groundhogs!
Now that your Groundhog Trap is built, you're ready to rid the frontier of pesky varmint, one groundhog at a time. Set your trap for one energy, then click on your Groundhog Trap and select 'View Area' to see the 5 x 5 space covered by your Groundhog Trap. If a groundhog surfaces in that area while your trap is armed, you'll catch it! Once you catch a groundhog, make sure you spend one energy to reset the trap.

There is a small chance that the groundhog you trap will be Fred or Phil. Keep catching and they'll nab 'em eventually.

frontierville groundhog trap guideProTip: The Groundhog Trap cannot be moved or disarmed until it has caught a groundhog.

Groundhog Trap Crop Trick
For maximum groundhog trappability, place your Groundhog Trap in the middle of a square of fully grown crops. Groundhogs LOVE fully grown crops, so by placing the Groundhog Trap over them, your sure to maximize your trappings.

Note the picture on the right. The player did a good job setting up their Groundhog Trap. However, it could be more successful if the entire area was filled with crops.

ProTip: If a plot/crop is only partially covered by the area of the Groundhog Trap and a gopher surfaces there, you will still catch him.

Upgrade Your Groundhog Trap
With a little more help from your friends, your Groundhog Traps can be upgraded from a 5 x 5 area of coverage to 8 x 8. You're going to need a crew of six friends to help out with the upgrade, which isn't too bad. But, holy cow, with that upgraded trap you're going to be raking in groundhogs by the truckload.

ProTip: Once you upgrade your Groundhog Trap, make sure you place more crops around it to fill out the total area covered by your awesome trap.

Wishful Features: More injured critter variety in FrontierVille

After the release of Injured Critters in FrontierVille, it became readily apparent that instead of "injured critters," Zynga should have really called the feature "injured white buffalo." Users all over the FrontierVille forums have begun complaining about the over-abundance of buffalo popping up on their homesteads, as they simply don't need ten or more of these same animals. While I haven't quite reached the ten buffalo mark, I do have five or six, with one sitting, waiting to be healed, and it made me think - why hasn't Zynga released more injured animals to the game, instead of this single animal?

With games like FarmVille, you at least have a bit of a surprise in the Animal Trough, as you don't know which of the six animals you'll receive at any one time. Here, there is no mystery whatsoever - you know you're going to receive another white buffalo, and at this point, they've become more of a nuisance than a welcomed addition to my land.

We'd love to see the FrontierVille team adding more variety to this feature, to make it truly live up to its name. If they don't want to go through the process of releasing entirely separate species of animals, why not at least change the color of the buffalo, to give our homestead a rainbow of animals, rather than just white? Put the buffalo in clothing for all I care - just make them different from each other somehow to keep me caring about these animals!

Some of our other wishful features have come true in the past, so hopefully this will be yet another case where that's true. We'll make sure to let you know if it is.

What do you think of the injured critter feature in FrontieVille? Are you happy to keep receiving the same animal time and time again, or would you like to see other animals pop up on your homestead? What other animals would you like to see?

RewardVille (still) slowly rolling out - look out for news posts to receive it!

We've seen some huge news this morning - there is now a way to force RewardVille to load onto your Facebook account without waiting for Zynga to slowly (very slowly) roll it out across all of their game players. FVNation has come across posts such as the one above, showing users who are redeeming their ZPoints for a new item - the Porch Home in FarmVille.

If you see any post like this, make sure to click on the "Get Reward" link. If you're fast enough, and maybe just a bit lucky, you will be taken to a page telling you that your reward is waiting. Through this, you'll be able to use Facebook Connect to connect your Facebook account with your new RewardVille account, where you can claim the prize above, and start using the feature to its fullest across Zynga's network of games.

You'll be able to earn a maximum of 80 points per day per game, with a maximum of 300 points per day for the entire Zynga catalog. Of course, you'll need to be lucky enough to have a friend that has received RewardVille either through this method, or through actually being given it by Zynga, which is probably the hardest part of all. Still, the possibilities for receiving RewardVille have just increased, so for now we can't really argue with that.

