Fantasy Kingdoms

Once again, I would like to recommend Fantasy Kingdoms to Harvest Moon and Rune Factory players. It is an extraordinarily beautiful game that appears to be unique among the large number of Facebook farming simulation games that continue to proliferate wildly. It does not have the plot depth of Harvest Moon or Rune Factory but the developers constantly are expanding the scope of the game. I wrote a little guide for it, although I need to update it again with the new items.

Freyashawk's Fantasy Kingdoms Site

In particular, I would recommend the game to any one who loves to celebrate festivals and holidays as FK always has the most amazing Items to honour the various festivals in the Wheel of the Year. The Lunar New Year is being celebrated and Items for St. Valentine's Day are being released now as well. Unlike Zynga (who makes Farmville and Frontierville), the makers of Fantasy Kingdoms are very responsive to players.

Harvest Moon and Rune Factory always will be my greatest focus and I am workiing still on Rune Factory 3, which is one of the LARGEST interactive novels I ever experienced, with actual variations on Request Events and Date Events that allow a player to experience a completely different Event randomly if and when he/she either reloads or accepts a Simple Request or initiates a Date Event for the second time!
The dialogues are witty, humourous and sometimes amusingly bizarre. Any one who appreciates the actual Events in Harvest Moon and Rune Factory will find this game more than satisfying.

Speaking of which, because of the wealth of Event variations in the game, I haven't published a Rune Factory 3 Courtship and Marriage Guide yet, but hope to have one in place by next week.

A Yuletide Heart from Fantasy Kingdoms

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Created by my friend Cherie, Harvest Moon and Rune Factory veteran, a Yuletide Heart in Fantasy Kingdoms fashioned from Pointsettias and Rainbow and Autumn Dryad Trees. Exquisite bit of landscaping...

Traditional Christmas Spirit in Games

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Any player of Harvest Moon is familiar with the Starry Night Festival and throughout the series, there have been traditions in Harvest Moon that are similar to Christmas traditions, such as the Stocking that must be knit by another Character and then placed on the wall to be filled in the middle of the night, usually by the Mayor acting as Santa's agent. Christmas per se, however, is not one of the traditional Harvest Moon festivals...

Some of the Animal Crossing games include Christmas revelries. Jingles is a character beloved by almost all Animal Crossing fans and one can enjoy the annual hunt for him, tricking him into giving extra gifts by changing clothing and headgear.

For gorgeous opulent Victorian depictions of Christmas and Yuletide, one cannot do better than to play Fantasy Kingdoms on Facebook. It is a total fantasy fulfillment for any one who delights in magic and who has gazed at Victorian illustrations wistfully, wishing that one could surround oneself with that type of enchantment and beauty during the Yuletide season.

The artists who work on Fantasy Kingdoms have created a real Winter Wonderland, complete with Magical Reindeer, Sleigh and all the other traditional symbols of Yule. Gifts can be exchanged with Neighbours and the fairly new option of Spellcrafting now allows one to craft special Limited Edition buildings, including an Ornament House and Gingerbread House.

Farmville may have more Holiday activities, including snowball fights and gift-wrapping, but it cannot compare with Fantasy Kingdoms for sheer breathtaking beauty. Furthermore, Fantasy Kingdoms always tends to be more 'giving' in its rewards for players who spend time and energy on the game.

Fantasy Kingdoms should appeal to any one who appreciates the philosophy at the heart of every Harvest Moon and Rune Factory game as it is based on the concept that power is derived from the acts of tending to the land and living in harmony with it.

Mana is the 'currency' upon which Fantasy Kingdoms is based, although Kingdoms Cash is a secondary currency that can be used to purchase special Items. For the most part, however, players can earn Mana by conjuring and gathering magical Crops, harvesting trees and empowering and gathering from Artifacts. The Crops that have been released for the Christmas season are extraordinarily beautiful and enchanting. They consist of Holiday 'Candy' and Ornaments. The various stages of growth of any magical Crop in Fantasy Kingdoms are distinct and the ability to 'freeze' Crops at any stage allows players to landscape their Kingdoms in different ways.

