Zynga's CityVille could overthrow FarmVille tomorrow, reporter claims

Remember when we mentioned that CityVille was dangerously close to beating FarmVille as the top Zynga Facebook game? Well, it could happen as early as tomorrow, according to a speculative report by Social Times. If true, this could drastically change the playing field, with FarmVille living in the shadow of a far more current social game with enhanced visuals and more streamlined progression.

Social Times cites AllFacebook's recent findings that CityVille is, as of this writing, sitting at 54.7 million monthly players while FarmVille waits for what seems to be inevitable at 56.6 million. With Zynga's other games below second place trailing behind by as much as 20 and 30 million fewer players (Zynga Poker, FrontierVille and Mafia Wars, respectively), CityVille could be number one for a long time. We'll see if Zynga, and the CityVille team especially, get their early Christmas gift tomorrow.

While this news is huge, here's the next $1 million question: what new game could beat CityVille? Could the rumored sequel to Mafia Wars do the trick?

CityVille killer? Zynga's Empires & Allies rockets to 23 million players

For all intents and purposes, it's crazy town at Zynga HQ right now. Empires & Allies, the studio's newest Facebook game, has reached over 23 million monthly players in just over two weeks since June 1, according to AppData. Actually, we're getting an overwhelming feeling of déjà vu in the office--oh yeah, CityVille enjoyed the same insane growth in almost exactly the same time frame.

In December of last year, the city-builder soared to 22 million players in less than two weeks. And we all know what happened afterward: The game continued to reign in players until it peaked at 101 million this January. (CityVille now enjoys a healthy chunk of that with over 90 million players.)

With the way Empires & Allies is going, this new strategy combat game could enjoy the same success as CityVille, if not eclipse it considering its potential hardcore appeal. In fact, the game has already accumulated nearly half of its predecessor's daily players with 7.7 million, though it's too early to tell whether that number will sustain over time. It's already clear that Zynga has struck gold yet again, as E&A has eclipsed several of the company's offerings that have been around for some time including FrontierVille, Mafia Wars and Cafe World. E&A could even be the second game to surpass FarmVille. Now isn't that a scary thought?

So, how did Zynga do it? Well, with promotions in FarmVille and CityVille regarding Empires & Allies, it's no surprise that the game has gotten this far. Not to mention that the game already is featured in RewardVille and above every Zynga game out there via the bar that sits above each of them. However, what we think is truly going to hook more gamers is its target demographic--those 90 million plus CityVille fans.

Much of the game is quite similar it is to its predecessor, softening the barrier to entry that the game's combat might present. Either way, with two new mobile games in Hanging with Friends and CityVille Hometown, and now another mega hit Zynga just might be able to afford that vacation to Mars for its staff. Oops, did we ruin the surprise?

Zynga slaps Brazilian social game creator Vostu with lawsuit for copycatting

Zynga vs Vostu
Look, we all know Zynga has been pegged before for, how do you say, being inspired by their competitors' works. But that pales in comparison to what Vostu, a Brazilian social game publisher has done with popular games like CityVille and PetVille. The developer south of the equator has essentially copied several Zynga games wholesale--mistakes and all, as TechCrunch reports--into games like Mega City and Pet Mania. Lo and behold, Zynga has slapped Vostu with a big ol' lawsuit for, you guessed it, infringement. Zynga had this to say in its lawsuit:

    Vostu has brazenly appropriated the copyright-protected aspects of Zynga's games(as well as almost every other aspect of Zynga's business) – with scant effort to mask their strategy– and then offered games virtually identical to Zynga's games to prospective players in the United States and elsewhere.

Basically (and based on its previous run-ins with companies), Zynga sees drawing inspiration from and downright copying the opposition verbatim, as two different things. Though, again, that's also a slippery slope. The lawsuit, which Zynga filed in a San Francisco court (and TechCrunch has in full right here), displays detailed comparisons between its games and Vostu's, clearly supporting its case. It's a shame, too, because we'd love to see Vostu's take on games like FarmVille for iPhone--mistakes and all.

FarmVille Sneak Peek: CityVille promotion coming to your farm soon?

FarmVille will soon get another taste of the city in one of Zynga's infamous cross promotions. While we covered this still unreleased item a few weeks ago, our friends at FarmVille Freak have found more images confirming that this CityVille promotional item will more than likely hit FarmVille soon. In addition to an image of the item itself, the blog found promotional artwork that will likely be placed in the game as pop ups.

