Had to share. I got an email from Maria, one of our very passionate FarmVille players. Maria was celebrating Lily's birthday and to her, it only made sense to create the ultimate FarmVille cake for her and all her friends (see pics below).

What's also great about this group of FarmVille farmers/friends, is that they live in different places around the world. Maria is from Bahrain, Lily is from Greece, and the rest of their friends are from the U.S., Canada, Germany, Philippines, New Zealand and Oman. Now if that doesn't show you how Zynga is is truly connecting the world through games, I don't know what would.

Happy Birthday Lily and thanks to Maria for sharing. Love it!

AOL Games got an advanced look at our new Mafia Wars Moscow destination launching tomorrow. Check out the post here, from our friend Libe. Mobsters--get ready for some vodka and piroshkis!

I know I've been writing a lot about FarmVille lately, and that's not the only awesome game that we make here at Zynga, but right now, they deserve some love. Just last night, FarmVille hit new record highs for not only the social game industry, but online gaming as a whole. FarmVille surpassed 11 million daily active users (30 million monthly actives) making it the biggest online game in North American and quickly poising it to be the largest online game in the world.

I have to say, that I'm personally addicted to the game. I love tending to my crops, discovering new fruits and veggies to plant everyday, and making sure I'm getting back to the farm in time before they wither. Yes, I do set my timer. And were any of you fortunate enough to catch those awesome super berries over the weekend? They were only available in the market for a limited time and it was a beautiful thing.

Anyway, congrats to the FarmVille team. Keep up the great work fellas!

And here's a fun little snippet I came across today. It's from the "Mom is a Verb" blog, posted by Joyce:

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Farming

Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.

"Whatcha doing?"

"Planting bell peppers."

"Ah"

"I am trying to earn a tractor so I don't have to click so much."

Farmville has captured my husband. Farmville game on facebook.

He is even too distracted to play Scrabble. Call the doctor.

Posted by joyce at 5:39 PM

Yesterday, I blogged about FarmVille economics regarding "best bang for your buck" crops. Adam, the author of both Part I and Part II posts, alluded to the possibility of digging down into the economics behind the FarmVille trees.

Well, the wait is over. I just read Pablo's "FarmVille Treeconomics" blog and he's gone ahead and analyzed our trees. Apparently, it's all about the dates...

See his number crunching here.

Thanks Adam and Pablo! I think we're now all a little more wiser to the fruits of our labor.

Hey Adam--loved your posts last week! I love to get the most bang for my buck, but I usually just wing it. You, on the other hand, definitely brought another element to the analysis and thank goodness--I just can't crunch numbers for the life of me!

I just discovered the "super berries" so I'm trying those out today. I set my timer to go back in at 12:30 so to make sure not to lose them.

Click here to read Adam's Part I post to uncover which seeds you should be planting at any given time.

Part II posted this morning, giving the numbers a bit more clarity.

Stay tuned for Part III where Adam reveals the math behind the trees...

Thanks for the interesting data and Happy Farming y'all!

Really excited to let you know about coming to a close on our acquisition of MyMiniLife. Here's the bulk of the news, but we couldn't be happier. The MML team has been so awesome and we're happy to officially welcome them to the Zynga family!

Zynga Closes MyMiniLife Acquisition

Zynga (www.zynga.com), the largest developer of social games, today announced the closing of the acquisition of MyMiniLife, Inc., a social networking site that allows you to build and decorate environments. As part of Zynga's active growth strategy, the company is seeking to integrate the MyMiniLife staff and technology into Zynga's industry leading teams and technology.

"We're constantly looking for the highest quality talent and technology to help us build our business," said Mark Skaggs, VP and GM of Social RTS at Zynga. "The MyMiniLife technology and team is a perfect complement to the top notch teams here at Zynga."

Zynga currently has 20 million daily active users and 68 million monthly active users.

"We're very excited to join Zynga and help grow the business in any way we can," said Sizhao Yang, CEO of MyMiniLife. "We're looking forward to being an integral part of Zynga's leadership and growth moving forward, and are happy to have supported FarmVille's amazing success with MyMiniLife's technology."

Love this video of two guys playing our FarmVille song in their living room. Very cool! Guys, if you're reading this, would love to get in touch. We'd love to send you some FarmVille schwag so next time you play this song, you can be outfitted too! Thanks!

I personally think it's crazy, but my colleague Brett Rivers just rocked his first 100 mile. The race was last weekend--the Tahoe Rim Trail 100 Mile--and he came in 3rd place. Without a doubt, a huge feat, considering he only completed his first ever marathon 11 months ago. I mean, can you imagine, running 100 miles?! He started at 5am and finished at 1:50am the next day. Amazing.

Congrats to Brett, who again, had only completed his first marathon less than a year ago, and to come in 3rd place at this major event is nothing short of amazing. If you want all the juicy details of some of the on and off elements of his delirium and paranoia (due to running in the pitch black Tahoe wilderness), read this: http://www.trailruntimes.com/?p=592

Here's a pic of the man himself. Congrats Rivers--we're proud of you and will look forward to following your trail.

A few Zynga employees showing off our new FarmVille hats and felt poker table top. Just a bit of randomness for you.

Get Farming!

