Cafe World launches Weekly Amazing Cafe Competition

Cafe World has launched a Weekly Amazing Cafe Competition. The winners will get 100 Cafe Cash plus according to Zynga Instant Fame among the other 10 Million Cafe World Players.

The Rules

According to the submission page, the beginning of every contest will be Thursday at 3pm. (PST). The rules as stated are shown below.

• Your image should be posted in the thread provided. No links, please!
• The winners will be chosen the following Wednesday at 3pm (PST).
• We will announce the winner on the fan page on Thursday at 3pm (PST).
• Please submit at least one picture of your entire Café, feel free to paste another picture zoomed into a special part. Only one design per week.
• The Café World Community Manager will contact you for your UID if you are the winner.
• You will win 100 Café Cash and your Café will be featured on the fan page.
• No photoshopped images will be allowed; including backgrounds
• Please refrain from posting any insulting or offensive images. After all this is meant to be a fun experience for the entire community!
• Do show your creative side. We will judge based on originality, effort, presentation and uniqueness of the entry.
• If you need instructions on how to post your picture of your cafe, follow these instructions.

Analysis

This is a great strategy by Zynga the makers of Cafe World. People love to show off their Cafes and it will naturally spur and increase in spending on decorative items. With the exclusive and generally more unique items being in Cafe Cash the reward to Zynga will be good.

New Cafe owners should be careful not to overspend on decorative items, including chairs, tables, wall, windows, doors, without ensuring that they have enough cash to buy food. If they do they might find themselves, to Zynga's benefit having to spend Cash to buy Farmville Cash and coins or depending on neigbours for gifts.

One thing, persons who find themselves in that predicament can do is sell some items, at a significant loss, to pay for their cooking expenses.

• Submit your Cafe To Zynga Forum.

Cafe World: Wedding Cake Issues being addressed

A number of persons have been commenting and complaining about issues with the wedding Cake. A quick search turned up a notification sent out by Zynga. Here is a note from Zynga, the makers of Cafe World.

Updated 03/29/2010 11:17 AM
We are aware of some problems with Wedding Cakes losing some progress, and are currently investigating this issue. Please be patient while our development team looks into the cause of this problem, and works toward a solution.

The complaints centered around, clicks to help not being registered and the progress of the cake not updating or retrograding.

Interestingly, the Cafe was down for maintenance last night and hopefully that was an issue being addressed. Hopefully Cafe World will correct the issues quickly and "allow the wedding to proceed".

Cafe World VIP Dinners again for 48 Hours

Cafe world has announced that in VIP dinners for 48 hours only. This is a great way to gain points quickly with a catch. The dishes take 18 hours to cook. The reward is that each serving of the 99 servings produces 99 coins. The promotion started this morning at about 2:00 a.m. EST.

Hiya chefs! In honor of our 10 million fans, the VIP dinner is back for less than 48 hours! It’s 99 servings, paying 99 coins each, and it’s FREE to cook! If you are already a member of the email club, you’ll be able to start cooking right away! If you are not a member yet, just click the VIP dinner in the cookbook to join.

In terms of statistics , there are no points for preparation. The Cafe World VIP Dinner details are below

Cost: 0 coins
Servings:99
Revenue:99 per coins serving
Points: 175 points (1 cleaning stove, 0 preparation, 174 serving)
Time: 18 hours

Coins per hour: 544 coins per hour
Points: 9.72 per hour.

Cafe World is pushing hard to get members to sign up to the email club. Almost all of the new features and bonuses are being made to members of the email club.

This promotion should end Thursday Morning April 1, 2010.

Cafe World Super Stoves are here

The promised super stoves are now available in Cafe World and the cost is a whopping $50 Cafe Cash per stove. The benefit is that in one click, the preparation stage of the dish is over. This compares with three(3) clicks currently needed in the dish preparation stage although some persons, claim the number of clicks are more.

How do you get the free super stove? (only one is available at this time).

