My Frontierville Homestead - UPDATED

[I last posted this on 11th September 2011 so it's fair to say it needed an update!]

A little look inside the Frontierville mind of me...

As you can see, I lean towards realism with my homestead, there's very few daft animals (NO clothed ones!) or decorations as I really can't be having with dressed chickens or rings of fire. I also like having a nice thick forest around the back and some debris around just for realism (and it REALLY helps when needing bears...).

You might notice there's some buildings missing, they're either stored or deleted. If I don't like the look of a building or it doesn't feel right it's gone, Detectives Office is deleted, Pet Shop/Kennel is stored. It also counts for upgrades, I didn't like the look of the upgraded Inn or School so bam, back to basics on them!

So, here it is, the Homestead of me... (Click the picture for a high resolution version)

As you can see, my OCD has split the stead into areas! (I know, the things I spend my life doing...)

The Misfortunes Of Missions

[Please note: this blog is my own thoughts and ramblings. Anything contained in it does not necessarily mirror the thoughts of the other admins or Express as a whole.

Although I do have the membership of Frontierville Express to fall back on for impressions, there's going to be people who disagree, I don't speak for every gamer, just myself and the views I've got from my own gameplay and the page.]

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I'm going to start this post with a sentence you'll have seen a lot.

"Too many missions!"

This got me thinking, is this cause, or effect? Illness, or merely symptom?

See, work with me here. In my mind, too many missions isn't a cause for unhappiness but an effect of other factors. Missions are why we play the game, we should love them... but then it hit me, missions are like food.

Give me a steady supply of duck in plum sauce, chicken jalfrezi or jambalaya and I'm happy, keep it coming (What? I'm built for comfort not speed...). On the other hand, by the second plate of sprouts or goat's cheese quiche and I'll be thinking "ok, too much, too much!".

So, to complete the meandering food analogy, I think our problem lies not in the amount of courses we're being cooked, but the unpalatable nature of them.

I think "too many missions", isn't the problem, it's an indicator of other problems. With that in mind I thought I'd see what those other problems might be...

Sharing is Caring

I used to work for the BBC, one of our studios shared their building with a Chinese Medicine Clinic. People SHARE work space.

Recently one big problem for me has been single use buildings with long convoluted building procedures. We build them, and then they're never used again, specialised buildings with extremely minimal use.

It's most frustrating when there's already similar buildings, the most obvious example being Mae. One storyline has so far accounted for four individual buildings, a Sheriff Office, a Jail, a Courthouse and a Sheriff Academy.

OK, the Jail had it's own graphical interest as you build it up a piece at a time (like Lego) and see the Gratchets hanging out of it, but surely instead of the oversized Courthouse and Sheriff Academy we could have just used current buildings? Attach the courthouse to the Jail, attach the Academy to the Office, both would do the same job and not be out of place.

We're now seeing buildings for almost EVERY mission, and too many of them have a lifespan totally at odds with how long it takes to build them and the space they take up (the recent Ferris Wheel being an obvious example). They take days, WEEKS sometimes to build, but the only reason to build them is because we have to build them... they serve no useful purpose.

I see Zynga's point of view, they survive thanks to viral marketing, wall posts and direct requests. Buildings are a massive source of those posts. But they don't have to be NEW buildings, they also don't have to be buildings we have to keep for no discernible reason. There's two options I see...

1) We upgrade current buildings. OK, so instead of building the next to useless Sheriff Academy, why couldn't we just upgrade the Sheriff Office? We could still need all manner of building supplies etc, but no more space used up.

2) We build them off the homestead. The Ferris Wheel could have just gone next to the Country Fair, not using up room on our steads.

We also need to think about REUSING buildings, or giving them good bonuses like the Clock Tower. Too many buildings right now feel like we're trudging along a marathon for absolutely no reward but  a building that won't ever be used again.

Buy None, Get One Free

These days we're shopping deprived. Even as a man I love a bit of retail therapy, although for me it's gadgets and PS3 games instead of shoes or a handbag (well, not unless I have a "special" party to go to).

Currently we're seriously bereft of shopportunities. I seem to spend as much time browsing my inventory in the hope I'll have some forges or lillies than I do planting items from the market.

Again, we get it, Z need viral marketing, but there's a few things to think of here. For starters, any future players or anyone who takes more than a week to finish a mission thread is stuffed.

Usually at LEAST every other mission has one of these dismal free gift crops that needs sending or requesting. Once that comes out, interest in the previous one dwindles. We're then trapped between the rock and hard place of either begging to be sent them or sending items to other people we KNOW won't want it in the hope they click to return them.

It also renders almost the entire gifting page obsolete, the main reason I wanted to get to level 100 was to be able to send dinners to neighbours and help them in their game. That basic, useful way of being social and helping our neighbours, is now killed.

It also makes a mockery of the constant popup we have in game for us to send things to neighbours, why would we EVER use that when we know we'll need mission items? (Not to mention the fact the things in those gifting popups are, without exception, awful things like breakfasts etc).

Finally, things we should want to KEEP doing, fishing, Pigs, Sheep... game mechanics that we should want to do behind the scenes are ruined because we can't ask for American Moss, Corndogs or Lemon Mint because we're having to ask for new stuff. It takes features designed to be long term and replayable, and turns them into another short term feature, done to complete missions then never touched again.

So, Frontierville, either stop it completely, or do what you did with the mixed tulips and after a fortnight or so make the items market items too, for COINS. Hoping to get one of 20 different things you've decided can only be free gifts (seriously, we're not going to buy them for HS, we're just not) is not fun, in fact it's extremely dull.

Then, if you want to increase gifting? Take the Level 100 limit off being able to gift dinners and put them in the popup, I can say with almost full certainty gifting would rise.

Century Break

We need more clicks. Seriously, I used to think 50 was fine. It's not. 100 would be.

Zynga, let me appeal to what you desire. You want networking, clicks, virals etc. Many, MANY people stop after 50, give us all 100 clicks and it will increase YOUR statistics and help everyone, as people will be more inclined to help, even if it's something they don't want.

It's About Fun

The whole thing, from start to finish is about fun. The missions should be the most fun we have, and right now they're not, in fact quite the opposite at times.

Frontierville, dear Frontierville, I love you but you need to think what happens when a game stops being fun.

I say this because I care, consider it an intervention.

Yogic FTV Enlightenment with the Dalai Alpaca

Good morning and welcome, children of the wide world of Frontierville.

I am the Dalai Alpaca (it's like a llama but bigger and hairier) and am here to guide you through the zen-like path of Frontier Enlightenment.

Many travel on a pilgrimage to my bungalow monastary atop Avalanche Pass where I spend my days contemplating Beaver Valley and meditating upon the world in front of us. They ask many questions of me.

"How can we better approach Frontierville?" They ask.

"I find myself frustrated, how can I stop this?" They ask.

"What's your qualifications again?" They ask. (I can sit in the lotus position, have a resonant and tuneful Ommm and look like Buddha after a series of hair restoring treatments, frankly I consider myself overqualified.)

I therefore devised my Path Of Frontier Enlightenment, Zen Edition. This was written to aid those lost souls in better connecting with the world around them, and I share it here.