As you've probably read in previous posts, Zynga is helping the SF/SPCA raise money. Through our YoVille game, you can purchase a special $5 bulldog or $5 tabby cat, in our YoVille shelter and part of the proceeds go to the SF/SPCA. In May, we handed them a check for $40,000 which still amazes me because it was raised in just over 6 weeks.

The bulldogs and tabby cats are still available and still selling like hot cakes!

The SF/SPCA hosted their first "Catnip" Cocktail hour and invited Zynga. Here's Mark Pincus and Virginia MacArthur with SF/SPCA President Jan McHugh Smith - and yes, that is a puppy American bulldog, representing our very own Zynga logo. Don't mistake it for Pincus' new pup Lolah--though I know he wanted to take her home too!

We are letting you, our Zynga fans and players to interview Mark Pincus. If you could ask the CEO and founder of Zynga any question, what would it be? During this very exclusive event, we are looking for all types of question. He will be answering both serious and silly questions.

Asking the question has never been simpler! Simply send an email to coolevents@zynga.com. Please make sure to send your question(s) in by 11 a.m. PST on Tuesday, June 30th. Your question might be one of the ones he answers!

We have launched a new Twitter feed for Mafia Wars. Check it out here: http://www.twitter.com/mafiawars . Follow us for the latest updates on Mafia Wars features and community. We will be periodically Tweeting about special community events and prizes, so keep a sharp eye out!

Though I must say, that virtually every day at Zynga, is Take Your Dog to Work Day. As you might have read in previous posts, Zynga loves dogs (the company was named after Mark's dog, Zinga, who passed away in January), and we always have many of our best friends visiting on any given day.

We've been helping the SF/SPCA raise money through our YoVille game - buy a $5 bulldog or tabby cat in the game and proceeds go to the SPCA. In just about 6 weeks, our YoVille game raised $40,000 for them!

The SPCA just put out their newsletter and Zynga is featured as one of their dog-friendly workplaces. Check it out here. Tomorrow should be interesting - I'm personally planning on bringing in the pugs. Oh my....

Last week, we were thrilled to host Mike Sugerman, CBS's feature reporter, at our offices. He's been looking for more "silver-lining" economy stories and said it's been tough and challenging. After stumbling across Zynga, he was simply amazed at how fast we're growing and the amount of success we've experienced in such a short amount of time (two years). Honestly, it's surpassed our expectations, but we're definitely happy and excited about this next phase of social networking.

Anyway, it was so much fun hosting Mike and Frank (the guy behind the camera). Come back anytime guys!

Check out the clip here. Oh, and yes, we're hiring. Know anyone? Send your resume to jobs@zynga.com.

So Businessweek and YouNoodle came up with a list of 50 tech startups that you should watch out for--we're on it and excited to be so! Other cool companies poised for success and growth are Cloudera, Ning and Xobni. You can read the full Special Report here. The best thing, however, Zynga got the highest rating on YouNoodle's measurement scale (97!). Sweet. Check it out here.

We just made five seriously rockstar moves by hiring Reggie Davis, Robert Goldberg, Vish Makhijani, Colleen McCreary, and Mike Verdu. We announced them yesterday, so it's official.

Reggie joins the team as general counsel. Robert officially joins Zynga as senior vice president of business operations (he was consulting before). Vish Makhijani is the new senior vice president of our casual and mobility divisions. Colleen McCreary is our lovely chief people officer (in other words, keeping the Zynga Family happy) and Mike Verdu is our new vice president of game development.

Bring your A game at all times....

At long last thou's bloodsucking vampire has awakened, and wades amongst fiery depths of pure, uncompromising vengeance.

Our newest iPhone game launched today! Vampires: Bloodlust is the iPhone version of our popular fantasy game. Pleased to say that the game has already received over 80 reviews, 90% of which are 5 stars--you really have to check it out. From the gory gothic art, to the sweet sounds of blood splatter, this game is guaranteed to satisfy your hack and slash desire and trigger your thirst for blood.

Build your immortal empire with blood, health, stamina and rage and equip yourself with attack, defense and movement to slay other clans. Check it out here: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=316438305&mt=8

Last Friday night it was all about the animals.

Zynga hosted a special Benefit for the SF SPCA to raise money and awareness for all they do . Aided by the solid tunes of DJ Solomon and delicious hors d'oeuvres prepared by Zynga's very own Top Chefs, the event was able to raise over $40,000!

There isn't a day that goes by in our offices where our 4 -legged friends aren't with us. Checking e-mails, waiting for lunch, and raising the spirits of all Zyngites!

With the company named after a beloved pet, it was only natural that one of Zynga's top games, YoVille, worked their magic to cook up a fantastic feature item to raise money for the SF SPCA. Great job YoVille Team!

Many times we think of Zynga as strictly a games company, and while that is our main focus, we truly believe in our motto, "Connecting the world through games," which is a powerful anthem for us. The animals that the SPCA work to adopt help thousands of people and they play a key role in a person's life. In a way, we feel that the games we provide offer a similar outlet, and allow people to 'escape' for a minute or hour at a time from the issues that can bog them down.

The event was a wonderful success, and as we continue to "Connect the world through games" we'll make sure we always remember to "Support the world through games" as well!

Very special thanks to our very own Mike Kim--this wouldn't have been pulled off with such success, without him. Mike Kim, 2010!