Metropolis, a Facebook game by Kramaley Games Ltd., is a construction and management simulation focused on building your own personal city, collecting taxes, and keeping your population happy (or at least happy enough).

We’ll take a look at the Game Flavor, the Game Mechanics, the Good, the Bad, and the Final Review. So, is this game best for casual gaming, hardcore gaming, or no gaming at all? Read on!

Game Flavor

Metropolis has a fairly standard city styled flair. You develop your City through purchasing land, developing buildings on that land, and raising revenue. There are limited images associated with the buildings you purchase, and very little flavor text associated with the game.

Game Mechanics

As a construction and management simulation Metropolis has a basic set of rules by which to abide. First, the point of the game is to build, and you can’t build anything without money. To get money you tax your population, and, as you tax your population, they get unhappy. To keep your people happy, you can build certain buildings that increase happiness, at least temporarily. There is no long term fix on happiness, it is simply an ongoing component of the game of raising revenue through taxes, building, and keeping your people happy at the same time. These are the main game mechanics (Money, Culture, Happiness, and Population), which are further complimented by the City Indexes.

Of the four City Indexes – Education, Health, Crime, and Fire Protection – the first three affect your population in various ways, thereby affecting your cash flow. The last one determines if your buildings have a chance to burn down; not a good idea when the point is to keep building being built.

Finally, there are three types of buildings: Landmarks, Establishments, and No Revenue. To keep it short, I’ll generalize here, and there are some exceptions to the rule. For the most part, Landmarks are best at increasing Culture, Establishments are best at generating Revenue (a.k.a., Money), and No Revenue buildings are best at raising Happiness and the City Indexes.

That’s the rough overview of the Game Mechanics. There are of course a couple other factors, such as using Connections, which enables social interaction between Cities, although this interaction is fairly limited to raising population or happiness.

The Good

Metropolis has a nice set of rules, grounded in a somewhat tested simulated environment. The game has a pretty loyal following, and is pretty open ended. In this respect, your city can continue to grow in population, buildings, money, to nearly unlimited proportions; as long as you have the time to dedicate to keep your City growing.

The Bad

Unfortunately, the game is a bit bland at times. Although there is a plethora of rules and necessary complexity, at a certain point in the game variety ceases. Sure you can buy newer types of buildings, you have to start monitoring your City Indexes, but very little happens to keep the game interesting. Coupled with the fact the game has very little visual stimulation, it can get boring fairly quickly.

Final Review

Metropolis has the complexity for long term game play, but falls flat in flavor. While it has some limited social interaction, for a Facebook application/game it does not really take advantage of being on a social network.

Although the game has fairly solid mechanics, the flavor just isn’t there. What this ultimately does is leave the game feeling unfinished. Like a skyscraper fully erected, but completely unfurnished, there is a great deal of room for continued development, but as it stands there sits only a frame. Metropolis, primarily for the lack of significant flavor, but bolstered by decent game mechanics, gets a “C.”

Metropolis – fun to play for a bit, but interest is lost quickly – “C”

Try to play a World of Blood Series game, such as Elven Blood, on Facebook and you’ll find it is gone. Gone with a capital “Removed from Facebook Entirely.”

Inside Facebook reports on April 9, 2009, in Facebook Removes Developer of Elven Blood from the Platform that the Royal East India Trading Company was a moniker for the developer Patrick Shyu, who along with his World of Blood Series games was also removed from Facebook.

A look at the reasons why and the timeline of events leading up to the removal:

The Royal East India Trading Company website, which once praised it’s World of Blood Series, has been removed and is now a text message saying, “Beautiful. Just Beautiful. I applaud you, stranger. If we are in the same game, we should be friends. Tell me your name.” In addition, all references to the Royal East India Trading Company from any of the World of Blood Series applications or pages (that remain) have been removed. However, Patrick Shyu continues to have World of Blood listed as a current project for MySpace and Facebook on the “about” page of his website.

On the Facebook Developer Forum, in thread Elven Blood (and the 3 other “clones”) gone?, post #5, April 6, 2009, Matt Trainer, Facebook Platform Developer Operations & Support, says,

Hello Andy and others,

If you have evidence of any apps still available on Platform that are operated by Patrick Shyu, then please let us know.

To reiterate an earlier post, there are more enforcements on Platform than you are aware of, since Facebook does not publicize enforcement actions.

