Written by Farmville has really taken the facebook gaming industry by storm. If you take a look at AppData, which is an online script that monitors the popularity of Facebook games, Farmville has over 80,000,000 players each month. That is a massive number. This is even more amazing when you find out just how basic the game is. It’s nothing like the 3D, highly intensive games that you buy at your local games shop. Farmville can be played by anyone with a facebook account, on any computer, and there are no fancy graphics or special effects. It is a very straightforward game where you need to build and manage a farm. As it turns out, Farmville has enjoyed an enormous amount of success within the last six months. The game has built in viral elements. You are able to get your friends over to play the game against you, so that you can compare scores and achievements. It’s also possible to send items and gifts to other players. I suppose a lot of people just like showing off the farms they made to their friends for a bit of friendly competition. And interestingly enough, there are people that really badly want to do well in the game, so they will pay for in-game currency. There is definitely also a big demand for a decent Farmville guide right now.
It is worth taking a look at how developers of games like Farmville actually make money. Well, the company that develops Farmville (Zynga) recently came under fire from Techcrunch and other news agencies because of the unethical way in which they make users fill out CPA offers and sneaky rebills in return for items and money in Farmville. The Chief Executive Officer of Zynga (Marcus Pincus) once admitted that they would do whatever it took to make money from users, regardless of the ethical consequences. Other developers simply place advertisements in the game, or straight up offer in-game currency for real money. Lately there have been a few networks that help developers monetize their games better (gwallet is one).
Now, you probably are curious about what games apart from Farmville are currently popular. One of them would be Yoville, which is not that big yet but certainly has the potential to become huge. In this game, you play real life in a virtual world, kind of like the Sims. You do all the mundane stuff like furnish your house, go to get a haircut, customize your character, and go shopping. Doesn’t sound too exciting does it. But many people become very addicted to simple games like this. If you want to get good at Yoville, then I would recommend picking up a trusted Yoville guide.
One other intriguing game is Gangster City. In comparison to Yoville or Farmville, Gangster City is quite a bit more full on. You get to play the role of a gangster in a large city, and you overall goal is to take control of the city. This is the only game on facebook where there is a little bit of voilence (although it is still very conservative compared to most mainstream PC games). As of now you will have a lot of trouble finding a good Gangster City guide, because the game is still very new. You can also just learn how to play really well yourself, without ever taking anyone elses advice (although this is usually going to take a long time).
