Web Puzzles

Farmville is an online game tied into the popular Facebook social networking platform. Created by Zynga Game Network Inc., also the creators of popular games like Mafia Wars, Café World, YoVille, FishVille and more, the game boasted, according to a November 2009 press release "65 million virtual farmers, 26 million of which play the game every day."

 

How Does Farmville Work?

Essentially, Farmville is a basic farming simulation game, but Zynga keeps the game interesting by adding new bells and whistles all the time to keep players entertained. The core of the game involves planting, harvesting and plowing plots of land, keeping animals and harvesting related products (things like wool, not meat), and collecting from fruit-bearing trees.

Farmville has a money system built on farm coins and farm cash, and experience measured in XP. Farm coins are pretty easy to come by, being earned when collecting and harvesting crops, animals and trees on personal farms as well as fertilizing crops and "helping out" on neighbors' farms. Farm cash is earned primarily when achieving increasing levels of experience, one farm cash per level.

Farmville experience (XP) is earned by crop farming, helping neighbors and placing items on the farm purchased with farm money at the Farmville marketplace. Neighbors are facebook friends show also play the game and agree to be a Farmville neighbor.

These are the basic components of Farmville (there are dozens more features to fill out the game for active players). It is entirely possible to play the game without ever spending a single cent of real money. But Zynga earns money when players spend real money to buy farm coins or farm cash to use on specific purchase goals. Many marketplace items are available only for farm cash. Either players can save up level by level until that amount is earned, need to spend real money to purchase additional farm cash, or simply forego items purchased for farm cash.

Why Play Farmville?

Almost everyone these days have an opinion about Farmville. Some are rabid fans and players, some are casual players and some strongly oppose the notion. Farmville-related topics are widely strategized and discussed in workplaces worldwide and have prompted hundreds or even thousands of web articles and sites dedicated to play. Farmville-related posts flood Facebook feeds, to the joy of players and often the chagrin of non-players (at least those who have not yet figured out how to hide application posts from their feeds). So why do users play Farmville?

In short, the game itself is fairly simple, and oddly satisfying. Plant a crop, watch it grow and harvest it. This is an experience most urban-dwellers don't have in real life, and those backyard farmers who do claim to find the simplicity and fantasy of quick-growing pest-free crops a fun diversion. Players can choose to keep it simple, or can choose to also engage in additional features of the game.
Farmville is also surprisingly social. Many of the games additional features require or offer opportunities for Facebook friends who become Farmville neighbors to help out farmers with various tasks and goals, and to share rewards with one another. Players often comment on one another's posts, ask for help, offer gracious thanks and even make new friends and neighbors through other player's posts.

Make no mistake, Farmville play can become time consuming for players who choose to take that path, or even become expensive for players who choose to spend real money purchasing farm cash. But many players game in moderation and keep the game free by staying within the boundaries imposed by that choice.
Farmville, like any game or hobby, can be a fun diversion and online social activity for those who choose to play. The game requires a Facebook account to play and can be accessed via Facebook or Farmville.com. Just getting started? Learn how to level up quickly.

One feature of Evony that regularly becomes frustrating is the quest to gain rare medals. Many gamers often become extremely upset when they spend months upon months attacking valleys, yet never come across the medal that they need. Thankfully, however, there are a couple strategies you can take advantage of to increase your chance of receiving the medal you are looking for.

Why Bother Seeking Out Medals?

Evony medals can be used for a couple distinct purposes. For one, medals are given to your heroes to elevate their loyalty. Owning an Evony hero with a high loyalty is extremely vital, as it will ensure that you don't ever lose him. Few things are worse than investing months advancing your hero to the maximum level, only to have him ditch you for your enemy because his loyalty was too low. Awarding him a medal should avoid this.

In truth, however, giving your medals to your heroes is often an unwise choice, as there is a much more imperative use for medals. Medals are required if you want to advance to higher titles and ranks, and are frequently the limiting factor in your ability to gain a new rank. If you want to earn a reputable rank and title, you'll need to hold on to your medals for your own character, and will have to spend ample effort gathering those that are rare.

Secrets to Getting Rare Medals

One method to acquire medals is referred to as “scout spamming”. To utilize this technique, start by upgrading your rally point and feasting halls to at least level five or more. Then, capture as many valleys as your city will allow. Next, gather a couple of heroes from your feasting hall.

