Games.com's Top 10 Facebook Games of 2010

top ten facebook games 2010 games.com
This year has been both a turbulent time and a renaissance for social gaming. The first half of 2010 showed immense growth and opportunity for almost everyone involved in this brave new world of gaming. There were multiple stories of buyouts and new development studios cropping up at least once a month for quite a while with new games being released twice as often. And even in the midst of drastic changes to the way we discover games, developers kept cranking out hits with tens of millions of players flocking to the social game of the week. While most of these games competed for the same audience using slightly perfected design each time, there were a few that dared to be different and tread new ground. And with that, we've present our back at our Top 10 Facebook Games of 2010.

top ten facebook games it girl
10. It Girl
Crowdstar
For girly girls who want to get their shop on without opening their wallet, It Girl from Crowdstar is the way to do it. Customize your very own It Girl and then take her shopping, doll her up and then flirt to find a boyfriend. Use your style prowess to win showdowns against other It Girls. It's The Hills meets the Kardashians meets a Facebook game (if you're into that sort of thing). Even if you're not a fashionista, you'll be surprised at how easily this game sucks you in.


top ten facebook games mighty pirates
9. Mighty Pirates
Crowdstar
Hunt for treasure by digging, chopping, and slashing your way through tropical islands, searching for goods and fighting off the undead. Deck out your ship with crew members, weapons, and decorations. Then take your deadly war vessel out on the high seas and do battle with the meanest pirates the world has to offer. There are a number of pirate games on Facebook, but Mighty Pirates distinguishes itself from the rest with its epic mixture of action and adventure.


top ten facebook games robot unicorn attack
8. Robot Unicorn Attack
Adult Swim Games
"Always, I wanna be with you, and make believe with you, and live in harmony, harmony oh love!" If you know the song, you certainly know the game. This addictive, simple, two-button platformer starring a unicorn that zaps enemies with rainbow beams made a seamless transition from Adult Swim Games to Facebook. With weekly tournaments, leaderboards, and of course the new Heavy Metal Version, Robot Unicorn Attack will continue to capture our imaginations and our free time for many moons to come.


top ten facebook games flutter
7. Flutter
Runaway
Reminiscent of high-concept video games like Flower and flOw, Flutter brings a refreshing approach to social gaming with a heavier focus on exploration rather than maintaining a farm, city or other type of property. Flutter's smooth animation, soothing music and extremely detailed visuals are a sight to behold as you guide butterflies through a rainforest interacting with wildlife and completing quests. In what might be a first for social games, there's no pressure to be the best in Flutter, just be.


top ten facebook games city of wonder
6. City of Wonder
Playdom
Until the recent release of CityVille, City of Wonder was our favorite 'city' game out there -- mostly because it's the closest a Facebook has come to recreating one of our all-time favorite PC games, Civilization. You start out building a city and, while keeping your population growing (and happy), you learn new skills that will enable you to trade with and/or go to battle with other civilizations. Make allies to fortify your city and be prepared for enemies attack -- you'll need might and mettle if you want to give it back.


top ten facebook games pocket god
5. Pocket God
Frima/Bolt
The game that made a name for itself on the iPhone got ported to Facebook and managed to keep its main premise in tact -- you play a vengeful god to an island of pygmies -- while adding in some clever social elements (like being able to turn friends into pygmies and kill them) and a slew of brand new powers. Let the pygmy torture commence.


top ten facebook games ravenwood fair
4. Ravenwood Fair
LOLApps
Deep within the mysterious, dark forest of Ravenwood, a fun fair is under construction. Build rides, decorate your world and build games to attract friendly animal folks to your fair. But be wary, evil lies in the forest. Abandon your fair for too long and those creepy trees you originally beat back will slowly reclaim their home. Though Ravenwood Fair was struck by controversy and shares a lot in common with FrontierVille and other Facebook games; its charm, simple features and cute fantasy setting make the world of Ravenwood one worth returning to again and again.


top ten facebook games cityville
3. CityVille
Zynga
We all knew that Zynga's last release for 2010 was going to be huge regardless, but to dethrone FarmVille in monthly players in less than a month? That, for lack of a better word, is insane. Though, CityVille sure does deserve it for taking the stale city-building game and making it fresh through more social features than you can shake a friend request at. While the game's Reputation system and Franchises are nothing new (see FrontierVille and Millionaire City, respectively), Zynga gave them their signature polish to attract close to 78 million monthly players in December alone.


