My Fairy (Facebook Applications)

...sign into both Facebook and My Fairy to play.


First of all, some general info on how the application works within Facebook (I'm afraid you might not understand this if you don't use Facebook…)

On a Facebook user profile, the game appears as a thin box (see pics) which is perhaps best suited to the Facebook sidebar since the box is quite thin, and doesn't really change shape when placed on the main-page part of ...
...profile. If you can't see my picture, the box itself is quite tasteful, showing just the display picture of the fairy, (which can be added from within the application itself) the type of fairy, and how many spells he/she has cast and received.

The application will email you, and send messages to the news-feed, mini-feed and notifications whenever anything happens unless you disable these features. I've disabled email updates (because, ... more

"My Fairy" is an application which can be added to Facebook.com profiles by users, and played with other users who have searched for and added the same application on the social networking site. It's basically a game which you can play with other users, although people are required to sign into both Facebook and My Fairy to play.

First of all, some general info on how the application works within Facebook (I'm afraid you might not understand this if you don't use Facebook…)

On a Facebook user profile, the game appears as a thin box (see pics) which is perhaps best suited to the Facebook sidebar since the box is quite thin, and doesn't really change shape when placed on the main-page part of the profile. One can access the application-proper by clicking on a link from any "My Fairy" Facebook profile box, which is useful, because it means there is no need to "favourite" the application, or have a hot link for it, as is the case for other applications. As with all profile boxes, this one can be "minimised" (where any visitor can only see the title bar until they click to expand it) hidden entirely (in which case it cannot be found on the profile of the user) or put into the extended profile. If you can't see my picture, the box itself is quite tasteful, showing just the display picture of the fairy, (which can be added from within the application itself) the type of fairy, and how many spells he/she has cast and received.

The application will email you, and send messages to the news-feed, mini-feed and notifications whenever anything happens unless you disable these features. I've disabled email updates (because, let's face it, they're really annoying) and also News Feed updates, because as long as these are active, any of your curious friends can see any of the spells/powders etc. you use on other Facebook users, and I find that I would rather most of these be nominally private. I haven't as yet disabled the mini-feed updates, since these look quite cool, with your profile picture or the type of dust you've used as a picture, and what you've done outlined as the text (although these also can also be followed by the curious to find out exactly what has been done, and (I think) any messages which were sent when you did it). This could be seen as rather a debatable issue, since something about the application lends itself to users writing rather private messages to go along with actions. However, since you can delete mini-feed items, and you can stop the application sending messages to the mini-feed at all if you want to I suppose it's not that much of an weak point. Perhaps in a future update the author of the application might consider allowing users to make some of their actions completely private.

Within the My Fairy application proper, the first step, and therefore our starting point, is adopting a fairy. So far there are four basic types (see pictures.) There's the "Lucky Fairy" (which is the most popular) the "Daydream Fairy", the "Naughty Fairy" and (alas) the "Boy Fairy" (all the other fairies are female, which apparently upsets some people.) Recently the option has also been added to submit your own picture, and create a new type of fairy (see pictures for my rather different result…) the type of fairy you choose has no real effect in game, although each fairy has a different rhyme declaring its character. Once you've adopted your fairy you can name it too, by going to the main page. (see pics)

On the basic friend interaction side of things, one can go to a "friends fairies" page, which lists of your friend's fairies alongside their: names, types, pictures, how much treasure they have, and whether they have SuperPowers (more on these later.) From here you can also write messages on friends "fairy walls" which are basically just simplified versions of the normal "facebook wall" for fairies to write on.