There are four different types of 'Christmas Trees' this year and each will change as it grows until it is ready to be harvested. One Tree displays pinecones. Another has lit candles. There is a Green Tree heavy with gorgeous ornaments and decorations and another 'trimmed' White Tree. Both of these will have gifts beneath them when they are ready for harvest.

One cannot compare a game like Fantasy Kingdoms with Harvest Moon or Rune Factory in terms of depth and gameplay. Fantasy Kingdoms basically is a method by which players can create their own works of arts, bringing their visual fantasies to life. It is landscaping for the most part, but it can be as detailed and as challenging as the player desires. Changing perspectives as well as creating patterns from objects are very much a part of Fantasy Kingdoms. If one is not interested in this, however, one can create a simple landscape that is beautiful and satisfying artistically.

It may be difficult for most people to find any time during the busy holiday season to play any games, but I do urge all lovers of traditional Christmas images and symbols to explore Fantasy Kingdoms a little. It is a free game and definitely worth the effort, for gamers and non-gamers alike.

For those who find themselves alone or unable to socialise in the real world during this season, games like Fantasy Kingdoms offer a very fulfilling way to celebrate the Spirit of Christmas and to interact with others who share the same sense of enchantment and magic.

Beautiful Visions in Virtual Farming

Some of the players of Fantasy Kingdoms and Lovely Farm are true artists whose creations can be breathtaking. Most of the screenshots here are taken from the farm and Kingdom of a Swedish player.

Included here are corners from three other farms. Two belong to Neighbours. The southern corner with the Violets is a screenshot of my own farm in Lovely Farm.






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Watch for an Interview with the creators of Fantasy Kingdom!

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In the brief period that I have been playing Fantasy Kingdoms, I have been very impressed not only by the creativity and graphic skills displayed in this game, but the attitude of Sneaky Games as well. The game is far more generous towards its players than any other Farming Simulation game I have encountered on Facebook and this fact, coupled with the sheer beauty of the game made me feel that it deserved to be promoted.

The people at Sneaky Games have been kind enough to consent to an interview about Fantasy Kingdoms so ... watch this page!

N.B. The screenshot with the Egyptian Pyramid shows one corner in the Kingdom of my Neighbour and Friend, ILuvHM.

The Wishing Well can be visited once each day by any player and will dispense rewards from 100 Mana to an actual Castle!

Farming Fanatics...

A Neighbour of mine in the wonderful game of Lovely Farm kindly allowed me to post her Facebook photo here. It is very apt I think for any one who plays Farming Simulation games, whether Farmville, Lovely Farm, Fantasy Kingdoms or Harvest Moon!
Thank you for graciously allowing me to share this!

Fantasy Kingdoms Guide on IGN

A little guide I wrote for Fantasy Kingdoms now is published on IGN, although I created a page for the game as well:

Fantasy Kingdoms Guide on IGN

I still am extremely impressed with Fantasy Kingdoms. Although there are marvelous Buildings and Artifacts that require Kingdoms Cash to purchase and easily might seduce a player into investing real 'coin of the realm' in the game, they make it easy to play the game and to enjoy it without investing a single penny. Furthermore, I have been rewarded again and again for my interest in this game in the brief period in which I have played it. When the game was inaccessible, I received a Chest containing 900 Mana with an apology. I had not contacted any one or complained, incidentally, but the apology and Mana Chest (currency) were generated automatically. Yesterday, an email containing a 'coupon' for an Artifact, the Unicorn Topiary, ordinarily purchased for 2000 Coins, was sent to me. I contrast this generosity and concern with the unsatisfactory responses that I received so far from Farmville Support.