To start the “scout spamming”, begin by attacking a valley that is close to your city with as big of an army as you have available. Once all of the units are defeated, bring your army back to your primary base. You will not be able to take control of the valley, due to the fact that your city already controls as many valleys as it is limited to, but the troops will be destroyed. Now, take one hero and one scout, and repeatedly send them to the valley you just conquered.
Due to the fact that all of the units in the valley should be wiped out, one hero and one scout should be more than enough to defeat it, and each time that you do, you have the possibility of acquiring the rare medals that you seek. Because this occurs in such a small amount of time, you can easily gain five or more medals in less than a minute.

After around twenty minutes of this, the soldiers will likely have regenerated, at which point you'll be forced to send your army back and defeat them once again. Eventually, if you continue to repeat this strategy, you'll be able to acquire the medals that you're looking for.

Conclusion

By gaining the rare medals, not only can you increase your hero's loyalty, but more importantly, you will be able to advance to higher titles and ranks. By achieving an impressive rank and title, you will have much more honor and prestige than the great majority of those who play Evony.

E3, or the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is an annual event that is widely considered to be the most important expo in the video game industry. In 2010 it was held from June 15-17 in Los Angeles and featured exhibits from over 120 companies. Every segment of the gaming industry is represented at E3, including the growing share of MMOs.



Interestingly enough the behemoth of the MMO market, Blizzard and their game World of Warcraft, did not have an exhibit at E3 in 2010. Blizzard is expected to release their latest WoW expansion, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, in the Fall of 2010 and some speculate that they are waiting until after that time to engage in a massive media campaign. The absence of Blizzard, however, meant that other, smaller MMO development companies had an easier time getting their product in the spotlight.

E3 2010 MMOs Coming Soon

Lord of the Rings Online and its publisher Turbine released information about the first expansion they will release under the controversial new "free-to-play" business model. Expected in late 2010, the content will include a new zone, updates to the current UI, superior graphic options, and, of course, the highly anticipated new LotRO store.

Final Fantasy XIV, by Square Enix, is the spiritual successor to Final Fantasy XI and was another big name in MMOs at E3. FFXIV is due for release in the Fall of 2010, and caters heavily to the Playstation 3 and Japanese markets. The general impression of reviewers at E3 is that FFXIV looks gorgeous, even if the gameplay is still currently a little clunky.

Another popular title that is due out soon is Bioware's Star Wars: The Old Republic. SWTOR was also a popular subject at E3 in 2009, but this year they promoted their Spring 2011 release date with both a gameplay booth on the show floor and a new cinematic trailer.

E3 2010 MMOs Coming... One Day

Of course developers with imminent releases will show up to E3 with playable demos and full cinematics, but the Expo is also the game industry's place to announce and advertise titles years in advance.

The popular tabletop war game Warhammer 40000 (and their Intellectual Property owner, Games Workshop) announced the development of Warhammer 40000: Dark Millennium Online. The announcement came with a much-watched trailer, and a somewhat disappointing release date of 2013. Dark Millennium received a lot of hype at E3 2010, but it remains to be seen if the attention can be sustained over the course of three years.

Also planning ahead is Interplay, the publishers of Fallout and Fallout 2. During E3 in 2010 they released a teaser site to announce the creation of Fallout Online, a post-apocalyptic MMO. Interplay released little more than a single image and a form to sign up for beta testing, but the response by the game press and players was very positive. The game is expected to hit the shelves in late 2013.

The 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo is the place for game publishers both large and small to display their ideas and work for each other and for the world at large. Between LotRO's new expansion this fall and the predicted arrival of Fallout Online in late 2013, it appears that the MMO industry has many new lands and surprises in store for its players over the coming years.

Travian is a massively multiplayer online browser-based strategy game developed by a German company. Players choose to be a Roman, Teuton, or Gaul when they begin their account. They can then build cities, amass an army, and ally with other players to dominate their surroundings and eventually win the End Game.

Choosing a Server

At any given point, there are many simultaneous games of Travian running. A game runs for just over a year, until an alliance builds a World Wonder and wins the game. Speed servers also exist and run in about a third of the time. The server is then restarted and players can sign up all over again. There are many servers which are based on language or country. New players can visit Travian.com and then click on their country’s flag at the top of the page to find an appropriate set of servers.
Each server has a different personality that develops. Most players find that waiting for a few days after the server restarts works to their advantage. However, waiting too long to join will make a beginning player easy prey for advanced gamers. Try to join a server that has recently been reset.