top ten facebook games zuma blitz
2. Zuma Blitz
PopCap
Let's face it -- PopCap's "Blitz" approach to Facebook gaming just works. Zuma Blitz is no exception, bringing back the gameplay that folks on the run crave for combined with the lasting satisfaction of traditional social games. Being pressured into scoring as many points in 60 seconds as possible demands quick skill and critical thinking that most social games don't even bother making a crack at. Top it all off with weekly tournaments, leader boards and impressively smooth gameplay for one of Zynga's most formidable opponents.


top ten facebook games frontierville
1. FrontierVille
Zynga
Zynga's Wild West game FrontierVille took us off the farm and plopped us down in the middle of a wilderness that we had to tame and turn into a thriving frontier town. Aside from the fact that we love Fr'ville's setting, the real reason this rootin' tootin' game sits at the top of our list is because it was one of the first Facebook games to integrate a series of quests, introduced us to characters and reminded us how fun it is to pick up stars, coins and other loot that drops after performing an otherwise mundane task. Oh yeah, and then there's the game's racy Facebook wall messages that give us a good laugh (and always manage to raise an eyebrow or two). FrontierVille set a new standard in social gaming, and we're already starting to see other games (CityVille, Ravenwood Fair) follow the same trail that this pioneering game blazed before them.

FrontierVille: Timed Missions will expire tonight if you don't accept them now!

If you've been holding off on accepting one of the many Timed Missions we've seen released in FrontierVille over the recent weeks and months, now is definitely the time to do so, as when the year of 2010 comes to an end this evening, it will take with it your ability to accept four Timed Missions in the game. Say goodbye to the mission, but also say goodbye to any exclusive prizes that you could earn if you had accepted them.

The expiring missions are the Playtime!, Mutton Bustin', Hoedown, and Barbecue Party missions. We have complete guides on how to finish each and every one of these missions, so don't feel overwhelmed if you've yet to start any of them. Remember, depending on the mission, you'll have varying amounts of time (2 - 5 days) to complete these missions once you accept them. There are tons of rewards to earn here, like Experience Points, Coins, and even some decorative items, including the musical Fiddle, which is otherwise only available as a Horseshoe item.

Check out the guides to complete these four missions below, and good luck to all those that attempt to take them on in a mad dash to the finish!

Playtime! Mission Guide
Hoedown Mission Guide
Barbecue Party Mission Guide
Mutton Bustin' Mission Guide

FrontierVille Oregon Trail sign updated with new information

Since the launch of FrontierVille last year, we users have been stuck with four directional markers leading to future "expansions" or at least new features that apparently in the works. Since you can't remove these signs from your land, many users have taken to checking them regularly to make sure that nothing has changed. It turns out, that thoroughness has led us to a bit of a breakthrough, at least where the Oregon Trail sign is concerned.

The text on the sign is quite interesting, leading us to believe that the feature might be the first of the four released, and that it might be the next big thing Zynga decides to work on in the game. Here's what the text says:

    "Adventurers are headin' west! Maybe one of 'em will pass by your homestead, pardner. The Oregon Trail ain't for the faint of heart - you'll need pioneer spirit 'n' teamwork to make it!"

Additionally, the large yellow "Coming Soon" marker that has been seen on other signs since the beginning has now been removed. While this might mean that the feature has instead been moved further back in the line of features that Zynga is working on, that seems rather counter-intuitive. After all, why would Zynga update the sign at all, if they had no intention of working on the feature?

Help us speculate as to what all of this means in the comments. Could the Oregon Trail be FrontierVille's first expansion? We'd love to know what you think!

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! FrontierVille News Stand Collection now available!

Ok, forgive the slight journalism pun if you will, but it's a very exciting time to be a FrontierVille player, as we've discovered that a new collection has been added to the game in the form of the News Stand collection. At the time of this writing, we know that a News Stand building is coming to the game, but as usual, it seems to be on a slow rollout to users.