1) The moment of enlightenment.

There is many a story in this world of a moment of enlightenment that eases and educates. The sudden realisation of a fact that alters your outlook on life or brings to meaning to it.

Well, my children, open your minds to mine.

We WILL get missions each week barring special occasions.

When you have to deal with something you may not wish to, or that is distasteful to you, the first step is acceptance.

We will receive two mission threads a week for the foreseeable future, that has become the norm. Take a moment, allow yourself some time to soak that up and come to an understanding with it. That fact does not have to break you, it can serve as a first step on the road to enlightenment.

This realisation will open your mind to new possibilities.

2) You control the game, the game does not control you.

Close your eyes... NOT YET! OK fine... *waits*... opened them yet? ... *gets a cup of tea* ... right, close your eyes in a minute, I'll sound a beep or something.

Close your eyes, breathe in and out in a steady rhythm and think to yourself this mantra.

"The game is not my master, I am ITS Master. It shall not lead me into the darkness I do not wish to enter. It shall not lead me into building something I do not want. It shall not lead me into clobbering that snake if I do not want to."

Repeat that to yourself five times. OK, you can close your eyes... now. *BEEP*

We do not have to do anything we do not want to do. This is, after all, enjoyment. Look upon the tasks life gives you and understand you can choose to, well, choose.

Think of picking missions like you're dating. Survey the options in front of you. Is that one going to be too much work? Is that one fun and enjoyable to be with? Does that one look attractive? Does that one seem tricky but, according to what you've read on the internet (and grafitti in the bathroom), gives a great reward at the end of the day?

Do you want one that finishes quickly, that needs you to do it over and over or one that demands you reach the end within a set timeframe?

OK, we may be meandering slightly... but still, allow your mind a moment to defeat the notion that you must complete everything. You can be selective, you won't be judged for that and, in being thus, you can clear your mind of many a cloud caused by overwork.

3) Break the universe into bite size pieces, is an icon worth all that trouble?

It's a 64x64 pixel icon on the left side of your screen. Is is REALLY worth worrying about?

Consider yourself a politician and the icons are your constituents. You might APPEAR to be there to do what they want you to do, but we both know it's best to ignore the little things until you want to pay attention to them for XP, coins or if an election is coming up.

4) Enjoy the journey, not the destination.

The game is not a road with a beginning and end. It's a road trip that never ends.

You don't need to hunker over the steering wheel like an 87 year old spinster in a Nissan Micra. For once, the world wants you to take your eyes from the road and enjoy the scenery. Look around, take stuff in, enjoy the trip.

There is no final destination (which is good, never did like those movies) so you have freedom. Do you skip over some roadside attractions and come back to them later if you have time or do you take in everything you can, from the worlds biggest ball of yarn to the magical oak tree that drops a different type of wood with every chop?

When you're missioning don't feed 30 sheep thinking "this will get me *insert reward*" (please be careful when inserting rewards, some are spiky) and instead think "yay, I'm feeding 30 sheep, look at all those doobers!"

The reward is not the reason we should play the game, in the same way as we don't live our lives doing certain tasks planning a method of death. The game is not about achievements but how much fun we have along the way.

5) Reach out to your fellow man.

Remember, the world is full of people, don't think of those people as strangers, just do what I do and think of those people as friends you haven't managed to alienate with your annoying habits yet.

Reach out, click, help. Sometimes you'll get something in return, sometimes you'll get nothing but the warmth of helping, sometimes you'll get a restraining order (send a woman leather straps through Facebook and it's "helpful"... find where she lives and try to deliver them by hand and that's apparently "creepy").

Once you've had your 50 clicks don't stop, keep giving as much as you can click. If everyone clicks everything they spot, then the world will be full of people getting what they need. You don't have to click everything, just let it come naturally and do what you can, you will be karmically rewarded in the end.

6) A reward unearned is a reward worth nothing.

The road to completion is a long one, a tough one, but a rewarding one. Do not be tempted to take shortcuts or rise upon the back of others. You could not truly celebrate winning the London Marathon if you took a bus. You could not truly celebrate beating your niece at chess if she was 6 months old. You could not truly enjoy the compliments of others if your date for the school reunion was being paid by the hour and considers kissing a billable extra.

A brag post sent thanks to the medium of cheating is a brag post of deceit, a brag post that will turn to ash in the eyes of it's onlookers.

As the aforementioned date of negotiable affection endures the hard things in life as a duty, so should we. But not in the same way obviously, it would be distracting while trying to harvest wheat.

Conclusion

My Children, do not get angry, or frustrated, or homicidal... If I can paraphrase the Bard, all the world's a screen and all the men and women merely players. They have their clicks and their request posts and one man in his time clicks many posts.

Take the Dalai Alpaca way, be the controller of your own gaming destiny and, in doing so, your own blood pressure.

The world is full of things we don't want to do. Repeating, Sprouts, Long Division... when we have the chance to pick and choose, grab it with both hands... actually no, grab it with one hand and use the other to wave goodbye to the notion that you need to follow the orders of a game... but for decency's sake, try to use the whole hand, not just one or two fingers.

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The Dalai Alpaca has written three books "Alpaca-Happy: All You Need To Know For A Good Life", "Alpaca-Happy II, OK, I Lied The First Time, There's More." and "Alpaca-Happy III, The Gratuitous Cash-in".

He also produced and starred in the bestselling fitness video "Alpaca-size! Yoga Yourself Cuddly".

Seeing The Diamond In The Coal

You know what saddens me most about the current state of the game?

Over the last six months or so I think we've had some great new features, the Emporium and Ranch spring to mind as innovative new items that helped out and weren't overly onerous to build, I don't mind making the building/crafting effort when the end product is useful and furthers the game.

Effort for reward is fun, it's when the effort doesn't really further anything along I tend to find issue. The Debris Generator and Irrigation Station are examples of things I don't mind building. Yesterday's badly misnamed Barter Depot, much less so.

Also, Prospect Falls, a divisive area to be sure, but that was to be expected. If you treat the falls like the main game and attack it with gusto it may prove to be frustrating, but I think many folks have taken it as a diversion, a 10 minute break from the homestead, and enjoyed it more as a result.

I think we've been inundated so much that many folks have almost been institutionalised into needing to rush because of the fear of more stuff coming, but the Falls are a gentler prospect, to be taken at a slower pace so were always going to be a love/hate split.

Whatever your feelings I think it's fair to say the art department have again created a beautiful area, and we are getting something much different, much more interactive than previous expansions.

But, right now we're getting too much stuff to easily get an objective view of what's appearing.

Even when we get good mission threads (and there have been fun ones now and then) it becomes hard to see the the enjoyment in them when the first thought is "oh Christ... More?!"

So, I think we need to start taking each set on their own merits, and thinking about the game accordingly.

We need to start concentrating on the diamond, and ignoring the coal.

Me? I'm going to be ignoring Rekindling, Get Rich and the Barter Depot. Instead I'll be doing the baby naming, the Falls and the Prospecting Tales.

