Aeria Mobile launches adult-oriented CCG Pirate Maidens

Aeria Mobile today announced its newest collectible card game Pirate Maidens has launched for free on iOS.

The game is the latest in a series of CCGs that Aeria’s brought to mobile devices, following titles like Magimon and Monster Paradise. The game provides three in-game factions with unique stories to follow, and players are able to freely switch between each plotline without losing any progress in the game. Players are cast in the role of pirates who set sail and rescue their buxom crew members (instead of magical monsters, like in most other CCGs).

However, Pirate Maidens will stand out from other CCGs with its adult-oriented content. The game’s iTunes page carries the “You must be at least 17 years old to download this app” warning because it includes simulated gambling and “frequent/intense sexual content or nudity.”

As with Aeria’s other games, Pirate Maidens features a fairly wide array of social features. Players can create and join guilds, engage in international PvP battles, and team up for raid events. We’re also told the game features optional Japanese voiceovers for every collectible pirate character in the game.

CCGs have proven  to be massive hits on mobile devices, with titles like Rage of Bahamut (as of right now, the No. 8 top grossing app in iTunes) Marvel: War of Heroes and Blood Brothers have been dominating the charts. However, the genre is growing increasingly crowded as more developers try to tap into the lucrative audience for these games. What will be interesting to see is if Pirate Maidens’ adult content is enough to titillate and tempt a sizable player base into its ranks.

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Bubble Pirate Quest on Facebook isn't the treasure we were hoping for

If you like bubble popping games, there's no question that you've got a ton of options to play on Facebook, from Bubble Safari to Lost Bubble, and adding to that selection is Bubble Pirate Quest, a game with questionable design choices that stop it from being the great pirate treasure we were hoping for.

Like so many other bubble-popping games on Facebook, Bubble Pirate Quest is level based, with levels coming with limited amounts of bubbles and the requirement to clear a certain number of bubbles from the top row of the screen before you run out of bubbles to shoot from your cannon. The game technically works as you'd expect, with barrels at the bottom of the screen to catch falling bubbles (rewarding you with bonus points), power-ups like those that give you extra bubbles to shoot in a set of three levels, lives that deplete as you fail stages, and leaderboards that track your high score against those of your friends. Still, there's one major thing that Bubble Pirate Quest has going against it: cluttered menus and level layouts.

While I'd normally be the first one to applaud a developer for its use of bright colors and fun shapes or patterns, Bubble Pirate Quest goes too far the other way. There's way too much going on in a single scene, making it hard to tell which colored bubble is available next, as it's half-hidden in a questionably helpful pirate parrot's hands. What's more, the blue and green bubbles are far too similar in shade, so it can also be hard to even tell which color bubble you're shooting. Sure, the game offers a trajectory line that matches the color of the bubble you're about to shoot (which helps), but why aren't the bubbles simply colored better to begin with?

What's more, the game contains a lot of advertising pop-ups encouraging players to purchase items with Facebook Credits, and some are even timed so that there is no way to close them until the timer counts down. Mid-level pop-ups are present too, only these come in the form of flying stars and words of encouragement that cover the screen for a few seconds after you destroy a large section of bubbles with a single pop. This isn't a huge complaint in and of itself, but these little issues matter when they're combined with everything else the game does to work against a player's enjoyment.

Ultimately, there are tons of other games in the genre that provide less distracting graphics and pop-ups, so Bubble Pirate Quest is one Facebook game that can easily be avoided.

Play Bubble Pirate Quest on Facebook now >

Have you tried Bubble Pirate Quest? How do you think it compares to other bubble-popping games on Facebook? Which game is your favorite in the entire genre? Sound off in the comments!

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Bubble Pirate Quest on top of this week’s list of fastest-growing Facebook games by DAU

Murzik’s Bubble Pirate Quest took the No. 1 spot this week among the fastest-growing Facebook games by daily active user; the title brought in 590,000 DAU for a 233 percent increase.

Zynga’s FarmVille 2 came in at No. 2, with 430,000 DAU for a 123 percent increase. Words With Friends returned to the gainer list at No. 3 with 200,000 DAU, up 4 percent. FreshPlanet’s SongPop grew by 100,000 DAU, a 2 percent increase that allowed the game to take the No. 4 slot. Finally, King.com’s Pyramid Solitaire Saga rounded out the top five games on this week’s list with 100,000 DAU for a 7 percent gain.

