Web Puzzles

MMOs In the Spotlight at E3 2010

E3, or the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is an annual event that is widely considered to be the most important expo in the video game industry. In 2010 it was held from June 15-17 in Los Angeles and featured exhibits from over 120 companies. Every segment of the gaming industry is represented at E3, including the growing share of MMOs.



Interestingly enough the behemoth of the MMO market, Blizzard and their game World of Warcraft, did not have an exhibit at E3 in 2010. Blizzard is expected to release their latest WoW expansion, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, in the Fall of 2010 and some speculate that they are waiting until after that time to engage in a massive media campaign. The absence of Blizzard, however, meant that other, smaller MMO development companies had an easier time getting their product in the spotlight.

E3 2010 MMOs Coming Soon

Lord of the Rings Online and its publisher Turbine released information about the first expansion they will release under the controversial new "free-to-play" business model. Expected in late 2010, the content will include a new zone, updates to the current UI, superior graphic options, and, of course, the highly anticipated new LotRO store.

Final Fantasy XIV, by Square Enix, is the spiritual successor to Final Fantasy XI and was another big name in MMOs at E3. FFXIV is due for release in the Fall of 2010, and caters heavily to the Playstation 3 and Japanese markets. The general impression of reviewers at E3 is that FFXIV looks gorgeous, even if the gameplay is still currently a little clunky.

Another popular title that is due out soon is Bioware's Star Wars: The Old Republic. SWTOR was also a popular subject at E3 in 2009, but this year they promoted their Spring 2011 release date with both a gameplay booth on the show floor and a new cinematic trailer.

E3 2010 MMOs Coming... One Day

Of course developers with imminent releases will show up to E3 with playable demos and full cinematics, but the Expo is also the game industry's place to announce and advertise titles years in advance.

The popular tabletop war game Warhammer 40000 (and their Intellectual Property owner, Games Workshop) announced the development of Warhammer 40000: Dark Millennium Online. The announcement came with a much-watched trailer, and a somewhat disappointing release date of 2013. Dark Millennium received a lot of hype at E3 2010, but it remains to be seen if the attention can be sustained over the course of three years.

Also planning ahead is Interplay, the publishers of Fallout and Fallout 2. During E3 in 2010 they released a teaser site to announce the creation of Fallout Online, a post-apocalyptic MMO. Interplay released little more than a single image and a form to sign up for beta testing, but the response by the game press and players was very positive. The game is expected to hit the shelves in late 2013.

The 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo is the place for game publishers both large and small to display their ideas and work for each other and for the world at large. Between LotRO's new expansion this fall and the predicted arrival of Fallout Online in late 2013, it appears that the MMO industry has many new lands and surprises in store for its players over the coming years.

Travian Beginner's Playing Guide

Travian is a massively multiplayer online browser-based strategy game developed by a German company. Players choose to be a Roman, Teuton, or Gaul when they begin their account. They can then build cities, amass an army, and ally with other players to dominate their surroundings and eventually win the End Game.

Choosing a Server

At any given point, there are many simultaneous games of Travian running. A game runs for just over a year, until an alliance builds a World Wonder and wins the game. Speed servers also exist and run in about a third of the time. The server is then restarted and players can sign up all over again. There are many servers which are based on language or country. New players can visit Travian.com and then click on their country’s flag at the top of the page to find an appropriate set of servers.
Each server has a different personality that develops. Most players find that waiting for a few days after the server restarts works to their advantage. However, waiting too long to join will make a beginning player easy prey for advanced gamers. Try to join a server that has recently been reset.

Getting Started

After clicking “Register” on the main Travian screen, new players are asked to choose a server. They then need to select a nickname and enter their email address and password. It is a good idea for players to choose just one email address to use for Travian. This will prevent accidentally creating multiple characters on the same server. Players must also choose between Gauls, Teutons, and Romans. Each character type has advantages and disadvantages.
Once inside the game, there are five main screens a player can use to control their city. They are represented by round buttons at the top of the screen. The first is the village overview, which allows the player to view their village’s fields. The next button links to the city center. Players can build residences, blacksmiths, granaries and more in town. The third link brings up the map of the surrounding areas, so other villages can be scouted and attacked. Next is the statistics button, which displays player rankings. The final screen is the in-game messaging system, which allows players to communicate and organize.

5 Tips for Beginning Players

Starting to play a new MMRPG can be intimidating, but there are many resources to help Travian players find their way. Following these five tips will help new players learn more about the world of Travian and develop a successful town.

• Read the forums -- Each server has a set of forums filled with advice, guides, and players who can answer questions. New players should check out the beginner’s guides posted in the forums first.
• Do the Quests -- New accounts will find a Questmaster awaiting them when they begin playing Travian. The quests are designed to introduce new gamers to the basics, including constructing buildings, upgrading resources, and training soldiers. They also have useful rewards.
• Wait to Join an Alliance -- Finding a strong, organized alliance to join will help players build strong cities and dominate the game. Players will receive many invitations as their cities begin to grow. Wait
• Keep a Level Head -- At its core, Travian is a war game and players will be attacked on their beginner’s protection wears off. Don’t respond with angry messages or counterattacks, especially if the attacker is a member of a powerful alliance. Responding will just encourage them to attack again.
• Read the Rules -- It is important to comply with the rules of the game. Players in violation may have their accounts deleted. For example, it is illegal to have multiple accounts on the same server.

Travian is a fun and addictive game. Many players find it appealing because of the regular resets -- it is possible for anyone to learn how to play well and become one of the top players. Best of all, it is free to play.

Farmville Speed Tips

Farmville provides millions of people with entertainment and fun with online Facebook friends. But the number of hours spent on this game in order to enjoy all the different activities they offer are simply staggering. Here are some ways to maximize the fun and minimize the time spent.

Trap the Farmville Avatar

When harvesting, plowing and planting Farmville crops, as well as collecting from trees and animals, the user if often left waiting for the farmer avatar to slowly make his or her way across the screen, or catch up with the crops that have been clicked. This is a huge waste of time for the real-life farmer.

Isolating the farmer with fences or haybales where the avatar appears in the middle of the screen is a great way to speed up this process. Hedges also work, although for reasons passing understanding the avatar will occasionally choose to sneak through the cracks where they meet. Using haybales, the farmer can be confined to one single plot of unplowed land. Or create a larger decorative area in the center with fences. Remember that whenever the farm size is expanded the center point of the screen where the farmer appears will shift, and the isolation area will need to be moved accordingly.

Use Farmville.com to Claim Rewards

Claiming rewards (collectibles, eggs, coin rewards, fuel, building expansions and more) through the facebook feed can involve many wasted minutes of clicking down through old posts, searching through status updates and other feed posts for farmville updates. Farmville.com offers a "game feed" that consolidates at least the most recent of Farmville feed posts by all Farmville friends. Using the Farmville.com interface instead of the Facebook interface can save a great deal of time. The only downside is the inability to monitor facebook chat requests or other notifications from this screen.