While the Beehive, which was released earlier this week, didn't have any missions to go along with it, we know that there will be News Stand goals released in the game, but to our understanding, they haven't been completed yet. Will the building roll out to users before the day is done, or will we have to wait until the weekend proper to start our own News Stands on our Homesteads? Only time will tell, but for now, check out the five new items in the News Stand collection as things to keep an eye out for:

Bundle Cord
Ink Roller
Newspaper
Newsie Hat
Press Pass
Once you complete this collection (likely via collecting the News Stand's daily bonus, or by simply whacking the building's frame during construction), you'll be able to turn it in for a Newspaper Stack, which is likely a new decorative item.

Remember, this collection (and this News Stand building) are incredibly new, so we'll continue to update you with everything you need to know about both as time rolls on and we know more. Keep checking back with us for the latest on this new feature.

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

Have you received the News Stand building / missions in your game?

FrontierVille News Stand Goals: Everything you need to know

As we told you earlier this afternoon, a News Stand collection has appeared in FrontierVille, and that can only mean one thing - the News Stand building will soon be rolling out to all users in the game. A lucky few of you have already received this building on your land, which lets you communicate with your friends, telling them the tasks that you'd like completed when they visit, or simply notifying them that you'd like to receive a certain item as a gift.

A series of missions goes along with this building, and we have all of the details about those missions right here. The first is fairly simple, and requires you to build a News Stand on your land, along with two other tasks.

Buy a News Stand
Visit 2 Neighbors
Chop Neighbors' Oak Trees 25 Times

Completing these simple goals rewards you with 100 XP and 100 coins. It also unlocks the second mission in this series, so make sure to meet us behind the break for all of the details you need about these other goals.
Part II of IV asks you collect items from the News Stand Collection, so make sure to check out our complete guide to that collection in order to learn how to find them on your own land.

Have 1 Bundle Cord
Have 10 Newsprints
Have Five Sets of Clothes

The Bundle Cord is the News Stand Collection item, while the Newsprints can be earned by posting a general news item to your feed asking your friends to send them to you. Clothes, meanwhile, are crafted inside your Cabin for 6 Cloth and 500 coins each. Finishing this quest gives you 150 XP, 150 coins, and a Stuffed Mailbox decoration. Unfortunately, this isn't a "stuffed animal" mailbox, but rather just a mailbox that's overflowing with mail (I know, I got excited about a Mailbox plushie decoration too).

For Part III of IV, you'll need to have finished building the News Stand, and you'll need to take advantage of its new functionality to complete two of the three required tasks.

Answer a Classified Ad
Publish a Classified Ad (also called a Daily Edition)
Chop Neighbors' Pine Trees 50 Times

The rewards for this quest are slightly increased over the last, giving you 150 XP and 200 coins. Unfortunately, you won't receive a new decorative item for this quest, but you will be able to move onto the finale, which might be a big enough prize in and of itself.

Finally, Part IV of IV requires more of the same tasks as above, although you're done with chopping trees, and will need to collect a set of items instead.

Collect 10 Photographs
Publish 10 Daily Editions
Answer 10 Classified Ads

You'll be able to collect the Photographs by sending out individual requests to those friends that you think can help you. For finishing this quest, you'll receive a Newspaper Hat clothing item for your avatar(s), 200 XP and 500 coins.

And there you have it! A goal series that is slightly shorter than most (as most goal series have five missions to complete), that also doesn't seem to be overly difficult. Of course, whether or not you'll have an easy time at answering classified ads really depends on how many active neighbors you have in your game. Either way, we wish you luck as you try to complete these goals for yourself!

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

What do you think of these News Stand missions? Are they too demanding for what they reward in the end, or will you do anything to receive new clothing items for your characters?

FrontierVille News Stand: Everything you need to know

Are you ready to make headlines on your FrontierVille Homestead? Did you take one look at the News Stand Collection and think "That's a building I simply must have on my land?"If so, this guide is for you, as we have all of the information you need to know about adding a News Stand to your Homestead, and how to use its many new features after its been built. For starters, know that this building is on a slow roll-out to users, so if you don't have the building in your game already, simply wait some time and it will show up.

Once the update has rolled around to your game, you'll be able to purchase the News Stand from the store for 1000 coins and 20 Wood. You'll then to whack the frame ten times, with each whack costing 10 additional Wood. That's 100 extra Wood, so if you're feeling a bit light on the brown stuff at the moment, simply visit a few friends and chop down some trees (how convenient, you need to do that for the News Stand goals anyway!), and you'll be good to go in no time flat.