Three games this week saw gains of over 100 percent. Disney Playdom’s Mobsters: Criminal Empire took in 40,000 DAU for a 200 percent increase, as did RockYou’s Hug Me. High 5's eponymous High 5 Casino took in 23,113 DAU for a 462 percent gain.

Finally, Russian developer Nekki’s new game Vector (which just officially launched on Facebook) debuted on our list this week with 20,000 DAU for a 50 percent traffic increase.

All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned for our look at the top emerging apps on Friday.

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Finland censored pirate bay

Today, I read from the news that Finnish court decided that ISPs should use censorship. They are saying that I cannot access pirate bay no longer.

There’s couple of things that I feel are worrying with this system.

First of all, here’s how piracy impacts jobs:

Secondly: If some folks don’t wanna give you money for the stuff you did, then they don’t. No amount of DRM & blocks will ever change that.

Thirdly, they cannot block access to pirate bay. It’s impossible.

Fourthly, now they also need to block access to 791 million other torrent/magnet sites that do the same stuff. And Google too.

Fifthly, is there a way to sue some organisation for stupidity? I’m pretty certain they are wasting my tax money to handle this legal stuff.

Rant over.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 11th, 2012 at 6:42 pm and is filed under Game Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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CastleVille Sonja's Pirate Tavern Quests: Everything you need to know

After her trip to Land's End in CastleVille, Sonja is having a hard time settling back down to life in your Kingdom. She misses her life at sea, but doesn't want to leave your Kingdom altogether. You'll need to help build her a new Tavern to help her feel more at "home." This can be completed via a new set of quests called "Sonja's Pirate Tavern."

Please Stay! Craft 15 Wood PlanksTend 40 FlowersSpend 100,000 coins
Rewards: 3,250 coins, 65XP, Pirate Tavern building

Going Viral Place the Pirate TavernCraft 5 Ornate TapestriesHave 10 Clothespins
The Clothespins are earned by asking your friends to send them to you. Once you place the Pirate Tavern, you'll need to craft or otherwise gather a set of building materials to finish it off: 10 Wood Planks, 5 Gold Bricks, 3 Leather Aprons, a Skull and Crossbones and a Sonja's Anchor item. You'll receive 3,250 coins and 65 XP for completing this quest.

Cobblestone Cred Craft 8 Boom SticksTax 20 Neighbors' HomesConsume 8 Green Fairy Elixirs
Rewards: 4,250 coins, 85 XP, Blue Mystery Box

Sonja's Grand Opening Finish Sonja's Pirate RavernCraft 7 HorseshoesChop Trees 40 Times
Rewards: 4,250 coins, 85 XP

Take A Number Banish 20 BeastiesCraft 3 Meat SandwichesHave 10 Red Ribbons
The Red Ribbons can be earned with the help of friends. You'll receive 4,250 coins, 85 XP and a Green Mystery Box when you finish this goal.

So Not A Date Craft 10 Flaming GrogCraft 3 Stained GlassTend 30 Nature Items
Rewards: 4,250 coins, 85 XP

Date Knight Craft 1 CatapultHave 10 Lemon SlicesCraft 5 Kegs
The Lemon Slices are earned with friends' help. You'll receive 5,250 coins and 105 XP for finishing this quest.

Nautical Nostalgia Use 8 Swords on BeastiesFish 20 Times in your KingdomRaise your Castle Level by 300 Points
It doesn't matter what you do to raise your Castle Level, whether it be adding decorations or new Royal Buildings, but this task will likely take you quite a bit of time to complete. It's possible that you may be able to store items that offer Castle Points only to pull them back out again once you reach this quest, but that's not guaranteed to count (we'll let you know as soon as we can confirm or deny it). Either way, you'll receive 5,250 coins, 105 XP and a Yellow Mystery Box for finishing this final quest in the series.

You'll need to be at least Level 27 to access these quests, and you'll also need to have finished Sonja's Cursed Chest quests from earlier in the game's storyline. If you don't see these quests in your game, it's like that you still need to help Sonja with other things before she'll offer them to you. As for the Pirate's Tavern itself, it will reward you with Bubbly Grog if you collect from it once per day.

[Via and image credit: Zynga]

What do you think of this new Pirate Tavern quest series in CastleVille? Are you excited about the recent focus on pirates in CastleVille, or do you think it deviates too far from the original medieval theme? Sound off in the comments!

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Gamesville offers cash bonuses with Pirate Cove for Facebook

Casual games portal Gamesville makes its way to Facebook with Pirate Cove Bingo, a social game that raises the stakes with daily cash rewards.