• To get the free super stove you have to be a member of the email club. You should see pop-ups about reserving the stove.
• Ensure you have one empty stove.
• Once the stove is available, click the 'customise' icon , then the 'stoves icon',
• You will need to remove one of your current stoves, i.e. put in back in inventory. Drag the stove there.
• Then add the new super stove i.e drag your new super stove to the Cafe
• You are done and you can try your new stove.

You can buy as many as you want for Cafe Cash. Remember if you do not put a stove back in the inventory you will probably not see the stove inventory clearly.

Analysis

The super stove cost up to 4 times the as much as the previous highest price stove as shown in the image seen above. Whether it is worth $50 Cafe Cash (US$ 10) or not, is up for debate.

If you are hardcore player then it might be. However, for me it will not be an option. Zynga needs to make money and this stove might just be a hit but it could be a miss. This stove can possible be used to cook those 3-10 minute dishes with ease.

Interestingly Cafe World is have a Cafe Cash Sale possibly timed for the release of the super stoves.

Cafe World introduces Ice Cream Sundae

Cafe World has introduced Ice Cream Sundae, a slightly different kind of dish than chefs are used to . This one is of the dessert kind. This kind of recipe is for those with a sweet tooth. This dish is available at level 55 and above.

Below are the details of Ice Cream Sundae:

Level: 55
Cost: 4000

Servings: 780

Revenue: 8 coins per serving

Time: 18 Hours

CP: 255 Points (170 serving, 84 preparation, 1 cleaning stove)

Total Revenue: 6240 Coins

Profit/Hour: 156 Coins

CP/Hour: 14.1 Points

Analysis

Again, this is not a dish to shout about. The returns are low in terms of coins and points. Indeed the ROI for tying up 4000 coins is a low 3% per hour. At level 55, this dish is not really worth it.

Cafe World Dishes: Chicken Adobo and Moco Loco

Cafe World recently introduced two new dishes that we did not report on. They are Chicken Adobo and Moco Loco

Below are the details of Chicken Adobo

Cost: 1000 coins

Servings: 450

Revenue: 5 coins per serving

Time: 4 Hours

CP: 100(60 serving, 39 preparation, 1 cleaning stove)

Total Revenue: 2250

CoinsProfit/Hour: 308.75

CoinsCP/Hour: 25.00 Points

and

Below are the details of Moco Loco
Cost: 800

Servings: 1050

Revenue: 4 coins per serving

Time: 20 Hours

CP: 194 ( 18 serving, 175 preparation, 1 cleaning stove)

Total Revenue: 4200

CoinsProfit/Hour: 169.25 Coins

CP/Hour: 9.75 Points

Analysis

These two dishes are not to anything to shout about. However the Chicken Adobo is is not a bad 14 hour dish for persons who are at level 28 and above not yet able to prepare delicious Chocolate Cake.

Moco Loco falls down on Coins per hour and Points per hour and combined with its 20 hour cycle, I am not sure how useful this dis will be to chefs.

Cafe World and Mafia War

The outcry that erupted when Zynga attempted to serious cross-promote their own Mafia Wars in Cafe World is something marketers should take note off. The key is know your audiences, no matter how small the number of products you offer.

While Zynga's product offerings are smalling in numbers those that are consuming the products are in the millions. Farmville is estimated to have 75 million active users per month with Cafe World and Mafia Wars 30 and 25 million in February 2010 according to a CNN article.

Niches

Just like in the real word there are niches, within the Social Gaming niche there are many niches. There are many tastes and believes. There are those who are not into Mafia related games or Poker related games. There are those that are into Cafe World and Farmville that are not into Mafia Wars or virtual chefs that do not want to be virtual farmers.

There are those that might pay poker or Mafia Wars but don't necessarily want their children learning the Mafia Lifestyle.

Keep Mafia Wars and Poker out of Farmville, Cafe World and Petville. Those farmers, chefs and pet owners that are into Mafia Wars will naturally find themselves there. No need for cross promotions.

