Look like St. Patrick's Day fever is spreading. First, we were introduced to the FarmVille Pot of Gold and now PetVille's getting into the spirit with its new Spot of Luck collection that includes a golden horseshoe, a different pot of gold, banners, balloons, clover wallpaper and more. Check all of the new goodies out in the PetVille store.

Note: at the time of this post the game stopped loading, so you might have a wait a little longer to get a little luck of the Irish.

What's the must-have St. Patrick's Day item for PetVille?

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It's no secret that FarmVille is the biggest game on Facebook, with roughly 83 million monthly active users. That number never entered the minds of the crew at Zynga who made the game, developer Amitt Mahajan says in a talk at the Game Developers Conference titled 'Rapidly Developing FarmVille.'

FarmVille was created in a mere five weeks, and when it launched in June 2009, the game was only expected to attract around 6K players in the first couple of days. Instead, in the first 24 hours, FarmVille had 18,000 players hard at work on virtual farms, and in four days, that number multiplied to a cool 1 million users.

Since then, according to Mahajan, Farmville has had to dodge many bullets, from integrating Facebook Connect to following the ever-changing rules and regulations for Facebook apps.

Now, after many tweaks, and launching FarmVille.com, the virtual farming game has 31 million people play every day. Consider the fact that players also harvest an average of 100 plots per session, it's clear that farming hasn't been this hot since the invention of the tractor.

How long have you been playing Farmville? We'd love to hear from anyone who was on board on Day One. Sound off in the comments section below.

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The CEO of Zynga Games, Mark Pincus, did a video interview with CNN reporter Pauline Chiou.

Mr. Pincus, the Zynga god himself, says the large number of Zynga players is due to the appealing nature of the games themselves, that he describes as,

>>> "Short form, easily accessible, and social. Everyone needs five minutes of fun".

Zynga games such as FarmVille, Mafia Wars, Cafe World and FishVille all have similar competitors. However, the Zynga games have the upper edge when compared to their non-Zynga counterparts. Why is it that Zynga games seem to be more successful than competitors? He credits a team effort with the success of his franchise games and the investment and commitment of providing new content that keep players happy. FarmVille alone updates and adds new content at least two times per week, always bringing something new and interesting for its virtual farmers.

When asked, "When is the IPO!? When will Zynga go public?", he responds with:

>>> "We are a young company at only three years old. It's amazing that people are asking us when we are going to go public...it's flattering,"

There is no set date or time frame when Zynga will go public.

To watch the interview, please see CNN video below:

(Source: http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/tech/2010/03/04/chiou.intv.pincus.farmville2.cnn)

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

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Long-time players of Tiki Resort would be familiar with the sno-cones in the game, which you can buy for unhappy tourists to improve their mood. Like most resort games of this kind, such as Happy Island, the key to being a successful player is to keep your tourists happy. Because happy tourists will vacation on your resort a lot longer, granting you more money and XP.

The new charms feature works the same way, but now, you'll have to rely on your buildings to produce the goods instead of having to pay with your own pocket change. Different buildings will generate different charms and the game keeps track of all of them in a little counter on the top right corner of your game screen. Like the sno-cone, you don't have to use the charms unless you want to, and it's on a tourist-by-tourist basis. But happy tourist equal good business, so make full use of this feature.

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Overlooked by the Wonderland items announcement is the fact that you can now adopt Parrots in Happy Pets through either coins or Facebook Credits, but if you do it via coinage, you have to be at least Level 21. (In the furniture section of the store, a Bird Perch you can give to your parrot also unlocks at that level.)

These are the first avian pets available in the game and while we don't know if they're airborne-capable, we're finding it easy to fall in love with these parrots just from watching their animated movements inside the store. I mean, you've got eyes-blinking, tail-feathers wiggling, head-bobbing, beak-clicking, and wings-flapping -- all the works! They sure look like they're ready to have fun!

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Wonderland items have actually been available in Happy Pets since March 4th, but the developers waited until today to make their official announcements on their Facebook fan page. Part of the reason is probably because the game is still somewhat glitchy. Just the other day, I noticed my pets running into the wall of the first room, even though there was nothing keeping them there.