Cheers,

Matt Trainer

It would seem that not only were the World of Blood Series applications in trouble, but any other application operated by Patrick Shyu.

However, following the trail of events that would lead to the removal of the World of Blood Series applications, it becomes apparent that the World of Blood Series applications were having difficulties much earlier back in December, 2008 with reported potential Platform violations. In a thread titled Anyone gonna enforce the platform policies on Snowball Fight? in the Facebook Developer Forum, user zerostar07 reported a possible Platform violation in post #55, on December 16, 2008,

“notification from city of blood wrote: … ‘New! Join the holiday fun with your friends! Give some Christmas treats! 7:09pm’”

This just arrived from ‘City of blood’

the link goes to this application: http://www.facebook.com/apps/applicatio … 9548357635

some things never change

Matt Trainer’s response was as follows,

Hi George,

While this is certainly suspicious, we cannot take action without more detailed information (screenshots, URLs, and other proof).

We’d like to thank everyone again for staying alerted to bad apps like these. We’re aware that most developers on Facebook are honest and working to build good value for users, and so we are working on ways to better pinpoint and remove bad actors from the ecosystem.

We’re reviewing ideas brought up here and internally in order to best encourage positive use and limit negative use of Platform. We appreciate your continued discussions here.

We’re devoted to staying ahead of those who are abusing the system. You may not always see the results of these efforts, but we hope you continue to have faith in our commitment to the task.

Cheers,

Matt Trainer

So even back in December, 2008 the World of Blood Series was being observed.

Regarding Snowball Wars, the application was providing incentives to rate the game 5 out of 5 stars, which in the above referenced thread, Matt Trainer in post #6, December 9, 2008, states is a violation of Rule 3.1 of the Platform Policy Wiki,

“1. Application developers cannot trade positive reviews or collude with others to post, incentivize, or otherwise “game” the posting of negative or positive reviews. Applications should stand on their own merits based on user feedback, not insider quid pro quos.”

Snowball Wars was subsequently disabled, by post #16, December 9, 2008, although it was allowed to continue with a new ID and database and potential violations continued to be reported even after the new ID. The connection? Snowball Wars, and the related applications, were also developed by Patrick Shyu and the Royal East India Trading Company.

The Elven Blood Group wall’s postings fill in some of the gaps from December, 2008 to April, 2009 (the official Facebook Elven Blood discussion board has been removed, therefore the reliance upon the Elven Blood Group’s wall and other related groups). All dates unless otherwise noted are from 2009 and according to abridged reports by Facebook users.

• -February 22, 5:05 am – the World of Blood Series applications are not available for the first time.
• -February 22, 10:47 pm – Elven Blood has been renamed Twilight of Dragons.
• -February 23, 2:26 am – Blood Lust has been renamed Nightfall.
• -February 23, 6:31 pm – Elven Blood is back to its original name.
• -February 25, 11:24 pm – Elven Blood is again unavailable.
• -March 23, 4:39 pm – Elven Blood is back up.
• -April 9, 12:33 pm – World of Blood is removed from Facebook completely.

Checking this line of events against the anti-World of Blood Series group, Blood Games: Boycott!, the only discrepancy seems that on April 9, 12:23 pm Elven Blood might have lived once more as Twilight of Dragons before being removed completely. Although on April 9, 2009 it appears that all World of Blood Series applications have been removed, Matt Trainer’s post from April 6, 2009 seems to indicate that actions were already being taken against applications operated by Patrick Shyu, however due to the wall activity in the group Twilight of Dragons Forum’s Wall it does appear that Twilight of Dragons and Elven Blood may have been running concurrently between March 23 – April 9, 2009, but the exact dates are uncertain.

Using the above referenced threads, posts, and groups, it seems the following were alleged/potential Platform violations:

• -Users gaining Stamina in return for sending out invites to other Facebook users
• -Use of copyrighted materials and images without permission, attribution, or payment
• -Cross-promoting other applications via notifications
• -Alleged extortion – freezing a user’s account for “cheating” and requiring payment of 15 blessings, which may only be available through participation in a sponsored advertisement or via purchase of blessings with a cash payment

In the end, it appears that not only World of Blood but any other application operated by Patrick Shyu are either on a warning list of sorts, or have been removed from Facebook. Considering the convoluted process it took from warnings to removal, combined with the lack of clear ownership and potentially shaky business activities, it seems that there remains more to be uncovered behind the removal of the World of Blood Series applications from Facebook.