Values

Personally I am not into Mafia Wars cause I do not like anything that glorifies the gangster lifestyle. My beautiful country Jamaica has is problems with gang-related murders and violence. Poker and gambling is also something that I not into. Zynga has to learn to understand the values of the different niches

My advice to Zynga, pay attention to the niches as you ponder carefully your cross promotions efforts.

Cafe World Super Stove

Cafe World is planning to introduce the super stove. This "Super Stove" is suppose to reduce the amount of clicks. At the lower levels with 1-5 stoves the clicking to select a dish, walk through the three(3) steps in Dish preparation is okay. However, with 10 or more stoves it starts to get very tedious.

The solution is the Super stove that will wrap those three actions into one. One free Super Stove will be given to those who have shared their email address with Zynga.

The price of the Super Stove is not yet known but I would not be surprised if it is denominated in CafeWorld Cash not Coins. I hope it will be available in both. I however will understand if Zynga chooses not to offer it for Coins. After all, Zynga needs to make some money.

n.b. March 24, 2010

I mistakenly rejected a comment from a user. Can the user post the comment again. My apologies for this.

Corrected information about super stove.

Cafe World Problems lock players out

Zynga's apparent server issues have locked Cafe World chefs out of their restaurants. A message posted on the Cafe World Fan page reads, "Hiya Chefs! Facebook is having issues that prevent you from entering the game. Don't worry, we turned off spoil so that it will not affect your cooking!"

Cafe World Expansion Spotted

A Cafe World Expansion sign has been spotted by most Cafe World chefs by now. The site is situated opposite the current cafe to the top right of the screen. If you miss it you need to zoom out and you should see.

It is not clear what form this expansion will take. However all signs are this could be an interesting twist in Cafe World. Is it a drive through? Your guess is good as mine.

Cafe World - Mystical Pizza is here

Cafe World has now launched a new theme. This theme is a mystical one and as a part of this theme a new recipie called Mystical Pizza is here. If you can cook it, you should probably look closely at it immediately. It appears this dish is a high level dish as it becomes available at level 53.

Below are the details of Mystical Pizza
Cost: 2300

Servings: 1100

Revenue: 5 coins per serving

Time: 11 Hours

CP: 332 (250 serving, 81 preparation, 1 cleaning stove)

Level:53

Total Revenue: 5500 Coins

Profit/Hour: 289.55 Coins

CP/Hour: 30.18 Points

Analysis

This dish could be prove to be a very good dish that could compete with Over Stuff peppers for the 10-12 hours cooking time category. In terms of coins, the dish returns 289 plus coins per hour.

In terms of points, for an 11 hour crop the returns are fantastics 30.09. This is excellent for persons at level 53 and above.

Wedding Cake Problems in Cafe World

I had seen a few Cafe World neigbours asking for help with a Wedding Cake, even before I saw any sign of the wedding cake. It appears that is wedding time in Cafe World. The rollout of this feature appeared to have been staggered.

Cake Stand Blocks Diners from Entering CafeWorld

The problem is you could miss the sign, I almost did. The image below seems to show the were the wedding cake stand was delivered. It appeared to be delivered right at your door, inside the Cafe, blocking the entrance.

Now if your restaurant happened to only have one door, what was happening, is that persons would not be able to get in and would stream pass your Cafe. So keep a look out for it and if you see it, remove it from the door so your guests can come in, and you can earn some money.

As your neighbours ask you for help, and you help, you will be offered two gifts like, 'Delicious Chocolate Cake', for a reward of 500 Coins or 'Red Velvet Cake' for a reward of 50 Points. My option would be to choose the 50 Cafe Points. Points are premuim in Cafe World.

Three Layer Wedding Cake in Cafe World

The cake that you will prepare for the wedding appears to be a three layer cake with icing and decorations. For each step of the way you can ask for help or as usual if you feel so inclined you can spend some real cash and purchase the ingredients.