As part of the Wonderland theme, you've got the six purchasable in-game store items seen in the above image. Three of them are really special, as they can interact with your pet to change their size: 1) Rabbit Hole, 2) Growth Cake (it's the "Eat Me" cupcake), and 3) Shrink Potion (the purple bottle with "Drink Me" on it)

The Rabbit Hole can be switched on and off like a furniture item, and your pets can jump into it when it's turned on. When they jump back out, the pets would change sizes for a few minutes. Growth Cake makes your pets bigger, while the Shrink Potion covers your pet in a purple swirl and shrinks them. But the problem with the Cake and Potion is that you don't have much control when the pet is affected by them. These interactive items are clearly not as streamlined and consistently workable like the ones found in PetVille and Pet Society, but it's a fun step in the right direction for the game's makers.

Be warned, all the Wonderland items are scheduled to disappear by March 22nd.

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Setting aside questions as to what polar bears are doing on a South Pacific island, all of the critters from last week's arctic demo tank have returned, with the Pink Polar Bear making her first swim. But wait, see that orange kitten smack in the middle of the tank with the scuba gear? That's the "Scuba Kitten", and she's the cutest new addition of this week's Happy Aquarium demo tank showcase. (She's also a pricey 48 Facebook Credits or 58 Pearls. )

A good consolation purchase for the Kitten, if you're inclined towards critters, is the cooly animated, drink-sipping, sun-soaking "Happy Turtle", since he's going for 10 FB Credits or 12 Pearls. But I'd much rather buy the "Bubbling Tiki Torches" flanking both sides of the tank, and priced at a reasonable 13 FB Credits or 15 Pearls. Like a lava lamp, you can just stare at them shooting pretty bubbles forever.

Coins can get you everything else, from the "Shell Lounger", to the "Glowing Rock" on the bottom left. I just really want to point out that there are some great special effects going on with the items here. While the "Tiki Torches" have a strong presence, the "Glowing Rock" can also be paired with the "Tall Glowing Rock" to offer offers a more subtle effect best achieved on a dark background. When set, both are animated to pulse in an eerily florescent green glow.

Finally, the "Tiki Pole" (which looks like a tri-color totem pole and sells for 80 coins) cannot be bought yet, and is currently available as a random item from clicking the Treasure Chests.

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Every farmer loves free fuel! With recent upgrades to FarmVille, free fuel is a little easier to come by even though it isn't necessarily flowing freely. Fuel can also be purchased in the FarmVille Market, but farm cash is difficult to obtain and many farmers would prefer to spend their farm dollars elsewhere.

Many farmers like to save their fuel and use it sparingly. It's nice knowing you have a Fuel Reserve waiting for you when you really need a break from all that clicking.

FarmVille Freak David Weatherly has saved up over 1,000 (one thousand) fuel refills!

What is your current Fuel capacity? Do you keep a Fuel Reserve, if so how much?

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

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Virtual games offering non-virtual goods as prizes and incentives to play are nothing new. Games like Bejeweled Blitz and Texas Hold'em don't have any animated pixel rabbits to give away in an attempt to get you to come back for more. Instead, PopCap Games runs a weekly tournament where the current grand prize is a Mazda3 i Sport 4-door sedan! And this is also not the first time Zynga has pulled an Xbox 360 Elite out of their magic hat, as ten consoles were being offered in November at their last shootout tourney. This month's shootout is for tourneys taking place between March 9th and March 19th. So win all 3 rounds of the tourney in that span of time, register yourself for the Zynga Final Showdown drawing, and then wait-and-see.

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Last week, Restaurant City brought in a (Hard) Rock Cafe theme and enacted some major renovations to gameplay all within two days. This week, following hot on the heels of Cafe World's Pacific island theme, is Restaurant City's new Hawaii decor.