[Image Credit: FV Nation]

Have you seen any posts like the one above on your news feed, but didn't know what they were?

Zynga's RewardVille Now Available: Everything you need to know

Yesterday, we told you there was a way to force RewardVille to spawn on your Facebook account, but what if you didn't have any friends that had posted a link to their prizes that would allow you to join Zynga's rewards program? FarmVillePro has discovered that there is a single, universal, link that you can click on the activate the program on your account, and we can confirm that it does indeed work.

Want the magical link? Here it is! CLICK ME TO GET REWARDVILLE

Note: As of this writing, this link does work to activate RewardVille on your account, but as it appears to be universal, there is a chance that Zynga may shut it off if too many people use it. We apologize if that happens to be the case when you try it, but as you can see from my screenshots - it is legit.

You'll have to connect your Facebook account to RewardVille, and then "install" RewardVille (the toolbar portion you'll see above all Zynga games from here on in) on your account by accepting its terms, just as you would install any other Facebook app. That out of the way, you'll now have access to the entire program, including the ability to earn zCoins, redeem them for prizes across all of Zynga's major games (FarmVille, CityVille, Zynga Poker, FrontierVille, Mafia Wars, Cafe World, Treasure Isle, YoVille, PetVille and Vampire Wars), and send your friends free RewardVille gifts every day, among other features.

Meet us behind the break for a look on what to expect after you join. If you play FarmVille, the first thing you should do after activating RewardVille would be to claim your free Porch Home item. Simply click on the "Get It" button underneath any prize that you like, and if you have the zCoins necessary, they will be traded in for that item. In the case of the Porch Home, however, this is a free prize, so you really have no reason not to claim it. In fact, there is a free item for each and every one of the games in the rewards program, so make sure to claim the free items in all of the games you play.

How do you earn more zCoins? It's simple really - you can earn a maximum of 80 zPoints per game per day, up to your first 300 zPoints earned across all Zynga games each day. You'll earn zPoints simply by playing Zynga games as you would normally. As an example, as you play games like FarmVille, as you harvest, plow and plant new crops, you'll see the XP meter (representing your RewardVille level) increasing automatically. Once you level up your overall RewardVille level, you'll earn zCoins. Right now, it appears that only activities in games that earn you XP count towards earning zPoints, but we'll make sure to let you know if that changes. Either way, you'll know you've earned zPoints and zCoins when you see notices like these, that appear automatically at the top of your gameplay area.


As you browse through RewardVille's website, you'll notice that some items in games are locked to you currently. Just like purchasing items in many in-game stores, some items in RewardVille are locked to you until you have earned a certain level. If there has ever been incentive to play Zynga games more often, the promise of free exclusive, even limited edition prizes, will probably be it. In the case of FarmVille, as one example, you'll even notice items like the Giant Snowflake or Mandarin Tree that were available in the game in the past, but are no longer - if you missed out on these limited edition items the first time, you now have a chance to earn them again for free. We can't complain about that.

One final thing to note is the ability to send your friends free, exclusive RewardVille mystery gifts from the RewardVille website. These mystery boxes can contain up to 100 zCoins each, or "other bonuses" that will help them earn free items in the program.

And there you have it - a fairly simple setup, once you browse around for a bit and become used to the new terminology, and how the bar looks above your gameplay area. Be sure to play Zynga games often to earn the most zCoins, and then remember to turn them in for prizes that may only be available for a limited time. The bragging rights will almost certainly be worth it.

Have you activated RewardVille on your account? What do you think of the prizes that are available in each game?

FrontierVille Granny's Mother's Day Goals: Everything you need to know

With Mother's Day being right around the corner, Zynga has launched a new goal series in FrontierVille dealing with Granny, the new character released via the Ponderosa Lodge a few weeks ago. These three missions see you treating Granny "all special-like" by feeding her a nice dinner, fixing her still, and even giving Granny a brand new kitty (c'mon, who doesn't like fluffy kitties?!).

