Digital Chocolate launches Hollywood City on Facebook - Live it up as a movie mogul

Today, Digital Chocolate, the makers of Millionaire City (the current #16 app on the whole of Facebook, according to AppData), launched a new title on Facebook called Hollywood City.

For those who have played Millionaire City, the game will immediately strike you as similar, at the very least. You'll choose from one of two advisors for your game - Dean Donson, the "rich and experienced" male character, or Jillian Jones, the "brilliant and hardworking" female character.

Meet us behind the break to learn more about Digital Chocolate's newest offering on Facebook.

The story goes that your grandfather has fallen ill at the hands of Ruth Less, a dirty player in the movie business. As your grandfather is unable to handle the family business by himself, you'll be charged with taking his place. You'll build a new business Headquarters, studio lots and so on, all in the same way that you would in Millionaire City.

Basically, the gameplay is a copy-and-paste of that seen in Millionaire City, right down to the necessity of "clearing" out plots of land on which you'll place your buildings. Homes and businesses are replaced by backlots and studios; trees and gardens are replaced by actors' trailers and media agencies - you get the idea.

The entire goal of the game is to earn as much profit as you can by running your movie studio, with each backlot you purchase corresponding to a certain type of film, which allows you to theme your projects to your choosing. Contracts allow you to earn money over time, from the short 3 minute Commercial shoot, to a Trilogy shoot that lasts a full 3 days.

Accessory items like the aforementioned actors' trailers or various offices give off the same bonuses that fountains and the like do in Millionaire City, and you'll need to use these items to your advantage when fulfilling the series of quests that the game sets out for you, like producing a certain kind of film in your documentary studio, purchasing a movie theater, and so on. Not to beat a dead horse, but if you've played Millionaire City even for just a few minutes, you will know exactly what to do here, and in theory, how to succeed.

We will say that the one thing the game has going for it over its "predecessor" is a killer soundtrack, in addition to the inclusion of Ruth Less herself, a character that will make her power known at various intervals during gameplay, as she blackmails you, threatens you, or is an all-around meanie, allowing you to choose various actions that will either boost your experience points or add money to your virtual bank account in response. One such example shows Ruth Less blackmailing you over an embarrassing, yet stolen, video tape that could ruin your reputation. You can either sue her or reveal the tape, with either your bank total or experience points being changed, depending on your choice (respectively).

For all of its comparisons to Millionaire City, if you've yet to play that title, or if you simply want a game with a Hollywood or theatrical twist, be sure to give this one a go by heading over to the Hollywood City page on Facebook.

Mafia Wars Game Cards offer more Reward Points than ever

Maybe it's the giving spirit of the holidays (or more likely a preparation for Black Friday), but no matter what inspired it Zynga has increased the amount of Reward Points you'll find in Mafia Wars Game Cards. Unfortunately, Zynga hasn't revealed by exactly how much the cards have increased in value, though they do remain at the same price as before. So, either way this is a deal.

Included in the update are new price points for the Game Cards to coincide with the Zynga Game Cards with $10 and $15 options. Before, Mafia Wars Game Cards were only offered for $25 and $50. And if you want to avoid the ravenous crowds this Friday morning, you can gift any Zynga Game Card through e-mail using Zynga's service. Besides, everyone knows that Cyber Monday is way cooler than Black Friday.

FarmVille creator Zynga is 'not for sale,' CEO says

Mark Pincus
But going public is a likely possibility. In a recent interview with The Telegraph, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus (pictured) revealed his intentions for the $5.5 billion social game company. For starters, "Zynga is not for sale. That is not my goal," Pincus said. "I want to build an international treasure; an entity which lasts in people's live for a long time."

While Zynga, soon to release CityVille--its seventh game--has partnered with several companies including its largest investor, Google, giving all that up for a massive wad of cash apparently isn't on Pincus' agenda. Besides, most of the greatest companies in the world didn't get where they are by selling out, right? However, selling hasn't been ruled out entirely, though IPO might be his next move for Zynga.

"I cannot say Zynga will never be up for sale but we are more likely to IPO [go public] rather than be sold. Being sold is not my ambition," Pincus said. "Going public makes it easier for investors to monetize your product." A horribly brief description of IPO, or initial public offering, would be that it's when a company releases extra shares for anyone and everyone to gobble up (including other corporations)... or scoff at and look toward the next big thing. In other words, it's extremely risky as the company in question could lose millions.

Though, it might be Zynga's only option if it wants to grow into the next Internet buzz word, which is exactly what Pincus has in mind. "I want 'Zynga' to be become to a verb, like 'to Google' has," said Pincus. "I want people to 'Zynga' each other and for the word to become completely aligned with gaming."

YoVille offers a FarmVille experience for Thanksgiving

FarmVille in YoVille: Zion's veggie patch has everything you need for the winter!
Check out how YoVille players can have their own farms without playing FarmVille! From vegetable crops to pumpkin patches, from horses stables to sheep pastures, YoVille has it all. And the easy part is that we don't have to ask other YoVille players to pick our crops. :) A Farmville experience right here in YoVille! Let's see some of these FarmVille creations! YoVille farming pumpkins
You want to make pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving? Spiralda's pumpkin patch is just the right place for pumpkins!
YoVille farming meats and vegetables
Yoangel has all organic vegetables and meats for Thanksgiving dinner!
YoVille Samwise Farm
Samwise's farm offers home delivery all year round!
YoVille horse ranch
At Jersee Dee's ranch the horses are trained for the incoming horse race!
YoVille pumpkin patch
Sugar Sweet's pumpkin patch just hosted a party and looks like everybody had fun!
YoVille turkey farm
You can hand pick your turkey at Bruno's farm!
YoVille sheep ranch
Spiralda is making sure we will all have good quality wool for our sweaters for the incoming Yowinter!