While you can get an extensive scoop on all the updates on the official Restaurant City blog, this roll-out is so new that, ironically, even their own blog doesn't have all any graphics up for preview. But we've got some in-game screenshots here, so stayed tuned for the news below... First off, the gifts page has been redone again. This time, you've got the choice of 20 items across 4 categories for gifting each time you see this page. I say 20, because 4 of the slots for "Decorative Items" have been nudged out for a new "Ingredients" options. So right now, the 8 Rock Cafe giftables in "Decorative Items" are available, but their appearance will be randomized, so you won't have such an easy picking as before.

On the upside, now you can send free ingredients to your friends (and they can send 'em to you)! Also, two of the ingredients offered today, Pineapple and Coconut, have never been seen before until today. They are also the required items for a new recipe, the "Pineapple Smoothie."

A second new recipe, the Hawaiian Pizza, is a Limited Dish that requires Cheese, Tomato, Pineapple, and Pork to learn. They're only giving us roughly 27 days to acquire it and that Pork is going to be pretty hard to come by.

The rest of the Hawaii decor won't appear until this Thursday. In the meanwhile, the game is doing its part for St. Patrick's Day with 4 exclusive items that can only be gotten through the gifts page, one of which, the "Shamrock Tiki Mask", is a wearable avatar item.

Currently, there's no telling if Restaurant City will host a larger in-game celebration of St. Paddy's. We'll just have to see.

And finally, the Mermaid Statue (originally priced as 12 PlayFish Cash)
is now on sale for 5 PFC:

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Do you think that you're unique among social gamers? Or maybe you think you're just one of the crowd? New stats on just who is playing games like Farmville and Mafia Wars, not to mention where and how, help shed some light on just where you stand.

Based on a general overview of the industry from Inside Network's Justin Smith, it's clear that there's a virtual gold rush happening as companies of all stripes -- big game publishers to indie game makers -- work to make a name for themselves on Facebook. In the meantime, devoted players worldwide are shelling out billions to buy virtual items in these games. Yes, you read that right -- we're spending billions on games like FarmVille.

For a more detailed look at how fast this space is growing and changing, here are a few fun facts about social gaming on Facebook and otherwise.

- Facebook has 400 million users, 70% of them do not live in the US

- Facebook has a 'mature' audience -- ages 25 and up

- Twitter has not been (and probably won't be) popular outlet for social games

- Players have been using Facebook games as a way to bond with families because it's cheaper than other forms of entertainment, i.e. going to the movies

- Players have cut down on using the offers to get free cash

- Most people buy virtual goods using PayPal instead of credit cards

- Virtual item e.g. in-game items that cost real-life cash, sales in Asia reached $7 billion in 2009

- Virtual item sales in the West will reach roughly $1 billion this year


How much money have you spend on items for your games so far this year?

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In keeping with their Alice in Wonderland theme last week, Country Story is offering a free White Rabbit to fans who register their e-mails with the game. So far, the Rabbit is an e-mail exclusive and can't be gotten otherwise.

With the recent retirement of Facebook notifications, and possibly even the future removal of gift request notifications, many games are doing more to grab the attention of their userbase, through free perks, to "Become a Fan" of the game's official Facebook page, subscribe to their e-mail newsletters, or even to log-in via the game's official sites instead of using Facebook as a proxy.

To get your free rabbit, just log into Country Story. Don't worry about finding the prompt for e-mail solicitation. It'll find you. And so will the bunny.

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Country Story makes the Great Outdoors into something adorable with their new camp decor. As usual, their item releases tend towards the small end, but what they lack in quantity, they always make up for in quality. With the exception of the sign post, all the eight new items, from the flickering of a lantern flame to blinking eyes and twitchy ears, come animated. As far as cost goes, only the "Frightening Bear" (who does that bear think he's kidding?) and the "Dizzy Cat" (which looks like it drank all the beer in the camp cooler) cost PlayFish Cash, at 3 and 4 PFC respectively. The rest can be bought with coins.

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Last night, Restaurant City chose to give out ice-cream as a free ingredient in celebration of International Women's Day.

But it's not like they even needed the excuse. In fact, one might even question if ice-cream was a respectful choice, but c'mon guys, it's a rare ingredient! Plus, we've now got leverage to demand another free ingredient on International Men's Day.

Anyway, to get the free ice-cream ingredient, head over to their Facebook page, or click here.

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