Image via CrunchBase

            It started out simply enough.  The facebook thing I mean.  It was peer pressure, I swear!  My friends kept telling me to get on facebook, and so I did.  Sometimes I like to fit in, and besides, I like to know what’s going on with my friends and family without the inconvenience of having to actually talk to them on the phone or in person.  (confessions of a hermit)  This is when I noticed a phenomenon in the upper right hand corner of the screen, they were invitations!

            I felt a little weird about being super poked, and even weirder about super poking, so that application went the way of the dodo for me.  I only wish that others had done this as well.  Instead, somewhere between writing unique and interesting facebook status (or would it be stati) I became entangled in a snarl of facebook games that have completely taken over my life.  At the time the obsession had driven me to check facebook every hour.  Yes!  Every hour!

            My first addiction was Mob Wars.  (http://apps.facebook.com/mobwars/)  It intrigued me.  I didn’t need the finger and thumb coordination that is required for a Xbox or Playstation, nor any of the strange coordination needed to master the Wii.  I simply needed to point and click.  Click.  I mugged some one.  Click.  I robbed a liquor store.  Click.  I heisted a train.  It was empowering.  Then I discovered fights.  I could fight with guns and cars and body armor…and I could kill!  Yes!  Not something allowed in day to day life.  And now, I just can’t give the game up because where else will I ever make 400 million dollars an hour?  *sigh*

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

            Then came Mafia wars.  And any addict who is truly honest with themselves knows that Mafia wars is exactly the same as Mob Wars just with different graphics.  But I wasn’t done there!  No!  Soon I had an apartment inYoville and a farm in Farmville.  I was trying to make my way through the city of ash and defending a castle in some other game.  I was a member of the special forces.  I say was, but let’s face it, I still am.

           I’m not sure what these application designers have done to sucker me in, but as I watch all the friends on my friends list spiral into the same traps I have, I’m not feeling so bad.  I only wish that I had the talent and time to design a facebook game of my own.  If you read this, have the ability, and take this idea and run with it.  Please remember me should it become a lucrative venture.

            I suggest a new game called Farm Wars.  In this game every simple and pure act of farming is laced with the terror and danger of the Mafia.  Missions would include stabbing the neighbor farmer with a pitchfork and stealing their hay so that your cows will produce 12% faster, robbing the feed mill of fertilizer so you can feed your crops AND build a bomb to use on your neighbors barn, and Bombing the neighbors barn to ensure you receive first place at the farm show with the pig you pilfered before the big blast earning you extra coins to buy the big tractor mounted with a mini gun so that you can blow away any live stock remaining next door.  Really, I think I have something here.

            So if you’re addicted to Facebook games, drop a comment below letting me and anyone else who reads this know which game you think is the best. 

Sadly, Farm Cash is the fastest way to get fuel refills. And we both know that Farm Cash is a hard thing to get ahold of. So your fastest choice in getting fuel refills is by using Farm Cash. Once you run out of Farm Cash, then you run into problems. As much as a disagree with paying for Farm Cash, it is an option if you really love the game enough. 

Waiting it out

If you don’t want to spend your Farm Cash (which is certainly understandable, there are many other things you can buy that will last forever), you can just wait it out. Perhaps help out a friend on their farm while your fuel refills. It takes a while, but it will refill eventually. 

Instead of going on FarmVille in one big chunk of time, you can also space out the time that you’re on it, that way your fuel has more chances to refill for you.

Alternative methods

You don’t need to use vehicles on your farm. Many people find buying/waiting for fuel refills is a waste of time (which it certainly can be), so perhaps don’t even buy any vehicles (or sell them if you have them). You’ll save/make some extra cash that way, and can just manually plant and harvest your crops. 

Other articles

If you found this article useful, check out my other FarmVille artices:

10 Tips to Earn Coins and Level Up in Farmville

10 Farmville No-Nos

10 Farmville Tips for a Good Looking Farm

Thanks for reading!

