"I'm gonna get your wallet, sucka!"

Clash of Clans

Long-Term Review

By now if you a smartphone, and like games, you probably know about a little freemium game called Clash of Clans. Like that the developer, Helsinki-based Supercell, pretty much makes so much money off of in-app purchases (IAP) over CoC, that they can take money baths every day. 

I first started playing Clash around 6 months ago. Despite my best intents, I am  now very guilty of contributing to their IAP bottom line. I've bought many, many in-game virtual items for hard currency. The very nature of the compelling and addictive gameplay makes it almost a requirement. As in World of Warcraft addictive. But the game does pretty much almost force you to buy stuff after a certain level. Your fort becomes your avatar, and if you have played the game a while, you start to feel very protective of it. Other players can attack you, and steal your hard-won resources. You obviously have military defenses to protect yourself, but sometimes they aren't enough, and gold and elixir you've been hoarding for days gets stolen from your coffers.

So what is a player to do? Build stronger, and increasingly more expensive, defenses. Which can take days to upgrade. And when your defenses are upgrading for days, that don't work. The only protection, is a Shield. If you get really badly mauled in an attack, the Shield will protect your fort for up to 16 hours to give you time to repair and rebuild. But a reasonably strong defensive cannon takes days to upgrade, and costs and atrocious amount of gold. Gold that takes days and days to gather. But once the 16 hour Shield expires, other players can attack, steal your gold, and prevent you from getting enough resources to strengthen your fort. 

So what's a player to do. And this is where the real world, hard currency comes in handy. You can buy a

Shield from the App Store, that will last for up to a week, gather resources and upgrade. Beyond, say, Level 40 in the game, making an IAP is not a luxury, but a requirement if you want to advance. 

But Clans is such a fun game, I don't begrudge or resent the money I've paid over the past months. I've spent much more on PC or console games that were terrible. I've played freemium games that were beyond obnoxious in time-gating the most trivial things for an egregious amount of real money. Clash of Clans is a happy addiction worth the cash. 

Skylanders: Lost Islands

Making Money With Your Skylanders For Fun & Profit!

Strategies and tips for beating skyrocketing Skylanders costs. 

The economy in Skylanders: Lost Islands can be best describes as a bit like a dog chasing it's tail. To make money (gold coins) you need to send Skylanders on missions; missions require energy, which you can get by paying gold coins to grow energy plants. Gold is the primary resource you need in the game, as it's required to build structures, and to unlock additional elemental islands. Early on in the game, it's not that big of deal - the first islands you have to unlock cost around (and I'm going on memory here) 30,000 gold coins. However, at later stages in the game, say around level 20, the costs skyrocket. I'm currently at level 25, and to unlock the next island requires 750,000 gold! Given you're essentially on a fixed income, as the maximum amount you can receive on a mission is 15,500 gold coins, and 18,000 for a Sanctuary trip, it takes a lot of days and patience to amass that much gold.

So, lets look at a reasonable plan to maximize gold production in a 24 hour period. I did some number crunching in Excel, which I won't bore you with here (although e-mail me if you want to see the spreadsheet) to come up with a fairly easy way to bank around 40,000 gold a day, without having log into the game every waking minute.

Energy Production:

1) Have 15 Plant Fields

2) Grow Grave Diggers = they take 2 hours and produce 425 Energy

3)  Do this 6 times a day

4) Total Energy in 24 hours = 38,250

Gold Coin Production:

1) Have 6 Adventure Balloons

2) Go to Dark Water Cove (a 7 hour mission) twice a day - once in the morning, and once before bed

3) After the morning Dark Water Cove is completed, do 2 Cadaverous Crypt missions (this will leave some flexibility to deal with Trolls, Sheep, and the occasional Treasure Chest)

4) Do 3 Sanctuary trips.

Now Show Me The Money!

Total Gold in 24 hours = Net 37,200 (Subtracting Gold required to grow Energy Plants)

Obviously Sheep etc. will add the additional 2,800+ gold coins to get you to 40K a day. With a bit of coffee,  ADD, focus, and diligence, I've easily made 80K in 24 hours, but you have to log into the game an atrocious amount of time to get that much. The above methodology presumes a degree of having a normal life. Enjoy!

Clash of Clans: Update(s)

Version 3.25 Released

and a small confession...