Once the building's frame is complete on your land, you'll need to finish it off by collecting a slew of new items that work as building materials. These themed items are 10 each of Shocking Photos, Breaking News, and Weather Reports, along with 15 each of Puzzles, Editorials, and Ask Fanny columns. As you might have guessed, the Shocking Photo, Breaking News and Weather Report items are earned through general news feed posts asking all of your friends to help simultaneously, while the other three items are earned through individual gift requests to friends.

After you've completed the building's construction, you'll be introduced to a system known as "classifieds" or "daily headlines" that can be published as a way to tell your neighbors what you'd like them to do on your land. This is much more of an efficient method of communication than simply hoping "Tend Here" signs grab your neighbors' attention, so make sure to take advantage of this daily service once you can. You'll need to complete at least part II of the News Stand Goals to use this feature, so check out our complete guide to the News Stand Goals to get up to speed.

You'll be able to customize what you want to say to your neighbors via a large text box, and you'll then be able to choose which items you'd like your friends to leave you after they've completed their five tasks on your Homestead. While the image above shows Wood, Fire, and Mallets being available to request at one moment, these items will vary.

After you publish this request, your neighbors will see a similar window when they visit your Homestead. You can either leave a personalized response for your friend, or you can simply go about your activities as normal, and you don't have to send their requested item to them at the end, if you know you don't have the ability to post on a friend's wall, or simply don't want to take the time.

This feature is available to all users level 18 and above, so what are you waiting for? The quicker you finish your News Stand, the quicker you can start communicating with your neighbors in-game. Whether or not those neighbors listen to your pleas or not is another thing, but at least you have the chance to try, right?

[Top image credit: Yvonne]

[Second image credit: Zynga]

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

What do you think of this new building in FrontierVille? Do you think users will be willing to complete the tasks that their friends ask them to, or will everyone just continue to do their own thing when visiting?

FrontierVille: Make headlines with two News Stand Badges

What better way to ensure that users are excited about a new FrontierVille feature than to release a set of Badges along with it? Zynga seems to understand that perfectly, as they have done just that - releasing two new Badges that coincide with the game's newest building - the News Stand.

These two Badges reward you for taking advantage of the News Stand's two new functions - posting Classifieds (also referred to as Newspapers or Daily Editions), and responding to Classifieds. Of course, as it is much easier to post something in your own game than it is to find users that have done the same and then help them out (which is made incredibly difficult if you have few friends actually taking advantage of the feature), the Publishing Badge requires much more from you than the Response Badge.

Either way, we have all four levels to both of these Badges detailed for you behind the break, so won't you meet us there?

Publishing Classifieds Badge:

Level 1: Publish 10 Newspapers. Rewards: 250 coins and 50 XP
Level 2: Publish 100 Newspapers. Rewards: 500 coins and 200 XP
Level 3: Publish 500 Newspapers. Rewards: 1,000 coins and 500 XP
Level 4: Publish 1,000 Newspapers. Rewards: 5,000 coins, 1,000 XP, and a Rooster Mailbox decoration

Responding to Classifieds Badge:

Level 1: Respond to 10 Classifieds. Rewards: 250 coins and 50 XP
Level 2: Respond to 40 Classifieds. Rewards: 500 coins and 200 XP
Level 3: Respond to 100 Classifieds. Rewards: 1,000 coins and 500 XP
Level 4: Respond to 250 Classifieds. Rewards: 5,000 coins, 1,000 XP, and a Puddle Boat decoration

As I said, you'll need to publish 1,000 Classifieds before ever finishing that particular badge, so you'll need to be incredibly dedicated to the feature to make your way through. Still, I suppose some rewards are better than none, no matter how demanding their requirements might be.

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

Will earning these Badges keep you using the News Stand feature long after you would otherwise? What do you think of the decorative items being given away with these Badges?

FrontierVille Horse Badges reward you for assigning Skill Points with the Updated Corral

If you don't care about the big hoopla concerning the Upgraded Horse Corral in FrontierVille, know that you now have extra incentive to care - or at least incentive to use the feature long enough to unlock the rewards. Once you've upgraded your Horse Corral, you can assign skill points to your Horse(s) in one of four major areas: Speed, Endurance, Spirit and Agility. Coincidentally enough, these four new FrontierVille Badges correspond with those four traits, and reward you for pouring skill points into each one.