However, while the World of Blood Series applications are no more on Facebook, they are still available on MySpace, attributed to the user ~World of Blood~.

Should any additional information come to light, or additional articles covering this topic, updates and links will be posted below.

Mafia Wars, a Facebook application/game by Zynga Inc., is primarily a roleplaying game with a few elements of a construction and management simulation. You play a member of the mafia, who builds family ties, makes cash, gets involved in real estate, builds a mighty arsenal of weapons and vehicles, and lives the high-life of crime.

We’ll take a look at the Game Flavor, the Game Mechanics, the Good, the Bad, the Final Review, and a bonus Second Glance! So, is this game for casual gamers, hardcore gamers, or no gamers at all? Read on!

Game Flavor

Mafia Wars imbues nearly all aspects of the game with a mobster-movie ambiance, from the updates written in Italian-English Mobster dialect to the ever-present Godfather gifting you with honorifics and rewards for important milestones. As you complete entire tiers of jobs, you get special titles and in-game bonuses (Job Mastery Items).

The game is pretty much what one imagines being a mobster would be like: making cash, offing your opposition, doing numerous illegal activities (and getting away with it), and of course being a down to heart member of the “family.”

Game Mechanics

Your actions are based on core attributes: Attack, Defense, Health, Energy, and Stamina. You earn experience and cash through performing various jobs, and each job requires the expenditure of Energy and the possession of the right equipment (weapons, armor, vehicles, special loot). Job and equipment availability are dependent upon your level. Attack, Defense, and Health are important for combat with bosses and fighting other players, and Stamina is how many times you can engage in player versus player activities (fight, sucker punch, add to hit list, and rob). Health, Energy, and Stamina all recover over time, while Attack and Defense are static attributes. Energy can also be refilled to 125% if your mafia sends you an Energy Pack (only available once every 23 hours). When you level up, you earn 5 points to distribute among your core attributes and your Health, Stamina, and Energy are refilled.

Where Mafia Wars takes on elements of a construction and management simulation (CMS) is in property development. You can purchase undeveloped land, develop that land into more profitable businesses, and earn an hourly income from your cut of the land. Other players can rob your properties, however their mafia party is limited to their level while robbing. Although the CMS is not very complex, it does play an integral role in generating cash for your mafia and offsetting the upkeep of necessary equipment.

Regarding equipment, you can buy vehicles, weapons, and armor but some of the best equipment only comes as loot, which is randomly found from performing jobs and through fighting other players. Some equipment is only available through the Godfather (you either complete special offers for Godfather points or buy them from Zynga). Loot also comes in the form of Collection items- collect all 7 items from the set and send the collection to your Vault, you get a Vault Bonus, which varies from collection to collection. One nice thing is that you can also Gift to other players, meaning some equipment, loot, and collection items can be traded between your mafia (to a limited extent).

Finally, there are some rules regarding your Top Mafia. You can select up to 6 members of your family to fill 6 different roles within your Top Mafia. Each role provides a different bonus to a different game mechanic. Furthermore, if you are selected to the Top Mafia of one of your fellow mobsters, you occasionally get an in-game bonus for being part of a Top Mafia.

The Good

Mafia Wars is a well-balanced game. Although mafia size greatly impacts your PVP power, the cap on your mafia is 501 members, which inherently retains a level of balance within the game between players. Furthermore, the game is not overly complex, and continues to offer additional activities, meaning continued playability. There is enough continual activity and in-game rewards occur frequently enough that the game remains engaging.

The Bad

Although a decent game, Mafia Wars fails to break free from the plethora of other mafia inspired games. Overall it has a generic feeling, perhaps due to the lack of any central plot line. While well rounded mechanically, and steeped in mafia flavor, Mafia Wars struggles to fully engage the player.

Furthermore, being that your power is inherently tied to the size of your mafia family, unless you plan on making a bunch of new friends, or already have 501 friends who want to play Mafia Wars, you’ll be limited in power and much weaker than many other players. While this isn’t that big of a problem, it means if someone wishes to continually rob your properties, there is little you can do other than stay off the radar of more powerful players. E.g., if you are robbed multiple times by a stronger player, your only recourse for revenge is to hire a hitman to take them out, however once the other player is taken out you’re name is once more on their Player Updates, meaning they can just go back to robbing you over and over and over again.