So once again you have thirteen days in this promotion to save the wedding by preparing the wedding cake. At the end, March 30 or March 31, 2010, Cafe World promises an awesome price. I wonder what that is?

Cafe World Corn Beef

Cafe World last week introduced a new recipe, Corn Beef. This is part of the St. Patrick Day Celebrations it appears.

Below are the details of Corn Beef

Cost: 1000

Servings: 450

Revenue: 5 coins per serving

Time: 4 Hours

CP: 100 (60 serving, 39 preparation, 1 cleaning stove)

Total Revenue: 2250 Coins

Profit/Hour: 308.75 Coins

CP/Hour: 25.00 Points

Analysis

It returns the best net coins per hour for any dish in Cafe world beating the Bacon Cheese Burger and Hot Dogs and Garlic Fries which are 5 minute dishes. It is the best four hour dish available. Therefore if you are able to cook dishes for 4 hour cycle, Corn Beef is an excellent dish from coin profit position.

From a Cafe Points position, and those looking to level up, it is the top 4 hour dish but can't quite complete with some other dish that cook in less than 1 hr.

Cafe World launches Lottery

Cafe world has now introduced Lottery; you scratch, you win. I scratched and won 500 cafe coins.

You have 3 choices, scratch a star and your are winner of something. Interesting Cafe World has release a series of decorations including a Pot of Gold. I think it might be too late for Cafe World to try and do a St. Patrick's but you never know.

Some other prizes include:

• 100 Cafe Coins
• 500 Cafe coins
• Gifts
• 50 servings of Onion Soup
• 50 cafe points
• 200 cafe points

Interesting times ahead.

Expansion Sale in Cafe World Ends

It surprised many, but Cafe World has opted to end their expansion sale earlier than thought. Cafe World had offered up to 30% discount to players on the expansion cost. The sale ended yesterday, March 9, 2010.

I opted to expand during the period, saving 20% of the 1,000,000 coins, but I am not sure it was worth it as the Cafe moved from a 13x15 to 14x16 squares. The Cafe I work with is at level 49.

The expansion does allow for some more tables and chairs but right now there is no capacity problem as diners can find a seat easily and the buzz rating remains at 105.

Buzz rating reflects diners satisfactions. Cafe's get 0.1 point for each satisfied customer and lose o.1 point for each dissatisfied customer.

For players just starting and at lower levels though expansion is worth it

Cafe World Closed for Renovation

This morning Cafe World operators (game players) would have woken up to see their restuarants closed. It appears that Zynga is working on some fix that requires the service to not be available at this time.

There are couple things I hope this update will bring.

1. The friends list will will be able to scroll a set at a time like in Farmville instead of one at a time
2. The Gifts will be more organised.

Update: 6:25 a.m Cafe World is now open once again

Spice your Cafe World

The Spice Racks where empty but now the spices are here and the offerings are interesting. It will be interesting to see where Cafe World goes with this. In order to get your shipment, you will have to ask a friend to help.

There are seven spices as shown below:

(The format is the name of spice - how to acquire - what it does)

1. Mystery Spice
   - Friends
   - Mystery effect
2. Super Salt
   - Purchase with Cafe World Coins
   - increase servings by 5%
3. Power Pepper
   - Purchase with Cafe World Coins
   - Increase servings by 10%
4. OneHour Thyme
   - CafeWorld Cash
   - Reduces cooking time by 1 Hour
5. SixHour Thyme
   - CafeWorld Cash
   - Reduces cooking time by 6 hours
6. Instant Thyme
   - CafeWorld Cash
   - Makes dish instant
7. Salvage Sage
   - CafeWorld Cash
   - Removes spoil from a dish

The spices can be received or purchased as shown above. Items 2-7 can be purchased via the Spice Market. Items 2-3 can be purchased with Cafe Coins while items 4-7 requires Cafe Cash.

Each Spice can only be used on one dish, so use carefully. More evaluation of the spices will be needed before I can provide a strategic outlook.