Although I love Fantasy Kingdoms personally because the concept and graphics are developed from a traditional 'fairytale' universe, I must make it clear that this game does not require deep strategy. It is more of a visual delight and a form of creative 'meditation' for me, in that designing the landscape of a Kingdom is sheer joy and dissipates some of the stress of my daily life. If a player is looking for a game that requires strategy, Fantasy Kingdoms would not be the answer. It is a work of art in which the player can participate and shape to his/her liking.

On Friday, I wrote: I am not certain if I will pursue work on a guide for Farmville any further, even though there is some strategy involved in playing the game successfully, as I am not entirely happy with a response I received from Zynga when they failed to deliver an item promised to me.

When I contacted them initially, they simply requested my User ID and the platform on which I was playing the game. When I sent that information to them, however, they then demanded a screenshot of the Carrier Pigeon message.

The Zynga response on Friday asked me to capture a screenshot of last week's Message from Zynga on Farmville telling me that they were going to give me Carrier Pigeons. The Carrier Pigeons never were given to me. Other players have received them. I did not. I am at a loss to know how I possibly could capture a message that appeared on the screen almost a week ago. It seems to me that as they generated the message, they should have a record of the offers they make to players, and it shouldn't be my responsibility to supply the impossible. It is a trivial matter, and I only post the issue here because I have been reviewing Farmville, along with a few other Facebook games, and this response reflects poorly on the company.

On Saturday morning, I received another email from Zynga about the issue. This one was from a different representative who apologised for the fact that I had not received my Carrier Pigeons and announced that they had been sent to my Gift Box. The issue therefore is resolved now. I still am rather disgusted by the endless hoops through which the first representative made me leap, and especially his demand that I perform the impossible, but perhaps he has received a little scolding from his superiors. I certainly have no cause for complaint in the quick response of the second representative and his willingness to solve the problem at once.

I therefore intend to continue to work on the little Farmville Guide at this point in time. Once Grand Bazaar is released, however, I doubt I will have much time for anything else!

Why Play Games on Facebook?

A question I asked myself and one that other players may ask as well is, with incredible games available for console, handheld and PCs, why would any one play games on Facebook that cannot promise the same detail or complexity? Why choose Farmville, for example, instead of Harvest Moon or Rune Factory?

The answer to this question for most people probably is that a fan of Harvest Moon or Rune Factory would not choose any Facebook game instead of Harvest Moon or Rune Factory. On the other hand, it is possible to play both types of game simultaneously. Rune Factory and Harvest Moon will wait patiently for your return, unlike Animal Crossing and most Facebook games, which operate in real time. If you neglect Animal Crossing, you will return to find that you must exercise some damage control before you can play the game with ease. In particular, you must deal with the Weeds that will have cropped up everywhere in your absence.

In Farmville and the other farming simulation games on Facebook that I have explored, there are no Weeds to clog your field, nor will any plot that you have tilled be subjected to the ravages of time and weather if you fail to plant seeds there for any length of time. You therefore can prepare your farm for planting and leave the game for whatever period you choose. This means that you can explore any number of Facebook games without committing yourself to any degree of attention unless you actually plant Crops.

When Crops are planted, they are time-specific and, if not harvested when 'ready' will wither and be wasted. It is a pity to waste Crops in any game.

One of the primary purposes of any game on Facebook is social interaction. If you use Facebook in order to interact with your Friends and Family or any one else, it becomes more fun to combine ordinary interactions with Facebook games. If you have a good friend on Facebook who is interested in farming simulation games, becoming his/her neighbour allows you to have more fun.

Neighbours are very important in a game like Farmville. You can play without having any neighbours, but you will be unable to reap the rewards of many of the bonuses and options that are available if you have Neighbours. The game really is geared towards the entire concept of social interaction as well as farming.

Having Neighbours is only the first step, however. You need to post your accomplishments on your Wall if you wish to help your Neighbours benefit from your successes. This is true of many of the Facebook games. It is a type of advertising, of course, but the games are free and there is little harm in it, apart from the possibility that Friends who have no interest in gaming may begin to believe that you are obsessed with it and do nothing else with your time.