Final Review

Mafia Wars is easy to learn, easy to casually play, and also an easy game to like. Although it fails to break from the rest of the mafia pack, with very little negative baggage, solid enough game mechanics, and a consistent and prevalent flavor, Mafia Wars is an honest “C” game.

Mafia Wars – good for casual gaming, room enough for hardcore fans, but a bit generic – “C”

Second Glance

With recent updates, continued development on the game by Zynga, the introduction of Cuba, the addition of the Lottery (which I hope continues to give out free daily tickets), and continued refinement of the optional components of the game, Mafia Wars has taken that final step towards making this game go from generic to definitive. Because of the ongoing development on the game, the continued new additions that keep the game fresh and fun, Mafia Wars has earned itself a solid “B”.

Mafia Wars – great for casual gaming, good for longterm play, and engaging for any player – “B”

Knighthood, a Facebook application/game by Hive7, is a construction and management simulation with particular emphasis on warfare. You build your kingdom, collect your vassals, enter into alliances, and wage war against others.

We’ll be taking a look at the Game Flavor, the Game Mechanics, the Good, the Bad, the Ugly, and the Final Review. So, is this game for casual gamers, hardcore gamers, or no gamers? Read on!

Game Flavor

Knighthood has a strong mundane (real world, lacking magic) medieval setting. The game mechanics further support the flavor of the fiefdom’s political structure, where Lords/Ladies are primarily maintained by vassals beneath them. This is a good case where the game mechanics support the game flavor.

In addition, Knighthood has good typography, nice images, and a good visual layout.

Game Mechanics

Knighthood has a fairly complex system of rules from building to warfare. It is primarily a competitive game with a pyramidal power structure, where the number of vassals under your control pertains directly to your in-game strength.

The building system is tree-structured; once buildings have been upgraded high enough, you gain access to additional buildings and game mechanics. Although Knighthood has a fairly simple build-tree, each building interacts with the mechanics in different and varying ways.

The basic actions of warfare revolve around sending your vassals to raid, pillage, seize opponents’ vassals, and conquer (claiming players as a vassal). Warfare is based on attack and defense ratings further modified by buildings, weapons, and vassals. Also, if you don’t like war, you can always go into peace mode (at a slight penalty to efficiency, implying it is better to be at war than at peace).

There are other game mechanics that are socially based, such as trading vassals, making (and breaking) alliances, recruiting additional vassals, etc.

The Good

Knighthood is a game where you set the pace for activity. Although building and generating gold is dependent upon time, you can go to war as many times as you’d like. The only thing holding you back is healing your troops, and if you successfully raid for gold you can perpetuate the cycle of war.

In addition to a highly active game, Knighthood does an excellent job reproducing a highly social game. Because most vassals are other players, the game itself is built upon a broad social base. Combined with the ability to make alliances and socially interact, the game helps produce a community feeling.

The Bad

Although the Knighthood manages to capture the concept of a medieval political structure, it falls short. The basic elements are there, but the game fails to reproduce the nuances of a medieval fiefdom, or even knighthood for which the game is named.

Firstly, warfare is treated much too casually. The only real ramification for going to war is that your vassals take damage, which costs either time or gold to heal. But other than this you can attack as many people as many times as you want. Without any major constraints on warfare, it becomes a possibly endless tactic void of any real world limitations.

Secondly, in game there can be little choice of whom you serve. Once tied to a Lord/Lady (possibly by choice or conquest), you can’t freely abandon your liege, only rebel. The game treats all vassals more or less as serfs and thus fails to capture the nuances between the medieval freeman and the un-free. If all vassals are therefore serfs, then how can any vassal uphold the tenants of gentry? One cannot be both serf and knight, the two are mutually exclusive.

The Ugly

Knighthood is essentially about owning people. The ultimate goal is to own as many vassals as possible, and vassals are for the most part other players. Vassals can be seized in warfare, and also traded for an in-game monetary exchange; you, in other words, conquer, buy, and sell people.

Knighthood treats people as mere tools, things that bring you wealth and power. Maybe this is a great representation of how nobility once viewed serfs, but in a modern game it reinforces the notion that people are expendable tools that can be bought and sold if need be. It also falls woefully short to reproduce the social cast structure of medieval society.

Furthermore, warfare has no focus on conquering and controlling land, only in raiding gold, weapons, and people. And here is my greatest critique of the game: in Knighthood, the purpose of war is not to capture land but to capture people. In effect, when land is captured, inhabitants can choose to flee. However, when capturing people is the focus, another connotation is assumed. To assume that by conquest, and therefore force, another person will labor on your behalf means that your primary endeavour is enslavement. If a person cannot leave of their own volition, they are no longer free.

