“FrontierVille” to Surpass “FarmVille” in Gaming World

Situation: While the undeniably popular FarmVille has made a killing on Facebook over the past year, there’s a new sheriff in town–so to speak–and its name is FrontierVille. Since game developer Zynga launched FarmVille in June, 2009, there has been a considerable amount of controversy surrounding the RPG game, which allows users to plant, harvest and tend to livestock on their virtually customized farms. The downside is it comes with a countless number of in-game offers and ads promoting virtual currency in exchange for, essentially, a player’s email or phone number. The constant “scamming,” as angry users refer to it as, has became a turn-off for many, who would apparently rather hold off on their farming than succumb to what Zynga CEO Mark Pincus has admittedly called “every horrible thing in the book” to gain revenue quickly and consistently.

In addition, FarmVille has been suffering due to Facebook’s recent decision limiting application  notifications, which up until recently had been a way for Facebook game developers to spread the world about their titles, interact with players and cross-promote with other brands. Now, it’s looking like FarmVille’s time is just about up, with Gamasutra reports showing the game lost 7.7 million players during the month of May alone.

Solution: FrontierVille, launched on June 9, is Zynga’s new Oregon Trail themed game that could very well be the answer to all the frustrated FarmVillers’ woes. Not only does FrontierVille include updated features, such as the ability to control more than one avatar at once, it also has the novelty that FarmVille now lacks as well as a significant decrease in advertisements. Gamers are constantly looking for innovation — something that will sustain their interest long enough to stay in their seats garnering faux commodities completely useless in the real world. Gamezebo.com Founder Joel Brodie says, “There will always be some players who want more of the same…I think the majority of game players online, however, have a short attention span and always want to be challenged.”

FrontierVille is providing that challenge and evoking that same sense of excitement all over again, at least for the time being. But while FrontierVille is the future, FarmVille is slowly but surely becoming ancient history (in a backwards sort of way).

Results: With all that in mind, and considering Zynga’s recent deals with Internet giants Yahoo! and Google Games, FrontierVille is well on its way to surpassing FarmVille’s ostensibly unbeatable   numbers. As of right now, FarmVille has about 69 million monthly active users, a significant drop from its 85 million just four months ago. On the other hand, FrontierVille came into the market with a whopping 20 million users in just 24 days.

There’s no question FrontierVille’s numbers are the result of once FarmVille users transitioning over. And who could blame them when Zynga’s tactic is simple: enhance the game’s visibility by bringing it to the Internet portal, and essentially imitate the fundamental elements that made it so popular in the first place in a more interactive fashion…So it seems we have a new gaming king in our midst straight from The Wild West, as forums and discussion boards are filling up with overwhelmingly positive feedback for the game.

But in the fad-driven social gaming world, nothing is forever. And while Zynga may have found a quick fix to its FarmVille faux pas, FrontierVille better keep an eye out for the next big game–Zynga owned or not–no doubt already being developed right around the corner.