From now on I'm going to take a picky view of my gaming. I'm going to pretend every new thread is the first I've had in a while, see it objectively and make a choice.

Will I enjoy this?

Yes - I'll do it.
No - I'll ignore it.

It's a liberating thought, we only need to do what we want to do.

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As a bit of blatant self promotion, if you haven't already, please read THIS and if you agree, share. Perhaps it might make a difference.

An Open Letter To Zynga

[PLEASE NOTE: as with everything else in this blog these are my personal thoughts. They do not represent the opinions and views of Frontierville Express, the other admins or members.

This will likely never be seen by the people that matter, but I feel I have to write it. I would be obliged if, should you agree, you share it... who knows, someone may find it who DO know these people.]

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Dear Sir/Madam,

This is a hard letter for me to write, because it's something I didn't want to think about really. I love this game, and I want it to succeed.

The game itself has given me many, MANY hours of enjoyment, and allowed me to meet some amazing people who, Frontierville or not, will be around in my life for, I hope, a very long time.

But the game, as it is, is teetering on the edge of an abyss.

I only wish I was being over-dramatic, I have scoffed, I admit, at the more hyperbolic comments left by folks in online forums regarding the game and always thought it had enough about it that people would always want to play it. I don't think that any more.

The following will be tough, but I hope, fair. You may stop reading, you may just categorise me as a crackpot who doesn't know what I'm talking about. But I know games, I know marketing and I know the players, I spend my time talking to them, helping them and listening to their problems.

The fact is, you've made some serious errors in the game over the last 6 months, errors that will cost the game players, HAVE cost the game players... and will continue to do so as you don't seem to be of a mind to solve those errors, but instead you compound them, like a social experiment on the breaking point of gamers.

We understand glitches will happen, we understand limitations will happen, what we don't understand is why choices are being made that are actively, and expansively, taking the fun away.

Let's start with the missions. Quite WHY we are being inundated with the amount we are is something I simply don't understand, especially with the complexity of them.

This week we had THREE mission threads totalling 26 unique missions, 40 in all including necessary repeats.

Why? I understand you're keeping a plotline going, that you'll have some kind of list of "stations" on a railroad track somewhere plotting what we'll be getting to keep the story rolling.

If that is the case I'd imagine you have a Birth plotline coming in the future that will finally reach the end of what has felt like the most demanding pregnancy ever, and has led most players to wonder how on Earth Hank managed to "do the deed" in the first place without our help collecting 20 Barry White records, 20 candles and crafting one strong bed.

So, OK, I'll give you that one, the Baby Naming pushed the story on. But what about the others?

The Family Tree is disconnected from any plot, this get together could have been planned next week, next month, next Summer for that matter. There was no reason to place it in the game beyond "we've had this idea, chuck it in."

Equally the Prospect Falls missions could easily have waited, in fact it would have made more sense to occur once more people had got into the last set of missions in the Falls, so when Falls missions are slipping, something else comes to pick up the slack and keep our interest going in the new expansion.

I love cooking and cookery... and I know one thing for sure. Nothing is as bad as taking a basket full of ingredients and thinking you have to use them just because they're there.

It wouldn't be so bad if these were simple missions, but instead they are needlessly overcomplicated, stuffed full of depressing repeats, monotonous crafting and tedious waiting for friends to send crops or trees that are only available as free gifts. (I've gone into a diatribe about the awful nature of many of the missions elsewhere, I shan't go into it here as well.)

The missions themselves, the FUN of the game, are no longer fun, they are a chore, and a confusing chore at that. I'm friends with some people who are almost FTV-savants. They could have 10 missions on the go and always know what they need for which one and where they are in terms of planted crops or growing animals.

That doesn't happen any longer, you have done the impossible, you have done the equivalent of baffling Stephen Hawking with a maths problem.

They're confused, and people don't enjoy being confused. People like to feel they have some control and aren't just flailing around trying to grab hold of something enjoyable like a blindfolded Hugh Heffner in a ballroom of Playboy Bunnies.

Surely you know, surely you talk in-depth with the community people on your staff, the ones who connect with the forums or the support agents? You must realise that we are in, if I can veer into military vernacular, a Red Alert, a Defcon 5, a deepening and seemingly inescapable Afghanistan of morale.

Surely you're getting feedback and realising what we see daily... that the game just isn't fun any more. How many people are merely doing it now through a sense of duty or routine? How many are just doing it because the game has given them good friends and they want to keep connected to them?

Right now, as someone who works a fan page the negativity is soul destroying, remember we get it ALL day, other folks can have their 5 minutes writing a negative post and go play with a puppy. It's all we see, and it's worse because it's totally and utterly justifiable.

Mission releases used to be fun, exciting, something to look forward too. The admins would write the stuff up and know folks would be happy to get new missions and new items.

These days we know there will be apathy at best from a large percentage of members. You have somehow made the arrival of new stuff... depressing.

I honestly don't understand why, which may be the most frustrating thing of the lot.

Is it the marketing of so many wall posts and direct requests? If so I've explained previously the short sighted nature of that feeling, the turn OFF that 12 posts in a row will be to new members, not to mention the fact if players leave that will put quite a dent in that scheme.

Is it to try and slow down the people who pay horseshoes or cheat to complete mission quickly? If so you will excuse my French when I say "screw 'em". Let them rush if they feel the need and then let them understand boredom.

I can guarantee you that if you're fearing the "I'm bored" crowd will cause a mass exodus of players from the game then you are very wrong. The amount of people who would leave because of a lack of missions is a meager percentage of those being driven away by a lack of enjoyment, a crushing feeling of being overwhelmed and, ironically, boredom.

You know what's not really boring? Not having any missions so trying to catch up with badges, collections or Bulletin Board shorts.

You know what IS boring? Doing the same mission more than once. Waiting 8 hours to ask for something. Crafting the same item for the 12th time from something that is identical in use and name to something we've used before... but is "new" so none of them count.

If this has somehow reached someone in power, and if you're still reading, I beg this of you. Talk to the staff below you, talk to the people who run fanpages and have daily, even hourly (heck, minutely if that's a word), contact with dissatisfied players, a group that is becoming the majority.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, we love this game and are prepared to compromise, requesting, crafting, even repeating have their place in the game to some extent. But when even the most ardent of players dread the arrival of missions? Something has gone horribly wrong, the GAME has gone horribly wrong.

And all we ask is you take some time and think about what we're saying.

We understand glitches, we understand the game will have technical problems. What we can't understand is when the game has 'problems' placed in there specifically when 10 minutes on forums would show it to be a bad idea.

Take me seriously or consider me a mouthy jerk... Please talk to other people. Because I can say with almost 100% certainty, you'll find others who feel the same way.

Yours sincerely,

Andy Spencer

We Don't Want No Charity...

[PLEASE NOTE: as with everything else in this blog these are my personal views and opinions. They do not represent the opinions and views of Frontierville Express, the other admins or members.]

This is going to be a controversial post, and in some ways a hypocritical one. I wrote this at the end of last week and have debated long and hard whether to post it, but I've decided I have to. It might open me up to accusations from either side, but that's the delight of this little bit of webspace, this *waves arms around* is neutral territory.

