Psychological components of Petville?

Question

Can someone (preferably someone with a background in psychology) tell me what makes a game like Petville (Facebook game) appealing?

I know there must be certain quantifiable factors that a game like this must be playing on to get its audience to continue coming back, but I would like to get a professional outlook if possible.

Asked by Nekoyoubi Games

Answer

I don't play Petville, but it is another Zynga game. Zynga also created Farmville, the infamously "most popular" game on Facebook (which I also do not play) and CafeWorld (which I do play, despite myself). The idea behind Zynga's games, and, ironically, the stack sites, is leveling. You keep playing because you start to feel like you have to reach the next level. These games operate on our needs to complete tasks (no matter how meaningless they are) and be better than other people.

We ask and answer questions on the stack sites for completely arbitrary "reputation" and "badges". These are not physical things, and they have no monetary value. Yet, we all want them and work to get them.

Another aspect of Zynga games is time-delay. There's only so much you can do in a single sitting, so you keep coming back each day to complete the latter part of your task. In Cafe World, it's all about cooking. You start a dish cooking and have to come back later to serve it. If you wait too long, the dish will spoil and you lose all the potential experience and "coins" from your customers.

Zynga games also have no real skill requirements. If you can move and click a mouse, you can play. So, it's very easy to get started. The challenges of the games typically revolve around choosing actions that will reap the greatest yield based on when you can return to play again.

The infectious nature of Zynga games (and most Facebook games) is not really part of this question, but I will add that it's usually based on giving the players rewards for sending requests to all of their Facebook friends to participate in the game in some way as well.

Answered by Artemis

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Can I associate the account with Facebook after it was already created?

Question

My wife has created a Draw Something account directly, not using Facebook as the login mechanism, but she now regrets doing that. Can she associate the existing account with Facebook somehow, or does she have to create a new account (and lose all her coins) if she wants to do so?

Asked by Oak

Answer

Well, for one just go to draw something, hit the settings button in the top right, and tap help. It will take you to a help section, and your question is the very top one listed... I'll re-type the reply here for you:

If you've already created an account vie email, and you want to play with your Facebook friends, you'll have to log in with your Facebook account.

If both your Facebook account and Email account share the same email address, our system will TRY and keep your existing email account games.

Ready to give it a shot? Here's what you need to do if you've already logged into your email account:

1)Press the gear in the top right of the game.

2)Click on account

3)Scroll down to the bottom of the page.

4)Press Log Out

5)Login with your Facebook account

Again if your FB account email matches an existing email account of yours, it'll try to retain your stuff. If it doesn't, your new FB account will be separate. (Sorry, we can not transfer games, coins, bombs, colors over.)

In the future we are looking to make this process way easier. Thanks!

Word for word ;) Hope this helps!

Answered by Zeff520

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How do I connect Starcraft 2 and Facebook?

Question

I've been reading that Starcraft 2 has facebook integration. But how do I actually connect my accounts?

Asked by FigBug

Answer

If you log onto battle.net, go to your "Home" page by clicking the little house button.

As you can see there, is a button which says "Import Friends" next to the Facebook icon. Select this, and enter in your Facebook credentials.

If the broadcast has expired, select your friends:

Click "add friends":

Select "add Facebook Friends."

Answered by tzenes

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How do you get the Duke to reappear?

Question

The Duke disappearance bug in CastleVille seems to be a very prevalent one. Is there a way to make the Duke reappear, or at least get his quests back?

Answer

Apparently this is a known issue. They are working on a game-wide fix, but in the meantime, they are trying to manually fix this for each individual user, so it is taking them a while.

From this forum:

Originally Posted by Ziffer Last Update: 12/20

Description:

Since 11/23, some players have reported losing the Duke's Quest Line after going OOS and are unable to restart the Quest Line to finish it.

Status: The CastleVille Team is actively investigating and addressing.

Workaround: Please contact Customer Support for a fix.

Link to bug report thread: here

Here are some things that they suggest trying:

Known Issue: http://forums.zynga.com/showthread.php?t=1243568

Getting your game to work might be just a few steps away. Before posting a bug report, try out these trouble shooting tips.