You do not need to spend that much time on any of these games, however, in order to participate in them. That is the beauty of these Facebook games. Your investments in term of time and energy are under your control. If you log into Facebook daily, you can grow Crops that take 12 or 24 hours to mature and be confident of harvesting them before they wither. If you only log into Facebook every two days or so, there are Crops that can be planted that will not mature until two days have passed. Note that your XP gain for any Crop is linked usually to the number of hours it takes to grow. There are Crops that are equal in the time they need to mature but give different XP Gains. If you are seriously interested in increasing your Levels, you always should choose the Crops that give 2 XP instead of 1 rather than choosing the Crops that are most attractive visually.

Which brings me to another potential reason to play the farming simulation games on Facebook. I mentioned this in an earlier post actually. A player can construct a picture with his/her farm, whether in Farmville, Fantasy Kingdoms, Farm Town or Lovely Farm. You need not bother with strategies of profit if you would prefer to approach the game from an aesthetic point of view. I actually try to combine both considerations. My birth flower is the Morning Glory and I eagerly awaited the point in Farmville when the Seeds would be unlocked. Now I usually try to grow some Morning Glories on my field for the simple pleasure of gazing upon them. Some Crops definitely are more attractive than others. (Pineapples and Artichokes are among the less attractive Crops but they do give good XP and are profitable.)

I am wandering away from the point of this post I fear which is not to give tips about specific games but to explain the attraction of them in general.

The way many of these games work is by inserting random events periodically. In Farmville, one of these Events is the appearance of a 'Lost Animal'. When a Lost Animal appears on your Field, you cannot adopt it yourself, but you can post the information on your Wall to allow other players to adopt it. The Lost Animals tend to be varieties that are not offered for sale at the Market. Llamas, Black Sheep, Groovy Cows, Pink Cows and Party Ducks are some of the Lost Animals that the game generates. A player who is at a very low level can increase his/her Ranch population by adopting these Lost Animals but only if his/her Neighbours and Friends post the information on Facebook.

There are other little rewards and occurrences that can be 'shared'. When you collect products from your own Animals, you sometimes can offer them to your Neighbours, again by posting the information on your Wall. When a Special Event such as the Tuscan Wedding is in progress, these items may be ingredients that need to be collected in order to obtain special rewards. Special Events such as the Tuscan Wedding in Farmwille will not last forever. You can ignore them or participate in them. They are subsidiary to the primary purpose of the game which is to improve your Farm and your Levels of experience.

In many games on Facebook, increased Levels or other accomplishments result in Ribbons or Medals. This is one of the 'collection' option in these games. By posting the announcement of the award on your Wall, you can give your Neighbours an opportunity to obtain a bonus from it. The bonus usually is in the form of currency.

My actual guides for Farmville and Fantasy Kingdoms are posted on separate pages I created and will be published on IGN when they are more complete. For any one who wishes to explore Facebook games, however, I would imagine there are two general principles:

If you participate in the Facebook Community while playing the game, your success will be greater and you will have far more fun than if you play in isolation.

Have patience and do not rush to invest real money in any game. As in Harvest Moon, time and perseverance are your best allies in terms of increasing your own income in the game itself. Obviously, as these games are free, encouraging players to purchase currency with real money in order to obtain the best and most interesting items is one of the game's goals, but you need not be seduced by it. On the other hand, if you have a decent real income, investing $5.00 or its equivalent in the game is not entirely absurd. If you are a gamer, you can compare that sum to the price of a Console or handheld game and realise how it may be a way of supporting the creators of a good Facebook game. There are ways to purchase currency without sharing your financial details. It always it better to go through PayPal in these cases than to give any one access to your Credit Card or Debit Card information. The best players, however, are the ones who allow the game itself to generate currency for them.

Finally, these games exist to enhance your enjoyment of Facebook. Do not become a slave to any of them. As we all know, it is easy to become addicted to any good game.