Farmville Emails Notification opens a can of nerves

Farmville on Monday started email notifications. For months the folk at Zynga has been trying to get users to give them their emails as a way to send messages and communicate. This appears to be part of the effort to decouple from Facebook.

The messages that can be recived are shown in the image below. They include, ready to harvest, comments from friends, special announcements, speack offers and promotions and reminder to feed the puppy.

You can adjust these settings easily at farmville.com by clicking on the below the settings header on the left.

User's response has been lukewarm and and launch has been greeted on some blogs with disdain and call for current complaints to be corrected before more new features are added.

Just a reminder as Lexilicous,farmville community manager, says, Farmville is still in BETA and that is another story.

Farmville Nursery Barns are here

The Farmville Nursery Barn is now here. This will allow calves and foals to be stored and taken care off and harvested quicker. The storage capacity at present will be 20.

To complete the barn you will need ten(10) of the following items.

• Brick
• Wooden Board
• Nail
• Diaper
• Bottle

As in other barn raising activities, you can request from and give these items as gifts to your neighbours. The items can also be purchased in the market for farm cash.

Remember to share your achievements as it gives your neighbors coins and opportunities to get materials themselves. Also remember to send gifts to your neighbours.

Analysis & strategic outlook
My take is that the barn might be worth your it given the benefits of other storage facilities such as the chicken coop, diary farm and horse stable. They will take up less space that the number of animals you put in. The barn will take up less that a 3x3 Farmville crop plot. The storage capacity however will have to increased as at current capacity comes out as disappointment.

Given the area that a foal takes up versus a calf, I would opt to put the foals in first, depending on the space available. They both harvest for 80 coins.

The barn is worth building compared to the French Maison but there are questions about the capacity.

Farmville Puppy Dog equals problems

The Farmville dogs or puppies are finally here. The dogs come with a heafty price tag of 65 farm cash. The puppies where expected before the co-op but somehow the co-op made it out first.

How do I get the Dog?

The puppies are found in the market under the category 'animals' then under category 'pets'.

One Dog can be purchased for 300,000 coins. This dog's color is Red and is a Border Collie. You can purchase only one dog with Farmville coins but as many as you want once you have the Farmville cash.

Further customisation of the 300,000 dog is allowed in terms of the following along with the related charges. Those purchased with farmville cash can be customised for free.

• Gender - Free
• Name - Free
• Color (chocolate or black) 65 Farm Cash

It should be noted that the "300,000" coin puppy comes with one day's supply of kibble and 14 days if purchased with 65 farm cash.

Dog Care

The puppies must be fed with kibble for 14 days daily. If you fail to do so, that the one purchased for 300,000 coins will run away. and so will your 300,000 coins. The ones purchase with farm cash will remain. The puppies will eventually become a full grown dog, if they are taken care off.

The Kibble can be available for 5 Farmville cash or as gifts from friends. If you dog runs away it will be seen behind bars. You can rescue the dog after paying a fine for 3 Farm Cash, i guess for puppy abuse.

I have not decided if I am buying the dog. Will discuss it with my wife, it is her farm after all.

There have been some problem as usual see, Zynga's Forum

Farmville Co-op, the how to Part 1

One of the biggest questions being asked in Farmville is exactly how do you join a co-op, how do you start a job, how does this work?

Requirements

• You have to be at level 20.
• You can't do it alone (unless you have multiple accounts

From there, the key thing is you have to jump in and try. Ensure you can find the co-op icon as shown in the diagram to the right. Click on it and you will be brought to the co-op board. This is where the fun begins.

How do you join or start a Job in Farmville co-op

First thing to note is that Farmville will provide the jobs. You can either start a job once you see it listed or join a job as invited.

1. When you click on the co-op icon you can see the jobs as soon as they are available. On the "all Jobs" you will see a list of jobs and you have the option to join a job. These are jobs that your neighbours are involved in and you have been invited.

Once you have joined a job it will be listed under "Active jobs" and you can "Request Assistance"

2. The next option is that you can start a Job and then invite a friends. This apparently seems to appear after you have joined an existing job. I did not see this option until I joined a Job.

In both cases you can request that other persons join in to assist. This results in a news feed being post as seen below. In this way, persons can also join the co-op and work on the project.

The details of the project is outlined. In the example above

Project: Pumpkin Pie O'plenty

Target 1400 pumpkins

Time left: 1 day and 12 hours

In part 2, I will provide some suggestions on getting the job done and it part 3 some pitfalls in the co-op. How are you finding the co-op? Got questions let me know.

Farmville Stallions explained

The Stallions have been creating a bit of confusion. Since being released on March 19, 2010 persons have been not quite sure how they work. Hopefully we can explain what is this works.

New Stallions can now be found wandering around FarmVille that will allow you to get Foals from your Horse Stable! When you opt to help a wandering stallion is is given shelter in the barn. To see what is happening, Zynga has added an enhancement. Click on the barn and select "look inside". At the top left hand corner you will now see and icon, indicating whether or not the wondering stallion is in or out. See screenshot below.

According to Zynga, the wandering stallions do not behave like how the Bulls behave. The wandering stallion is an event and not a permament fixture. This is very important to note as the stallion will not be counted as other horses inside the barn.

What happens

1. Wandering stallion has appeared on your farm.. when you share the feed, ten (10) of your neighours will be able to click on the feed and give shelter to the stallion

2. The stallion will be in the stable and you have a chance to receive a foal next time you collect 'horsehair".

3. When a foal is born, five(5) neighbours will have a chance to get a foal.

So be kind and take care of the wandering stallion and remember to share with your neighours.

Farmville Co op Problems being resolved

Farmville co-op got off to a problem-plagued start according to feedback from users. Zynga for their part as acknowledged the problems and asked users to patient.

The question on the virtual farmers lips in Farmville is how will this work? Apparently is working sites such as Farmvillefreak.com are reporting users completing their tasks but problems persist.

Complaints

It is interesting that many of the complaints from virtual is not only about this feature but Zynga's ability to fix the bugs, lost gifts. As it relates to the co-op, some users seem upset that the product could be rolled out with so many bugs while others call for patience given, that the product is free.

Are you still having problems? Let us know.

Farmville co-op Farming is here.

Farmville co-op Farming is here. This is a new feature we have been seeing promotions about. It will involve you working with your neighbours on specific tasks.

Farmville Co-op Tutorial (the how to)

The simple tutorial is summed up in four lines and attempts to outline how the co-op will work. The instructions are:

• Folks in Farmville(i.e your neighbours) will ask for help in completing farming jobs.
• Recruit friends to join your job and help you grow crops
• Grow enough crops before time expires
• The faster you finish the bigger your ulitmate rewards

Bascially the there is Job Board where you will be able to see and overview, details of the jobs and achievements.

• Jobs Completed vs Attempted

Medals

• Gold Medals
• Silver Medals
• Bronze Medals

Plus

• Job Completion streak
• Average co-op size
• Biggest co-op size

There are instersting prizes such found under the ribbons tab

Co-op Job Ribbon Achievements

• Employee of the Month
• Fabulous Foreman
• Best of the Rest

The co-op icon can be found where the delete tool was. The delete tool is now part of the under the multi-tool icon

How do you?

From the Zynga Famville forum, it appears the Jobs will be listed under the All Jobs and Active Jobs tab. You will then be able to

• Select a Job ( It appears when you do you will have to options to post it as a via a facebook feed for your neighbours and friends to see)
• Recruit Friends to help

So it appears we will have wait until the job pop unto the "Jobs To Do" Board.

However for more information visit the Zynga's Farmville Forum