Looks like our good friends at Supercell in Finland have released an update for Clash of Clans. I won't take up (not) valuable space to list all the changes, but you can find the particulars here.  New unit upgrades, traps, hero improvements, and leaderboards, to name a few. Again, if you are not playing this game, you are sorely missing out on one of the best Free-To-Play titles out there. Combat, base-building, compelling player vs. player - you name it, it has your flavor of gaming crack.

And now, my confession. I actually broke down and made an IAP (In App Purchase) in Clash of Clans. 500 Crystals, to be exact, which cost me $4.99 USD. But the game made me do it - seriously. I was hovering around Level 30, and needed to upgrade my Town Hall to Level 7. A Level 7 TH unlocks a slew of additional buildings, as well some much needed upgrades. Unfortunately, a Level 7 Town Hall requires 1,200,000 gold. Unfortunately times two, I would amass around 400,000 gold, and someone would attack me, and steal 100,000+, I'd get a 12 hour or 16 hour Shield, regain the 100K gold, be attacked again, and lose said gold. Lather, rinse, repeat, Sisyphus.  And so, I buckled, and got a 7-day Shield. To me, this is was a shocking discovery, as there seemed to be no legitimate way to gather the necessary resources without paying for the additional Shield time protection. And to date, Supercell have made IAP a 'want', not a 'need', in order to progress in the game. Not sure what the solution is - increased Shield time based on your level perhaps?

But in the end, I can't say I felt all that cheated - for a game that's given me more fun than many a  $60 retail console title, $4.99 for some crystals for CoC seems like a bargain.

Gesundheit!

A Touching Tale of a Little Piggy With a Runny Nose Who's on a Mission

Mini Review

First things first - Gesundeheit!, by Revolutionary Concepts, is free for only a short time, so grab it pronto.

Gesundheit is one of those rare games that appeals to just about every age group - it's your classic 'save-the-princess (pig)' set in a crayon-drawn world. You play as a little pig with a cold? allergies? who uses the power of his boogers to battle enemies and interact with the world.  The gameplay is essentially top-down, and plays much like Mario Brothers or Zelda, with a bit of stealth elements thrown in. Controls could not be simpler or easier, which is critical, as much of the game revolves around your ability to sneeze boogers at a distance to lure enemies and activate switches or traps.

Skylanders: Lost Islands

What Do Skylanders And The Island of Dominica Have In Common?

Part I

Perhaps you've heard of a little 'ole game franchise called "Skylanders"? You know, the one that made $500 million dollars in the US in 2012? To put that number in perspective, the island of Dominica, located in the Caribbean, has a GDP of $490MM USD. That's a lot of Skylanders for 1 little island. Eric Kain over at Forbes called Skylanders "Diablo for Kids..." That is an honorific that is not lightly bestowed.

Anyhow...onto the latest incarnation in freemium app crack: Skylanders: Lost Islands. On the surface, there's nothing about this game that is that much different than your average monster breeding and farming game, like say, Dragonvale. But the Skylanders personalities, perceived attributes, and the rich environments, while mostly just window dressing, serve to enhance and vary the game experience. Skylanders come in different elemental forms (Fire, Air, etc), sizes (Regular and Giant), Experience levels, which is sufficient to mix up the missions, quests and the tasks that can be performed under these constraints such that the game never feels repetitive. New Skylanders are gained every 5 levels, which is probably the most tedious part of the game, if you're not willing to part with real world cash to buy Skylanders, which is a real temptation. With 55 possible Skylanders that can be acquired, that's 275 levels at a minimum you'd need to acquire them all.

There are two primary resources in Skylanders: Gold Coins (from Missions), and Energy (from Farms). It costs Coins to grow Energy plants, and Energy plants to go on missions to acquire Gold Coins. Sort of a perpetual motion Ponzi scheme of in-game economics. So let's start off by looking at maximizing Farm output:

CROP		TIME		COST		ENERGY		COST PER NRG		NRG PER MIN
Floats		1		10		4		2.50		4.00
Ambrosia		3		30		11		2.73		3.67
Cloudlings		10		105		37		2.84		3.70
Luminaries		30		320		110		2.91		3.67
Eufirbia		60		650		215		3.02		3.58
Grave Diggers		120		1,300		425		3.06		3.54
Moss Stash		240		2,700		840		3.21		3.50
Domedelion		420		4,800		1,450		3.31		3.45

 Obviously, you get the highest per-minute return on Energy for 1-minute Floats, but that that would take forever to amass enough Energy to take on the big 5,000 Energy Sanctuary missions, so Cloudlings seem to be the best choice. They provide a livable time-frame and balance for maximizing production while minimizing cost. I still like to mix it up with Luminaries and Eufirbia as well sometimes, or perhaps Domedelion right before I go to bed, just for a big instant Energy inventory boost upon harvest.

