This Year’s Halloween Virtual Goods in Social Games Trump 2009: What the Big Four Are Doing

With Halloween just around the corner, holiday-themed goods have poured into social games. While developers have released such goods around each major holiday since last year, the trend seems especially strong for this Halloween, with some companies telling us they've been preparing for the holiday for months. Here's a look at what some of the top developers are doing: Zynga FarmVille, with its 57 million monthly active users, is an obvious choice for first look on our Halloween roundup. However, the top Zynga app isn't just large, it's innovative: not only does it include 85 Halloween items (avatar costumes and farm items) costing both virtual currency or exorbitant amounts of in-game coin, but it's taking the essence of Halloween and digitizing it. The first of interest is a haunted house, that requires friends to help construct. As more and more parts are sent to the user from friends, it becomes more “scary.” Once complete, it can be visited by friends to digitally Trick-or-Treat and earn a temporary currency: Candy. This candy can only be collected should one own a virtual item (a candy bucket) and is then used to purchase special, limited edition Halloween items for one’s farm. To add one more element to the game, players can also utilize virtual currency to purchase “Spooky Effects.” These items will allow the player to modify certain animals and buildings to, well, look spooky. Think of it like putting up digital decorations. Moreover, friends can visit one another and apply similar effects as a “trick.” FrontierVille’s new Halloween items and specials are relatively similar to FarmVille. There are just as many special goods to buy (for both virtual currency and in-game coin) as well as items requiring a set number of neighbors, such as the “Zombie Swamp.” Moreover, there’s also a limited edition “Mystery Animal” that costs 30 of the game’s virtual currency, Horseshoes. Zynga didn't stop with its farming games. Mafia Wars has both virtual items and special secret missions, according to the Mafia Wars blog, involving the crashing of the Mayor’s Halloween Party (which will add to players’ Mission Achievements). As for the virtual goods, these are mainly just very powerful, and awesome looking, weapons and vehicles, such as the “Bone Cycle.” Moving back in to the virtual space-oriented games, Café World and FrontierVille also have their own assortments of virtual items, including a special Halloween stove for the former that increases cooking speed by 10 percent and themed food items. Restaurant City did the same for Christmas last year, but there's more, including special Jack-O-Lantern items requiring friends’ help to create, a “Halloween Sale” that includes discounts on virtually everything, and even a special “catering” mission involving Halloween food. As for the rest of Zynga’s titles, virtual items can be found in just about all of them including FishVille, PetVille, YoVille, and Treasure Isle. The last of those has an interesting concept of “Haunted Voyages.” This allows a player to place a “Pirate Ghostship” and find friends (don’t worry, zombies and monsters can crew the ship if friends are too scared) to start the voyage and earn unique Halloween rewards. CrowdStar The second largest developer by MAU, CrowdStar has been busy as well. First on the list is the developer's top title, Happy Aquarium, which has a sizeable number of Halloween fish and décor costing both in-game coin and virtual currency (or Facebook Credits). What is unique, however, is a special limited edition item called “Zombie Boy.” Though there is also a “Zombie Girl,” the former is that of Michael Jackson in his classic Thriller music video -- or at least a very similar rendition. Happy Pets' best Halloween feature is a slew of new pets (what else?). While animated jack-o-lanterns are all well and good, vampire pets are even better. In a very cool addition, players were able to buy, according to Games.com, some transforming pets that would change based on the time of day. Unfortunately, these appear to be gone, for now, but CrowdStar still has another Halloween special item: glow-in-the-dark pets. If animals aren’t to your taste, then the newest addition to the CrowdStar family, It Girl, has a few items, although there isn’t a tremendous amount of Halloween stuff in the game, perhaps due to the game's recent release. The app’s female base, will now be able to dress up in a handful of limited costumes ranging from Alice in Wonderland to a sexy Playboy Bunny. The holiday specials in Zoo Paradise include a new feature called “Miriam’s Magic Spell.” Cauldron and witch’s hat in place, she can attempt to transform cheap animals, such as a turtle, it to rare creatures that typically cost virtual currency (e.g. a dragon). Playfish Next on the list is Playfish, for whom we’re starting off with Pet Society, which ran a Halloween Garden contest that tasked users to design the creepiest gardens possible. The reward was 500 Playfish Cash. The contest is over, but players do still have access to a special treasure hunting map (available once users “Like” the game), the Graveyard, and can still purchase a whole new assortment of pet-friendly Halloween costumes. Restaurant City has all the items it did last year, plus new functional items, like a “Ghost Train Stove” that cooks 22% increased speed and “Halloween Banquet Table” that will increase the time customers will wait patiently for service at a table. The really new feature in Restaurant City, though, is a new mini-game called “The Ghouls Are Unleashed.” Players can now travel around the assortment of player restaurants and zap zombies, vampires, and other creatures of the night to earn points and daily prizes. As for other Playfish titles, these haven’t gone all out like those above. Country Story has some items, like a Mystery Cauldron that will randomly produce Halloween animals and decor (though most can be purchased normally), while Hotel City merely adds a number of decorative items to the mix. Playdom The candy-driven holiday starts at Playdom with new strutcures in their top game, City of Wonder. While there are a handful of items such as a spooky mansion, a “Headless Rider,” and creepy mausoleums, the one that stands out most to complete the game’s new “Transylvania Set” is Dracula’s Castle, which is completed with the help of 12 friends. Social City is seeing some similar additions. As it did with it’s Disney virtual goods (specifically, Cinderella's Castle), the game has a raffle element of sorts, allowing players to spend virtual currency to spin a digital wheel and win one of eight special Halloween items. Should they get all eight, they’ll also get a special Mystery Manor for their city. Playdom’s third and fourth largest games, Market Street and Wild Ones, include the usual mix of paid and "mystery" items". Wild Ones, the pet battling, Worms-like title, has done a bit more, allowing players to blow each other up in the midst of a wonderful graveyard backdrop using special edition Halloween weaponry like the “Pumpkin Missile.” Everyone Else We've only touched the tiniest tip of the iceberg here, with Halloween themes, items, and even games flooding social, casual, and mobile spaces. Just to name a few, Booyah, PopCap, Digital Chocolate, ZipZapPlay, A Bit Lucky and even OMGPOP have all done something significant with their titles for the holiday. For those wanting to see more of what Halloween has done to social games (or what social games have done to Halloween), Games.com has compiled a very comprehensive list what other games, beyond this roundup, are doing including Treasure Madness, Baking Life, Ravenwood Fair, and much more. In a year-over-year comparison, the virtual goods we're seeing this Halloween surpass the specials from the past Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day combined. Halloween, of course, is a great holiday to pour effort into, but it's hardly the most significant date on the Western calendar; with what we've seen in mind, it's hard to imagine how much effort developers will pour into this Christmas.

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This Year’s Halloween Virtual Goods in Social Games Trump 2009: What the Big Four Are Doing

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Christopher Mack

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Christopher Mack