Getting Started

After clicking “Register” on the main Travian screen, new players are asked to choose a server. They then need to select a nickname and enter their email address and password. It is a good idea for players to choose just one email address to use for Travian. This will prevent accidentally creating multiple characters on the same server. Players must also choose between Gauls, Teutons, and Romans. Each character type has advantages and disadvantages.
Once inside the game, there are five main screens a player can use to control their city. They are represented by round buttons at the top of the screen. The first is the village overview, which allows the player to view their village’s fields. The next button links to the city center. Players can build residences, blacksmiths, granaries and more in town. The third link brings up the map of the surrounding areas, so other villages can be scouted and attacked. Next is the statistics button, which displays player rankings. The final screen is the in-game messaging system, which allows players to communicate and organize.

5 Tips for Beginning Players

Starting to play a new MMRPG can be intimidating, but there are many resources to help Travian players find their way. Following these five tips will help new players learn more about the world of Travian and develop a successful town.

• Read the forums -- Each server has a set of forums filled with advice, guides, and players who can answer questions. New players should check out the beginner’s guides posted in the forums first.
• Do the Quests -- New accounts will find a Questmaster awaiting them when they begin playing Travian. The quests are designed to introduce new gamers to the basics, including constructing buildings, upgrading resources, and training soldiers. They also have useful rewards.
• Wait to Join an Alliance -- Finding a strong, organized alliance to join will help players build strong cities and dominate the game. Players will receive many invitations as their cities begin to grow. Wait
• Keep a Level Head -- At its core, Travian is a war game and players will be attacked on their beginner’s protection wears off. Don’t respond with angry messages or counterattacks, especially if the attacker is a member of a powerful alliance. Responding will just encourage them to attack again.
• Read the Rules -- It is important to comply with the rules of the game. Players in violation may have their accounts deleted. For example, it is illegal to have multiple accounts on the same server.

Travian is a fun and addictive game. Many players find it appealing because of the regular resets -- it is possible for anyone to learn how to play well and become one of the top players. Best of all, it is free to play.

Farmville provides millions of people with entertainment and fun with online Facebook friends. But the number of hours spent on this game in order to enjoy all the different activities they offer are simply staggering. Here are some ways to maximize the fun and minimize the time spent.

Trap the Farmville Avatar

When harvesting, plowing and planting Farmville crops, as well as collecting from trees and animals, the user if often left waiting for the farmer avatar to slowly make his or her way across the screen, or catch up with the crops that have been clicked. This is a huge waste of time for the real-life farmer.

Isolating the farmer with fences or haybales where the avatar appears in the middle of the screen is a great way to speed up this process. Hedges also work, although for reasons passing understanding the avatar will occasionally choose to sneak through the cracks where they meet. Using haybales, the farmer can be confined to one single plot of unplowed land. Or create a larger decorative area in the center with fences. Remember that whenever the farm size is expanded the center point of the screen where the farmer appears will shift, and the isolation area will need to be moved accordingly.

Use Farmville.com to Claim Rewards

Claiming rewards (collectibles, eggs, coin rewards, fuel, building expansions and more) through the facebook feed can involve many wasted minutes of clicking down through old posts, searching through status updates and other feed posts for farmville updates. Farmville.com offers a "game feed" that consolidates at least the most recent of Farmville feed posts by all Farmville friends. Using the Farmville.com interface instead of the Facebook interface can save a great deal of time. The only downside is the inability to monitor facebook chat requests or other notifications from this screen.

Claim Farmville Rewards Using Browser Tabs

Probably the biggest time-waster when playing Farmville, even when using Farmville.com, is waiting for the screen to reload in between claiming rewards (especially when it turns out the rewards are all used up or expired). But it is not necessary to do this each time to claim items.

Simply open the Farmville.com interface in one window and click on each reward link by right clicking and using the "open link in a new tab" or similar command/process. Open all the tabs that are of interest and then go through and collect all at once. On the last tab, allow the window to completely refresh and all applicable rewards will be waiting in the fuel tank or gift box. Do keep tabs on the total number of gifts that can be stored in the gift box at once (announced as increased to 50 in a March 2009 podcast), especially if storing consumables in like arborists or farmhands in the giftbox. It may be necessary to stop once in the middle and empty the gift box before continuing.

Playing Farmville with Facebook friends can be fun and entertaining, but even more satisfying when using these tips to reach goals faster. For more tips, see Farmville Speed Collection Tips and Farmville Crop Speed Tips.

 There are a huge number of real money online poker sites for Texas holdem poker. Most of these do special introductory offers where the initial deposit is matched by a deposit of a similar size from the online poker site. It can therefore be worth signing up with a variety of sites and making a minimum deposit in each.

Popular Texas Holdem sites such as Titan Poker, Full Tilt Poker, Celeb Poker, Pokerstars, and PKR offer real money games but also offer a large number of freerolls. These tournaments are free to enter but pay real money in prizes. Play money games are often also available which are useful purely for learning the game.