So that's it for Part I. In Part II, we'll take a look at maximizing mission return on Gold Coins. Can you feel the excitement?!

Farmville 2, By George!

New "Great Britain" Content Added

With all the Fall and Thanksgiving content additions that have been added to Farmville 2 over the past 2-ish weeks, it was a bit surprising to see the pop-up screen to the left appear today. There's nothing particularly British about today's update, at least that I could find. It's not a Bank Holiday, as the Brits have the same good sense to schedule their official days off like we do in the US i.e. on Fridays and Mondays. In any event, there was actually a new limited-time, craft-able plant item introduced, as well as 3  limited time craft-able recipes. Truth be told, Zynga also introduced a limited-time, Farm Bucks-only Elderberry Tree, but I try to ignore Farm Bucks exclusive content in the same way I'd ignore poor manners, bad grammar, or Justin Bieber.

New Plant:

English Rose

•  Good until December 23rd
• 2 Hours to grow
• 42/59 coins to plant/recieve
• 3 XP
• 5 Feed
• Can be crafted to make Rose Jelly:
• Requires: 8 Roses + 3 Sugars
• Rewards: 1510 coins + 9 XP 

New Recipes:

• Elderberry Tea
• Good until Dec. 23rd
• Requires Farm Bucks, so why bother with details? 
• Petit Fours
• Good until Dec. 23rd
• Requires: 2 Blueberry Custards + 3 Batters
• Rewards: 2710 coins + 27 XP

So there you have it - a proper English menu, at least according to a game made in the US of A.

Farmville 2

Level 20 Skidoo!

 

Bottles 'n Bucks Needed

I reached Level 20 in Farmville 2 this morning, and for once was smart enough to plan(t) ahead with a full field of long growing (24 hour) strawberries and sunflowers. However, I was less than happy when I dived into the details of what was required in order to unlock the farmland. It was not pretty:

• 13 Chainsaws (easily fulfilled from Zynga.com)
• 300,000 coins (pricey, but I'd already amassed around 120,000 coins without even trying)
• 1 Adult Brown Swiss Cow (so I have to buy/raise a baby cow - no big deal)

Except, a Baby Brown Swiss Cow costs 65,000 coins (!) and requires 16 Baby Bottles (!!). Suddenly,one trivial item on the unlock checklist became a major resource sink. I bought the baby cow, started feeding it, and ran out of Baby Bottles after about 6. The freebie giveaway on Zynga.com was no luck - there was a huge run of just free Feed and Water available at the exact time I needed anything but.

So here I sit, waiting to raise enough resources to unlock the farm area. Frustrating. Don't make punishment part of the reward, Zynga.

Clash of Clans

It's Clan-tastic

 

Review

A few weeks ago, I posted an entry that examined how some free apps make money hand over fist via in-game purchases for real money. One of the games mentioned in the original Wired story I reposted was Clash of Clans by Supercell out of Finland (Moi Suomi!). Out of curiosity, I downloaded the app a few days later, and discovered that  spending hundreds of dollars on a "free" game suddenly became to not seem so crazy.




 The Clash Part:

Clash of Clans, at it's a core, harks back to the late '90s, when real time strategy games ruled the gaming landscape. Build a base via harvesting resources, research and upgrade units and buildings, train troops to attack and defend, all the while having a good old time. It's set in a fantasy world of goblins, barbarians, dragons, and the undead, among others, with the player tasked with attacking evil warlords bases wherever they lurk. Pretty standard fare - until you introduce multiplayer into CoC, with other players attacking your base, or you attacking theirs. It introduces the element of tension, anticipation, and low-down scheming that really makes the game shine. Each player's base has a "Shield" last from a few hours to a few days. When the Shield is active, no players can attack you, and you can't attack them. But once that Shield is down, it's every player for themselves. You can raise an army and go out and plunder other player's bases for loot. But they can do the same to yours.  Successfully defend an attack on your base, or win an attack against another player, and you also gain trophies, the quantity of which determines how powerful you are. Lose an attack on your base, and the Shield gets turned back on, protecting your base while you make repairs and re-think your defensive layout.

