Offerpal: In-game offers triples advertising revenue

Those ubiquitous, infamous offer walls that run below many social games are a great way for publishers to attract more revenue from their players. But they only work if users see them, and statistics show that the vast majority of players simply never bother scrolling down. Enter the harder-to-ignore in-game offer, which a new white paper from social game advertiser OfferPal shows is an incredibly efficient way of creating more revenue opportunities from players.

How effective, exactly? Offerpal says developers that use it saw three times as much offer-based advertising revenue. According to the white paper, most of that increased revenue comes from users that had never participated in an advertising offer before (they made up 93% of those who participate in the in-game promotions). The in-game offers are relatively sticky as well, with 10% of these new promotion users coming back to complete another promotion within a week.

Of course, OfferPal has a vested interest in putting a good face on in-game offers, since they provide those very offers to game developers as their core business. Still, we have no specific reason to doubt their reporting. If in-game offers are really this good at drawing more money out of social game players, you can expect to see them in a LOT more games relatively soon.

FarmVille New Gifts: Party Pig, Double Surfboards & Stripe Surfboard

FarmVille introduced three new free gifts- the Party Pig, Double Surfboards, and Stripe Surfboard. These free giftables can be accessed via the FarmVille Gifting Page.

FarmVille New Gifts (Released June 17th 2010)

    Party Pig
    Double Surfboards
    Stripe Surfboard (FarmVille.com exlusive) *You can only send this gift via FarmVille.com


In addition to these newly introduced gifts, some older gifts have been removed from the Gifting Page. For the complete list of gifts that were removed, see below.

FarmVille Free Gifts Removed from Gifting Page:

    Kensington Bench
    Sprouting bush
    Blue Star hay
    Red Star Hay
    Short Cactus
    Red Rock
    Round Haybale
    Star Haybale
    Hanging Tomato
    Orange Star Hay
    Apricot Tree – (FarmVille.com Exclusive)
    Durian Tree – (FarmVille.com Exclusive)
    Starfruit Tree – (FarmVille.com Exclusive)
    Passionfruit Tree – (FarmVille.com Exclusive)


This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

Pet Society: Dig out a Kitty

pet society happy kitty plushie weekly digging special
There's a new item buried in the Town Forest in Pet Society-the Happy Kitty Plushie. Can you dig it out? Sushi's Mama tried to find the kitty, even going against her usual penny-pinching nature and buying an extra 5 shovels for 300 coins. But no luck today!

Despite the fact that we didn't find the kitty, we still like the Treasure Hunt feature. Our favorite part of it is actually the beginning. We like the map and how you can zoom into the forest. Who knew that the pets were living on an island?!
pet society lost
This might explain some of the stranger things that go on in this game. Like how Mama sometimes sees a large sleeping bear when she digs.
.pet society bear
The bear appears randomly, in a different spot of the forest. And sometimes, it's not there at all. We think Mama can get so close to the bear because they're so alike!
pet society bear
This article originally appeared on Pet Society Anonymous.

FrontierVille: New Chicken Coop and Varmint Hunting quests

FrontierVille has received new quests. First, the Chicken Coop will allow you to harvest all your chickens at once.

To get started, purchase the Chicken Coop from the FrontierVille market. To buy the building, you must have 13 neighbors and 30 wood. Once placed on your land claim, the Chicken Coop will require 18 whacks, each costing 16 wood. Like the Cabin, to finish the Chicken Coop you'll need to get hand drills, nails, paint, hammers and bricks from your friends or by spending Horseshoes.

Also new are varmint hunting quests. The FrontierVille Facebook fanpage advises players to "be on the lookout for quests to clobber snakes and scare bears, and show off your prowess at gettin' rid of varmints!"

Sounds good to us, ain't nothing like giving a pesky snake a nice clobbering.

Head over to FrontierVille to get started.

Click here to play FrontierVille>

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FrontierVille Water Decorations make a summer splash

frontierville water decorations
Just as the summer heat was starting to get the best of us and our frontier towns, FrontierVille has released a line of refreshing water decorations.

Unfortunately, the most desirable items cost Horseshoes leaving us non-spenders with little to work with. Nonetheless, the water decorations are pretty cool, so continue reading to see a complete listing of the update.
frontierville water decorations     frontierville water decorations     frontierville water decorations
frontierville water decorations     frontierville water decorations     frontierville water decorations
frontierville water decorations     frontierville water decorations     frontierville water decorations
frontierville water decorations     frontierville water decorations     frontierville water decorations
frontierville water decorationsWatering Can - 500 Coins, 5 XP
Swimmin' Hole - 2000 Coins, 20 XP
Ducky Hot Tub - 18 Horseshoes, 108 XP
Geyser - 15 Horseshoes, 90 XP
Frontier Fountain - 20 Horseshoes, 120 XP
Bird Bath - 750 Coins, 7 XP
White Bird Bath - 750 Coins, 7 XP
Waterfall - 55 Horseshoes, 330 XP
White Frog Pond - 25 Horseshoes, 150 XP
Iron Fountain - 200 Coins, 2 XP
Hot Tub - 18 Horseshoes, 108 XP
Frog Pond - 25 Horseshoes, 150 XP

Many of the water decorations are only available for a limited time so head over to FrontierVille soon to check them out. My personal favorite is the waterfall, the rainbow in the back is an excellent touch. Plus, all the tall grass and dried out animal carcasses make my frontier town feel extremely dry and arid. Any one of these water decorations would do wonders to remedy the situation, but the waterfall does it the most beautifully.

Click here to play FrontierVille>

Quote of the moment: So simple, only a casual can do it

"This game is too casual for us hardcore gamers. It's probably so obvious how to accept a request, but hell if I can figure it out. I sent you a goat, though."

-Destructoid's Nick Chester comments on he and his co-workers' inability to accept a simple neighbor request in Zynga's Frontierville. As fellow Destructoid player Jim Sterling added later: "As hardcore gamers, we don't expect to be shunted around an archaic menu system, waiting for a brand new screen to load every single time we want to interact with someone or something. It's frustrating and it's a waste of time, and as you've seen here, it's such an alien concept to us that we actually didn't understand how to deal with it."