Facebook Friend Guide: How to find neighbors to play games with

Playing Facebook games is a lot more fun when you have friends who are playing alongside you. Couple this with the fact that many games incentivize you for having more neighbors, and it can make for a pretty terrible gaming experience if none of your friends want to play. Facebook isn't really designed to allow you to meet new people; Facebook's core intentions were to connect you with the people and acquaintances that you already know. This can make it challenging to find new friends to game with on Facebook, so we have a few tips that will help you get more friends on Facebook to play games with you.

Official game message boards

One of the best places to find other people to game with is on the game's official message boards which are maintained by the developer. On these forums, you can register and post in "add me" threads where other players will find them. If you go this route, remember to include a link to your Facebook profile otherwise they will not be able to add you as a friend. You also should ask them to put in the friend request what game(s) they play, so that you know who they are when they add you as a friend. You should be able to look through the threads and find friends to add as well.

On the wall of the game's fan page

If you go to the fan page for the game that you wish to find friends for, you can comment on the status messages, wall, and review page with "add me". You will see many other people doing this as well, so you can feel free to add them as friends. This is probably the fastest way to find friends. Sometimes, simply clicking "like" on a game's wall post is enough to cause a barrage of friend requests to fly in from all angles.

In "Add Me" groups

Most games (at least the popular ones) on Facebook have various "Add Me" groups that you can join to find other people to play that game with. You will have to join the group, but once you have joined you have unlocked a ton of people who play the game game as you. It's a nice way to exchange tips and tricks on the games too. See FarmVilleAddMe for an example of this.

On Games.com!

Another perfect way to find friends to game with is by commenting on this post! Leave a comment with your Facebook profile link and tell others what games you play. There's a good chance you'll find plenty of friends this way!

General Tips and Warnings:

    Remember that if you post on forums and external sites, you will have to delete your posts in the future if you want people to stop adding you as a friend.
    When you're adding strangers, it's best to make a special Facebook list/group for them and do not share any personal information or non-gaming status messages with them.
    It is possible that spammers will add you, so use careful consideration when accepting friend requests.

Do you have any other tips for finding friends on Facebook? Share them in the comments with our readers!

StoneDale combines tropical adventures with animal husbandry

StoneDale is a new adventure game by PlayNow Studio, and its bright and lively art style could make the developer's first Facebook game a hit. StoneDale combines some fun features from FrontierVille, Island God, and Wildlife Refuge to make a hybrid social game that feels like it has learned a bit from its predecessors. In this game, you are tending a tropical island, appealing to the gods, and discovering new animals to tame and collect.

The tutorial in StoneDale follows the current trend of keeping it short and simple, launching players into a series of 'quests' after a couple steps have been completed. The island contains trees that need to be harvested, buildings that need whacking to build, animals to discover, and plants to tend to. Resources such as wood and crystals need to be collected to upgrade buildings and complete quests. Energy is the main monetization method in StoneDale, as you need it in order to take part in actions such as chopping, upgrading, and finding animals.
Stonedale

Finding animals is done by uncovering hints while clearing trees and plants. Clicking on the hints such as half-eaten food and habitats will uncover the animal. Once you find an animal, you can tame it and add it to your collection. Tamed animals simply unlock on your collection screen, but they can be raised and fed or sold for a profit.
Stonedale

Overall, there is nothing really unique about StoneDale. It's a cute game with nice art and whimsical music, but it suffers from quite a lot of typos and bugs that may be issues with translation. It managed to entertain me for almost an hour with an rails experience that kept me leveling up and always having something to do. Whether the game has longevity or the power to grow has yet to be seen, as it only has 67,000 monthly active players at this time. Give it a try and see if StoneDale suits your fancy.

Disney-branded Facebook games coming in 2012, Playdom head says

Can we all just say, “finally?” During a panel named “The Rise of Social Games” at the f8 Facebook Developers Conference in San Francisco, Disney Interactive and Playdom head John Pleasants revealed that two to four Facebook games surrounding Disney xd brands will hit Facebook in 2012. The general topic of the panel was the fact that branded social games are taking off.

Pleasants was joined on the panel by Kabam CEO Kevin Chou, EA Interactive head Barry Cottle and Zynga CBO Owen Van Natta. Facebook director of games partnerships Sean Ryan moderated the panel with the preface that branded games will take over the Facebook platform. And he might be right: EA just released The Sims Social, Zynga will soon re-brand its new Adventure World with Indiana Jones and Kabam recently announced The Godfather: Five Families.

Playdom, which Disney acquired in July 2010 for a whopping $740 million, is ahead of the pack with two branded games on Facebook: ESPNU College Town and ESPN Sports Bar & Grill. Both games performed well, thanks to advertising through the ESPN TV network. While Disney owns the ESPN brand, notice how neither of those actually involve the insanely popular Disney characters we’ve come to love.

Honestly, we’re surprised this didn’t happen sooner. Consider this: Disney has its own cable TV channel through which it could, in theory, advertise whatever it wants. Pleasants didn’t get into why it’s taken this long for disney channel games to throw its cast of characters into Facebook games, but did reveal the power of the Disney name.

Gnome Town, which Playdom launched in the summer–and we enjoyed quite a bit–peaked at 530,000 daily players. But just plopping the Disney logo on top of the existing one made users more likely to spend in the game just through trust of the company’s name, according to Pleasants. “We think it’s an advantage, if you put game play first,” Pleasants said.

It’s comforting to hear this emphasized by these developers. (Kabam’s Chou shared the same sentiment.) Branded games on Facebook are OK in my book, but the last thing anyone wants to see is the genre become a branding machine.

Disney-branded Facebook games coming in 2012, Playdom head says

Can we all just say, “finally?” During a panel named “The Rise of Social Games” at the f8 Facebook Developers Conference in San Francisco, Disney Interactive and Playdom head John Pleasants revealed that two to four Facebook games surrounding Disney xd brands will hit Facebook in 2012. The general topic of the panel was the fact that branded social games are taking off.

Pleasants was joined on the panel by Kabam CEO Kevin Chou, EA Interactive head Barry Cottle and Zynga CBO Owen Van Natta. Facebook director of games partnerships Sean Ryan moderated the panel with the preface that branded games will take over the Facebook platform. And he might be right: EA just released The Sims Social, Zynga will soon re-brand its new Adventure World with Indiana Jones and Kabam recently announced The Godfather: Five Families.

Playdom, which Disney acquired in July 2010 for a whopping $740 million, is ahead of the pack with two branded games on Facebook: ESPNU College Town and ESPN Sports Bar & Grill. Both games performed well, thanks to advertising through the ESPN TV network. While Disney owns the ESPN brand, notice how neither of those actually involve the insanely popular Disney characters we’ve come to love.

Honestly, we’re surprised this didn’t happen sooner. Consider this: Disney has its own cable TV channel through which it could, in theory, advertise whatever it wants. Pleasants didn’t get into why it’s taken this long for disney channel games to throw its cast of characters into Facebook games, but did reveal the power of the Disney name.

Gnome Town, which Playdom launched in the summer–and we enjoyed quite a bit–peaked at 530,000 daily players. But just plopping the Disney logo on top of the existing one made users more likely to spend in the game just through trust of the company’s name, according to Pleasants. “We think it’s an advantage, if you put game play first,” Pleasants said.

It’s comforting to hear this emphasized by these developers. (Kabam’s Chou shared the same sentiment.) Branded games on Facebook are OK in my book, but the last thing anyone wants to see is the genre become a branding machine.