These goals are on a slow rollout, as usual, so don't be distressed if you don't see them yet. The first mission deals with the dinner, as you'll need to tend to some animals (I suppose that's a friendly way to saying it...) and have some Bacon.

Tend 30 Adult Cows
Tend 40 Pigs on your Homestead of a Neighbor's
Have Two Bacon

Of course, the Bacon is part of the Pig Collection, and will likely be earned while you're tending all 40 Pigs. Or, you can just ask your friends to send you the Bacon you need, if they have any extras. The rewards for this first mission are 250 XP, 500 coins and 1 Lunch. For Part II of III, you'll need to harvest some crops, so if you don't have these missions in your game yet, feel free to plant them now to plan ahead.

Harvest 20 Wheat
Have 10 Copper Pots
Hire 5 Friends

Unfortunately, even if you have your friends send you the Copper Pots within a matter of minutes or hours, and even if you have your friends visit your Homestead and water your crops to count for those 20 harvests, you'll only be able to hire 3 friends at a time (at most), so you will be stalled just a bit while waiting to complete this one. For pushing through and finishing this goal, you'll receive 600 XP, a Whiskey Still decoration, and 750 coins.

Finally, Part III of III introduces a sub-quest of sorts to the game (check out our complete guide to catching Field Mice), and - wait for it - will completely ruin your plan to avoid the Canning Master missions, if you've held off for this long.

Harvest 50 Tomatoes
Ask for 15 Cans of Sardines
Find Nine Field Mice

Again, while not technically related to the Canning Master Goals, if you were trying to avoid spending the 5,000 Food by never harvesting Tomatoes, this mission leaves you with a tough choice. Either remove all Butter from your account and harvest the Tomatoes normally (the riskier of the two options), to leave yourself with the Butters as the lone non-completed step, or pay the 25 Horseshoes to unlock this particular task so you can move on.

Whatever you decide to do, this is one time when I'm definitely upset about being right. We predicted Zynga would release another goal that contained the same 50 Tomatoes requirement (to "force" users to complete the Food mission), but unfortunately, if you choose to skip this Mother's Day mission as well, you'll be missing out on what are some (admittedly) awesome prizes at the end: 1,000 XP, 1 Lynx cat, and 1000 coins.

While the Lynx cat is adorable, I have to question whether or not its worth 5,000 Food (and then 10,000 Food after that, and so on and so forth). Then again, should we really pay Zynga the 25 Horseshoes to skip this step, or would that simply be giving them what they want? If you're as conflicted as me, then I wish you good luck in making the right decision (whatever that decision happens to be for you).

Check out the rest of our FrontierVille Cheats & Tips right here.

Have you yet to complete the Canning Master missions? What do you think of this goal's match 50 Tomatoes requirement? Will you pay Horseshoes to skip this step, or will you take the plunge and hand over your Food to Zynga?

FrontierVille Oregon Trail becomes 'Pioneer Trail' after community vote

And that's the power of the law, kids. Zynga just announced on Facebook that it's first FrontierVille expansion, Oregon Trail, will now be known as "Pioneer Trail." The Learning Company, which created the classic adventure game of the same name (and helped with the new Facebook game) sans the "FrontierVille," smacked Zynga with a lawsuit over the use of the term. In response, the company decided to change the name to avoid legal consequences, and put the new title up to a vote by us, the players.

Now that the results are in, the company already drew up a new logo. Well, it changed the lettering, really, but it's new nonetheless. Zynga didn't announce a launch, but simply wrote, "FrontierVille's Pioneer Trail is coming to your homestead soon! Get ready for a new grand adventure for you and your friends!" At this point, the expansion can't be too far away, so keep your eyes glued right here for when the big day arrives.

What do you think of the new name for FrontierVille's first expansion? Are you still psyched for the new content?