Claim Farmville Rewards Using Browser Tabs

Probably the biggest time-waster when playing Farmville, even when using Farmville.com, is waiting for the screen to reload in between claiming rewards (especially when it turns out the rewards are all used up or expired). But it is not necessary to do this each time to claim items.

Simply open the Farmville.com interface in one window and click on each reward link by right clicking and using the "open link in a new tab" or similar command/process. Open all the tabs that are of interest and then go through and collect all at once. On the last tab, allow the window to completely refresh and all applicable rewards will be waiting in the fuel tank or gift box. Do keep tabs on the total number of gifts that can be stored in the gift box at once (announced as increased to 50 in a March 2009 podcast), especially if storing consumables in like arborists or farmhands in the giftbox. It may be necessary to stop once in the middle and empty the gift box before continuing.

Playing Farmville with Facebook friends can be fun and entertaining, but even more satisfying when using these tips to reach goals faster. For more tips, see Farmville Speed Collection Tips and Farmville Crop Speed Tips.

How to Make Money Playing Free on Texas Holdem Online Poker Sites

 There are a huge number of real money online poker sites for Texas holdem poker. Most of these do special introductory offers where the initial deposit is matched by a deposit of a similar size from the online poker site. It can therefore be worth signing up with a variety of sites and making a minimum deposit in each.

Popular Texas Holdem sites such as Titan Poker, Full Tilt Poker, Celeb Poker, Pokerstars, and PKR offer real money games but also offer a large number of freerolls. These tournaments are free to enter but pay real money in prizes. Play money games are often also available which are useful purely for learning the game.

Many sites also offer a bonus for recruitment, although the person recruited may have to make a reasonable deposit.

How to Make Money Playing in Freeroll or Low Stakes Online Texas Holdem Poker Tournaments

Many tournaments are free or have a very low entry fee of $1.00 or so, but a very large field, sometimes 3000+ players. This is an advantage as it means the final payouts will be relatively large. The disadvantage is that the player’s luck needs to hold up for a long time before cashing.

To play these tournaments most effectively, a very tight approach is best. In the first hour of play, upwards of half the field is likely to disappear. A player who does not bet at all in the first hour will therefore already be in the top half of players. A good tip is to wait for a premium hand in position, and then try to double up. One double up an hour in the first two or three hours of the tournament will be enough to keep the player in a good position for the cash.

How to Cash When Playing Online Texas Holdem Poker Tournaments

Once the cash is approached, the player will need to change their tactics. In a large low entry or freeroll tournament, finishing in the top few hundred will guarantee a small cash. This is not to be sniffed at, as even a small cash means the player is not losing money – which is as crucial as actually winning money!
Once the player can see they are close to “the bubble” — the point where cashing starts — it is worth slowing down and waiting for others to make foolish moves and get themselves knocked out. It is worth having the tournament lobby list up so the player can see exactly who is due to get knocked out next. Getting knocked out right on the bubble is very frustrating, and not worth risking unless the player holds a very strong hand.

Avoid Tilting When Playing Texas Holdem Online Poker

Many players get knocked out of their tournament through foolish play, and foolish play is likely if a player is on tilt. “On tilt” refers to a state of mind where the player is betting recklessly and against the odds, often due to previously losing with a strong hand due to bad luck, or bad betting.

 
Tilting should be avoided at all costs, but this is easier said than done. The player must remember that as long as they are still in the tournament, they still have a chance of winning. Many, many tournaments are won by players who have come from behind. A player who passes up a marginal hand in bad position may be rewarded with a premium hand on the next deal.

How to Progress to Higher Stakes Tournaments in Texas Holdem Online Poker

Once the player is experienced in playing small stakes poker tournaments, they can progress to higher stakes games. The advantage of these is that the field will be smaller, so a smaller run of luck will be needed to make the cash. The players are likely to be better, which can also help as they will be more likely to play predictably.

The player will need to be sure that their strategies already mean they can at least break even with their tournament play, or make wins from time to time. That way, it is more likely that they won’t lose significant amounts. The aim is to win, but anyone who plays regularly and doesn’t lose money, is already a winner!

Lord of Ultima Resource Layout

Once the basics of resource production in Lord of Ultima is understood, the next logical step is identifying an effective layout for resources which allows for both adequate production and storage. There are many places to find information on potential resource layouts, including forums, the wiki, and through alliance memberships in LOU.

Overview of Resource Layout

This layout requires a minimum of 15 spaces in a 3 by 5 grid, either horizontal or vertical. Additional surrounding spaces can be used to increase production through the use of cottages. This layout is designed to support two resources, as well as increased storage for the two resources.

Setting up multiple grids of this layout, separated by cottages provides adequate production to support the city. This layout may need to built in pieces depending on the level of the town hall in the city.

Building a Warehouse to Increase Resource Storage

This layout is centered around a warehouse structure to increase the storage space for the bordering resources. Build the warehouse in the third row of the third column. A level ten warehouse will provide storage of 200K of each resource.

Build Specialty Buildings Next to the Warehouse

Determine which resources will be supported for this grid. For each resource, identify the specialty building. In this example, the specialty buildings are a sawmill for wood and a stonemason for stone. Build one of each of the two chosen buildings immediately next to the warehouse, on opposite sides.

In this example, build the sawmill in row two, column three and the stonemason in row four, column three. When all buildings are at level ten, the warehouse bordering these buildings will be capable of holding an extra 75% - up to 350K of each resource for which there is a special building.

Build the Resource Buildings

Once the warehouse and special buildings are in place, build six of each of the two chosen resource buildings. Make sure that the buildings surround the existing special building on all sides, and build on one side of the warehouse. Level ten resource buildings produce 300 per hour, before bonuses.

With the 75% bonus from the special building, this resource layout will produce at minimum, 3150 per hour. Additional resource bonuses can be obtained by building cottages around the buildings.

Resource Layout Strategies in Lord of Ultima

The layout presented here is only one of many possibilities and does not take into consideration any potential bonuses from surrounding resource fields. Other layouts for resources can be found on the LOU forums or by asking alliance members in the game.

FreeRice - Online Free Fun Game Helps the Hungry

World hunger is projected to have reached a historic high in 2009 and continues to increase with 1,020 million people going hungry every day. Recent analysis by theFood and Agricultural Organization says that the increase in hunger is not the consequence of poor global harvests but is caused by the world economic crisis that resulted in lower incomes and increased unemployment. This also reduced access to food by the poor in many countries.



