Showing posts with label Social. Show all posts

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Facebook And The Missing Game Feed Posts

Game players all over the world and from, what appears to be, every game are noticing that their game feed posts are not appearing on the Facebook newsfeeds.

The game feed posts that do appear on the Facebook feeds have broken links.

If you see any on your wall and you click on them you might find something similar to either of the images shown above.

The issue IS NOT a Zynga related issue.

It IS a Facebook issue and it has been rumored that the issue was caused by a virus that was attacking the Facebook Timeline.

According to a Zynga update that can be found on the Mafia Wars Support Page the issue was caused by Facebook updates to the Timeline.

My posts are not visible

Thu Mar 28 07:48:28 EDT 2013 (0) like

Dear Mobster,
We have received reports from players who are unable to see posts on their Timeline or their own posts are not visible on the feeds.

It seems to be an issue with the new Timeline updates.

We would like to reassure that we are doing all we can to find a solution to help you out as quickly as possible!

There is no need to submit a ticket to Customer Support for this issue.

Thank you very much for your understanding Mobster.

Luckily there are a few workarounds for the missing Facebook game feeds.

The easiest fix, although a little confusing (for some) and a little time-consuming, would be to create short links of your feed requests.

This is accomplished by visiting your Facebook profile page and locating any recent (unexpired) game feed post that you shared to your wall.

Next, hover your mouse (cursor) over the blue letters of the post heading.

Then right-click on your mouse to bring up a dialog box and left click where it says ‘Copy Link Address’. In different browsers (other than Chrome) this might say something like "’Copy URL’.

You then need to open a new browser window and visit Tiny URL.Com (most recommended) or another link shortening service.Locate the section where it says ‘Enter A Long URL To Make Tiny’.

Tiny Url 2

Hover your mouse (cursor) over the empty text box and right-click and click paste. This inserts the link that you copied into the text box.

Now click the button that says ‘Make Tiny URL!’.

This creates a the shortened link that can now be copied and pasted anywhere you need it posted.

To copy the link you need to drag your mouse (cursor) across the link (Shown in the above image; The link that needs to be copied is located where we have it highlighted in a red box). To copy the link you need to click and drag your mouse (cursor) across the link then release and right click.

Once you click ‘copy’ the link is in your clipboard and is now ready to pasted any where that you would like to, or need to, paste it.

When you paste your copied Tiny Url, or short link, we recommend that you add before or after it a short description of what the link is for. The following is an example of what your shortened link should look like;

Easter Eggs http://tinyurl.com/EasterEggs32813

It would be a good idea to locate and become members of help groups on Facebook that allow you to post these links. You might need to add a few friends.

If you run/operate/host or know of any of these help groups please share links to them in our comments or in the comments of this Mafia Spirit Fanpage image. The players appreciate your help.

Our friends, Mirna and Vla, of the Mafia Wars By Zynga Blog posted earlier today about how to report a problem to Facebook.

The following is a reposting from the Mafia Wars By Zynga Blog;

Facebook News Feed - Big Issue

GAMES ARE NOT SHOWING ON FACEBOOK NEWS FEEDS!

HOW TO REPORT A PROBLEM!

CHECK IMAGES BELLOW, Please!

1.IMAGES ARE ON TIMELINES, BUT THEY ARE NOT ON FB NEWS FEEDS.

2. If you have same problem, REPORT IT TO FB

How to report? FOLLOW IMAGES!

STEP ONE!

STEP TWO!

STEP 3!

STEP FOUR!

YOU CAN ALSO REPORT IT AS BUG.
On the right side find option Games are not showing in the News Feeds

reply from Facebook Team

Originally Posted by Vladimir Vapski on Mafia Wars By Zynga Blog

At this point I don’t know if it is necessary to report an issue to Facebook as they are likely aware of the issue. On the other hand, it wouldn’t harm anyone if you decided to report an issue. It could help Facebook to determine how many players are/were affected by the issue.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

When Will The Robbing Board Start?

There have been 2 Job Boards and with an updated banner for the Job Boards on the servers there will be more coming.

There have also been 6 Ice Boards (the current Ice Board included).

This brings us to the questions;

When will there be a Robbing Board?
When will there be family related or Social Boards?
Will Zynga figure out a way to make these Boards fair so ALL players would be interested in them?

It is my guess that only a few hundred players (at best) even try to win the Global portion of these events. They could be fun but they reap of ‘If you spend enough money then you might win’.

If Zynga wishes to retain the remaining 238,000 (estimated) Daily Active Users then they either need to expand the number of players who would win a prize in any of these events or simply do away with them altogether.

We, the players, aren’t stupid. We know that these events are designed to get us to purchase energy and stamina refills like they are going out of style. We are just pleading to Zynga to stop treating us like we are! The player base is dropping for a reason and this is just one of those reasons.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Half The Sky–Social Good Movement

Supported by Zynga.org, the Half the Sky Movement: The Game is a new Facebook adventure that intends to raise awareness and funds to empower women and girls across the world.

The game will have players embark on a journey to complete quests and unlock real-life donations from sponsors that reflect the important issues that are portrayed in the game.

Amy Neuman stated in a Huffington Post article the following;

“The games are relatable and fun, and cover a wide range of important societal issues like education, the environment, natural disasters, health, clean water, housing, hunger, elderly care, children's issues, veterans, animals, and more.”

Amy Neuman also stated;

Players played for good through 46 Zynga.org campaigns benefitting 25 nonprofits in 2012. As a result of those 46 campaigns, $4.2 million was raised in 2012. Since 2009, more than a million Zynga players have made charitable contributions through Zynga games to nonprofit organizations delivering measureable results for those in need around the world, to the tune of $15 million-plus in donations to causes. These in-game campaigns have also driven increased awareness and education around specific causes like hunger and clean water, and millions of social shares to bring more of the players' friends into the mix. This expanding circle of good is one of the key elements that makes in-game social impact unique and gives it such massive reach.

And provided some interesting statistics on social good within games:

Zynga Player Stats
o London is the top international city by transactions
o Los Angeles is the top U.S. city by transactions, followed by Houston, Phoenix, Denver and Las Vegas
o Women are six times more likely to participate in Zynga.org vs. men (this is on par with traditional charitable donation trends)
o One out of every two Zynga players has made a charitable contribution, either online, offline or both
o Of those players who give, 47 percent give a few times a year and 36 percent of them give on a weekly basis
o The most popular types of charities are: Children & Youth (16%), Animals (15%), Health & Disease (12%), Hunger & Poverty (9%)