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General: Playing Cityville
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Cityville is one of Zynga's latest "-ville" games on Facebook and MMORPG.com Lead Writer Bill Murphy has fallen into the trap of playing...and kind of likes it. Check out Bill's entry into the Staff Blog and see what you think. Then let us know if you too have succumbed.
It's not a title that's going to replace any of my normal games of choice. But I would actually say that with CityVille (and even FrontierVille if you've played it), Zynga's actually finally in the business of making real games. Do they still try to make you spend your hard-earned money on different colored theme decorations, or energy so you can play more than five minutes at a time? Yes. But you never really will find yourself needing to spend any money, and the building and maintenance of my city is perfect for killing a few minutes at work or at home when all I want is to kill just a wee bit of time.
Read Bill's full blog post here.
Comments
city ville sounds just wrong
BestSigEver :P
I think MetropolisBurg was taken...
They all get Boring because every few minutes some screen comes across Begging you to spend real money OR invite Neighbors. In Frontierville they have it time so you have to waste your points on clobbering foxes, snakes and bears and then they hit up up to spend more money to get power to continue
This. I played Farmville and Cityville. Farmville I only played a minute of because there wasn't really anything to do, but I thought Cityville was good for a facebook game, fun to make a little city with cute people and creatures running around. I would have continued playing it if those stupid real money things didn't pop up every second and your "energy" didn't run out so fast.
-I want a Platformer MMO
Anyone who admits playing one of these games is well.....just my opinion of course, but if you are that bored with life maybe you need to make some changes.....
LOL @ Ozmodan.. The fact this game was even mentioned on this website, especially by a lead writer makes me seriously consider removing my bookmark and finding another "main" mmo site... o.O
I would have to agree....No more "ville" game reviews please. Start another web site called "VilleRPG" and put them on there.
Just hit level six.
Level seven will be a little tougher though, since wasted a ton of cash on a huge bronze statue before I realised what a complete waste of money that was.
I just wanted to step in and point out that my main intent with this blog post is boiled down to the last line: I think that if even Zynga can make a game that's moderately interesting (note I didn't say it wasn't a complete time-waster) then I wonder if there mustn't be some games out there on Facebook that are actually viable for someone to play at length. If Civilization is making a Facebook jump, one has to wonder. Not all of them need to be designed completely around gouging your wallet either. In fact I'd wager that Facebook games would be better served by some sort of advertising content, and not tying the gameplay to spending money.
But my search for a Facebook game that's actually more than a 5 minute a day time-killer might take some time. No worries, my mind-numbing enjoyment of a Facebook game is by no means indicative of the future direction of this site. This was just a personal blog, so do relax.
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These are not the sort of games I play. But those that do and enjoy them it is all good. Those that play games on Facebook are those that have no interest in playing something that a great deal of time is invested in. They do so to fill in a few spots of time here and there and be social with their friends.
I for one would hate those ads for investing RL money in. I don't think they should have to deal with that like peeps are saying goes on. If someone is making a game that people on Facebook can play then they should not press them for all the RL funds. Different type gamer there; a gamer that just wants to do something fun and invite their friends to join them for a short span. Something that breaks up the RL day a bit but does not consume hours of it.
Gikku
Play what you like until you don't like it anymore. Ignore those special individuals who don't like you because they don't like what you play.
*begs the blood God "Ed Boon" to send us more hard core titles to kill these damn casural games and the accursed lamers who play them*
16XP away from level 8, come on strawberries grow quicker, i need that burger bar.
Go back and play with your "Wii Wii" lamer.
and you have a lovely evening too.
For me, I found Cityville quite boring because it does not hav something new that can attract players to play it. People was convinced to play it because of the growing number of people who started playing it. But after 4-5 hours or even less, they started to realize and see that the game is actually boring. I even got pissed off because I receive 50 invites everyday in this game.
I agree, cityville doesn't offer any challenge to its players, this is a no brainer game. People where just attracted to play this game because of the numerous players playing it and not because it offers good gameplay, graphics et cetera.
Cityville can be fun and challenging if you want it to be. How so?
Just try staying at the lead leveling curve among friends, with all the newest items and such, *without* paying any money at all. I'm enjoying this little bit of meta-gaming, if you will, where it is clear that a number of my zynga friends have spent money, yet I've never given them a single penny in building out my massive city.
Plus the bulk of my female friends on FB play most of these games and get really happy with virtual gifts
.
These games aren't meant to be played for hours on end. They're meant to be a diversion and if you aren't careful you can blow a chunk of cash before you know it. Best practice, take them as a long term developing interest and see how it plays out. Many of them end up giving away the cash items in time, or you find that they aren't really necessary and you can do without them - given time.
They are playable if take at face value, a 20-30 minute time waster in between dinner and your favorite show, or taking the kids to their functions, etc. etc.
They're defintely NOT for the "race to end-game" player. Anyone in this category will be disappointed and bored.
The one thing that is highly interesting is the integration with Facebook's communication tools, from the Gifting aspect, Friend's Lists (read - games lists), customisable News Feed, Notifications, Messaging, and User Groups that can, and do, revolve around game play. Without these things I believe these games would fail as synchronising your efforts to gain what you need to reasonably advance from other players is, for most of these browser games, the first order of business.
This blog got me interested enough to try it, now I'm hooked. *shakes fist at Bill* damn you Bill!
I've bitched about FarmVille (FarmVile) in the past; lots, ranted on my FB about all the news feeds I'm spammed with daily, but I like CityVille. It's a nice change of pace.
Like Safra said, it's not meant to be played for hours on end, it's just a nice 30min time waster of game you can play with your friends and family on FB. I can't say I won't eventually get bored of the game, but for now it's not so bad. BTW Verdonia is another fun game, though they have changed a lot of it. It's a clone of many other FB city fortress games, but I think it looks and works better.
some of my friends like it and keep asking me to play it o_O
lol NEVER VENTURE OUT ALONE