The most important aspect of the game however is probably the ability to cast spells, and to make them "more special", a fairy can only cast one spell each day. To do this look at the menu of the application (it's a bar down the right hand side of most screens when you are logged into the app - check pics) and find the "Fairy Wands" space. Fairies start off with just one wand, which can be used to cast six different spells: Friendship, Happiness, Love, Wealth, Health and "Serendipity" (the cover-all-bases option ;>). Each spell comes with its own little poem too, and one can add their own personal message (although as stated before, these aren't necessarily private, so be careful!) To cast a spell, click on it, then type in the name of the person you want to cast it on. A fairy can cast any spell on any of your Facebook Friends. However, they'll only be able to see it if either they already have the My Fairy application, or they add it when they get a notification telling them a spell has been cast on them. Once the spell has been cast, you'll get a confirmation, and your "spells cast" number will increase by one. For every ten spells you cast your fairy learns a new one. Since they're supposed to be secret spells I'd feel bad about just naming them… But since I'm in an amiable mood, try to think of a spell with the letters C, C, S, S, S, E and U! (And they say English spelling is hard!)

A typical example of a spell for you, this one taken from the Sunshine Wand:

"This spell is cast
so wherever you go
You'll find gold at the end
of every rainbow"

Cloying, huh?

The second most important aspect of the game is probably gold. You can collect two gold every eight hours (except auspicious days when you'll get more). Those who would accrue themselves a hoard can also find gold by hunting in their Facebook-Friends' "My Fairy" profiles, by searching in the application, and by inviting friends and doing advertisers' special offers (sorta like Ciao now I come to think of it… ;>) To be honest though, two gold is probably enough to provide a fix, unless you get completely obsessed.

With gold one can go to the fairy shop run by Master Wand Maker Leachim and buy more wands, which grant access to more spells (they're priced around 5 gold each, and include the Naughty Wand, The Secret Wish Wand (which lets you cast spells on friends which they can't see or find out about.) The Super Butterfly Wand and the Sunshine Wand. Also available are Fairy Dusts - these cost 3 gold for two sprinkles. There's "Sunshine Dust", "Love Dust" and "Naughty Dust". (Yes, you can have a Naughty Fairy with a Naughty Wand and Naughty Dust. No, you don't actually want to…) One throws Fairy Dust in a similar way to casting spells. Just look for the Fairy Dust part of the side menu, and click on one of the dusts (there are numbers next to the dusts to tell you how much you have of each.) When you have thrown it, you get the Facebook Profile picture of the person you've thrown it at, surrounded by a frame of a certain colour, depending on the kind of dust you've used (see pics.) This can only be used once per day on a friend, but unlimited numbers of times on friends who have already sprinkled dust on you.

There is currently one mini-game on "My Fairy" called "Magical Mushrooms". It costs 1 gold to play. (see pics) On this game players see 5 mushrooms. Each mushroom has an item behind it. Players have three attempts (I want to say "gos"?) at lifting mushrooms to find matching items (there are at least two of these in each game.) It took me faar too long to remember my basic maths, but that works out as:

7/10 times you lose
3/10 times you win

Actually, your chances are very slightly better then that, because if you get lucky (this seems to happen some times more than others) there will be three matching items under the five mushrooms, or two sets of two matching items. In either of these scenarios your chances will be doubled.

The most common winnings are 1 fairy gold, enough for another try, and Sparkle Dust. (you can't buy it in the shops, but it's another kind of fairy dust, which provides a display picture with a moving frame! 0o0!) One can also win 2, 3, 5 or 10 gold; sunshine, naughty, and love dust; lost socks, rare funguses, dragon scales, crystals; (those last four are used for alchemy, more on that later) not to mention the incredibly elusive "diamond". A record is kept of how many of these are found by different fairies each hour and day, and the 10 fairies who have found the most are listed.

But what are diamonds? Diamonds are the ultimate fairy treasure. For each 5 procured, your fairy will gain a level of SuperPowers. Since fairies only win diamonds once every 50-100 games, you can imagine that SuperPowers should be fairly special, and after slaving away at it, I can reveal that the first level of SuperPowers allows you too… Cast spells and sprinkle dust (so long as you have powder left) unlimited numbers of times a day, rather than the once which is the norm for non-SuperPowered fairies! Impressed? I'm not sure myself… I think I would have rather gained the ability to do something other fairies couldn't (maybe sing some karaoke ;>) but that power is pretty useful, it's true.

