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Although CityVille has become increasingly annoying in many ways, probably due to Zynga's desperate need to increase the value of its stock, special items and Quests for the upcoming Lunar New Year are fantastic.
The start of this was the Red Envelope Shop that allows players to collect the traditional Chinese red envelopes that are used in the real world for gifts of money to family and friends.
Yesterday, CityVille gave players a wonderful decoration in the form of a Dragon Parade. It is a large stage with a very brightly coloured Dragon in the centre. In front of the platform, people play drums and wave flags. It really is spectacular and quite realistic in its way.
Many buildings have been released in honour of the New Year and, as always, most of them are premium items that require CityVille Cash. What is wonderful here, however, is that most of these buildings can be 'earned' by collecting red envelopes. The Red Envelope Shop can be raised to Level 3 where it will produce three envelopes at a time.
If you are an individual who loves the celebrations that surround the start of a Lunar New Year, I highly recommend that you play CityVille now.
On the downside, Zynga has removed expansion Permits from the Free Gifts menu and the number of ridiculous, almost impossible Quests has multiplied. Instead of being required only to complete a Building project, often one now is asked to increase its level to Level 7 within a specific time frame. Other time-limited Quests offer a reward only for 'Gold' and thus, if a player fails to complete the Quest in that specific time frame, his/her efforts are utterly wasted.
Too many Quests crowd the screen and make it difficult to find the actual Quests in which the player is participating currently. Expansions no longer are easy to obtain unless one is prepared to invest real money in their purchase. I believe this is a big error on the part of Zynga. Players who love the game often will invest real money in premium items that appeal to them but become resentful when they are pushed into the purchase of items that should be available as free gifts from neighbours. I hope Zynga will reconsider.
I wondered why Zynga released so many new Quests simultaneously both in FarmVille and in CityVille until I learned how the firm operates. The people who work on new Quests and options are divided into different teams, apparently. The team that obtains the best results often is given a bonus or pay rise. The team that 'loses' sometimes actually is demoted or fired. It is possible, therefore, that when new Quests are released simultaneously, they are the work of different teams and the ones that receive the greatest player response may very well determine the future of the team who created them. Another mistake on the part of Zynga. Their employees cannot benefit from this type of pressure and stress and players are confused and upset when inundated with too many new Quests. It would be far better to release new Quests gradually and give ALL teams bonuses when the game does well for Zynga.
In any event, the purpose of this post mainly is to alert players to the wonderful options for celebrating the Lunar New Year in CityVille. The upcoming year is Year of the Dragon incidentally.
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