Gaming Lingo

 If you’ve just submerged yourself in the world of online gaming it can seem as though everyone is speaking a whole different language. English is the main language spoken online, however there are hundreds of words that gamers use that will just make no sense what so ever to new comers.
  While gaming, people need to communicate quickly and accurately. This has led to a huge variety of different words that you won’t see or hear anywhere else except online. One of the most common things that you’ll see in communication online is leetspeek. Leetspeak is also often used by internet trolls (someone who makes a nuisance of themselves intentionally to annoy others). Leetspeak is where letters are substituted for numbers and other characters to create something that resembles a word or letter. For example the word “the” could be wrote in leetspeak as, “t|-|3″ where the number “3″ is used to replace the letter “e” and “|-|” is used to replace the letter “h”. This stuff is generally easy to read as it was created with the idea of substituting letters with things that resemble letters. Another typical example of leetspeak is where instead of using letters, letters are spelt out phonetically. For example the common abbreviation of the saying, “Oh my god” online is “omg”. In leetspeak this can be typed as, “Oh Em Gee” where each letter is just spelt out. This is commonly used for emphasis or whilst mocking someone or something.
  Grammar and misspelling are often changed in order to make something into leetspeak. Although not always, this bad grammar and bad spelling can sometimes be used for emphasis, irony or to mock somebody. For example, if in a game somebody was winning because they were cheating, a phrase such as, “Hay guise, dis guy iz so gud,” could be used. This could also be typed completely in uppercase again for emphasis or to purposely annoy somebody. Uppercase is also sometimes used in conjunction with the number 1, this is used to mock someone who acts childish, or in a non-intelligent manner, to imply that they are not able to press the ’shift’ key or turn ‘capslock’ off. An example of this would be, “OMG ROFL J00 GOT OWNED!!!111!!!1.” To further mock someone, these numbers are sometimes even spelt out, again to imply that somebody is not very intelligent. Instead of ending in, “!!!111!!!1″ it could end with, “!!!11!!!!eleven!!one!1″. Another common phrase is, “All your base are belong to us.” This phrase has become hugely popular and even spawned its own techno songs and various mixes after appearing in the game, ‘Zero Wing’ which was badly translated into english. Other common misspellings are ‘teh’ meaning ‘the’ and ‘pwn’ meaning ‘own’.
  Another part of leetspeak is when a suffix, sometimes made up, is added to the end of a word to add emphasis. The most commonly used suffixes are: -xor (-xor can be added to the term ‘hax’ meaning hacks or hacker to make the word, ‘haxxor”) , -ness (-ness can be added to the term ‘lulz’ meaning ‘lol’ or ‘laugh out loud’ creating the word lulzness), -’d or -d(-d’s can be added to the word ‘owned’ meaning to beat someone quite badly or easily to make the word ‘own’d’ or ‘ownd’), -& (-& is used to replace -and, -anned and sometimes -ant. It can be used to shorten the word ‘banned’ into ‘b&’) , -z0r or -zor or -z0rz or -zorz (-z0r can be added to the word ‘pwn’ a commonly used misspelling of ‘own’ to make the word, ‘pwnz0r’ meaning to be the one who is doing the ‘owning’ or ‘pwning’) , -t (-t is used on words that end in -ed, words like ‘pwned’ can be shortened to ‘pwnt’) and -age(-age can be added to words such as ‘pwn’ and ‘own’ to make ‘pwnage’ and ‘ownage’ meaning the act of ‘pwning’ or ‘owning’). These suffixes are added to different verbs and sometimes nouns just to increase emphasis on the word, to change the tense of a word or to change a noun into a verb or a verb into a noun.
  Abbreviations are common place on the internet. Some commonly used abbreviations are, ‘lol’ meaning ‘laugh out loud’, ‘rofl’ meaning ‘rolling on the floor laughing’, ‘lmao’ meaning ‘laughing my ass off’, ‘omg’ meaning ‘oh my god’, ‘wtf’ meaning ‘what the f**k’, ‘gtfo’ meaning ‘get the f**k out’, ‘4col’ meaning ‘for crying out loud’, ‘2g2bt’ meaning ‘too good to be true’, ‘afk’ meaning ‘away from keyboard’, ‘imo’ meaning ‘in my opinion’, ‘afaik’ meaning ‘as far as I know’, ‘brb’ meaning ‘be right back’, ‘cba’ meaning ‘can’t be a**ed’, ‘hs’ meaning ‘headshot’, ‘bs’ meaning ‘bulls**t’ and ‘btw’ meaning ‘by the way’. These abbreviations may not always be instantly apparent but if you’re not sure don’t be afraid to ask.
  Although these are some of the so called rules of leetspeak, there are other words that are used that may not have any rules behind them. ‘Kek’ or ‘keke’ is sometimes used to express laughter. This is widely used by World of Warcraft players as it is orcish for ‘lol’ in game. ‘Noob’ or ‘n00b’ can be used to describe someone who is new or bad at a game. ‘Pr0n’ or ‘pron’ is used instead of saying ‘porn’ or ‘pornography’. ‘J00′ meaning ‘you’. ‘Zerg’ or ‘Rush’ meaning to overwhelm your opponent with speed, numbers or ease. ‘1337′, ‘leet’ or any leetspeak version of this can mean to be greater than the other players or to be part of the elite. ‘Camp’ meaning ‘to hold one position or area’. ‘Spray n pray’ meaning ‘to shoot wildly and constantly without aiming’. ‘Fanboy’ meaning ’someone who is obsessed with, or knows too much about a brand or franchise’.
  These are some, but by no means all, of the weird and wonderful words you might come across in the realm of the internet. The bottom line is that people are creating new words every day so if you do not understand something that somebody has said either take a guess at what you think it means or ask. There will be people out there who will mock you for not understanding what they’re saying, but there are plenty of people out there who will happily fill you in. When you first start out you’ll probably not have much of a clue about what’s going on, but as you become acustomed to it, you will slowly pick up the language of the gamer.