You can imagine that winning only 3 out of 10 times, no-ones going to get a lot of treasure quick here. On the other hand, since a typical win would include at least 3 gold each 10 spent, the game has the potential, and indeed sometimes can last for aggesss (if you won 10 gold for example, that's 10 tries, and according to my calculation, you should win at least 3 more times in those 10. And if those 3 wins are more gold (probable) you're likely to win still more!) Just playing just this game, and not buying fairy dust, if you didn't do alchemy, would probably keep you in stock.

While we're on that subject, alchemy is another aspect of the My Fairy app, which goes hand in hand with the Magical Mushrooms game. The aim is to change a useless rock called "faematite" (at least they *tried* to keep in flavour ;>) into fairy gold so you can go and play more Magic Mushrooms to get more crystals to win more boring superpowers…

Actually, forget that! The aim of alchemy is to make animals and set them free (see pics.) You start off with your rock, and you're asked to choose a "liquid element" - chose from "Milk of a Unicorn", "Tincture of a Thousand Flowers", "Water from a Murky Swamp" or "Faery Firewater". To this base in its liquid foundation, one adds a pinch of fairy dust, (you can use whatever you have) and a wave of a fairy wand (again, choose whichever wand is desired, so long as you own it.) A special ingredient may also be added if you wish - one of those won in the Magical Mushrooms game: The lost sock, the rare fungus, the dragon scale or the crystal. These things are mixed together deisil (ok, I'm dreaming, but you know it makes sense ;>) with much waving from a magic wand, and the result is hopefully ten gold!

Ten gold is the most you can create at any one time, and if you can find the recipe for this, then you're an amazing alchemist. You see, the results of different mixtures are different for different fairies, (either something to do with the magic within different fairies working differently, or possibly a great anti-cheating measure, you decide!) With no special ingredient, one can transform faematite into one or two gold, or just a pile of ashes. With a special ingredient one will usually transfigure faematite into 3 gold, or create some kind of animal - I've had frogs, butterflies and snails, although of course, there's always the chance to create that 10 gold ultimate transfiguration. This has led me to try many different recipes, and my hunt for that elusive hoard is fast becoming one of my favourite parts of the My Fairy application. Also, whenever you release an animal you are wished luck and told that "your deed will not go unforgotten" which is mysterious, but also quite gratifying, in a time-wastey sort of way! Usefully, this feature also serves to empty the bottomless reserves of fairy dust which one otherwise acquires by just playing Magic Mushrooms, and even makes me consider buying fairy dust at times rather than trying to win it!

EDIT: I've just been visited by a frog on my Fairy Wall, thanking me for rescuing him, and giving me some gold! (see pics.)

EDIT 2: This could easily possibly become a review by itself... but there are definitely patterns to what different recipes can make. Unfortunately I can't see anything which would point to the 10 gold, but if I ever find it, I'll let you know if it is a complete aberration or not!

Anyway, obsessive "achievement playing" aside, there's one final part of My Fairy, and that's the ability to make wishes. To do this one goes to the main page by clicking on their fairy portrait, and then chooses to "make a wish". One then types in their desire, and the fairy replies in poem form:

"If you don't wish for the impossible,
And you wish for others too,
Then with a little positive thinking,
Your wish might just come true!"

Ones wishes are not saved, and this answer is always the same, so this part of the application can probably be thought of as almost making a prayer I guess.

So that's the My Fairy Facebook application. A fun game to waste time, a competitive exercise in gathering gold and diamonds, a way to interact with others by casting beautiful/cloying/naughty (~sigh~) spells and dust on your friends, or an "intimate and real connection with the powers of the natural universe". I've seen this application described as all of these things, and perhaps its greatest advantage is that right now it can be "any/all of the above" for different people. 

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