Empires and Allies

Empires and Allies is the latest offering from Zynga and is easily the most polished of their various building games, which include Frontierville and Cityville. It places a strong focus on community, which makes working with neighbors essential. Each player makes only one kind of ore, which means they have to obtain other kinds by asking friends for them, picking them up as a reward for helping allies, or buying them from their friends' markets. Icons on the friend's ladder show when rewards may be received by helping out on a friend's island. This leads to the temptation to add as many players as possible to your community, which leads to privacy issues for younger players.

With the ability to participate in war games in the storyline as well as against friends and their attackers, the game can be quite compelling.