Online gaming is becoming ever more popular as time goes by. With the huge, ever growing availability of internet access, games that range in price from being free to £50 and accessibility of wireless internet access mean that it’s quick and easy for everyone to get online and get in a game.

So why should you choose multiplayer gaming online over single player games? There are many arguments for both views, even with the huge following multiplayer online gaming has, some people do still prefer single player games.

Subscription costs are something that can keep younger players from playing online. Not only do you have to pay for internet access, but playing on Xbox live or the Playstation network and games like World of Warcraft require extra subscription costs per month which can be as much as £10. Most homes these days will have an internet connection anyway, so that at least can remove part of the cost for younger gamers, and for older gamers, internet access can come in a multideal package from most providers with cable television and a phoneline, again saving money. Although there are some games that require subscription costs, the bottom line is of course that you do not have to play these games or on these networks. A PC with internet access means you can access millions of free online games and many games you can buy come with the extra of online play. If you don’t have the money and still want to play online there are still plenty of options to choose from.

Unfortunately, one of the downsides of online gaming is just how competitive games can become online. Often, games will come with a ranking system or someway of keeping track of stats which will encourage people to be more competitive. This can be something that can put budding gamers off of playing online. However this is not as big a problem as you may at first believe. There are several gaming leagues and tournaments out there that keep the majority of the hardcore, super competitive gamers occupied. Many of the more competitive gamers prefer to play in these tournaments or leagues because they see it as more of a challenge which is of course rewarded with a higher sense of satisfaction upon winning. The few hardcore competitive gamers that do not stick to these tournaments and leagues however can be a blessing in disguise. It is possible to learn a hell of a lot from both playing against, playing with and observing these players. Chances are they will know a few tricks of the trade and spending a little bit of time playing against, with or even watching them can provide you with plenty of tricks to try and pull off yourself.

The fear of playing badly online is another deterrent to new gamers. But the truth is, no-one will be able to pick up a game, jump online and play it well. Sure, people who are fans of the genre will be able to play adequately, but they won’t be able to get a complete grasp of the game and play well until they’ve spent some time getting to know it. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. There’s not a lot you can do to become better at a game aside from playing it. Single player and multiplayer alike it’s just practice, practice, practice.