To be specific, these four Badges start with a fairly simply requirement - simply assign 20 skill points each into Speed, Endurance, Spirit, and Agility. After you pass level one, you'll have to assign more and more skill points to each trait, which is where your own personal preference might come into play (as you'll likely choose one trait to be more important than the other three).

Either way, these Badges don't seem to have a time limit associated with them, so you've got plenty of time to assign points to any of these four Badges - it's all up to you.

Let us know which of these Badges you'll be going for first in the comments. Which is your favorite trait?

FrontierVille Legends Paul Bunyan Timed Goal: Everything you need to know

Paul Bunyan's Blue Ox
Zynga will soon pay respect to the classics, the original pioneers of history and, in this case, folklore. A new Timed Goal is being prepared for FrontierVille as the first of a series titled "FrontierVille Legends." This one in particular is in honor of Paul Bunyan, the giant lumberjack, and his massive blue ox, which you'll win if you complete this Goal within 10 days.

Here are the requirements for the Paul Bunyan Timed Goal:

    Harvest 20 Wheat
    Collect 15 Maple Syrup
    Sell 20 Adult Oxen


To harvest the 20 Wheat, you'll need 7,300 coins and at least one day's time for them to ripen. The 15 Maple Syrup appear to be items requested from friends, so keep up on this while you wait for the Wheat and somehow raise and sell 20 Adult Oxen. If you were to do it all at once, 20 Oxen would cost you 18 thousand coins and take about 4.5 days to complete. Hopefully, you've saved your Boosts for just this occasion (an unlikely scenario for most). Thankfully, you have more than double that time to complete the Goal, though this Goal is still one of legendary proportions.

[Source and Image Credit: FrontierVille Info]

Have you seen this Goal appear in your game yet? How would you go about completing this Goal as quickly as possible?

FrontierVille Poker Table: Everything you need to know

Will you check and hope for the best, or bluff your hand to catch unsuspecting prey? If you've ever played Poker, these are questions that will run through your mind, and now, they can in FrontierVille as well via the addition of a Poker Table to the Saloon. The Poker Table will be added to your Saloon after you upgrade the building. After that point, you'll be introduced to the idea of card collecting.

No, this isn't card counting, it's card collecting. You'll be able to collect Poker Cards from collecting the Saloon's Daily Bonus and can then turn those cards in matching different poker hands and receiving various prizes based on the value of the hand you turned in. But first, you'll need to build the Poker Table, which requires you to collect the six items we'll reveal behind the break.

The six necessary Poker Table building ingredients are 10 each of I.O.U.s, Green Felts and Dealing Boxes, along with 15 each of Red Chips, White Chips and Blue Chips.

Once you finish building the Poker Table, you can either purchase card packs or hope to receive cards via the Saloon's Daily Bonus, as we mentioned before. From there, it's a matter of luck (and patience) before you can actually turn in a hand. The different hands are seen below, along with the prizes. You can win everything from concoctions (like a new option that allows you to do ten tends per neighbor for a limited time) to Horseshoes - 500 Horseshoes for a Royal Flush, as a matter of fact.

All told, this seems like an interesting new feature, but I wouldn't gamble too much on your receiving any great prizes anytime soon.

FrontierVille Poker Table Goals: Everything you need to know

Along with the release of the Poker Table in the Saloon in FrontierVille (you'll be able to upgrade when your Saloon looks as pictured with an arrow) this evening comes the launch of three new themed goals. The first is called Lend Hank a Hand, and it sees you performing three relatively simple tasks:

Collect one Saloon Daily Bonus
Mix one Concoction
Have 1 Fancy Clothing

Fancy Clothing are crafted in the General Store using Clothes that are crafted in the Cabin. The Concoction can be any of those currently available to craft inside the Saloon, so just pick the one that's easiest to complete (that is, if you have all of the ingredients for a particular concoction, pick it first), and then collect the building's Daily Bonus to finish this one off. You'll receive 250 coins, 250 XP and one Granny's No.5 for completing this first goal.

Meet us behind the break to see what's next.

Goal number two is Raising the Stakes! and it increases the difficulty a bit, but still isn't anything too overly outrageous.