A solution anyone can be part of is by playing a free web game called FreeRice. Known as one of the best deals of the internet, FreeRice is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Program in partnership with Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. It is a web based game which gives knowledge to the player and food for someone in need. The goals of FreeRice are to:

• Provide education to everyone for free
• Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free

What is the On-line Fun Game About?

The game tests the vocabulary and knowledge of the participants. The player is presented with a word and four possible definitions, and asked to click on one. For each click on a correct answer, 10 grains of rice are added to a wooden plate which acts as a score card.

When the game was launched in 2007, it had only English vocabulary but it evolved and enhanced quickly as a result of continuing enthusiasm. Now the game is multilingual with words in English, French, Spanish, German and Italian. In addition to vocabulary, there are now questions in the game covering Art, Math, Chemistry and Geography.

FreeRice has a database containing thousands of words in each subject at varying degrees of difficulty. The player can choose the level of difficulty as the game progresses and watch the pretty wooden bowl fill with virtual rice, and know that someone in need is being helped.

How is Revenue Generated by the Free Web Game?

The answer is advertisements. Companies advertise on the website and in exchange donate money to pay for the rice and other expenses. FreeRice in turn underwrites the donations to buy and distribute the rice by the World Food Program. The web site keeps track of the grains by month. For example, in November 2009, 1.4 billion rice grains were collected.

There are about 48 grains in a gram of rice. In countries where rice is a staple part of the diet, the World Food Program provides about 400 grams of rice per person per day as partof a food basket containing other ingredients. This is intended to ensure a minimum of 2,100 kilocalories and other essential nutrients.

Who is Behind the On-Line Game Phenomenon?

FreeRice is the invention of John Breen, a computer programmer and online fundraising pioneer. He set it up so that the rice is distributed through the World Food Program.

Mr. Breen and the millions of FreeRice players can feel proud seeing the examples of where the rice from the popular internet game has been distributed:

• In Bangladesh to feed 27,000 refugees from Myanmar for two weeks
• In Uganda to feed 66,000 school children for a week
• In Combodia to provide take-home rations for two months to 13,500 pregnant and nursing women

When is the Game Played?

Like any online game, FreeRice can be played any time of the day or night. There are people who regularly spend 5 to 10 minutes a day when they start their computer or just before closing it for the day. Playing even 5-10 minutes means donating 500-1500 grains of rice a day. Each grain adds up to feed a hungry child.

Spread of FreeRice Game through the Internet Communities:

Cited as viral marketing success story, word of the game has spread. The game’s appeal is such that FreeRice ‘communities’ have mushroomed on Facebook and MySpace.There’s a group on Facebook called Free Rice Challenge that asks the visitors to play FreeRice and post the score on the group’s wall. The totals are added up to see just how much of that rice is coming from Facebook members.

Success of the On-line Game:

Since the players help the hungry and also gain knowledge in the process, the online game can be said as a win-win situation. The fun game has been especially successful among students and teachers with more school children expanding their vocabulary as they help someone in need. For adults the imagination of feeding a hungry person with the rice they fill in the virtual bowl makes it meaningful and interesting.

Prestige and Honor: Understanding the Different Evony Stats

When getting started in Evony, few pay any significant attention to the countless stats of your player or your city. Most players feel that they have a slight understanding of what is occurring, but don’t really know what different things mean, or how to make best of each statistic. This is unfortunate, as it definitely holds back one's ability to succeed.

Understanding the Player Stats

To begin with, each user has a specific set of stats that should be noted. These statistics include Evony prestige, honor, and achievement points, and each is exactly the same for every one of their cities. Prestige is typically seen as a marker of one's "reputation" in Evony, and is what many people use to compare themselves to different gamers. The user footer will actually show you how your prestige compares with other players, and a lot of gamers regularly make it their mission to become one of the most prestigious players in the entire game.
Another noteworthy measurement is honor. Honor refers to how well you are doing in battle. If you are often defeated by your enemies, and have lots of resources looted from you, it is likely your honor will be low. Lastly, achievement points measure how well you have achieved the many achievements, which are actually different from the quests. Each of these measurements are important and should be upgraded as often as you can.

Understanding the City Stats

Along with your gamer stats, which are identical for every one of your cities, each city has its own exclusive statistics which also must be considered. The majority of these statistics are your city’s resources. These resources include food, lumber, stone, and iron, which are each acquired through sawmills, farms, ironmines, and quarries, and are essential for creating buildings, growing an army, and making upgrades. One other resource is gold, which you get from taxing your citizens, and is essential for advancing at the academy and upgrading to new levels.

Along with resources, your city also contains a few additional noteworthy stats that should be kept in mind. Loyalty describes how large your population is in relation to your maximum potential population. If you have a big population limit, but not much loyalty, you're not taking advantage of a lot of residents that you could control if your loyalty was bigger. To add to loyalty, you can either lower the tax rate or perform acts such as “disaster relief” at the town hall. Also, along with population, another imperative statistic is labor force. It is important to make sure that your labor force does not ever exceed your population, or else you won't be getting as many resources as you potentially could. If this happens, don't forget to set up more cottages and increase loyalty in order to add to population.

Conclusion

While many players may dismiss the measurements of their cities as meaningless, understanding your city and gamer stats is quite imperative for success. Only once you have comprehended what's going on in your city and what its weaknesses are will you be able to dominate Evony forever.

Playing A Shadow Priest on World Of Warcraft

 Hitting level 80 a Shadow Priest can focus on PVP or PVE. These two distinct pathways require very different play style and gearing. This article focuses upon PVE where the first step of a Shadow Priest is to run 5 Man Heroics. These Heroic runs will develop skills, improve group dynamics and provide essential gear upgrades to allow further movement towards 10 and 25 Man Raiding Teams.

Shadow Priest Role

The role of a Shadow Priest is to deliver high Damage Per Second (DPS). In addition to delivering the maximum damage a Shadow Priest must also maintain Buffs on party members and be prepared to dispel damaging magic when a party member is targeted. Examples of magic to be dispelled are forms of Crowd Control such as sheep. At the start of each instance run and after a member dies the Shadow Priest should apply Power Word: Fortitude, Divine Spirit and Shadow Protection. Each of these Buffs can also be applied using their group equivalents “Prayer of Fortitude, Divine Spirit or Shadow Protection” at the cost of a reagent, in this case devout candles.

Healing as a Shadow Priest

Whilst high DPS is the focus of a Shadow Priest they also bring a range of healing abilities to any Heroic run. If the healer is killed a Shadow Priest can take over healing of the party to prevent a wipe. Divine Hymn provides a very strong emergency healing spell to quickly heal the three party members with the lowest health. Power Word: Shield can also be cast during encounters to assist the main healer without breaking Shadow Form.

