Browsers, Your Computer, CityVille & Flash Gaming

Ok, first off I know I haven’t written anything for awhile so I apologize for that. A lot of you will not be pleased with some of what I have to say about this subject. Hopefully by the end of this article you will have a better understanding of what to expect, especially CityVille. Before I start getting bombed with emails stating it works fine for them. I am talking about the majority of players, not the minority. Everything stated in my blog is based on my personal game play…

Now that is out of the way, let’s move on. Below is the list of browsers I have tried over the past 6 months of game play.

Firefox
Internet Explorer

Google Chrome

Apple Safari

Opera

K-Meleon

Each one has their own issues from blank screens, freeze ups during game play, to not loading at all. The two that work the best are: Google Chrome & Apple Safari. Both are free downloads. The reason they work the best is because they are 100% “Flash” based. In fact the development team uses Chrome for all of their work. What does that mean to us? Maybe we should do the same? What is the old saying? When in Rome? Do as the Romans. We also have to keep in mind that flash gaming is still relatively new. Think about how difficult it is to keep live games in line. There is always going to be bugs from time to time…

Keep in mind that 75-80% of the time the issues lie within our computers. Is Zynga perfect? Absolutely not! We have been dealing with a couple specific bugs for a few months now. Mainly not being able to visit neighbors, accept gifts, or send for that matter. That was a big bug and still is affecting players but not on such a big scale. Smaller bugs were fixed within a few days, like the bridge building issue. There also can be other factors such as, slow internet speeds, which I have been dealing with lately…

I know how frustrating this game can be and I have cursed plenty of times at it but I also do the same for my stupid computer when it starts acting up. Also make sure you have the latest versions of Chrome or Safari. Chrome will update flash by itself when a new version comes out provided you have the latest version of Chrome…

Watch for errors that are common and will never, ever change in this environment. What I am talking about is server errors. You know the ones. The dreaded “oops” or “enhancing”. When you get those constantly the servers are either being worked on or have very heavy worldwide play going on at the same time. As of this writing there are approximately 19 million players of CityVille. Fridays seem to be Zynga’s favorite time to bring out new items and that will bog the servers down. At other times they could be working on fixes which will also shut down servers. I have played very late at night before and just flew thru the game playing it…

So which browser should I use? Chrome or Safari. I say, try Chrome first because that is what the team uses to build the game. Give it a couple weeks of game play and most likely a lot of your issues will go away. If you computer isn’t handling Chrome, make sure it is the latest version. If it still isn’t rocking by then, switch to Safari which is a bit slower but much more stable with older systems that can’t handle the speeds of Chrome. Also if your system is older, say 5 years or more, make sure your do not have a ton of programs running on it. That will ultimately make your gaming experience suck…

Make sure to try it out for at least one week so you can give yourself a good evaluation. Not just one or two times and say it doesn’t work. Remember this is what they use and when I say they, I mean the developers of the game, who by the way are all over the world...

 Well I sure hope this helps everyone. At least give you a better understanding of what to expect. Feel free to leave comments.

As Always Thanks For Stopping By

John

The Governator of Highlands Beach

Remember Energy Rules!

PS – you can download the latest versions for free at my favorite website
www.filehippo.com