The above all assume that you have your Spice Rack in place. Once you have all the parts, jars, lids and shelves, click "customise" and then the window icon. It should be the first item.

Stardust Stew and Valentine Cake Gone, New Dishes available

I was getting ready to put on Stardust Stew dish in Cafe World, only to discover it was is gone. A closer look revealed that the Valentine Cake was also gone. I guess it is a good time to change the Valentine decoration if you have not already done so. These dishes were apparently set to be available only for a limited time, according to information found on the website, Social Games Help. Also no longer available is Martian Brain Bake dish.

New dishes are Chicken Adobo, 14 hours and Loco Moco, 20 hours. Full details are not available at this time but I will provide the information as soon as I have it.

Strategic Outlook

From a strategic point of view I must say the Star Dust Stew will be missed. It was a great 9 hour dish. I will need to find a replacement for the cooking menu/schedule. At 150+ coins/hour and 15+ points per hour, it was a reasonable dish in the 6-9 hour category. Martian Brain Bake was a useful 24 hour dish. It produce a nice return in terms of Coins, 232+ coins/hour, and points, 13+ points/hour.

Tosada de Carne asada that is ready in 8 hours looks like a worth replacement.

Reference

• Social Games Help

Update(2010-03-05)

Martian Brain Bake is gone. Article updated to reflect that.

CafeWorld Discounts on Expansions

It is March Madness time in Cafe World it seems. At this time, Cafe World is offering a 30% discount on expansions.

For example an expansion from a 13x15 size restaurant to a 14x16 size restaurant, the cost has been reduced from 999,999 coins to 800,000 coins a 20% reduction.

Cafe World says it is for a limited time only so act quickly.

Is the expansions worth 800,000 coins that is another issue.

CafeWorld Neighbours : Be Friendly

The first strategy in Cafe World is to ensure you understand the game. This is something I will come back to later but will become clear as I look at tip 2. The next strategy in Cafe World is to have neighbours or friends. This is indeed the essence of social media and possible behind the success of social media games like Cafe World.

Neighbours Share

Effectively neighbours make the game interesting and are a central part of the game. Importantly, they will also help you out with free gifts, giving you dishes that will be handy when you run low. You are able to earn Cafe Coins and Points when you visit neighbour's cafe and sample their dishes. You will find you will need all the coins you get the longer you stay in the game. Neighbours will help you with such things as building your Spice Rack or even opening or accessing new features. In summary, you have to be a good neighbour and share. Be sure to follow the golden rule, do unto others as you would like them to do unto you.

Friends in your Cafe

As you play, your Facebook friends will appear as guests in your Cafe and when you are at the appropriate levels, to have waiters, your Facebook friends, who are Cafe World players will serve as waiters. The key is to have neighbours who are interesting in the game and play.

Please do not bombard all your Facebook friends now as there are many that have a deep hatred for Cafe World, Farmville among other games, for the updates that flood their news feed from time to time. Careful that while you have Cafe World friends and neighbours, you don't lose you real world friends. Remember Cafe World is just a Game.

Giant Dino Egg: A waste

Last week, Cafe World released the Giant Dino Egg dish, as part of their 'pre-historic' 'Flintstone-like' series. The others being the Rackasaurus Ribs and Dino Drumsticks.

Below are the related details of the Giant Dino Dish

Cost: 1800 Coins

Servings:600

Revenue: 18 Coins per serving

Time: 3 days (72 hrs)

CP: 455 (400 serving, 54 preparation, 1 Cleaning Stove)

Total Revenue: 10800 Coins

Profit/Hr: 125 Coins

CP/Hr: 6.3

Analysis

Given its low 6.3 cafe points per hour and 125 coins per hour, it is not the dish if you are looking to raise coins or points quickly.

However, if you are going to be away from your cafe for 3 days, like over the week-end, its a worthwhile addition to the recipe book. Keep in mind that the it can also be left on the stove for another 3 days before it will spoil.

CP- Cafe Points