If I'm brutally honest I tend to get a little drained by the negativity that often accompanies the missions these days. We love the game and want others to do the same, so we try to stay relentlessly positive, but sometimes it's hard.

I'd say some players' morale is pretty low, and what is upsetting is large swathes of complaints aren't about unavoidable glitches or problems in the game (we've always had them and will always get through them), they're about things that have been actively chosen to be that way, namely the sheer amount of missions and the morale sapping amount of requesting needed right now in the game.

Requesting is a necessary evil. The idea of a game without requesting is, at best, unrealistic. But on the other hand, it's monotonous being stuck for hours at a time with nothing to do but watch the letterbox and wait for the next chance to ask for items again.

I have 10 missions right now, and every single one of them are waiting on requests, either wall or direct. I also have a mission in Holiday Hollow waiting on direct requests and the Irrigation Station half completed waiting for... direct requests.

That's without the Valentines missions which, I will openly admit, I'm not going to even start.

Now, I know requesting and wall posting is an integral part of the gaming experience on Facebook. If I want a game I can play on my own with no help at all from outside, I'll load my PS3 and pound on some draugrs in Skyrim or belt a Lambo round the Nurburgring at pant-wetting speeds in GT5.

We need wall requesting and we need interaction firstly because it's how the game promotes itself, secondly because interaction stats etc are important in how a game is graded. We will never do away with it. Plus... let's be honest, in small measures (As part of a balanced diet etc, etc) it's FUN... there's nothing wrong with asking for stuff here or there in a game.

But surely you can see how this current over-reliance on requesting harms both the ones you have and the ones you want to get?

With nothing to do but wait players will go elsewhere, they'll find new games, new ways to spend their time... and they may never come back, or they might just get so used to not being in the game. You can't expect people to go from 8 hours of waiting for something to happen to the all action push of a new mission thread all the time. Gaming is about stickability, it's about how long you can keep people playing your game, and if there's nothing for them to do... they won't stick.

These games work because they're an addiction, but addictions are to things that are enjoyable or fun. An alcoholic isn't addicted to hangovers, a junkie isn't addicted to withdrawals, a smoker isn't addicted to coughing, a nymphomaniac... OK, I think you get the idea.

Harvesting, tending, building, clobbering, mastering... they're all fun things to do.

Requesting is dull, monotonous and repetitive. It's like video game Valium. To complete the recent final overview mission in the Valentine Thread, finishing missions 9 and 10 four times each, needs 248 direct requests and 336 items from walls, that is (not counting any got from clicking other people's posts) over 67 wall requests, for that ONE part. that's over 20 days of solid wall posting every 8 hours to complete one thing, after all the other missions and their needs are met.

That's not a challenge, it's a chore (and I enjoyed Canning, so I'm not anti-challenge!). I can see right now it's something that can only be done with a lot of pain and suffering, like trying to run a marathon, and I've already waved the white flag.

I like planting bulbs in my garden. I like looking at and photographing the flowers that result... but you won't find me sat gazing lovingly at a shoot for 8 hours waiting for it to noticeably grow.

Look as well on how it seems from the other side. You promote via wall posts etc for new players. But will a gamer wanting a new fix see someone posting for 7 things in a row (often with a comment akin to this one I saw this morning "Christ, will asking for this never end?!") and think "wow, LOADS of requesting, that's the game for me!"

Allow me to give you a hint, the answer starts with 'no', ends with 'way' and has a rude word that's a slang term for coitus in the middle.

Spare a thought for new players as well. You need new players to replace the inevitable turnover. Even the best games will lose players over time, people's lives change after all. But what will those new players find themselves in?

Even with dozens of established players as neighbours they're going to find coming up on some of the missions difficult. I can tell you from bitter experience, having taken just a month out for health reasons, that getting back in the game is no easy task. I've only just completed the repeatable Wikiwah Mustang and Respect missions, I still have to finish building the New Year Hoedown and Hollie's Sleigh for the Hollow mission. I hope to get Amber's colt healed sometime between now and July...

[EDIT: I have now completed all the above, now I'm waiting on the Train. And the Baby Wagon. And the Baby Shower. And three buildings on the Falls. And the Debris Generator.]

And that's despite having some brilliant neighbours who will click everything I put up whether they need it or not, sacrificing their own clicks. I pity those who don't have folks like I do, if they just have people who keep their 50 clicks for the stuff they need, because they are going to be in deep trouble, some stuff may just never get done, and that is massively disheartening. I don't mind knowing something might take a while, but if I see no end in sight...

We should NEVER get rid of requesting, there's actually something of a buzz to opening your gifts of a morning and finding that last piece that completes a mission or finishes off a building. It should stay as a part of the game, this was never designed to be a solo game and I ENJOY helping people.

But that's the problem, I don't feel helpful, I feel like I ask for more than I return, I feel like my whole existence in the game is reliant, as Tennessee Williams would have it, on the kindness of strangers.

So why not get a bit more creative? Right now the rewards for posting that you've visited someone are pitiful, an old building material most people never use any more. Make that something worthwhile, a lump of XP for example, and folks will want to post more often, I NEVER post to friends wall that I've visited because I know they don't give a monkeys about a brick or a hand drill.

Ditto the reward for hiring a neighbour, Tools haven't been used for ages in a mission, so why would that prompt someone to publish?

The main point here is people like to HELP others, so OK, here's another idea. The crafting items that drop from things on our homestead (sulphur from rocks, rowing boat planks from trees etc). How about two, three times a day a message would pop up when you found one "You've found extras, give them away?"

Saying yes would put a post on your wall where 3-5 people could click it and get a sulphur or plank or whatever the supply was? Ditto with collection items, just as it works with the saloon drink daily bonus.

Giving, not begging. Most gamers don't like to ask, but they love to give, especially if you whacked on some XP coming back the other way.

Lately FTV players see themselves sitting on pavements with a dog on a piece of string and a cap out hoping to catch building supplies. That's not a fun way to imagine yourself being.

Picturing yourself as a philanthropist throwing around goodies and giving stuff away, that IS fun! It'll also appeal more to the gamers you're hoping to catch with posts. Earlier we spoke about how so many begging posts will put potential gamers off, but if they see a game where things keep happening to let them help their neighbours... completely different mental attitude to be in.

Finally, an extreme suggestion...

Remove ALL requesting from the Bulletin Board, they were a brilliant idea to waste time between other mission threads and while waiting for stuff to arrive, then you just tacked on a request requirement to EVERY mission so instead of being filler, they're just one more thing to request for and then ignore for 8 hours because there's nothing to DO.

It's collecting teamwork and helping hands, so just make it like "affection" during the anniversary date mission, stuff that drops from NEIGHBOUR homesteads. We're getting helping hands, so make it that we get it by helping. Add this to the much better rewards for visiting I suggested earlier and you might see more posting... heck perhaps this could even BE the post reward.

"Do you want to tell your neighbour you've visited and give your neighbour a Helping Hands?"

It's a simple mental change on both sides. Players need to change their mindset and realise that there WILL be some requesting, that's life, and in fact, done properly and not excessively, it's fun. But Zynga, you need to realise not EVERYTHING has to be requesting. It's doing you more harm than good.