The Clans Part:

If the idea of constant attacks seems off-putting, there's a solution. Join a Clan. There are dozens of Clans around the globe to join. Clans are essentially your gang - use them to solicit troops for attacks or defense. It's a simple game mechanic - fellow Clan members ask for help when needed, and you can do the same. There's also an in-game chat, which is great for hints, tips, gossip, and generally hanging out. Don't confuse this short description of Clans with it's importance; like may simple things, it's as powerful as you make it.

In closing, Clash of Clans definitely warrants all the love it's been getting lately. It's a perfect mix of good game design, good art, and beyond robust multiplayer. Just be prepared to lose endless hours having a blast. 

Farmville 2: Thanksgivingpalooza!

Fall Content Updates

A ton of new content was dropped within the past week in Farmville 2. I'll examine in greater detail over the next few days the specific pros/cons and quest tasks. In terms of new, limited-time items to purchase in the General Store, there are new plants, animals, trees, and decorations. The vast majority of these new items require real-cash Farm Bucks, so I won't discuss those items in any detail, as this blog is primarily dedicated to the free game experience.



Plants:

• Parsnips 

 Animals:

• 4 Types of Birds (2 Chickens/2 Turkeys). All require Farm Bucks. Blech.

Trees:

• 2 Types (1 only type, the Plum Tree, yields fruit for crafting). Both require Farm Bucks. Blech times two.

 Quests:

• L'il Rebel Turkey: rewards 1 Baby Turkey upon completion.
• Turkey Calls: contains 6 sub-quests. A turkey is required as part of one of the quest tasks, so completion of L'il Rebel Turkey beforehand is vital.
• Feast Table: mostly requires friends to supply building materials/sweat equity for construction to complete, although there is a food crafting sub-quest in the middle that will require strawberries, so start planting now. Once the Table is completed, you then invite four 4 friends to 5 different feasts. The rewards are pretty good for each successful feast you hold, so make this a high priority on your 'To-Do' list. 

And, that's it in a nutshell. Happy Farming to all!

Freemium Price Compare!

a.k.a. ARSE

Abstract Resource Stock indEx

I recently read an old article on Mental Floss about the Toadstool Exchange - it compared the relative prices in-game, and in real-world dollars, the cost of a grenade. This, in turn, reminded me of an annual column The Economist used to run - The Big Mac Index. Both are genius, and well worth a read when it comes to comparing relative values of things that either are digital or seemingly dissimilar i.e. a burger in a Norway vs. a burger in Tuscaloosa.

Anyways....in that vein I was inspired to create the ARSE. Most (90%+) of freemium or free-to-play app games out there, allow you to speed up the game, and thus gain an advantage, by purchasing some sort of of in-game currency. The important part, as it pertains to ARSE, is that in general, 1 in-game resource, be it gems, or gold, or smurfberries, equals 1 hour of game speed-up time. And thus, a comparative real-currency value can be assigned to these seemingly intangible virtual items.

Game		Resource		Units		Cost		Cost Per Resource
CityVille		Cash		50		$4.99		$0.10
Clash of Clans		Gems		1200		$9.99		$0.01
Dragon Story		Gold		120		$4.99		$0.04
Dragonvale		Gems		130		$4.99		$0.04
Gizmonauts		Crystals		130		$4.99		$0.04
Hay Day		Diamonds		130		$4.99		$0.04
Jurassic Park Builder		Bucks		120		$9.99		$0.08
My Little Pony		Gems		120		$9.99		$0.08
Restaurant Story		Gems		105		$19.99		$0.19
Simpsons: Tapped Out		Donuts		132		$9.99		$0.08
Smurfs' Village		Berries		125		$9.99		$0.08
Tiny Monsters		Diamonds		130		$4.99		$0.04
Tiny Tower		Tower Bux		100		$1.99		$0.02
Tiny Tribe		Diamonds		100		$9.99		$0.10

 Several caveats:

1. I tried to go for similar Resource Units or USD ($) amounts. It's not precise, clearly.

2. Some games, like Clash of Clans or Simpsons, use a different metrics to apply against 1 hour of in-game progress. 'Clash' is pretty easy to decipher; 4 gems = 1 hour. Simpsons has no discernible pattern.