Gearing Up A Shadow Priest

Players running Heroics are a mix of those already well geared who are farming emblems of triumph and new 80’s attempting to improve their gear. Heroic drops are generally item level 200 with harder heroics dropping up to item level 232. Before starting 5 Man Heroics a Shadow Priest needs to improve the quality of their gear to ensure an effective contribution to the group.


 Purchasing or making crafted items can significantly boost overall DPS, such as the Titansteel Guardian from the Blacksmithing trade. Running Normal Mode Instances will provide gear at item level 187 and Normal Trial of The Champion has drops at item level 200. Obtaining a mixture of gear at level 187 and 200 would provide the Shadow Priest with enough health, mana and spell power to run 5 Man Heroics. Choosing the correct enchantments and gems will also provide a valuable boosts to overall DPS.

Gemming and Enchanting A Shadow Priest

The priority stats for a Shadow Priest to obtain in Gems and Enchantments are:
Hit > Spell Power > Haste

After these; Critical Strike, Intelligence, Spirit and Stamina are important however most items will include these in conjunction with Hit, Spell Power and Haste.

Spell Priority for a Shadow Priest

Spell Priority refers to the order of spell casting to minimize wasted time and maximise DPS. Using an effective Spell Priority will greatly improve DPS on both Boss fights and trash. Inner Fire and Vampiric Embrace buffs should be reapplied to the Shadow Priest every time their duration ends. The healing boost provided by Vampiric Embrace, healing all party members for a percentage of shadow damage generated by the Shadow Priest, greatly assists healers when dealing with AOE damage.
To maximise DPS use the following casting priority:

Vampiric Touch (VT), Devouring Plague (DP), Mind Flay (MF) and at this point Shadow Weaving will have hit 5 stacks so the next cast is Shadow Word Pain (SW:P) followed with Mind Blast (MB).
VT > DP > MF > SW:P > MB

After this initial opening VT and DP should be reapplied as soon as they come off cooldown and MB cast every time it is available, generally after two MF. Pain and Suffering from the Shadow talent tree, an essential talent, will remove the need to reapply SW:P as MF will reset it’s duration. MF acts as a filler in-between cooldowns and to avoid negatively impacting overall DPS each spell must fully complete before recasting.


For effective AOE on mobs of more than three targets, cast VT on each target then cast Mind Sear rotating which mob is targeted on each cast.
Elitist Jerks provide a detailed breakdown for Shadow Priest Spell Priority.

Maximizing DPS as a Shadow Priest

Release the Shadow Fiend on every boss fight to improve DPS and also restore mana. Use Dispersion as it comes off cooldown to maintain mana through the 5 Man Heroic to avoid having to stop and drink. This is especially important with a geared group who will run from mob to mob without stopping. Trinkets should be activated whenever off cooldown and especially for all boss fights.

Running 5 Man Heroics

To make the most of 5 Man Heroic runs as a Shadow Priest obtain gear of at least level 187 from Normal Instances. Gem and enchant these items to focus on Spell Power and Haste while trying to pick up additional Hit. Utilise the Spell Priority detailed above and if required switch to support healing to survive difficult encounters

Avatar Customization in Second Life

Second Life is a booming online universe with endless possibilities. From dance clubs to real estate to self help seminars, residents of Second Life are never at a loss for things to do. Second Life residents can customers their avatars, the character that represents them in the online world, to look however they want. The user created shops and malls sprinkled all throughout Second Life are a cornerstone of avatar customization.

Shape and Skin

Choosing a shape and skin in Second Life is possibly the most important decision that a user can make when it comes to their appearance. When an avatar is first created, or born, it has a distinct new avatar look. Second Life is similar to real life in that first impressions matter, and if a user decides to stick with the avatar that she chose at character creation, she will have a vastly more difficult time socializing and working in the online universe.

Second Life body shapes are infinite in variety, and most can be customized to the user's liking. Prices come in a vast range, with some shapes being free at freebie malls and some being as much as $1,000 Linden (the Second Life currency) or more. For those who have limited funds, the Gerri shape collection is more than adequate and the shapes are a bargain at $190 Linden. Other shape shops include Body Doubles, Dragonfly Designs and LAQ.

A good shape won't do much if there isn't a good skin to go with it. Purchasing a skin is not something to take lightly, as it is probably the most expensive item on any avatar. While some skins can be found for free and are great for starting out, when it comes time to purchase one, it's best to take it slow.

Skins can run as high as $2000 Linden for a pack of five or ten makeup varieties. However, for anyone interested in a Second Life career that requires a quality skin such as modeling or exotic dancing, it is well worth the cost and pays for itself rather quickly. Some high quality skin shops include LAQ, Curio and Redgrave.

Hair and Eyes

The default avatar hair tends to look like a mullet if you give it any length at all. Luckily, user's having the option of buying prim hair, or a user-created object that attaches to the avatar's head and looks more similar to real hair. Prim hair can be sculpted with no movement, or it can be long and flexi, meaning it will flow and move as the avatar moves giving it a realistic appearance. Some of the best hairs are a combination of the two.



Most hair retailers supply a wide range of colors and styles, and prices average $100 Lindens to $400 Lindens. As with any other item in Second Life, mid-quality hair can be found at freebie shops, and some hair shops have gift bags at the entrance with one or two free hairstyles. Leading hair merchants in Second Life include Magika, Analog Dog, Truth, Calico Creations and Damselfly.

Finding eyes is pretty simple, and using free ones will work just as well as paying for eyes. For those who choose to pay for them, they average $50 to $100 Linden for single colors with color packs increasing in price. Curio and Dragonfly both carry eyes as well as other avatar customization items.

Animations

Everyone starts out in Second Life with the same walk. The default walk is fast paced, hunched slightly at the shoulders and stiff. Despite this, there is still a chance to add a little swagger to an avatar's step by purchasing an animation override, or AO.

An AO attaches to the avatar but cannot be seen by other users and overrides the default animations by adding different walking, sitting, standing and flying animations to the avatar. It's controlled by switch, which is normally located in one of the corners of the screen when it's attached to the avatar.
A large variety of AOs are available in Second Life by visiting various animation shops, and are priced at $1,000 to $2,000 Linden. SEMotion and Vista Animations are just two of the leading suppliers of animations overrides.

Freebies

For those who cannot afford to customize their avatar at leading Second Life retailers, there are always freebies. Freebies are mid-quality when compared with more expensive items. However, for somebody just starting out in Second Life, freebies may be good enough to get a job and get used to Second Life.

NES Games on Facebook

The Nintendo Entertainment System revolutionized video games for an entire generation of gamers in the 1980s and early 1990s.


While the system has been out of circulation for over 15 years and it's very difficult to track down an original NES without paying a high price, old school gamers can still enjoy their favourite Nintendo games without having to pay thanks to the advent of Internet flash games, particularly the many NES applications on Facebook.