Visit 5 Neighbors
Tend 20 Peppermint
Collect 10 Markers

It doesn't say you actually have to harvest Peppermint, so you should be able to buy new if you don't have that many on hand. Meanwhile, you'll need to ask your friends to send you the Markers. Finishing this second goal gives you 250 coins, 250 XP and 5 Poker Cards. Remember, you can use these cards to create hands inside the Saloon's Poker Table for prizes like concoctions or even Horseshoes (if you're lucky and draw a good hand).

Finally, the third of these three goals is called Ante Up! and it will do what you'd expect - requiring you to use those newly received Poker Cards, and even lay a bit of your own money on the line for a bet.

Play 1 Poker Hand
Have 10,000 coins
Collect 10 Gamblin' Cases

Again, Gamblin' Cases must be earned by asking your friends to send them to you, while the Poker Hand can be played using those five Poker Cards you just received. And yes, even if you don't have what would normally be a winning hand in poker (that is, a pair or better), you'll still be able to turn a "No Hand" in for 250 XP and 500 coins. In finishing this final goal, you will lose your 10,000 coins, but you'll also receive 250 coins, 250 XP and will unlock the Loyal Pioneer Drink to craft inside the Saloon. This drink allows you to complete ten different actions on a neighbors' Homestead, which will come in extremely handy when being forced to tend Horses or another rare animal for future goals.

FrontierVille Poker Badges reward you with more cards to keep playing

In what turns out to be a pretty appropriate cycle of gameplay, Frontierville's newest Poker Badges will reward you with extra playing cards for playing other cards on the Saloon's new Poker Table. To be specific, each time you play a hand of cards on the Poker Table (that is, each time you play five cards), you'll earn a point towards these four new Badges. Once you reach each milestone, you'll receive a bulk amount of cards as a reward, helping you continue the cycle of earning points for playing hands.

Here's the rundown of the four available Badges:

Poker Pioneer - Play 1 hand - Reward: 2 Cards, 250 XP
Poker Practitioner - Play 10 hands - Reward: 5 Cards, 500 XP
Poker Pro - Play 50 hands - Reward: 10 Cards, 1,000 XP
Poker Phenomenon - Play 100 hands - Reward: 25 Cards, 2,500 XP

As you can see, the higher Badges also reward you with some pretty killer experience point bundles, so they're worth earning even for those bonuses. The 2,500 XP could very well be enough to push you up another level, so won't it be satisfying to finally earn it? Just keep plugging away, collecting your Saloon's Daily Bonus to earn cards, and you'll eventually get there - I'd be willing to gamble on that.

What do you think of the rewards for these Poker Table Badges in FrontierVille? Will you become a card shark just to earn them?

Pioneer Trail: Building Boosts now available for Horseshoes

Remember back in March/April, when Zynga partnered with Intuit to offer Intuit Business Boosts after completing themed goals in Pioneer Trail (then FrontierVille)? Those bonuses were some of the best things to happen to the game, as they allowed you to instantly recharge a building's Daily Bonus, allowing you to collect the Daily Bonus more than once in a 24 hour period. In terms of goals that ask you to collect three or four Daily Bonuses from a specific building, this meant tons of time saved, and more progress made. The only problem? They were one-time-use objects that eventually ran out.

Now, if you're willing to pay Horseshoes, you can return to the glory days of those Building Boosts, as they are now available to purchase from the store for Horseshoes (under the Special tab). For 15 Horseshoes, you'll purchase a single Business Boost, which is - again - a single-use object. That being said, the value here isn't that great, but if you're looking at spending three or four days waiting to complete a goal that you've otherwise completed, I can definitely see the draw in purchasing one to move on (and save your patience from being so tested).

There doesn't look to be an expiration date on these Building Boosts, so they should be available permanently in the store. Hopefully though, we'll see a return of the Intuit (or any free) Business Boosts in the future, so we can save our Horseshoes for another time.

What do you think of these Business Boosts? Will you purchase them to speed up your progress at completing specific goals?

Pioneer Trail: Zynga offers a week of freebies in thank you letter to fans

Tonight, Zynga sent out an email to all Pioneer Trail players announcing a week-long, in-game giveaway to all its loyal fans. This email is signed by the John Osvald, the General Manager of FrontierVille, and carries the subject heading of "Been havin' trouble? Let us make it right as rain."

While he doesn't mention any specific performance issues with the game aside from success in being able to "cut the load times in half", he did very clearly acknowledge that "there have been more issues in the game than you're used to, and for that, I sincerely apologize." And just to show how sorry he is, players now have a week's worth of daily freebies to look forward to!