I also believe people might be happier about the high quantity of missions if they knew they'd be more homestead based, and not something that would leech at their limited wall clicks and direct requests.

There's a place for asking, what I'm saying is for the love of Jack, CALM DOWN. I'm honest when I say that it's driving players away.

We don't want to spend our gaming days begging for charity, we just want a good game that's fun to play, and we're mature enough to be ready to compromise to get it.

Quoting disaster...

"You can't trust 75% of the quotes on the internet."

- Christopher Columbus c:1492

I don't doubt this blog will stir up a few suggestions I'm a Zynga crony etc. It seems criminally unfashionable these days to have positive feelings about the company that gives us our games, and Lord knows I have my problems with how they run Frontierville... But sometimes folks are so eager to Zynga-bash it just gets silly.

I place some of the blame on Social Media, it's so easy now to copy and paste a status, or click share, that often we don't think to go DEEPER. It's how scams trap us, we just click, or share, or like a post... without wondering, like a river, where is the source and what's been peeing in it.

Recently I reckon most of us here have seen the CAPS LOCKED and infuriated little status doing the rounds at the moment about a statement released by Zynga, something loosely saying "we don't care about older players, only new ones."

I've seen a goodly number, as have the other admins. They're heartfelt and emotive in their own little way but here's the teeny tiny problem. It's based on a sinkhole foundation. Looks solid enough but poke around and the whole thing falls through the floor. The entire basis of the status is false.

For starters, let's look at the crux of it, this is the statement:

"Zynga has expressed a strange sentiment to explain their recent departure of players that they don’t care as much about retaining existing users as they do attracting new ones. While veteran players of games like Farmville and Mafia Wars get fed up with the company’s games or service, Zynga is content to just keep releasing an endless stream of titles in hopes that by getting new players, they outweigh the tide of old ones leaving."

The problem here is this is suggested to have come from Zynga, spoken, written, even just intimated. The reader is left believing this is the words and feelings of Zynga. Then the posters will add their own heartfelt emotive comment regarding how dare Zynga think like this... aiding new people to fall in the trap with every share.

So, to the truth of where it came from. The words above weren't based on any Zynga comment, on any statement, on anything anyone had broadcast. They were based on one man's report into the release of Hidden Chronicles, the new hidden object game from Zynga.

His point was that he felt in releasing new games such as HC he FELT that Zynga were just wanting lots of new people playing new games instead of working on the ones they had. Unfortunately this opinion was picked up, someone out there didn't quite read it properly, cocked their Caps Lock Button and let rip.

This is one guys FEELINGS written in a blog, it's not an article in the magazine, it's a contributor blog on the site, one that contains individual thoughts and ideas, much like this one of mine.

He is suggesting that developing a new game is Zynga ignoring old players and just wanting new ones. This is what this contributor has decided in his head that is now being ripped from the comfort of its context and spread as if it's quotes from Zynga.

In part I blame the writer himself (who admits he's new to journalism but has written some good stuff). In using the strange phrase "expressed" he was, himself, suggesting this was something that had come from Zynga, instead of something he felt from seeing the HC release.

In fact, in context, it's more about how Zynga are following, rather than leading, the gaming landscape on Facebook and to be wary of investing in their stock. (Which is fair enough, Hidden Chronicles IS nothing other than a Gardens of Time ripoff, but that's not suggesting there's anything bad there)

Let's take a look at some facts specifically tailored to the game we love:

Frontierville is glitchy. Yes it is. It could do with the Trail ripping out, a LOT less of a flood of new stuff and some serious recoding to make it more efficient and stop crashes with Flash when opening Collections or the Rodeo etc.

Frontierville needs a big overhaul and possibly a complete change in mindset, less stuff, less begging, better optimisation. This is true, right now the game has become less fun to play, it's become more of a chore.

But bringing out a new game means squat to the ones we have. There's a strange assumption Zynga have one development team and a new game draws people from an old one, which is untrue. Every game is its own little autonomous being. It has its own developers, its own program team, its own communication team...

Zynga is like a massive shopping centre (that's Mall for Americans). A big building made up of lots of smaller, independent entities, a symbiosis if you will. Adding a Starbucks in the food court won't mean it's crewed by the shop assistants of Foot Locker.

I like to consider this blog something of a Switzerland of Neutrality when it comes to Frontierville (although I know others don't...) I've pointed out where the gamers have done silly things or misunderstood, I've also pointed out where ZYNGA have done silly things or, in fact downright stupid ones.

Yes, I will defend Zynga and resist the ever increasing number of Zynga bashers who give every glitch a Machiavellian plot and suggest evil intent in pretty much everything that the company do. But I'll also point out where the company are wrong, and if they really HAD said they didn't care about the gamers who've been with them for years (as a gamer who's been with them for years) I would be shouting it at them and at my own gaming friends on my status.

But I'm not. Because they haven't. We can THINK they do, we can SUGGEST it... But I don't think they do, and I think that for logical reasons.

Older players are more invested. Older players are more addicted. Every company wants more customers through its doors, but every company also knows that one person who keeps coming back (even if treated badly) is worth ten one time customers.

A new player to Frontierville might well see all the missions on offer and just quit. They wont have created their homestead, wont have become invested in the Fanny/Hank love affair and marriage. They won't feel attached to the game enough to get addicted, to pay for Horseshoes, to keep on, and on, and on, even if it's painful going.

New players will quit.

Even the blogger himself mildly contradicts himself when he points out Zynga's success is in its huge user base, a user base made up of old and new players alike. He is pointing out that Zynga rely on all players, not just new ones.

We've put up with some serious Hell in our time with Frontierville, and we're still here. THAT is why Zynga knows they need to hold on to the older players, the addicted players. THAT is why the statement above, as lovely and dramatic as it is, is nothing more than one man's feelings based on the release of a new game, taken out of context and given a false official tag, like a fake police badge.

The original blog can be read HERE.

Now let the accusations... COMMENCE!

The Pioneer Trail - My Post Mortem

As we enter 2012 and bid a possibly less than fond adieu to the Pioneer Trail section of the now incongruously named Pioneer Trail game (can we just agree to call it Frontierville? Good.) I thought I might do my own little post mortem of the feature everyone wanted, and no-one probably had a smooth time in.

I think one thing that must be pointed out to begin with is I don't begrudge Zynga bringing it out at all. I know a LOT of game issues began around the app change and the subsequent adding of the Trail. A game that was always something of a chubby pup became an overweight dog of a game to play. This, unfortunately, must be laid at the feet of the Trail. It's no coincidence that as soon as the new app was launched and the Trail was added many folks found themselves unable to play due to problems in performance.

All of a sudden Frontierville was a game you needed a great computer to play with any success, and I know of folks who have simply never been able to play since the Trail was launched and the game became more intensive.

BUT... as big a but as this needs to be to offset that, the reasoning behind adding the Trail was simple. It was something we'd asked for, it was something that COULD have been wonderful, the developers are constantly pushing the envelope with the game and this was another example of the same.