Gamesville has been online since 1996, featuring what Producer Eric Chon describes as “casino lite” games like 3 Eyed Bingo, Hot Streak Solitaire and Pit Stop Slots. The big draw for players is that these games offer cash jackpots, which start out at $5 and have gone as high as $8,900. The portal currently contains nine in-house games and a series of third-party titles via publishing deals with partners like Real Media and World Winner.

The developer entered Facebook very recently, launching Pirate Cove Bingo Nov. 23, 2011. The game is a standard Bingo title that offers a pirate-themed environment. The cash prizes are what make the game interesting, especially considering that Facebook doesn’t currently allow social games to pay out real money to players. Gamesville has a system in place that not only provides the opportunity to win the money, but also levels the playing field between paying and non-paying players. Here’s how it works: Players get two different types of Bingo cards, white and gold. White cards can be purchased via the game’s soft currency and players automatically receive five gold cards each day. If a player scores Bingo on a gold card, they are entered in a daily drawing for $25, handled on Gamesville’s site.

Note that Gamesville isn’t the only company providing players with cash rewards for playing their games; portal sites King.com and GameDuell offer cash prizes in tournaments held on their own sites. Gamesville is, however, the first that we know of to take the real cash concept directly to Facebook. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of effect this has on retention and conversion. King.com CEO Riccardo Zacconi once mentioned to ISG that tourneys hosted within Facebook game Bubble Saga didn’t have a significant impact on retention.

So far, Chon says Pirate Cove Bingo’s progress on Facebook is encouraging given that the developer hasn’t advertised the game beyond a mention on the company’s official site and blog. The title hit 9,000 MAU in January 2012 but recently dropped to 5,000 MAU; DAU has been consistently hovering around the 1,000 line, aside from a spike on March 11 when it went up to 2,000 DAU. As a comparison, Gamesville’s web portal has 35,745 registered users and 31,458 guest users.

Chon says the long term plan is to increase traffic for both Pirate Cove Bingo on Facebook and Gamesville’s web portal via cross promotion. As for monetization, the web portal mainly relies on video ads displayed between game rounds. Players can avoid the ads by buying a $25 annual Gold Membership, and instead receive a minigame between rounds and can receive double the jackpot if they win it. Pirate Cove Bingo is not currently monetized on Facebook at all, but that will change with future updates. Pirate Cove Bingo is due for two more updates before it reaches what Chon describes as “Complete Version 1.0.” The next update is due in May, with the final one scheduled to launch in early Fall. Both of these updates will include things like new settings to play in and a virtual goods shop.

Gamesville is owned by Lycos, but the games portal generates enough money to support the 12-person development team. The site isn’t hiring right now, but Chon says that it will likely do so in the near future.

Correction: Chon contacted us with the following clarifications/corrections to this story.

All of Gamesville’s titles are free.The number of actual registered users for the Gamesville portal is incorrect, we’re waiting for an updated number.Gamesville has 19 in-house games: CatchUp CoverAll, Three-Eyed Bingo, Bingo Zone, Super Chef, Quick-Draw Poker, Magic 21, Gold 21, Frantic Fish, Pit Stop, Bubble Popper, Bubble Popper 2, Spite and Malice, Poker Inferno, Spider Solitaire, Hot Streak Solitaire, Addiction Solitaire, Tip Top Solitaire, Word Whopper, Miami Dice. The games Chon told us about are the ten most-played games on the site.Gamesville is always actively looking for new talent.

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Zynga to set sail for Pirate Island ... or Rogues & Royals [Rumor]

by Joe Osborne, Posted Apr 12th 2012 5:50PM

Big time social game maker Zynga looks to be on a tear with new projects. This time, CEGamers has found promotional art and text within one of Zynga's infamous surveys for a game known as either Pirate Island or Rogues & Royals. The survey asks players for their impressions of both names associated with these images, and what they think a game with ether name would play like. Then, however, Zynga provides the following teaser:

Set sail for your own Caribbean paradise in a world of intrigue, pirates, and romance. Your island will become home to a cast of exotic characters who need your help in their quests for adventure, glory, and affairs of the heart. Team up with your friends as Crewmates and uncover the island's many mysteries. The choice is yours: will you build your island into a stately tropical paradise? Or a rough-and-tumble pirates' haven?