Final Review

I really, really, want to like this game. It is directly up my ally in flavor and historical period, but I can’t get past the negative attributes of Knighthood. The game mechanics and potential depth of game play are redeeming qualities.

However, Knighthood’s inability to reproduce the feeling of being either a Knight or a Lord, combined with the uneasy undertone of dehumanization and the gross inadequacies of warfare leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Either the game should be called Despotism, or this review should be called “Knighthood: making slavery fun again.” For the above reasons, compounded by the game’s gross misunderstanding of the medieval economy, society, and politics, I give this game a “D.”

Knighthood – a game with great potential, all of it wasted, much like one’s time playing this game – “D”

My Facebook ads now come disproportionately from a single source, a site promising that for only $1.95 they will ship you a kit to help you get thousands from Government Grants.  Remind you of that guy with the question mark suit on late night infomercials yelling about free government money?

Supposedly the advertisements come from a “blog” set up by a guy named Jeff Donahue (or is it Kevin Hoeffer?).  However, this site is little more than a giant scam.

Google it and you’ll get a few sites warning about these scams: [Updated]

• Wafflesatnoon’s Scam Alert Website Lists
• Facebook Misleading Users with Display Ads: Grant Access Club Scam
• Facebook Ripping you off? Grant Access Club Ads Indicate So
• Exposing A Government Grant Internet Scam

My favorite part is how this guy must (apparently) have an identical twin:
Jeff Donahue
Kevin Hoeffer

Jeff, meet Kevin.  Kevin, meet Jeff. Wait a minute….!

All I can say is shame on Facebook.  I know they need advertisers, but couldn’t they have done their homework on this one?  And no matter how many times I click “dislike this ad” and no matter which reason I give, they keep coming back in more and more ferocity!  I would have thought that the feedback from ads would help Facebook target their ads better, but something is seriously screwed up.  Even worse, Facebook is helping this scam reach millions.

The fact that this guy is recommending use of government grants and bailout funds only aims to strike a harmony with the discord people feel about how poorly managed the economy has been to date. Its designed to make you think you can make easy money, requires little to no effort, and to reassure you by making you think you are owed the money because it comes from the government as either a grant or stimulus.  You won’t earn this money, there is no such thing as free cash, and this scam only perpetuates abuse upon an already abused system. This guy is simply a leech upon an already morally debunk behavior.

So, do check out Wafflesatnoon.com‘s Scam Alert Website Lists; they have done an excellent job keeping track of this scam (and the numerous copycat websites & domains), along with others scams you might be more aware of than you’d like.  You might even recognize the other Facebook ad scams and junk ads (How many triangles!  Are you smarter than “X” celebrity!  Make $5,000 advertizing on Google!).

Also, check out RipoffReport.com for first hand consumer reports on vairous rip-offs (the following link is to a listing of Grant Writing & Research rip-off section).

MouseHunt, a Facebook application/game by Hit Grab Inc, is a passively played game, with an excellent blend of style and function. Your hunter works for the King setting traps to catch devious mice that plot (something) against the kingdom. Relatively simple: buy your trap, buy your trap’s base, and add some cheese. Then, you wait.

We’ll take a look at the Game Flavor, the Game Mechanics, the Good & the Bad, and give you a Final Review, plus a bonus Second Glance! So, is this game for casual gamers, hardcore gamers, or no gamers? Read on!

Game Flavor

MouseHunt has a medieval setting reminiscent of children’s fables, with mice as the main protagonists. The game has a light feel, avoids dark concepts, and keeps things on the surface easy going and fun. In addition, game-play is bolstered by fun and well crafted artwork and flavor-text; each mouse has a composite profile, and each trap has a full composite picture. The application header also contains an image that is location dependent, which helps add to the flavor of the game.

MouseHunt also has some tongue-in-cheek humor, with clever/hokey wordplay (such as Dwarf Mice, who are Dwarven Mice). I’ve got to admit, I’m a glutton for such light-hearted humor and definitely enjoy being caught off-guard by unexpected puns.

Game Mechanics

MouseHunt has easy-going mechanics that get more complicated as you play. Your trap’s basic abilities are: Power, Attraction, andLuck. Power helps capture mice, Attraction brings mice to your trap, and Luck is, well, how lucky your trap is from time to time. By catching mice, you gain gold and points (and sometimes loot).