Whether they would do it again looking at the myriad of problems it caused is debatable, I think most people would say no. But doing it in the beginning they could have had no idea what chaos was to ensue, hindsight is 20/20 after all.

We're always begging for new stuff, and one of the most popular questions was when the signposts would lead somewhere and when the Trail would open. We WANTED the Trail, and we pushed for it. To be honest Zynga would have been stupid NOT to bring it out.

The name change also didn't work. Not only would it continue to be known as Frontierville (a name Zynga perhaps thought was getting a bad reputation) but as the Pioneer Trail was the backbreaker the app soon had a much worse reputation. People couldn't say "Frontierville is a bit glitchy but it's all the Pioneer Trail's fault". The game has had it's PR nightmares since the inception of the Trail and right now it might almost be worth returning to Frontierville, the mud that stuck on that name falls well short of the amount adorning the name Pioneer Trail.

What I do know is that we should never berate anyone for trying. It's arguable that the current mood of the players is well into Defcon 1 and the Trail had it's hand in it, but that in itself makes the next month or so rather exciting.

What will happen when the Trail goes? Will we see an increase in performance? Will we get something new to replace it? Will they suddenly find calls to Customer Support go down by 500% now there's no more questions about the damn hidden missions? (probably not a surprise they haven't been seen again in any other expansion.)

Whatever happens will be interesting, and part of that comes from the fact the developers are constantly experimenting and that's something we should never, ever discourage (I'll try anything once, or twice if my bruises heal quickly...)

Remember for every genius breakthrough there's been something less successful. If a groundbreaking and exciting development follows two failures, then that's a success rate to be proud of, no great invention came without a few singed eyebrows.

Faint heart never won fair Fanny after all.

So that being said, what about the Trail itself? Just how good was it? How fun was it?

If I'm honest, I'd probably give it a 6/10. There were some excellent things about the Trail, but a lot of that was offset by issues or by bad decisions regarding missions and requirements, the same problems that beset the rest of the game to be fair.

Let's start with the positives;

As ever with Frontierville the artwork was magnificent, my favourite by far being Beaver Valley, the Plains were a bit brown, the Pass a bit white, Beaver Valley was the sort of place you'd want to go for a walk.

We know the one thing that's never skimped on is the art and from start to finish it was very good.

The plot was also very good, the storyline, the little mini mission scrolls, the Ezekiel subplot that was criminally underused at Fort Courage... all worked pretty well.

The idea of different people having different jobs was also a nice touch, but really should have been done in the same way as the Ghost Town and Hollow, by automatically selecting the one we needed at that time.

But here comes the crunch, and to be honest this is easily translated across into problems with the main game, although everything was there for it to be a fun and interesting game... it wasn't.

What started out as fun in Beaver Valley (using your different characters to get different things) became tedious by the end of the pass when the same things kept coming back.

As fun as it was to pick your Doctor and harvest 10 herbs or grasses in the Valley harvesting 50 trees with him/her in the Pass was painful, especially when you were needing to harvest 50 something else with someONE else. In the end we just did the same stuff again and again, but bigger every time.

Obviously in games that will always happen, but because there was so little variation in the Trail it became dull, it was simply a chore.

Then the problems that beset the entire game, so much requesting, so much building, especially in High Plains. Woe betide anyone who redid the Trail or was slow in doing it (like me). It would take days, WEEKS to find enough building materials to finish off the McBaggins Well or the Pass Hideout.

And finally, the glitches, oh the glitches! Whether it was the aforementioned hidden missions not turning up, blueberries not returning (and which numpty made you harvest them twice in two missions?) or goats dropping and not geese I think we all had the problems, and nary a day went by without one or more of those questions popping up.

The final judgement may sound a little damning, but here goes. The Pioneer Trail, at large, suffers from the same problems as the entire game does. It sets you up to have a great game, and then things let it down. Mission design, glitches, marketing over gameplay... in the end you're in danger of being disappointed.

And THAT is what makes the pain of the Pioneer Trail all the greater, it's like being in a certain type of bad relationship. You love it, you get addicted to it and you want to enjoy your time together. But instead of comforting you, the POTENTIAL of what it could be, the occasional glimpse of greatness, added to the often misguided excitement of a new feature makes the whole thing worse because you see what the pair of you together could be... but are beaten down too often by the disappointment and anti-climax.

All we can do now is look ahead to what's next, and even though we know we shouldn't, like a sports fan at the beginning of every season, we'll look forward with hope and optimism, even though we hate and berate ourselves for it, and say to ourselves "this time, THIS time our faith will be repaid".

Let's just hope whatever comes out next IS a doozy, because we KNOW the developers have it in them, even if someone on high makes bad choices with missions. Lets hope they SHOW it...

Lots Of Little Pies Or One Big One...?

This has been a subject I've so far avoided talking about, firstly because it's not funny and I prefer to have a joke, secondly because it's a very divisive issue and thirdly because usually I'm either described as a Zynga Stooge or criminally Anti-Zynga, often both of them at the same time.

But, I've decided to do it. I'm going to blog about Horseshoes.

I think, in our lucid moments, we all agree Horseshoes, Crowns, Farm cash etc is a necessary evil. It's how Zynga make their money and it's what keeps the game alive. No shoes, no money, no Frontierville, they're a business.

A world where everything is available for easily obtained coins is a cute little utopian thought but unrealistic (as I fear, are most utopian ideas... yes, I'm a cynic.)

But what I do often wonder is whether Zynga might be better served looking at having lots of little slices of lots of different pies, and not a few larger slices of one big pie.

Let me explain without food related analogies... Every time I look at the prices of stuff in the market or when Limited Edition animals come out, one thought comes to mind, "too expensive".

[Boring bit, I'm going to use UK Pounds... for reference £1 = US$1.57 | C$1.60 | Aus$1.54 | 1.17 Euros]

Now, at the moment Horseshoes cost 8-10 pence per Shoe (unless you buy the daft 1000 pack, then it's just over 7) and because I'm disturbingly sensible about money, that's the way I tend to think of it.

Take these new Australian limited edition animals for example. Altogether they cost 200 Horseshoes which ranges from £14 - £20 depending on which package you bought. Now me, personally, that's a little above my "impulse buy" threshold.

How about some other "real world" prices for market items?

Pardoned Turkey - 100HS - £7-£10
24 Hour Master Farmer Boost - 130HS - £9 - £13
Melons - 2HS each - 14p-20p each (they're like Pringles, who'd only have one?)
Dr Cluck - 80HS - £6-£8
Gold Fountain - 60HS - £4-£6

How about the most expensive item in the market? The Jungle Gym is 250 HS, that's £18 - £25 for that one decoration.

To me, even though I agree with the IDEA of Horseshoes, this doesn't seem to tally up with real life when I look at the actual COST, not in fantasy money but real money.

If those items in the market were for real cash, there is no way I'd even look at them. My working life is not going so well that I could sit and think "couple decorations, couple animals, field of Melons... yeah, it's only 100 quid or so..."

I will happily admit I have an impulse buy limit, and I do buy add-ons etc for games from the Playstation Network (my other gaming platform) but for ME, a single item in a game needs to cap at about £1-£2 at most.