Other than that, little to nothing is known about this game that Zynga is testing the waters with. (Perhaps Zynga has learned a thing or two from The Sims Social?) The artwork in the image looks strikingly similar to CastleVille, as CEGamers points out. That said, it's possible that Zynga Dallas is the studio that will handle Pirate Island/Rogues & Royals should it survive these surveys.

Would you play a Zynga game like this, regardless of title? Why would Zynga want to revisit the pirate genre? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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Tags: Facebook games, new zynga game, pirate island, pirate island facebook, pirate island survey, rogues royals, rogues royals facebook, rogues royals survey, rogues and royals, rogues and royals facebook, rogues and royals survey, social games, zynga

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How to deal with Evil Pirate companies that clone your game

Sometimes you encounter bit shitty situation where:

Well, there’s few different ways to handle this:

You can wee on their tent, and make superior PR move that gets picked everywhere around the net. (Recommended) You can whine how there’s evil corporations and that your stuff shouldn’t be copied. You can concentrate on building success that doesn’t depend on stuff that can be cloned. Match-3 games can be cloned. Tower sim can be cloned. RPGs with deep storyline is harder to clone. You can make shitty game that doesn’t sell anything. These are rarely cloned too. You can ignore em. (Pretty good plan) You can think what’s important, why you are making games. Profit? Passion? You can make gross zombie games. Big studios rarely clone those. (Hah!)

Now, regarding the “game mechanics can be cloned”. I think this is pretty good thing. Sure, ripping off somebody’s game mechanics and then cloning pretty much the whole game with different graphics is bit shitty move… but that’s how it needs to be.

Businesswise, it’s pretty profitable to be second in the market. Clone hit games, and make some changes. But that’s something hundred zillion other corporations are doing. Zynga isn’t only one cloning their way to success. If cloning was the way to go, then how come there aren’t as successful other cloners?

And this also makes one really ponder why you are making games? Are you making games that you can profit? Or are you making games mechanics & games… that are spread all over the world? Doesn’t it make one happy that by creating something cool that everybody wants to clone… something cool that others can benefit from? Isn’t that a pretty darn sweet thing?

Or, is it so that you were doing this stuff for profit? In that case, jump to one of those clone factories and see how happy things are there.

Or do you just “want fair fight”? Well, time to wake up. This is a really open market world where best offering (not necessarily best product) wins the profits. If you do game that can be cloned by a big studio, then you knew what you were against when you first started. Or did you really think that after you make your smash hit, nobody would be interested in getting the money too?

“But this kills innovation”
Tough luck. And yes, for some genres at least. At one point Match-3 games were selling like pancakes. They were hot stuff (not sure how they do nowadays). Now, is the innovation in match-3 games killed? I suppose. There’s every now and then one new different match-3 game but I feel the market is pretty saturated.

So, if you do some popular gaming thing that can be cloned, of course you can except that there won’t be innovation.

We can cry and bite our legs off, but that doesn’t change anything. If we are worried about cloning, then we should do stuff that’s hard to clone.

We know that there’s cloners waiting for the next hit game. That’s perfectly fine. I mean, creating a clone isn’t going to guarantee success. It’s risky. Not all cloners are profitable. It takes heaps of effort too, and is not “easy way” to go.

There’s people doing games for passion, and not getting money. That’s perfectly fine too. Whining about “but rules should favor me as [insert random reason here]” is not going to cut it. If you don’t like the rules, you can go play somewhere else.

So… who’s evil?
I think it’s quite natural to think that Zynga is “evil” or “doing wrong” when they clone a game. They are a company who want to make profit. They have business strategy that is targeted to maximizing profit. They might steal an idea or two, but so does everybody else. They might clone stuff they can clone, but so is everybody else. Zynga is just doing things better than many other corporations.

I’m not saying Zynga is less evil than me (slightly richer though). They simply seem to have different values from me. I try steal every game idea I can, but I try add something unique, something of my own in the creation. I want to do something I like doing, and something I like to experience. If somebody was to clone that stuff and make profits, that’s pretty cool. Next time they need ideas, they know where to find me.

I feel that the chaps at nimblebit chose the right way to deal with Zynga’s copy & “we wanna buy you” offer. They turned this into a PR thing which favors them. Zynga can clone the game, but they cannot clone the fact that nimblebit has the “small good guys against big evil corporation” edge that can make an interesting story. Nimblebit managed to create a cool story out of the situation, and I’m pretty sure they benefit from this.

That’s the name of the game.