3. Unsurprisingly, the mercenary black souls at Team Lava have the highest comparative ARSE cost via Restaurant Story.

I'll be updating the ARSE as the mood strikes, new games make the list, or a cost moves dramatically.

Farmville 2: It's Like A Circus!

Bread & Circuses, Actually

 

After powering through the quest wasteland that was level 15 in Farmville 2, I finally got some new quests, which revolved around preparing for a circus (I think - I'm not one for back-story in FV2, when there's precious crops and animals at stake). Anyways...these quest were pretty straightforward, until I got to the the 3rd in the "Circus" series. It required 3 Cheddar Loafs. Sounds pretty simple, eh? Well, there's 2 problems with said Loaf:

1. You need Salt (which you can't make)
2. You need need Cheese (which you might be out of)

If you're playing FV2 via Zynga.com, it should be relatively easy to obtain Salt via requests. Cheese, however, is another matter. It's a rare drop from Cows/Goats, and since you had to last purchase said livestock, they might have evolved into "Prized" animals, which no longer drop any produce, aside from XP and coins. So, it's Baby Bottle and Feed time once again to raise them into productive members of the farming community. So, take it with a grain of Salt, but if you stock up on your cheese-dropping barnyard critters, and you can (Cheez) wiz through this quest quickly. See what I did there? Funny stuff.

The Simpsons: Tapped Out

Over 1 Million Krusty Burgers Served

A Look Under The Hood Of A Freemium Moneymaker

Interesting comparative infographic chart over at Games.com which compares in-game purchases in The Simpsons: Tapped Out to real world fast food consumption statistics. A very interesting peak into actual numbers of structures built, and Donuts spent in the game. Given that Donuts are the in-app-purchase-able resources bought with real money, it gives a clue with regard to how much cold hard cash the game is actually generating for EA. Hint: it looks like a pile of money so huge, you'd need Mr. Plow to move it.

Farmville 2: Power Leveling

Bad Pun Alert!

Plowing Through Levels in FV2

I recently had an odd situation occur in Farmville 2; I hit Level 15, and suddenly ran out of quests. I (correctly) assumed quests were given to player based on certain levels i.e. I'd finished levels that the level designers at Zynga had assumed would take me until at least Level 16 to complete. So with no quests to occupy me in Level 15, I wanted to level up as quickly as possible. In the end, it took me about 36 hours to get to Level 17. Here are some tips to turbocharge your leveling:

• Play at Zynga.com. I cannot emphasize enough how much more efficient it is if you play the game through the Zynga portal.  You can get literally dozens of neighbors in the space of a few hours who can supply you with XP when you visit their farm, or provide you with quest items when you request them. Again, Zynga.com is a godsend when it comes to accelerating the leveling process.

• Crafting. Every step of the crafting process rewards you with some amount of XP. Cumulatively, each step in creating an item gives you a few XP; put them all together and you can get 20 to 30+ XP per item.

• Plant items with quick grow times and higher XP rewards. For example, Radishes, which thankfully unlocked at Level 15, have a grow time of 2 Minutes and reward 3 XP per plant. 

• Fertilize as much as possible. For every prize winning plant you grow, you are rewarded XP equal to the number of pounds (lbs) of the vegetable or fruit. In other words a 12 lbs. Pumpkin will give you 12 XP.

• Prized animals reward higher XP than animals that produce resources, like eggs, milk, or cheese. I usually keep a half dozen Prized livestock stored away in my inventory, and break them out into the barnyard when I need my livestock to produce just XP, not resources.

I am sure there are other strategies other players use to level up quickly, so I'd love to hear any other tips you have. Happy leveling!

Gizmonauts - Snax Attacks

Update: New Food Types & Amounts

Looks like my earliest list of Gizmonauts Snax farming stats is now a bit outdated. Backflip revised some Snax in-game numbers about 2 weeks ago across several categories, which I wasn't aware of, and there was third type of Snax farm I didn't even realize existed. D'oh/Facepalm/Apologies x 2. Below are the latest and greatest Snax:

Food		Farm		Cost		Time (in Mins)		Amt Made		Amt Made/Hour
Micro Chips		Shack		50		0.5		5		600
Spring Salad		Shack		250		5		20		240
Bolt Burger		Shack		1,000		30		75		150
Blueberry Boltmeal		Joint		5,000		120		300		150
Carbon Cola		Joint		15,000		360		800		133.3
Battery Bites		Joint		75,000		1,440		3,000		125.0
Coolant Cone		Shop		150,000		1		3,000		180,000
Pizza		Shop		250,000		10		5,000		30,000
Astro Oil		Shop		500,000		60		10,000		10,000

I'm not 100% sure why they made Battery Bites and Coolant Cones so similar, at least with regard to "Amt Made". By the time you get to the level that unlocks the Snax Shop, the difference between spending 75,000 and 150,000 coins to make them is not that big of a deal, as you're making a fairly large amount of coins. But hey, I'm not complaining. Bon appetit!