To provide some balance, some things in the Market DO go under that, and are what I'd suggest are ok pricing. Badgers for example are 5HS each, and 30p-50p is what I'd call a sensible-ish price for an item like that, but even then... I'd say to reach most impulse buy limits you should probably get a couple for that money.

And so, finally, to the point. In marketing you have a couple ways of selling things.

If you make something big and exclusive, millionaire playthings (luxury yachts, sports teams, Bugatti Veyrons) you can afford to make them expensive and aim for an exclusive clientèle.

On the other hand if you make normal things (toy boats, sports video games, Fiat Puntos) you look more at smaller profit margins and mass sales.

You're pretty much choosing between expensive to a few people, or affordable to many.

To me, I think Zynga need to lean a LOT more towards the second option, and they might find it pays them in the end.

Ask yourself this question: Which is better, one person spending £50, or ten people spending £5?

Hands up who said the one person...

Hands up who said they're both the same...

Hands up who said the ten people...

Congratulations to the last group, they're the right ones. Even though the gain at that time is exactly the same, those 10 people may well return, they may well tell friends, they may well suggest to others to go spend money.

Even if the cost of horseshoes stayed the same, my own view is Zynga could see an upturn if they just became a little more sensible with their pricing. Instead of 200 Horseshoes total for the LE animals, what about 50? Instead of 250 HS for the Jungle Gym, what about 25?

Give us more for our money.

Buying items in games like this is almost 100% impulse. Like grabbing a chocolate bar in the supermarket or ordering that Green Day CD you find marked down on Amazon. Just like impulse buys the more you do it, the more addictive and easy it becomes.


Give people quick, simple cheap ways to spend horseshoes and it becomes easy to click here for a badger, there for a boost, anywhere for a mission requirement. I'm talking things that cost one or two horseshoes. Yes, I'll use the phrase again, IMPULSE BUYS.

Zynga get more people buying horseshoes which will likely level out the difference in prices and we get more boosts, decorations and cute animals to play with. Win-Win scenario.

There aren't that many types of Horseshoe person, the types are:

Will buy it no matter what - These people will continue to buy Horseshoes, whatever happens. They won't go away if Zynga make them cheaper, in fact it's more likely they spend the same money. Most folks I know don't buy Horseshoes for a specific reason, they're just a treat they buy for themselves each month or so.

Won't buy at all - Zynga can totally ignore the this set of people in marketing considerations. Some folks just won't buy at all. Anything from these folks is a bonus, but I'll tell Zynga something for certain. You won't get them to spend by keeping things the same.

Would buy if it was cheaper - Ding, ding, round one. Here's the market in the middle that would be the place to look because THIS is where extra buys would come from. Group one won't stop, group two won't start, Group three is undecided.

I would argue a lot of group three people would look at horseshoes if everything in the Market that's desirable wasn't so damn expensive.

So, Zynga, let me appeal to your capitalism if nothing else.

What do you have to lose by dropping the pretty daft prices on a lot of market items? What it won't do is stop people who currently buy shoes from buying them. What it CAN do is make new people buy them.

Horseshoes are necessary, we get that. But they also don't have to be an expensive plaything.

A Tale Of Two Villes

This will be something of a confusing post for me to write because when it comes to the subject matter, I'm a little schizophrenic.

Today, children, we'll be talking about Farmville, Frontierville and common influences.

Let's get this bit out the way first... I used to play Farmville, I don't any longer. I quit because I was bored with no missions to do and also I disliked the fact we suddenly had to ask neighbours for items to build things.

Looking back the second reason seems a bit strange as I'm now playing Frontierville, a game who's spamming and marketing techniques are second only to Viagra emails in their invasiveness and, yes, annoyance but back then it was a simpler time, a few requests here and there and the devs hadn't got the daft idea everything needs a building.

Anyway, I'm meandering off the point.

The simple and unavoidable fact is that we will get ideas from Farmville hit us in Frontierville, in the same way as Frontierville was the first game to really be mission based, now they ALL do it. It does work both ways.

What we shouldn't do though is automatically assume that it's going to be a bad thing when we appropriate ideas from Zynga's biggest game and trot out the old favourite...

"It's becoming just like Farmville" (For shorthand purposes this will now be written as JLF)

...without actually trying the feature first.

Copied things aren't necessarily a BAD things... I can cook a mean risotto from a recipe card and I reckon a lot of folks reading this will have enjoyed tasting Nigella's pie or Ken Hom's chow mien.

For me, the defining thing is whether it FITS with the game, and whether it makes the game better.

Recently the old JLF was rattled out for the addition of Mastery. It's had it's problems (we didn't need two buildings doing the job of one and the popups might be a little on the large side) but on the whole I LIKE mastery, once the missions were done it was just something that sat in the background. If you wanted to do the repeatables to gain mastery, you could, if you didn't, it STILL rewards you every time you feed or harvest but at no cost to yourself.

I'd also say the rewards, and the reasoning, are right for the time. The more pioneers worked with certain crops or animals the better it would be, the better they'd get the more they'd be able to deal with better animals. Arguably the badgers are daft and anachronistic but the rest of the animals were all well designed and true to some semblance of life.

Mastery was really a case of JLF being used pretty much for the single reason Farmville had it first. Even though mastery itself was fairly passive, it was just an instant dislike because Frontierville weren't first.

On the other hand we had the survey the other day for animal breeding, something I was vehement in my dislike of, on the page, on the survey and in conversation with Zynga.

It was wrong in so many ways. For starters I don't think Pioneer folks took all that much trouble to breed pigs with stars on, cows with fleece or goats that could do algebra. Secondly it didn't really seem to ADD anything to the game, apart from yet another chance to fill our Facebook walls with spam (have you got a Frontierville only friends list to set posts to be private to? If not, you should.)

So there we go, two ideas, both from Farmville, one good, one terribly, terribly bad. The genesis of an idea can't be the defining factor of whether it's good or not.

And so on to crafting, the latest item to spawn a chorus of JLF. My view, if you're interested, is it looks intriguing. For me it fulfils a number of the important criteria:

1) The building looks good and looks like something from Frontier times (there's a reason I don't have an Inn L'Amour and I'll be deleting and rebuilding my bank)

2) The feature itself is right for the time, probably even more than the Farmville version. Pioneers made their own stuff, there wasn't a nearby Ikea to help out.

3) The items to craft are nice, right for the time (I'm ignoring the Robo Chicken, I will in game too) and actually in one case something people ASKED for.

In the past when decorations have been talked about White Fences were mentioned, and here they are. I also think the stony paths look so much nicer than the dull and dreary yellow lines that are our current paths.

Ultimately though, I might change my mind when I actually TRY it. But there's the nub of this whole post, trying it. My positive thoughts are so far based on the feature itself, any negative thoughts will be the same. I'll judge the feature on it's own merits, not simply because another development team used it first.

Farmville will have good ideas, and bad ideas, so let's not be gameist and trot out the JLF too often, eh?

A Little History Is On The Cards

There's something of a kerfuffle going on at the moment due, largely, to something of a misconception about something in a recent game feature, so I've decided to cut through sensationalism a little and try to bring some history to bear.