Check out the rest of our Thanksgiving 2010 coverage right here.

This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.

FrontierVille Flash Mob Party will test your homestead trivia skills

For the first time ever, FrontierVille is the location of the next big flash mob. Well, not literally, but at least on the forums. Players can log into Zynga's community forums as of this writing and partake in the FrontierVille Flash Mob Party within this thread. It's there that players will be asked five sets of 10 questions and the first to answer each set correctly will win 50 Horseshoes.

This is a new community event that the Zynga community team is testing and considering the thread already have 86 pages to its name, we're going to take an educated guess and say that it's fairly successful. Be sure to jump as soon as you can for a chance at some Horseshoes and bragging rights for the whole FrontierVille community to see. Do you think you know everything about FrontierVille? Then name five different Mystery Animals... go! Not here, in the forums, silly. Hopefully, this means future Flash Mob community events for more Zynga games to come as I know we could school you folks in FarmVille trivia. C'mon, it's our job to know this stuff.

Social City creator Playdom accepts Facebook Credits exclusively across all games

Just like that, the final domino falls. Playdom is the next company to submit to Facebook's demands for social game and app developers to accept only its virtual currency. As of today, Playdom will only be accepting Facebook Credits as its virtual currency. Fortunately, the company will, of course, still accept credit and debit cards as well as PayPal payments.

If this deal is anything like Facebook's previous three, we imagine Playdom will have to deposit 30 percent of all Facebook Credits sales into the social network's bank account. It also bears mentioning that the unique currencies to Playdom's games like City Bucks in Social City and Campus Cash in ESPNU College Town aren't going anywhere; it's the third-party payment methods that are officially kaput. And thankfully the free offers from Playdom's ad partners for in-game money don't seem to be going anywhere either.

This isn't the first time Facebook has coerced social game companies into using its new currency, which is now available at GameStop and Radio Shack in addition to nearly all major department stores. With CrowdStar the first to go and later Zynga giving in, it was only a matter of time before EA and Playfish accepted the offer too. Finally for Facebook, the company will be reeling in 30 percent of the top four social gaming companies' profits via Facebook Credits. Let that one sink in for a while and you'll understand why Zynga might want out.

Cafe World Holiday Tree: Everything you need to know

If you thought this week's release of the Holiday Dinner catering order would be the end of the Holiday celebration in Cafe World, then Zynga has released a new feature today that is sure to surprise you. The new item is the Holiday Tree, which, like every other buildable in Cafe World, starts out as a simple tree, sans decorations, and must be "constructed" by adding various ingredients to the tree, like lights, bells, and of course, ornaments.

You'll need the help of friends to put this tree together, but it will be worth it, as users that finish building the tree will have a chance at earning free bundles of coins or even free Cafe Cash every single day from December 24 to January 5 just for doing so.

Want to know how you can potentially get your hands on some much-needed Cafe Cash? Meet us behind the break for full details on this new feature.

This is one case where money really will grow on trees, but only if you can help the tree itself grow first. The next time you login to the game, you'll see a pop-up like the one at the top of this post, introducing you to the event, and allowing you to place your entirely plain, generic evergreen tree in your cafe. Of course, a plain evergreen tree simply won't due for a true holiday celebration, so you'll need to finish building and decorating it by collecting four ingredients: Fairy Lights, Chimes, Baubles (ornaments), and Exotic Ornaments.

Since the ultimate goal of this feature is for all users to have the tree completed before December 24, Zynga has mercifully lowered the required number of ingredients from previous building events. This time around, you'll still need to collect 10 of the Fairy Lights, but only five Chimes and Baubles. All three of these are earned by clicking on the "Ask for More" button associated with that item, and then sending out individual gift requests to friends that you think would answer your call for help.

As for the Exotic Ornaments, this actually brings in an entirely different feature for the buildable, as you'll need to click on the "Collect" button in the tree's menu (as seen above), and then follow the menu that appears to head over to Treasure Isle, where you can find the exotic ornament you need for your tree.

By clicking on the "Play Treasure Isle" button, Treasure Isle will load in a new window, where you'll be given the specifics. You'll need to level up to at least level 5, and find any five treasures while playing the game to be "granted a Basket of Ornaments."

Depending on whether or not you've played Treasure Isle in the past, and on what level you are in the game overall, you may be able to finish this task in one sitting, but most players, especially newer players, will have to come back to the game more than once to finish the task. Still, since the other three Holiday Tree ingredients require you to wait for your friends to send you items, the cross-promotion with Treasure Isle at least gives you a way to occupy your time while you wait.

If at any time you'd like to stop waiting for your friends' help, you can purchase your remaining ingredients for 2 Cafe Cash each. You can even skip the Treasure Isle promotion entirely if you'd like to pay 8 Cafe Cash to do so. Additionally, if you really hate building things and want to purchase a completed tree outright, you can do that too, as a finished Holiday Tree is available under the Special Items section of the game's Functional Store (click on the gears, and then the blue gem) for 45 Farm Cash.

Once the tree has been completed, and once December 24 arrives, you'll be awarded a free prize from the tree once per day just for playing the game. Zynga has confirmed that these prizes will either be coins, or even free Cafe Cash, although they didn't announce in what quantities either would be given away (that is, whether you could win up to 1 Cafe Cash per day, 10, 100, or so on).

Either way, if you're done with the Holiday catering orders in Cafe World, this seems like more than a decent replacement for how to spend your time in the game.