Farmville 2

No Quests?!?!?

The Curious Case of the Camouflaged Quests

Perhaps 'camouflaged' isn't exactly the right word, but it had a nice alliterative ring to it. Anyways....here I am at Level 15 in Farmville 2, with nothing to do. All my quests have been completed, and no new ones have appeared in their place. A bit of Google-ing on the topic revealed that other players have experienced this as well, on other levels, so my educated guess is that the quest designers just don't anticipate players completing certain quests before reaching certain levels. Thus, I am now left to my own devices.

"Wake me when we get to Lvl 16"

I expect once I hit Level 16, some new quests will be triggered, but what to do in the meantime? I need 4,492 XP to reach Level 16, but who's counting. Quests are the best way to level up, as they have high XP rewards. But without them, it's just a grind. You get 6 XP per neighbor farm visited, 10 XP for per day for Prized animals, harvests, and the rest is just rewards for prized crops, and that's dependent on the crop size i.e. a 15 Lbs. Tomato = 15 XP, and also appears perhaps once every 10+ fertilized crops. 

This is going to be a long week. Any tips of power-leveling, please send them my way. The alternative is to get a life, otherwise. 

Farmville 2 - Pecan-apalooza!

Strategies for "Bake Sale" and "No Horsing Around" Quests.

Hint: It Involves A Lot Of Pecans

Around Level 14, you will encounter the aforementioned quests in Farmville 2. Like most quests in FV2, they aren't difficult, but rather time-consuming, if you are not prepared. Both quests revolve around Pecans, which unlock at Level 13, so you in all likelihood, you might not have planted any Pecan Trees yet, which will put you behind the curve when it comes to completing these quests. In a nutshell (ha!), you'll need to craft/make 5 Pecan Muffins for the "Ho No Horsing Around" quest, and sell 10 Pecan Muffins for the "Bake Sale" quest. Luckily, this means the effort you put into 1 quest will apply to the other quest, which makes things a bit easier.  If you do the Crafting math, that means you'll need 50 Pecans to complete the pecan portion of both quests. The logistics of getting 50 Pecans are as follows:

1 Pecan Tree Harvest  =      2.5 Pecans Nuts (on average)

Pecan Tree Harvest Time =  12 Hours

Therefore, 1 Pecan Tree will = 5 Pecan Nuts per Day. 

So, it will take 10 days to get enough Pecan Nuts from 1 tree to complete the crafting for these quests. Or 5 days with 2 Pecan trees. And so on...So plant ahead, and save some time.

 

My Singing Monsters

Feed Me!

Overview of total food required to grow a Level 15 monster

I've been a bit curious to find what the maximum level was is My Singing Monsters. After literally 2 weeks of just baking food to feed one T-Rox constantly, it turns out it's level 15. I currently have all 4 Islands and 2 Green Crystal Mines, so I'm not lacking for monsters to generate cash, or bakeries to create food, or crystals to speed along the process, but even so, it took what seemed like an eternity to reach the max monster level. And it's costly process. Below is the required food ( and in-game money) required to reach that goal:

Level		Amt (Food)		SubTotal (Gold)
1		5		20
2		10		40
3		20		80
4		40		160
5		80		320
6		160		640
7		320		1,280
8		640		2,560
9		1,280		5,120
10		2,560		10,240
11		5,120		20,480
12		10,240		40,960
13		20,480		81,920
14		40,960		163,840
15		81,920		327,680
Total		163,835		655,340

"It's wafer thin!"

In other words, it would require a Turkey (1,000,000 gold), a Pie (500,000 gold), and 2 Pizzas (75,000 gold per Pie) to get enough food to reach Level 15, for a grand total of 1,650,000 gold to get just ONE Monster to Level 15. This is why I usually stop around Level 9 for monster upgrading. I'm stuffed.  