However, we still haven't an idea in the slightest as to when or how this item will be implemented. But if you look closely at the item, it looks as if the Cow and Chicken are plotting a building design. With that said, we can imagine that players will be sent into CityVille on a quest that involves either what FarmVille players know best, farming, or creating a building of some sort. However, this is purely speculation. We'll have to wait and see what Zynga has cooking for another journey into the city.

CityVille Valentine's Day mini-game + prizes: Everything you need to know

In honor of the day of love, CityVille on Facebook has rolled out a new Valentine's Day mini-game, where you create custom virtual cards and send them to friends. Of course, what good is sending cards if you don't get any in return. You'll also collect as many custom V-day cards from your fellow CityVille players, which will give you access to a slew of V-day themed prizes -- all of which, IMHO, are pretty freakin' adorable.

cityville valentine

To get started spreading the love around, click on the red heart that's on the right hand side of the game screen. The number in the middle heart shows how many admirers you have (in my case, that's 26) -- more about this soon.

valentines day make card tab

After you click on the heart you will open a pop-up window with three tabs -- Make Card, Your Admirers and Prizes.

The first tab that says 'Make Card' is the card creator, and you will be able to custom create a V-day greeting which you can send to your friends. You have the option of changing the text message at the top, the two characters on the card and the gift in the middle. Once you've come up with your favorite combo, hit 'Send Valentine.'

cityville send valentine friends list

The friend selector will appear and you can choose the lucky few who will receive your V-day card.

On the 'Your Admirers' tab, you'll see a list of friends who have sent you V-day wishes. Note that you can have several pages of admirers, so you might have to use the left and right arrows to scroll through them all.

cityville valentines day admirers
From this screen, you can view each of the customized cards by clicking on an admirer's picture. I found this one rather amusing. If you want to be polite, you can hit the 'Share Thanks' button and post a message on your admirer's Facebook Wall that says, well, thanks!

cityville admirers card


The last tab in the CityVille Valentine's minigame is Prizes. Basically, the more admirers you collect as well as the variety of cards you receive, the more Valentine's Day themed prizes you will be able to call your own. If you don't want to wait until you have all of the admirers/cards you need, you can also buy each item using City Cash. You are also able to ask friends for help with you collection by posting a message to your Facebook wall. Note: Each prize can only be collected once AND you need to be at least level 5 to collect them.

cityville valentine prizes


Below is a list of the prizes and what you need to snag 'em all:

Cupid Statue: 1 Admirer
Photo Booth: 5 Admirers
Cupid Fountani: 15 Admirers
TK: 30 Admirers
Bed & Breakfast: 50 Admirers

cityville valentine day prizes

As I mentioned before, you can also get prizes based on the types of virtual cards you receive from friends. There are six types of Valentine's Day cards and you can tell which one belong to which category by the icon that appears at the bottom right of the card. The card in the image below is a 'Tough Love' card, denoted by the crab icon. Tough, indeed! Icons for the other cards (as well as the prizes for each card) are listed below.

citville vday card

Pink Heart Topiary: Return to Sender card
Pink Cupid Topiary: Tough Love card
Red Cupid Topiary: Love Hurts card:
Red Heart Topiary: Feather Friends card:
Yellow Heart Topiary: Food Fight card
Yellow Cupid Topiary: Secret Admirer card
Spa Business: Collect Them All
cityville valentines day admirers

cityville valentines day prizes

JUST ADDED! If you are wondering how to create a certain type of card, take look at the six images below.

cityville valentine day card types

And, that's it for the CityVille Valentine's Day mini-game!

We need your help! We're missing a few names of the prizes above. If you know what they are, please leave 'em in the comments below.

Check out the rest of our Valentine's Day 2011 coverage right here.

CityVille Cheats and Tips: A Characters Guide

Characters!
Zynga first introduced characters to its games with FrontierVille. Now, the game features a sprawling storyline in which characters interact with each other and you're the mediator of sorts. Naturally, the developer took the positive reception of characters on the frontier and applied that to its biggest hit yet, CityVille. The game features quite a lot of characters, most of which have become to center of your Goals in the game. Some guide your way to the coveted mayor's office every step of the way while others simply ask for favors every now and then, so this guide is to inform you of the who's who in the city.
CityVille Sam
Samantha:
The first person you'll ever meet in CityVille. Also known as CityVille Sam, this illustrious woman will teach you the basics of city building and provide you with your first Goals in the game. She's also your first neighbor in the game--just like Frontier Jack in FrontierVille. Visiting her sprawling (and infinitely better) city daily is basically free rewards, so be sure to take advantage! Not to mention her city is also the first you'll expand into with a Franchise. (Trivia: She's also the woman sitting on the ledge as the game loads.)

