Passing Time

This is just a quick blog on my favourite Facebook pastimes.  If you didn’t read my last post, it explained that we all know there are a lot of applications on facebook for everyone to use freely.  With more than 500 games alone on facebook you could never be bored.  The amount of traffic those games bring to facebook is in the 100 billion.  The games on facebook improve as the public requests.  The games change like any other trend in the world.  I also post; The FarmVille Way.

The current top games are different from my all time favourite pastimes.  I am surprised that some other games are not in the top 25 but I guess I have a different taste in video games than the average world.  Some of the games on my list will be old a few are even gone.

Top 11 Facebook Pastimes

Runner ups
3 – Franchise Basketball - could us a skip options.
2 – FarmVille - lost interest
1 - FrontierVille - losing interest

Top 8
8 – My Shops - Could use more in the game.
7 – CSI: Crime City - Good Game but Xp system is a little unfair.
6 – Restaurant City - Good Game but to  much loading, to slow loading.
5 – Cafe World - Good Game But to  much loading, to slow loading.
4 – Mafia Wars - Really Good Game but I quit to long ago to restart.
3 – CityVille - Amazing Game but it needs new a lot more new missions.
2 - Ponzi - Epic Business Game but  has disappeared.
1 - Backyard Monsters - The Best Game on Facebook in my opinion, not much time need to play the game and is a lot of fun.

The CityVille Swarm

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Facebook, created for a way to communicate, is used for much more now.  We all know there are a lot of applications on facebook for everyone to use freely.  With more than 500 games alone on facebook you could never be bored.  The amount of traffic those games bring to facebook is in the 100's of billion.  The games on facebook improve as the public requests.  The games change like any other trend in the world.

For a long time FarmVille had the number one spot for monthly active users, I personal didn’t think anything was going to replace it.  It was not my most favoured game but it was to over 81 million others.  I am not 100% sure but I would guess Mafia Wars was top before FarmVille but I am guessing FarmVille set records for Facebook.   In December 2010, Farmville dropped just over 2.5 million active users, but was still was in the number one spot with 53.73 million active monthly users.  Following Farmville was Texas HoldEm Poker with 34.7 million and FrontierVille with 29.27 million active monthly users.  all three games were created by Zynga.

The unthinkable happened January 2011, FarmVille was replaced in the number one spot for monthly active user on Facebook.  The game that had replaced FarmVille was not even on the list of the top 25 Facebook games of December 2010. The new game was also created by Zynga and is called CityVille.  Facebook users swarmed to CityVille in January 2011. 

FrontierVille Gained almost 900 thousand users totalling 30.11 million and in fourth for active monthly users.  Texas HoldEm Poker gained almost 700 million sitting in third.  FarmVille gained 4.11 million active monthly users but was not enough to beat the CityVille swarm.  CityVille took first place for active monthly users totalling 80.01 millions, which they gained 99.987% of those members in January 2010. 

Well in my opinion CityVille is better than FarmVille and FrontierVille.  Congrats Zynga.

Here is the link to December Stats & January Stats.

My FarmVille Post; The FarmVille Way

Blogging Stats

This is just quick blog to recap on everything for this blog site.

The site started as a class project and has been come a past time of mine.  The lesson was so well I have, rubbed off on others.  No one in my class has blogged as much as I have.  Most will never blog again.   As for that my list is deleting on the side titles fellow PR blogs, as I look for new interesting blogs to follow.

My greatest successes from this blog in my opinion are the number of Google search I have had.  I have been found on Google so many times, I now commonly show up at the top of the search, I am the only Loyalist PR student I can find using Google.  If you even Google "Loyalist PR", my blog appears above all others, I love it.  The other great success I get from this is just the personal skills, I have obtained.

There are many things that have changed and most will continue to change on my blog.  My skills have spread, which is why I have been helping promote a new local blogger.  “http://www.uneekvids.blogspot.com”. 

Blogging has been fun and time consuming, I would like to thank you all for the views and your support.   I will always hope for more.

I have only been blogging for three and a half months now.  There were 63 posts in 2010 and another 11 this year.  I hope you have time to read them all and look forward to the next posts.  I broke the 5000^th page view not too long ago, I am totalling 5318 page views now, thank you all again.