If you have done all of these and still need to post your bug report please provide the following, whether you create a new thread or post in an existing one.

• Have you tried clearing your cache and reloading the game?
• Have you tried all the other troubleshooting steps listed in this guide? Including restarting your computer?
• Please provide your browser and version
• Please provide your operating system and version
• Please provide your flash version.
• Are you receiving any errors when you try loading the game? If so you could you please post a screenshot of that error?
• Please describe the issue. If you are receiving an error please provide as much information as possible regarding what you were trying to do in the game right before it happened.
• If possible, please provide your facebook user ID (please do not post anyone else's user ID, as that would violate the forum Rules of Conduct

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What kinds of things happen when I link Steam and Facebook?

Question

I really hate Facebook apps. I've probably blocked a few hundred or so. Mostly the reasons are twofold:

1. I don't want to spam my friends with random crap that I'm doing
2. I find that most gaming is more interesting to me in a more rich environment (consoles, or a DirectX experience), and none of the games are really appealing when I've got other games to play.

So, what will happen if I merge Steam and Facebook?

• Will it automagically post to facebook any time I get a steam achievement?
• Will it post to facebook at other times?
• Do I have control over that? Can I hold back posts to facebook?
• What kind of information is available to my friends on each service?

Answer

This Facebook FAQ from the Steam Knowledgebase seems to answer most of your questions.

When you link your Facebook account to Steam, all that happens is that Steam tries to find if any of your Facebook friends are also on Steam, and suggests that you add them. You also get the option to invite your Facebook friends to link accounts as well, via a wall post (looks like this), but that can simply be declined.

Your Steam friend limit is also increased from 250 to 300.

The support article explicitly states that nothing will be posted to your wall automatically:

Are you going to post status messages to my wall?
Steam will not post anything to your Facebook wall without your permission.

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On Steam, how can I see who a friend is on Facebook after they've been linked?

Question

I found a number of my steam friends via the facebook integration. It's an easy process, you go to a page in steam, it shows you who on facebook isn't yet in your friends list, and then you check boxes to add them to your steam friends.

This is all well and good, but because the namespaces are completely different, there's no way to know what friend ladayada71272 on steam would be on Facebook. And I absolutely cannot find a way to get that information.

Normally I wouldn't care, but someone gifted me a game and used my name, so they're obviously someone I know on Facebook but I have no way to thank them and know who they are in the process.

Is the Steam interface broken or is it me?

Answer

While Steam does store their names from Facebook, I can't find a way to view them. Your best bet is to check their profile and see if they entered it there:

Otherwise, all you can do is ask them or try to figure out from their games, playtime, avatar, etc.

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How do I synchronize my Facebook and Google+ Dragon Age Legends games?

Question

Is it possible to port my Dragon Age: Legends character from the Facebook version of the game to the Google+ version and keep them synchronized?

Answer

No. You can't port them or synchronize them. From the FAQ.

Can I import my Dragon Age Legends hero from Facebook to Google+?

No. The Facebook and Google+ versions of Dragon Age Legends are completely independent of each other. If you've already played the game on Facebook, you're able to create a brand-new hero on Google+. Try playing as another class for a very different DAL experience!

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How do I unlock the pier in CityVille?

Question

How to unlock pier in cityville?

Answer

This page has a list of all the quests and what you need to do to complete them. The Pier is near the middle of the "tree", right after build a school. It requires you to have 3 expansions and lay 3 roads.

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CityVille: How is Cash different from Coins? How to earn Cash?

Question

I see CityVille has both Cash and Coins. I know how to earn coins (rent, business, etc.), but I don't see an option to gain more Cash. There are things I can only buy with Cash.

Only way I know to gain Cash is when moving on to next level. Can somebody please explain to me how it differs and the means of earning Cash?

Answer

City Cash is how they get you. It's just an alternate currency besides the Coins, and there are only 3 ways of getting it:

1. Leveling up
2. Completing certain out-of-game offers for Zynga ("Earn City Cash" tab)
3. Buying it with real money ("Add Coins & Cash" tab)

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