The game has a slow pace, but this is intentional. You are meant to be able to log on, see what is going on, then walk away for a bit and check back later. If you want more active game play, every 15 minutes you can sound the hunter’s horn and hunt for mice. You can also travel places to hunt, buy miscellaneous goods, craft, use potions, and claim a King’s rewards along the way.

Over all, the game mechanics are simple when you first start out and grow in complexity as you gain rank through catching mice. Rank determines where you can hunt, what you can craft, and where you are in the game.

The Good

MouseHunt is a fairly free-flowing game, escaping some linear entrapment. With a light atmosphere of game play it also manages to be easy on the mind. With something happening every 15 minutes, it is engaging enough to keep coming back to, but restricts you from becoming addicted to the game. MouseHunt has a clearly defined concept; being a passive game, the form fits function perfectly. After all, what’s more passive than catching mice with a mousetrap?

However, the game goes beyond a simple passive mechanism and gives players more flavor, and more things to do. This includes crafting, traveling, using potions, and additional loot to search out. The mice are incredibly diverse, each one with a unique flavor text, artwork, strengths, and weaknesses. As you gain ranks, the availability in traps, traveling, crafting, potions, and cheese all increase which continues to draw the player into continued game play.

The game continues to go through development, meaning that new mice, new traps, new cheese, and new areas continue to be introduced, keeping this game fresh and engaging. Furthermore, although the game might be passive, MouseHunt has a very active community of players on their forum, and that is a strong plus.

The Bad

However, since the game doesn’t progress very quickly, I have not “beaten” the game. I’m not even sure the game has an “endpoint,” but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you aren’t looking for a strong plot line. In that respect, the game can drag on at a slow pace. You can play upwards to a week before advancing rank at low level, and much longer at higher levels. Furthermore, at low levels you can only do so much crafting and traveling as both are fairly limited. While the passive play style is exactly what the game is going for, the game might benefit from additional elements that would add more activities while waiting for your trap to catch mice.

Although MouseHunt does escape linear-entrapment to an extent, it is possible that the game progresses so slowly that you just don’t realize you are railroaded into finding certain items in certain orders to go to certain locations, which are further restricted by your rank. So, at least at low ranks, the only real choices you have then are where you hunt, with what trap, and what cheese. However, with the continual development by the MouseHunt team, this entrapment is partly mitigated.

Final Review

MouseHunt is a solid game. While not very complicated, the game’s strength is in its well designed simplicity. By holding to a clearly defined goal, the game manages to concentrate on being easy, fun, and light-hearted. By not competing against highly active games, MouseHunt creates a niche of its own further complimented by its game flavor. It doesn’t take up much of your time, so you can accomplish a great deal with little effort along the way. Overall, a good “B” game.

MouseHunt – great for casual gaming, complex enough for the hardcore gamer – “B”

Second Glance

With recent updates, new hunting locations, traps, cheese, and most importantly the addition of Tournaments, in which you and four of your friends join the same Hunting Party, Hit Grab takes their game up a crucial notch. Not only does the Tournament system bring the sense of communal play to an exciting level, it adds an entirely new type of game play to MouseHunt. In essence, adding Tournaments allows the game to be open-ended, with friendly competition and mutual cooperation key components. The aforementioned strengths of MouseHunt, combined with the recent updates makes this a nice “A” game.

MouseHunt – now with more awesomeness – “A”

In Elven Blood, a World of Blood Series Facebook application/game developed by Royal East India Trading Company, you play through an epic storyline from your Elf’s point-of-view. With somewhat episodic quests, you play through a linear storyline. Elven Blood is predominately a single player MUD augmented with PVP dueling and some graphics for inventory and actions. The game requires you to have a certain number of friends in your Party before being able to progress to the next sequence of quests.

We’ll take a look at the Game Flavor, the Game Mechanics, the Good, the Bad, the Ugly, and the Final Review. So, the question: is this a game for casual gamers, hardcore gamers, or no gamers? Read on!

Game Flavor

Who doesn’t like a high-fantasy game? While a roleplaying game, you are challenged to successfully navigate through a series of linear quests. You character goes through the highs and lows of the Elven history, and the story is interwoven with the sister World of Blood game Blood Lust (in which you can play the vampire’s perspective). In the process of playing the game, you build a Party of other real-world players who provide additional power when you Dual other Elves.