Farmville 2

No Horsing Around Quest

I Gotta See A Man About A Horse

The "No Horsing Around" quest in Farmville 2, which probably appears somewhere around level 13 or 14 (but your mileage may vary), contains yet another minor mystery concerning the acquisition of saddles to complete the quest. The quest text merely says "Gather 3 Saddles..." and unhelpfully has a "help" button marked "Go To Farm", which brings back to staring cluelessly at your farm. Are they hidden? Do I make them? What's the deal?

The answer, like most things in FV2, is that in order to get said said saddles, you have to buy them. Actually, you have to buy a horse which drops saddles. On occasion. When the mood strikes said horse, it appears. Go to the "General Store", and buy yourself a baby Black Arabian Horse. If you have the Farm Bucks, and want to save yourself the in-game money, or bottles, you can also buy an adult Black Gypsy Horse for 54 Farm Bucks, or an adult Black Arabian for 30 FB. Either way, they're not cheap. 

Even if you go the cheapskate route like I did, and buy a baby Arabian, the numbers still aren't great. Here's the cold hard numbers on a Baby Arabian Horse:

Cost:                                 22,000

Bottles Required:                6

Feed Required:                  12

Time Between Feedings:    24 hours

Drops:                               2 Horseshoes

                                         3  Saddles (sometimes)

Thus, it could take several feedings to acquire the Saddles i.e. days. You could buy multiple horses, but with Level 15 land unlock looming, which requires, among other things, 125,000 coins, this is not the time to be spend multiples of 22,000 coins to get 2 or 3 horses  to get 3 saddles. So settle in, cowboys and cowgirls. This quest might take some time.

Jurassic Park Builder

Get Ready For The Dino Doldrums

Review

Jurassic Park Builder is not necessarily a bad game. It's got really sweet graphics, lots of dinosaur species to care for in your zoo, and tons of missions. On the flip side, it's pretty damn boring. There is nothing to do. Find amber, play a gene sequencer minigame that essentially just makes you spend in-game money, feed dinosaurs, build some support structures (hotels, infirmaries  guard towers, etc) that have no bearing on the game, except to make more money, and import meat and veggies from a port for your dino denizens. 

You missions essentially are variations on the same theme - collect money from dinosaurs, move around dinosaur pens, build roads, delete roads, wash, rinse, repeat. Considering it's supposed to be a simulation of a visitor-driven business enterprise i.e. a zoo, there's no mechanic whatsoever that recognizes player actions that would have more/less visitors coming to your park, or providing amenities to them that would aid attendance. It's a sterile experience, with the lone visitor being the player. The most entertaining part is the "Code Red" minigame, which is essentially a game of chicken. But alas, it only happens perhaps 2 times a day, and then for at most 90 seconds each time. So if you wanted to be entertained for no more than 3 minutes a day, then this game is for you.   

FarmVille 2

"Spicing It Up" Quest Hints

aka Cheese Please!

OK, so I've playing Farmville 2. Well, that is to say, a lot of Farmville 2. It's a lot of fun, and the annoyance of having to co-opt FB friends to be farm "neighbors" is gone with the advent of the game on Zynga.com. Anyways....I am currently at around Level 13, and just got the 'Spicing It Up" quest series. Nothing on the surface of the quest seemed all that difficult: Master Habanero Peppers, Harvest some Wells, and make 5 Spicy Quesos sauces. Making Quesos proved more difficult than I thought - it requires 4 Cheese Wheels (which come from cows and some goats), and 10 Habanero Peppers. Simple enough on paper, right?

"Please don't cut the cheese!"

Wrong! Despite having 3 cows and 1 cheese-producing goat, I was getting no cheese after feeding them. After about a day, the goat gave up 2 cheese out of perhaps 5-7 feedings. I was regularly making milk, and fertilizer, but cheese drops were like winning the lactose lottery. In other words, very seldom. Turns out cheese is a rare drop, meaning it doesn't happen with every feeding. This is the type of thing I'd expect from a hardcore RPG like World of Warcraft, not a casual Facebook game like Farmville 2. Plus, there's no visual indication, or text, to let you know cheese is not going to be dropped 100% of the time after each feeding. It's a relatively hardcore game mechanic, coupled with really poor user feedback. So be forewarned in the future.

Also, I'd recommend going with the Sanaanen Goats, rather than the Loghorn Cows, for cheese production; Cows require 4 hours between feedings, Goats require 15 minutes.