P.S. And if Zynga is successful, do you really think that other big players won’t notice it and challenge them? This zoo is filled with predators who are ready to attack each other as well.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 at 10:15 pm and is filed under Game Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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FarmVille Lighthouse Cove Pirate Bonus Goals: Everything you need to know

FarmVille Lighthouse Cove Pirate Bonus Goals: Everything you need to knowadSetAdURL("/_uac/adpage.html");adSetOthAT("kvcmsid=bsd:20089383;kvugc=1;"); function runOmni(){s_265.pfxID="gam";s_265.pageName="FarmVille Lighthouse Cove Pirate Bonus Goals: Everything you need to know";s_265.server="";s_265.channel="us.games";s_265.pageType="";s_265.linkInternalFilters="javascript:,blog.games.com";s_265.prop1="gam : games blog";s_265.prop2="gam : casual games";s_265.prop3="1";s_265.prop6=" ";s_265.prop22="www.games.com";s_265.prop18="farmville";s_265.prop19="bonus_challenge|farmville_halloween|farmville_lighthouse_cove|halloween|halloween_2011|lighthouse_cove|lighthouse_cove_bonus_challenge|lighthouse_cove_goals|zynga";s_265.prop8="bss:375";s_265.prop9="bsd:20089383";s_265.mmxgo = true;s_265.prop12=document.location;s_265.t();}var s_account = "aolgam,aolsvc";(function(d){var s = d.createElement('script');s.src = (location.protocol == 'https:' ? 'https://s' : 'http://o') + '.aolcdn.com/omniunih.js';d.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(s); })(document); Skip to content MAIL You might also like: Free Games,Game of the Day Sign In / Register Games.com the Blog

Main NewsCheats & Tips CityVilleEmpires & Allies FarmVilleFrontierVilleCafe World Other Games Send Feedback Back to Games.com End of global header What's HotGardens of TimeThe Sims SocialCityVille CheatsFrontierVille Cheats FarmVille Comments Tweet FarmVille Lighthouse Cove Pirate Bonus Goals: Everything you need to know by Brandy Shaul, Posted Oct 24th 2011 8:19PM

As we told you last night, the next set of Lighthouse Cove goals in FarmVille will continue in the spirit of Halloween, but will transition from ghosts to Pirates on the high seas. After you've completed the three basic Pirate Goals - check out our guide to doing just that - you'll be able to move onto three harder Bonus Challenges, according to the folks at FVNation. Here, the goals will reward you with a few themed items (animals and decorations), but they'll also require you to do plenty of recipe crafting, plenty of farming and more, all within a very short time limit. Here's your guide for what to expect.

Bonus Challenge 1 Get Creamed Corn to Level 20 Harvest 110 Daylilies Harvest Lighthouse Cove
Daylilies take 16 hours to grow. In that time, you'll need to be working on your Cream Corn recipe (unless you're lucky enough to have reached this milestone ahead of time). Each individual Creamed Corn requires three Butter & Sugar Corn, three Tarragon and one Pepper Bushels. Since these goals haven't technically launched yet, and as you'll need to complete the first three Pirate Goals anyway, you still have some time to work on this before you're actually required to, which is a smart idea. For finishing this first Bonus Challenge goal, you'll receive 500 XP, a spooky, plant-covered Tombstone decoration, and 2,500 coins.

Bonus Challenge 2 Achieve Level 1 Mastery of Butter & Sugar Corn Improve the Cove to Level 7 Make Jonny Cakes 4 Times
Butter & Sugar Corn takes 12 hours to grow, and the first star of mastery is earned at 425 harvests (if you don't have it already). Jonny Cakes are crafted inside the Restaurant using two Butter & Sugar Corn, two Rye and two Daylily bushels each. Finishing this second bonus goal gives you 1,000 XP, 2,500 coins and a long-tailed Duck (the exact name might be different).

Bonus Challenge 3 Harvest an Aviary Harvest 110 Dill Harvest one Orchard
If you haven't built an Aviary on your Lighthouse Cove, here's our guide to doing so. Meanwhile, Dill takes 12 hours to grow. For completing this final Bonus Challenge, you'll receive 500 XP, 2,500 coins and a Pirate Sheep. Plus, you'll also walk away with the satisfaction of knowing that you completed all three Bonus Challenges, which is sometimes a prize in and of itself.

Remember, you'll only have a matter of days to complete these goals once they launch in your game, so you'll want to do as much as you can before they arrive to prepare. Make sure to start crafting Cream Corn to level it up, or even expand your cove to hold more crops at once. How far you go will be up to you, but we wish you luck regardless.