A Couple Good Blogs

Blogger Report: Where Attention is Needed

Record Breaking Loyalist PR

The FarmVille Way

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This brand has done so well its unexplainable.  FarmVille, I am not sure how to explain it? Most don’t need any explanation; they already know what FarmVille is.  FarmVille is a game that is online, Facebook provides the Application to allow their members to play the game.  The game is one of the most commonly played games on Facebook.  I have personal walked into my college computer lab and seen 85% of the computers logged into FarmVille, with users/students playing the game.  The FarmVille craze over my school had made me try the Facebook app/game.

FarmVille has shown itself as a growing trend and business.   Dozens of things being added to the game each month and monthly events within the game, has shown the game to be an addictive game for some.  Not all option can be accessible by playing the game, but there are options within the game that make FarmVille income from it users.   FarmVille incomes come from sources such as game enhancements, level risers, customizations, personalization, and more option available within the game that’s users pay for with cash to obtain them in the game.  FarmVille always provide other ways to obtain these “FarmVille Cash”, without buying them, such as each time you level or surveys that could be filled out, but most people pay for them as you obtain more than one or two “FarmVille Cash” and is much fast and easier way to access the “FarmVille Cash”.

Thing that got me was when I had read this article titles “How social games make money lesson from FarmVille”.  I talks how if FarmVille makes even one penny for each user that they have and what the outcome would be.  Te end factor is amazing, it says enough for itself.  $ .01 X 365 days in a year = $ 3.65 from each user, each year.  $ 3.65 X 31 million users = 114 million dollars a year. That would be if they made only one penny, what they really make is unknown to me.

FarmVille has over 81 million monthly users, so do the math; 3.65 X 81 = ______.

New Advertising and Branding Tactics

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This does not come to a surprise to me.  I have always been interested in video games, ever since I was a young boy.  Video games are one of the few things I have done my whole life with-out getting bored and quitting forever.  Becoming my favoured past time that settles me down.  I never thought I would look at them as a tactic to sell a product other than the game itself.

In the past you would need to pay anything that you had used in your game, now you have people pay to be in your video game.  I am a strong believer that facebook has increased the amount of people whom play video games and the amount people play video games.   Either way the business of game developing has changed majorly.  Increase the possible income from creating a video game in the masses.  The process in which a video is create is something i done understand but I am sure this is the best thing that ever happened to the video game market.

I have found a few interesting links below that in force what I have been saying, you should check them out.  They say the amount of in game adverting will triple in the next three years, and the income from the ads will produce more than history has ever seen.

How much will this effect?  I am not sure, if commercial go away it may be the only effective way offline.

Today In-Game Stats

http://www.emarketer.com/Reports/All/Emarketer_2000485.aspx

Tomorrows In-Game Stats

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/In-Game-Ads-To-Reach-1-Billion-In-Spending-By-2014-17762.html

Effective Brand Advertising

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Advertising can be a hard task in the world today.  We all know how much we hate commercials, it’s most commonly used as a break, to get a drink or use the washroom.  Most people would say TV commercials are a waste of money, when advertising for that reason.  Not many people will talk about commercials but this one was discussed in classrooms.

Last year Old Spice came out with one of the most effective commercials of the year.  Most people will already know the commercials I am talking about as it was previewed at the Super Bowl last year.  I did not watch the Super Bowl but had seen it on TV a few days later.  The first commercial was so successful they had made a few more, like a series of commercials.  I had not known how big it was until it was taught in my Loyalist PR class.  The lesson was in semester one but it has just stuck in my head ever since, than I saw it again the other day.

I am not 100% sure what made this advertising so successful.  It could have been the fact that it confuses you, which gives you the need to watch it again to understand it.  Well that was how it affected me the first time I had saw it.  Maybe it was what he was saying, or maybe the way he looked, Im not 100% sure.   In my opinion, it was the most effective commercial for Old Spice and the funniest commercial of the year.

I know of five commercials, one which is the good-bye video, which I have not seen viewed on television.  I am not sure if they are done with these commercial, but I am sure they became less effective with time.  It does make me wonder how Old Spice plans to create a better commercial.

The You Tube Video of the first commercial was only 33 seconds long, was posted eleven months ago and has already been viewed 29 millions times.

Commercial Links

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7e_igiPIUI&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpUrz9RvuPk&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtF13U5t8xE

Good-bye Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwjJ-573njU