Many sites also offer a bonus for recruitment, although the person recruited may have to make a reasonable deposit.

How to Make Money Playing in Freeroll or Low Stakes Online Texas Holdem Poker Tournaments

Many tournaments are free or have a very low entry fee of $1.00 or so, but a very large field, sometimes 3000+ players. This is an advantage as it means the final payouts will be relatively large. The disadvantage is that the player’s luck needs to hold up for a long time before cashing.

To play these tournaments most effectively, a very tight approach is best. In the first hour of play, upwards of half the field is likely to disappear. A player who does not bet at all in the first hour will therefore already be in the top half of players. A good tip is to wait for a premium hand in position, and then try to double up. One double up an hour in the first two or three hours of the tournament will be enough to keep the player in a good position for the cash.

How to Cash When Playing Online Texas Holdem Poker Tournaments

Once the cash is approached, the player will need to change their tactics. In a large low entry or freeroll tournament, finishing in the top few hundred will guarantee a small cash. This is not to be sniffed at, as even a small cash means the player is not losing money – which is as crucial as actually winning money!
Once the player can see they are close to “the bubble” — the point where cashing starts — it is worth slowing down and waiting for others to make foolish moves and get themselves knocked out. It is worth having the tournament lobby list up so the player can see exactly who is due to get knocked out next. Getting knocked out right on the bubble is very frustrating, and not worth risking unless the player holds a very strong hand.

Avoid Tilting When Playing Texas Holdem Online Poker

Many players get knocked out of their tournament through foolish play, and foolish play is likely if a player is on tilt. “On tilt” refers to a state of mind where the player is betting recklessly and against the odds, often due to previously losing with a strong hand due to bad luck, or bad betting.

 
Tilting should be avoided at all costs, but this is easier said than done. The player must remember that as long as they are still in the tournament, they still have a chance of winning. Many, many tournaments are won by players who have come from behind. A player who passes up a marginal hand in bad position may be rewarded with a premium hand on the next deal.

How to Progress to Higher Stakes Tournaments in Texas Holdem Online Poker

Once the player is experienced in playing small stakes poker tournaments, they can progress to higher stakes games. The advantage of these is that the field will be smaller, so a smaller run of luck will be needed to make the cash. The players are likely to be better, which can also help as they will be more likely to play predictably.

The player will need to be sure that their strategies already mean they can at least break even with their tournament play, or make wins from time to time. That way, it is more likely that they won’t lose significant amounts. The aim is to win, but anyone who plays regularly and doesn’t lose money, is already a winner!

Once the basics of resource production in Lord of Ultima is understood, the next logical step is identifying an effective layout for resources which allows for both adequate production and storage. There are many places to find information on potential resource layouts, including forums, the wiki, and through alliance memberships in LOU.

Overview of Resource Layout

This layout requires a minimum of 15 spaces in a 3 by 5 grid, either horizontal or vertical. Additional surrounding spaces can be used to increase production through the use of cottages. This layout is designed to support two resources, as well as increased storage for the two resources.

Setting up multiple grids of this layout, separated by cottages provides adequate production to support the city. This layout may need to built in pieces depending on the level of the town hall in the city.

Building a Warehouse to Increase Resource Storage

This layout is centered around a warehouse structure to increase the storage space for the bordering resources. Build the warehouse in the third row of the third column. A level ten warehouse will provide storage of 200K of each resource.

Build Specialty Buildings Next to the Warehouse

Determine which resources will be supported for this grid. For each resource, identify the specialty building. In this example, the specialty buildings are a sawmill for wood and a stonemason for stone. Build one of each of the two chosen buildings immediately next to the warehouse, on opposite sides.

In this example, build the sawmill in row two, column three and the stonemason in row four, column three. When all buildings are at level ten, the warehouse bordering these buildings will be capable of holding an extra 75% - up to 350K of each resource for which there is a special building.

Build the Resource Buildings

Once the warehouse and special buildings are in place, build six of each of the two chosen resource buildings. Make sure that the buildings surround the existing special building on all sides, and build on one side of the warehouse. Level ten resource buildings produce 300 per hour, before bonuses.

With the 75% bonus from the special building, this resource layout will produce at minimum, 3150 per hour. Additional resource bonuses can be obtained by building cottages around the buildings.

Resource Layout Strategies in Lord of Ultima

The layout presented here is only one of many possibilities and does not take into consideration any potential bonuses from surrounding resource fields. Other layouts for resources can be found on the LOU forums or by asking alliance members in the game.