Top 25 Facebook Games - December 2011: FarmVille Strikes Back

I guess in Facebook game years, FarmVille is kind of like Obi Wan Kenobi. And boy, did Zynga's farming game come back stronger than we could possibly imagine, or what? As The Sims Social falls from its cushy number two spot after losing 7.9 million monthly players, FarmVille swoops in with a 2.8 million gain this month. CityVille lost a few million, but still clings to the top.

EA and Playfish's slugger dipped even further on December's daily players chart to fifth place with a loss of 1.1 million players. (This is what we chalk all that up to.) Of course, CastleVille--Zynga's fastest-growing game ever--makes a grand entrance into both top 25 charts. The kingdom-builder shot up to fifth place in monthly players with 20.8 million, and an impressive second place in daily players with 7.3 million. That should be the shot in the arm the company needs for its imminent public offering, no?

Not so fast, considering Mafia Wars 2 didn't even make the charts in daily players, the best measure of a game's dedicated (and paying) audience. Zynga launched Mafia Wars 2 in October. The game does, however, have 11.3 million monthly players, which ties it with Wooga's Diamond Dash. That puzzle game is nine months old.
Top 25 Facebook Games by MAU
An interesting newcomer to this lineup is Nordeus's Top Eleven, which creeps up in 25th place on the daily players charts with 950,000. Unfortunately, the rest of these charts look like business as usual, aside from Zynga's major losses including Adventure World, which hemorrhaged 4.3 million monthly players. Though, it's refreshing to see some more developers continue to thrive in the top 25 charts, like King.com with Bubble Witch Saga and 6waves Lolapps with Ravenskye City.

[Source and Image Credit: Inside Social Games]

How can The Sims Social reclaim its second place spot? What other games do you think deserve to be on this list?

Empires & Allies: Reach Level 5 in Mafia Wars 2 for a Fighter Bundle

In addition to the cross-promotions found in games like FarmVille and CityVille, another Zynga game has taken its turn of publicizing the company's newest Facebook game, Mafia Wars 2. Here, we see a promotion come to Empires & Allies, offering players a Fighter Bundle filled with goodies if you can make it to Level 5 in Mafia Wars 2.

Making it to Level 5 takes about 10-15 minutes, but can be even quicker if you already have multiple friends playing the game (as you could visit their compounds and earn extra supplies without using your own energy). Just make sure to access Mafia Wars 2 through the in-game pop-up that should appear for you when logging into Empires & Allies to make sure your progress "syncs" back to your Home Island.

Once you've reached Level 5, come back to Empires & Allies (refreshing the game if necessary), and you'll see the following pop-up, alerting you to your prizes. Specifically, the Fighter Bundle contains three items: Air Strike, III, Poison Gas III and a Tactical Nuke. All three will pop into your inventory where you can choose to use them at the most advantageous time for you in battle.

Remember, it's likely that this promotion won't be around forever, and as these prizes can really help turn the tide for you in battle, there's no reason not to spend a few minutes trying out Mafia Wars 2, even if you have no intention of playing it again. Play the game once, and you'll unlock multiple prizes across tons of Zynga games, so what are you waiting for? Claim them all before it's too late!

Have you already received your Fighter Bundle in Empires & Allies, or do you simply have no desire to ever play Mafia Wars 2?

Cafe World: Reach Level 5 in Mafia Wars 2 for a Lavender Lightning Stove

Hoping to pull in plenty of its existing player base into Mafia Wars 2, Zynga has launched yet another cross-promotional in one of its games, offering prizes to those players who try out its newest Facebook game at least for a few minutes. Specifically, this newest promotion is in Cafe World, offering players a trio of items for reaching Level 5 in Mafia Wars 2.

This task should take you no more than 10-15 minutes, and should be even easier now, as many of your friends have likely already tried the game to earn prizes in their own favorite Zynga games. Once you reach Level 5 (I'd suggest entering the game from the Cafe World pop-up so that it can be guaranteed to keep track of your progress), you can come back to Cafe World and will likely have to refresh the game to see your prizes in your inventory, spice rack, etc.

The three prizes here are a Lavender Super Stove, a six-pack of Instant Thymes (used to make your dishes instantly ready to serve), and the Chocolate Eclairs.

With this, we've now seen promotions in FarmVille (free Unicorn), CityVille (free Casino), Pioneer Trail (free White Lion), Empires & Allies (free Fighter Bundle) and now Cafe World. With the requirement being the same across all games - simply reach Level 5 in Mafia Wars 2 - you can play the game just once and rack up all of these prizes for free, just by making sure to login to each during what's expected to be a limited time promotion period. So, what are you waiting for? Plenty of free goodies are out there waiting for you people! Go make the most of them!

How many of these promotional prizes have you already claimed in these games? Which promotion has been your favorite so far?

Zynga publishes Mafia Wars 2 comic, sets the stage for Las Vegas intrigue

Mafia Wars 2 has remained a mystery since the word leaked in January. The only follow-up the public has gotten from Zynga is last week's 'badass' trailer. But the game's official fan page announced a Mafia Wars 2 digital comic last night, titled with the game's much bandied about tagline, "Being Bad Never Felt So Good". The comic presents the glamorous yet dangerous world of the game, which is set in Las Vegas, and drops just enough exposition for the reader to meet the cast -- including whose shoes players will be stepping into once the game launches.

This eight-page comic was created by UDON Entertainment, a Canadian comics studio that specializes in Asian-inspired art, lending the story a manga flair in the character designs and paneling layout. UDON (named after the Japanese noodle) isn't a new entrant in games comics either. They're best known for their work with major Japanese games maker Capcom, drawing and publishing comics and artbooks for the Street Fighter series.
Mafia Wars 2 characters
So far, Zynga seems intent on keeping quiet about Mafia Wars 2's gameplay (except for the fact that it'll be a "vast 3-D world"), but they've been very big on establishing the game's world and its characters, the latter of which actually have detailed backstories available on the official website. A focus on characters and narratives is a rare thing in Facebook games. The last time this was done, and to a much greater extent, was Qunify's CLASH: Rise of the Heroes, which is heavily based on superhero comics. One of Zynga's developers, Mike Humphrey, has said that "I'm really looking forward to finally seeing how Mafia Wars 2 is received; it's unlike most games on Facebook right now, and I think it pushes the envelope of what people can expect from games on the platform." Let's hope they keep pushing until the day of the launch.

To check out the comic yourself, click here and follow the directions to 'Like' the game's official Facebook fan page.

How do you like the comic so far? Are you enjoying what appears to be Zynga's move towards more in-depth, story-driven Facebook games? Sound off in the comments. 4 Comments