    From tomorrow, Saturday, September 10th through Saturday, September 17th, we'll be giving away a special present for every day you log into The Pioneer Trail, from horseshoes, to mystery crates... even the book of experience (which grants the holder a full level up!) We've also created a forum topic for discussion at forums.zynga.com. If you'd like to participate, I'll be reading! :)

You can see a copy of the official email for yourself below. (Click on the image if you need to make it bigger.)
FrontierVille Pioneer Trail Zynga fan letter from John Osvald
Will you be logging into Pioneer Trail daily next week for your free goodies?

Pioneer Trail Capital One Goals: Everything you need to know

While we've already taken a look at the Capital One cross-promotions in FarmVille and CityVille, Pioneer Trail's version of the promotion is definitely the most complex, taking four goals to complete. The first of these goals introduces you to the Capital One Goat, who hopes that you can help him find his lost band mates, and bring their bandstand to life on your Homestead. That's right - there's a new building to create as part of this cross-promotion, along with the four goals. Here's a complete rundown of the event.

Sterling the Bloodhound

    * Collect one Bandstand Upgrade Part
    * Visit Capital One Facebook Page
    * Craft Sterling's Guitar in the Bandstand


First things first, the Bandstand can be purchased inside the store for under 10 coins if you have the discount enabled in your game. You won't have to whack a frame or collect items to create a functioning Bandstand; however, you will have to collect these parts to upgrade the building. This is done by clicking on the Bandstand and then clicking "Upgrade" on the menu that appears. From here, it's the familiar process of asking your friends for items.

You'll need to collect 10 each of Stage Lights, pieces of Band Merchandise and Concert Wristbands, all of which are earned through general news posts, while 15 each of Sandbags and Scaffolding are earned by sending out individual requests to your friends for help. The final item - the five Band Groupies - are earned by completing these new goals, as they'll be earned automatically. That being the case, you don't have to be in too great of a rush to collect the rest of the ingredients, as you literally can't complete it anyway.

As for finishing this first goal, you'll need to head inside your Bandstand to craft items as you would in other buildings. From there, you'll need three Guitar Fretboards and five Guitar Strings to actually craft the guitar. These are both new items, requiring you to tend goats or simply ask your friends to help you earn them, among other tasks. Finishing the entirety of this first goal will give you 250 XP, Sterling the Bloodhound and 250 coins.

Toonie the Bear

    * Chop 10 Trees on your Neighbors' Homesteads
    * Feed 30 Goats on your Homestead
    * Craft Toonie's Upright Bass in the Bandstand


Again, you'll need to head inside the Bandstand to craft Toonie's Upright Base, which requires three Tailpieces and five Bass Strings. Again, you can ask your friends to send you the Bass Strings, and can craft the Tailpieces, also inside the Bandstand.

Once you finish this second goal, you'll receive 500 XP, Toonie the Bear and 500 coins.

Penny the Bullfrog

    * Feed 30 Geese on your Homestead
    * Have or Collect 3 Termites
    * Craft Penny's Banjo in the Bandstand


Again, just head inside the Bandstand to see the parts you need to craft Penny's Banjo (in this case the Banjo Pot and Banjo Pick), and then make sure you have three termites from the Oak Tree collection to finish this one off. For doing so, you'll receive 750 XP, Goat and Penny (the two remaining band members) and 5 Band Groupies. Remember those Groupies that you needed to complete the upgrade of the Bandstand? There you go.

Entertainment, Not Food

    * Collect the Upgraded Bandstand Bonus Once
    * Collect 10 Wildberries
    * Harvest 50 Corn


Like a regular building, the Bandstand has a daily bonus that can be collected, so complete that and these other simple (albeit time-consuming) tasks and you'll be golden. You'll receive 1,000 XP, a Rockin Horse (a new mount for your avatar that wears sunglasses) and 1,000 coins for finishing this final goal.

All told, we're not given an expiration date for when this cross-promotion and these goals will leave the game, but your best bet would be to finish everything off as soon as possible just to make sure you don't miss out on anything. Have fun!

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

What do you think of this entire Capital One promotion in Pioneer Trail? Are you going to make your avatar ride this horse-with-shades? Sound off in the comments.