Many people also fear that there will be repercussions for leaving an online game which is in the middle of a map or round if they have to go and do something like answer the phone or answer the door, or even if they just get bored. The truth is, games that punish you for leaving before the round or game ends are extremely rare. The lack of a pause ability can seem like it will be a problem, while some games support a pause system for online play, other games do have other methods you can use to leave the game, pc or console alone for short or even long periods of time. Many games offer a spectator mode, where the player will be transferred to spectator slot, here they are able to watch the game unfold and they themselves will not interfere with gameplay.

Playing online does involve interaction with other people all over the world. This is a huge benefit of playing online, you can meet and interact with a whole variety of people. Who knows, you might just learn something. Not only can playing online increase your social interaction skills, but the chances are that the other people who are playing online with you can teach you a thing or two not just about the current game, but about almost anything. You can learn about other cultures, languages, foods, music and sometimes you can even hear about big events that have happened before they reach the television and newspapers. Talking to these people online online and getting to know them can also be a huge confidence booster for those who are shy in real life. The ability to talk in game both by typing and by talking into a microphone has opened up doors to meeting a huge variety of people.

There are of course games to suit everyone. From action and shooters, to racing, football and other sports, to city building, tactical battles and even text based games, there is a game out there everyone can enjoy. So, if you’ve just gained an internet connection, or you’ve seen adverts for World of Warcraft or Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and fancy giving it a try, or even if you’re just like my sister who doesn’t see the appeal of playing games online, or if you’re like my mum who sits in the next room and wonders what the hell it is I’m talking about half the time and why I’m shouting obscurities at a computer screen then this series of articles might just be for you.

Future updates include: Gaming Lingo – Learn the language of gamers. The most popular gaming genres. The basics of online gaming, tactics and game plans. 5 Top tips for gaming online. Your fellow gamers and you, gaming etiquette. Top 10 online games everyone can enjoy. Choosing the right weapons. The different types of gamer. The top gaming communities, gaming videos, game inspired comics, game inspired internet based series, ways to make money gaming, gaming leagues and gaming teams. Choosing the right set up for gaming. And the 10 essential assets for gaming online.

Cheat Engine 5.5 from – http://www.cheatengine.org/

And

AcTools from – http://www.actool.net/

Once you have those programs the next step is to go to this site,

http://www.thecommissionguild.com/farmville/

And use it to generate a macro for your farm by entering the correct size.

Now open Ac tools, select the entire code and copy paste the code from your browser into the ac tools box,

Now open up your Internet browser and go to your farm.

Open up Cheat engine and follow the steps in the next few pictures

Now go to your farm click start on the ac tools window.

Now make your farm full screen and sit back, the macro will select all your plots of land and Cheat engine will speed up the process. These steps work for harvesting, planting and plowing. (For planting just be sure to select what you want to plant from the market before you start the macro)

Until next time have fun and happy farming.

1) Down the font file from http://members.home.nl/maxthedragon/downloads.html
2) Go to Start Menu, choose Run and type ‘Fonts’ and hit Enter.
3) In the new screen. choose File > Install new font.
4) Browse to where the font was downloaded.
5) Make sure that the box near ‘Copy fonts to Fonts directory’ is ticked!
6) Select the RuneScape font from the list and hit ‘OK’.

An alternate method for installing the font is dragging the font into the ‘Fonts’ folder and it will be automatically installed.

Now you can access the font through MsPaint, Photoshop, Gimp, any other image editing software. To make the font look exactly the same as RuneScape, use font size 8, write the text you want in black and layer the same text over the top in yellow, but 1 pixel above and to the left of the original black text. Using the font in bold matches the right click option text, and non-bold mode matches the regular text.

Through out the game you will earn hundreds of reward points. You’ll also be faced with several options on how to spend them. You can earn reward points by leveling or by purchasing them for real money. There are 10 ways by which you can spend your reward points.

1. Crates:

The first option to spend your points on is reward crates. These crates change from time to time, but at the moment they are Colosseum crates. These crates are very expensive but do have a rare chance to drop some decent loot. Unless going for the achievement however, it is not worth spending all of these points on these crates as the drop rate for decent items is just not high enough to warrant it.

Colosseum Crates: (Cost: Godfather Points – 20 = 1 crate or 55 = 3 crates)

Common Items (60%):

Gladius – 24 Attack, 16 Defense weapon.
Roman Mace – 12 Attack, 28 Defense weapon.
Pilum – 26 Attack, 14 Defense weapon.
Puggio – 17 Attack, 23 Defense weapon.