The following is a glimpse of what features the Facebook Nintendo programs offer gamers and what kinds of games they can play.

Facebook NES Games by Lance Strish

There are several NES applications on Facebook, but the most popular one was created by Facebook user Lance Strish. His NES Games application has over 22,000 monthly users.

In order to play these games, users need to install Java. It can be downloaded for free here.

Strish's program has over 3,000 Nintendo games that players can enjoy. Gamers can play classic NES games such as Super Mario Bros. 3, Mike Tyson's Punch Out and Metroid.


Gamers can write reviews and give ratings on each game they play so subsequent users can decide what to play based on which games are the most popular. Players can also tell which games are popular by looking at how many times a particular game has been played. This option appears just above the rankings option.


There is also a section that lists the last 20 games people have played so they don't have to scroll down each time to find a particular game they enjoy playing.

If games don't work because of a broken link, there is an option players can click on to report it.

Strish's NES Games Features

Lance Strish's application also has many features gamers can use to enhance their gaming experience. These features include an option to save game progress, use game genie codes, play in full screen mode and play with a friend.

These features require that the game be downloaded and it will cost one credit to do so. One credit can be purchased for 49 cents.

However, gamers don't need to buy credits if they just want to play the games for fun and don't want any of the extra features.

NES Games Message Board

Like almost all aspects of Facebook, Strish's NES application also has a message group people can use to communicate with each other.

People can post their video game inspired artwork, start discussion threads and post general wall posts about NES related topics.

To play Lance Strish's NES Games application on Facebook, click here.

Evony Combat Tips: Defeating Another Player or NPC

When preparing to do battle in Evony, countless gamers unfortunately put very little consideration into what their plan of attack is or how they expect to win. Not surprisingly, these players are seldom victorious and lack what's necessary to every become an Evony world power. By dedicating some time to prepare for your attack, you can save yourself a significant amount of trouble that would normally arise and can greatly increase your chances of victory.

Choosing the Right Target

The first task when preparing for combat is simply to choose an appropriate valley to attack. This is an extremely vital stage of preparation, and should not be neglected. For one thing, you must decide upon a target whose protection isn't so great that there is no way you could possibly win. If you decide to attack a level ten NPC, for instance, you must have a powerful army or else there is no chance that you will possibly be able to win.

It’s also necessary to avoid choosing a very low leveled city, however, as the plunder simply will not be worth the losses. Not only will you likely lose more units than the amount of plunder that you gain, but you will also be sacrificing precious time that could be better spent attacking more worthy enemies.

Scout Your Enemy Before Attacking

Another imperative stage of preparation is scouting your enemy before attacking them. Numerous players often skip this step, presuming it is not important, while in reality, it is one of the most significant things you can do to increase your chances of victory. If you don’t spend time scouting your opponent before attacking them, you will have no idea what units their army is made of, and have very little assurance of coming out victorious. Thus, spending the time to scout out your opponent is also critical for success.

Using the Scout Report to Assemble Your Army

Next, put together your army accordingly, based on what the scout report revealed about your opponent's defenses. Most players simply assemble as many total units as they can and attack each different target with the exact same arrangement of troops, putting very little thought into whether or not their troops correspond well with the opponent's defenses.

 
For example, if you are attacking an enemy NPC city who does not have any trebuchets, an excellent idea would be to bring ballista. If you're attacking a city that contains a huge number of abatis, a good tactic would be to hold back your cavalry and replace them with other types of units. Using your cavalry may slightly increase your strength, but you will forfeit so many cavalry to the abatis, you will definitely lose too many to ever justify such a decision. Regrettably, most players neglect to consider these things when attacking, and their success suffers considerably because of it.

Deploying for Battle

Lastly, dismiss your units in waves. Sending off your army in waves works much better than sending a massive force just one time, and should be the approach you use for best results. Also, make sure to bring plenty of transports in order to bring back resources to your city. Few things are worse than putting forth the time and effort to defeat a city, only to have the resources stolen by another gamer because you neglected to bring ample transports.

Conclusion

By spending time planning out your attacks, you' will notice that you become significantly more successful during Evony combat.

Facebook's FarmVille Tips

FarmVille was designed to be a social game so that folks would reach out to friends and even make some new friends through game play. There are a lot of benefits in getting friends and not–yet–friends to start up in the areas around one's farm. This makes it easier to expand the business part of the farm and eventually own more land.

There are a lot of forums and blogs out there filled with folks literally begging for neighbors to join their community. Most of those people looking for neighbors will usually offer gifts, or the promise of future gifts in exchange for becoming a neighbor. Another way to get neighbors is to just ask those players who are on the same level. Remember, the better the level of neighbors, the better the gifts.

Get More Money Faster in FarmVille

One of the tricks to leveling faster in FarmVille is to keep the FarmVille–money flowing. While setting aside some money for expenses, use as much money as possible to plow, plant, and harvest the good coin–producing crops as soon as money gets low. There are places online that provide tables listing the best coin-producing crops.

For example, "Super Berries" harvest in just two hours and sell for 100 coins. These berries are very rare, but do occasionally pop up in the game. Look for other pop–ups that will show up when visiting neighbors farms asking about weeding or some other job which needs doing. It's not glamorous work, but it keeps the cash coming in.

More Money Acquiring and Leveling Up Tips

Hay bales get 5 XP each so buy as many as possible. Delete those bales and then buy more to get the Pack Rat Ribbon. Get an Architect Blue Ribbon by building as many restrooms as possible. Focus on buying horses, ducks, rabbits, and goats which get 50 coins each. The highest yielding trees are Banana, Passion Fruit, and Pomegranate bringing in 100 coins each.

In the early stages of FarmVille, crops definitely offer the best return on experience points. However, as the game progresses with more gifts and friends acquired, try and get more valuable animals as gifts from neighbors and friends. Chocolate milk from a brown cow or wool from sheep does not go bad like other crops. This is especially useful for people who are busy and may not be able to visit the farm for a time.

Levels in FarmVille–Field Hands to World Fair Champ

The first level in FarmVille is the lowly Field Hand at level 1–0XP. There are many, many levels in the game including Livestock Lord, Jolly Rancher, Green Giant, Killer Tiller, Old Mc–Who, and Farming Virtuoso. The top level which is World Fair Champ is at level 70 and requires over 4.3 million experience points.

There are some time consuming tasks in FarmVille can be automated. Plowing, seeding, and harvesting hundreds of squares can be boring and make the old arthritis kick in early. If players can't be on the farm regularly, it makes sense to automate some of these tasks in order to keep crops from being wasted. Look online for some free FarmVille scripts like Extreme FarmVille Manager or Farm Helper.