Game flavor is complimented by great art work, well written flavor-text, and a very varied assortment of weapons, armor, accessories, mounts, and miscellaneous items. Elven Blood sort of reminds me of a high-fantasy novel coupled with a drama featuring elements of isolation, personal questing, and a struggle to come to terms with past actions and future consequences (from your Elf’s perspective, of course).

Game Mechanics

Elven Blood depends heavily on Life and Stamina, which regenerates slowly over real-world time. You can purchase items that are equipped automatically and also sell inventory. You select from a series of quests, which typically are either the equivalent of “move” or “attack.” Your core attributes are Life, Stamina, Strength, and Agility. Strength and Agility are factored into combat. Life is how much damage you can take. Stamina is how much your character can do before having to take a break from the game while you regenerate Stamina. In addition, you can donate to the World of Blood Series for Blessings, which can be redeemed at the Elder Tree for various gifts.

The Good

Elven blood is fairly well written, and is very engaging. Although not a rapid play game, Life and Stamina recover quickly enough where you can check back every ten (10) minutes and do more stuff. Weapons are pretty cool, and you even have the ability to use Blessings later in the game to unlock special abilities (e.g., manually equip items, or dual wield weapons). I found myself devoting numerous hours to Elven Blood, and the game progresses quickly enough that you are able to achieve a lot of plot and catch up to other players playing the game.

In addition, Elven Blood has some good flavor-text and very good artwork, both based on location, quest, abilities, weapons, etc. The game also has a decently long life-span, as the plot progresses through numerous sub-plots, some of which is intertwined with the World of Blood Series: Blood Lust game. Overall, the game’s flavor is spot on for a fantasy RPG.

The Bad

Unfortunately, the Dueling and the required Party building is the only thing that makes this a Multi-User Dungeon, although the game claims to be an MMORPG. Without party building and dueling, this game would simply be a Dungeon, and the only thing that it has in common with a MMORPG is there are quite a few players that happen to be online at the same time, and the game falls loosely in the category of a roleplaying game (by video game standards). Both MUDs and MMORPGs require much greater and consistent interaction with other players, and Elven Blood falls greatly short of this standard. In fact, you would have more success in claiming your D&D Twitter Campaign was a MUD, let alone an MMORPG.

Furthermore, the game requires you to build a Party. Theoretically, you and all your best friends would band together and play the game, which on its own is not a bad idea by any means. However, unless you surround yourself with hardcore gamers, and Facebook friends who say, “yes” to every application request they receive, you are going to find yourself shy of friends, and not progress far in the game. In reality, the best options are either buy a lot of Blessings to exchange for Fairies (count towards party size) or you are going to Facebook-friend a lot of strangers.

Also, Elven Blood only gives you a few choices to make that can affect the plot, or actions you can take. For the most part, you work your way through a linear plot line and every character ends up having done the same things in pretty much the same order. In other words, most RPGs allow a person to at least wonder about the campaign setting and achieve different goals. Elven Blood is much more strict in plot progression than one might find enjoyable.

The Ugly

The game feels like it was designed to make money first and be fun second. Through advertising on BloodNet, through purchasing Blessings, or participating in optional sponsorships in exchange for Blessings you can’t escape the ever present request for revenue. Furthermore, the only free means to earn blessings – sponsorships – was dodgy at times and ultimately a waste of time; plus, you only end up putting your contact details into unknown hands for later spamming.

I understand the need to build revenue, especially for games that are offered for free online, but there are more tactful ways to do this, and when you have such a prominently featured game mechanic that can really only be gained through some version of a monetary exchange, it tends to cheapen the game.

Final Review

Elven Blood is a decent application. I donated $5 to the developers because when I calculated how much time I was spending on the game I felt it was worth about that much. Or, at least my time I spent on it was worth that much. The game does have some very nice flavor-text, good artwork, and a fun system to play.

However, because the game is so linear, because you are strong-armed into increasing the size of your Party to even play the game, and because of the ever prevalent monetary minutiae, I give this otherwise solid “B” game a “C.”

Elven Blood – good enough for a casual gamer to try, takes at least a moderate gamer to endure through to the end, and not engaging enough for a hardcore gamer – “C”

Dungeons & Dragons: Tiny Adventures is a Facebook application-game based roughly on the RPG Dungeons & Dragons, by Wizards of the Coast. You play as an adventurer who goes on adventures seeking loot, gold, and experience to level up. After 11 levels, your character retires, and you can play as a new class/race/gender.