Check out the rest of our Halloween 2011 coverage right here.

What do you think of these Pirate Goal Bonus Challenges? Are they harder than previous Bonus Challenges that we've seen? Sound off in the comments.


Bookmark this site! Tags: bonus challenge, farmville halloween, farmville lighthouse cove, halloween, halloween 2011, lighthouse cove, lighthouse cove bonus challenge, lighthouse cove goals, zynga

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FarmVille Pic of the Day: Have a pirate adventure in Brayzdin's Neverland

Click the image to make it larger.
If you want to go to Neverland, you don't have to wait for a boy with green tights and a pixie to sneak through your window. Now there's an easier way to do it instead of flying "Second star to the right and straight on till morning." Because we've got Brayzdin's "Never, Never" FarmVille farm, which takes obvious inspiration from J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan novels.

Brayzdin has a penchant for fantastical pieces and this theme has clearly allowed him to let loose with a huge variety of design tricks. If those trees look familiar to you, it's because Brayzdin is a landscaper who's so nice, we chose him twice. His last entry, a farm-chomping monster lizard, is an amazing piece that best encompasses his style and just the sheer originality of his imagination. An artist of masterpiece farms, fans can easily spot his deft touch by his careful object placements and heavy use of green, rounded treetops to generate 3D effects. This time, he even managed to recreate a plane's air trail by using white trees. For the record, the only time he thinks hay bales are appropriate is when you want to mimic water, which he does here.
Click the image to make it larger.
While everyone grew up with a traditional notion of Neverland that involved Mermaid Lagoon, Captain Hook's pirate cove, the Indian Chief's village, and the Lost Boys hideout, Brayzdin includes new elements such as Duke's Airship from the English Countryside event, a Mini Stonehenge, a Lake Nessie, and a Balloon Gnome. The most lovely item is probably the Leprechaun's Cottage, which looks really expensive, but is actually one of those buildings that can be obtained with the help of neighbors. Finally, the most arresting part of his farm is the height he's managed to achieve on the farm's center cliff. It's a really dramatic straight drop and gives the illusion that the right side of the cliff is a cove and sky, when we all know that everything we're seeing is laid out flat, like stickers on a wall.

Which part of Brayzdin's Neverland would you like to visit first? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment

If you have an AWESOME FarmVille farm that you want to see featured on Games.com, please email a picture to editors@games.com, Include a few words about the inspiration for your design and maybe a few tips for people who need an assist!

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CityVille Pirate Ship Ride Attraction: Everything you need to know

If you liked building and then operating the Go Karts ride in CityVille and are looking for another ride to add to your virtual amusement park, you'll be happy to know that Zynga has released a second attraction to the game: a Pirate Ship Ride. The ride costs 5,000 coins to purchase from the store, but of course simply purchasing the base is only part of the battle.

After placing it, you'll need to collect a series of ingredients, but if you're lucky you might already have five of them sitting around. Here's a rundown:
5 Ship Prows5 Safety Nets5 Gold Plating5 Jolly Rogers5 Overhead Bars
Again, you might have the Gold Plating already in your inventory, leaving you to collect the other 20 items. You'll be able to ask for the Ship Prows and Jolly Roger flags via general news feed items posted to your wall, while the Safety Nets are earned through individual gift requests sent directly to friends.

Once you've finished building and have opened the Pirate Ship Ride for guests, you'll be able to watch the ride run for five minutes at a time, with 2,000 - 5,800 coins being earned each time you set the ride into motion. In order to re-open it, you'll either need to wait for maintenance to complete, or collect wrenches with friends to re-open it sooner. It doesn't require Goods to operate, so you don't necessarily have to operate it at all (or build it, for that matter), but it's just so cool that I can easily justify the space it takes up in my town.

As a few notes, if you have both a Go Karts track and Pirate Ship Ride operating in your town at the same time, all of the Wrenches you collect are used as one request. That is, if you ask for Wrenches to operate your Go Karts, you can't ask for Wrenches within the Pirate Ship Ride shortly thereafter. Additionally, you'll need to be at least level 25 to access this feature, which may not have rolled around to your account yet.

[Image Credit: Zynga]

What do you think of the new Pirate Ship Ride? Do you like it better than the Go Karts track? Has your amusement park / summer-themed area started to take over the rest of your town, or have you only adopted these attractions and little else? Let us know in the comments.

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