Of course, for those who want to take FarmVille to a whole new level, take a look at the FarmVille Secrets Guide available online. This guide takes a walkthrough of the entire game through all the different levels showing which animals are best buys at various levels, which crops to plant and when, and how to become a rich farmer faster.

Be careful of any offers from others or websites that may offer game cheats or hacks of FarmVille. The game was designed to engross players in the particulars and intricacies of real–time online farming. Remember that if any cheats are used, Facebook may place a ban on any or all online Facebook games.

Best Free Online Games

This list is just a start, the amount of free online games out there at the moment is rising everyday and it's hard to know where to start. Hopefully this quick guide to some of the best free online games should make it easier to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Robin Hood - Shoot Them Arrows In Bow Man

Draw back the bow, choose the right strength and angle, and fill the opponent full of arrows before they do the same in Bow Man. That said, there is also a range of extra options you can select when the novelty begins to wear off like sticking a wall inbetween the two duellists, each extra option making the game require even more precision in each shot. More addictive than one might imagine.

Alien Arena - First Person Shooter Fun

Like fast paced deathmatches? Alien Arena is the game for that. This game combines some of the very best aspects of such games as Quake III and Unreal Tournament and wraps them up with a retro alien theme, while adding tons of original ideas to make the game quite unique. Very addictive. This game requires a download and install, but it's free and online.

Line Rider - The Art Of Sledding

Line Rider is a bona fide net game phenomenon. Players control a little sledder that dutifully goes for the gusto, no matter how much peril is placed in his path. Don't expect instant magic though, take the time to learn the tricks of track building in Line Rider. Build ramps, or increasingly hard to follow lines which gracefully curve around but never quite kill the sledder. Time will fly playing this one.

The Last Stand - Zombie Killing Action

A mix of Resident Evil and Defend Your Castle, The Last Stand delivers on both gore and strategy. As each day passes the player will have to repair their damaged defenses from the horde of zombies the night before. Players will find increasingly bigger and more powerful weapons at their disposal as progress is made through the game. 'Bloody' good fun.

Tetris - Needs No Introduction

Never heard of Tetris? Leave the page right now. Seriously though, Tetris is one of the world's best known games ever. Arrange the blocks of different shapes and sizes as they fall to complete lines. Sounds simple? Once the speed ramps up it becomes an intense game. The Tetris effect is a well-known mental illness because people can't resist it's addictive nature and have played the game for so long. This is a warning.

Plenty More Free Online Games To See

As aforementioned, these are just a few of the highlights to what's on offer. With a library of games which grows everyday, free online games prove that they still own the net when it comes to out favourite pastime. Just don't play them at work!

Free Online Hacking Games

The world of a hacker has always been a subject of fascination for many gamers. While many films and TV shows have glorified the role of the mysterious code warrior few video games have tried to approach this role in a realistic manner.

There are some free online hacking games worth playing, games that try to emulate the feel of being a hacker, constantly roaming the Internet looking for the next opportunity for a big score and always looking over one's shoulder for signs of pursuit.

The Hacker Project

The Hacker Project pits players against the evil mega corporations that dominate a distant future. Through the use of viruses, password crackers, IP tracers and other forms of malicious software players siphon funds and secrets as they search to gain more power for themselves and remove it from the mega corporations.


New players are guided through the basics of the game and their first few missions by a helpful online AI tutor named Lisa. Lisa will explain what all of the menu options mean and how to crack and login to your first system in order to earn your first few HPD (Hacker Project Dollars). Lisa can be turned off in the account options menu once the player has a feel for the game.

Each player starts off with their own basic Gateway which is what is used to connect to the world wide network. As HPD are earned by completing missions and running various viruses, players in the Hacker Project can upgrade their gateway with better CPU, Memory, Hard Drive and Bandwidth. Many tasks in the Hacker Project take several minutes, if not hours, to complete so upgrading your system to reduce that time becomes crucial for being competitive.

The game resets periodically once enough players have worked together to initiate a doomsday attack on the world network, destroying not only the mega corporations infrastructure but the hacker's machines as well.

Cypher

Cypher is an online hacking game that features a turn based format. Currently in its beta stages, Cypher allows the player to assume the role of a hacker and compete in a virtual world where they perform missions and compete against others in multi-player missions. The user starts off with a basic system that they upgrade by purchasing modules bought with credits. Credits are earned by completing missions and programming warez.


As players complete missions and earn experience, they can also gain levels which allows them to increase various skills. These skills enhance a players ability to hack by either making them faster, harder to detect, or even giving them the ability to program their own hacking software. Missions can be run multiple times, with each attempt costing the user a set number of turns.

Like many online games, Cyper uses a "turns" and "tick" system. Each mission run in the game costs the player a number of turns. Once all turns are expended the player cannot perform any more missions until their turns replenish. During the current round of beta players start off with 5000 turns and 2 new turns are awarded every "tick", which is currently set at 2 minutes.

Cypher also features Multi Player Missions where users all compete to see who can perform a hack the fastest. Awards are payed out based on how well the user did in the competition. Multi-player missions lock the player out of other missions until the end of the current tick.

Finally, the game also includes a virtual console, adding even further depth to the hacking experience. Players can use this console to run various commands to inspect their nodes, other players, and access the game worlds virtual Internet. The console commands can be tricky, so newer players are encouraged to read the wiki on how to use the console and on the game concepts in general.

SlaveHack

SlaveHack is a free online hacking game played entirely through a web browser. The player attempts to hack into servers and make them into slaves. Once a server has been hacked the player game install various forms of viruses that will make money over time. These include things like mass emailers and cracked software. These slaves continue to make money for the player until another player removes them or the server resets its IP address.


While hacking into other systems the player has to be mindful of his actions because other players might be attempting to hack into the same system. Players are free to attempt to hack each other, but it requires that one player has the other player's IP address. Whenever a player hacks into a server or performs actions on that server, the log file is updated with the player's IP address. Therefore players must always remember to edit or delete log files when hacking otherwise their IP address will become known and they will be attacked by other players.

Players hack into other machines using various cracking programs and attempt to protect their own machines with firewalls, waterwalls, etc. The player always has to be vigilant, there is always another player out there who would have no qualms with logging into your own personal server and installing a virus deleting all the software you spent days acquiring.

The SlaveHack online hacking game also features a "riddle trail" which is a set of clues left around on various servers leading the user along on a mini quest. Following the riddle trail can lead the user to better software that can be obtained by normal means. The riddles take the form of fairly simple math, logic, or word puzzles.

Conclusion

Online hacking games are mostly developed by lovers of the genre working independently of large development studios. These games allow players to support the game through donations which often also give the player additional advantages in the game. Without the voluntary support of the players, these games could not survive, so player who find themselves spending several hours a week logging in and playing should consider donating to help keep the games alive.