We’ll look at the Game Flavor, the Game Mechanics, and get into the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly aspects of this game, all to be recapped in a Final Review. So, is this game a game for casual gamers, hardcore gamers, or no gamers? Read on!

Game Flavor

D&D: Tiny Adventures is fairly true to the flavor of D&D, albeit a bit campy, in the good way which lends to its charm. You can find some hilarity ensue from fairly non-heroic behavior, which is made all the more comic when it’s the righteous paladin who abandons the poor peasants to the goblins. Unfortunately, you don’t get to make many choices, and everything is determined by the success or failure of each encounter in the adventure so the flavor becomes repetitive. The setting is Tolkien-est, medieval fantasy with standard D&Dish magic, equipment, and potions.

Game Mechanics

First things first. If you expect the game mechanics of D&D: Tiny Adventures to resemble the game mechanics of the pen & paper D&D, you will probably initially dislike this application because of the disparity between expectation and actuality. Loosely based around the 6 core D&D stats, attack, and armor class, Tiny Adventures departs from D&D in how these stats are used. Simply put, a random number between 1 and 20 is generated, and you add your bonus based stat, attack, and/or armor class.

Your adventurer goes on adventures, which are a series of slightly randomized encounters that your character progresses through, with several set story encounters. The chances of success and failure are modified by the encounter type – e.g., magical, trap, etc. – which are added onto the random d20 results. The damage, experience points, gold, and loot are based on the outcome of the encounter (success vs. failure). You friends can also heal you while your character rests, and buff you while you adventure. Otherwise, you character quests alone.

Setup: choose an adventure, have X number of encounters, rest, and repeat.

The Good

Easy to check back every 7-12 minutes to see how you are doing. You can use potions, and at higher levels you can also use special abilities based on class. Addicting enough as after you retire characters (once you hit level 11, you retire automatically) you sometimes get new rewards. Plus, quite a few character classes lend to repeat play, and help to keep the game engaging. The additional modes, such as Iron-man and Elite, combined with special class abilities keeps the game engaging from character to character, even as the encounters repeat.

The Bad

The game is about as close as you can come to being automated. The choices you make are fairly limited at times, and often everything comes down to pure chance. In addition, calling it “Dungeons & Dragons” is fairly misleading. At least they don’t call it “roleplaying” and they do live up to their goal of having a near-passive game, or at least a game you play on and off while doing other things. Sometimes, D&DTA is like the movie you put on in the background while doing more important things.

The Ugly

Up until recently, after many people received access to their second class ability, the game play was very well balanced. For the most part each class had a legitimate chance at getting onto the Global Retired Leadership Board. I hit the Global Retired Leadership Board twice, and at one brief point had both characters listed simultaneously. It was pretty awesome, and motivated me to play again quite a few times.

However, after receiving access to the second class abilities one character class outstrips all other classes in the ability to earn gold (i.e., points), and thus heavily favored to rank on the Global Retired Leadership Board: the Warlock. The problem is the Warlock’s second class ability (spoiler) is to receive both max damage and gold for 3 encounters. While this might not seem to be important (which on its own it isn’t) points are entirely calculated on the gold you earn through adventuring. Getting the picture yet?

As a result, the Global Retired Leadership Board has slowly became entirely populated by Warlocks. To this date, the entire list remains filled with Warlocks only.

Final Review

On its own, the game is engaging enough to play a few times around, but striving to hit high scores is what really pulls a player into the application. Without this slight competitive edge, the game really does become something you might as well automate (which the Greasemonkey DNDTA almost does). However, the game really excelled in the early stages at being balanced. Each class had a reason to be played, and a fair shot at excelling point-wise. However, as the entire game has become unbalanced with strong favoritism to Warlocks, the competitive edge is thrown out the window. Completely.

Because the only competitive class is now the Warlock, after receiving your second class ability there is little reason to play any other class and before that point there is virtually no chance as ranking on the Global Retired Leadership Board. As such, and because the adventures become very repetitive even before this point, the replay value of Tiny Adventures diminished significantly. Now the game really only has room for people who enjoy grinding their way through repeated character after repeated character. A decent “C” game, that could be better with some minor additional development/tweaks.

D&DTA – solid enough for a casual gamer to play a few times around, but lacks the subtlety and depth for a hardcore gamer – “C”