Conductor Charlie
Conductor Charlie:
As you might have already guessed, Charlie runs the trains in CityVille. He's the guy who will ship or send out for Goods and is ready for an order either in or our at all times of the day. (Guy doesn't catch a break, really.) He's also who guides you through the initial Railroad Goals and even has his own route to CharlieVille that produces a high amount of Goods in a short amount of time, but for a large amount of money. Use this route when you're in a pinch for Goods.

Chef Andrea
Chef Andre:
This star chef serves as the guide to create your first Business. He will guide you along the first Goals surrounding the creation and management of your Businesses. Not much is seen of him after creating the Bakery and Restaurant, but we're sure he'll be back soon enough.

Farmer Rita
Farmer Rita:
Rita lives right in your own city inside the Country Home. It's her job to make sure you're on top of your crops and that you know how to plant, harvest and use them effectively. She's also involved in the Lost Bunny Goal and a few others. Remember to collect her rent daily as she seems to drop Collection items more frequently than other properties.

Governor Phil
Governor Phil:
Another guide character, Governor Phil officiates your expansion and future election to the mayor's office. He's the fellow who guides you along the way to expanding your city boundaries, growing your population and planting a city flag. Other than that, old Phil hasn't seen much action yet in CityVille.

Edgar
Edgar:
This is the guy to go to if you want to talk business. In fact, he's the man who spurs you along to launch new Businesses like the Toy Store and Burger Joint as well as create a Franchise HQ. From there, he's here to teach players how to effectively manage and supply Franchises from the HQ. Oh, and he also makes you build him a Chateau for letting some of that business savvy rub off on you.

Paul
Paul:
The city's resident lumberjack is also a guide for several Goals including teaching you how to remove trees from your city and building him a comfy Country Home to raise his family in. (Were all these people homeless before they met you?) However, he also serves a more interesting role: He's the guy who cuts down your trees every time you select the Remove option and then click on a series of trees.

Louise
Louise:
Presumably an aspiring teacher, Louise guides along in a few Goals that all surround either education or extra-curriculars. She''s the lady to answer to when building the School and also oversees the building of the Playground and a Goal known as "School Safety."

Captain Rusty
Captain Rusty:
Of course, this guy appears after you complete the Seaport in your city. He guide you along the process of sending out ships to deliver Goods internationally through a series of Goals starting with "Captain's Trip." Other than that, he just mans the helm.

Coach Jack
Coach Jack:
This guy runs your city's baseball team and is involved in the Goals that lead you along building the Baseball Field Community Building. Because the Baseball Field is one of the more difficult to complete in the game, you won't see Coach Jack until much later in the game.

Firefighter Sue
Firefighter Sue:
If you hadn't already guessed, Sue is involved with creating the Firehouse Community and also appears much later in the game. After purchasing the Firehouse, you'll be tasked with a series of Goals involving feeding her crew of firemen and other preparations.

Dr. Sheperd
Dr. Sheperd:
This handsome (and rich) fellow appears after purchasing and building the Hospital. Again, this is another Community Building that isn't available until much later. He'll give you a series of Goals pertaining to running the joint and also has a little on crush on that teacher Louise.

Sid
Sid:
Finally, this simply name gentleman is a friend of Rita's. He'll appear once you receive a Goal from Rita to build the guy a Corner Store to run. Other than this, Sid seems to mind his own business in the Corner Store, but we hope he comes around more often in the future.

CityVille Weather Station offers a big boost to your town's maximum population

Do your city limits in CityVille feel like they're closing in way too fast? Do you need to add more citizens to your town's maximum population, but don't want to spend time building one of every community building available? If so, you'll be happy to know that a single building, released today, will likely offer you enough of a maximum population boost to last you for quite some time.

The Weather Station can be purchased from the game's store for 70,000 coins, so long as you are above level 48. From there, you'll have the task of whacking the base 13 times (and using just as much valuable energy) to finish its frame. While the Weather Station offers 1,400 citizens to your maximum allowed population, your stat won't rise immediately, as there's still work to be done to finish the building off. Specifically, you'll need to collect a set of building materials, some of which are new to this building (that is, they're themed appropriately).

