New Pioneer Trail World Map: Are four more expansions on the way?

That's the logical guess, at least. Zynga recently updated The Pioneer Trail with a brand new World Map that hints at four unreleased areas. Instead of showing the four areas on the Pioneer Trail, the "Travel" button now shows a condensed icon representing the recently-released expansion in a larger map. What's more important, however, is what surrounds it.

Considering this is all we have right now, prepare for some wild speculation. The Pioneer Trail icon is surrounded by four grayed out icons. Moving from most left to right, what first appears is either a castle or a fort, with no trail marks leading to it. Perhaps this is a new area for players to tend to much like the Homestead (maybe players claim Fort Courage for themselves.) To the bottom left is a canyon, which is most likely the long-teased Rattlesnake Canyon.

Directly below The Pioneer Trail icon is what appears to be a Gold Mine, likely alluding to the Gold Rush expansion that has been hinted at since almost day one. (You know, way back when this game was still known as FrontierVille?) Finally, a haunted graveyard of sorts is featured. We seriously doubt Zynga would create an entire expansion's worth of content with a Halloween theme, so maybe this will be the home of future season-specific events.

At this point, who knows what the developer is up to. What we do know, however, is that Zynga has big plans for Pioneer Trail well into 2012. And considering the game has lost the majority of its daily players since it was re-branded in August, we're not surprised Zynga would be working hard to keep the major content releases flowing.

What do you make of this brand new World Map in Pioneer Trail? Do you think Zynga can recover its lost fans with a flurry of major expansions in 2012?

Pioneer Trail Ghost Town feature coming soon [Video]

Way back in January, Pioneer Trail players (then FrontierVille) were able to take a survey detailing potential new themes for the game. One of those themes just so happened to be "Ghost Town." While it may now be October, it looks like that theme is finally coming around, and will likely comprise the greatest portion of the game's Halloween event this month. While we haven't received much official news in text, Zynga has released a preview trailer for this Ghost Town theme, which it's calling a "Mega-Feature!"

The trailer [embedded below] shows us that the Ghost Town will be more than just an item theme in the game's store; it will apparently be a location we can visit and complete tasks in. The story of Ghost Town sees the evil Mayor Witherwood placing a curse on the town, which has apparently resulted in some... unusual animals and crops being developed. There looks to be some sort of zombie corn with glowing pink eyes, a broken clock tower, Frankenstein's Monster trees, tombstones a plenty (including what looks to be an Indian Burial Ground and ghost frogs) and even floating, zombie / ghost chickens!

We're told that we'll use "your Sharpshooter, Mad Scientist and Shaman" in tasks that resemble those out on the Pioneer Trail map proper. If I'm making an educated guess, it's likely that these positions will be filled by friends, with your Sharpshooter being able to go out and hunt undead bears and other monsters to earn Hides, the mad scientist can "tackle" man-eating plants for Potions, and the Shaman will seek out ghosts and bless them for Spirits. Your own character can also complete tasks, rewarding you with Charms (from rocks, shrubs and buildings). You'll be able to use the hides, potions and spirits to help the locals in Ghost Town, with the ultimate goal being to earn enough keys to open the Mayor's Mansion and bring him to justice.


As for the Charms, you'll use those to earn special, exclusive prizes like decorations along the way. The more Charms you collect, the more prizes you'll apparently wind up with, giving you incentive to play around in Ghost Town for days and even weeks after the feature launches. Unfortunately, we just don't know when that will be.

Either way, we'll make sure to keep track of all things Ghost Town in the Pioneer Trail, and will let you know when you can embark on this spooky adventure in your own game, so keep checking back!

Are you excited to travel to Ghost Town in Pioneer Trail? What sorts of prizes are you hoping to earn along the way? Sound off in the comments.