Lord of the Rings Online: Stats

 As with many of the systems in Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO), the character mechanics are different from many other games. While this brings a sense of newness to the system, it can be difficult for many new players to understand. With the game going free-to-play this autumn, it is important for new players to have a basic understanding of these systems before they are confronted with them.

Where is the Heath Bar?

In most MMOs a character has a heath bar and a bar that governs special abilities. These two bars go up and down as you play, and few people even think about them. In Lord of the Rings Online, they have the bars as well, but the terminology and reasoning is a little different.

The green bar displays your character’s Morale. In most games, if this bar drops to zero the character dies and respawns, but this isn’t the case in LotRO. When it reaches zero, the character is so overwhelmed by the forces against them that they retreat to a safe location. While the distinction is minor, it does fit into the world as a whole. Since this bar governs emotions, Minstrels are able to ‘heal’ by singing songs that raise your spirits.

The blue bar is your character’s Power. This represents your character’s force of will and ability to go beyond simple combat. This is the pool that characters use to fuel their skills and special abilities.

Character Stats

Lord of the Rings Online does away with many of the standard conventions of MMO classes and gets rid of standard attributes such as strength or dexterity. Instead, it uses a system that fits in tightly with the lore that existed before the game. In many cases, the stat may seem similar to one from another game, like Might being similar to a strength attribute, but when you look at it also governs things that would traditionally be in other areas.

Each of the following stats represent a character’s physical, mental or emotional wellbeing:

• Might: This stat governs additional damage with physical attacks as well as your ability to block and parry. High Might will also allow a character to mitigate damage from common sources (any weapon or attack that has ‘(Common)’ written after its damage).
• Agility: Agility determines how often you hit and critical in combat. It also governs your ability to evade and parry blows and increases your ranged damage.
• Vitality: This determines your bonus Morale, and how quickly your Morale regenerates out of combat. It increases your mitigation of Shadow and Fire damage and your Wound, Poison and Disease resistance.
• Will: This stat governs your Power bar. It determines your bonus Power and how quickly your Power regenerates when not in combat. It also influences your Fear resistance.
• Fate: Fate affects your Morale and Power regeneration while in combat and your critical chance with Tactical skills. A Tactical skill is generally a combat skill that is not a physical attack, such as a magic attack, healing power or buff.

Jumbles of Stats

In many cases, people will focus on one or two stats to the exclusion of others. While this isn’t necessarily a bad way to go, by understanding the different stats and how they work together, it is possible to make a more powerful character. For a new player, knowing exactly what Fate does and why Morale is important will help smooth out their starting experience.

For more information on statistics in Lord of the Rings Online, check out the Lorebook. Look at these for more information on the class system or traits and deeds.

Farm Town: Beginner Tips and Tricks

From the time of its inception, Farm Town has continued to reign as the most popular, and possibly the most enjoyable, game on Facebook. The game first appeared back in June of 2009, and at the time held the spot of the fourth most played game on Facebook.

By July, the game had already gotten 14,000,000 users, and reached the number one spot of all Facebook games. Today, few people are able to resist the temptation of attempting to develop a prosperous, successful farm.

Farm Town Gameplay

To play Farm Town, one begins by creating an avatar, and then is granted a free area of land to build on. The farmer must plow, plant, and harvest crops if they hope to bring in money, which is then spent on more seeds, in addition to tools, buildings, or other obscure features. As one’s farm continues to grow, you are able to go over to the real estate office and upgrade your farm in order to make it larger. Through gaining experience points, you can also increase your farm’s level.

To encourage cooperation with other users, the creators have added countless incentives to connect with your Facebook friends. For instance, it is actually less expensive to hire a friend to plow your fields and harvest your crops, and you gain a large bonus if you carry out the work of someone else's farm. Additionally, it is possible to donate free gifts to other farmers, and they are able to return the favor. This acts as a simple method to get free items that would normally be extremely expensive, and you actually gain experience points from it.


Experience points are one of the most intriguing, and often disgruntling, features of the game, but are essential to the gameplay. To acquire experience points, one must spend sufficient time visiting friends, harvesting crops, establishing new buildings, or sending gifts. Because experience is what allows you to advance to higher Farm Town levels, many users regularly choose experience points or levels to judge each other’s farms. If you want to build a more impressive farm than your friends, make sure to gain as many experience points as you can.

Along with experience points, gaining money is also an essential objective of Farm Town. To gain money, you must trade your crops. Conversely, you can travel to the marketplace and find someone to pay you to harvest or plant crops for them. Irrespective of what farm you are at, selling crops acts as the central tactic to acquire cash and is the main element of the game.

Conclusion

On the whole, Farm Town is a very thrilling free game. Although it often becomes tricky at times, the thrill of producing a thriving, wealthy farm is definitely worth it in the long run. If you haven’t looked into Farm Town by now, you’re definitely missing out on one of the highest quality free games on the internet.

Resident Evil Outbreak

Long before Resident Evil 5 allowed players to team up online and fight the waves of undead, two lesser known, but equally celebrated games tried online Resident Evil first, six years before the fact. On the PlayStation 2 no less.

The premise was unique too. Instead of being an overpowered, heavily armed, combat trained character, players were instead cast into the role of one of eight everyday ordinary citizens as they try to escape the nightmare engulfing their home town of Raccoon City.

The concept of melee weapons was introduced alongside the usual fare, and these titles were also the first implementation of the real time inventory screen, just like Resident Evil 5.

But despite the completely different format and premise, the segmented scenarios nestle right into the main timeline, and a couple even expand upon events seen in the main series. Familiar and new faces alike appear, and new enemies not seen before prowl the streets and local public venues.

The Nightmare Begins

The games begin as the eight playable characters are working and celebrating at J's Bar. There's Cindy Lennox the friendly waitress brining drinks to everybody. Kevin Ryman, who failed entry to the city's S.T.A.R.S. task force tries to drink his troubles away, while down the bar, Mark Wilkins tries to forget his Vietnam flashbacks so he can be a better security officer.


Meanwhile, Yoko Suzuki, the mysteriously silent Japanese girl, pecks away furiously on her laptop. Alyssa Ashcroft, the hard nosed reporter, hopes she'll get the next big scoop. Nearby, George Hamilton, the surgeon, is trying to drink away his divorce.

David King, the silent plumber, wants to talk to no one, while Jim Chapman takes a break from operating the subway to immerse himself in another puzzle magazine.
Unknown to all of them however, is the events that started Resident Evil 2 and 3 are happing right below them, and it isn't long before all hell breaks loose.

Another interesting aspect of this series, was the fact that all players started with a "Virus gauge". This chronicles their slow infection, unless attacked by an enemy which speeds it up. Once this reaches 100%, it's game over.