Altogether, you'll need to collect eight each of Thermometers, Building Grants, Weather Balloons, Barometers and City Seals. You can earn these items either by purchasing them individually for City Cash, or by asking your friends to send you each item as you'd expect.

For its average size, the Weather Station packs quite a punch, but is also unlikely to break your bank account, which is definitely a good thing. I started right away on building one in my city - will you do the same?

What do you think of this Weather Station? Will you build one in your town, or do you like the more fun and whimsical community buildings, rather than something so modern or scientific?

CityVille Rose Garden Goals: Everything you need to know

While summer may quickly be drawing to a close, CityVille hopes to keep the summer fun alive by letting us have a place to grow beautiful flowers. Appropriately enough, this new "building" is called the Rose Garden, and you'll place it in your city when completing the first of four new goals that go along with it.

Garden State

    Place Rose Garden
    Plant a Rose in the Garden


The Rose Garden is a 4x4 structure that works similarly to the Zoo, in that you'll only be able to display three flowers on the outside of the garden, but can actually leave more of them inside. To start, you'll receive a single flower for free (that's right - this one doesn't need to be built at all after placing it in your town): a White Wild Rose. Once you look inside the building, just click on the Plant button and you'll be able to "feature" that rose as one of the three that show up on the outside. Once you finish these two (simple) steps, you'll receive 160 coins as your reward.

A Late Bloomer

    Ask friends for 3 Shovels
    Have 3 Gardens in your City
    Water your Gardens 5 Times


Gardens can be watered once every 18 hours, and yes, you can have more than one in your city. In fact, you'll need to have three before you can finish this goal. Your second and third Rose Gardens would cost 50,000 coins in the store, but luckily, you can also purchase Small Rose Gardens (a smaller version of the regular Rose Garden) for just 8,000 coins. These do count for the completion of this goal. As for the shovels, you'll be able to post a general news item to your wall asking for three. Finishing this goal gives you Sculpted Tree.

It's Showtime!

    Get 10 Rose Bushes
    Have 1 Rose Collection item from the Garden Collection
    Place one Rose Garden Gate in your city


To earn additional bushes, you'll go into your gardens (as seen above) and then click on "Ask for flowers" to ask your friends to send you some bushes. Finishing this goal gives you 32 experience points.

Comin' Up Roses

    Ask friends for 4 Vases
    Have 7 Roses Planted in your Gardens
    Have an upgraded Flower Kiosk


As it looks like each garden can only display three flowers, you'll need to have flowers in at least three Gardens to reach seven. As for updating your Flower Kiosk, you can find our guide for doing just that right here. Finishing this final goal gives you a Roses Fountain.

We'll make sure to let you know if other kinds of gardens are made available in the build menu in the future, but for now - have fun growing and displaying all of those roses!

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

What do you think of the Rose Garden feature in CityVille? What do you think of these goals?

CityVille: Earn a free Tunnel decoration for playing Adventure World

While Adventure World has finally started seeing a push in its user base (to a current total of around 26 million players), that doesn't mean Zynga wants the growth to slow down. To help users discover its newest game, the developer has launched a cross-promotion between Adventure World and its largest game: CityVille. This promotion, like the FarmVille promotion that came before it, will give users some incentive to play AW by rewarding them with a prize back in CityVille at the end.

To be specific, a free Tunnel decoration (pictured at right) is up for grabs for all CityVille players that take the time to reach at least Level 7 in Adventure World. This is unfortunately two levels more than that required for the FarmVille cross-promotion, so you will need to keep chugging along until you level up two more times. To help you do that, we have guides on the game's starting Expeditions, along with the game's main story quests, so make sure to check out our guides to those events to help yourself level up as quickly as possible.

While you shouldn't have to, you should also remember to click on the "Play Now" button in the pop-up that appears in CityVille to activate this cross-promotion in your game. It's possible that Zynga will automatically track the players that have met both requirements (that is, those that play CityVille and are at least Level 7 in Adventure World), but clicking on this link should eliminate all doubt. Oh yeah, you'll need to do all of the above fairly quickly - your time limit for receiving your free Tunnel Decoration is October 6. On that date, all qualifying users will receive their prize, so don't worry if you don't receive it beforehand. Just make sure you meet the deadline if you want this free Tunnel in your town.

Will you play Adventure World to at least Level 7 to qualify for a free CityVille Tunnel? Sound off in the comments.