Uncommon Items (30%):

Lorica – 18 Attack, 32 Defense armour.
Parma – 15 Attack, 25 Defense armour.

Rare Items (10%):

Galea -18 Attack, 42 Defense armour.
Chariot – 48 Attack, 12 Defense vehicle.

2. Collectible Loot (Cost 20 Godfather Points for 10)

 There will be three different types of consumable loot available from the godfather, which will change every now and then. At the time of writing this the options are 10 Untraceable Cell Phones. 10 Politico Corrupto or 10 Illegal Transaction Records.

3. Random Piece Of Loot (Cost 25 Godfather Points for 1)
 
 The Godfather also offers and random piece of loot. This changes every week or so and when starting out, you can pick up some decent loot pieces here. At the time of writing this the piece on offer is a Jetski: 40 Attack, 14 Defense Vehicle.

4. Full Energy Refill (Cost 10 Godfather Points for Full Refill)

  This will completely refill your energy bar, it will not add on a full energy bar to what energy you still have available.

5. 10 Extra Mafia Members (Cost 20 Godfather Points for 10)

 10 Extra Mafia Members that can help out on fights, not as good as real people but they still help.

6. +4 Skill Points (Cost 14 Godfather Points for 4)

 +4 Skill points which you can add to any of your stats.

7. Cash (Cost 10 Reward Points for changing amount)

 The amount of cash available changes with your level. This can be quite useful when starting out in Cuba or Moscow if you need the money for items.

8. Full Health Refill (Cost 2 Godfather Points)

 This will completely refill your health from any amount to full.

9. Full Stamina Refill (Cost 10 Godfather Points)

 This will completely refill your stamina from any amount to full. It will not add on to your stamina so you should completely empty it like energy beforehand.

10. New Name (Cost 15 Godfather Points)

  This allows you to change your name. Some clans will require that you do this to add their tag to your name.

  Despite all of these options there are only 4 options that are worth spending your precious reward points on. These are full energy, full stamina, +4 skill points and cash. As stated above, the cash is useful when starting out in Cuba or Moscow and you need items to be able to do a job. The energy and stamina can offer you a lot of experience and the +4 skill points speak for themselves. I would personally recommend only spending your reward points on energy refills and skill points as these are the most useful. Stamina will not provide you with the same amount of experience as energy will and as they cost the same then stamina is useless. You can earn enough money to buy items for jobs just by owning the businesses. If you take over the Businesses as soon as possible then you will have more than enough money to buy the required items. 

If you found this article useful, check out my two other articles: 10 Farmville No-Nos and 10 Tips to Earn Coins and Level Up in Farmville

     Players can work in tandem or together.  It is a game that exists on a different level that standard RPGs, in the sense that the participants exist in the same arena and interact, and as such the game is always evolving.  No two adventures will ever be identical.  So, for those just beginning, from someone who has just begun, here are some resources and links that will make the first steps into the world of Runescape that much easier.

1. Explore Lumbridge

     This is the town where you begin your journey.  As with conventional RPGs, exploration is necessary in understanding a game, the methods of gameplay, and the basic tennants.  Talking to other characters, exploring stores and looking around all help to develop a basic understanding of things.

2.  Familiarize yourself with the maps.  The Runescape world is huge.

3.  Familiarize yourself with your inventory screen.

To start the game,  Start by equipping your bronze sword and wooden shield by left clicking each of them once.

Stay tuned for part 2…

In a matter of minutes, I came up with the chart below, which I’ve been using ever since I started.  Please keep in mind that the chart assumes that you are farming 24×7 and harvesting on the exact minute that it’s time to harvest.  So in theory, you may never reach the max profit for some of the seeds.

Formulae:
Plot Profit/Hour = (Sell – (Plow Cost + Cost))/ Production Time
Plot Profit/Day = Plot Profit/Hour * 24

If you have any questions or feel that I’ve made an error, feel free to comment below.  Also, be sure to check out a post coming soon that measures animal/tree profitability.