I'm talking Tarot Cards.

So, a quick game of true or false.

Tarot Cards were created by pagans for witchcraft.
Tarot Cards are only used for divination.
Having Tarot Cards means you're going to use them for evil means.

All false.

Let's look at some REAL history. Tarot decks first appeared in the 1400s, not as a divination tool but to play the inventively titled game, Tarot (Or Tarock or Tarocchi), a game something like Whist or Bridge.

The opening player would lay down a card, the following player would have to place a card of the same suit down or a trump, or "throw away" a card of a different suit. The person with the highest card won the trick, and then the totals of the cards (each card had a different value) were added up for each persons tricks and the winner the one with the most points.

That's it, that's pretty much how to play Tarot, as someone who is confused into a stupor by Bridge even I can understand it. It was a common European card game, especially France and (always highly religious) Italy. Around 325 years give or take since the first game of Tarot is recorded is the first recorded instance of them being used for some kind of divination, and it wasn't until someone made a vague connection in 1781 that things started the innocent card game along a road to 'corruption'.

Tarot is even still played today, Germanic countries are a hotbed for it, and none of the players are evil, the players are enjoying a card game, for that's what Tarot is, despite any twists that can be made with its cards.

Now, it's fair to say that yes, Taromancy is a commonly known method of telling the future, but let's look at other items commonly used for divination.

Chickens - They would sacrifice them and tell the future from their entrails.

Stars - One word, astrology...

Water - Hydromancy, the color, ebb and flow, or ripples produced by pebbles dropped in a pool.

Fire - Pyromancy, casting something into the fire and checking for smoke etc.

Numbers - Numerology, still used today when people think they can divine things about you from your birthday etc.

Singling out Tarot Cards for singular dislike is as logical as saying we can't craft fire in the game because people have used it in the past for divination... and as for those pesky chickens in their dark satanic coops... No, we don't think that.

Tarot Cards are a tool of divination, just as chickens, water and the stars are, but that's not their PURPOSE. Nothing inanimate is inherently evil, it's all down to how it's used.

There are stunning misconceptions about Tarot, but the simple answer is this... it's a card game. An innocent one where the participants' only attempt at telling the future is to plan which card to play, and all players stay fully clothed and un-sacrificed for the entire performance.

Frankly it makes me laugh to think of all the heavy metal bands who think they're going all satanic with their album or track names when actually they could have called them Gin Rummy or Patience...

As an example to finish... would you be offended by a crucifix? What if it was simply placed upside down? It's amazing what innocent objects can be evil when used wrong... but that's not the object's fault and not a reason to shun it.

My Frontierville Homestead

A little look inside the Frontierville mind of me...

As you can see, I lean towards realism with my homestead, there's very few daft animals (NO clothed ones!) or decorations as I really can't be having with dressed chickens or rings of fire. I also like having a nice thick forest around the back and some debris around just for realism (and it REALLY helps when needing bears...).

You might notice there's some buildings missing, they're either stored or deleted. If I don't like the look of a building or it doesn't feel right it's gone, Detectives Office is deleted, Pet Shop/Kennel is stored. It also counts for upgrades, I didn't like the look of the upgraded Inn or School so bam, back to basics on them. I'll do the same with the bank once I've got all the upgrade goodies, delete and back to level 3 or 4 that looks the most realistic!

So, here it is, the Homestead of me... (Click the picture for a high resolution version)

The Pioneer Trail - My View

I thought I'd indulge myself with a little blog, I haven't done one of these for a little while now and I've decided it's time to dust off the Workshop writing bench and rattle on about my feelings over The Pioneer Trail.

You'll excuse me if I only use the name for the new expansion part of the game because for me, my Homestead and everything in it will always be Frontierville and I will determinedly carry on with that name like a good old codger should.

The graphics on the Pioneer Trail are just stunning, I love the little missions and I enjoy the distraction immensely... however... Just like being a burglar in J-Lo's house there's a real danger of a big BUT just around the corner.

I've had some time to dissect the Trail now and I think I've got a good little handle on what it is, and I think many problems it has right now stems from people thinking it's NOT what it is...

The Trail is a side mission, an expansion, a diversion. It's the special features on a DVD or the cupholders in a car. To me the Trail is a Bonus Feature.

It's best played in short bursts, nip over, do a few things, do a couple missions and come home again, ready to take off to it again when you have a few minutes spare. It's not a book to sit down and read from cover to cover, its a gossip magazine to be picked up when you have to waste 5 minutes waiting for your sister to pick between all 97 pairs of shoes, or your mate to decide which brand of cologne is going to make him "lucky" tonight.

The problem is, because of how it's been released, perception of it has been altered. For one, the name change... What I play is Frontierville, and it has an expansion pack called The Pioneer Trail... but because of the name change people are seeing this new extension to our old game AS the game...


They're getting a backwards view on it. Instead of seeing it as Frontierville with an expansion pack attached to whittle away a little more of our precious existence in folks are seeing it as The Pioneer Trail taking to the fore and Frontierville being given the back seat, the supporting role, the Biden to their Barack as it were.

It also hasn't helped we've been bereft of new content for Frontierville over the last week or so. It's a totally understandable course to take, so much has been pushed out for the Trail to overwhelm it all with some new stuff on the Homestead would have been a little daft.

HOWEVER... here's the but again. By having no new content for the Homestead it exacerbated the feeling that the Homestead is becoming secondary. I know for sure new content is coming for the homestead, I can sit content in that knowledge, but other people aren't that lucky.

Already on Frontierville Express' Facebook page I've taken questions from people who are sure the homestead will be no more, that nothing new will be brought out for it, which is extremely wide of the mark, but it's an understandable fear.

Because of the combination of the name change and the lack of missions we see Frontierville being marginalised, pushed to one side. We also then, psychologically, see the Pioneer Trail taking over at the head of the table... the only problem is, it doesn't have the oompahs to be the top dog.

I love the Trail, I love it for many reasons. But I love it as a game extension. It's never long into playing I itch to get back to my Frontierville Homestead and play a mission, ANY mission... Hell, by this point I'd redo Canning...

The Trail isn't long enough, deep enough or filled enough to be the main game, it's only ever going to be a side dish in our Frontierville feast.

But the problem is with everything going on how it is, folks don't see it that way, folks see this as the big kahuna, the top cheese, the Godfrontier... and it's almost damaging the game itself. Expectations are being put on it to be a GAME in it's own right, not simply an extension of one already here.

It will never be a game in it's own right, but Frontierville is. Frontierville is a game that's kept me coming back for a year or so now, and it's Frontierville that keeps me coming back today.

I love the Trail in the same way I love cream on my hot chocolate and apps on my iPhone... as something to add spice, as the cream, not the hot chocolate.

I fear for the game if people play The Pioneer Trail and think that it's the main game, I fear for it if new players do likewise. It just isn't big enough or strong enough to hold up main game status. So I can only hope other folks think the same as me, that we've been given a great add-on, a wonderful extension to Frontierville, but NOT a whole new game in it's own right...

...and Zynga? Roll us out some homestead missions will you?