Online play did not support voice chat, as developers felt it would ruin the mood. (Xbox Live is an indication of the juvenile behavior they tried to avoid). Instead, through a combination of button presses and analog stick commands, the characters could call to each other for help, items, and conversation through an ad-lib system. This system, while designed to simulate casual conversation about the mess their in, also provides clues if you're stuck.

The New Enemy

One of the interesting aspects of the online play in these titles, is that the monsters aren't the only ones to worry about. Players are cast into groups of four, and have complete freedom to ditch their partners, or kill them in Friendly Fire mode. Leaving a partner to die online will see them rise as a zombie that player can control, seeking revenge for being wronged. It was an interesting concept at the time.


The monsters themselves run the gamut as well. From the standbys of zombies, skinless Lickers and the reptilian/humanoid Hunters, to new creatures such as giant Scissor Worm insects, and the never before seen mutation between zombie and Licker.

One boss is a giant organic mass that digests others, even a Tyrant unit from Resident Evil 2, into it's form to become stronger.

Scavenger Hunt

The final, and best aspect, was the replay-ability factor. Every one of the ten released scenarios had a massive checklist that needed to be completed, as well as hundreds of "SP Items". These items were divided into groups of forty for each scenario (twenty for the scenario and twenty for the characters), and were randomly generated in one of two sets of predefined locations.

Completing the checklists required playing through the scenarios as every character more than once, as each scenario had a randomly occurring personal experience for each of the characters. Alyssa would have flashbacks in the abandoned hospital, Kevin could converse with fellow officers at the station, Jim would see a fellow employee be pulled into the ceiling of the subway's restroom, and more.

Even the difficulty would change what happened in the game. An example would be the first scenario. On easy mode, Mark's friend Bob stays behind. On normal mode, Bob makes it to the roof with them and kills himself. On hard mode Bob comes back as a zombie.

Completing the checklists, finding SP Items, and clearing all the difficulties would unlock Gallery items and award points to buy these items. Selections included watching in-game movies, alternate costumes, concept art, sound tests, and bios about the locations.

There was also the insanely hard "Nightmare" mode, the single player "Lone Wolf" mode that eliminated the other three CPUs, "Infinite" mode for infinite ammo, and "Friendly Fire" where players could actually harm their teammates.

The biggest aspect was the majority of the gallery was other characters to play as. Every NPC encountered, and even some who were not due to development issues, were playable, all in varying states of health and possessing different inventories. They all followed a template of one of the eight main characters, but the second game actually gave them voices of their own during the ad-lib process.

A Nightmare Unfulfilled

Between the two games, only ten of the original proposed twenty scenarios made it to light. Others would've included the docks, a sleepy motel, Umbrella Corporation's downtown headquarters, and possibly the local military base.


Sadly, the last of the servers supporting these games were shut down in 2007. Unless avid players host their own, these can no longer be played online.

These games should not be forgotten. Their over ambitiousness for the PlayStation 2 laid the groundwork for most of what we see today in Resident Evil 5. The presentation mixed up the boring status quo at the time, and the wealth of random variables kept players coming back for more in an unprecedented level of replayability.

Additions to Zoo World on Facebook

Good and Bad Options Added to Online Zoo Game

Due to the huge page views and request for help, here is more information on Zoo World on facebook.com. There have been a few additions since the last article, and they will be covered below.

Gift Giving is Great

Every player is allowed to send 20 gifts a day to friends. It is important to note that all 20 of those gifts can be sent to the same person. This can be useful if player knows a friend is looking for a certain animal or collectible gift.

New Collectible Items

New additions to the zoo are the collectible trees. These special trees award the player 25 zoo dollars with each shake per day. Once player owns at least three of the same tree, they can be upgraded for a better tree, which will award more zoo dollars. Note that there have been many players reporting problems with this new feature, so if the upgrade is not available or there are problems, customer support should be contacted.

Upgrading the tree isn’t as simple as just clicking one button though. After that green upgrade button has been clicked, a pop up screen appears. The Upgrade button has to be pressed and then the player must select Save. Once this is done, be sure to visit the zoo to make sure the new tree has been awarded. It must be placed on the zoo like every other new addition.

It Used to Only Cost a Few Hundred!

An irritation of the game is the ridiculous increase in the cost of items that only cost a few hundred zoo dollars at the beginning. It just doesn’t seem fair to have to pay almost 200,000 zoo dollars for one zookeeper, when it can take over a zoo week to earn that much. The developers consider this more challenging, but it’s more likely not enough thought was put into ratio of the price increases. Player must just deal with this aspect if he/she wants to play the game.

The best way to avoid having to pay such inflated prices is for the new player to buy at least 50 zookeepers, and 25 kiosk managers and maintenance workers as soon as they start playing. Only one veterinarian is needed through level 20, so it is unclear when/if another will be needed. So it might be best to go ahead and buy an extra early in the game, since that price also skyrockets.

Planning Ahead is a Must in Zoo World

It might take a while to earn enough to buy that many workers, but it won’t take nearly as long as waiting until they are needed. Just be sure to buy all 50 zookeepers first before buying the other workers. Keep in mind that 50 is an estimate of how many zookeepers the player will need above and beyond his/her recruited friends. If a player has less than 50 friends, more zookeepers should be bought. The opposite works too, of course. A safe estimate is to have at least 100 zookeepers on hand, whether they be recruited or bought.

What Happened to Recruiting Friends?

For some unknown reason the developers changed how to recruit friends as zookeepers. Selecting the recruit option from the shop takes the player to a screen that gives instructions on how to recruit. So instead of being able to click on remaining friends, player must visit the zoo and click on the Recruit Zookeepers (looks like a bear with a hard hat) option from there. It seems like an unnecessary added step from something that worked just fine the way it was.

Besides the animals, nothing else in the shop increases in cost. So everything else that must be bought as the zoo increases in size can be bought as needed. The cost of the animals skyrockets as much as the staff. Every player can expect to pay close to 300,000 zoo dollars for one animal once they reach above level 20. The best way to tackle such high prices is to keep admission prices as high as profits allow.

Math Skills are a Must to Maximize Profits

To figure out the best price, every player should increase the admission by $1 until they notice their daily profits start to decline. When this happens, drop the price by $1. For instance, if the daily profit with a $12 admission price is $29,000, a $13 admission price is $30,000, and a $14 admission price drops to $29,000, then the ideal admission price is $13.

It is important to note that when an achievement is a minimum amount of visitors, it might be necessary to temporarily lower the admission price to attain the extra visitors. As soon as that level is achieved, immediately return the price to the higher amount. This will not affect the level earned.

Zoo World is a complicated but entertaining game. It’s growth seems infinite, with endless possibilities. As more levels are opened, more questions arise, so keep the questions coming. Be sure to read Zoo World on facebook.com for more help on how to get started.